Superlative amalgamation

It's like gamepocalypse. I'm going to be "away" for a "while," leave a message after the beep.

(There is no larger version linked yet. I'm working on restoring my FTP account.)

May you find your upper path: This was unfortunate. Both games turned out to be not quite disappointments, but not quite call-in-sick-the-next-day type of good. They're bigger and badder, but not better. NMH2 by far suffers from this more than TVC. Not only do the things they loaded the game up with add nothing, they've also cut fundamental parts out of some misguided effort to appease criticisms, which were based on incorrect assumptions to begin with. NMH wasn't about killing people, it was about waking up, getting dressed, commuting to work, THEN killing people. After which you returned to your room, and could watch some anime. Most of the criticism focused on how boring the everyday routine was. That was the joke, kids. NMH2 unfortunately bows to the pressure, and omits most of the drudgery. Click the "job" icon on the map, earn some money, click the "store" icon, buy some clothes, click the "this is the next story mission, CLICK ME to advance the story" big yellow icon to get the show on the road. It's all terribly mundane, for all the wrong reasons. Travis isn't working, I am. Maybe Suda meant for that to be the joke this time, which unfortunately means that fans of the original get a lesser experience. All this before we even get to the actual content, which itself has been "improved" for the worse. After the first two boss battles, I already don't give a shit about the third. It's like the game is parodying itself, and not particularly well either. This one is the San Andreas to the original GTA III. The only brilliant thing so far have been the retro-styled minigames that take place of side jobs. Again, another thing that wasn't broken about the original gets overhauled. At least this time they added to the experience. Frankly, I could see myself giving up on the main quest, and just killing bugs and shit all day. (After 10 hours, I finally found another redeeming feature.)

TVC is a similar downgrade from the original. Yes, the new characters are cool. The new music is not. Far from it. The greatest part of Cross Generation Of Heroes was fighting against Cashern, knocking him the fuck out, having Ryu jump in and hearing his SFII theme remixed in the background. UAS not only cuts Tatsunoko's themes, but also Capcom's, and does away with dynamic music switching altogether. All stages now have a single theme. Mostly awful techno, that can't decide if it's high fidelity, chiptunes, original, or a remix of a classic track. Shitty music I can live with, but they weren't done yet. Not only did the original themes get the axe, so did all animation sequences. The intro and all endings. How you can cut Tatsunoko animation out of a game made for the purpose of celebrating Tatsunoko animation I'll never figure out. Big minus here. If I didn't have the original TVC, I'd be buying it right now in order to get the real experience. UAS unfortunately has been watered down. Thankfully, the price they're asking is right. Half the original's price, for half the game. That's at least fair. On the plus side, Tekkaman Blade is an awesome character. Totally original, well balanced, and fun to use. Needs more Reason, though.