#but I was surprised to learn he plays the Silver Surfer in the second Fantastic Four movie

[dorian-they-ao3]

pssst Doug Jones likes to go by “Dougie” which works even better as a replacement for “Perry” 👀 just don’t tag ‘dougie jones’ since that’s a twin peaks character 😂

[jaybug-jabbers]

Review: Pokemon Gold and Silver 97: Reforged

The Review

What a fantastic game. I went looking for a hack that fully realized the sort of pokemon game we glimpsed in the Spaceworld ‘97 demo, and I was not disappointed. 

This alternative version of Gold and Silver takes that Spaceworld demo and builds on it with loving care and attention to detail. All the beta pokemon sprites were freshly made from scratch or edited to update them for the final, polished Gameboy Color look. The pokemon movesets and stats were crafted so that they were balanced and didn’t contain placeholders, and the pokemon were populated throughout the world in a logical fashion. Dex entries were written and the pokes were integrated smoothly into the world. There are even different sprites and different encounter rates for Gold and Silver-- although you can ‘catch them all’ in either version, an excellent choice.

Meanwhile, the world map was colored, tweaked and polished, allowing us to explore that beta world that was stunningly different from the final Gold and Silver. It’s a place that in many ways seems even more vibrant and varied than final Gold and Silver, and is truly exciting to explore.

Along with this fully realized map, this hack’s creators also gave us a fresh new plot for Gold and Silver. This one was inspired by the differences glimpsed in the demo, including Oak’s increased involvement in the story, Silver’s different personality and role, and the inclusion of an Imposter Oak. The plot stays true to the style of pokemon games and doesn’t seem out of place. 

All of the exciting little beta details were included too-- including the original Type alignments, the original Gym Leader designs, beta pokemon moves, new hold items, access to the Skateboard, being able to name your Mom, and even the minigame on the game start screen. The attention to detail and the polish on this hack is truly impressive.

Essentially, I feel like this hack can be considered the definitive edition of the beta Gold/Silver that we never knew. It gives us a chance to experience this alternative world, and breathes life into these wonderful pokemon that never were. Giving us a chance to know and love these beta creations is truly a gift for pokemon fans.

Perhaps the only downside is the sadness that this is not the official version of Gold and Silver. I experienced Pokemon a little bit differently then my peers. As a child, I adored Red and Blue, but once I’d finished with those games, I moved on from pokemon. I have no nostalgic memories of Gold and Silver to hold onto. I only returned to pokemon years later as a teenager. At that point I played several generations, one after another, at the same time, as a sort of “pokemon binge.” While most would call it blasphemy, I was never too terribly fond of Gold and Silver. I think it was largely because I didn’t happen to like a lot of the pokemon designs in those games. In many ways, this ROM hack presents a Gold and Silver that I adore and can love even more than the originals. 

That’s not to say the official Gold/Silver games are all terrible, of course. There are still definitely some beta pokemon that I feel were axed or altered for good reason. Not all of them are better then the final cuts. And there are other elements that are an improvement, too; for example, I actually really like Silver’s storyline in the official games and the fact we dealt with a character who actually stole pokemon and treated them poorly. 

That said, there is an awful lot to love in this ROM hack, and I’m grateful that we have it. Pangshi, Bellrun, Warwolf, Madame, Volbear and others may not be officially recognized by the Pokemon franchise . . . but they will always be very real in my heart.

The Team

Cinnamon (Flame Wheel/Crunch/Scary Face/Earthquake - Charcoal)

Selecting the starter was difficult, because both Honooguma’s line and Kurusu’s line appealed to me. Ultimately I think I went with my old Fire bias. Cinnamon was everything you’d expect a Fire starter to be-- powerful, intimidating, and very reliable. My only real complaint would be that I happened to strongly dislike the sprite the team had created for Dynabear. This isn’t really anyone’s fault, because the team did an excellent job with spriting-- for example, their sprite for the mid-evolution, Volbear, was incredibly good and I adored it to bits. I think it was just a matter of personal taste; I just didn’t like the final evolution’s face. (I’ve actually replaced the sprite in this picture with the original sprite, because I don’t want it to dampen my love for this species) Other than that, seriously, they did this evolution family justice. It was a joy to have on my team.

