Gaming off the Beaten Path

  It's been quite a while since I've done a post that's not about a game, but it's time to discuss the latest TV adaptation of a classic gaming franchise: Twisted Metal. Twisted Metal is a franchise I have a lot of love for, so much so that I dedicated an entire month to it on my blog. The reason for that coverage? The announcement of a new TV show, based on the long-dormant franchise. Well, that show is finally here. Not going to lie, I hated everything about this show when I first heard about it. I even talked in one of my reviews about how the initial plot synopsis sounded like it was written by someone who had never once played the games.  But then the trailers started coming out. The first one I saw showed that someone, somewhere at the very least understood the darkly irreverent attitude of the series. That was good. Then the trailer with Sweet Tooth dropped, and you could tell right away they nailed everything about him. That got me really interested. But I still...

  Looks like we have yet another video game adaptation, this time from streaming giant Netflix. And this one at least started off promising. I'm not really a big TV person and I had already heard some pretty bad things about the new Resident Evil series. But when I saw that home screen thumbnail with the licker, I had to at least give it a shot. Even though I haven't really discussed it that much here, RE is one of my favorite gaming series of all time. I have three of them on my 10's list, tied for the most with Final Fantasy. Really, I just haven't gotten around to playing any of them yet, it totally has nothing to do with the fact that I largely play games alone, at night in the dark and I'm a huge wimp. Nothing at all. Anyway, I was excited to see what RE would bring to the streaming world and I'm glad I gave this show a shot...so I could let you all know it's probably not worth your time. Let's start with the story. You all know the story of Residen...

  Got a question for you. What do you get when you cross Mortal Kombat, WWE and Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood? A local access TV show where The Rock and Sub-Zero teach kids about the joys of sharing? A crossover MK game where the WWE roster is playable, but the only finishing moves are friendships? What you get is WMAC Masters, a short lived, live action children's show that ran as part of various Saturday morning TV blocks from 1995-1997. Between the popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the emergence of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter and the smashing success of shows like Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, martial arts were all the rage for kids in the 90's. It seems like every single one of us begged and begged our parents to put us in Karate classes. It was all 'Karate' to us, none of us realized that the 'Karate' we were doing was (most likely) actually Tae Kwon Do, or that there was even a difference. The folks at 4Kids entertainment decided th...