Happy New Year, everybody!

[Zeta]

The hitlight was that whole "X-men Reloaded" thing they did, mainly because they good rid of the black leather and since they have a new training/junior team book out

Oh man! Josh Foley is teh hot!

See, he's this really obnoxious and self-centered but goodlooking jerk who used to hate all mutants till "whoops" he found out he was one and got kicked out of his house. Man, the gay parallels are just DRIPPING off of that already. Anyways, his power is healing, along with genetc manipulation - making him the most potentially powerful mutant of his generation.

Then there's this other guy, Kevin - an industrial artist. His power is that he makes organic material wither into dust.

So we've got one guy with healing power, and one guy who can't touch anyone - human or animal because he's got the touch of death.

Man, I'm just waiting for someone to point out that they might be able to touch eachother . . .

[Segaholic2]

Those new X-Men sound pretty lame.

[Zeta]

Yeah, their powers all suck.

You've got a girl who can control the wind, a guy who can copy the skills of other people in near proximity (skills, not powers), Icarus (the less said about that wimp, the better), Elixir (Josh - the only TRULY useful one out of the bunch who can pretty much heal any wound), some girl with pheremones, and Surge (pretty decent, actually - she absorbs electricity and turns them into blasts of lighting or super agility. Like a human Pikachu).

Their powers do stink. Josh is cool because it was about time we had an X-man with truly defensive healing powers. But the others are just Storm (Surge/Wind Dancer), Stacy X (Wallflower), Angel (Icarus), and some guy who can be a doctor if a doctor happens to be nearby.

But their characters are real interesting, and there's not much combat in the books anyways. It's actually done up like a mutant version of Harry Potter - six students to a Squadron and each Squadron competes for points to win the House Cup.

All they need is an international mutant sport.

[Jaden]

But just to be fair all the new mutants have crappy powers... Just look at the Hellion squad, you have more or less a male Emma Frost, a guy who shots off his rock arms, a guy who tags people, and a girl who can turn into a metal puddle like Alex Mack from that old Nick show... And anyway the powers have been sucking for quite a while now, I mean look at Husk from Generation X... She rips off her skin to become something else... And like Zeta said it's about the kids, which is wierd since for being called a school that place really hasn't many students... For like years there maybe like one kid at the school, didn't anyone find that odd...

[Zeta]

But just to be fair all the new mutants have crappy powers...

That's kind of true.

Let's take a look to the New Mutants of the past . . .

New Mutants I:
Cannonball - Pretty damn good. Use chemical energy to fly, form a shield, blast things, asborb energy, and explode things without being hurt.

Karma - Mind control. Not bad.

Magik - Teleportation, a magic sword, magic armor. Good, I guess. More magical than mutant.

Magma - Pretty damn good. Flame, heat, rock, and volcanic manipulation.

Moonstar/Mirage - Project illusions. Amusing, but mostly useless.

Wolfsbane - Completely useless power, in terms of the Marvel Universe. Ability to turn into a wolf. Of course, 99% of the villains and heroes in the Marvelverse can bat away a wolf like it was a fly.

Sunspot - Solar-powered superstength and flight. A sissier version of Superman. Recharging his powers puts him at risk for skin cancer.

Cypher - Why did they bring this guy into battle? He can talk to anything or anyone. While that's not stupid or useless - someone with that power is better suited to sitting behind a computer screen and coordinating people and feeding them informaton. Not hurling his weak body at beastmen. Frankly, it's less a power than a very good skill.

Boom-boom - Creates energy bombs. Nice.


Generation X:
Havok - Blasts of incredible psychic energy. Unfortuantely, he's dead. So not that impressive.

Jubille - Creates fireworks. Just nice. Not bad, not great.

Husk - Rips off her skin to transform into other things. Eww. Just . . . eww. There are bits and pieces of her lying around whenever she uses her powers.

Synch - Like the black guy in the current New Mutants - he's another mimic. He can copy the powers of anyone around him. Very cool if you're fighting superhumans. Useless if you're going up a guy with a gun on your lonesome.

M - Two weak twins who combine into a some psychic chick. Creepy.

Skin - He can control his skin. Eww. What is it with the focus on skin-based powers on this team?!

Penance - If I remember correctly, she had a razor-sharp body. Ouch.

So, yeah - a couple of really good powers (Cannonball, Magma), a lot of mediocrity, and several out and out SUCKS (Skin, Wolfsbane, Cypher).

[Baba O'Reily]

...What's the point of absorbing someone else's skills?
"I have no idea what I'm doing, so I'm going to absorb the skills (But not practical knowledge of how to use it) of this guy next to me, cross my fingers, and hope for the best!"

[Zeta]

Yeah, that's pretty much how Prodigy's powers work.

What's worse is that since his powers kick in when nearby a knowledgable or skilled person - he's unable to learn the skills permanently. Either through his powers, or by normal studying.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

In 2004:

-Two new portable systems came out: the PSP and the DS. Neither look very promising, but then again, neither does the future of Game Boy Advance.

-Speaking of Game Boy Advance, did ANY worthwhile games come out that year for that system?!

-Dead or Alive Ultimate comes out, a prettier remake of a five year-old game with more costumes and on-line gameplay. It rocks anyway.

