Author: Dr. K

Game Corner: Streets of Rage II (Xbox 360)

Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 30 May 2012
Originally Released: 20 December 1992
Developer: M2
Original Developers: Ancient, H.I.C, MNM Software, SEGA, and Shout! Designworks
Also Available For: Arcade, Dreamcast, GameCube, Game Gear, Master System, Mega Drive, Mobile, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

The Background:
Sidescrolling beat-‘em-ups were a popular genre in both arcades and home consoles back in the mid-nineties thanks to games like Double Dragon (Technōs Japan, 1987), Final Fight (Capcom, 1989), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (Konami, 1992). Noriyoshi Ohba and his small team of developers drew inspiration from this genre to create the first Bare Knuckle Streets of Rage (SEGA, 1991) title, which initially released exclusively on SEGA’s home consoles. Given that Streets of Rage was incredibly popular and highly praised, a sequel was released only a year later; to incorporate new features and improvements over the original release, the developers improved the Mega Drive’s cartridge specifications to allow for larger, more detailed sprites and increased enemy swarms. Ayano Koshiro designed and coded the new characters, their moves, and tweaked the gameplay experience to make things faster, more dynamic, and more capable of competing against Capcom’s brawlers on Nintendo’s consoles. All this work paid off as Streets of Rage II was one of the top five best-selling Mega Drive games upon release and was met with widespread critical acclaim; reviews praised the improvements and combat, Yuzo Koshiro’s soundtrack, and the gameplay in general was universally celebrated. After being re-released and ported numerous times over the years, all three Streets of Rage games came to the Xbox 360 as part of the SEGA Vintage Collection, with this version including additional modern quality of life elements such as save files, a replay feature, and bonus content.

The Plot:
One year after saving Wood Oak City from Mr. X’s crime syndicate, former police officers Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding join forces with professional wrestler Max Thunder and Eddie “Skate” Hunter, the younger brother of their comrade, Adam Hunter, when Mr. X makes a sudden return and kidnaps Adam!

Gameplay:
Like its predecessor, Streets of Rage II is a 2D, sidescrolling beat-‘em-up in which players pick from one of four playable characters and return to the mean streets of Wood Oak City to clear out a new batch of thugs across eight levels (now referred to as “Stages”). As before, you can choose to tackle this either alone or alongside a second player, who can jump in at any time, and can again pick from four difficulty settings (ranging from “Easy” to “Hardest”). This time around, you can manually set the amount of lives you have from the “Options” menu and, after losing all of your lives and continues (of which you have three on “Normal”), you can enter your initials on the high score board and then switch to a different character to continue playing as if you want. Each Stage is played against a generous time limit that is extended by clearing enemies from the screen, or if you lose a life. Compared to the last game, Streets of Rage II is much bigger, faster, and more responsive, with additional animations, combos, attack options and unique gameplay mechanics both shared and exclusive to the four playable characters. Once again, you have a simple three button control system that can be fully customised both in the in-game menu and using the SEGA Vintage Collection settings to allow for a rapid fire attack option. By default, A sees you attack with either a punch or a kick, B lets you jump to land one of two jumping attacks, and X lets you pull off one of two special moves to clear away groups of enemies at the cost of some health. You can switch up these buttons as you like in the main menu, and you can now pull off a rear attack by either pressing A and B together or by assigning this attack to another button (I used X) and pull off either a dash or a forward lunge attack by double tapping the directional pad and pressing attack. When you get up close to enemies, you’ll also grab them, allowing you to either pummel them, toss them behind you (and into other enemies), or slam them to the ground for big damage. Anything you can do, your enemies can do too, however, so you’ll need to make sure to avoid them grabbing and throwing you, overwhelming you from all sides, or sliding or charging at you. Although Axel, Blaze, Max, and Skate all share the same basic attacks and controls, each now has five different attributes that changes the way they play as they have more or less focus on Power, Technique, Speed, Jump, and Stamina. This means that Skate is the fastest but weakest character and Max is the most powerful but the slowest, and this extends to their attack options. For example, Axel can perform his “Grand Upper” to somewhat dash ahead, Blaze unleashes a short range fireball and Skate literally dashes ahead in a diving cannonball attack while Max does a limited shoulder charge and slide attack, so you really feel a difference when playing as each character as you trade off speed and jump height for attack power or defence.

The four playable characters all control a little differently and have unique special attacks.

Special attacks are much more varied this time around as well; rather than every character simply calling in backup, each one has a different health-sapping move to deal big damage to multiple enemies. One is performed by a simple press of the special attack button and the other is performed in conjunction with a directional input and, since they drain your health, you won’t have to worry about picking up specific power-ups to replenish them, though your health bar does drains down to the point where you can’t pull them off. This introduces a new layer of strategy to combat as you now must weigh the risk and reward of the abilities of your chosen character while also factoring in whether it’s better to lose a little health pulling off a special or risk losing more health by holding back and getting pummelled by enemies. As ever in these types of games, your goal is to travel from the left side of the screen and to the right and wade through enemies; however, this time around the screen occasionally scrolls diagonally downwards and upwards. Stages are also much longer and generally comprised of at least three areas, meaning when you reach the final part you’ll usually battle a sub-boss and then enter a building or a new area to take on more enemies, making each Stage (and, consequently, the game) much longer. Taking out enemies and grabbing pick-ups still awards you points, and you’re once again awarded bonus points at the end of each Stage depending on how much time and life you have left, which will eventually award you with an extra life. By default, each character is pretty durable, though some are tougher than others, and I found that raking up extra lives was much easier this time around. More enemies, and more varied combinations of enemies, fill each screen at any one time but the game feels less cheap than the last one and the new combat animations and mechanics make crowd control a lot easier. It also helps that onscreen hazards are now at a minimum; there are no death pits to fall down, no crushing weights or flames to worry about. While some enemies will toss grenades at you from the background, pop up from sewer holes, or leap in from offscreen, the only real onscreen hazard you come across are some conveyor belts. Enemies remain shy and like to linger just offscreen, which can be annoying when you’re trying to progress further, and some destructible objects do tend to explode, but these can also damage enemies as well, which is very helpful. Streets of Rage II also has not one, not two, but three elevator sections, none of which allow you to toss your foes off the side, and when you view your high scores you’ll be able to see stats like which Stage you got to and how many K.O.s you scored (which I assume is enemies beaten but it could also be the amount of lives you lost).

Graphics and Sound:
Streets of Rage II continues the tradition of the series by filling every Stage with a catchy, thumping soundtrack that really helps to make the monotonous gameplay fun since you’re just humming away as you go to town on waves of enemies. You still get a congratulatory melody after finishing a Stage, boss themes, and scream, grunt, and groan; it’s always obvious when you’ve grabbed an item or earned an extra life thanks to an audible jingle but, while many of the sounds and music are more elaborate and impressive than the first game, many are still recycled from The Revenge of Shinobi (SEGA, 1989). The overall presentation is much improved, however; the heads-up display is now no longer confined to an ugly black box at the top of the screen, meaning the locations are bigger and much more detailed; enemies now have (ridiculous) names and life bars of varying lengths (with sub-bosses and bosses having two- or three-tiered life bars), and there’s generally a lot more life in the sprites and environments.

The game is bigger and far more visually interesting than before, with an equally kick-ass soundtrack.

The sprites are much bigger and more detailed than before; their idle animations still generally amount to just breathing heavily and waiting for the next punch-up, but Skate glides along on his rollerblades in a very slick way and everything just has a little more polish this time around, which is only bolstered by a few new animation frames when grabbing and beating on enemies or performing your character’s combos. The story is once again told through text but the font is much clearer and longer, still images are used to recap the ending of Streets of Rage and show the ending sequence for this game, and Stages are way more varied than before thanks to going on longer. You’ll see lampposts and chain link fences in the foreground, cars and different views of the city in the background, fog and rain effects, smash your way through a bar and an arcade (where enemies are playing Bare Knuckle machines), explore a pier and fairground (where enemies sleep on bunches, a rollercoaster can be seen, and you end up in something ripped from the mind of H. R. Giger and a pirate ship), and battle your way into the SEGA Stadium where the green becomes a descending elevator section, You’ll cross a bridge held up by huge girders, traverse conveyer belts in a factory, battle through the foyer of Mr. X’s newest elaborate skyscraper, and even end up in a gladiator pit and in the back of a moving van where enemies and audiences cheer on your foes as they try to beat the life out of you. It’s all much bigger and more visually impressive, even though many of the Stages are reminiscent of the last game; little touches like fighting along the beach from the other perspective than in Streets of Rage (so now the sea is behind you) and progressing from the interior of a rocking ship up to the deck really show how the game is taking everything that worked in the first and improving upon it for a deeper, more visually engaging and exciting gameplay experience.

Enemies and Bosses:
While you’ll recognise the vast majority of the enemies you’ll encounter throughout Streets of Rage II from the last game, they now have names and life bars and palette swapped versions of them crop up right from the first Stage, which helps to make them seem more varied than they actually are. The denim-clad thugs and yellow-jacketed punks return, still charging at you with knives, sliding at your shins, or trying to throw you across the screen but they’re now joined by bald bastards who uppercut you out of the air at the worst possible moments. While the whip-cracking dominatrixes return, the martial artists have been replaced by Muay Thai kickboxers and ninjas who can guard against your attacks, flip about the place, and toss throwing stars your way, respectively. Bikers make their first appearance here, charging and leaping at you on their motorcycles, though you can kick them off and take them out with their own exploding bikes; their grenades will also damage other enemies, and you’ll now drop whatever weapon you’re carrying when you grapple with an enemy (and ninjas can even catch ones you throw at them!)

Sub-bosses and bosses return as regular enemies, except for the Vehelits and formidable Shiva.

As Stages are now longer, you’ll now have to contend with a number of sub-bosses as well as end of Stage bosses. As before, all of these reappear in later Stages as recoloured and renamed regular enemies, though slightly weaker and with some variations. The first sub-boss is Jack, a large punk with a flaming Mohawk and garbed in a ripped denim shirt and jeans. This guy’s packing knives, which he’ll stab or throw at you, but you can also pick them up and use them against him and any other enemies coming for you, which is handy when he reappears in his recoloured forms. Dominatrixes like Elektra often attack in pairs and are given extra attack range with their whips, which can also be electrified, but I found them pretty easy to take out before they could do any real damage. Hakuyo and his variants are muscular martial artists who literally drop in with flying kicks and jump attacks, while Big Ben is a returning, rotund enemy from the last game who will plod around trying to set you alight with his fire breath or try and crush you with a big belly flop (but, this time, you are able to throw and slam him without being hurt). One of the more unique sub-bosses is Vehelits, an animatronic alien head that pans across the screen to send you flying and is one of only three enemies you’ll fight just the one time in the entire game, which is fine as all the other sub-bosses and bosses crop up again in the later Stages. After running an enemy gauntlet, you’ll once again confront Mr. X; this time, rather than offer you the chance to join him, he orders his personal bodyguard, martial artist Shiva, to soften you up. Shiva is the closest you’ll get to a boss who is as versatile as you; he attacks with flying and sliding kicks, guarding against your attacks, and flying at you with flaming cartwheel kicks. While he cuts an intimidating figure, he’s actually not as hard as some of the game’s other sub-bosses, however.

While the first two bosses aren’t too difficult, things get tricky once Zamza and Abadede appear.

After fighting through the bar and into a rainswept alley, you’ll take on Barbon, the musclebound proprietor of the establishment you just wrecked who (alongside a bevvy of regular goons) throws spinning kicks, tosses you across the screen, guards against your attacks, and kicks you out of mid-air. When he reappears later, he’s actually one of the easier enemies, especially compared to Stage 2’s boss, Jet. This jetpack-wearing asshole constantly hovers overheard, swooping down or across the screen or grabbing you and sending you crashing to the ground. It can be a little tricky to land a hit on him, much less a combo, as it’s not always easy to judge what “level” of the background he’s on, which can make him a hell of an annoyance when he reappears as a regular enemy. Still, he’s a walk in the park compared to Zamza; this Blanka-like asshole attacks with clawed talons, spinning and jumping all over the place and flying at you with a cannonball attack, swiping you out of the air with a twirling uppercut, or delivering a massive German Suplex up close. His appearance on Stage 8 as “Nail” was a particular headache for me, and actually harder than the last bosses of the game since he’s so hard to keep track of and land decent hits on. In the gladiator pit, you’ll have a rematch with hulking wrestler Abadede; this Ultimate Warrior rip-off has expanded his repertoire to include an uppercut, a lariat strike, a flying body splash, a muscle flex that can send you flying, a big back suplex, and will even strike you with a wrench when he grabs you.

While the final boss is basically the same as before, there’s some interesting (if annoying) battles prior to this.

After fighting your way onto the deck of Stage 5’s ship, you’ll go toe-to-toe with the bulbous Rocky Bear; this guy’s also no joke as he hops about on his tiptoes, pummelling you with punches when he grabs you and easily cancelling your combos with a lunging fist, or comes flying at you with a butt stomp! He’s also accompanied by “Balloon”, a Big Ben variant, and he can be a real pain in the ass as you have to try your luck with a leaping kick, break free of his grab with your special, and dodge out of the way to do some real damage with a combo. Things get a little lazy at the end of Stage 6, however, as you have to fight a variant of Zamza and Jet (known as “Souther” and Stealth”) rather than a unique boss battle, though Stage 7 makes up for this with the tag team combo of robots Particle and Molecule. These cycloptic automatons jump about the place to avoid your attacks, swing their retractable mace-like appendages at you, and even fire projectiles from their eyes but they’re not especially difficult to deal with even when they immediately appear as regular enemies at the start of Stage 8. After dispatching Shiva, you’ll finally face off against Mr. X; unfortunately, this is basically exactly the same as in the last game as Mr. X wanders about trying to brain you with the butt of his rifle (which, to be fair, lands as a combination of hits this time) and haphazardly spraying bullets across the screen. Goons will file in to distract you, but they can also be hurt by Mr. X’s bullets, and as long as you focus on attacking him you’ll come out on top easily enough. I’m actually surprised the developers didn’t have an alternative version of Shiva (or Shiva himself) attack you in this final bout as it’s a pretty simple final fight, and the game is actually much fairer (on “Normal”, at least) than the last one, so it’s not inconceivable that you could get through this without too much difficulty, which is surprising considering how tough and cheap Zamza can be.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
There are still plenty of destructible objects scattered around the various Stages for you to smash to uncover goodies; apples and roast dinners will restore some or all of your health, the occasional 1-up will grant you an extra life, and bags of cash and gold bars to add to your high score. This is also the main way (outside of disarming enemies) that you’ll acquire a melee weapon; interestingly, there’s only one new weapon in the game (the kunai blade dropped by the ninjas) and some (like the glass bottles) are actually missing. On the plus side, every character swings the metal pipe differently and weapons can be throw at the press of a button to become projectiles but, if you get hit and drop them enough, they still eventually disappear and you may also struggle to attack if you’re standing over a weapon as your character will try to pick it up instead of defending themselves. Since your special move is tired to your health bar, there’s no item to pick up to replenish your stock; you can perform each character’s unique special move as long as you have enough health, and there’s actually a reason to play as different characters this time since they control a little differently and have unique special attacks.

Additional Features:
There are two Achievements on offer in Streets of Rage II, and three additional Achievements as part of playing all three games in the SEGA Vintage Collection. The two specific to this game require you to defeat Zamza on Stage 3 as Skate and Abadede on Stage 4; there are no Achievements for playing with a friend, or for finishing the game as each character, which is a bit disappointing. Unlike the first game, Streets of Rage II only has one ending, further reducing the replay incentive somewhat, but it does come with a new game mode. “Duel” allows two players to go head-to-head as one of the four playable characters in a one-on-one fight; you can select a Stage to battle on, and whether or not special moves are active, but again there are no Achievements tied to this extra mode and no other characters to play as. This version of the game comes with the same customisation options as the last game, allowing you to set wallpapers, scan lines, and smoothing, listen to the soundtrack on the jukebox, switch between the Japanese, European, and North American versions of the game (which again amount only to cosmetic differences), save replays, and make use of save states to the game to make it dramatically easier. Local and online co-op also return, as do leaderboards and the “Trial” mode, which has you battling towards a high score on four different difficulty stages against a time limit or going against Zamza’s “Horror House Challenge”.

The Summary:
I concluded my review of Streets of Rage by saying that I would probably pick Final Fight over it since, while it was a great game and a good attempt at an arcade-style beat-‘em-up, it didn’t quite match up to the level of Final Fight. With Streets of Rage II, the call is much harder to make; with larger, more detailed and visually appealing graphics, new characters with unique ways of controlling and special moves, and longer and more diverse Stages, Streets of Rage II is clearly bigger and better than its predecessor in every way. The core gameplay remains the same, but everything is faster, slicker, and meatier than before; there’s so much more to see and combat is way more fun and the cheapness of the original’s difficulty curve has been toned down quite a bit. While you can argue that this makes Streets of Rage II easier, I’m okay with that; when it comes to arcade beat-‘em-ups, I want a simple pick-up-and-play experience that can be challenging but not unfair or frustrating, and Streets of Rage II was a great time from start to finish. It was a shame to see some weapons missing, some Stage themes repeated from the last game, and that there weren’t more Achievements added to this version of the game, but there’s no denying that Streets of Rage II is vastly superior to the first game in every way. It almost feels like the first game was a proof of concept for the engine and the mechanics as Streets of Rage II just refined everything into an experience that’s far closer to what one would expect from an arcade title, so I would definitely choose to pick this one over the first one and happily compare it to Final Fight in terms of quality and enjoyment.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

What did you think to Streets of Rage II? How do you think it compares to the original, its sequels, and other beat-‘em-ups? Which of the four characters was your go-to and were you a fan of the new ones introduced here? What did you think to the longer Stages and additional sub-bosses? Have you ever beaten this game on the hardest difficulty setting? Which beat-‘em-up game or franchise is your favourite and why and what is it you enjoy about the genre? To share your memories of Streets of Rage II, sign up to leave a reply below or comment on my social media and be sure to check out my other reviews of the series!