Doomsday (Curse/Confuse Ray/Body Slam/Shadow Ball - Power Wings)

The second member of my team was found in Brass Tower, to my great excitement: Kurstraw. This was possibly my favorite evolution line to come out of the beta discoveries. This pokemon’s stats were not exactly breaking any records; he went down pretty easily if I wasn’t careful. However, that never really mattered. Doomsday still did his job anyway-- pulling his weight just fine, relying on Confuse Ray and Curse a fair bit to take care of foes. He often was an excellent team player, messing with especially troubling pokemon before passing them over to an ally to finish off. His Normal Immunity also was a strong advantage at times, which I made sure to make use of. Basically, he was a fantastic companion, who helped me all the way through to the Elites and Champion fights.

Rumtum (Slash/Thunder Wave/Thunderbolt/Crunch - Leftovers)

Along with a Rinrin, this round good boy was added to the team next. I was slightly wary of Kotora because it seemed to be one of the most popular beta pokemon among fans. But, the pokemon does seem to be worthy of praise, as it turns out. It is an excellent, cute, cheery little creature and seems to do Pikachu’s job just as nicely as Pikachu, both in fighting and in charisma. Where Pikachu is focused more on speed, though, Kotora and its evolution focus a little more on bulk. The tanky tiger was able to take hits long enough to outlast the competition, even when working with relatively low basepower moves. When he *finally* learned Thunderbolt, though, man, look out -- he was quite a force to reckon with.

It’s funny, actually. When I first saw this tubby tiger, I assumed it was a fire type. Electric was somewhat surprising, but I quickly grew to like it as that typing. Most electric type pokemon are rodent-focused, as Pikachu clones, or Magnemite’s kin. Having a big, bulky tiger is unexpected for the archtype of electric pokemon, but it’s a very refreshing change.

Poprocks (Fire Blast/Surf/Body Slam/Flame Wheel - Mystic Water)

Next on the team was this awesome fellow. Well . . . sort of. Technically, next on the team was TRICKY the Bomsheal, which I traded a Rinrin for with an NPC. Later on, I felt like being able to name the pokemon myself, so I bred Tricky with Cinnamon and trained Poprocks up from scratch. This seal was the cause of some angst for me. I loved Manboo’s evolutionary line a lot, but I also loved the fire seal. They both vyed for the position of the water type on my team. For a while, I used Manboo (and Anchorage) . . . intent on keeping it. But I missed the seal so much, eventually I went back for it to retrieve it from the PC. Yes, it only added to my team’s Rock/Ground weakness, but I didn’t care. I loved this guy too much.

I’m not sure what it is. The freaking amazing typing of Fire/Water? That was definitely a big part of it. But there’s also just something so appealing in its design, simple as it may be. He’s just a cool seal with a fireball. And boy . . . I sure learned how INTENSE its stats were. This seal was RIPPING through the competition. Using it was basically pushing the win button. Honestly it might need to be nerfed a little, it was nuts. But yeah, Bomsheal is a badass and doesn’t need any evolutions to be cool. Best surfer ever!

Darkwing (Slash/Fly/Swords Dance/Faint Attack - Stick)

Right around when I was handed the TM for Fly, I ran into an area that had two types of birds available, depending on the time of day: Hoothoot at night, Farfetch’d at day. As cool as beta Noctowl looks, I eventually decided I needed to have a Madame. I just had to. Like many others, I always, always felt Farfetch’d deserved an evolution and was kind of screwed over. Learning it used to have one was a revelation.

Madame on this team was kind of funny, though. Next to all of these exotic beta pokemon, Madame seemed so . . . normal. She had moves and performed pretty much the way you’d expect a Normal/Flying type to act. It was much like using a Pidgeotto or Fearow. She couldn’t take many hits but usually could take out one pokemon. Her typing had her as an ideal Generalist pokemon-- something that could be used in various situations, not to any amazing effect but usually to a passable one.

That may sound a little underwhelming to you, but honestly, it’s what you’d expect of this cool-looking swan; it’s a Normal/Flying type. It fills that archtype as a familiar, dependable generalist. And I am someone who can really appreciate a generalist pokemon. I think the pokemon world’s richer for having Madame in it, even if only in our dreams.

