Mario Goes Hollywood: A Collaborative Timeline

[eldandythedoubter]

Because after much debae against myself and school being the eternal time consumer, Spyro The Dragon is complete.

Release date: April 20th 2001
Produced and Distributed by: Universal Animation Studios with production assistance by Polygon Pictures
Directed and Written by: Brad Bird
Characters design and art direction by: Charles Zembellas

Cast:
Haley Joel Osmont as Spyro
Fred Tatascoire as Sparx and Gnasty Gnorc
Hynden Walch as Elora
Christopher Mcdonald as Barathelos
Will Smith as Hunter
Gregg Berger as Ripto
Barbara Goodson as The Sorcerer Queen

Budget: $85 Million
Domestic Box Office Total: $195 million
Critical Reception: 3 out of 5.
Production History:
​

The success of Dreamworks Sonic the Hedgehog did not escape the eye of the industry. Universal, looking to break into the game movie business, green lights a Crash film and Spyro film for 2000 and 2001 respectively. The first hurdle would be finding a director and a studio to do the production. Robert Zemeckis was considered but turned down the offer due to production on Cast Away. Prince of Egypt director Simon Wells also showed interest in the project but turned it down when Dreamworks greenlit a cgi adaption of H.G. Wells The Time Machine. Finally, the project was offered to Iron Giant creator Brad Bird. Bird agreed to the project if his superhero project would be put in production afterwards. For the studio, Universal did want Wang Film to do both Crash and Spyro but Wang Film turned down the project due to an offer from Bandai to do CG work for their next Gundam Project, “Rise of the Red Comet.” They did however recommend Polygon Pictures for the project. They agreed as a small Ape Escape short they made for Sony was turned down but shown to Universal as a test reel. Both agreed to a 3 film deal with this film being the first.

Plot Synopsis:​

It is year 398 of the Draconic age. 300 years prior, dragon kind were sent to these lands for unknown reasons. One dragon curious on why is a purple hatch ling named Spyro. One day, Spyro evades the watchful eye of his guardian Barathelos and travels out to the furthermost part of the land. Once there, he finds two things, a broken mural of a red dragon holding a staff triumphantly while a magic caster and a warrior charge towards him. He treks forwards to find more clues to that mural to stumble upon a horde of Gnorcs. Gnorcs were the native people of their land but the dragons forced them away out of each their kingdoms. They all stand at attention as standing ahead of them are two creatures: a giant green gnorc in battle armor and an orange creature garbed in the robes of a sorcerer. The two has just finished rallying their troops for an invasion of the dragon lands, all by using the power of a spell that can turn anything into a crystal statue. Only one with great magic can break the spell, and the only person with that kind of magic was their mysterious benefactor. Horrified but determined to stop them, Spyro jumped forward and charged to meet his foe. The Gnorc leader laughed at this futile effort and ordered his men to capture the hatchling while his sorcerer readied the spell. Unfortunately for the sorcerer named Ripto, the chant needed for the spell was only one syllable off from casting a power buff spell enchanting Spyro with the ability to not just breathe fire, but ice as well. Spyro used this ability to escape his captors and return to his homeland. Angered, Gnasty casts the spell himself with his enchanted warhammer changing every dragon within his territory into crystal. Now armed with this ability and his dragonfly familiar Sparx, Spyro heads forth to fight the Gnorcs and save Dragonkind.

