Category: Comics

So I saw Quantum of Solace this past Sunday, not bothering to wade through the pile of mixed reviews I had heard about on the way. I don’t really know what the beef is with this hot enchilada, because it’s a solid flick that continues Daniel Craig’s stint as a more straightforward and action-oriented Bond.

I think its best feature is the fact that it acts as a direct sequel to Casino Royale. I love the old movies as much as the next guy (though the last few Brosnan entries were rank), but they don’t have much in the way of narrative continuity. They’re more like formula television, with each threat giving the protagonist another way to use a new set of gadgets and the same set of classic lines. That stuff is great, but it wouldn’t work here.

The only thing that isn’t as tightly woven as it was in Casino Royale is the action, which is all over the place both on set and in postproduction. For example, the opening parkour set piece in the last movie is really carefully executed, and there’s no issue with geography and no real confusion that I can recall. In contrast, the opening car chase of Quantum is a mish-mash of bumpers, sideview mirrors and machine guns.

Then again, that may have had to do with the fact that—for the first time since I was, I don’t know, in high school—I was sitting three rows from the front at an awkward angle. I assure you, my moldy ass would never actually choose to sit in such a seat, but we got there just as the previews started. If I get a chance, I want to peep Casino Royale again (on Blu-ray this time) and go check out QoS under ideal conditions.

Welcome to Scanline City, the only metropolis in which it is illegal NOT to constantly talk about awesome arcade games long buried beneath the previous civilization’s rubble. For those of you that have never had the luxury of visiting such a sprawl, it looks something like this:

Today’s order of business hails from the good year 1990, back when Fly Girls had naught to do but shake their asses, their inhibitions not yet restricted by our future world’s harsh decency laws. In that fantastic year, developer Toaplan released an arcade game called Out Zone, a title that I dove into last night with a properly equipped wingman in tow.

Now, I’m not quite sure what an “Out Zone” is, but if the game’s contents are anything to go by, it’s a ruthless landscape of war and violence, punctuated by killer robots, aliens, and an ever-dwindling supply of energy with which you must power your killing machine of a body. Even Wikipedia can’t save us with their special brand of synopses, so you’re on your own if you ever find yourself in The Zone.

Out Zone basically plays like a normal shooter with buff lads taking the place of aeroplanes and spaceships. What makes Out Zone unique is the level design and power-up system, the latter involving a couple of weapons that can completely alter the way you play through the stages. While the initial weapon allows full 8-way shooting, making it sometimes difficult to hold fire on a single enemy, one of the power-ups gives the player a three-way shot that keeps them in a strafing position, ideal for blowing away pretty much everything in your vertically-scrolling path.

The level design is way beyond something you’d normally expect from an arcade shooter. Stage schematics play out more like they were designed for the third dimension than a simple 2D screen-scroller. Paths diverge into alien hallways that look, well, pretty much like you’d expect an actual alien stronghold to appear. Enemies pour out of adjacent rooms and, later on, moving bridges cleverly sway back and forth across bottomless chasms that were obviously designed to confuse the architects themselves.

Bosses range from mechanical monstrosities that wouldn’t be out of place in more traditional shooters to wall-bound machinations that are straight out of a top-down Contra level. One of the more memorable encounters has one of these very constructs zapping off sections of the floor beneath you with the power of an almost surgical laser beam.

And your reward for conquering the Out Zone? A screen that congratulates you and urges you to play the Extra Game! Quickly, though, there’s no time to decide, because Level 1 boots up immediately and you’re right back in the thick of it, saddled with a single chance at success. Perhaps this is indicative of the Out Zone’s crippling curse, its denizens forced to roam the grounds in an eternal Groundhog Day loop.

It’s hard to resist such a call to arms, and that’s because Out Zone is legitimately an awesome arcade game. Picture something like Ikari Warriors if Ikari Warriors was actually really fun. Give it a constantly-repeating spin on MAME until you find a copy of its sequel, Fix Eight, and check out some more screens (and probably some actual information) on this site, one of a few from which I thieved images.

This is Bone Bambara.

He is Inazuman’s fourth foe, fit to bursting with guts and pride.

Emperor Bamba wants him to trigger an explosion in every volcano across Japan, and he attempts to do that by throwing this righteous cross after posing for a screengrab that would look great on a mid-80s metal LP.

This is what happens when his cross strikes.

Bone Bambara can do almost anything. He can disappear at will. He can fight in the darkness, lit only by his glow-in-the-dark essence. He can flip, he can roll, and he can do one heck of a karate chop.

But he cannot defeat Inazuman!

Yesterday I was treated to The Box Set Joseph Luster Has Been Most Excited About in 2008: Inazuman! Let me tell you, Inazuman is one of my favorite tokusatsu series in a world of really awesome tokusatsu series.

I first witnessed its power via an eBay-bought bootleg DVD called “The Golden Age of Tokusatsu.” Its round plastic casing restricted a mighty force of live-action madness in four parts: Kamen Rider Amazon, Denjin Zaboga, the Kikaida 3-D movie, and Inazuman. With the exception of the movie (the third dimension of which was rendered useless and all it was missing was a flashing VHS TRACKING notice), these were all subtitled first-episode-only samplers, and they shaped my life thusly, shrinking MAN into BOY in an instant.

Inazuman struck me as especially special right from the get-go, though. Maybe it was Kikaida himself, Ban Daisuke, in the lead role that made me swoon. Maybe the extraordinarily HOT wheels he commanded made me want to make SCRRRRR noises with my toy cars. Actually, it was probably the fact that protagonist Goro Watari transformed not once, but twice before really sockin’ it to the show’s baddies.

That’s right. First Goro becomes Sanagiman, a brawler rocky enough to make Ben Grimm wanna turn in his superhero credentials. But that’s never enough, Inazuman has to finish the job and right the wrongs of the evil Emperor Bamba (bulabulabulabulaaaa). The theme song is rockin’, the show is nothing but fun, and I’ve only seen a couple of episodes so far! While I could never avoid recommending digging around for that shady disc that once put some curlies underneath m’carriage, JNProductions’ new set is a pretty hoppin’ way to dig into this one.

I leave you with a titillating transformation into Sanagiman.