Hey everyone, a while back Kresh and I played through the Dark Pictures Anthology series over on our Twitch channel starting with Man of Medan. Those videos are now over on YouTube, and here on the blog for your viewing pleasure. We had a lot of fun playing it, and hopefully you’ll have a lot of fun watching. This is a two part series. Enjoy.
Man of Medan is a survival horror video game that was released in 2019. The game was developed by Supermassive Games and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game contains violence and gore, replete with paranormal horror elements and occasional “jump scares”. This is not a game aimed at young children, and viewer discretion is advised.
Man of Medan: Part 1 of 2
Man of Medan: Part 2 of 2
Like Anime, Gaming, and movie reviews? What about RWBY Analysis? If so, check out our other platforms and support our content. Also, please don’t forget to follow our blog for more content like this.
Hey everyone it’s Kern here! I’m just going to do a quick post to get everyone up-to-date on what we’ve been doing. First though, I’d like to say that I hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday season and ending to 2023. Beyond that, hopefully your 2024 has started off strong and will continue to be a great one for you.
As for us, our holiday break is over and we’re back in action. Kresh and I have returned to doing live streams about three days a week. Please follow us over on Twitch so that you don’t miss out on the fun. Currently our main focus is playing through Mass Effect and Final Fantasy XIV. Every now and then I have been known to do solo streams of Clanfolk as well. As of right now, we’re streaming on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Tuesday: 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM Eastern Standard time. (9:00 PM – 12:00 AM GMT) Thursday: 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM Eastern Standard time. (9:00 PM – 12:00 AM GMT) Saturday: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM Eastern Standard time. (2:00 PM – 6:00 PM PM GMT)
Stay tuned for some awesome games, the videos will be going up both on here and out YouTube channel, so keep an eye out for that. In other news, Ruka is in the midst of working on a comic series for The Demented Ferrets, and we do have a small teaser for you to celebrate the new year:
We don’t know when the comic series will be released just yet. However, I can promise that it will be later on in the year sometime. Keep a look out for that, it’ll be a lot of fun. That’s all for now, and we will see you later for awesome written content, gameplay, and more here on blog.
Like Anime, Gaming, and movie reviews? What about RWBY Analysis? If so, check out our other platforms and support our content. Also, please don’t forget to follow our blog for more content like this.
Hey everyone, it’s Kernook here. Kreshenne and I decided to do a “Let’s Play”, and hopefully you’ll join us on the journey. Starfield is an action role-playing game with a science fiction flair. The game was developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was announced during Bethesda’s E3 presentation back in 2018, and officially released on September 6, 2023. For the purpose of our “Let’s Play”, we got the game on Steam, and will be playing on a Windows PC.
The playlist of videos can be found on our YouTube channel as we upload and release them, so please consider following us there for more content. As always, we also play games on Twitch, so come by and say hello. We’d love to see you there.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
Like Anime, Gaming, and movie reviews? What about RWBY Analysis? If so, check out our other platforms and support our content. Also, please don’t forget to follow our blog for more content like this.
Welcome once more to our little corner of the internet! I am Frost of the Demented Ferrets, and
It’s time once again for another anime review. Now, while there has been more than a little debate about whether this actually counts as anime or not, it still ticks all the right boxes for me. Interesting characters that undergo personal growth, a world that makes you want to know more about it, and a different take on Mecha all had me intrigued from the beginning. So, let’s dive into Rooster Teeth’s Gen: Lock Season 1.
Now, I will not be including Season 2 in this review because, honestly, it departed so far from the first season that it honestly did not really feel connected at all anymore.
Gen:Lock (or GL) is an interesting and deep work, with memorable characters (Val and Cammy are two of my favorites, hands down) a good backdrop for the action (a war between two dynamically opposing societies, the Polity and the Union) and an interesting look at a possible future on both a scientific and societal level. From a perspective on the immoral and flagrant use of advanced nanotechnology in war, and in society, to gender norms, acceptance, and transhumanism this series has so much going on under the hood.
Honestly, it’s a very deep show, as long as you can make it past the first episode or two. I loved seeing the characters grow and develop throughout the series. Cammie learning about dealing with trauma and personal growth was so rewarding! Chase also had so much growth and change throughout the series, it was an amazing performance by Michael B. Jordan, one that I will always consider one of my favorites.
The rest of the cast is also amazing, and more than a little insane. The talent that was gathered for this show is mind boggling, from anime dub staples to people that you would never think of associating with an anime, this show never disappointed me.