Spyro travels through many lands to free the dragons from their crystalized prisons while also looking for information on his guardian. After going through a misty bog, a stone forest, and a tree top village; Spyro finally gets a lead on Barathelos’s whereabouts. He was taken to Dry Canyon fortress where his crystalized form will be taken to the Gnorcs base. Spyro rushes into the fortress only to be attacked by a squadron of the invaders wielding magic resistant armor and guns using crystals. The armor is enchanted to absorb both ice and fire while the guns stun Spyro. He is taken to a dungeon where both Barathelos is being held. The two reconcile in their cell and Barthelos tells Spyro what’s happened. The lord of the pueblo Maegor had been gathering the people in town to be hunted for sport. So when the gnorcs came forth, they quickly threw in with them to bring down Maegor and his brood. Barathelos came to stop the coup, only to be brought down by their leader Gnasty Gnorc. Their conversation is halted when the guards come to take Barathelos away to be crystallized but the guard drops the key to Spyro's cell along with a map of the foretress. Sparx grabs the key and unlocks the cell. The two fight their way through Gnasty's forces only to enter the library finding Ripto and a fawn looking over a spellbook. Spyro crashes into the room, angering Ripto as he's been disturbed.

Ripto:
“THIS IS A LIBRARY, YOU FOOLS!!! A PLACE OF KNOWLEDGE AND SILENCE!!!”

He looks up, sees Spyro and scoffs. “Pff, if you know what's good for you, you'll head back to your cell and wait until you're crystalized, SHRIMP!” Spyro responds by charging him into a bookcase causing an avalanche of books on him. The fawn looks to her left and sees that Spyro is between her gun and Ripto's staff. Seeing the gun as closer, she dashes towards the gun when Spyro shoots a burst of flame where she was once standing. The two proceed to fight, lighting the room with fire, ice and knocking the bookcases over with reckless aplomb. The two are interrupted by Ripto bursting out of his book pile enraged. He then dashes over to his staff and casts a spell of binding on Spyro.


Ripto:
“YOU LITTLE LIZARD!, FORGET CRYSTALIZING YOU FOR THE SORCERESS, I'M GONNA MOUNT YOUR HEAD ON THE WALL FOR DESTROYING THIS LIBRARY !”

He doesn't get the chance though, as Ripto is shot with the gun by the fawn. She removes the bind spell on Spyro and introduces herself as Elora. Her people live in the Tree Tops Swamp Village and she ended up being forced into the army when the Sorceress's army invaded. She's been playing nice with Ripto so that she could take his staff. Spyro asks where are the other dragons being held. She says that their being moved to the warp deck, where they'll be taken back to the sorceress's kingdom, Archenfall.
The two rush to the warp deck where Barathelos is being tied down to a gurney by a cheetah barely wearing barely fitting armor. Gnasty Gnorc is overseeing the entire process and is preparing to perform the crystalizing ritual. When Spyro breaks open the door, he spooks the cheetah, allowing Barathelos to remove the shackles on his right wrist and left ankle. The trio now begins to fight the Gnorcs only for Gnasty to jump into the frey angered. He raises his hammer and begins charging a spell. Spyro tries to take a free swipe at Gnasty, but just as he reaches the Gnorc, he slams his hammer onto spyro slamming him into the floor. He rushes ahead, dodging Elora's burst of bullets only to be tackled into the wall. Barathelos charges ahead toward Gnasty and manages to shoot him with a fire breath, only for the burst to dissipate on his armor. He follows this up by causing a tremor with his hammer, knocking Barthelos off balance. As Gnasty heads for the kill, Spyro gets back up and shoots an ice breath at Gnasty's foot freezing it in place. He follows that up with by gliding toward Gnasty and shooting a fire breath at his hammer arm. The spell doesn't dissipate and he drops the hammer. Spyro goes for a charge, only to be sealed in a bubble. Who shot the bubble? Ripto, who drags the bubble over to Barathelos, turns him into crystal, and slams Gnasty's hammer on the crystal statue. Barathelos is dead.

Ripto:
“You took something precious from me, I took something from you, and now I'll make sure your race suffer the same fate!”

Gnasty:
“We can't destroy them all, the queen needs them to-”

Ripto:
(smashes Gnasty with his hammer) “SHUT UP! THE DRACONIC DEMONS MUST BE WIPED OUT!”