Back Issues: Fantastic Four #45-47

Dr. K2 Comments
Writer: Stan Lee – Artist: Jack Kirby

Story Title: “Among Us Hide… The Inhumans”
Published: 9 September 1965 (cover-dated December 1965)

Story Title: “Those Who Would Destroy Us”
Published: 12 October 1965 (cover-dated January 1966)

Story Title: “Beware the Hidden Land!”
Published: 11 November 1965 (cover dated February 1966)

The Background:
In 1961, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby came together to introduce comics readers to the Fantastic Four, a dysfunctional family of superheroes created as a direct response to DC Comics’ Justice League of America. While the exact circumstances behind the team’s creation has been contest by both creators, Lee and Kirby’s partnership not only popularised the “Marvel Method” of writer/artist collaboration but also impressed readers with their characters’ real and relatable humanity, essentially birthing Marvel Comics as we know it today. Over the years, numerous characters and concepts that would be pivotal to Marvel Comics would debut in the pages of Fantastic Four, and one of the most contentious of these were the Inhumans. Debuting a couple of years after Lee and Kirby’s similar concept, the X-Men, the Inhumans were first introduced as antagonists to Marvel’s First Family before being expanded to include an entire race of superpowered beings under the lordship of the Inhuman Royal Family. The result of Kree experimentation, the Inhumans were granted their incredible powers and often monstrous appearances by a substance dubbed “Terrigan Mist” and took the dysfunctional family dynamic and unsettlingly aesthetic of both the X-Men and Benjamin Grimm/The Thing and dialled it up to eleven for their colourful and wacky cast of characters. Following their three-issue debut story, the Inhumans graduated to a short-lived solo title and have gone on to be prominent fixtures in Marvel Comics. Their leader, Blackagar Boltagon/Black Bolt, has served on the omniscient supergroup the Illuminati, an Inhuman girl was involved in an ongoing romance with Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, and the species has been at the core of numerous domestic and cosmic wars against both humans, fellow superheroes, and themselves. Perhaps their most infamous legacy, however, comes from that time when Marvel actively tried to downplay the X-Men in favour of the Inhumans, a plan that ultimately backfired when their foray into live-action proved to be a rare misfire for Marvel Studios.

The Review:
Our three-issue saga begins with Marvel’s First Family in a spot of bother; a gigantic android gargoyle known as Dragon Man has kidnapped Susan Storm/The Invisible Girl and allowed the mysterious Tomi Shishido/Gorgon to take off with Medusalith Amaquelin/Medusa, a founding member of the Fantastic Four’s evil counterparts, the Frightful Four. In the fracas, Gorgon caused Doctor Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic and the Thing to be buried beneath the stone rubble of an entire building; however, thanks to Mr. Fantastic’s incredible (and unnerving) elasticity and the presence of the Human Torch, all three are carried to safety and given the precious moments needed to gather their wits and catch their breath after the devastating attack. Reed doesn’t waste any time and sends Johnny ahead to search for Sue and he quickly locates her being carried away by the gruesome gargoyle. Although his flaming projectiles have no effect on the beast, a burst of white-hot nova light temporarily blinds Dragon Man but, before the Human Torch can go to town on the creature, Sue talks him down and demonstrates her ability to tame Dragon Man by talking to him as she would a child, and thus the team are reunited without issue.

After taming Dragon Man, Johnny is besotted by the mysterious Crystal and led to a hidden sanctuary.

Well, not entirely. While Medusa’s Frightful Four cohorts wallow in prison, a restless Johnny hits the streets after his current flame, Dorrie Evans, turns him down. There, he just happens upon a gorgeous redhead and is instantly smitten; however, when he attempts to approach her, a gale-force wind knocks him flying, which only further arouses his…well, let’s just go with “curiosity”. The next day, as the team begin shuffling around their gigantic (and nonsensical) Kirby-machines and equipment to make room for Dragon Man, Johnny is too distracted by thoughts of the redhead to offer any assistance, which earns him an ear-bashing from Sue and Ben that riles the lovelorn youth so much that he heads out to the streets once more. Hanging around near where he saw the girl like an absolute creep, he pursues her relentlessly, even as piles of wood explode into flames to stop him and despite her begging to be left alone lest “they” learn she was seen. However, when she sees his ability to control and burst into flames, she assumes that he’s “of us” and immediately stops running to chat, share her name (Crystal), and strike up a friendship. Naturally, Johnny plays along just to get close to her, but even he’s astounded when she introduces him to her friend, a gigantic slobbering dog called Lockjaw who not only loyally follows her everywhere but opens a set of massive hidden doors using a “force ray” from his antennae. Eager to introduce Johnny to her “family”, Crystal leads him into an elaborate sanctuary built for her and her race by the mysterious Black Bolt. Along the way, Johnny is introduced to the deftly powerful Karnak Mander-Azur, who’s strong enough to shatter a block of marble with one karate chop and swift enough to toss any assailant before they can move.

The team race to Johnny’s aid and are tossed about by the powerful Black Bolt!

Although Johnny’s impressed, his awe and confusion soon turn to horror when he spots Gorgon and Medusa amongst the other strangers, whom he correctly assumes are a race of super-powered beings. Despite Medusa (revealed in the chaos to be Crystal’s sister) pleading with her peers to spare Johnny from harm, Gorgon knocks him from his feet with one stomp of his foot and the lizard-like Triton conjures a glass wall to trap him and then attempts to douse his body with water. Acting swiftly, Johnny bursts into flame and manages to escape through the unprotected ceiling, signalling his teammates with a flaming 4 in the sky and interrupting their efforts to calm down the raging Dragon Man with a tranquiliser gun. Spotting the alert, Reed, Sue, and Ben leap into action using a bizarre flying motorcycle seemingly cobbled together from pipes! This “Airjet-Cycle” may not be much compared to the Fantasti-Car but it’s fast enough to carry them to Johnny’s location, where he warns them of the strange “Inhumans” protecting Medusa. The four venture ahead, unaware of their foes watching them from above; thankfully, the Thing’s strength is enough to repel Karnak’s projectile but the four are stunned when the Inhumans’ enigmatic and much-revered leader, Black Bolt, bursts onto the scene. Black Bolt immediately asserts himself by staggering the hardy Thing with one blow and proving fast enough to sidestep Johnny’s attack thanks to the wing-like appendages under his arms. Though he braces for Black Bolt’s next blow, the Thing learns that their foe is as skilled as he is powerful as he’s able to throw even his rock-hard weight without issue.

The threat of the Seeker drives the Inhumans to fight with all their might.

Reed, Sue, and Ben regroup, and two things come to light: one is that Black Bolt hasn’t uttered a single word since he arrived and the other is Reed’s suggestion that he’s drawing power from the strange tuning fork-like antenna on his forehead. Whilst searching for Johnny, Reed is pounced upon by Triton; the scaly-man-monster’s attempts to keep the Inhumans hidden are foiled, however, when Reed discovers that Triton’s suit is actually a special moisture bag that allows him to survive outside of water. With his water supply ruptured, Triton panics, lashes out, and desperately stumbles into the nearby water to keep himself from suffocating. Karnak launches a counterattack but, when his well-trained blows are repelled by Sue’s invisible force field, Gordon sends the two flying into the air with a ground-shaking stomp. While fighting with Reed, Triton lets slip about an enemy of theirs known as “The Seeker”; while Reed and Sue ponder the threat of the Inhumans and the mystery of the Seeker, the story shows that this individual captured Triton from the water and then led an assault on the Baxter Building to get his hands on the unconscious Dragon Man. Armed with his “Universal Control Rod” and commanding a legion of followers, and with a mighty airship at his command, the Seeker is determined to round up any and all Inhumans and orders his men to search the city for more while he heads back to base with his newest prisoners. Meanwhile, back in the city, the Thing presses his attack against Black Bolt, taking his shots and throwing all of his weight behind his blows, but Black Bolt is able to subdue the hot-headed rockman with his “master blow”, a shot that would have spelt death for the Thing were it not for his super tough exterior and Black Bolt running out of energy at the precise moment he was about to land the finishing strike. The sudden reappearance of the teleporting Lockjaw keeps Ben and Johnny from pursuing Black Bolt and Gorgon continues to keep Reed and Sue off balance with his hefty stomps, but the Inhumans abruptly retreat when Crystal brings word that Triton has been captured by the Seeker. Despite Crystal’s desperate attempts to say goodbye to Johnny before they flee, the strange group make a run for it, for without Black Bolt’s might they would be helpless against the Seeker.

The Seeker reveals his motivations and a brief origin for the mysterious Inhumans.

Medusa’s pleas to leave Crystal behind so that she can live a normal life amongst the humans are unheeded and Johnny arrives just in time to see the Inhumans teleported away by Lockjaw’s power; while Johnny’s strong affection for Crystal is weird and has little merit considering he knows basically nothing about her, Reed is determined to uncover the Inhuman riddle and takes the team back to the Baxter Building, where he reviews security footage of the Seeker’s attack and whips up a probe to take after the villain. Speaking of whom, the Seeker is seen gloating before Triton and expositing his desire to imprison his entire race within the “Great Refuge”; he also orders Dragon Man disposed of or released since he’s not an Inhuman and proves more than prepared for the Fantastic Four’s attack, easily trapping them within a bonkers circular device and keeping them under the watchful eye of his guards. The Seeker then regales the Fantastic Four with the origins the Inhuman race; they enjoyed the benefits of a highly advanced technological society while humans still hid in caves and, through the use of impossible advanced genetics, birthed an entire Inhuman species, each with superhuman abilities. However, the Inhumans fled to the Great Refuge when humans evolved the means to persecute them, and the Seeker has been rounding up his fellow Inhumans ever since to keep them from being attacked by humanity. It’s at that moment that Dragon Man comes to and goes on a rampage, swatting aside the Seeker’s guards and rampaging through the city, leaving Triton suffocating outside of his water bubble. Sue’s compassion for the Inhuman wins over Reed, who orders Johnny and Ben to find and subdue Dragon Man while he and Sue tend to Triton; the pressure of worrying about the destruction Dragon Man could cause sees Reed bark orders at his wife, but they’re able to encase him in a forcefield filled with water. The Seeker is impressed, but no less determined to continue his mission as per the orders of “Maximus the Magnificent”. As Ben and Johnny tangle with Dragon Man, they just so happen to crash through the wall of Alicia Masters’ apartment; Ben endures incredible punishment in a bid to keep his blind love from being hurt and begs her to flee, but also finds the strength needed to finally stagger Dragon Man and leave him wide open for a barrage of the Human Torch’s ultra-violet rays, which finally subdues the beast.

Though quickly deposed, Maximus remains determined to wipe out the human race.

The Seeker arranges for Triton to be transferred to a new water tank moments before the strain of maintaining her forcefield becomes too much for Sue; however, the Seeker demands the two leave since Inhuman affairs don’t concern them. This is the second time Reed admonishes Sue for “sounding like a wife” and yet the Seeker’s logic is infallible: his orders come from the Inhuman ruler and the Fantastic Four have no legal right to interfere, so Reed reluctantly leaves but not before planting a homing device on the Seeker’s ship and remaining so determined to track the Seeker to the Great Refuge that he coldly ignores Sue’s pleas. Black Bolt and the others materialise in the Great Refuge; it seems Johnny’s not the only one who’s ridiculously in love as Crystal cannot stop banging on about the Human Torch despite the fact that they’re all facing the wrath of their ruler, Maximus. Speaking of whom, the garishly attired Maximus offers nothing but anger and reprisals for the group and orders his “Alpha Primitives” to be set upon them while he prepares to use his “Alpha Weapon” to conquer the human race, even though this will surely mean the death of Black Bolt, his own brother! The savage, ape-like Alpha Primitives attack and, in an effort to protect his people and his beloved (if clueless) Medusa, Black Bolt doesn’t hesitate to tackle them head-on. However, even his mighty power cannot hope to fend all off all of Maximus’s greatest assassins but, luckily, the other Inhumans realise that they also have superpowers and can help out as well; although Gorgon cannot use his mighty stomp without fear of hurting his friends, Medusa’s flailing locks and Karnak’s uncanny ability to hit the weak spot of any target are enough to push back the swarming enemies. Maximus then enters the fray, commanding a stop to the violence and feigning friendliness and claiming to have ruled with honour since assuming the crown in Black Bolt’s place. While there’s some question about whether the incident which cost Black Bolt his voice (and the crown) was accidental or not, Medusa is duty-bound to marry her king but the sight of seeing her in his brother’s arms proves too much for Black Bolt to bare and he suddenly yanks the ornate crown from Maximus’s head and claims it as his own. In Inhuman society, this is apparently enough to officially be declared the ruler; even if it wasn’t, Maximus is wily enough to realise that his cunning is little compared to his brother’s power and the support of his allies. Thus, Maximus silently chooses to hang onto his “Atmo-Gun” and bide his time, faking loyalty and admiration for Black Bolt until the time is right for him to strike.

Incensed that Black Bolt may be swayed by the four’s pleas, Maximums activates his machine…

Meanwhile, tensions are high between the Fantastic Four; Sue tries to be the voice of reason and calm everyone down with some hot chocolate but Ben is too worked up over Alicia and Johnny can’t get Crystal out of his head. Feeling spurned by the group, Sue does the only logical thing she can think of; she fusses with her hairdo in a bid to make Reed realise that she’s not “one of the boys” (because marrying her wasn’t enough to prove that…) Their drama is thankfully interrupted when Johnny spots a man flying around outside and Ben is easily able to follow the strange Inhuman and land their aeroplane right on top of the Great Refuge. In the midst of this dangerous and unknown situation, Sue decides to turn herself invisible and damn near cause the three to go into full-blown panic stations just to show off her new hairdo, proving herself to be the same scatter-brained bimbo she always was at this time! While the group struggle with their issues and the dangerous terrain, Maximus continues to play coy with his fellow Inhumans over his intentions and yet he cannot deny his desire to rule over the inferior humans. Spotting the four’s troubles outside, Crystal rushes into the arms of her beloved, but the two groups soon threaten to come to blows when Black Bolt intercepts them. Reed demands a parlay and, through Medusa, Black Bolt decrees that the Fantastic Four may leave without quarrel providing they never reveal the location of the Great Refuge, while Reed counters with the belief that the Inhumans have hidden away for no reason for far too long and could make a home for themselves amongst humankind. While the tensions and the debate rages, Maximus storms into the city, enraged at the very idea of Black Bolt being swayed into thinking the humans aren’t a threat, and casually activates his Atmo-Gun against even the Seeker’s advice! Although the Atmo-Gun sends out vibrations across the Earths atmosphere that will spell the destruction of humanity, the exact nature and extent of its threat is left ambiguous for now as the Fantastic Four face an even greater and more present threat to the world starting from the next issue…

The Summary:
I haven’t really had much experience of the Inhumans, if at all; I would even go as far as to say that this is the first story I’ve read where they’re a major part of the plot, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the Inhumans saga. The story goes to great lengths to explain how the race are different from Mutants; they were explicitly created through science and genetic-engineering for one thing, and their powers are even more wild, for the most part, but principally the difference is that fact that they’re so isolated and mysterious. Mutants like the X-Men are all over the place, prancing around in colourful costumes and showcasing their powers for the world to see and fear, but the Inhumans have been in hiding for centuries and are only now being identified as this new superpowered race (hough in reality they’re about as complex as Mutants, the Kree, and Asgardians thanks to Marvel having a very predictable storytelling methodology during this time). We don’t get to learn too much about the Inhumans, their society, or their way of life but that would all be fleshed out later; we known they live in a monarchy, one based presumably on birthright and where the right to rule can be challenged at any time, and that they have elaborate and advanced weaponry and technology at their disposal, though we don’t really see too much of that here as the story is more focused on their powers.

Each of the Fantastic Four are insufferable and pompous in their own way.

I’m having a hard time working out which of the Fantastic Four I was most annoyed with throughout this story. Reed is a sexist, dismissive, pompous jerk half the time, constantly belittling his wife and enforcing a patriarchal rule in the guise of competent and rational decision-making. He’s all business when they’re out in the field and expects his orders to be obeyed without question; upon encountering the Inhumans, his first thought is to assess and contain any possible threat but, by the end, he’s advocating for them to come out of the shadows and re-join the world despite knowing full well how despicable humanity has treated Mutants (and each other) in the past. The Thing was his same hot-headed, antagonistic self for the most part; he traded barbs with Johnny and delighted in testing his mettle against Karnak and Black Bolt but was thrown off his game the minute that Alicia was put in danger, revealing a vulnerable side to be sure but also just adding to the relationship angst so prevalent throughout this story. Sue was a royal pain in the butt as ever; she’s such a paradox at this time as she constantly fusses and admonishes the others (especially Johnny) and yet yearns to be accepted, trusted, and seen as a valuable member of the team. Indeed, she plays a pivotal role throughout; she’s able to subdue Dragon Man, fends off Gorgon and Karnak’s attacks while Reed is powerless to oppose them, and even saves Triton’s life despite Reed’s constant reprimands. And yet, she craves attention; even amidst a life-or-death situation, she wants Reed to stop and admire or compliment her and she seems just as incapable of setting aside her vanity as he is his scientific curiosity, making for some irritating moments. But the worst of the bunch is easily Johnny; instantly falling in love with Crystal upon first sight, despite him having a girl on the go, he pouts and mopes about and constantly whines about her safety or never being able to see her despite having known her for a day, at most. Even when he learns that she’s an Inhuman, he refuses to acknowledge that she’s anything other than human, showing he really doesn’t get her in the slightest, and yet she’s equally smitten by him simply because…I dunno, he’s cute? Persistent? Can burst into flames? Their romance is one of the most contrived in all of Marvel and really could’ve benefitted from more time, like if Crystal had been a side character for a few issues before this.

It’s fitting that the Inhumans are the most intriguing aspect of this story arc.