Now, it wasn’t all roses, of course. There were more than a few awkward moments, or scenes that broke the intensity of the narrative, but I do think that they were necessary to keep the show from getting too dark and intense, and losing the heart of the show in an overly heavy deluge of emotion and angst.
I am also a huge fan of the mechanical design in this series, from the VTOL support craft, to the variable configuration fighter that Chase flies at the beginning of the series, it all showed a clear image that they sought to pass along. The ground Mecha that both sides used were different enough while still sharing enough design concepts to make them believable as outgrowths of concurrent design philosophies.
Then we come to the Holons of Gen:Lock. They are a good example of civilian technology being converted to military use. The frames under the armor and weapons show their original purpose, while the external modifications clearly were made to weaponize them.
The redesigns that were done later in the season to the Holons are some of my favorite visuals in the entire series, especially Cammie’s redesign of her Holon, and her reaction to them asking her about it.
I cried, it was so fitting! I had to rewatch that scene over again because I loved it so much.
Even the ending of season one was pretty close to perfect. It closed off a major plot point, while opening a massive one and showed incredible growth and development in the characters. Acceptance, hope, pushing ever onward while striving to move past the scars that hold you back, it had it all.
It made the train wreck that was season two even more insulting, I have to say.
Check out the adventures of GL 1, and let me know what you thought!
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
Welcome once more to our little corner of the internet! I am Frost of the Demented Ferrets, and it’s time once again for another anime review. This is one of the ones that I have wanted to do for some time, ever since I saw the first episode, in fact. I am a huge fan of mecha anime, and when you throw in such things as child soldiers, morally questionable practices, and the search for what you truly care for you have an explosive powder keg of potential.
Of course, spoiler warnings do apply.
86 is an anime adaptation of the light novel series that was written by Asato Asato in 2017. It follows the events of a war that is being fought between the unmanned weapons of two warring nations.
At least, that is what is being said.
The truth is something far darker, and with much more dire meanings for all those that are involved.
The Republic of San Magnolia has been locked in a dire war for its very existence against the unrelenting machines of the Legion for years, but if you looked around the neat streets and carefully maintained parks of the 85 districts, you would be hard pressed to believe it. The people go about their daily lives, their silver hair blowing in the wind and their silver eyes without a care in the world while propaganda plays behind them on every screen.
It is a strange disconnect from the hellish battlefield that lies just beyond the massive wall that protects them.
Outside, in the 86th district, the Juggernauts that compromise the Republic’s defense fight against the superior machines of the AI controlled Legion, in a bloody war that sees no ‘human’ deaths.
Regardless of how much blood is spilled by the 86, the people who are actually fighting the war.
The truth is far darker, and one that even those that know look away from for the most part. The Juggernauts are piloted by those that have had their rights stripped away from them, the ones that have been declared to be ‘unevolved pigs’ by the government of the Republic. Overseen by “Handlers” who have never once stepped foot on the battlefield, the people of the 86th district fight and die for little more than their pride, their determination to live another day serving as the one thing that they have to keep pushing forward.
This is the horrible truth of the ‘unmanned’ drones that fight to stop the implacable advance of the Legion.
The animation itself can easily be broken into two sections, the battles in the Juggernauts and the events that take place outside of them. Where sometimes the production of the rest did fall flat at times, the CGI battle scenes always impressed. It was clear that the production issues that plagued the series in the wake of COVID and other issues had not impacted that side of the anime as much as it did the rest.
The designs of the mecha were inspired, and did not fall into the usual lanes of most other anime. There were no massive, humanoid battle machines. Instead, we saw designs drawn more from a practical viewpoint. Multi-legged walkers that took a far more practical outlook on warfare, but still delivered a truly dynamic visual experience. Honestly, it reminded me in parts of the spider tanks of another certain franchise. Or even the quads of Battletech.
As a fan of mecha, I approve.
The music and visual style of the series have always been spot on, if you ask me. The music and art have always set the stage very well, from the opening to the ending they did an amazing job of conveying the feel of the series, and the weight of it all. The choice of using CGI for a good portion of the battle sequences was certainly the right thing to do, as it made the battles very fast, very fluid and incredibly dynamic.
The adaptation is where I think they really hit a home run. The light novels don’t actually focus on the 86’s lives all that much, not in the first volume or two, at least. There are also the usual issues with English translations of Japanese light novels, mostly keeping track of who is talking and doing what in a scene. That was resolved very well in the anime, as were a lot of the ‘blank’ spots in the lives of the 86. I have read the light novels, and watched the anime, and I have to say that I really do love the anime.
