F-Zero GP Legend was the cartoon F-Zero deserved

Were you lucky enough to catch this when it originally aired in 2004 (2003 in Japan)? Hopefully you’re nodding your head right now because this really was a gem in cartoons based off of video games. Not only was it a great show that could have stood on its own two legs, it got everything right. That is not something you can easily sell considering it introduced their own lead character right from the beginning. Which is something that most people rightfully are skeptical of anytime that happens. But I think that alone is half of what GP Legend so great.

I’m talking about Rick Wheeler of course, who was the main character, and a really wise choice. Captain Falcon may of seemed like an obvious pick at first, (it is F-Zero after all) but take a second though and remember that he’s always been this mysterious figure in the universe. We know he’s the best on the track, and we know that he’s a bounty hunter to be feared. That’s pretty much it. Simply put, Captain Falcon being the lead character would’ve really uncovered a lot about him, and defeated his purpose. The show may have filled a few details in, but by keeping him in a supportive position, you never learn more than you want to know.

So here we have Rick, a brand new character in this universe that you can go any direction you want to in. Obviously, in the wrong hands, that could’ve gone horribly wrong. But I definitely appreciated the writers going the Futurama route of placing him in a world he thought he’d never see in his lifetime. That was a safe choice, and it gave them room to explore how far behind he was compared to everyone else. It also kinda represented us, the audience, and we were able to explore the world of F-Zero just as he did. 

All of this is what makes it even harder that GP Legend got cancelled, at least here anyway, and didn’t continue on from the first season. In a way, I get it, F-Zero is not the size Mario, Pokemon, and Zelda are. To a lot of people it was probably all new for them. Still, GP Legend hit all the right notes, and was so smart about how to approach being based around its own, fresh character, while still doing right by the other characters. There are so many, like the Resident Evil films, that try to do the same thing, but miss the entire idea of the material and go off their own way instead.

That alone deserves to be remembered because this show did exactly what is always begged of when things like this happen. It payed attention to what F-Zero was, didn’t walk around what Nintendo built, and was quality on top of that. Nintendo, if you ever consider future cartoons on your franchises, talk to these people. They get it.

This is what a terrible boss looks like

I love Metroid Fusion, but this boss hates you and will never let you forget it. Dodging his ridiculous attack, which takes 2/3 of your health of course, requires you to grope the wall and stay in morph ball mode. Basically, the fetal position. Very appropriate since you’ll be doing that after losing many, many times. It doesn’t help that he also shoots fire at these corners of the wall you’re currently pleading for life in.

Forget calling it a boss, this a first class bully. Why Nintendo? Why?

Games I Like That You Hate: Bioshock 2

The idea of this is for games that I personally think are underrated and deserve more recognition. I’ll always keep any spoilery things out of it.

I’ll probably get some heat for saying this, but here it goes!…Bioshock 2 is a better game than Bioshock 1. I’m saying this as someone who really enjoyed the first trip to Rapture, and still can’t get the voice of Andrew Ryan out of their head. Somehow though, 2K Marin topped the ride 1 was for me. The launch of the game was terrible, and I had some really stupid problems trying to even play it at all for the longest time (Games For Windows Live is a work of art after all), but the day I was finally able to dig into it, I loved it. I played it non-stop. Bioshock 2 in no way ruined the first for me, but I still see it as massive improvement for several reasons. Rather than just say them, I’ll break down why that is. (Story is subjective, so I won’t touch that one.)

Weapons and Plasmids

One thing that never really felt completely satisfying in Bioshock 1 was the combat, with the biggest flaw in it being the weapons. It’s hard to describe, but they just didn’t have that kick to them. The shotgun and pistol were the most jarring to me. As a whole though, the shooting really felt bland at best.

What I loved immediantly about Bioshock 2’s combat was the pacing and fluidness to it. Having both a gun and plasmid out at the same time was bigger than I thought it would be. Right from the start it was soooo nice not to be forced to juggle your weapons and plasmids around. Right click, shock them. Left click, kill them. Just like that. Even as I found more weapons and collected more plasmids, switching both out was twice as fast as organizing them in Bioshock 1. For that very reason, I looked forward to every Little Sister defense because it was that fun.

Hacking

If anything was ruined in Bioshock 1 for me, it was the hacking. I’m not against any kind of “minigame” to access something, but going back to connecting pipes would be pretty hard at this point. I didn’t hate it, but it did get old after a while. At first it was more like a small break, but soon really halted the action whenever it came up. I know it wasn’t always necessary, but the benefits made it hard to pass up. In the later game it had just become a source of health above everything else.

The second I hacked a door in Bioshock 2, it became one of my favorite things to do. Just like swapping plasmids and weapons, hacking improved miles from where it started. It’s so satisfying to fire a dart, time it right to stop the needle where you need it, and you’re done. The extra layer of getting a reward for landing on blue, versus the lager risk of landing on red was also a great touch. It felt more effective  than beating the clock to assemble a connection of pipes. It felt like hacking. Not repairing.

The Overall Pace

This has kinda been the theme here so far, but for good reason. Bioshock 2 had such a great pace to it. I always felt like I was moving towards an objective, with the story keeping up. It was really the combined improvements to what Bioshock 1 had done though, that made it stand out so much for me. If you have ever played a game and thought to yourself, “I feel like this is what the first one was trying to be”, then you understand what I mean. In fact, I said that myself after finishing it. 2K Marin pretty much looked at each individual thing and said, “this would make it better”, a classic sequel formula.

I get that some people feel 2 couldn’t top the world 1 had created. How could it? It’s hard to recapture that moment of, “What the fuck happened to this place?” I think Marin was smart to instead build on that. Letting us see more of why and how this place came to be. And why it rots today.

It’s really too bad the launch, and even post-launch Bioshock 2 got. There are a lot of people that missed out on a terrific game, I almost did, too. If you ever have the chance I highly recommend it. Go into it wanting to know more about Rapture. You’ll get it.