Still, the whole point of this story is to introduce Marvel readers to the Inhumans, and, in that regard, it does pretty well. What better way to prove the strength and capability of your new race of superbeings than by having them go toe-to-toe with Marvel’s First Family, and come out on top quite often? Long-time Marvel readers will already be aware of Medusa and Gorgon, whose tendril-like hair and superhuman strength had already been a headache for the Fantastic Four, but they’re joined by some formidable allies in this story. Although Crystal doesn’t demonstrate any superhuman capabilities, meaning she’s always in need of protection, her faithful friend Lockjaw proves to be a key component in teleporting the Inhumans from place to place and entering their hidden sanctuary. The sanctimonious Karnak boasts of being able to pinpoint the weakness of anything, living or otherwise, to strike with precision blows; although he’s not able to pierce Sue’s forcefield, he proves a more challenging adversary than the blunt and inefficient Gorgon. Triton seems like he might be quite powerful, but we never really get to see what he’s capable of since he’s constantly on the verge of suffocating to death, and the same goes for Maximus and the Seeker, who favour subterfuge and technology, respectively (though also in near equal measure). Even in his first appearance, Maximus has much in common with Loki Laufeyson; both covet the throne, seek to rule, have a silver tongue, and rely on minions to do their dirty work, though Maximus is portrayed as being more explicitly unstable since he dares to activate the dreaded Atmo-Gun and is fully willing to wipe out all of humanity. Thankfully, the Inhumans’ greatest asset is their rightful ruler and leader, the stoic Black Bolt; depicted as being fast as lighting and just as powerful, Black Bolt makes an immediate impression with his iconic costume and his ability to battle the ever-lovin’ Thing to a standstill. Although we learn little about him, we see that he is besotted with Medusa, as brave as he powerful, and a noble Inhuman deep down since he’s willing to let the Fantastic Four go at the end. As a showcase for the Inhumans, this arc works quite well; it suffers from a lot of the same handicaps as other Marvel stories, to be sure, but there’s a lot of mystery and unanswered questions raised by the Inhumans and a fair amount of appeal behind the likes of Black Bolt even though the relationship drama really bogs the narrative down.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

What did you think to the debut of the Inhumans? Were you put off by the relationship drama or is that something you find appealing in the Fantastic Four’s stories? Which of the four team members is your favourite and why? What did you think to the Inhumans, the depiction of their powers and society, and which of the group was your favourite? Can you name some of your favourite Inhumans stories and moments? Whatever you think about the Inhumans or the Fantastic Four, go ahead and let me know by leaving a comment down below or on my social media.

Back Issues: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1

Dr. K1 Comment

Story Title: “Seven Against the Nazis!”
Published: 5 March 1963 (cover-dated May 1963)
Writer: Stan Lee
Artists: Jack Kirby

The Background:
Over its many decades of existence, Marvel Comics has produced some of the most colourful and memorable characters in the entire industry. There was a time, generations ago, when comic books hadn’t quite found the niche they have today, leading to pulp tales, surreal horror-themed publications, and war comics. War tales were bolstered by spandex-clad heroes like Captain Steve Rogers/Captain America, who encouraged readers to buy war bonds and support their fighting troops overseas, leading to quite the booming period in Post-War America. For Marvel Comics, it was the legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby who were responsible for creating some of their most popular characters through their unique “Marvel Method” of writer/artist collaboration, but it might surprise you to know that Nicholas “Nick” Joseph Fury, the eyepatch-wearing, cigar-chomping agent of super-spy agency Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.), actually came about as the result of a bet between h and his publisher, Martin Goodman, that Lee and Kirby could sell a comic with a ridiculous title like Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. The racially and ethnically diverse titular squad would be led by a tough, no-nonsense sergeant as a more adult counterpart to DC Comics’ Boy Commandos, though Fury would be rebranded as more of a James Bond-type figure just two years after this debut appearance and is perhaps more famous for his association with S.H.I.E.L.D. and his duplicitous (and often contentious) dealings with Marvel’s superhero community. Although Nick Fury has featured in cartoons, videogames, and even got his own much-maligned live-action feature, he has been largely supplanted by his more recognisable African-American variant; General Nick Fury featured in Marvel’s comparatively short-lived Ultimate line of comics, where his design was based on Samuel L. Jackson, who would go on to portray a version of the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Review:
The first couple of pages of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 are spent introducing us to the titular team of battle-tempered soldiers: we have “six foot two […] steel-muscled, iron-nerved” Sgt. Nick Fury who’s built a reputation for being one of the most feared men in the Army; Jonathan Juniper/Junior, the “cheerful eager-beaver” who’s “fast as a panther and just as dangerous”; Robert Ralston/Rebel, an ex-jockey who’s “tougher than his small size makes him appear”; Corporal “Dum-Dum” Dugan (whose real name isn’t revealed here), a former circus strongman garbed in a bowler hat; Gabriel Jones/Gabe, a proficient trumpet player; actor Dino Manelli; and scrappy, moustachioed mechanic Izzy Cohen. Rather than then jump into showing us these seven colourful characters interacting or showcasing their personalities and skills, the story switches to a French underground communications centre where two members of the French resistance, Pierre and Henri, scramble to warn the Howling Commandos of the Nazi’s latest plans. Although Henri is wounded and the two are captured, Henri successfully sends the message via Morse code, and it reaches the attention of executive officer “Happy Sam” Sawyer. Sawyer isn’t optimistic about the message, which requests that his Howling Commando division be sent in to rescue the leader of the French resistance, but the fate of Operation Neptune (or “D-Day”, as it’s most commonly known) is at hand so, while it might be a suicide mission, he orders Sgt. Fury to get his team ready. An abrasive, aggressive, stone-faced commander, Sgt. Fury goes to round up his troops, who are practising their manoeuvres in a most extreme way: Dum Dum is firing live ammo over their heads from a mounted machine gun as they crawl across a mine field! Sgt. Fury puts a stop to their “fun”, but his commandos relish the opportunity to get out into the field and go up against the Nazis, even if the odds are stacked against them; they’re so gung-ho that they even believe that they outnumber the Nazis!

The grizzled Howling Commandos embark on a suicide mission to rescue an important ally.

However, for all their macho bravado, the Howling Commandos’ plane is set upon by a squadron of Luftwaffe, forcing the troop to parachute to the ground (though Dum Dum is inexplicably able to take out one of the German planes with a well-aimed grenade toss). The soldiers reach a French town occupied by Nazis and, true to their name, the group fire upon the enemy, with Sgt. Fury taking out a tank-full of Nazis single-handily with his own grenade, all while howling with glee! The blast injures Sgt. Fury; though he’s too stubborn to rest, he, Dum Dum, and Junior are forced to take cover from the Nazi retaliation. Luckily, Dino, Rebel, and Izzy rig up a “king-sized Molotov cocktail”, which they hurl at the advancing troops and set their other tank ablaze. The Nazis quickly shower the Howling Commandos with bullets, pinning them down but not injuring or killing a single one of them; still, they’re helpless to fight back, so it’s up to the French resistance to bail them out by killing their attackers off-panel. Rebel and Izzy then steal the Nazi uniforms and Dino dresses up in the coat and cap of a Nazi officer, which is a disguise and performance good enough to convince the other Nazis to withdraw, thus saving Sgt. Fury and the others. Though wounded, Sgt. Fury is as pig-headed and determined as ever to complete his mission, but their saviours rightly point out that they haven’t a hope in hell without the underground’s help, and they’ll only assist them if they save the rest of the townsfolk from being executed by the Nazis. Still in disguise as “an imperious Nazi Ubergruppen-Feuhrer” Dino easily fools the firing squad, and the Commandos and the underground’s superior numbers, and firepower, quickly see the Nazis surrendering; Izzy then steals their truck and the allies climb aboard towards Louivers, where the ludicrously-named underground leader Monsieur LaBrave is being held captive in a Nazi-controlled fortress.

Sgt. Fury shrugs off death to turn the tide and give the Allied Forces the edge on D-Day.

Though beaten and weary, LaBrave refuses to give in to his torture and reveal the plans for the D-Day assault; pressured by Adolf Hitler himself to get the information by any means necessary under pain of death, the Nazi General Von Ritzik hands over the interrogation to the feared Gestapo, who immediately kidnap LaBrave’s daughter and threaten to harm her if he doesn’t co-operate. Luckily, the Howling Commandos and their French ally (later named Marie) are closing in on the heavily-fortified Louivers; despite his injuries and the insanity of launching a daylight campaign, Sgt. Fury refuses to wait until dark or let himself or any of his soldiers rest for the coming battle and his stubborn, bull-headedness briefly raises the ire of Dum Dum. Posing as an old farmer pulling a cart of produce, the soldiers easily slip past the enemy guards and destroy their arsenal with a “holocaust” of an explosion! This diversion is enough to allow them to storm the fortress, where Gabe and Junior bravely hold back the advancing troops so the others can continue on the mission. When Junior is jumped by Nazis in his attempt to take out the machine gun placement laying down supressing fire in the courtyard, Sgt. Fury simply crawls along the cobblestone ground on his belly and chucks a bundle of dynamite at the Nazis, seemingly perishing in the blast as he’s buried under a pile of rocks. Although Marie turns her tears into an angry wrath and Dum Dun pushes on with the same dogged determination as his fallen commander, the two of them are soon captured and lined up alongside their comrades, and LaBrave, before another firing squad. It turns out that Marie is actually LaBrave’s daughter and that he was almost tricked into giving up their cause for her safety; however, now that she is actually there, the Gestapo threatens to shoot her before his eyes if he doesn’t spill the beans. Fortunately, Sgt. Fury is alive and well and comes bursting out from his tomb guns blazing! Galvanised by seeing their grim commander alive, the Howling Commandos easily fend off the Nazis and capture General Von Ritzik, who secures them save passage down to the coast so he can be shipped back to the Allies, and the story ends with the teaser that this victory gave the Howling Commandos and their allies the edge they needed in the subsequent D-Day assault.

The Summary:
So, here’s a fun fact: this is both the first issue of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and the first solo Nick Fury story I’ve ever read! I don’t think that’s much of a stretch of the imagination to believe, though, as Nick Fury is generally more of a background player or a supporting character in other Marvel stories and, quite frankly, that’s how I prefer him. This is a Nick Fury at the peak of his curmudgeonly ways; war has made him little more than a gruff bull who charges head-first into battle with no time for sentiment, rest, or even to tend to his own injuries. He’s hard on his soldiers, who are equally hungry to mix it up with the Nazis, and even harder on his enemies, who he attacks with little to no quarter. He expects nothing but total commitment from his men because that’s what he’s willing to give; he doesn’t care how stacked the odds are or how suicidal his missions are, he just wants to go in (and out) in a blaze of glory, chomping his cigar, firing off bullets, and ranting at his Nazi enemies as he goes down. He’s every bit the opposite of Captain America’s more righteous attitudes, but that makes sense as Sgt. Fury represents the hardened soldier on the front lines, one constantly forced to endure the dirt worst of conflict for the greater good, and thus Sgt. Fury embodies the indomitable American fighting spirit, one that will spit in your face and walk through Hell just to put down one more no-good Nazi.

The gruff Sgt. Fury stands out from his mostly bland and underutilised fellow soldiers.

While I see a lot of parallels between Sgt. Fury and Ben Grimm/The Thing (both in their demeanour and their stony appearance), it’s a good thing that he stands out so much as his other Howling Commandos aren’t afforded such a luxury. It’s interesting that so much time is spent introducing each soldier and their basic characteristics as there aren’t many opportunities for them to shine in this story; Dum Dum is said to be a former circus strongman but exhibits no feats of strength and instead is portrayed as being a slightly less harsh version of Sgt. Fury, which leads them to butt heads a couple of times despite their deep respect for each other. Gabe is said to be quite the musician but never gets the chance to showcase this, the closest Izzy gets to using his mechanical skills is in commandeering a Nazi vehicle, and Junior is all excited about getting to blow shit up at the start of the story but ends up never getting the chance to actually use any explosives. Of them all, it’s Dino and Dum Dum who get the most chances to shine; Dum Dum makes an immediate impression with his stocky stature, thick moustache, and trademark hat but also appears to be half-crazed since his training methods are literally life or death for the Howling Commandos! Yet, when in the field, it’s Dum Dum who suggests they wait for the cover of darkness and tend to their wounds, only to be chewed out by his aggressive superior! Dino’s acting background comes into play when he disguises himself as a Nazi commander, but the story presents this in such a way that I would argue anyone could’ve done just as good a job as all he does is prance around in the uniform and bark orders in German; it’s not like he infiltrated the enemy and led them astray, or anything. Still, as disappointing as it is that most of the Howling Commandos don’t get the chance to do more than show off their fighting spirt and tenacity, it’s not entirely unexpected (there are seven main characters, after all) and they come off a lot better than Marie, who isn’t even named until right at the end of the comic and, for all her gumption, is still depicted as being more emotional compared to her war-hungry male counterparts.

All of the Nazi’s forces and power are little consequence to the fighting American spirit.

Surprisingly, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos makes an effort to portray the Nazis as a genuine threat; their sheer numbers and evil intentions loom over the story like an oppressive cloud, driving Sgt. Fury and his allies on since they know how important this mission is to the larger war effort. While Adolf Hitler is portrayed as a braying, childish brat, he’s only included as a cameo and his soldiers are more than capable of dominating entire towns, threatening woman and children alike, and delight in lining up innocents and enemies before a firing squad. However, while they are a clearly superior force, their numbers and weapons are nothing compared to the Howling Commandos; the troop’s reputation as crazed maniacs proceed them and still the Nazis are easily foiled by the crowing soldiers, who blow up their planes, tanks, and munitions stores with barely a sweat. Even when the Nazis have them pinned down, the Howling Commandos take no damage; at one point, it seems like Gabe and Junior are being left for dead (Sgt. Fury even acknowledges that they have no chance against the Nazis) but no, they’re fine. The worst offender of this, however, is the titular, grouchy Sgt. Fury himself; not only does he shrug off the injuries he suffers from a grenade blast, but he’s also eventually revealed to be little more than dishevelled after being caught in another blast and buried under a pile of rocks! Again, this speaks to his tenacity, but I do wonder if killing off one of the Howling Commandos or at least treating their wounds more seriously would have helped reinforce the team as tough, but human and relatable, soldiers on the front lines. While I’m generally not a big fan of Jack Kirby’s more outlandish artwork, it actually worked really well in this war-time setting; everything has a gritty realism to it, though there are still some fun comic book moments peppered throughout, and the comic does a decent job of representing the violence and bloodshed of war even though a lot of the killing is either implied or takes place off-panel. In the end, this was a decent enough story, full of bravado and patriotic vigour, but I think it’ll strike more of a chord with fans of war comics than casual readers.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Have you ever read Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 or any of its subsequent issues? Are you a fan of Nick Fury and, if so, what are some of your favourite stories of his? Which of the Howling Commandos is your favourite and would you have liked to see their individual talents showcased more here? Are you a fan of war comics? Which version of Nick Fury do you prefer and why? Whatever your thoughts on Nick Fury, leave them down below or comment on my social media, and go check out my other Marvel content across the site.

Game Corner: Streets of Rage (Xbox 360)

Dr. K3 Comments

Released: 30 May 2012
Originally Released: 2 August 1991
Developer: M2
Original Developer: SEGA
Also Available For: Arcade, GameCube, Game Gear, Master System, Mega Drive, Mobile, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Sega CD, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

The Background:
Back in the mid-nineties, sidescrolling beat-‘em-ups were a popular fixture in arcades, and demanded little more than players hold right and mash buttons to take down waves of generic enemies and continually part with their hard-earned pocket money. Beat-‘em-ups were also prominent on home consoles thanks to the ports of Final Fight (Capcom, 1989) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (Konami, 1992), so it made sense for SEGA to develop the beat-‘em-up series, Bare Knuckle Streets of Rage (SEGA, 1991 to 1994). Essentially a rip-off of the Final Fight series, Streets of Rage was the brainchild of Noriyoshi Ohba and Hiroshi Momota and stood out from others in its genre by foregoing the arcades entirely. Having previously helmed The Revenge of Shinobi (SEGA, 1989), Ohba drew from Double Dragon (Technōs Japan, 1987) and Starsky & Hutch (1975 to 1979) to compete with the likes of Final Fight and he and his nine other developers managed to pull the first title in the series together in just six months. Streets of Rage was incredibly popular upon release; critics praised the colourful graphics, two-player gameplay, and range of attacks offered to players and Yozo Koshiro’s soundtrack was equally lauded. Having been re-released in various compilations over the years, Streets of Rage and its sequels made it to the Xbox 360 as part of the SEGA Vintage Collection, with this version including additional modern quality of life elements such as save files, a replay feature, and bonus content.

The Plot:
The once a peaceful and prosperous Wood Oak City has fallen into the hands of a crime syndicate led by the mysterious Mr. X. The Syndicate has absorbed the city’s government and even has the police department in their pocket, causing crime and violence to run rampant. Police officers Adam Hunter, Axel Stone, and Blaze Fielding decide to take matters into their own hands and take to the streets as vigilantes to put a stop to the Syndicate.

Gameplay:
Streets of Rage is a 2D, sidescrolling beat-‘em-up in which players pick from one of three playable characters and battle swarms of thugs on the mean streets of Wood Oak City across eight stages (referred to as “Rounds”). You can do this either alone or alongside a second player, and the game has four difficulty settings ranging from “Easy” to “Hardest” which dictates the amount of lives and continues you have and the aggressiveness of the game’s enemies. Each Round carries a time limit that can only be extended by clearing the current wave of enemies from the screen; if you fail to do this, you’ll get a time over and lose a life, but will respawn on the same screen with the time replenished. While the game has a slow, almost plodding pace and movement can be equally sluggish, you’re given a surprising range of attack options considering you only really need to press one button to attack. By default, A throws a punch, B lets you jump, and X calls in police backup to fire a screen-clearing missile from their squad car. You can switch up these buttons to your heart’s desire in the main menu, and even activate a rapid fire option so you simply hold down your chosen attack button to make mincemeat of enemies, but the only way you can move and attack at the same time is to pull off a flying kick. There are no dash or dash attack options here but, open getting close to enemies, you can stun them with a nifty combo, grab and pummel them, hop around behind them to pull off a slam or German Suplex, and toss them across the screen and into other enemies, down holes, or send them crashing through destructible objects. Enemies can also grab and throw you, however you can fend off their buddies when they’re holding you still and eventually throw them off if you hit the buttons fast enough.

While each character controls the same, they have different attributes to make their gameplay unique.

While Adam, Axel, and Blaze all essentially play the same, each has different attributes that changes the way they play; Adam is slower, for example, while Axel has a shorter jump and Blaze has a weaker attack but is much faster and dramatically speeds up the pace of the game, so it definitely changes the way you play depending on which character you pick. With the exception of two Rounds, your only goal is to travel from the left side of the screen and to the right, taking out larger and more varied groups of enemies as you progress. Defeating enemies and snagging pick-ups will award you points; you’ll also earn bonus points at the end of each Round depending on how much time and life you have left, and you’ll gain an extra life once you reach a certain increment in your score. While you’re quite durable, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and lose a life; if you do, you’ll respawn right where you died with your specials and time replenished and even send all onscreen foes flying as a bonus, but you can’t afford to get too cocky as it’s pretty easy to burn through lives, especially on later Rounds and bosses, and then have to rely on your small stock of continues. Streets of Rage’s challenge definitely increases the further you progress; enemies become more aggressive and numerous but are also quite shy and linger just offscreen to really run down the timer. You’ll also have to deal with instant-death holes, conveyor belts, and crashing hazards, though these can all be used against your enemies as well. As is the tradition in any sidescrolling beat-’em-up worth its salt, you’ll also have to contend with a vertical elevator stage in which a small platform will rise up the outside of a skyscraper and wave upon wave of enemies will shuffle in from different floors or drop from above, though you can easily make short work of them by tossing them over the side.

