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DAN MASTRIANI
COMMUNITY WRITER
Jotarosteam
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FEATURED POST
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Silent Survivor
A quick look at the unknown history behind the pilot of the Starship Hector.
Saturday, December 17, 2011 | Comments (0)
POST BY THIS AUTHOR (1)
COMMENTS BY THIS AUTHOR (38)
On Ryan Conway's  Why the reaction to Bayonetta 2’s Wii U exclusivity is disappointing
"It is! There's also quite a bit of language, and while my Wii is out of order so I can't double-check, I'm pretty sure it features scantily clad women as well. Check the ESRB description: http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=26363&Title=MadWorld"
Monday, September 24, 2012
On Ryan Conway's  Why the reaction to Bayonetta 2’s Wii U exclusivity is disappointing
"Have you played MadWorld? I don't think censorship is still an issue for Nintendo systems. Honestly, I don't really feel like it has been since the uncut release of Mortal Kombat II."
Friday, September 21, 2012
On Evan Killham's  PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale's puzzling design decision makes PaRappa a killer
"Are you sure they aren't just being sent to another dimension?

(No links in comments anymore? Kind of weakens my already lame joke if I just include an URL. Which is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZUoBsVqbn4, by the way.)"

Friday, August 10, 2012
On Dan "Shoe" Hsu's  Bitmob Giveaway: We just want to say...thanks!
"Very cool of you guys. Don't have a Kinect and #1 does not interest me in the lease, so I'm going to have to go with #3. PS3, I think. Don't have a lot of games for that."
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
On Antonio Byrd's  Publishers should sell games without the pre-order baggage
"As a man who owns a Fatal Fury cap (and, yes, wears it in public), I can't say I'm averse to video game derived apparel. That said, over $1000 for a coat seems kind of insane. Why so expensive? If it were more in line with what you might pay to buy a decent coat that didn't look like Leon's, I'd be inclined to say this is a practical pack-in. After all, what's wrong with getting a nice coat that looks like your favorite character's with your game? I could certainly see people using it as an actual coat if they didn't have to sell a kidney to get it.

I can see your point about random trinkets that end up cluttering up your home and serve no real purpose, but I don't think you're seeing "Game of the Year" editions in the right light. Basically, they represent a better value for people who are late to the party, along the lines of "Greatest Hits" releases. GOTY editions tend to include things like DLC rather than, say, keychains. Didn't jump on the bandwagon from day one? Here's a bundle that'll let you get the full experience at a savings. Sure, the people who bought everything right away had to pay more, but what else is new? That's always going to be the case unless a title is some limited release that goes out of print almost immediately. The bargain hunters this sort of thing is aimed at might not buy the game at all if they know they then still have to pay full price for a bunch of DLC."

Monday, June 11, 2012
On Jonah Stowe's  Lessons in being an ass and starting kitchen fires
"Well said. That's a point I can agree with. If you're just looking for the easy way out rather than putting in effort, no one's liable to have fun, whether you think you're "playing to win" or not."
Monday, May 28, 2012
On Jonah Stowe's  Lessons in being an ass and starting kitchen fires
"Well, I think the thing about this argument is that if a fighting game is well balanced, "playing to win" won't amount to doing the same move over and over, because that simply won't work. Now, no game is perfect, and chances are there will always be tactics that are particularly good. Still, "playing to win" isn't only using the best moves, it's also devising counters to them. Competitive play does evolve and does feature ever changing tactics. Unless a game really does feature something that's way too good, in which case it isn't fun for anybody, and even competitive players stop playing it."
Monday, May 28, 2012
On Samir Torres'  Similarities between Street Fighter 2 and World Heroes
"Can't remember if I read this article when you posted it (I imagine I would have, but maybe I missed it), but after following the link from your look-alikes post, it occurred to me that Brocken may have a few other influences. First off, Kinnikuman featured a Nazi character named Brockenman (http://kinnikuman.wikia.com/wiki/Brockenman), named after a German mountain peak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocken). Further, while the idea of a Nazi cyborg is probably fairly widespread, the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure character Rudolph von Stroheim (http://jjba.wikia.com/wiki/Stroheim) has a strikingly similar design."
Thursday, March 22, 2012
On Samir Torres'  Puzzler: Solve the video-game rebus puzzles
"He's from the Metal Slug series. Basically, the suit guys will be holding a conversation or standing around until the shooting starts, then run off the screen."
Saturday, March 17, 2012
On Jasmine Maleficent Rea's  Tales of the Abyss is why JRPG localization needs to change
"As someone who has wasted way too much money on lousy Gundam games, I can tell you that anime games are often in the same boat as movie games. Definitely tread with caution there. Bandai is probably one of, if not the largest, producers of licensed titles; a depressingly small percentage are actually good. Their best are probably the Super Robot Wars series, which marries a solid if unremarkable SRPG framework with scores of licensed characters (and tends to stay in Japan because of it), and the Gundam vs. series, which is probably good mostly because it was created in association with Capcom. Sadly, they seem to have given up on bringing Gundam games to the US, even the good ones.

While we're on the topic, I would recommend a few of Sega's anime-based titles. Their Astro Boy game for GBA was a phenomenal action side-scroller made by Treasure, who also put together a couple of quality fighters based on Bleach for DS. I'm sure I could come up with more hidden gems, but this is quite aside from the subject of the article."

Friday, March 02, 2012
On Jasmine Maleficent Rea's  Tales of the Abyss is why JRPG localization needs to change
"Oh, they've done all the games, both for Super Sentai and Power Rangers. However, the PR games were actually created expressly for the US market and based directly on Power Rangers; what Super Sentai games Bandai has released are completely different. For instance, there were several games based on the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, but not one featuring the corresponding Kyouryu Sentai Zyuranger.

Basically, while I agree they should put more effort into localization, I didn't feel Power Rangers really supported your point, as there really wasn't any localization on Bandai's part.

Edit: For some reason I totally blanked on this, but there was a Zyuranger game on Famicom. Still, it was fairly outnumbered by MMPR games."

Friday, March 02, 2012
On Jasmine Maleficent Rea's  Tales of the Abyss is why JRPG localization needs to change
"Hopefully this isn't being pedantic, but I feel the need to point out that Bandai did not create Super Sentai or Power Rangers, they just produce merchandise based on them. I'm sure they have some level of influence, since these shows make most of their money off toy sales, but it's still Toei in Japan creating the premise and Saban in the US deciding how to adapt it.

Fun fact, though, I think there are more Power Rangers games than Super Sentai for whatever reason."

Friday, March 02, 2012
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