He readies the spell to finish Spyro, only to be shot several times in the back by Hunter. While he is afraid of dragons, he's not going to stand by and let Ripto perform genocide. He then grabs Spyro and Elora, sets a random coordinate on the warp deck, and jumps into the portal.

When Spyro comes too, he wakes up in a small lab. He gets off the bed and shouts out if anyone is in the room. Hunter walks into the room with Elora and a short mole wearing a lab coat and glasses. He explains that he jumped him to the land of Avalar while shutting down the portal. Like Elora, Ripto came to his world and conscripted his people to fight on the sorceress's behalf. He used this fight as an excuse to desert the army. But Spyro is not convinced, believing that even if they take the dragon realms the wars will not end. Him and Gnasty will just come here and take this world as well. He looks over to the mole and asks.

Spyro:
“Can you get the portal to take us back to the dragon realm?” (The Mole nods and makes a 4 symbol with his hand.)


Meanwhile, back in the dragon realm...

Gnasty and Ripto are kneeling towards a blue lizard like woman, garbed in royal purple robes, and holding both Gnasty's hammer along with Ripto's scepter. Littered along the floor are the shards of what used to be Barathelos.

???: “So you managed to lose half of a library full of scrolls and tomes necessary to keep my plan afloat, let one of the baby dragons escape, and shattered one of the elders that was set to transfer back to the sealed mountain.”

Gnasty: “Well my queen, I had it under control until Ripto burst into the room.”

Ripto: “And I had it under control when you got your feet frozen to the floor, saving you from losing your legs for good!”

???:”It seems as if both of you can't get the job done separately or working in tandem. You will find the dragon and you will bring him before me, dead or alive.”

The crystal shards begin to rise and circle around Gnasty and Ripto with a maelstrom of blue magic surrounding them. The maelstrom continues to swirl closer and closer around them as the fear on their faces become wider and wider.

Back with Spyro...

Two days have passed since Spyro and co jumped to Avalar. He's been spending the entire time sparring with Elora on how to use his breaths strategically and thanks to the training, he can now shoot lightning, earth, and bubbles. Hunter's been helping the gnome set up the portal back while also trying to convince the two to stop on their journey. But the film ends with Spyro undaunted in his mission as he turns towards the portal. A confrontation looming over the horizon of time.

 

[eldandythedoubter]

Klonoa: The Phantom Prison
Released on: March 27th, 2001 in Japan and August 18th, 2001 in the United States
Produced by: Namco Pictures and Production I.G.
Distributed by: Nickelodeon Movies
Directed by: Tensai Okamura
Screenplay written by: Hideo Yoshizawa , Tensai Okamura, Mitsuo Iso, and Hiroyuki Imaishi
English Screenplay Translation and Dub Produced by: Michael McChonnohie and Melody Speevak
Art Direction and Character Design by: HIroyuki Imaishi and Hideo Yoshizawa
Budget: Estimated $63 million ($13 million for production and $50 million for marketing)
Box Office Revenue: $240 million worldwide ($128 million in Japan and $112 million in foreign territories)
Cast:
Dave Wittenberg As Klonoa
Stephanie Sheh As Kabi and ???
Joshua Seth As Huepow
Michael McChonnohie As Ghadius
Lara Jill MIller As Lolo
Jessica Straus As Lephise