Graphics and Sound:
Streets of Rage features a very catchy, thumping beat of a soundtrack that really helps to make the monotony of its beat-‘em-up gameplay more appealing. Boss battles at accompanied by an ominous theme song and a congratulatory little melody plays upon completion of a Round. Characters will scream, grunt, and groan as they attack, are hurt, or die and you always know when you’ve picked up an item or earned an extra life or special thanks to an audible jingle. If you’ve played The Revenge of Shinobi before, however, you may recognise that the game’s font, heads-up display, and many of the sound effects are ripped from that game, which I always felt cheapened Streets of Rage a bit since no other Mega Drive game I’d played at the time did this unless it was a sequel or part of a franchise.

While many sounds are recycled, the game has a thumpin’ soundtrack and some impressive visuals.

Sprite work is pretty impressive here; the three protagonists and their enemies are a little small, but you can adjust the screen size in the options to make them a bit bigger (though this does pixelate them) and, when left alone, they have very minor idle animations to give them some personality. While the main story narrative is told only through text, the ending features some nice detailed sprite panels showing the trio emerging victorious, and you’re even presented with a dialogue box in the final Round of the game. Where the game really shines, though, are its locations; from the streets to the beach, a factory, and Mr. X’s penthouse suite, the environments are all very detailed and full of little things to see and graphical effects, such as enemies emerging behind shutter doors, rain, windswept rubbish, statues, and the looming lights of the city at various distances in the background. Foreground elements such as lampposts, cars, and the raging sea pop out at you, and you even end up on a boat at one point that rocks up and down from the current.

Enemies and Bosses:
Unlike other beat-‘em-ups of the time, enemies don’t display their names or individual life bars when attacked; life bars are reserved only for the game’s bosses, but it won’t take more than a few hits to take out the low-level scum you encounter in the first few stages. These are made up of denim-clad thugs who sometimes wield knives, yellow-jacketed punks who grab and throw you, and karate-kick throwing martial artists who hop about the place. Very quickly, you’ll encounter more aggressive, palette-swapped versions of these enemies who carry other melee weapons, can deal more damage, and seem to recover faster after being knocked down. You’ll also come across whip-cracking dominatrixes, jugglers who dance around the screen using fire-bombs and axes as makeshift shields and projectiles (that you can, thankfully, hit with your attacks) and even buffet carts that come hurtling at you from off-screen.

Large, hard-hitting bosses await at the end of the Rounds and even reappear as regular enemies.

Seven Rounds means seven bosses to contend with but you won’t be facing any of them just once as all of them will reappear as regular enemies in later Rounds, though without life bars. The first you’ll encounter is Antonio, a large man wearing denim and carrying a razor-sharp boomerang; Antonio will linger just off-screen, circle around the area, and either toss his boomerang your way or deliver a hefty kick when up close but is undeniably the easiest of the bosses despite being the first formidable enemy of the game. The second boss, Souther, is much more difficult and starts a trend of the bosses being accompanied by a gaggle of thugs to distract and annoy you. Souther sports two sets of metal claws for hands and drifts around the screen swiping at you or unleashing a fast-paced barrage of slashes that can easily tear through your life bar, so it’s best to try and stay on the move and anticipate where he’ll be so you can pummel him with your grapple attacks. The hulking Abadede awaits you at the end of Round 3; this Ultimate Warrior rip-off lumbers in from off screen with a charge or devastating uppercut but, despite his size and strength, can easily be taken down by quickly hitting jumping kicks rather than trying to match fists with him.

Bosses are soon accompanied by a swarm of thugs to really put a crimp in your day.

At the end of Round 4’s bridge, you’ll have your first encounter with Bongo, a rotund fire-breathing man who homes in on you to try and set you ablaze. While it can be difficult to avoid his flaming breath, you also need to avoid trying to throw or suplex this guy as, in a fantastic piece of attention to detail, you’ll end up taking damage and being crushed from his hefty weight. After battling through the boat and fending off recoloured versions of Abadede, you’ll have to fight two bosses at once: Mona and Lisa, easily the laziest bosses in the game as they appear to simply be palette swaps of Blaze. These gals are also extremely slippery devils as they’ll flip all over the place, try and throw kicks at your head, and send you flying with judo throws, so it can be really tricky just trying to land a hit on them in the first place. Two Southers await you at the end of Round 6 and, while you won’t face any bosses in Round 7, you do have to endure a gauntlet of enemies on the elevator and all of the previous bosses hounding you throughout Round 8. Round 8 concludes with a showdown with Mr. X; beforehand, he’ll offer you the chance to join his cause. If you answer “Yes” in two-player mode but your friend answers “No”, you’ll have to battle each other to determine who gets to take him on. The battle against Mr. X is fraught with a never-ending slew of thugs; the big boss himself wanders back and forth, spraying bullets across the screen and trying to brain you with the butt of his rifle, but actually isn’t too tricky to take out (on “Normal” mode, at least) despite Round 8 not allowing you to use specials.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Be sure to smash everything you see in each Round, from phone booths to tyre stacks and wooden crates, as these will yield apples or roast dinners that will restore some or all of your health. Very occasionally, you’ll find a 1-up or an extra special hidden in these too, or a bag of cash and gold bars to add to your high score and edge you closer to an extra life. These destructible elements, and enemies, can also hold a variety of melee weapons, from knives to pipes and baseball bats, to stun grenades, all of which can help turn the tide in your favour by adding extra range to your attacks and hitting multiple enemies at once. You can throw knives and the grenades, limiting their usefulness, but weapons won’t break upon use; if you get hit and drop them enough times, however, they will eventually disappear from the screen and, if you miss anything, you can’t go back and get it so just grab it when you see it or it’s safe to do so (which can be easier said than done, especially if a couple of weapons or pick-ups are staked next to each other). Finally, although there are three characters to select, each with their own attacks and gameplay variants, there’s only one special move which, while useful, is a little disappointing.

Additional Features:
There are four Achievements to earn in Streets of Rage, and two additional Achievements as part of playing all three games in the SEGA Vintage Collection. While two of these require separate playthroughs as Adam and Blaze alone, there are unfortunately no Achievements for playing as each character or alongside a friend, and the other two amount to simply tossing an enemy and recovering from a throw, which is a bit disappointing consider the game as multiple endings and opportunities for fun Achievements, such as crushing an enemy with a stage hazard or tossing a certain number to their deaths. This version of the game also comes with a variety of display options that allow you to set wallpapers, scan lines, and smoothing in addition to customising the controls to your liking. There’s also a jukebox that lets you listen to the game’s rockin’ beats, the ability to switch between the Japanese, European, and North American versions of the game (which seem to amount to cosmetic differences and little else, certainly no extra Achievements), and adds save states and replays to the game to make it dramatically easier. Probably the most significant additional feature is the “Trial” mode, which tasks you with achieving a high score on four different difficulty stages against a time limit or lasting out against enemies on the elevator Round (though, again, there are no Achievements to be gained from this). Finally, you can play with a friend locally and online, and the game includes at least two endings, one where you defeat Mr. X without question and a bad ending where you usurp him and become the new crime boss.

The Summary:
I do enjoy me a good sidescrolling beat-‘em-up and there’s a lot to like in Streets of Rage. Without a doubt the game, and the series, is one of the Mega Drive’s most prominent titles, and yet the series is often forgotten about these days and SEGA have been uncharacteristically reserved about churning out sequels and spin-offs or even featuring Streets of Rage characters in their other titles. If I had to pick between Streets of Rage and Final Fight, however, I’d pick the latter; for a console-exclusive beat-‘em-up the game does really well, but the sprites aren’t as big and detailed and the gameplay isn’t as fluid as an arcade title. The lack of a dash function and unique specials for each character are issues as well, as is the troublesome difficulty curve, though many of the game’s more tedious aspects were obviously refined in the sequels. As a first entry, it’s pretty basic and recycling music and sound effects from The Revenge of Shinobi doesn’t really help the game stand out too much but it’s certainly not an unplayable piece of trash. This version of the game greatly improves the original experience with save states and other bonus options, though it’s disappointing that more Achievements weren’t incorporated into it to add to the replay value. Overall, this is a pretty fun little beat-‘em-up with a surprising amount of attacks, some funky music, and some decent sprite work on offer though it can’t be denied that Streets of Rage was effortlessly eclipsed by its sequel/s.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Are you a fan of the original Streets of Rage? How do you think it compares to the sequels and other beat-‘em-ups? Which of the three characters was your go-to and which of the sequels was your favourite? Did you enjoy the additional features added to this version of the game and would you like to see more from the series in the future? Which beat-‘em-up game or franchise is your favourite and why and what is it you enjoy about the genre? To share your thoughts on Streets of Rage, sign up to leave a reply below or comment on my social media and be sure to check out my other retrogame reviews!

Game Corner [DK Day]: Donkey Kong Country (Nintendo Switch)

Dr. K8 Comments

In 1981, Shigeru Miyamoto and his team at Nintendo R&D1 created Donkey Kong, an arcade title that was not only one of the earliest examples of the platform genre but also introduced gamers everywhere to two of Nintendo’s most recognisable characters: Mario and Donkey Kong. Mario, of course, shot to super stardom but today’s a day to celebrate everyone’s favourite King Kong knock-off and to say: Happy birthday, Donkey Kong!

Released: 15 July 2020
Originally Released: 18 November 1994
Developer: Nintendo
Original Developer: Rare
Also Available For: Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), SNES Classic Edition

The Background:
After establishing themselves in the United States with the financial and critical success of Donkey Kong (Nintendo R&D1, 1981), Nintendo then captured the home console market with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and their moustachioed mascot, Super Mario. Although Donkey Kong wasn’t completely forgotten during this time, featuring in sequels and spin-offs during the NES’s lifecycle, it was legendary British developers Rare who breathed new life into the cantankerous ape with their Donkey Kong Country series (Rare, 1994 to 1996) that pushed the SNES hardware to its limits with their revolutionary pre-rendered graphics. Rare impressed Nintendo back in the day with their ability to reverse-engineering the NES and publishing over sixty titles for the console, and by utilising Nintendo 64 workstations to produce SNES titles. Wishing to compete with SEGA’s Aladdin (Virgin Games USA, 1993), and seeing the long-dormant Donkey Kong franchise as low risk, Nintendo handed the character to Rare and they assembled a team of twelve developers (their biggest yet) to develop the title. Inspired by the level design of Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nintendo R&D4, 1988), Rare sought to make the game’s levels short bursts of challenging fun that tailoured to a player’s increasing skill level. Kevin Bayliss redesigned Donkey Kong to be more muscular and cartoonish to aid with animation and Rare were given license to completely redesign Donkey Kong Jr. into a brand-new character, Diddy Kong, to act as DK’s physical opposite. Donkey Kong Country was one of the first videogames to utilise pre-rendered 3D graphics; their computers ran night and day to decompile the 3D models into traditional 2D sprites and, although physically taxing for the team, the result was the third-bestselling game on the SNES. Reviews were overwhelmingly positive, with the game seen as a significant benchmark in the presentation of videogames; the visuals and soundtrack have stood the test of time and the game is still heralded as a classic. Donkey Kong Country re-established the popularity of the brand was followed by a couple of equally well-regarded sequels but has only been sporadically released on other hardware due to legal issues. Thankfully, it was later included in the SNES Classic Edition and to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers in 2020 and developers Retro Studios made the franchise relevant again with their 2.5D rebranding of this influential title.

The Plot:
When the greedy King K. Rool steals his beloved banana hoard, Donkey Kong and his nephew, Diddy Kong, set out to recover them from the king’s Kremling army.

Gameplay:
Donkey Kong Country is a 2D, sidescrolling action/platformer that, thanks to the benefit of its pre-rendered sprites and backgrounds, takes on a bit of a 2.5D aesthetic at times. Players take control of the titular ape, now reimagined as a tie-wearing, banana-obsessed scamp more likely to bop on a lizard’s head than toss a barrel at a plumber, but the game does support two players and offers two characters to control. You can go it alone, tagging between the brutish Donkey Kong and his nimbler nephew Diddy Kong with the A button, or play with a friend in simultaneous co-op not unlike Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (SEGA Technical Institute, 1992), or take it in turns to clear levels in a competitive contest mode. Both Donkey and Diddy Kong share many of the same abilities but are physically distinct in a number of ways: B allows your Kong to jump, Y sees Donkey roll into enemies and Diddy cartwheel into them and also allows both Kongs to pick up and throw a variety of barrels. Donkey Kong is slower, a far larger target, and has a bit of a stunted jump compared to his more agile nephew, though he can slap the ground by pressing down and Y, but you’ll probably want to switch to Diddy to make getting past larger obstacles a little easier or have more control when making jumps. Both Kongs can also squeeze through small gaps and act as the game’s health system; if you have both Kongs onscreen, a hit from an enemy or obstacle won’t kill you, but it will send your partner running off, though you can call them back by finding and tossing one of the many DK barrels scattered across the game’s environments.

The Kongs can use their allies, jumping abilities, and barrels to progress through levels.

For the most part, Donkey Kong Country has you hopping across gaps (often with the aid of swinging ropes), bopping on enemies and collecting bananas. It’s not long before you’re jumping into barrels to clear greater distances and progress forwards; some of these rotate or move side to side and up and down, some automatically fire you and some are activated by a button press, with timing being key to avoiding a fall down a bottomless pit or damage from a spiky Zinger. Platforming quickly becomes trickier as the game progresses, with gaps becoming longer, requiring a roll or cartwheel into a jump for a longer jump, slanted platforms and greater hazards all testing your reaction times. Some stages require you to jump at special Stop & Go barrels to briefly light up the area or deactivate Rockkrocs so you can progress, others are set underwater and see you swimming about with no means of defending yourself unless you find one of the Kongs’ many animal friends, Enguarde. One of the most prominent stage designs are those set in the mines where you’re stuck in a runaway mine cart and must make split second decisions to jump over gaps, hazards, and from mine cart to mine cart to progress, which can be difficult with the low lighting and oncoming enemies. Level hazards soon play their part in the platforming as well, with snowy stages robbing you of your traction, Gnawties trying to crush you in giant wooden wheels, and flaming oil drums not only spitting out an endless supply of baddies but also charbroiling you when you hop to them as temporary platforms. As if falling and moving platforms didn’t make things difficult enough, there’s also a time where you’re forced to jump from a moving conveyor belt to grab fuel drums; you can’t afford to miss a single one or else your platform will fall and won’t come back so you need to make quick decisions about when to jump.

Use lighting, runaway mine carts, and animal buddies to progress and rack up those extra lives.

The game features forty levels, all accessed via a word map; between levels, you’ll automatically progress onwards into new areas, including jungles, rainforests, temples, mines, and caverns, and interact with the Kongs’ allies. Funky Kong allows you to fast travel across the island once you’ve visited at least two areas, Cranky Kong offers fourth-wall breaking advice that comes across more like bitter criticism, and Candy Kong allows you to save your progress (though you can obviously create a save state at any time using the Nintendo Switch’s menu options). The Kongs are also aided by allies within levels as well; they can ride Rambi, Enguarde, Expresso, and Winky to bash through enemies, charge through water, temporarily fly, and spring up even higher, respectively, while Squawks will light your way with a useful lantern. These buddies also act as another hit point and, if you’re hit or jump off them, you can often hop back onto them as they run around the environment, and you can use their abilities to find secret areas in each level. These lead to hordes of more bananas, balloons, or K-O-N-G letters. Collecting a hundred bananas, all four K-O-N-G letters, or a balloon awards an extra life and you’ll be stockpiling a fair amount of these without even trying, but you’ll also find golden buddy statues that will take you to bonus games where you control that animal and must collect as many bananas as possible within a time limit. This all adds to your completion percentage and injects a little gameplay variety to the title, but also encourages exploration as sometimes bananas floating just out of the way indicate a hidden barrel or tossing an explosive barrel at a wall will open up a new bonus area.

Graphics and Sound:  
If I’m being brutally honest, I never really thought too much of Donkey Kong Country’s visual presentation; even as a kid, seeing these pre-rendered 3D models pixelated down to 2D sprites looked a little messy and not quite as crisp as other 2D platformers of the time. However, having said that, I rarely had the chance to be hands-on with the game as a kid, or in the years since, so this is my first time actually playing it from start to finish and the visuals work really well when in motion. Donkey and Diddy Kong are full of life and personality, sporting idle animations and having distinctive movements and quirks when performing the same or similar moves. Their enemies are equally charming, sporting that exaggerated anthropomorphic quirkiness that Rare did so well back in the day, though their animations are noticeably less varied than the two protagonists. One thing I did enjoy was how clean the screen is; the heads-up display is absent until it’s actually required (appearing when you grab pick-ups or earn or lose a life), allowing you to really appreciate the variety of visuals on offer here. While you’re not going to see anything you’ve not seen in a hundred other platformers from Donkey Kong Country’s environments, the game presents them in a wholly unique way with its pre-rendered aesthetic. You’ll be swinging through jungles, jump to broken mine cart tracks in dank mines, and hopping to conveyer belts in a rusted factory all while some absolutely jamming tunes play throughout the game.

The pre-rendered graphics, while a little fuzzy, definitely add to the game’s visual appeal.

There are some opportunities for exploration and experimentation (try charging walls when on Rambi or jumping to bananas up above on Winky) and the game does a fairly decent job of recycling its level tropes with new hazards and such, like having Croctopi chase after you in later underwater sections rather than just spinning around or having you bounce on tyres on moving platforms to cross gaps and gain the extra height needed to avoiding enemies and obstacles. Even better, the game’s locations are bolstered by some environment effects; day turns to night, jungles are battered by thunder, lightning and rain, the frozen mountains become swamped by blizzards, and the mines and caves are seeped in low lighting. Often, there’s no lighting at all, with your sprites being the only things being visible onscreen until you free Squawks or activate a light-up barrel, and the use of lighting and foreground objects really helps to add to the tension when trying to avoid slipping off the edge of a platform and jump to another. Although the game is light on cutscenes, they story is effectively told using dialogue strings between the Kongs and their allies, though the focus here is very much on dropping you into the next action-orientated area to take on an ever-escalating challenge rather than trying to overcomplicate the simple plot. All you need to know is that the banana hoard has been stolen and Cranky is better than you.

