2020: New Man Down
To say that this year (and decade) began with some events is an understatement as of now, everyone, including yours truly, has been dealing with the insufferable pandemic since March (and perhaps earlier in some places), just when I was in a happy mood after watching Sonic and Onward in theaters and looking forward to a trip to Italy in September (which got delayed). And just when at the time I thought the worst that can happen is some damned war in the Persian Gulf with Iran, which I still contend that (besides being possible as of this writing) it can be lost more so than won IMO given Iran's unconventional strategies but that's another story for another time. Yet a war did happen, but ironically in some disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and that Turkey is rightly suspect in fanning the flames there. Still though, it wasn't a war that shook up US society but again the horrid pandemic, which is still causing trouble and worse yet, everybody's getting nuts, enacting questionable (and inhumane in some countries) measures and of course, IMHO, cost the Orange Man a chance for re-election, given that he didn’t seem to handle it well (and I don’t think it matters if the election was stolen or not at this point). And of course I'm going to stop here since I really do not wish to discuss much of the cantankerous coronavirus here anymore. In addition to the pandemic nonsense, we got the LA riots 2.0, or rather times 22, across the USA, over some thug’s death; like give me a break, yet again I do not wish to talk about this too. Especially as there were deaths of talented people, either from the virus or not, including Kobe Bryant, Rick May, Chadwick Boseman, Eddie Van Halen, and of course, the legendary Sean Connery; special mention goes to Ruth Ginsberg in spite of politics. Oh yeah, something about murder hornets and some horrible explosion in Beirut, as a special mention too. In less horrible news, the Rocket man disappeared for over a month and then reappeared; time will tell if he will show up if that happens again given North Korea’s lack of free speech. And on the Southern side, Parasite the film got an Oscar, of which I have not seen but should in spite of my low knowledge and fluency of the Korean language.
But in more positive news, I finally got my Windows 7 hard drive’s data recovered, of which would be considered my great achievement as of now. In addition I got to play Animal Crossing New Horizons, just when the Beer-flu pandemic hit my home state. Before that, I went to see two films (yes you heard that right, two) in theaters that got me happy nevertheless, Onward, and Sonic the Hedgehog, the latter of which blew me away in that I did not expect that film to be good despite my negative feelings in the past (especially over the initial character model for Sonic). Onward, while not spectacular, managed to be a good film from Pixar and felt like a return to form, especially after that unnecessary one that is Toy Story “4”. But of course that honor goes to Soul, which turned out to be just as great as I thought it would be, and perhaps would be equally or more so had it been in theaters but that part is history, as I watched it on New Year’s Eve on Disney+, fitting to have it be the wrap up event for a troublesome year. And quite frankly, there’s not much to say about 2020, other than I don’t expect things to get good at this rate, especially with Sleepy Joe now as POTUS, but I’m sure there will be some good things, pop cultural or not, even if there might be less.
PC Update 2
As you recall, over one month and two years ago, much of the stuff I gathered and made on my previous hard drive went kaput when said drive crashed, and how it set me back a good 6 years. However I have some good news, I just recently sent the crashed drive in to that special place since I just saved up enough money to pay for the recovery and lo and behold: it was successful and sent back to me! Now I can get back ALL that material I lost and this time, I'll keep them on a tight leash until the day I die. I feel happy just typing this out, but for now I just need to get the material back on my current hard drive.