Production History:
In 1998, Namco released Klonoa: Door to Phantomile for the Playstation, Saturn, and Ultra Nintendo.
“The Klonoa project came about through a contest to create a new mascot character for the company. They had looked at characters like Sonic, Crash, and the rocket possum [Rocket Knight Adventures’ Sparkster] and felt that it would be something that can appeal to a new generation, hopefully in the same fashion that Pac-Man and Mario did in the 80’s. I had an idea for a more cute platformer back at Tecmo but I was always turned down so this felt as good as a chance. That’s when I met Arawi-San. We both talked much about dreams and the creatures that have existed in that realm. Within two weeks, we had a pitch dealing with a young man who fought off the nightmare creatures of myths. Nakamura-san, our company president loved it, but at the time we felt our game irked Iwatani-san because it was replacing Pac-Man in a sense. He would end up leaving the company the same year the game out.”-Hideo Yoshizawa, co-creator of Klonoa.
Created as a means to be new mascot for the company, the game spared no expense in its production and marketing. The game included over 15 minutes of animated cutscenes from Production I.G. The use of cel-shading for the world courtesy of Miki Tominga being the second game to use the art technique after Capcom’s Mega Man Legends, and finally a sixty-eight-piece soundtrack created by the Dream Weavers, an eight-piece composition group led by Kanako Kakino; who would go onto composing future Namco series, The IdolMaster. Upon release, the game would smash all expectations, selling 1.4 million copies worldwide by the end of 1999 and a combined review average of 92. Namco knew they had a hit on their hands with Klonoa and quickly greenlit a spinoff game for the Sega Pluto and Game Boy Alpha.
Enter I.G. Port:
To animate the cutscenes, Production I.G. brought together a good staff helmed up by former GAINAX animators Tensai Okamura, Mitsuo Iso, and Hiroyuki Imaishi. The three had worked together on GAINAX’s last project “Neon Genesis Evangelion”, and generally wish to work together on another project. The success of the game floored the three men hoping that they could put together an idea Imaishi had in mind that he wanted to do after Eva finished production. In late February, the three were pulled into a meeting with Yoshizawa and Nakamura and within the end of that meeting, the project would be greenlit to be released by 2001.
“Yoshizawa-san had shared some of the ideas that he had going forward in the series, and we knew that what he had in mind was something Imaishi could do with a smile on his face and a song in his heart. As for me and Iso-san, we just wanted to keep work coming into the studio and to keep busy.”-Tensai Okamura, Director and Co-Scriptwriter on Klonoa, 2006.
Localization and Distribution:
Shochiku films would distribute the movie in Japan and make a tidy profit of ¥ 50 million yen over its two-month run from March to May. But this was expected, the same week Toho would put out the newest Doraemon film “Nobita and the Winged Braves.” three weeks prior to its release followed by the newest Detective Conan film “Countdown to Heaven” being released two weeks later. Their budget was a modest ¥4.3 million yen, so everyone made their money back hand over fist. As the success reigned in, Namco and Shochiku were approached by Paramount. After the success of Rampage, Paramount followed up with an animated series shown on UPN but doing a sequel would hit a brick wall in 1999 when Midway began their first public offering of stock. Warner Bros. Swooped in to buy about 30% of the stock offered, making them a majority shareholder in one of the largest publishers in the United States. This deal allowed Warner Bros to have first right of refusal to all game adaptions going forward. This all but killed any hope of doing anything else with Midway, so looking forward to another company was the only way to move forward. Paramount would offer a budget of $55 million to distribute the movie in the U.S. and Canada and creative control for the director and writers on the English dub’s production. As for ADR and voice direction, Paramount would look to the dubbing company VoxWorks. Its founder Michael McConnohie, had already cut his teeth with voice direction, translation, and adr production over the last few years at FOX Family Entertainment (formerly Saban Entertainment), along with handling voice direction for Bandai’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space.