Enemies and Bosses:
Donkey and Diddy Kong will face a number of King K. Rool’s most disposable pawns in their quest, from regular Kremlings like the Kritters to their more jumper variants, to voracious little crocodiles, sharks, and slippery snakes. Wasp-like Zingers will often be found hovering around in mid-air, usually surrounding a platform or a barrel you need to blast to; larger enemies will prove difficult for Diddy to take out without a barrel so you might want to switch to Donkey Kong if you’re having trouble, and orangutans will incessantly throw barrels at you in a fun call-back to the original Donkey Kong. Spiked wheels, hungry fish, and vultures will also cause a headache, especially the latter as you’re often asked to fire your Kong/s at a flock of vultures to bounce off them and reach out of the way platforms, which can be tricky to do as if you hold the directional pad for too long you could overshoot and if you don’t hold it long enough then you’ll undershoot.

While Queen B. stands out, the repeats of Gnawty and Necky were disappointing to see.

Each area of Donkey Kong Country houses a boss battle; victory against one of King K. Rool’s elite earns the Kongs a large, Nintendo-branded banana and allows them to progress onwards to the next area but, while you’ll fight seven bosses in the game, only three of them are unique and the others are, disappointingly, reskins and repeats of each other. The first boss you’ll take on is Very Gnawty, a giant beaver who hops about in a cavern full of the Kongs’ bananas; with each hit he takes, his jumps get a little faster, but it doesn’t take much at all to put him down. It’s thus disappointing when this same boss is repeated for the fourth battle, even though Really Gnawty jumps much higher and is noticeably much more aggressive in his attack patterns. The second boss you’ll fight is the Master Necky, a huge vulture who pops his head in from the left or right side of the screen to spit bouncy coconuts at you; thankfully, there’s a tyre conveniently placed in the centre of the boss room that you can use to avoid his projectiles and hop onto his head. This boss is recycled for the penultimate boss battle as well; again, Master Necky Snr. might have a different colour palette and be a bit more aggressive, but he’s essentially the same boss battle, which I can’t help but be a little let down by considering how good the game is otherwise. Thankfully, Queen B. mixes things up a little bit; this gigantic Zinger flies around the arena in a specific pattern, immune to all attacks except a barrel to the face. However, she becomes temporarily invulnerable and hyper aggressive after each hit, so you’ll need to position yourself in the right place to avoid her erratic swoops.

While Dumb Dum destroys itself, King K. Rool tricks you into thinking you’ve won…

Dumb Drum also stands out as a unique boss battle; a giant, sentient drum, this guy tries to crush you from above and spits out a number of enemies into the area that you’ll need to take out. You can’t damage Dumb Drum no matter how hard you try; you simply have to outlast it and it’ll take itself out from ramming the ground once too often. Finally, you’ll confront the Kongs’ mortal enemy, King K. Rool, onboard his pirate ship, which stands as the final area of the game. King K. Rool has two methods of attack; first, he’ll run from one side of the screen to the other and try to charge into you, then he stands on one side and tosses his crown at you as a projectile. When he does this, it leaves him vulnerable to attack so you can jump on his head and, after a few hits, he’ll fold like paper and the credits will roll. Well, the “kredits”, at least, and it turns out that this is a fake-out as King K. Rool pops back up for another round. This time, his charge is much faster, and he also causes bouncing cannonballs to rain down from above, which can be difficult to avoid unless you make use of Diddy’s smaller hit box. Otherwise, your strategy remains the same; jump over him, avoid his projectiles and hazards, and hop on his head until he’s done in for good and you get to enjoy the real credits sequence (and Cranky’s embittered criticism of your performance).

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Your primary power-up in Donkey Kong Country will be those DK barrels; you’ll want to break these open every chance you get to have both Kongs at your disposal and stave off a death from your next hit but be sure to not accidentally break them if you don’t need them. Star-branded barrels acts as checkpoints and a number of other barrels (wooden, metal, and TNT ones) can be thrown as projectiles to take out one or a whole group of baddies in single throw. Otherwise, you’ll want to collect every banana you see and hunt down those K-O-N-G letters and red balloons to rack up some extra lives and keep an eye out for golden buddy statues or hidden rooms where you can earn more of them to access bonus stages. Finally, of course, there are the buddies themselves, with Enguarde being especially useful to making navigating those maze-like coral reefs that much easier.

Additional Features:
The ending you get (or, at least, the feedback you get from Cranky Kong) is directly tied to how many of the game’s secrets you uncover; this includes finding all of the K-O-N-G letters, hidden rooms, and bonus areas, all of which adds to the completion percentage seen on your save file. However, while you’re free to revisit and replay every level in the game and try to find every secret, it’s not actually necessary and you don’t get anything for it except for bragging rights. Thankfully, the Nintendo Switch Online version of the game allows you to make use of the save state and rewind features to make playing this game a breeze; now, if you make a mistake, you can just rewind or reload your game and try again, which is a God send in some of the game’s trickier sections.

The Summary:
It’s always exciting for me, a childhood SEGA boy, to finally play classic Nintendo titles. I’ve always had a fascination with the SNES and love to get my hands on the system’s most famous games whenever I can, and a full playthrough of Donkey Kong Country has been a long time coming for me. Despite my apprehension concerning the graphical style, the game holds up really well; environments pop through some fun and unexpected weather and lighting effects and Donkey and Diddy Kong never fail to impress when they’re onscreen, controlling and animating beautifully. Enemy and hazard placement becomes increasingly challenging, but not impossible, and I liked how many of the levels were short, sharp bursts of action that tested your reaction times. I can’t imagine playing the game on the original hardware without the aid of save states or the rewind feature, however, as I think it would’ve become quite frustrating quite quickly even though the game dishes out the extra lives like they’re going out of business. It’s a little disappointing that the game didn’t do more with its levels and bosses; repeating boss battles is always as much of a let down for me as a boss gauntlet, but I enjoyed the addition of ridable animal buddies, the hidden secrets and bonus rooms, and that trademark Rare humour that pushes you to find everything. In the end, I can see why Donkey Kong Country is so beloved; I’ve definitely played better 2D platformers but there’s so much more happening here than the unique visual style and it’s easily one of the best, basic platforming adventures of the 16-bit era.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

What did you think to Donkey Kong Country? Did you own the game for the SNES as a kid and, if so, were you surprised by Donkey Kong’s dramatic visual overhaul? Did you find all of the game’s secrets and bonus rooms? Which of the animal buddies was your favourite to control and did you favour Donkey or Diddy Kong when playing? Were you disappointed that the boss battles weren’t more diverse and what did you think to the fake-out ending? Which of the Donkey Kong Country games is your favourite and why? How are you celebrating Donkey Kong’s anniversary this year? Whatever your thoughts on Donkey Kong Country, leave them below or share them on my social media.

Movie Night: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 30 June 2023
Director: James Mangold
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Budget: $295 million
Stars: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, and Antonio Banderas

The Plot:
Former adventure-seeker Doctor Henry Jones Jr. (Ford), better known as “Indiana Jones” (or simply “Indy”), is facing retirement and a life of regret and loneliness when his goddaughter, Helena “Wombat” Shaw (Waller-Bridge), bursts into his life in search of the fabled Antikythera, a scientific artefact said to allow time travel and coveted by Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller (Mikkelsen).

The Background:
Taking inspiration from the pulp serials of his youth, George Lucas created the character and concept of Indiana Jones alongside director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford, resulting in one of cinema’s most influential franchises with the critical and commercial success Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981), the controversial Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (ibid, 1984), and the highly-praised (and profitable) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (ibid, 1989). After Lucas and Spielberg focused on the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992 to 1993) prequel series, they stumbled upon the idea for a fourth film. Unfortunately, despite a hefty $790.7 million box office, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (ibid, 2008) was met with mixed reviews and mockery, meaning it was a surprise when a fifth entry was announced shortly after the franchise was purchased by the Walt Disney Company. While neither Lucas or Ford were bothered by concerns over Ford’s age and never considered recasting, it was decided early on that Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) would not be taking over as the lead and Helena’s role was specifically written for star Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Although Spielberg contributed to the plot, he declined to direct so James Mangold could bring a fresh perspective to the franchise. The most expensive of the franchise, Dial of Destiny included some elaborate chase sequences utilising both on-set filming and CGI, including an extended opening sequence that digitally de-aged Ford, while the story was specifically written to address Indy’s advancing age. After filming was delayed due to an injury Ford suffered, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny released to generally positive reviews; it has currently made $171.9 million at the box office and critics praised Indy’s character arc and the entertaining narrative, though some noted that it failed to live up to the standards of the original trilogy.

The Review:
It wasn’t until I headed out to see Dial of Destiny that I realised that my relationship with the Indiana Jones franchise isn’t as strong as it is with others; I didn’t grow up with the films in the same way as I did other franchises, I often skip over watching them if they’re on TV and rarely feel the urge to rewatch them on DVD, and generally consider them all to be of about the same level of quality, separated by the big action sequences and set pieces unique to each one. However, I’m of the firm belief that Indiana Jones is a young man’s game; Kingdom of the Crystal Skull got lucky in its depiction of an aging Indy who can still go but effectively retired the character, meaning I would have much preferred to see a new actor take on the role for earlier adventures or a recast of his son to allow Mutt to take centre stage and re-frame the aging Indy into something resembling the father/son dynamic we saw in The Last Crusade. Indeed, Dial of Destiny begins very promisingly, showcasing a hitherto-unknown adventure from Indy’s past, with de-aging technology applied to Harrison Ford so he appears to be in his prime during the fall of Berlin in 1944. I say “appears” to be because, while this technology is so impressive I’d wager an entire film could be produced in this manner now (and probably be more enjoyable), there are times when it falters, and you can tell that the elderly Ford is struggling with the physicality of the role. Still, this opening is classic Indy and sees him butting heads with Nazis over a forgery of the mythical Lance of Longinus, scrambling to rescue his close friend Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), and stumbling upon the titular Dial of Destiny, the Antikythera, a device created by renowned mathematician Archimedes (Nasser Memarzia) to detect fissures in time, which Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller wishes to present to Adolf Hitler to undo their defeat.

Following a look at his gory days, old man Indy awkwardly embarks on an impromptu adventure.

Naturally, Indy defeats Voller’s aspirations and retrieves the Antikythera, but his friendship with Basil later crumbles over arguments about the search for the missing half of the device, which drove Basil to near madness, just one of many regrets weighing down Indy when the film jumps ahead to the 1960s. Old, worn down, and alone, age has well and truly caught up to Indy; his students no longer fawn over him and are more interested in the Moon landing than archaeology, and he’s currently facing a divorce from his wife and recurring love interest, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). It turns out that, despite getting his happy ending in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, things really went bad for Indy in the intervening years: Mutt enlisted to “piss him off” and got himself killed, destroying Indy’s relationship with Marion since neither of them could properly process their grief, leaving Indy a bitter and cantankerous old man who yells at his neighbours and sleepwalks through both life and even his retirement. Shuffling through his day to day with the weight of his adventures and toll of loss wearing him down, Indy has lost much of his zest and thirst for adventure; his memory is fuzzy to the point he doesn’t immediately recognise Helena, and he openly mocks her suggestion of one last adventure to retrieve the Antikythera (though, to be fair, this is primarily because he still has it in storage despite his promise to Basil to destroy it). Indeed, Indy is very much a passenger in Helena’s quest for the device since his first reaction when Klaber (Holbrook) arrives shooting first and asking questions later is to call the police, but he’s soon determined to keep Helena from auctioning off the Antikythera out of respect for his and Basil’s love of antiquities, which was so strong that they stormed a Nazi train to preserve history. There’s no doubt, however, that time has more than caught up with Indy; he’s extremely ineffectual in a fist fight here, often easily being captured or overpowered, and he struggles with his failing body when clambering about a tomb. Strangely, though, his character arc is less about rediscovering his old self (though this is haphazardly suggested at the end) and more about coming to terms with the fact that he’s old and the world has passed him by.

Helena manipulates Indy into helped her achieve her dreams of fortune and infamy.

In place of Mutt, Indy shares the screen with his goddaughter, Helena (who he affectionately refers to as “Wombat”, though there’s no explanation for this). Although she initially approaches him as an excited and warm family friend, this is a front for her true purpose, which is to steal the Antikythera from Indy and sell it off to pay off her debts. A promiscuous and selfish young lady, Helena is as manipulative as she is capable; she easily toys with the emotions of others, making many enemies in the process, in the pursuit of fortune and fame rather than to preserve history. Yet, while she sells herself as a glorified treasure hunter, Helena is as learned as Indy; she memorised all of her father’s notes on the Antikythera and has a degree in archaeology, so she knows her stuff and is constantly depicted as being as knowledgeable as Indy through her awareness of various myths, customs, and ability to decode ciphers. While she appears to use this knowledge only for personal gain, Indy observes that she has an emotional stake in the Antikythera since Basil obsessed over it up until his death, but she’s resentful towards Indy since he neglected to fill her father’s shoes, so she thinks nothing of using him to her own means and is initially reluctant to team up with him despite needing his expertise. She softens towards him after Indy gets emotional about his losses and they soon pool their resources and respective knowledge to find the missing half of the Antikythera. Tough and adaptable, Helena even has her own kid sidekick, budding pilot Teddy Kumar (Isidore), a pickpocket who acts as her lookout, bodyguard, and backup as needed, but her manipulative and selfish actions mean that she’s short on allies to aid in their journey. This is where Indy becomes even more useful as he has many allies, such as the returning Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), who helps him get out of the United States, and newcomer Renaldo (Banderas), an ill-fated, lame pilot who provides them with the specialised diving equipment they need to locate a wax tablet that reveals the location of Archimedes’ grave and the missing half of the Antikythera.

Nazi scientist Voller and his goons will use any means necessary to acquire the Antikythera.

Indy, Helena, and Teddy are relentlessly hounded throughout this quest by Voller, who defected to the US after the war, took on a new name, and put his science to use getting a man on the Moon all to acquire support for his efforts to locate the Antikythera. A stoic, unnervingly charismatic villain, Voller makes little attempt to hide his prejudice towards other races and cultures and his complete disinterest in anything other than acquiring the Antikythera and conquering time itself through its unique mechanism. Although cordial and soft-spoken, Voller switches to a psychotic madness on a dime; he thinks nothing of threatening, torturing, or killing others to get what he wants and gives Klaber carte blanche to exercise any means necessary to carry out his orders, outraging sadly underutilised government agent Mason (Shaunette Renée Wilson), just one of many people Voller and his Nazi buddies murder in cold blood to achieve their ends. Volley’s underlings are simply trigger-happy psychos but Voller himself is far more conniving and patient; Voller’s goal is to acquire the completed Antikythera and use it to locate a time fissure so he can go back to 1939, assassinate Hitler, and change the course of history by leading the Nazi’s to ultimate victory and he’s perfectly happy to let Indy do all the leg work for him and simply steal his rewards or follow his enemies to the source of his obsession. As captivating as Mads Mikkelsen always is (he truly commands every scene, especially when he’s colluding and conspiring with those around him), I was a bit confused by Voller; I’d love to know how he survived his opening encounter with the younger Indy, and I kept waiting for a reveal that he’d already used the Antikythera in some way, but it never came to be. I think it might’ve landed a little better if Voller had been scarred or otherwise incapacitated in some way, because as is he just seems as immortal and indestructible as Indy, who survives being caught in a massive explosion and swung about from a noose with barely a scratch. I also went through the whole film not really knowing Voller’s name or those of his underlings as they’re either not said or are difficult to make out, and most of them lacked any characterisation beyond psychopathic Nazi, which was a bit of a shame.

The Nitty-Gritty:
On the surface, Dial of Destiny very much delivers everything you’d expect from an Indiana Jones movie: it uses the same title font introduced in Raiders of the Lost Ark, map sequences for when Indy and his allies are covering great distances, John Williams returns to do the score, and it features Indy bouncing all over the place on a globe-trotting adventure. However, for me, Dial of Destiny lacked a lot of the energy and excitement I associate with the franchise specifically because of the unavoidable reality that Harrison Ford has aged out of this role. Burdened by regret, grief, and loss, Indy is now snappy and grouchy, and with good reason; the world has passed him by and he’s in a lot of pain over Mutt’s death, his failure to protect him, and his inability to support Marion in her own grief. Learning that Helena felt abandoned by him only compounds that but travelling with her and Teddy offers a sliver of redemption, in a way; initially, he goes along with them to retrieve the Antikythera out of a devotion to Basil but, once he learns of Voller and the Nazis’ involvement, he’s motivated by that same spark to preserve history, which then gives way to giddy excitement when he realises that all the stories of the Antikythera are true and that it actually can detect fissures in time. I am a bit confused about this, though; the Antikythera doesn’t generate the time fissures, it simply directs you to them, so are they just…there…with no explanation of how are they formed. Also, it was pretty ballsy to put in a time travel plot considering the backlash against aliens in the last film; it feels a little disconnected, to be honest, and I was surprised the film didn’t opt for a more traditional, less sci-fi premise, especially as it doesn’t really explore the potential of the Dial in interesting ways beyond briefly plonking Indy in Ancient Greece.

With Indy’s action scenes relegated to chases, the film focuses more on the quest than crazy stunts.