2019: Year of Society
Don’t we all? I say this not just as a shout out to the best film of 2019 in my opinion, Joker, but to the increasingly bizarre and questionable world we’re living in. The year started out. There was a brief moment in February where India and Pakistan might go to war yet de-escalated though the tension as of this writing still remains (sort of), in which I am unsure if the tensions will stay like that after the Kashmir crackdown. The tensions in the Persian Gulf regarding Iran though, started to concern me more and more since June and then later the Korean peninsula regarding North Korea in December. The concerns have gotten to a point where in my opinion a major war with one of the two powers seems likely though not necessarily lead into a war with Russia and/or China, though I’m not too worried about the USA losing one of them though a victory against either Tehran or Pyongyang are not guaranteed whatsoever but that’s another topic for another time (especially with tensions having rose in regards to the former as of this writing). At least it seems the Ukraine affair is getting less hectic with the newly elected president seeking peaceful relations with Russia, though at least he’s not like a total Petain-esque shill to Putin. Turkey though seems to getting going more and more rogue in dealing with Northern Syria in that they seem more interested in oppressing Kurds than keeping order in the troubled region, perhaps it’s a sign that Ankara can’t be trusted and one day Turkey will rightly be kicked out of NATO. In New Zealand, some a-hole went up and shot up Muslims for crap idpol causes, and disturbingly yet, lead to not only media hysterics about X trivial thing or white-cishet men causing shootings but also the Kiwi government taking guns away and censoring the shooter’s manifesto, almost like they’re doing what that piece of crap wanted. Also, moar shootings, one in Texas no less, and I just about stopped caring since nobody wants a good practical solution to PREVENTING them. There was some Hurricane Dorian thing and people got mad over Trump marking over some map for some reason. In addition, one of the most mysterious deaths in human history has occurred, namely that of a pedo scoundrel named Jeffrey Epstein who mysteriously died in a prison cell, a suicide-proof one at that. Given the circumstances of his death, many like myself rightly called out murder as the cause, the question is who? Beats me, but that demands a more serious investigation than “Russiagate” IMO. Speaking of deaths, a lot of talented folk died in the last year, including Etika, Monkey Punch, John Witherspoon, Peter Mayhew, Rip Torn, Peter Fonda, Caroll Spinney, and Juice WRLD of all people; also we lost Elijah Cummings, Ross Perot, Lee Iacocca, and David Koch in regards to politics. Though the best part is that there was the rightful death of that evildoer Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi though he more like blew himself up in front of a military dog, talk about cowardly but still very appreciated considering the antics he and his rotten IS-tite crew did in the past. That and Robert Mugabe, the dictator of Zimbabwe, died too, though of natural causes, and thus nothing of moral value was lost, again. Oh yeah, later in 2019, the president got “impeached” though it will have to go through senate and well it will fail, rightly so. And speaking of fail, the much memed up Area 51 storming came but only about a few nitwits doing the Naruto dash showed up and rightly got arrested, and nothing of value was lost. Though the Notre Dame cathedral got caught on fire by accident, which rightly prompted concern though it will be rebuild the way it was (I hope). Meanwhile, some stupid e-gal tried to sell bathwater for some reason, basically the 21th century snake oil. Trudeau’s blackface antics got exposed though he got off scot-free, so I guess apologizing does work afterall? Speaking of work, there were many, many protests in not only Venezuela but also in Chile, France, Hong Kong, and Iran, all against governments that are either immoral or incompetent (or both). Though sadly, an attempted uprising against the commie Maduro regime didn’t materialize in April, thanks to the military wrongly taking a side with the chump in question, fools. Two of the most unnecessary “remakes” in pop culture history came out by Disney, though one was based on Aladdin, a beloved film, and the other Lion King, which I don’t care for nor like in the slightest. At least SNK Corporation made it to Smash Bros, like I’ve always wanted since last year when Ultimate was announced…unfortunately they brought a character that again I don’t care for nor like in the slightest who is Terry Bogard. And I fear that schmuck might be the only representative from SNK period and won’t be comfy with that, considering my love for the Metal Slug franchise and the potential to have a good character from it. Seriously, though, I will not consider SNK fully in Smash Bros until they put in a Metal Slug rep, full pronto; I don’t care what anyone says otherwise. Oh speaking of which, moar stupid Ass-tack updates, whoop-ty doo, and Samsho 2019 came out, I don’t care either. Though at least I started out with and still have a job throughout the year. In addition I had two good vacations to an extent, one to Las Vegas and another to Burbank, California, and frankly I found the latter to be the best IMO, less casino crap for me to deal with, though the catch was that there more homeless people to see. Speaking of seeing, we at last got a (barely) good photo of a black hole itself, too bad it’s not in HD…yet. In addition I saw two of the best films of this year and perhaps the decade, Detective Pikachu and The Joker, the latter of which I would nominate as the best film of the year period. Even though it was subjected to manufactured “concerns” about it being in league with White Nationalist