Alpha (Strength/Blizzard/Screech/Ice Punch - Nevermeltice)

The final member of our illustrious team. You have to wait until fairly late into the game, when you reach the snowy towns, to get a hold of one of these fellows.But the wait is well worth it. What a beautiful pokemon design these two are-- mysterious little creatures hiding inside their wolf pelts, a perfect mix of cute and creepy. Wolfman/Warwolf actually struggled for quite some time on my team, unfortunately, just because of its movepool. I was left with the very weak Icy Wind for a long time. To compensate, I taught Strength, which worked somewhat, but I could still tell Warwolf wasn’t reaching its full potential. I taught it Blizzard, but the poor pokemon had a rough time ever landing its hits. What I SHOULD have done from the start is buy and teach it Ice Punch for a reliable STAB move with decent base power. I FINALLY decided to do that around the time I reached the Elite 4. I kind of had to-- its learnset wasn’t providing it with reliable, decent Ice moves, for some reason. Once Warwolf was properly equipped, he did great work. Admittedly, a pure Ice type pokemon isn’t the best, defensively. They have four weaknesses to some very common move types-- Rock, Fighting, Fire. (Steel moves weren’t really implemented in this game). That said, when used wisely, a pure Ice type can still be a valuable team member.

There was one hitch, though. Warwolf was mainly a physical fighter. This makes sense if you look at him. Of course he’d be a physical fighter. Thing is, in gen 2, Ice moves were all special. So I suppose technically Warwolf still isn’t hitting at his full potential-- not until the special/physical split in gen 4 so he can take true advantage of physical-type Ice moves. Still, despite that fact, he did a great job anyway. He landed the final blow that defeated Lance and won the game, after all.

I think my only real regret is how relatively little time I spent with him when compared to the others. This is, of course, just the nature of the game; you find some pokemon later on when you’re nearing the end of the game. If there’s any sort of post-game, perhaps I can spend more time with him.

And the Ones Who Didn’t Make the Cut . . .(This Time)

There were so many beta pokemon that it was impossible to have them all on the team, of course. I was especially sad about leaving my Bellrun, Tibbs, behind. I adore Rinrin and Bellrun’s line, as yet another set of pokemon that should have been included in the final cut of the official games. Alas, ultimately I removed Tibbs from my team, though. The reason was simple enough. With the beta Type alignments, Dark type was heavily disadvantaged. It was weak to Normal-type and Dark-type moves (as well as Bug), which was extremely significant. Pokemon’s movepools were positively saturated with Normal and Dark type moves, and it was impossible to avoid. With her already weak stats, and her lack of any decent basepower moves for so long, there was just too much stacked against her. It’s my hope that Rinrin/Bellrun get a bit of a buff in future updates, because they really seem to struggle. 

In any case, there were also plenty of others not on my team: Aquarius, Noctowl, Belmitt, Jumpluff, Turban, Plux, Grotess, Girafarig, Leafeon . . . and so many more. Honestly, that’s fantastic. It gives such replayability to the game. I have no doubt I will return to do more runs and get the chance to try out other pokes.

And, who knows? Maybe in the future they’ll even update this hack to include even more beta pokemon that were uncovered last year. If they don’t, I’m sure someone else will.  

(This hack is largely the work of lvl_3, who created ‘Pokemon Super Gold 97.’ Then, the hack was further changed and refined by a team into ‘Pokemon Gold and Silver 97: Reforged.’ Both can be found at the PokeCommunity as patches.)

[comic-movieheroesranked]

Cinematic Comic Characters Ranked! (Year 2007) Part One

Seven movies were released during 2007 that make it on our list! Marvel’s debut of Ghost Rider started us off, followed by the incredible action film, 300! Up next was TMNT, the list’s first animated movie as well as the return of Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Alien vs Predator: Requiem! Also debuting is the horror film 30 Days of Night. Here’s #61 through 41!

Cameo Appreciation: Stan Lee (Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer)

Stan Lee graces us with his presence in both Spider-Man 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. In Spider-Man, Stan Lee shows up to casually give Peter Parker advice and in Fantastic Four, Lee actually recreates his scene in the comic where he tries and fails to get into Sue and Richard's wedding.

Cameo Appreciation: Uncle Ben, Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, Flash Thompson (Spider-Man 3)

Three characters from the previous films of the trilogy return. Norman Osborn shows up as another hallucination to further drive his son insane and Flash Thompson shows up to attend said son's funeral. Uncle Ben shows up when we learn how he truly died at the hands of the Sandman, which ends up being a total accident.

61. Wilson Bulosan, Carter Davies, Isaac Bulosan, and Helen Munson (30 Days of Night)

"They don't feel any bullets."

Unlike most of the citizens in Barrow that were murdered by the vampires, these four were a little more prominent plot-wise before they met their demise. Wilson and Isaac were a father/son duo that managed to hide out with the main group until Isaac, who's memory isn't the best, took off into the night. It's left uncertain what happened to him but its most likely he shared the same fate as Wilson, who was killed looking for him. Carter stayed with the group for awhile until he ended up turning in a vampire himself and volunteered to have himself killed. Helen, Eben's grandma, was the saddest death in the whole movie for me. I literally gasped when I realized she was dying through the walkie talkie.