Indy’s advanced age definitely reflects on the film’s action sequences; I felt like the fetch quest aspects of the film were emphasised way more so the film could focus more on Indy’s knowledge rather than whip-cracking stunts and this is noticeable in Indy’s few fight and action sequences. His whip is now used defensively, to keep others at bay, rather than as an offensive weapon and its usefulness is constantly undermined by the heavy use of firearms in the film, both by Indy and his enemies. Indy has also lost a lot of his explosive impact in a fist fight; he’s now much better suited to catching his enemies unawares than taking them on in a straight fight, so he’s far more likely to jump in a speeding tuctuc or commandeer a horse than he is to trade blows with his younger, stronger foes. While the opening sequence showcases Indy in his prime, getting into many of the same wacky scrapes you’d expect, it’s a stark juxtaposition to then be left with the awkward and cumbersome aging Indy for the rest of the film, one whose action scenes are relegated to where he’s scrambling about in numerous chase sequences that drag on a little too long at times. It ties into some of the themes of the movie, and Indy himself, who’s always been a flawed, vulnerable, and scrappy character but it’s not like Helena does much of the heavy lifting in his place. She’s younger, obviously, but her strengths are in sleight of hand, manipulation, and impulsively escaping from dangerous situations rather than showcasing any impressive physical ability, meaning things do get a little repetitive and underwhelming in the action department. There are some nice visuals, though; I enjoyed the chase scene amidst the Moon parade, the underwater sequence was quite tense and made effective use of some aggressive eels, and the film surprisingly references Temple of Doom both explicitly and in the incorporation of a new batch of disgusting bugs when Indy and Helena are exploring Archimedes’ tomb.

The Antikythera allows travel to the past, where Indy is tempted to stay to escape his pain.

Thanks to Indy and Helena’s combined knowledge of Archimedes and the Antikythera, they’re able to reach Archimedes’ tomb and complete the device, but Voller proves himself both persistent and intelligent and simply follows them there, using Teddy as a hostage, to claim the device for himself. As in previous Indiana Jones movies, Indy and his enemies share a respect for the artifact’s power and mystery; they’re both astounded to learn from Archimedes’ mummified remains that the ancient mathematician must have used the device at some point as he’s sporting a modern-day watch, but Voller is driven to maniacal distress when he fails to take continental drift into account when making his calculations. With Indy as his prisoner, Helena as a stowaway, and Teddy in hot pursuit, Voller and his allies don their best Schutzstaffel uniforms and fly a German bomber through a time fissure, only to find Indy’s warnings were correct and they’ve landed themselves in 212 BC! Amidst the Battle of Syracuse, the plane is shot down by Roman warships and Archimedes’ innovative defences, killing Voller, Klaber, and their nameless henchmen. Wounded in the fight, Indy is awestruck to be literally witnessing history and meeting the legendary Archimedes, who takes Voller’s watch for himself and is equally fascinated by their story. Feeling he has nothing to live for in the present day, Indy is adamant about staying in the past to witness history first-hand and the film lingers on this for so long that it really feels like Indy’s going to live out what little time he has left in Ancient Greece. But an emotional Helena, having rediscovered her affection for the aging adventurer, simply knocks him out and drags him, off camera, back to the present so he can survive and continue to be a part of her life. She even reunites him with Marion and the film ends with the suggestion that Indy is “back”, not so much as a free-spirited adventurer but back from his grief, though this ending felt very rushed to me. It definitely seemed to want to bring Indy’s journey full circle and leave him in the past, but then it just didn’t; I also thought the plot point of Indy regretting not being able to save Mutt would tie into the Antikythera/time travel plot and allow him to save his son but that doesn’t happen either.

The Summary:
I went into Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with low expectations; I really didn’t think we needed another Indiana Jones film, especially one where he’s portrayed a broken down, bitter old man, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was still very much fresh in my mind. I went into it out of respect for the franchise and the title character and hoping it would make good on the mistakes of the last film, and ended up with a half-baked adventure that lacked the energy and excitement I associate with the series and its iconic lead. Old, cantankerous Indy could work with a younger lead to team him up with, one who embodied his adventurous spirit in a new age and could teach Indy new things, but Helena sadly fails to fill this role just as Mutt did before her. She’s a better character, that’s for sure, but it’s weird how she’s only now being mentioned and I wonder if it might’ve been better to have her be his granddaughter, resenting Indy for her father’s death. Visually, the film is quite impressive and the performances do land for me; Indy showcases some stirring emotional depth at times and Mads Mikkelsen once again delivers as the psychotic, cold-hearted, yet surprisingly captivating antagonist but, overall, Dial of Destiny just fell flat for me. It felt like a shadow or what had come before, less of a celebration and homage to Indy’s old adventures and more a last gasp effort to squeeze some life out of the franchise. It’s sad seeing Indy’s story turn out so tragically and watching him stumble through scenes, and I think the film squandered a lot of its potential by playing things a little too safe, meaning it’s probably better that Indy hang up the whip and hat for good this time as I think we’ve done everything we can do short of recasting a younger actor in the role for prequels and interludes.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? Do you think it was better than the last film or are you equally put off by Indy’s advanced age? What did you think to Helena and her relationship with Indy? Were you a fan of Mads Mikkelsen’s performance and what did you think to the time travel plot? Which of the Indiana Jones movies is your favourite? Whatever you think about Dial of Destiny, feel free to share your opinions in the comments or on my social media and be sure to check out my other Indiana Jones content!

Back Issues: Fantastic Four #2

Dr. K4 Comments

Story Title: “The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space!” (includes “Part 2: Prisoner of the Skrulls”, “The Fantastic Four Fight Back!”, and “The Fantastic Four…Captured!”)
Published: 28 September 1961 (cover-dated January 1962)
Writer: Stan Lee
Artists: Jack Kirby

The Background:
In 1961, Marvel Comics readers were introduced to the Fantastic Four (Doctor Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Susan Storm/The Invisible Girl, Ben Grimm/The Thing, and a new version of the Human Torch, Johnny Storm), a dysfunctional family of superhumans just as likely to trade blows with each other as they were with their enemies! While the story of their creation has been disputed, the collaboration between writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby popularised the “Marvel Method” of comic creation and this all-too-human “First Family” of superheroes went on to introduce characters and concepts that would forever influence Marvel Comics in the decades that followed. The first of these premiered in the team’s second issue and took the form of shape-shifting aliens known as Skrulls; also created by Lee and Kirby, these malicious, reptilian war-mongers have been a prominent antagonistic force in Marvel Comics ever since. Not only have they menaced the Fantastic Four and other superheroes through their sheer numbers, devastating technology, and copied their powers with their various “Super-Skrull” variants, they also engaged in a horrific war against the Kree, tried to surreptitiously invade Earth, and have popped up in cartoons and videogames as enemies of the Foursome and other Marvel heroes over the years.

The Review:
Our story begins with the Thing swimming far out to sea towards a “lonely Texas Tower”, which I’m just going to call an oil rig going forward. The Thing dives under the waves and shreds one of the oil rig’s support legs, causing the entire structure to topple into the water and forcing the workers to race to safety in lifeboats, where they spot the Thing swimming away and rightly assume that he caused the wreckage. The story then cuts to a jewellery store, where Sue has gone all dressed up to have a look at a particularly large and ridiculously expensive gemstone; plucking the sparkling jewel up, she promptly turns invisible and makes off with the gem, leaving the store owner and the inept guards baffled. Next, the unveiling of a priceless statue of solid marble is reduced to molten slag by the Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic uses his disturbingly stretchy arms to shut off all the power n New York City. The gleeful Foursome meet up to congratulate each other on their evil deeds but, as if something wasn’t already a miss, their overly expository dialogue reveals that they committed these acts not using their superpowers, but by means of technology: the Thing had a concealed detonator in his wrist (why it needed to be concealed beyond fooling the reader is beyond me as no one saw him beneath the sea), the Invisible Girl actually reduced her size rather than turn invisible, the Human Torch made use of anti-gravity gear and a low velocity thermal bomb, and Mr. Fantastic simply used his inherent physical abilities since he, like the other three, is actually a form-changing Skrull! The four imposters shift to their natural forms as goblin-like, reptilian aliens and revel in their actions, which have caused the media and public to turn against the Fantastic Four and therefore allowed the impending Skrull invasion to take place unopposed!

When the Fantastic Four are framed by the Skrulls, they take drastic measures to lure out their foes.

The actual Fantastic Four are off in a secluded lodge having a bit of vacation time hunting in the woods when they learn of what’s happened; while Johnny is confident that Reed will figure out who’s been impersonating them, the news report triggers the Thing, who briefly blows his lid and is ready to fight the entire human race in his mindless rage. When Reed tries to calm him down, the Thing just launches into a tirade lamenting his existence and becomes so consumed by the need to lash out that he starts to sound like Doctor Bruce Banner/The Hulk, it’s very uncharacteristic and odd to see but presumably the Thing’s personality hadn’t quite been worked out at this point. Reed assumes full responsibility for the Thing’s aggressive demeanour; after all, as his obligatory recap of their origin reminds us, he is responsible for Ben being reduced to a rock-covered monster, though none of this brings them any closer to figuring out a plan of action, meaning they’re easily surrounded and captured by the United States military. The Fantastic Four surrender peacefully and are locked up in special cells said to be capable of containing their awesome powers, though this is, of course, just an excuse to pad the story out with visual reminders of what they’re capable of: Sue easily slips out of her cell when the guards foolishly open the door to provide her with food (!), Johnny rips up the flooring to find an air vent, Reed disturbingly squeezes himself out through a single loose rivet, and Ben simply smashes his way out with brute strength in no time at all. They flee in a stolen helicopter and reconvene at one of their “many secret apartment hideouts”, where Johnny and Ben almost come to blows over which one of them will willingly sabotage a space shuttle launch to draw out their doppelgängers. Ultimately, the Thing’s rage is quelled, and the Human Torch attacks the launch site and finds himself picked up by the Skrull impersonators; Johnny learns of their alien nature and plans for world conquest and signals for his teammates, who arrive just as Johnny is facing certain destruction at the Skrulls’ hands.

The Skrulls are easily warded off, the Four are cleared, and their impersonators duly punished.

Thanks to Sue tripping one of them, Reed disarming another, and Ben’s brute strength, the Skrull are subdued and willingly spill the beans when they see the extent of the Thing’s rage towards them; the Skrulls explain that there’s a Skrull invasion fleet waiting to attack and Reed decides that their only course of action is to turn the tables on their doppelgängers by commandeering their shuttle (which is disguised as a water tower) and heading up to the city-sized mothership to try and destroy the fleet. There, they masquerade as their impersonators and tell tales to the Skrull Commander about the might of not just the Fantastic Four, but Earth’s monstrous forces, giant ants, and weaponry hidden in the atmosphere. Incredibly, not only does this dupe work, convincing the Skrull Commander to pull back the entire fleet, but the Fantastic Four are also able to avoid having to shift back to their Skrull forms with a flimsy excuse and are even awarded for their bravery when they volunteer to stay behind and remove all traces of the race from the planet. However, as the Fantastic Four are left to drift back to Earth, the shuttle happens to pass through the same radiation belt that gifted them their powers, which inexplicably returns the Thing to his normal, human form! Upon exiting the shuttle, though, they are immediately placed under arrest and Ben’s joy at finding himself human once more is immediately undone when he just turns back into the Thing within a space of a few panels. Although the police chief refuses to listen to Reed’s explanations, he and the other cops are suitably convinced when they’re attack by a giant snake, a bulbous, spiky-rock-monster-thing, and a large vulture. The Fantastic Four easily subdue these three Skrulls and are exonerated by the flustered police chief; as for the Skrulls, Reed opts not to kill them or take the chance of locking them up or to trust that they can exist amongst humans peacefully as they claim and instead decides to hypnotise them into spending the rest of their lives believing that they’re cows!

The Summary:
Generally speaking, I really don’t enjoy stories where characters or heroes are framed for crimes by an impersonator; I find they can be very repetitive and frustrating, but I actually think “The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space!” was quite a fun twist on the concept. It’s interesting that the Skrulls regard the Fantastic Four as the sole threat to their invasion plan; everything they do is geared towards removing the Fantastic Four from the battlefield by ruining their reputation, something that’s ridiculously easy to do in Marvel Comics thanks to their fickle civilians. I actually quite enjoyed that Johnny and the others barely even bat an eyelid when they find out that they were being impersonated by goblin-like aliens; they just took it in stride and it’s only their second issue and Marvel hasn’t even had a chance to think up some of the bizarre cosmic shit that they’re known for! Another positive was that Sue didn’t get written like a complete airhead in this issue; sure, she barely did anything except trip a few people, but at least she wasn’t being shallow or idiotic or getting yelled at by Reed. This issue also spent a good deal of time showing how combustible the relationship between the Fantastic Four can be, particularly Johnny and Ben, who argue and almost come to blows a few times throughout the story. It also placed a great emphasis on the agony and despair Ben feels about being trapped in a grotesque, rocky hide. While his characterisation is a bit suspect at times and he’s written to almost evoke the Hulk on more than one occasion with his mindless rage, this aspect of the character, that he feels ostracised and tormented by his appearance, has become a defining trait of the Thing’s personality over the years so it was interesting to see it being spotlighted here, even if it’s set off with little provocation.

While the Skrull’s aren’t much of a threat, the story does a good job of fleshing out the title characters.

This led directly into him clashing with the more laidback Johnny, which in turn allowed Reed and Sue to be further fleshed out as the cooler heads and parental figures of the group while also exploring the guilt Reed feels for causing Ben’s condition. While I was okay with the recap of their origin as it tied into this and didn’t take up much space, the brief detour where they’re captured by the military was a bit of a waste, especially as we could’ve seen them battling the shape-shifting Skrulls instead. The Skrulls are depicted as patient and methodical; their plan isn’t to directly engage the Fantastic Four, but see to it that the world turns against them and does the work for them, though this plan is riddled with holes if you actually stop and think about it. If the Fantastic Four are their only threat, why don’t the Skrulls just use their massive fleet to attack New York City, obliterating their enemies in the process? Also, we don’t really get to see much of the Skrulls abilities or threat here; sure, they can mimic the Fantastic Four’s appearances and abilities and turn into monstrous creatures, but they’re easily defeated and their commander is duped with just a few photos and wild stories, severely diminishing whatever threat they might pose. It’s a bit of a shame, as they have a fun design and it would’ve been cool to see them showcase their power and technology in a proper fight, but it does sell the Fantastic Four as being both intelligent and physically capable. Overall, this was a pretty fun and surreal tale; it helped to flesh out the characterisation of the Fantastic Four both individually and as a group, gave them a chance to showcase a bit more of their powers and personalities, and introduced an intriguing alien race that would eventually be depicted as a far more capable menace than what is seen here. The art was colourful and popped nicely, even if the Thing and the Human Torch still look a bit basic here, and the writing was actually pretty good for a change so I’d definitely say that I enjoyed “The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space!” more than I expected.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Have you ever read “The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space!”? What did you think to it? Were you impressed by the first appearance of the Skrulls or do you agree that they weren’t presented as much of a threat? What did you think to the characterisation of the Fantastic Four here? Which of the four team members is your favourite and why? Are you a fan of imposter stories? What are some of your favourite stories that include the Skrulls? Whatever you think about the Fantastic Four and the Skrulls, go ahead and leave a comment down below or on my social media, and be sure to check out my other Fantastic Four reviews on the site.

Game Corner: Final Fight: Double Impact (Xbox 360)

Dr. K10 Comments

Released: 15 April 2010
Originally Released: 25 November 1989 (Final Fight) / 25 July 1990 (Magic Sword)
Developer: Proper Games
Original Developer: Capcom
Also Available For: PlayStation 3 (This version); Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari ST, Commodore 64, CPS Changer, Game Boy Advance, Java ME, Mega-CD, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable, SEGA Mega Drive Mini II, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), X68000, Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, ZX Spectrum (Original, Ports and Re-Releases)

The Background:
The arcade scene was in a boom period during the late-eighties and early-nineties; coin-operated machines stole weekends and pocket money away from an entire generation as they frantically went head-to-head and traded secrets in the playgrounds. For me, two of the biggest names in arcade gaming were Konami and Capcom, both of which produced many of the most celebrated fighters and beat-‘em-ups of the era. Designed by Akira Nishitani and initially planned as a sequel to the modest arcade hit Street Fighter (Capcom, 1987), Final Fight was redesigned with an original premise and characters and took many thematic and narrative cues from movies. Despite switching from a one-on-one fighter to a sidescrolling brawler, Final Fight was a huge hit in arcades across the globe; although concessions and revisions had to be made for the home console release, these ports were also highly praised and the game spawned not only a number of sequels but was also absorbed into the Street Fighter canon. Although arguably far less well known, Magic Sword was also a popular arcade title; though the home console port was criticised, Magic Sword lived again when it was included alongside the more influential Final Fight in this digital bundle that included a host of additional features and even received an Xbox 360-exclusive physical release alongside some of Capcom’s other digital titles.

The Plot:
Crime runs rampant in Final Fight’s Metro City; Mayor Mike Haggar, a former pro wrestler, is forced to recruit expert fighters and martial artists Cody Travers and Guy when the Mad Gear Gang kidnaps his daughter, Jessica, as an intimidation tactic. Meanwhile, the world of Magic Sword is threatened by the dark lord Drokmar and only the Brave One and his allies have a hope of opposing him by scaling Drokmar’s hazardous fifty-floor tower, the Dragon Keep.

Gameplay:
It’s tough to get much better for pure, classic sidescrolling beat-‘em-up action than Final Fight and I say that as someone who’s never even played the game out in the wild; my experiences have all been through emulations and ports such as this collection, which I first owned on the PlayStation 3, and yet everything about Final Fight so perfectly encapsulates this genre of arcade game for me. A lot of that is due to the game setting many of the standards that its successors would build upon and improving upon the gameplay of its predecessors, making for a much faster and more action-packed experience than the comparatively slow and clunky Double Dragon (Technōs Japan, 1987). This simplicity is echoed in the controls; X and Y see you attack with a few punches and kicks that, upon landing, turn into a surprisingly complex and lengthy combination of attacks, and A and B let you jump. You can, of course, perform jumping attacks such as a flying kick when up high and a knee strike when in mid-air, and pressing an attack and a jump button together sees you perform a super attack at the cost of some health. There’s no dash function, unfortunately, but the game’s pretty brisk so you don’t really need it; you can alsograb and toss enemies to wipe out others when you attack up close and you can pick up and use a variety of weapons you find strewn over the streets.

Fight alongside a friend to bring law to the lawless with fun combos and special moves.