whatsit-Right and supposedly leading to more shootings, of which did not happen, though it got to the point of involving the military for some stupid reason, but at least everyone, myself included, called out the bullcrap being espoused. In other film related experiences, Toy Story 4 was good but somewhat contrived to me plot-wise but at least it’s not Cars 2, should have been better off as a spin off of sorts, a kind of “Toy Story Story” kind of thing similar to Solo and Rogue One. Jumanji: The Next Level is a blast, just like the “first” one, especially with the concept of an old man being roped into a video game SAO-style. Battle Angel Alita is decent though flawed but a hell of a lot more worthy to watch than Captain Marvel IMO; that film is boring and lame, only Samuel L Jackson’s performance and that (mostly) adorable cat held it up for me. Also I got to play what I consider to be SNK’s BEST game of this entire decade, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. Yep, I said it, SNK Heroines is IMO the only fighter game worth playing considering the simple controls and well pretty gals to play with, though unfortunately they from fighter game IPs and only that. Not the best game I’ve ever played but considering what the company went through (and is as of this writing), it’s something that’s for sure, what with the potential for a sequel that would have made it look like a mere demo content-wise but that’s another topic for another time. I got to play Ultimate, which is the best Smash Bros game since Melee IMO, though the World of Light campaign took much longer than I thought and wanted, but still worth playing nevertheless. In addition I rediscovered my love for Disney’s Aladdin (the animated 92 film) and tried out the sequels and the TV show (yes that included Return of Jafar which in hindsight was okay but worthy of watching than the “remake”), as well as trying out the Mega Drive, SuFami, Game Gear, and PS1 (Nasira’s Revenge which is an okay game despite what Caddicarus thinks). I also got to play all 3 Ape Escape games though I find 2 to be somewhat more better than I though; Sony didn’t do jack shemp for the franchise’s 20th anniversary outside of celebratory tweets (but at least they stopped sodomizing the series since that crappy PS3 game compared to certain other companies). Also got to play The Ninja Warriors and it was kick ass, though somewhat harder than Natsume’s other remastered title, Wild Guns. I got to try out Discord and it was quite engaging. Also the Heisei Era came to an end and in comes the Reiwa Era with Naruhito ascending on the throne in Japan, hm a fitting sign of rolling in a new era, though 8 months earlier than New Year’s did.
All in all 2019 was at least a good year, for me at least; I really can’t the same for the entire decade though, it was quite eventful to say the least. Here’s hoping 2020 will still be a good year to me and others.
My Predictions for Shin Metal Slug
A while ago back in April at some conference in Seoul, South Korea, SNK made an announcement that a new (non-mobile) Metal Slug game was in the works and nothing and I made a post about it and basically made a wishlist that definitely would not be fulfilled but still something to get it off my chest. So flash-forward to today, that damn Samsho game came out (outside of the Switch of course), and it's about less than 2 weeks left until Tokyo Game Show starts, where I hypothesize that's where the upcoming game would be shown off at, that or maybe the alleged September Nintendo Direct thing (then again it might not and instead end up at PSX in December for all I know). And if there to be anything, it'd most likely be a trailer where the titular Super Vehicle tank appears in the way the intro to the first Metal Slug game had, followed up by title drop ala Metal Slug 2/X's, mostly rendered in 3D to reflect the game possibly being made in Unreal Engine 4, or at least that's what I think it might be so who knows? That after mentioned new Samsho game was shown off at last year's TGS (to my dismay) so why the hell not the new (non-mobile) Metal Slug game? Though depressingly, the new King of Fighters XV might be given the most attention and frankly I'm not looking forward too it; last thing I want is SNK wasting most of its attendance on just KOF and nothing else but then again there are a couple other things for them to show off like the new Neo Geo "systems" and the mobile Metal Slug game that I do not care for nor look forward to see (had enough of them by now), but I digress.
So anyway I've jotted down my top predictions for what the game will be like presuming they would retain a military theme in all of them (hopefully no martians or any other supernatural garbage this time around, unless they come as DLC), have at least some of the core characters (and vehicles), and serve as a reboot of sorts (either with or without 8 attached to it); all while considering SNK's current capabilities (and rendered in 3D graphics no less and artistically cartoonish/stylized). Seriously I have been thinking about this ever since the news broke, like for every day at least, shows that above all I do care about the MS series alot. Still, no guarantee that one of them would come to fruition; hell it'd be easier to speculate on how and why Jeff Epstein was murdered but I'm getting ahead of myself. These predictions can be safely made out to be my kind of contingency plans in case any of them do happen but nevertheless no matter what happens, if the new Metal Slug game shows up, it'd be the talk of the town compared to the usual and expected KOF XV (and funny enough speculation of a major war in the Middle East as of this writing might not deter the existence of said game); though before going on I will refer to the hypothetical new non-mobile game in question as "Shin Metal Slug" with "Shin (新)" being the character for "New" just for convenience's sake.