60. Carrie, Drew, Darcy, Dale, and Tim (Alien vs Predator: Requiem)

"If you can find them in 30 minutes or less asshole."

These five characters obviously showed personality but were more obviously created to die. Drew is Ricky's strict boss at the pizza shop who gets snatched by aliens right after joining the group to the hospital. Darcy, who lost her son and husband at the beginning of the movie, mostly just watches Molly until she leaves with Morales to blow up in the center of town. Tim is Kelly's husband and it's obvious Molly was closer to him but he's the one that gets killed by an alien when it invades their home. Carrie is a pregnant waitress and is the first person we see the hybrid implant baby aliens into. Dale is Jesse's ex-boyfriend that likes to bully Ricky with his friends. He dies at the gun shop when the alien's acid blood destroys his face.

59. Daxos (300)

"I see I was wrong to expect Sparta's commitment to at least match our own."

Daxos lead the Greek men who volunteered to join the Spartans in their fight against the Persians. Not all of them were warriors so it was no surprise that when things got rough, they abandoned ship.

58. Galactus (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer)

*destroys planets*

Galactus doesn't really have a big role in this film. We see him destroy a planet in the beginning so we know he's capable of ending all life on Earth, but the Fantastic Four focus their time trying to stop the Silver Surfer before Galactus even arrives. When he does show up, the Silver Surfer manages to destroy him once and for all.

57. Theron (300)

"This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this. I am not you King."

I feel like Theron wasn't even hiding the fact that he hated Leonidas which is why the King and Queen thought so little of him. It isn't a shocker that he's working for the Persians but it does suck that he took advantage and raped Gorgo before then trying to make it seem like she was trying to commit adultery to the council. He died like a little bitch, which is all I could ask for.

56. The Stranger (30 Days of Night)

"They didn't take me!"

First strike is this asshole killed a bunch of beautiful dogs that did nothing to anyone! Second is he was rude to the Lucy as she tried to take his order, which is a personal pet peeve of mine, and three is he basically helped hand over the entire town to a bunch of vampires with the hopes of becoming one. So yes, I was very happy when they didn't turn him and just killed him instead.

55. General Hager (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer)

"So far, the only one I've regretted trusting here is you, Richard."

I don't know what this guy's problem is, but he made life way more difficult for the team. He really thought that his army could stop the Silver Surfer after the Fantastic Four failed? He really thought bringing in Dr. Doom was a great idea. Him dying at the hands of Dr. Doom is the biggest 'I told you so' you can get with this guy and what's even better is no one is surprised to find his body when they do.

54. Billy Kitka, Denise, and Lucy Ikos (30 Days of Night)

"They'll just think it was some horrible accident."

These three townspeople had a bit more focus than the rest. Denise and Lucy were the only two to survive, along with Jake and Stella, in the main group. They also helped put up a fight when Eben took on Arvin. Billy is the other sheriff that ends up killing his family so that they don't end up being slaughtered by the vampires. When the group takes on Arvin, it's Billy who pushes him into the grater, losing his hand and starting to change into a vampire. Eben kills him before he does and then uses his blood to turn into a vampire.

53. Jesse, Molly, Morales (Alien vs Predator: Requiem)

"There's a monster outside!"

Molly is actually one of the survivors but honestly, she only lives because her mom is a badass. Morales is the sheriff of the town and good friends with Dallas. It's clear he's trying to do whatever he can to save everyone, but his trust in the law is what causes his downfall. Jesse is the love interest of Ricky who travels with the group to find the helicopter at the hospital. She ends up accidentally getting killed by the Predator when he's fighting a pair of aliens.

52. Eddie Brock/Venom (Spider-Man 3)

"I like being bad. It makes me happy."

Wow, I never thought I'd hate anyone in this trilogy as much as Harry, but then they introduced Eddie Brock. He's selfish, overly dramatic, and is quick to play victim and blame others when he deals with the consequences of his own actions. He's even petty enough to pray for the death of Peter at church. Like, who does that? With all his hate towards Peter it only makes sense that he gets infected with the symbiote and becomes Venom. He teams up with Sandman to take Peter out in this big flashy way, but ultimately fails once Peter figures out Venom's weakness and throws a goblin grenade to destroy it. What does Brock do? He jumps after the grenade...as if his human hands could've stopped it. Obviously his death was for the best.