Final Fight can be played alone or alongside one other friend, either locally or online; players can pick from three characters – Guy, Cody, and Haggar – and each has their own strengths and weaknesses. Guy (my preferred choice) is a bit faster, throws short jabs and a lot of kicks, and seems to be a little weaker; Cody is much more of an all-rounder in comparison, and Haggar is a slow, powerful brute of a man who sends foes crashing to the ground with devastating wrestling moves. Your goal, as ever in this genre, is to get from the left side of the screen to the right, pummelling enemies and collecting loot for points as you go; you’ll also be battling a timer that counts down at the top of the screen, though the pacing of the game is such that you’re never dawdling in one area for too long. The game is made up of six stages (referred to as “Rounds”), with each one comprised of a number of screens to add some visual variety and onscreen hazards to watch out for; plumes of fire, Molotov cocktails, and “granades” will set you alight and rolling barrels will send you flying but, on the plus side, these hazards will also damage your foes. Naturally, there’s a section where you’re confined to a rising elevator and must battle enemies as they drop in; you’ll also be forced into a caged ring to battle a couple of the game’s tougher enemies, though you can take advantage of the nearby weapons to even the odds in both cases. Finally, there are two bonus stages to break up the action and rack up some extra points; the first sees you kicking the shit out of some poor dude’s car and the second has you smashing glass panels. The time limit is quite strict for both, but I particularly struggled with the latter; the panels simply rotated when I hit them and wouldn’t break so I’m not sure what I did wrong there. Although there’s no end of level scoreboard or anything, you’ll want to smash up crates, phone booths, and barrels to grab loot as you can earn yourself an extra life with enough points. You also get to enter your name on the high score table and upload your score to the online leaderboards, so you’ll want to get as many points as possible if that sort of thing is important to you.

Team up with AI allies to tackle fifty floors of medieval madness!

Although Magic Sword features the same basic controls and the premise of getting from one side of the screen to the other, the gameplay is quite different. X and Y still allow you to attack but a meter also allows you to unleash a magical projectile and you can of course attack while jumping with A and B or whilst crouching and press attack and jump together for a screen-clearing magic attack, again at the cost of some health. Magic Sword is like a more action-orientated and chaotic version of Ghosts ‘n Goblins (Capcom, 1985); though one hit won’t kill you, you are beset by an endless, constantly respawning swarm of medieval and fantasy enemies and asked to crack open chests for keys, loot, and the occasional power-up or hazard. Drokmar’s tower is full of locked doors generally holding an ally prisoner; freeing them sees them join your quest and there’s a decent variety of AI-controlled partners to follow you about, from spear-throwing knights, to winged gargoyles, wizards, and ninjas. They have their own life bar and unique attacks and will be replaced with whoever you free next, so if you find one you like it’s best to not open every door you come across (especially as some hide enemies). An ally will also join your side after you enter a credit to continue and they’ll often drop loot and health after you free them. A second player can also join in the fight, though they’re basically a palette swap; AI partners will also unleash stronger attacks depending on how full your magic meter is, and you can acquire items to provide temporary buffs. There’s also a basic level-up system; I didn’t pay that much attention to it but you are awarded a new sword after every boss, changing the appearance of your blade and the projectile it fires (replacing it with flames or lightning, for example), and you’ll grow in levels as you progress but I’m not sure how as I was too busy focusing on the action. Gameplay is more basic than Final Fight but also far more hectic; this is a game designed to eat up your pocket money as there’s so much danger happening all around you, but the levels are nice short, bite-sized chunks of action so there’s definitely an addictive element as you want to keep getting higher and higher.

Graphics and Sound:  
Of the two, Final Fight is definitely the graphically superior; sure, there’s more happening at any one time in Magic Sword and the game’s faster and has more visual appeal thanks to its fantasy aesthetic, but Final Fight favours quality over quantity. Magic Sword’s sprites aren’t onscreen for very long to have many frames of animation and the avatars are required simply to perform basic functions so, while they look great, they’re not exactly the most detailed, especially compared to Final Fight. Guy, Cody, and Haggar all have very distinct visual identities that tell you everything you need to know about how they play and fight just by looking at them; Cody might be extremely basic compared to the hulking Haggar and skilled Guy but the range of animation in his combos is impressive for such a simplistic game. Both games feature some very appropriate and bopping tunes, though again I favour Final Fight’s as the soundtrack perfectly matches the beat-‘em-up gameplay and switches mid-level, too, though that’s not to say that Magic Sword’s fantasy-themed soundtrack isn’t suitably appropriate, just that it’s easy to dismiss when you’re ploughing through floors so quickly. Both games utilise large sprite art and text/dialogue to tell their story, but only Final Fight sees your characters strapped to a chair before a stick of dynamite if they run out of lives and includes them walking back through the previous stages as the credits play (though I still don’t get why Guy attacks Cody at the end…) There’s essentially at least fifty rooms to Magic Sword; many don’t look much different but are still unique enough and contain hazards such as falling axes, flaming pits, damaging water, and deadly spikes. A helpful compass, of sorts, at the top of the screen shows you whether you need to go right or, shock of shocks, left towards the nearest exit; though there’s no onscreen timer and most floors are pretty short, there are a lot of enemies onscreen and a timer will appear if you dawdle.

Both games have fantastic presentation.

While there’s a fair amount of depth and attempt at variety in Magic Sword’s environments, there’s no getting around the fact that you’re stuck inside a stone tower for the entire game save for the start, where you battle through a village, parts where you’re on the outside of the structure, and the finale, where you face Drokmar in a surreal, cosmic room. Some rooms feature an impressive shimmering heat effect to sell the notion of the boiling hot flames, others are overrun by vegetation or have strange Lovecraftian monstrosities in the background, and others have more of an Aztec/Egyptian flavour to them, but most are simply palette swaps of the same stone blocks and platforms. It works because each floor is so brief but there’s only so much you can do with that aesthetic; the developers could have leaned more into the elemental themes for a few floors, had some take place underwater or completely in forests, but that would probably be a bit out of place in a stone tower so you have to settle for crashing waterfalls, flame pits, and what looks like blood rapids here and there. By contrast, there’s quite a lot of visual variety in Final Fight; ironically, you spend more time on the city streets than in SEGA’s home console counterpart and will battle through the desolate slums, the subway (complete with flickering lights and moving subway train), a busy and dangerous factory, a construction site, and the elaborate inner sanctum of Belger, head of the Mad Gear Gang. There’s always something happening in the background, from barking dogs to enemies emerging from doorways to graffiti on broken toilet doors and chandeliers dropping from the ceiling. It’s a far more urban aesthetic, to be sure, and one that has been done to death in the genre, but it really works here thanks to the multiple transitions to different areas in each Round.

Enemies and Bosses:
Every scumbag and roided-up thug in Metro City is out to get you in Final Fight; each one has their own name (many of them being named after rockstars like “Axl” and “Slash” and “Poison”) and life bar, with some defeated in a couple of hits and others taking a bit more punishment. The basic skinheads and punks aren’t much of an issue, but they’re often accompanied by more skilled fighters who stab and toss knives at you, annoying buggers who quickly appear just to toss Molotov cocktails, cartwheeling hookers who hit you with flipping kicks, and larger thugs who have an annoying tendency to guard against your attacks. You’ll also face larger, more rotund enemies who charge at you from off screen, though you can still toss these with ease, and members of the “Andore” family; these hulking brutes have all the grace, finesse, and power of the late wrestling legend André the Giant and will charge at you with a body strike, effortlessly toss you aside with their meaty hands, and often spam a jump splash to easily drain your health bar. In Magic Sword, Drokmar’s forces encompass a wide spectrum of supernatural and fantastical foes, most of whom are defeated in a single hit: lizard-like gargoyles fly about throwing spears at you, skeletons attack with swords, wizards cause rocks to fall, summon lightning, or surround themselves with flame-spitting skulls while teleporting about, bats, poisonous rats (who temporarily keep you from attacking), and Mummies are all over, as are elemental dragon-type enemies who leap out of fire and water alike. Wandering spirits, mace-wielding ogres, raging bears, and large stone golems also inhabit the near-endless tower, as do strange rock monsters modelled after the Easter Island heads and little dragons who flutter about the place. Unlike the enemies in Final Fight, who can be “shy” and stay offscreen, Magic Sword’s charge at you head-on and never stop coming; you also will need to be wary of your partner in Final Fight as friendly fire cannot be disabled, unlike in Magic Sword where co-operation is often key to survival.

Three of Final Fight‘s bosses can be tough customers to take on, especially with a friend!

Six Rounds means six bosses to contend with in Final Fight, though you will have to face two (or three in two-player mode) Andores at once in a cage halfway through Round 3. Each boss except for one is joined by a slew of regular enemies but this can actually be beneficial as you can toss them into the boss to do some much-needed damage. The first boss, Damnd, is the only one who actively calls for reinforcements with a wolf’s whistle, briefly taking a powder from the action to do so. Apart from his flipping about and the usual tendency of this game’s bosses to just tank through your attacks, he’s not especially difficult to beat down but the fight can drag a bit with him hopping away for a breather. After fighting through the subway, you’ll end up in an underground fighting ring where you’ll face the far tougher Sodom; this hulking armoured samurai wields two katana that he slashes at you. Though you can disarm him and use them against him, be sure to jump away (or in for an attack) after doing so or knocking him down as he has a pretty annoying dash attack that can be hard to dodge. Next, you fight Edi. E, a rotund police officer who looks like a reject from the Village People and who beats you senseless with his truncheon when up close and fires bullets from the hip from a distance. Probably the most annoying boss is Rolento, a super-fast military man who jumps and rushes all over the place, leaping at you with a diving kick and raining “granades” all over the arena. He also whacks you with his little stick-thing when up close and can be a real pain to land a decent hit or combo on due to his incredible speed. Battling Round 5’s Abigail isn’t all that different to fighting an Andore, making him the most disappointing boss; he does have the biggest life bar of any enemy you’ve faced up until the point, though. Finally, after battling through a gauntlet of the game’s enemies in his elaborate headquarters, you’ll get to fight Belger; oddly, he starts the fight in a wheelchair and with Jessica held hostage, though this is soon destroyed by your attacks. Belger will wander and jump about firing and raining arrows with his crossbow; luckily, you can hit these out of the air and he’s not too difficult to defeat as long as you can keep up with him and stave off the endless hoards.

While you’ll face a lot of repeating bosses in Magic Sword, Lord Drokmar poses a real challenge.

Although Drokmar’s tower boasts fifty floors, there are only eight bosses to face and you’ll battle two of them three times each, just with slightly different palette swaps and attack patterns. The first of these is Quimyra, a Chimera-like creature sporting three heads (a dragon, a lion, and a ram), wings, and hooves. While the Skull and Queen variants (who are referred to as Chimeras) are surrounded by skulls, the first one isn’t, and the battle goes pretty much the same for all three save for the arena differences (with spike pits and other enemies and hazards occurring in later bouts) and the Chimeras being capable of spitting fireballs in addition to relentlessly pouncing at you. You’ll also face three different dragons: the first, the Gold Dragon, swoops about an elaborate throne room shooting lightning while you’ll have to battle the Emerald variant without the aid of platforms and a weaker version even appears mid-way through one floor of the tower. The final dragon is actually a blue, two-headed hydra; it attacks in very much the same way, though in an ominous cathedral and with added speed and a swirling fire attack. Aside from these reskins, you’ll also have to contend with two Celestial Serpents; these monstrous, skeletal worms snake out from an asteroid in the background and can be tricky to dodge as they’re so big, but they share the same health bar and have no projectile attacks so they’re technically the game’s easiest bosses. Finally, at the end of the game, you’ll face the demonic Lord Drokmar himself; this vile demon floats around the swirling arena blasting lightning bolts from orbs and his hands to create walls of flames. His attacks only increase as you do damage, with him adding wheels of flame to his attacks, but once you defeat him he’ll offer you the chance to take his place as the King of Evil or bring peace to the land by destroying his magical Dark Orb. What you choose to do is entirely up to you…

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Compared to Magic Sword, Final Fight is a little lacking in this area; both games see you picking up loot (gold, jewels, and the like) for points and various food items (roasts, fruit, and such) to replenish your health but only Magic Sword sees you acquire useful items from chests that can aid your journey. The King’s Crown will increase your ability to take damage, the gauntlet increases your attack power, the crystal ball allows hidden chests to appear faintly visible, and the diamond ring allows you to befriend certain enemies, among other useful buffs. You can also acquire additional shields from chests and will be awarded new swords from boss battles that change the nature of your projectile attack, though be warned as these can both be sent flying out of your hands by certain enemies and attacks. Some chests contain hazards, but others also destroy all onscreen enemies, so there can be a degree of chance at work whenever you open a chest. In Final Fight, you’re limited to your individual character’s special attack and the weapons you can use against your foes; you’ll find knives, pipes, and swords all over the place, all of which are great for some crowd control but be careful not to stand over a pile of them or you’ll leave yourself wide open for an attack as you endlessly swap or pick up weapons.

Additional Features:
There are twelve Achievements up for grabs in Final Fight: Double Impact; five for Final Fight, six for Magic Sword, and one tied to both games. You’ll earn Achievements for beating Final Fight as all three characters, for finishing all Rounds in co-op, and for between every level using less than eighteen continues. This latter is true for Magic Sword, where you’ll also earn some G for completing all levels (which you might need another run at as it’s possible to find secret exits and skip a floor or two), finishing any level without being hit or using your magic, and for seeing both endings, all of which are more than do-able. The last Achievement involves unlocking all of the concept art and bonuses in the game’s “Vault”; this is achieved by competing a number of in-game challenges for each title, such as finishing levels in a certain time or with certain characters or within a set number of lives. This is where Final Fight: Double Impact’s true challenge lies as some of these can be very demanding, but it’s fun seeing them pop up (even if they can obscure the gameplay) and looking through the concept art and such. Also on offer in this version are save states (though these are somewhat limited; once you finish a game, you cannot replay that save and they only save from the last checkpoint, usually the start of a level, rather than literally where you were when you saved the game), display and border options, leaderboards, and the ability to pick between the remastered and original music. I have to say I really dig the menu interface for these options, which is done up like an arcade cabinet, and there is an option in Magic Sword to start from certain floors to help with those challenges and Achievements.

The Summary:
Even now, years after I first played this collection on the PlayStation 3, I’m a little confused by it; why did Capcom pair Final Fight with Magic Sword and not, say, the other two Final Fight games? Don’t get me wrong, it adds some variety to the package but it’s a bit of an odd pairing, to say the least. Still, the number of options and unlockable bonuses on offer make this an attractive collection; the in-game challenges add a nice bit of replay incentive and the Achievements are largely nice and easy to earn, but all of that pales in comparison to the gameplay. For me, Final Fight set the standard for what an arcade beat-‘em-up should be; three distinct characters, an urban environment filled with disposable goons, bigger, tougher bosses, and some fun bonus stages to break up the action. It’s not too short and not so long that it outstays its welcome; it may be missing a dash attack, but the combo animations, super moves, and weapons are all the template for the genre, to say nothing of the thumping techno-rock soundtrack and large, detailed sprites. And then you get Magic Sword as a bonus, an addictive if quickly repetitive sword-and-sorcery adventure that stands out from similar games with its AI allies, basic level-up system, and floor-based mechanics. These would also crop up in other arcade titles, from Capcom and by others, but they’re implemented well here, even if the title’s not as memorable as Final Fight. Ultimately, fans of classic, 2D sidescrolling brawlers from the arcade heyday should find a lot to enjoy from this double pack and I certainly found it to be hugely enjoyable, mainly because of the simple and impactful gameplay of Final Fight, and it’s a shame that this particular version of the game isn’t as easily accessible any more, but thankfully Final Fight is still out there to play and you should absolutely seek it out if you get the chance.

Final Fight Rating:

Magic Sword Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Fantastic

Pretty Good

Have you ever played Final Fight: Double Impact? How do you think it compares to other versions of Final Fight, and which of those versions do you have the most experience with? Which character was your go-to in Final Fight and which of Magic Sword’s allies did you prefer to fight alongside? Did you struggle with any of the bosses and levels in either game and, if so, which ones? Were you able to unlock everything in the game’s Vault? Why do you think these two were paired together for this collection and would you like to see more arcade titles re-released for modern consoles? What’s your favourite beat-‘em-up videogame from this era of gaming? To share your thoughts on Final Fight and Magic Sword, pop down to the comments or leave a reply on my social media and be sure to check out my reviews of SEGA’s answer to Final Fight next week.

Movie Night [Independence Day]: Captain America

Dr. K1 Comment

First appearing in 1941, Marvel Comics’ star-spangled super soldier, Steve Rogers/Captain America, has become one of Marvel’s most recognisable and celebrated characters not just for his super patriotism but also for being a prominent member and leader of Marvel’s premier super team, the Avengers. Having successfully made the jump to live-action, Cap is now a widely celebrated, mainstream superhero and, given that today is Independence Day, this seems like the perfect excuse to pay tribute to the star-spangled man with a plan himself!

Released: 14 December 1990
Director: Albert Pyun
Distributor: 20/20 Vision / Columbia TriStar Home Video
Budget: $3 million
Stars: Matt Salinger, Scott Paulin, Kim Gillingham, Francesca Neri, and Ronny Cox

The Plot:
As the United States and Nazi Germany go to war in 1943, polio-stricken Steve Rogers (Salinger) is transformed into a superhuman solider, codenamed “Captain America”, and frozen in ice for fifty years after saving the U.S. from a ballistic missile launched by his Italian counterpart, Tadzio de Santis/The Red Skull (Paulin). When he awakens in the modern world, Steve finds the Red Skull alive and well and planning to brainwash President Thomas Kimball (Cox) in order to usurp his pro-environmentalist legislation.

The Background:
Since his debut in Marvel Comics, Captain America has had a bit of a tumultuous history; for a time, the Star-Spangled Avenger was the most popular patriotic superhero in all of comic books but, after the War, the popularity of superheroes began to falter and the character was literally put on ice for about ten years. Upon being revived and joining the Avengers, Cap once again returned to prominence in Marvel Comics. Along the way, Cap featured not only in a crude animated series in the 1960s and guest starred in some of Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s 1980s cartoons, but also a couple of live-action television films in the 1970s before Cannon Group founders Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus acquired the rights to the character in 1984. Six years of development hell caused the script to go through numerous rewrites and director changes before Albert Pyun came onboard and targeted a theatrical release date to coincide with the character’s fiftieth anniversary; eventually, however, the film was released straight to video and is regarded extremely unfavourably and has also gained some merit as a cult curiosity if nothing else.