I just wish that they had adapted more of it.
I am pretty sure I could write another entire blog just about the world building, and the surprising depths that lie there. From the decadent, hedonistic lifestyle of the Republic where the only real impact that they seem to be feeling from the war itself is a lack of real foodstuffs and resources, to the relative freedom of the 86 outside of the walls. The existence of psychic phenomena, the existence and structure of the other countries, and even the horrifying truth of the Legion and the Empire that spawned them. Honestly, I could read the series just for the world building alone.
Another reason I keep hoping that they will adapt the next arc of the story, since things get really wild from where they left off.
If you are a fan of realistic, gritty war anime where death is waiting around every corner and very few characters have ‘plot armor’, where the characters are very much at a disadvantage and have very real, very living personalities to them, then I hope that you will give 86 a shot.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
Hello, and welcome to our little corner of the internet. I go by Frost, and I’d like to share some of my passions and interests with you. I’ve played many games over the years, and I would like to share one of my favorites with you today.
Raise aloft your mighty hammer, slip into your armored suit, and grab your shield, because this is going to be Legendary. Who knows… You might get to thrash a Puny God as well…
I am, of course, talking about Marvel Legendary, a cooperative deck building game that was released in 2012 by Upper Deck Entertainment. Over the years, there have been many expansions added to the game, some massive and some minor. Today, though, I’m going to look at the base game, the one that started my obsession with this type of game.
What is it?
What is Marvel Legendary? It’s a cooperative deck building game where you assemble a deck of heroes, sidekicks, officers and other allies to confront a powerful Mastermind and stop them from achieving their evil Scheme.
Who are the Heroes that you will build your deck out of, and use to defeat the Mastermind and save the City? Only Earth’s mightiest Heroes, the Avengers along with the premiere team of the X-Men, backed up by the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow are the Avengers for the base game, joined by Cyclops, Rogue, Gambit, Storm and Wolverine from Xavier’s X-Men. Nick Fury and Spiderman round out the Heroes available. Then…. There is Deadpool.
To save the day, you must defeat the Villains that are attacking the City, and build your strength to confront the Mastermind themselves. How you work to achieve this is by recruiting Heroes from the HQ using the Recruiting points from your cards so that you can have enough Fight to handle the threats that you will face.
While doing this, you have to watch out for the Scheme that is ever moving towards a defeat for the Heroes. The Scheme can take many forms, from blowing up the Helicarrier to replacing the leaders of the world with androids, or even wiping out all the mutants in the world.
The Masterminds that you will be confronting are some of the most classic, iconic foes that these groups have fought. Dr. Doom, Loki, Magneto and The Red Skull lead the forces of evil and villainy, in their quests to carry out their Schemes.
The Good, The Bad, and the Legendary.
What are the good and bad things about this game? Let’s start with the good points. You get a very straightforward, streamlined turn sequence, with easily managed resources.
Flexibility, with the ability to mix five Heroes, one Scheme and A Mastermind from the base game or any of the expansions to have a different experience every game.
A player vs game experience for 1-5 players. The fact that it is a true cooperative game where the enemy really is the game itself is one of the aspects.that drew me to this style of game in the first place.
Now, the cons of this game. I’ve always found it helpful to look at the high and low points.
The set up and tear down can be time consuming, which is one of the biggest issues with this style of game.
The innately random nature of card distribution in the Hero deck can leave a player struggling to remain relevant at times. It can also cause the game to spiral out of control in ways that the players can’t control or interact with. This is not unusual in this style of game.
Once you start to expand the game, the interactions get more complex, and the fact that some situations really do need a particular class or faction of Hero to handle can make truly random builds a bit harder to deal with.
Final Thoughts and Experiences.
I’ve been playing this game for years with my usual gaming group and it’s been a favorite since the first game. We’ve had incredible games, and ones that have gone horribly sideways. We have crushed our foes, and tasted the bitter pill of defeat, some of them in ways that were incredibly entertaining.
We’ve played a great many games with just about every combination of heroes and masterminds that we could think of, and continue to look forward to new expansions so that we can try new and different things in this amazing game. We have also gone back and replayed old combinations over again, to experience a new look at a classic game session.
It’s definitely a game I would recommend for anyone that is looking for a good cooperative game, whether you are fans of superheroes and the Marvel fanboys or not!
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
Hey guys, it’s time for another review, this time I’m taking a look at Loot River. Coined as a “Souls-like” game with Tetris elements this is one interesting little game.
