Deadly Outlaw Rekka (2002)

Directed by Takashi Miike, and stars Riki Takeuchi.

Your typical run of the mill Yakuza movie.

It's funny but, with my DVD copy, the film looked like it was made around 1995, cuz there was so much fuzz n grain on the camera etc. Not sure why that was, mine was an official copy, but, oh well...

Takashi Miike has made a ton of Yakuza movies, and Riki Takeuchi has started in a ton of em' also.

There's one funny scene where Riki Takeuchi and his aniki (lil' yakuza brother) get a rocket launcher, but the manual is in Chinese. His aniki throws the manual down frustrated, and says 'Aw shit man, I can't read godamn Chinese!' and Riki says 'pull the trigger and something will come out.' They fire the rocket launcher into the enemy's building, and the rocket launcher picks up this yakuza running towards em, and the rocket flies the yakuza into the building and blows up.

If you haven't seen many yakuza movies, you'll probably enjoy the movie to an extent, but if you've seen a ton of em already like me, then you probably will find the whole thing alot less enjoyable.

My rating: 5.6/10

Graveyard Of Honor (197?)

Yakuza film from the early 70s, released by Toei. Apparently directed by the same guy who did Battle Royale.

Lots of graphic sex, violence, hookers and what not.

Set in post-war Japan, Rikio is a member of he Kawada gang, but his rebelious insubordination leads him onto other things... such as hookers & drugs.

This film is basically a fictional documentation of the downfall of a Yakuza thug. Could I say it's about anything else? Not really.

Watchable...

My rating: 5.1/10

Scary Movie 3 (2003)

I seen Meet the Spartans not so long ago... was one of the worst, unfunny parodies I've seen since Scary Movie 4.

The Eminem parody is funny, I found it funny, didn't find the rest funny. Didn't find the previous Scary Movie movies funny apart from the parts where they rip-on jocs.

These movies are made to the masses in America, who are often brain dead, or brain-fried. They're designed for watching with your brain switched off. Sit a basket of veg. in front of the TV and put this on, it ought to love it~!

My overal rating: 2.5/10 ...Rated NVF-15 (Not Very Funny)

King Of Fighters '99 (1999, SNK, PS1)

I've heard Neo Geo cartridge games are still avaitable, but cost like $400...

First time I played King Of Fighters was at my Japanese host family's house. Their kid had King Of Fighters 98 for the PS1, and his cousin had the actual Neo-Geo cartridges. That was like 9 years ago nearly, and that was my reason for buying this game.

I'm not sure what makes King Of Fighters soo popular... I think maybe it is SNK's distinctive artwork style, but can't see what's so special about the gameplay.

You get a shitload of characters to chose from. There is no story mode... you fight your way through a dozen of so characters, before you battle with genetically enhanced boss Krizalid.

The graphics look like they could have been from 1994 or 1996, but look dissapointing for a game released in 1999 or 2000. I think Capcom is the king of the 2D fighting genre.

There's this one character, a Chinese midget with a metal claw glove called Chun, who's pretty funny, and there's a character in one of the backgrounds who looks like my friend Frank. That's what I'll remember this game for.

My rating: 3.3/10

Gundam Z (1997, PS1)

Released in 1997 for the playstation, Japan only. Not an entirely bad looking 3D action game for 1997. Some PS1 3D graphics are shaky and terrible looking, but this one doesn't look too bad.

Not a fan of Gundam. Seen clips of the Gundam animes, but based on the story and the fact that Bandai have tried to milk it for like 50 years put me right off watching it. I used to own Gundam F-91 for the Super Famicom/SNES 10 years ago, but only bought it cuz it was an anime game, and back then I thought it was awesome to own any anime game.

There's 2 discs- one is the hero's story mode, the second is the enemys. I completed disc 1 within 2 days, maybe less, and the enemy's within 40 minutes. Anyone can complete this game within this time frame, even a monkey ONG ONG!

I wouldn't recomend this to you especially, not unless you wanna pay $25 for an import game that can be completed in under 24 hours!

My rating in terms of graphics: 7.8/10

My rating in terms of gameplay, etc: 3.4/10

Ghost In The Shell (1997, PS1)

Released in 1997 for the playstation, the game is more in sync with the manga than the anime movie by Mamoru Oshi. The US and European releases were a year after the Japanese release, in 1998.

You play as robot spider-thingy, Fuchikoma (known as Tachikoma in the dull Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex TV series). You can scale walls like Spiderman, hang upside down, shoot grenades and destroy huge cyborg-mechas, lotsa fun! ^^

There's 12 levels to play. I got through the entire thing with one week.

My one quarm about this game is that alot of the mecha don't look very 'Shirow-ish.' In alot of Shirow's anime and what not, you can tell if it's a Shirow designed mecha or not, and alot of the mechas you battle here don't have that distinctive Shirow style, but no matter; one of the bets anime games for the PS1-

My rating: 8.8/10

Macross VFX-2 (PS1, 1999)

Sequel to Macross Digital Mission VFX, released 3 years before this one (which I haven't played... yet).

I had Macross: Do You Remember Love? for the Sega Saturn ten years ago. If you've played Gundam Z for the Sega, it basically looks the same as that- 2D 32-bit graphics with minimal 3D elements. VFX-2 is fully 3D rendered world of Macross though. My only quarm about this game, or some 3D PS1 games in general is that from a distance it looks awesome, but upclose, everything looks like one big pixel.

I think there's about 12 or 14 missions to play. I always play these games in hard mode, and I think I completed the game in 3 weeks. The bosses are very unusual looking, and the gameplay varries from level to level. Along the way you get the option of poileting different mecha also.

One of the best anime games made for the PS1,

My rating: 8.1/10