The Review:
The first thing to note about Captain America is that the DVD transfer quality is absolutely dreadful; it genuinely looks like a VHS copy of the film was simply spliced onto the disc and left at that. It’s by no means an amazing film anyway but actually going to the effort of properly converting the film to DVD would have gone a long way to make the viewing experience a little less unsightly. The second thing to note is how drastically the film changes the Red Skull’s origin story; usually, he is Johann Shmidt, a crazed Nazi super soldier hellbent on obtaining power and spreading fear across the entire world but, here, he’s a much more tragic figure. Child prodigy Tadzio de Santis (Massimilio Massimi) is abducted from his family, who are killed right before his eyes, and forced to endure Doctor Maria Vaselli’s (Carla Cassola) experimental super soldier process by the Fascist Italian military. While the Italians are pleased by the procedure’s results, which transform its subjects into beings of incredible strength and intelligence but render them a bloodied, skeletal beast, Dr. Vaselli draws the line at subjecting the boy to the procedure and flees to America, leaving Tadzio to be transformed into a maniacal super soldier.

Although Vaselli is killed, Steve is transformed into a super soldier.

Vaselli flees and defects to America and, over the next seven years, perfects her procedure; “Project: Rebirth” is now capable of transforming even the weakest, frailest man into one as “fast and as strong as an athlete”. Wishing to create an entire regiment of super soldiers, the military are only too pleased when Steve Rogers, a young man crippled by polio, volunteers for the process; Steve, who is the epitome of the All-American boy, with a loving family, is determined to live up to the example set by his father, who died in service for his country. His girlfriend, Bernice “Bernie” Stewart (Gillingham), is distraught at Steve’s decision to leave, but promises to wait for him for as long as it takes for him to come back. Steve is taken to a rather unimpressive, dungeon-like laboratory hidden beneath a traditional American diner and, under the supervision of Dr. Vaselli and Lieutenant Colonel Louis (Michael Nouri), is subjected to a painful procedure involving lots of flashing lights and sparks. The result is the sudden increase of his muscle mass and his transformation into “Captain America”, a name specifically chosen to evoke the spirit of the good ol’ U. S. of A. Unfortunately, while the procedure is a success, a Nazi agent infiltrates the bunker. Although Steve uses his newfound strength to dispose of the Kraut, Dr. Vaselli and a number of other bystanders are killed in the fray. Dr. Vaselli takes the secret of Project: Rebirth to her grave and Louis is left with a single superhuman soldier rather than an army.

For all the film’s flaws, the Red Skull looks pretty bad-ass.

Bypassing such formalities as training, Steve recuperates from his injuries and is immediately dropped into the deep end. Garbed in a garish red, white, and blue fireproof uniform and carrying a circular, frisbee-like shield, Cap easily infiltrates a Nazi base, where the Axis forces are planning to launch a ballistic rocket at the White House. The rocket is guarded by Tadzio, now transformed into the hideous Red Skull. Say what you will about the film but the make-up effects on the Red Skull are actually pretty good; it’s a shame, then, that he only appears in this guise for a brief scene in the film. Anyway, the two have a bit of a punch up but, finding himself evenly matched in strength and outmatched in ferocity and strategy, Steve ends up strapped to the rocket after being pricked by the Red Skull’s little hand-needle-thing.

Steve is dethawed to find the world has moved on in his absence.

When Cap tries to take the Red Skull with him, his Nazi counterpart severs his own hand to escape; despite his desperate situation, Cap is able to deflect the rocket from its course, much to the awe of one young Thomas “Tom” Kimball (Garrette Ratliffe), and ends up buried in ice in Alaska. We are then treated to a montage as the next fifty-odd years pass; in that time, Tom grows up to become not only Ronny Cox but the President of the United States! Additionally, the Red Skull undergoes extensive plastic surgery (making him more like the Reg(ular) Skull!), raises a daughter, Valentina (Neri) to be his best hitwoman, and becomes the head of a shadowy crime family behind the assassination of many celebrities and political figures. Rather than kill Kimball, whose pro-environmentalist legislation angers the military-industrial complex, the Red Skull instead intends to kidnap the President and brainwash him to avoid turning him into a martyr (which, apparently, is much less trouble than paying for and organising an assassination; who knew?) Steve’s frozen body is finally discovered by a team of researchers and he breaks free, disorientated and initially believing himself to still be in the 1940s. Even when Kimball’s friend, reporter and conspiracy theorist Sam Kolawetz (Ned Beatty), tracks him down and explains what’s happened, Steve refuses to believe that it is anything other than a Nazi trap. Not even an attack by the Red Skull’s forces convinces him and it is only after feigning car sickness, stealing Sam’s car, and meeting Bernie’s daughter, Sharon (Gillingham), that the weight of his predicament finally hits him. After Bernie (and, it seems, Sam) are killed by Valentina and Kimball is successfully kidnapped, Steve resolves to head to Rome (begrudgingly taking Sharon along with him) to confront his nemesis once more.

The Nitty-Gritty:
In many ways, I have to admire Captain America; it’s not a million miles away from the source material, especially as established in Marvel Comics at the time, and is clearly limping along on fumes rather than benefiting from a big budget. Surprisingly, the film even goes to the effort of name-dropping Namor the Sub-Mariner and Jim Hammond/The Human Torch, hinting that this is a world where costumed heroes are actually present (although conspicuous by their absence).

He might look 100% comic accurate but man, does Cap look like an absolute goon.

I mentioned the make-up effects on the Red Skull before and they really are impressive. Sadly, though, it seems the bulk to the special effects budget was spent achieving this effect as Cap’s infiltration of the Nazi base is woefully pitiful thanks to some obvious miniatures and, while I appreciate how faithfully the filmmakers recreated the Captain America costume, Cap really does look like an absolute clown running around in what looks like a really hot and uncomfortable latex suit with floppy rubber wing-ears and chucking a shiny oval shield that often looks far too much like plastic. Cap’s action scenes aren’t really up to much, either; the film’s chase and vehicle sequences are far better than the fight scenes, which are shot very frantically, feature an abundance of loud, exaggerated sound effects, and don’t really showcase Cap’s amazing strength or agility in any significant way.

There’s not much for the women to do in this film but support, or fawn after, the goofy Steve.

Of course, any Captain America story has to deal with Steve being a man out of time and Captain America is no different; similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe incarnation, though, this is largely glossed over. In the space of a few scenes, we see Steve confused and gawking at the then-modern world but, while he’s heartbroken to find that Bernie has aged into an old woman, married, and had a daughter, he quickly acclimatises to his new situation. After catching up on the last fifty years using VHS tapes, Steve immediately focuses on the bigger picture: tracking down the Red Skull using Dr. Vaselli’s diary. Sharon helps bring Steve up to speed and actually proves very helpful in Rome as, unlike Steve she can actually speak and read Italian; unfortunately, despite initially appearing quite a ballsy and independent young woman, Sharon quickly becomes little more than a babbling, screaming hindrance who is constantly overwhelmed by the events happening around her and who even ends up being taken as a hostage when they reach Rome.

Cap wins the day but…after watching this film, is anyone truly a winner?

Having learned of de Santis’ tragic childhood, and donning his God-awful suit once more, Cap infiltrates the Red Skull’s castle. It turns out, though, that Kimball doesn’t even need his help as he escapes his cell out of his own initiative (which perfectly fits with Kimball’s forthright and practical nature); he even teams up with Captain America for the finale (leading to one of the cheesiest thumbs-up ever), which sees Cap overpower all of the Red Skull’s goons. Although the Red Skull activates a bomb, Cap distracts him with a recording of his abduction as a child and finishes his Nazi counterpart off by knocking him to an explosive death with his shield. With the Red Skull dead and his daughter down for the count, Steve saves the President, ushering a new environmental age, and once again disappears into legend.

The Summary:
Man, that was a tough watch. Even the power of nostalgia can’t really save Captain America, which was another of the few live-action comic book adaptations I grew up with as a kid. It tries, desperately, to be this fun, action-packed little adventure but it just can’t seem to kick into the higher gear necessary to hit whatever tone it’s going for. Matt Salinger does a decent enough job as Captain America but, while he looks the part with his square jaw and All-American physique, the costume does him very little favours and he’s one of the oddest, most wooden actors I’ve ever seen. He constantly looks baffled and out of his depth, which you could argue is fitting considering Cap is massively out of his element in the modern day, but it seems more like he was told to act like a complete goof rather than as a cheesy but forthright icon. The Red Skull and Ronny Cox and some of the special effects make it worth a watch for those curious to delve into this dreg of a film but even the most die-hard Captain America fans will have difficulty defending this one.

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

Have you ever seen Captain America? If so, what did you think of it? Do you agree that it is a pretty dreadful film overall or do you, perhaps, have a soft spot for it? What did you think to the Red Skull’s make-up and Captain America’s suit and portrayal? What was your first exposure to Captain America and where do you rank him against other superheroes, where Marvel or otherwise? What story or character of his is your favourite and why? How are you celebrating Captain America’s star-spangled debut this month? Whatever your thoughts, drop a comment below.

Wrestling Recap: The Outsiders vs. Sting, Savage, & Luger (Bash at the Beach ’96)

Dr. K10 Comments

The Date: 7 July 1996
The Venue: Ocean Center; Daytona Beach, Florida
The Commentary: “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, Mike Tenay, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, and Tony Schiavone
The Referee: Randy Anderson
The Stakes: Six-man tag team match to repel the Outsiders’ invasion

The Build-Up:
On 4 September 1995, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) changed the shape of the wrestling industry by airing the first episode of WCW Monday Nitro, a weekly broadcast that included the unexpected WCW debut of Lex Luger and kicked off the start of the “Monday Night Wars” as the show ran in direct competition to the World Wrestling Federation’s (WWF) Raw is War. Over the course of a staggering eighty-four weeks, WCW would dominate this ratings war thanks to signing a number of wrestling’s biggest names to lucrative contracts; two of the most prominent of these were Scott Hall (formerly WWF’s Razor Ramon) and Kevin Nash (formally Diesel), who regularly gatecrashed WCW programming to declare war on the organisation, assumedly as “Outsiders” sent explicitly by the WWF to disrupt WCW. Though this was later downplayed to avoid legal issues, the two constantly hassled WCW Executive Vice President Eric Bischoff and goaded him into forming a three-man team to face the duo and their mysterious “third man” at Bash at the Beach. A random drawing saw Sting, Lex Lugar and “Macho Man” Randy Savage chosen to oppose the Outsiders, but Hall and Nash refused to reveal the identity of their third man until the show; although Sting was initially said to be up for the big turn, the mystery man turned out to be the legendary Hulk Hogan, whose act was becoming a bit stale by that point. Hogan’s turn to the dark side legitimately shocked the wrestling world and reinvigorated his career; rechristened “Hollywood” Hogan, the once colourful wrestling hero led the New World Order (nWo) in hijacking WCW’s programming as the WCW World Heavyweight Champion, eventually leading to a year-long storyline where Sting underwent a complete character change to oppose Hogan in their infamous Starrcade match. While the nWo eventually outlived its welcome, there’s no denying the impact this match had on the wrestling industry; it made WCW must-see television and forced the WWF to undergo a dramatic change of attitude to outpace and ultimately dethrone their competition and it all started here with this iconic three-on-two tag team match.

The Match:
I find it interesting looking back at the Outsiders’ arrival in WCW; even Michael Buffer’s introduction hypes up how the duo threatens the sanctity, the very existence, of the company, which I find a little amusing. You’re seriously telling me that two men are really that much of a threat? Admittedly, I haven’t watched the weeks leading up to Bash at the Beach but it seemed all the two did was interfere in matches, attack a few wrestlers, and accost Bischoff while claiming to have a third man in their posse. These days, an invading team would be at least three men to start with, if not six to eight, and would constantly disrupt programming, attacking everyone and destroying the ringside area, but back then all it took was a former bodyguard-turned-disappointing World Champion and an upper mid-carder with a tragic drinking problem to threaten the stability of one of the biggest wrestling companies in the United States at the time. After weeks of speculation and anticipation bout the duo’s third man, Hall and Nash sauntered to the ring by themselves; even I, with little exposure to WCW or even the WWF back in my fledgling wrestling fan days, was aware of the nWo and Hulk Hogan’s turn to the dark side thanks to WCW’s Nintendo 64 videogames, which featured “Hollywood” Hogan and his black-and-white cohorts in prominent roles, but WCW were determined to drag the reveal out for maximum impact. Naturally, the commentary team were more than a little biased towards the WCW competitors and “Mean” Gene Okerlund was less than impressed at their lack of a partner; however, the duo was completely unfazed maintained their arrogance even in the face of the two-on-three disadvantage they would be in throughout the match.

With Luger taken out, the Outsiders worked over Sting’s ribs and cheated for an advantage.

Sting, Luger, and Savage came to the ring together, so united as a team that they even wore matching face paint, and things quickly got tense as Luger and Hall got into a slanging match all while the commentary team bickered distrustfully amongst themselves since the Outsiders had done such a good job of sowing dissension throughout WCW. Hall and Luger started the match; Hall disrespectfully tossed his toothpick in Luger’s face, earning him a good ol’ slap to the jaw and a forearm shot across the forehead despite beating on Luger in the early going. Luger was all fired up, even taking a cheap shot at Nash, but Sting was forced to save him from a Nash headlock with a Stinger Splash in the corner. Unfortunately, Luger bashed his head on the ring post, evening the odds as doctors stretchered him away. Regardless, Sting went after Hall in a flurry, bashing his head off the mat, planting him with an Inverted Atomic Drop and a facebuster, but Hall was able to counter Savage’s top-rope axehandle with a shot to the gut. Rather than tagging out, Hall goaded Sting, distracting the referee and allowing Nash to hit Savage with Snake Eyes, but he immediately recovered to clothesline Hall to the mat for the first near fall of the match. Hall tagged in Nash; Savage (accompanied by Rhodes’ shouts of “Who be bad now?!”) used his quickness at first but the big man shut him down with some slow shots and a big body slam. Thankfully, Savage avoided an elbow drop and tagged in Sting, but he immediately took a beating in the corner from some repeated elbow strikes before being choked by Nash’s long, unstable leg. Sting countered a whip into the opposite corner and floored Nash with a dropkick but couldn’t get him over for a sunset flip pin and ate a lifting choke for his troubles. Hall tagged back in, hitting his trademark Fallaway Slam for a two count, but Nash came back in for a Big Boot and starting working over Sting’s ribs. Sting was able to duck under a clothesline and hit a low dropkick to bring Nash to the mat, but Hall tagged in to cut off both his opponents before dropping a bunch of elbows before wrapping the Stinger up in the Abdominal Stretch (with an assist from Nash) to really milk the crowd. Even when Nash slipped in behind the referee’s back to take over the hold and continue to work over Sting’s ribs and Sting was able to break free, he was too hurt to make the tag and got cut off again by Hall, who scored a two count of a clothesline.

Savage’s comeback was cut short by Hogan’s shocking turn and the infamous formation of the nWo!

After a brief sleeper hold, Hall dumped Sting to the outside, where Savage threatened to attack Nash with a steel chair when the Outsider made a move towards Sting. Back in the ring, Sting continued to play “face-in-peril”, eating a big Sidewalk Slam from Nash but kicking out at two, who was so frustrated that he rammed Sting’s head into the corner. Sting finally started to mount a comeback with a bunch of punches and leapt at the big man with a standing crossbody to tag in Savage. The crowd erupted as the Macho Man took out Hall, smacked his head into Nash’s, and started pounding away on Nash, landing repeated top-rope axehandles on Hall. A shot to the balls shut down Savage’s assault, however, leaving all four men lying; the crowd erupted again as Hulk Hogan came to the ring, presumably to help his fellow WCW teammates out, but instead chose to Hogan hit the Atomic Leg Drop on the prone Savage, twice, before high-fiving Hall and Nash. Hogan tossed the referee from the ring, hit another Atomic Leg Drop on Savage and then pinned the Macho Man as Hall made the three count. The crowd wasn’t really sure how to react at first but, as the smirking trio celebrated, cups and other trash started to fill the ring; one enraged fan even tried to rush them, only to be rightfully beaten down as a result. In the aftermath, Okerlund demanded answers from Hogan, who cut a scathing tirade against WCW, its fans, and heralding the birth of the “New World Organisation”. Finally having had enough to the fans and the businessmen taking his fame and popularity for granted, Hogan vowed to tear WCW down and destroy everything in his path to dominate the industry, with the three men absolutely revelling in the crowd’s disgusted reaction. Honestly, the match wasn’t too much to shout about; it was a fairly standard tag team bout, with the bad guys cheating for an advantage and setting up Savage for a big hot tag, but the ending is what makes it truly memorable. Once Hogan came to the ring, I think you could probably guess that he was going to turn (Heenan screaming “Who’s side is he on?!” didn’t help…) so it might’ve been better if he’d come out alongside, say, Luger to cast a bit more doubt over him and the after match promo was a bit long-winded, but there’s no denying that this marked a significant turning point for all involved.

The Aftermath:
Of course, this event saw the birth of the nWo and Hogan’s transformation into the arrogant, embittered “Hollywood” Hogan. The nWo immediately reinforced their message over the next few weeks by brutally assaulting WCW wrestlers after their matches and backstage, before establishing their dominance when Hogan captured the WCW Championship from the Giant at the next pay-per-view event, Hog Wild. Soon enough, the nWo became the hottest thing not just in WCW but the wrestling world; audience tuned in every week to see what they’d get up to next, who would join the increasingly growing group, and bought their t-shirts and merchandise by the thousands. The nWo proved so popular that Bischoff proposed giving them their own television show, but this fell through and an nWo-centric pay-per-view proved less than successful. As established, during the nWo’s first year, their greatest threat loomed in the rafters as Sting bided his time before challenging Hogan, but Hogan’s revived career wouldn’t be so easily upended. Even as the nWo splintered into other factions and began to wind down, WCW continued to milk the group for all it’s worth; they were such a prominent faction that, when Hogan, Hall, and Nash finally returned to the WWF in 2002, they were brought in as the nWo for a short-lived and poorly-handled revival. Although the group was officially disbanded later in 2002, they continued to make sporadic appearances; generally represented as the original three, sometimes alongside their “sixth member”, X-Pac, the nWo bizarrely defended Sting during his WrestleMania match against Triple H and were inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Hall of Fame in 2020.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

What did you think to the clash between WCW’s defenders and the invading Outsiders? Were you excited by Hall and Nash’s shocking appearance in WCW at the time? Who did you think the third man was going to be? What was your reaction when it turned out to be Hulk Hogan? Were you a fan of the nWo and, if so, who were your favourite members of the super group? What are some of your favourite matches and moments from WCW’s Bash at the Beach pay-per-views? Whatever your thoughts on the nWo, Bash at the Beach, and WCW, feel free to voice them below.