For starters, Loot River is an action based rogue-like game that was developed by STRAKA.STUDIO. It was also published by STRAKA.STUDIO and SUPERHOT PRESENTS. This game was announced back in 2021 and released on Steam for Microsoft Windows on May 3, 2022.
What you’ll get here is a fusion of puzzle solving and action based gameplay. Loot River kicked me in the behind more than not, and the reason for this is because I found the game to be fairly difficult. The iteration isn’t too bad when you die, thankfully, because whenever you die you’re booted back to the back to square one. If you die, then you’ll have to start all over at the first level. Your desperately collected upgrades will be lost.
The atmosphere casts dark shades and tones throughout the level design. It’s a little gritty, although charming. Generally speaking, the Tetris style comes into play because you have to move the level around to travel through it.
The dark and gritty tones begin literally upon the onset. You’ll play through sections of hovel filled with bloodied discarded waste and what looks to be the remnants of a disaster.
You’ll have to figure your way around these platforms with dark shadowy monsters and this is probably my one gripe about the pixel style art design. Although the world and gameplay flows well and certainly feels dynamic, it can also be difficult to discern what something is.
One might say this adds to the horror tropes just a little. One might also say that the style needs to be this way, and I’d actually agree with that. Loot River has levels that are procedurally generated, so the block-sliding puzzles and deep labyrinth that you traverse are never quite the same way twice.
Occasionally, you’ll come across tiered platforms and traps that almost remind me of Resident Evilwhen it comes to recalling your best escape route. the moment things go down-hill… and I promise you this; sooner or later things will go down hill. Surprise enemies with ranged abilities will knock your block off, and each moment the screen pans, you should be thinking ahead. It’ll keep you on your toes, I’ll say that much.
Honestly, I wish that I could say that the unusual movement mechanics provided for the gameplay pairs nicely with the combat, but I personally don’t think it does. Maybe it works better for those with quicker reflexes. You can use magic spells to go temporarily invisible, and I’m sure you can dart away from opponents if you’re fast enough. I’m often not fast enough, though.
Personally, I often ended up trying to parry and pray that it worked. Yeah, that’s where the majority of my deaths happened, I won’t lie. Trying to get the timing right takes a bit of learning for sure. Either way, at least it feels good to land a solid blow to your attacker.
Loot River to me isn’t as “souls-like” as so many people make nods to. Yeah, it’s hard, sure… but a lot of rogue-like games are hard. That’s kind of the nature of the game style. Clearly, Loot River has a strong foundation in the rouge-like genre. To me that’s where the comparison fits. That’s the best thing about it, you can play it endlessly and you’ll need to if you want to uncover everything.
Unlocking the upgrades, figuring out the tiny secrets, and piecing together the deeper lore of the story takes time. You’re not going to have it all figured out on the first play through, assuming you even survive that long, which I doubt.
The game isn’t perfect, but it is a lot of fun. You’ll be hard pressed to put it down. Die enough to cheap shots like I did, and you’ll be irritated too, I’m sure. That’s honestly why so many people make references to Loot River being a “souls-like” game.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
I’m going to give it a solid three out of five stars. It’s middle of the road, but it does interesting things. I can’t deny it. Loot River gives a breath of fresh air to the pixel style of the rouge-like genre. If that sounds interesting enough for you then give it a try and see for yourself.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
Hello all, to our little corner of the internet! I’m Frost, and today I want to talk to you about one of my favorite anime of all time. And since it’s the season, it seemed appropriate.
Of course, spoiler warnings apply.
The anime Another is one of the best examples of what makes Japanese horror so unique that I have ever watched. It’s gory and bloody, but not in the ‘Have a pile of body parts’ way that a lot of American horror is. It has a plot, it has interesting characters, and it makes you think. It was produced in 2012 by P. A. Works based on the novels by Yukito Ayatsuji, and for a ten year old anime, I think it still makes an incredible showing.
The story is good, if you ask me. Twenty-six years ago, there was a girl in class 3-3 that was the kind, popular person that everyone was attached to. You know the type, the one that the entire class just seems to gravitate around, the one that becomes the very heart and soul of the class? Yes, that one. Her name was Misaki.
Then… She died. The class started to go through the classic stages of dealing with grief, but they got stuck on denial. One day, one of them pointed at her empty desk and said “She isn’t dead, she is right there.” Then the other members of the class started to do it, as well. Even the teacher became part of this. It went so far that at their graduation, the principal included Misaki’s chair at the ceremony. It was even in the final class photo.