Plot:
The film begins with Klonoa (Wittenburg) and Huepow (Seth) running through a grassy field, enjoying their company, and generally having a good time. But these smiles soon fade for Klonoa as he runs into Huepow. After rubbing his head and standing up, he looks up at Huepow who’s frowning at him.
Huepow:
“This feeling was never real, Klonoa.”
Klonoa:
“But Huepow.”
Huepow:
“I needed you to save Phantomile, nothing more.”
Klonoa:
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. Please don’t turn away from me.”
The wind begins to blow hard
Huepow:
(Inaudible words that are mouthed) I needed you.
Klonoa reaches forward to grab Huepow but the wind immediately blows him off a cliff. He screams as he falls into the abyss. He wakes up back in this bed.
Klonoa:
“When will this dream ever leave me. I just want something real.
LIttle does Klonoa know, he is being watched by a young bunny woman.
Kabi (Sheh): “Hmm just a little more and he’ll be ready.”
The opening credits show Klonoa going through the motions of his day in a depressed mood as he sees visions of his life with Huepow. All his favorite interests, all his favorite foods, and the fears he wished to confront would not fill the void in his heart over this. Efforts by his friends, Lolo and Lephise; try to raise his spirits but to no avail. But eventually, Lolo and Lephise gather his friends to have an intervention, and it is here that all of them learn about what Klonoa has gone through:
Klonoa:
“Imagine having a clear image of what’s happening in your life. Imagine questioning everything you love because someone planted it in your mind. Now imagine how happy you were due to those false memories. You all think I should just let this go when it is just as much as part of me as you all were?”
Lolo:
“Klonoa, you must. THIS WASN’T REAL! (She moves to embrace him only to be shoved away by Klonoa’s ears.)”
Klonoa:
“IT WAS REAL TO ME; IT WAS EVERYTHING TO ME! (he storms out in rage.)”
Four days later...
Klonoa finds himself at the edge of a beach, far from Breezegale. He’s been sitting there contemplating what to do: go back and apologize for shoving Lolo, find a way to return to Phantomile, or just leave everything behind. He sits in his thoughts until a volleyball rolls over towards him. He smiles at it as volleyball was always something him and his friends loved to do when they had the time, but that might as well be false. He is then tapped on the shoulder. Klonoa looks over only to be splashed in the face with a purple mist. He coughs and rubs at his eyes to get the mist out and once he does; he sees a yellow tapir with the same ears as him.
Tapir:
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was just trying to get your attention yet nothing worked.”
Klonoa:
“WELL, YOU HAVE IT, WHAT DO YOU WANT?”
Tapir:
“Well, I uh um.”
Klonoa, in his frustration and rage, he throws the volleyball at her and begins to turn away. The tapir manages to grab his ear and holds on tight.
Tapir:
“Just wait. I just wanted to ask; do you want to remove your false memories?”
Klonoa:
“How do you know that? Have you been stalking me?!”
Tapir:
“No, I just heard you muttering to yourself about your memories and I know someone that could help you find the truth.”
Klonoa:
“Who could remove someone implanting false memories into my dreams?”
Tapir:
“Mistress Baki can. She brings all of us peace with her powers. Four years ago, I was trapped in a reoccurring dream where everyone abandoned me, but I managed to find peace when mistress Baki dispelled the dream by giving me a family that would never abandon me. Come with me and I’ll prove it to you.”
The Tapir then opened a green portal.
Klonoa stared at the ground for a bit. This seemed too good to be true, and if it worked would he be able to come back home. More importantly, who would have to come back to. After mulling it over for a bit, Klonoa finds himself being pulled into the portal by the Tapir.
Meanwhile...
Lolo and Lephise are speaking about what to do Klonoa. They agree that the only way to bring Klonoa back to sanity is to have him confront Prince Huepow and give him closure. Lephise knows of a song that can open portals to alternate dreamscapes. She needs Lolo to find Klonoa and convince him to come back to Bell Hill.
Back with Klonoa...