-A GOOD Game Boy Advance Sonic game came out: Sonic Battle. Though that's arguable..

-We learn Mario is pretty much dead. Mario Party 6? Mario Power Tennis? Mario PINBALL?! Super Mario 64 DS?!?! What's it take to get a NEW Mario game?!

-We also learn that SEGA is pretty much dead. If they make it beyond 2005, I'll be surprised.

-Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories tortured fans of the original game for months in its anticipation, only to disappoint with crappy battles, horrid level design (even worse than the original, PS2 game), bad music, lame story, and horribly pixelated CG cinemas. A 35 dollar commercial for Kingdom Hearts II.

-Companies stopped developing their own games. Remember when Sega, Nintendo, and EA made their own games? Neither do I. Seems that Konami is the only major company left who does.

-Sonic Heroes comes out in the U.S. and Europe, which was good news for the ten people (myself included) who liked the game.

-Katamari Damacy. Need I say more?

-Anime fanbases become worse than ever. Naruto, Full Metal Alchemist, Maria-sama Ga Miteru, etc., get uppity when a series is licensed, people disagree with them on their opinions, etc.

-Yu-Gi-Oh! is finally starting to show cracks of declining popularity.

-Pokemon, meanwhile, is all but dead, anime-wise. The games will continue forever, seemingly..

-Howl's Moving Castle is released, the first new Miyazaki-directed movie since Spirited Away.

-The Jak & Daxter trilogy, as well as the Ratchet & Clank trilogy, concluded.

-Viewtiful Joe 2. What's the point?

-Companies who were to originally release games only on Nintendo systems (Capcom, Namco, etc.) turn their backs and make ports of the games for PlayStation 2.

-No (new) Final Fantasy game came out! O_o

-Tekken 5 came out. It sucks just a much as the first five games.

You were right, Green Gibbon!: it was a crappy year for video games.

[j-man]

Fuck you. Paper Mario owns you coming and going. Also, I can't believe you don't see the point of VJ2. The point is to get viciously raped by super hard bosses repeatedly until you die of RSI. It's called masochism, and it's fun when it's made by Capcom. Also, Final Fantasy games are shit now, which is why there are no more.

As for GBA releases, KH:CoM is teh win, despite what you might think, along with Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen, Astro Boy, LoZ:Minish Cap, Rockman.exe 4, Mario & Luigi...the list goes on. Sonic Advance 3 was pretty neat, too.

...Sonic Heroes? Come on, man.

[Locit]

-Sonic Heroes comes out in the U.S. and Europe, which was good news for the ten people (myself included) who liked the game.

-Katamari Damacy. Need I say more?

After that first bit, you might. It's rather hard to tell if you're sane.

[j-man]

I concur. You slated everything and then left that cryptic comment about KD. I mean, for all I know you picketed the local Gamestop to boycott it and burned every copy you and your fanatical followers could get their grubby hands on. It's possible, man.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

Fuck you. Paper Mario owns you coming and going. Also, I can't believe you don't see the point of VJ2. The point is to get viciously raped by super hard bosses repeatedly until you die of RSI. It's called masochism, and it's fun when it's made by Capcom. Also, Final Fantasy games are shit now, which is why there are no more.

Did I mention Paper Mario sucking? Nope (in fact, I forgot to mention it). It's the only decent Mario game to come out since Double Dash!! IMHO. But every other Mario game that came out this year...was kind of pointless.

Concerning Viewtful Joe..I've never been a fan of Capcom's action games. Too many cheap hits and quick deaths for my liking. I only play their fighting games.

And the reason there are no Final Fantasy games out is because Square Enix is too busy tweaking the graphics in Final Fantasy XII to make them look pretty. Not like better graphics means better gameplay..

Sonic Heroes? Come on, man.

Yeah, yeah. Pretty much everyone hates Sonic Heroes. I got the message the first 500 times we bashed this game (even I bash it: cheap instant deaths and limited exploration were a big pain in the ass in this game).

And I completely forgot about Sonic Advance 3, and how much "fun" it was to pair up with a (useless) partner while avoiding spikes and pit falls every other 4 seconds of gameplay. It was fun the first couple of levels, and the music is infinitely better than the first two games, but aside from that, my opinion is pretty much the same as Green Gibbon!'s.

I haven't played Astro Boy yet, I havn't played Pokemon Fire Red / Leaf Green (which is just a graphical enhancement of four previous Pokemon games I already own, but I still want), the Rockman.exe series bores me, and I haven't played a Zelda game since Majora's Mask.

Heck, I still have to catch up on games from 2003 I wanted to play, let alone 2004. Like Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga..

[Neo Yi]

-The Jak & Daxter trilogy, as well as the Ratchet & Clank trilogy, concluded.

I can honestly say that Jak 3 (99% of it story wise) left me in utter dissappointment. What the hell was Naughty Dog thinking...
~Neo

[j-man]

After Crash 3 they all just gave up on life and hit the rock.

[Neo Yi]

I don't believe that, J-Man. I honestly though CTR (Crash Team Racing) was one of the best things to happen to Crash and the mascot racing genre. And I still enjoyed the other Jak games, including Jak II, despite it's all "needs to be badass so Jak goes all Grand Theft Auto" .
~Neo

[Baba O'Reily]

mascot racing genre

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