1. 2D style Run-n-Gun Shooter with elements of the 1995 version and the NGPC Mission Games-This one would be the best case scenario IMO; a return to the epic warfighting of the first game with elements of the games that came after, with of course the premise being that General Morden stages a coup to despose the supposedly democratic World Government with a stratocratic Burma-style dictatorship because globalist reasons and the lead four (Marco, Tarma, Eri, and Fio) has to stop his military forces. The gameplay would be just like the previous 9 games with the same controls (plus the weapon change and alternate melee attack from MS6 and 7/XX) albeit with some new additions to differentiate itself from the others, what they might be I don't know. This might as close to being unironically MS8 for as far as I'm concerned but with the return to a more grounded war theme and a focus strictly on the Rebel-Government conflict, the other human organizations like the Ptolemaic Army and Oguma Enterprises may or may not show up. The reason why I mentioned the 1995 early version and the Mission games before in the same line is because this Shin Metal Slug has the branching mission paths, various objectives to complete, and escapes from POW camps plus the slower pace emphasizing a bit of strategy and use of uniformed POWs to fight alongside you; talk about a match made in heaven! That and the Combat School and Another Story modes thrown in as well! And destructible environments, which should be easier to implement in 3D than 2D graphics wise; and speaking of graphics, if anyone's played Kirby 64 and some of the 3DS games, along with Contra Shattered Soldier and any other similar 2.5D game, then at least they would have a good understanding of what the game will look like visual-wise.
2. 3D Third Person Shooter ala Metal Slug 3D-Truth be told, I'm one of the small group of people who think the 2006 3D game has merit, not just because it was the first 3D game in the series but also one that had potential but wasted (perhaps due to SNK possibly wasting its resources on the Maximum Impact games), compared to many others who think it's the "worst" game in the series and totally not the Defense nor Attack games but I digress. Anyway, the plot might be the same as before though the gameplay is much more akin to 3D, albeit with the controls being changed up to be less awkward than before (with the attack buttons used on the shoulder buttons instead of the front facing ones); and of course the addition of Combat School and Another Story might apply or at least some equivalent modes. The good thing about this objectively is that at least the game wouldn't look like a beta this time around, if it comes around.
3. 3D Twin Stick Shooter ala Neo Contra and Contra Rogue Corps-If Contra had those two games which deviate from their conventional predecessors perspective wise so can Shin Metal Slug. The plot is the same as before, though perhaps a bit loose depending on how they treat the story, same with the tone. What applies to the previous entry can apply here though the controls again would be different this time around; ditto with modes and whatnot.
4. 2D/3D Fighting Game-The worst case scenario; basically SNK's answer to Akatsuki Blitzkampf. I put this out here since the last three non-mobile games SNK made were fighters and I fear Shin Metal Slug might be one given that SNK didn't make one move towards making something non-fighter (at least not publicly). And if it ever were to be such, this game would just basically play like KOF and Samsho, albeit with a heavy use of firearms and military hardware, just to justify the military theme. Whatever applies to KOF and Shamsho in terms of controls and modes can apply to this version of Shin Metal Slug; I don't care if the gameplay is either close to SNK Heroines in terms of simplicity or not. Also the plot would definitely be very loosely related, just whatever it takes to give context to the game, whether it's retarded and silly or retarded and serious (just like KOF's had in terms of the latter).
So there you have it, my top 4 predictions of what Shin Metal Slug would be like and even they might not be accurate considering what little do we know about Shin Metal Slug right now. Still, making them is at least something that I can do to get my worries off my chest for but even that won't stop the possibility of Shin Metal Slug being shown off and all we can do is wait and see. Just wait and see...
To Do List 2019
Before I start, no I will not be doing stuff on Blade Runner and Akira, given that I don't like the former and that I haven't finished reading the manga nor seen the film in the latter. Instead I will be doing something with GITS and Red Dawn, given that respectively it's the 30th and 35th anniversaries of both titles and have good fondness for both. And to show off my fondness, I've planned a cover maps for them (though I did make some WIP ones but they got lost in the vegetable hard drive during the HD-pocalypse). Then a remake of Kakaku de Nippon Ichi, though a less ASB one, but still has Imperial Japan take chunks of North America, and maybe one of Orange Dawn. Then of course, my long planned take on a 1960's WWIII with the Cuban Missile crisis as the basis, in map form of course. And there's the Metal Slug TL, of which I still have to upload the POI stuff and readjust a few things to the debut map as well as work on the first chapter, of which the TL hasn't been updated in almost a year (you can thank the HD-pocalypse for that).
And outside of maps, I have some illustrations planned or at least in my thoughts (especially with something to say about Sony's censorship antics lately) and anything related to my webcomic Momo Kodomo (of which I am aware of the existence of Column which has a similar lighthearted military theme but I'm reluctant to see it for the sake of having MK be original and not "ripping off" Column).