The thing is, there were no empty chairs in the picture.
Ever since then, this particular class, class 3-3, has been cursed. The door has been opened, and they have been brought closer to death. Every year, there is an extra desk in the class, one that no one knows of. And the person who sits in that desk is no longer alive.
How does that work, you wonder? Wouldn’t they know who the extra was, who was the other?
Wouldn’t the fact that there was Another stick out like a sore thumb?
That is where the next part comes in. For the entirety of the school year, no one knows. Their memories have been altered. Everyone just knows that everyone in their class should be there. They remember each other, no one stands out. Every list of names, every photo, conforms to this new reality. This new perception.
No one knows who the extra person is. They can suspect, they can wonder, but the exact person is unknown.
They have tried many things over the years to counteract this curse, to stop the cycle of deaths from starting, but the one that they have settled on is to decide before the school year who the Other is. Who to treat like they don’t exist, so that there is the correct number of students in the class. The person who they ignore to make the numbers right. The one they will exclude to balance the books.
Then, an outsider gets thrown into the mix. A transfer student who doesn’t know the rules, who missed all the planning sessions. Who doesn’t have a clue about the hell that is about to be unleashed. Someone who had reasons to not be present, to have to change schools the way he did.
He interacts with the class, and one girl in particular. Misaki Mei, who the rest of the class treats like she doesn’t exist. Like they can’t see her.
Things go downhill fast from there. The preparations have been upset, and the curtain rises on their little drama. The cycle begins, and the curse shows no mercy.
What makes it even worse, is the fact that as you start to get to know the characters, you start to get connected to them. You begin to learn who some of them are, as people, before tragic things begin to happen. It is one of the things that I have always found impactful about the Japanese style of horror. They are not shy about letting you get to know the characters before they do awful things to them. It is definitely the style I prefer over the bloody slasher flicks of American cinema. It makes the impact more meaningful, and the dread more visceral when you have some level of emotional attachment on the line.
I would recommend Another for anyone who is a fan of the Japanese’s unique take on horror. The fans of Final Destination, the Sixth Sense and other deeper horror series. The visuals are very strong, and disturbing, even if they are starting to show their age. They are used like a scalpel, to cut straight to the heart of the situation. To show just how sudden death can be, how unexpected… How inevitable. The use of foretelling and symbolism really drive things home, and make re-watching it an interesting experience.
There is a reason this has stuck at the top of my list with all the others that have come out before and since it. There might be shows that look better, or that have a different approach to telling their stories, but few have ever really made the kind of impact that Another has on me.
So, I hope you watch it, and see if you can figure out who is…
Like anime, gaming, movie reviews and more? What about RWBY Analysis? If so, check out our other platforms and support our content. Also, please don’t forget to follow our blog for more content like this.
Elite: Dangerous is the modern installment in a series of renown space simulation games from Frontier Developments. If you have ever wanted to experience what it would be like to make a living hopping from star to star in the Milky Way galaxy, this is the game for you.
E:D gives you the opportunity to take on many different roles as a space commander, including bounty hunting, trading, mining,exploration, and even xeno-hunting (aliens). Many space enthusiasts alike have flocked to the E:D universe over the years to find their place among the stars.
With Frontier Developments’ latest expansion to the E:D universe, Odyssey, commanders have been given the wonderous opportunity to hop out of their ship at any space port or landable planet and explore on foot! While this expansion has received mixed reviews, it has opened an amazing experience including exobiology, ground combat, and space port exploration.
Commanders in Elite: Dangerous can participate in several different combat environments depending on what kind of trouble they put themselves into. Earlier on, one may find themselves scanning for criminals, picking off pirates and bounties near the navigation beacon of a nearby star. Experienced combat veterans will often find themselves participating in conflict zones to help turn the tides of battle for the faction of their choice. Finally, the bravest and most talented of these commanders can choose to go against the threat of the alleged alien menace, the Thargoids.
As a Trader in the E:D universe, you can go about making credits in a variety of ways. A commander can take a contract from a nearby spaceport and simply deliver some goods from one star system to the other. Sometimes those goods may not be legal in the destination system, requiring the commander to avoid being scanned upon arrival. Commanders may also take advantage of buying and selling commodities from space ports at a profit using the in-game economy system for supply and demand. Finally, if you want some real action in the trade aspect of E:D, you might be interested in getting into mining. Not only can trade commanders make credits mining the surfaces of asteroids, but some of these hunks of rock can be strategically detonated for high priced commodities during core mining operations.