Klonoa finds himself in a grassland fi ed with warped foliage, purple clouds over seeing the sky, and a white sun with a jovial smile slowly dipping into the horizon.
Klonoa:
“Where am I?”
Tapir:
“In the realm of my mistress.”
Klonoa:
“You. I didn’t agree to coming here when you pulled my ear.”
Tapir:
“You may not have said it with your mouth but you did say it in your heart. Now come. Mistress Baki awaits and I will prove to you that she can bring you the healing you desire.”
The two are then attacked by a monster.

“We must hurry, the portal I opened up is in an area that has some terrors.”
The two began to run as the monster prepared to make another pounce. The chase continued as the monster began contorting its limbs to catch up to them. Tapir then grabbed Klonoa by the ear and jumped. From where she jumped, an earth wall rose to block the monster. The monster ran into the wall headfirst. This only stopped it for about 30 seconds as it then shot a laser from its mouth into the wall. It then contorted its limbs to fit into the hole it made before It continued to chase them. The creature then took the form of a wheel on a sports car as it zoomed towards them.
Tapir:
“Split up and meet me at the beach.
The Tapir then throws Klonoa to the right while taking a fighting stance against the monster. Her legs disappear into a green mist and upon contact with the monster, she grabs the nape of its neck and forces it to the ground. The monster continues to struggle but its eyes begin to turn droopy. The Tapir whispers to the monster a phrase.
Tapir:
“Take away my bad dreams.”
The monster falls asleep and a green orb pulls out of its body. The Tapir eats the orb and then gets off the monster as it begins to transform back into its original form.
Joka, former right-hand man of Ghadius.

Meanwhile...
After consulting with Klonoa’s grandfather and Balue, Lolo manages to track Klonoa’s trail back to the beach. When she reaches the shore, she feels the presence of a Tapir. She runs a couple feet forward to discover the portal that Tapir opened slowly beginning to close. Next to the portal is Klonoa’s hat.
Lolo:
“I gotta tell Lephise about this now. But first...”
She sits on the ground and begins a prayer. The prayer stops the closing of the portal and then she rushes off to Bell Hill. Lolo manages to catch up to Lephise just as she pulls out a bracelet.

Lephise begins to warm up her voice when Lolo touches her shoulder. It doesn’t stop Lephise from doing her warmup however and as she begins to sing, a blue portal begins to open up. Coming out of the portal is a large rhino with burning green eyes.