51. Jake Oleson (30 Days of Night)

"No one's touching him."

Eben's little brother and one of the youngest people who stayed around Barrow during the attack. He witnesses his grandma die in front of him and he eventually takes out a vampire himself, although the vampire is just a little girl. When Eben isn't around, Jake takes charge in leading the group to safety and is one of the town's few survivors once the month is over.

50. Captain Raye (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer)

"Not interested."

This girl has a lot of nerve criticizing Johnny when she works for a general who is a complete idiot. She acts like she isn't interested when Johnny tries to make the moves on her but at the end of the movie she ends up being his date at Richard and Sue's wedding.

49. Gressil, Wallow, and Abigor (Ghost Rider)

"He's not so tough."

These three are fallen angels that can now become three different elements: Ground (Gressil), Water (Wallow), and Air (Abigor). One by one they face Ghost Rider and one by one they're killed by him. He burns Gressil and Abigor with his chain, althouh he has to get creative with Abigor, and evaporates Wallow with his flames. None of them really stood a chance and died pretty quickly.

48. Ephialtes (300)

"Yield, Leonidas! Think of your men, I beg you!"

A deformed Spartan that wants nothing more than to serve Sparta as a soldier. Due to his deformity, however, Leonidas denies him this request as he'd end up putting his men in danger. Ephialtes ends up betraying the Spartans by working with Xerxes. I, like Leonidas, also hope he ends up living forever so that he can never die in battle like a true Spartan warrior.

47. Astinos (300)

"You still here?"

Astinos is the pretty and youthful son of the Captain. He can hold his own during battle, even taking out a freaking rhinoceros before it comes barreling down on the Spartans. He's one of the first main Spartans to die, getting decapitated by a Persian when he wasn't paying attention.

46. Alicia Masters (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer)

"We're different and we're still happy!"

Alicia really fits into the team's dynamic really well. Her relationship with Ben is going great, the two can't get enough of each other and she's bonded with the other members as well. From helping settle Sue's wedding day nerves, to calling out Johnny about wanting a serious relationship, Alicia really did look like she's been with the team for years.

45. J. Jonah Jameson, Robbie Robertson, and Miss Brant (Spider-Man 3)

"Where's my photographer?"

With the wrap of this particular trilogy I decided to add Robbie and Miss Brant along with Jonah Jameson. They're the only two that seem to not bend to Jonah's will, with Robbie pciking fights with him on what stroy gets published and Miss Brant reminding him to take his medicine. As for J. himself, he still hates Spider-Man but also still features him whenever he can. He also gets hustled by a little girl, which is fun to watch.

44. General Mono, General Serpiente, General Aguila, and General Gato (TMNT)

"We are immortal and made of stone."

The four generals that served Max Winters three thousand years ago when he was a powerful warlord. They were also the price he had to pay for immortality and turned into stone for those three thousand years. So while he got to live and later discover that immortality was a curse, they were just stone. So I kinda get why they turned on him, no one wants to just die as soon as they break free from their curse. Still, the turtles defeat them and send them into the portal leading to the other dimension.

43. Barton Blaze (Ghost Rider)

"When you do things without thinking you ain't making a choice, the choice is making you."

You know Johnny's dad likes to lecture him a lot about dumb decisions despite the fact that he continues to smoke cigarettes even though he's dying of lung cancer. He really hates the idea of Johnny and Roxie being together so young and doesn't get the chance to change his mind after Mephisto kills him during his circus act.

42. Ricky (Alien vs Predator: Requiem)

"Fire him."

I liked Ricky. He wasn't really an outcast he was just picked on by Dale and his friends because of his obvious connection with Jesse. When the aliens attack, Ricky follows his brother in hopes of survival. He gets upset when Jesse dies and tries to attack the Predator, which ends up getting him impaled by the Hybrid. Still he manages to escape with his brother, Kelly, and Molly.

41. Iris, Arvin, and the Little Girl Vampire (30 Days of Night)

"I'm done playing with this one."

Out of all the vampires rolling with Marlow, these three were the main ones popping up. The Little Girl Vampire was only in one scene but she really disturbed the group with her young appearance before they killed her. Iris was Marlow's second in command and was always by his side as they stalked their prey throughout the town. She meets her end when Eben manages to turn on Helen's ultraviolet lights on her, burning her so badly that Marlow gives her a sympathy kill. Arvin was one of the most vicious vamps, ruthlessly killing a lot of the townspeople before following Billy to the main group's hideout. Eben and the group struggle to take him on until Billy shoves him in a giant grinder.