What’s the best part about a space simulation game? Exploring the stars, of course! With over 400-billion star systems generated in the Elite: Dangerous’ Milky Way galaxy, there are hundreds of different types of environments, and practically infinite different configurations of solar systems that can be discovered by each commander in the E:D universe. First time discoveries are recorded and shared with all other commanders in the galaxy, and with only an astonishing 0.05% of the simulated galaxy discovered at the beginning of 2022, there is no doubt that any commander can find themselves a place to put their name among the stars.
Finally, the Elite: Dangerous universe includes what is called the “Background Simulation” (BGS). All player activity as commanders affects the BGS in a sense where the community, or sometimes even a single commander, can shape the fate of a single star system or cluster. Community Events are announced often regarding major events in the E:D universe, and things have recently gotten very interesting… why not take a look?
This has been a blurb by Drephuzof the Demented Ferrets, a Twitch streamer, a drone pilot, and an all around tech nerd. You can catch him on Twitch playing games and mostly being inappropriate. Stop on by!
Like anime, gaming, movie reviews and more? What about RWBY Analysis? If so, check out our other platforms and support our content. Also, please don’t forget to follow our blog for more content like this.
Welcome everyone, this is Ebby of The Demented Ferrets, back with my second blog post and video. Today I’ll be dragging you all along with me through my childhood while I reminisce about one of my favorite shows of all time. Let’s begin.
Many of us have our favorite tv shows that have stuck with us over the years, usually from our childhood. Today, I’d like to talk about a childhood favorite of mine from the Transformers series called Beast Wars (or Beasties, if you watched the show in Canada), released in 1996 and ran until 1999 with three seasons. It was a computerized cartoon using 3d models for everything. When it first released (and through my six-year old eyes), this was mind-blowing. Granted, I grew up somewhat poor, with the most advanced piece of tech we owned being a tv, so I didn’t have access to a computer or video game consoles until my early teen years in the early 2000’s.
The first episode I watched drew me in and I was instantly hooked. The character designs, 3d world, the music, voice acting: all amazing. I became obsessed with flipping through channels to find similar shows (when Beast Wars wasn’t playing, obviously). I found ReBoot (which I may talk about another time), another show made by the same company: Mainframe Entertainment (currently known as of 2020 as Mainframe Studios), as well as The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, which also incorporated a 3d world at certain points, alongside the traditional hand drawn cartoon animation. A sequel to Beast Wars titled Beast Machines was aired in 1999 until 2000.
Beast Wars: Transformers takes place about 300 years after the war between the Autobots and Decepticons, and directly follows the Transformers: Generation 1 continuity. It begins with a one-on-one space ship battle between the previous wars’ participants: The Maximals (descendants of the Autobots), and the Predacons (descendants of the Decepticons). Both ships emerge from a vortex and during the firefight, crash land on the nearby planet, landing relatively close to one another. The ships scan for lifeforms that the transformers can appropriate in order to both blend in, as well as protect them from the overflow of raw Energon that the mysterious planet is abundant with. The two groups soon meet and all Inferno breaks loose. I won’t spoil much more of the story here.
From this point, I’ll just just say that of all of the characters, Dinobot will always be my favorite, but if I had to go by visual appearance, I would have to go with his Transmetal II form, which made its debut later in the series. I love all of the Transmetal II forms, now that I think of it… Anyway, Dinobot’s voice actor (Scott McNeil) is among my top 5 voice actors, maybe even top 3. In Beast Wars alone, he voiced: Rattrap, Dinobot, Waspinator, Silverbolt, Dinobot’s Clone, Cicadacon (one of the large floating heads, if I remember right) and Transmetal II Dinobot (obviously). In other shows, he has voiced Wolverine in the X-Men animated series, Piccolo in the Ocean Dub of Dragon Ball Z, many, many voices including Koga in Inuyasha, just as many in ReBoot, and many, many others. All of his work is amazing.
I’m going to leave it here while I rewatch the show (as well as its sequel: Beast Machines) for the millionth time, and I implore you to watch it for yourselves.
This has been Ebby of “The Demented Ferrets”, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. Until next time…
If you enjoyed this content, feel free to check out our Patreon page. Maybe consider subscribing? We’d all greatly appreciate it.
Like anime, gaming, movie reviews and more? What about RWBY Analysis? If so, check out our other platforms and support our content. Also, please don’t forget to follow our blog for more content like this.