The rhino proceeds to charge into a tree only to phase straight through it. It turns around and begins to contort into a lion. It jumps and swipes Lolo and Lephise only to strike a shield that Lolo conjures up at the last second. The lion tries to phase her way through the shield only to be blown back by Lephise releasing a sonic blast.
Lephise:
“Okay, When did you do that?”
Lolo:
“I’ll tell you after we fight off this creature.”
Lephise begins to hum again while Lolo conjures a magic staff in her hands. The lion begins to grow a rhino’s horn out of its head as it moves into a pouncing position. Lolo casts a gale of wind at the creature before it can pounce but it phases right through as Lephise moves to the left as she releases another sonic blast at the creature. The lion roars and the sound wave force Lolo and Lephise to the ground. Lolo can only watch in fear as the lion slowly walks over to Lephise, jaws open and its fangs bared.
???:
“GALE SLASH!”
A massive boomerang of green energy slices towards the lion as it pivots away from Lephise. A blue portal opens and an armored knight walks out with a chakram. But what surprises Lephise is that the chakram is an exact replica of the bracelet Lolo used to open the portal. The knight rushes forward and slashes the lion with a series of cuts to its arms. On the sixth swing, the lion phased out to avoid the next blow but quickly pulled back into physical form in pain from the follow up swing.
Knight:
“DREAM BINDING!”
The lion is then bound with a ring around its neck. It tries to phase out again only to take another slash from the knight. The lion then roars and recedes its horn only to grow to the size of an elephant.
The Knight heads readies his chakrams and charges fearlessly towards the beast. He leaps and blasts himself into the lion's mouth. The lion slams his mouth shut only for the knight to burst through its back spinning like a drill. The lion shrinks back to regular size and collapses. Lolo helps Lephise while the knight puts away his chakram.
Lephise:
“Thank you for saving us, Sir Knight. Was that how I’m supposed to say it.”
The knight doesn’t respond but reaches for the bracelet. Lolo and Lephise pull the bracelet back from his grip and the knight move into a fighting position.
Lolo:
“I’m sorry but we need this bracelet to save our friend Klonoa.”
Knight:
“Klonoa?”
Lephise:
“You know who he is?”
Knight:
“Yes I do.”
He removes his helmet to reveal a fair skinned boy with aqua blue eyes, yellow hair cut into the shape of a star, and two green orbs serving as pylons on his shoulders.
Lephise:
“PRINCE HUEPOW!!! Where have you been?”
Lolo is confused at who this is as she’s lived a sheltered life at the monastery.
Huepow:
“Trying to keep the dream realm safe from other threats like Ghadius.”
Lolo:
“Lephise, what is Huepow’s relation to Klonoa.”
Lephise:
“He’s the one who helped Klonoa save me from Ghadius.”
Lolo:
(Looks to Huepow with a disgusted look) “And also the one who put those visions in his head that pushed him to reject all of us when we tried to help him.”
She walks towards Huepow and smacks him in the face.
“YOU CAUSED ALL OF THIS. (Another smack) IF YOU DIDN’T PUT THOSE MEMORIES INTO KLONOA’S HEAD (A Punch), HE WOULDN’T HAVE REJECTED US! ”
As Lolo continues her assault and Lephise tries to pull her off Huepow, the prince frowns and begins to cry as he remembers the day, he first met Klonoa.
Flashback begins...
One night, Klonoa is sound asleep in his room. The wind blows into his room, which only causes the boy to turn over and curl up into the blanket. Hovering over him is Huepow with the wind bracelet.
“I’m sorry I have to do this to you, but I need you to take down Ghadius. I’m just a boy with a cape, not a warrior with courage or strength. But hopefully, this will keep you loyal ”
Huepow places the bracelet on Klonoa’s arm and then he places his hands on his head. A series of false memories are planted in his head.
The scene now shifts to the end of their journey. Ghadius lays face first in the ground. Klonoa begins to float back towards a portal that will take him home.
Huepow:
“You’ve served my purpose and saved Phantomile. Now, go home and move on from all of this.
(Internally) I know you aren’t from my kingdom, but I wish you were my friend Klonoa. You showed me how to be brave even when my fear is overwhelming, you showed kindness whenever you could, and now I need to show that same bravery to save my kingdom from an even greater evil. Farewell Klonoa.”
Flashback ends...
The blows continue as Lolo breathes heavily with tears drawing down her face.
Lolo:
“You caused this...You caused this.”
Huepow:
“I know and I think I can help him, just please stop hitting me.”
Lolo:
“How?! He’s now in some other dimension with god knows what.”
Huepow:
“Another dimension. No they couldn’t have...WHERE DID YOU LAST SEE KLONOA?”
Lolo:
“At the beach I found his hat next to a blue portal.”
Huepow:
“Then we have to hurry. If it's what I think opened that portal, we may never see Klonoa again.”
The three runs back to the beach and finds the ground where the portal was closed. Huepow places his bracelet on the ground and the portal immediately opens back up.
Huepow:
“Well at least I know what opened this portal isn’t what I thought it was. The one that opened that portal is a Baku. A creature that eats the bad dreams of those who wishes them to go away. But if they eat too much, they gain the abilities of whatever dream they consume.”
Lephise:
“He said that he was constantly being assaulted by dreams of you abandoning him along with several parts of the memories you planted into him.”
Huepow:
“Then I’m guessing a baku found him and brought him through the portal. (sighs) Alright, we’re going into that portal and bringing Klonoa back. Are you two ready to do this?
Lolo and Lelphise nod in agreement. Huepow widens the portal so that they can all walk through the portal.
Back with Klonoa and the Tapir...

The two enters a massive castle adorned with the symbol of a purple Baku. As they walk over towards the throne room, they show multiple creatures in a deadened bliss. One tending to a garden, another teaching a group of schoolchildren, the third inspecting diamonds to be made into jewelry, but the most surprising is Ghadius playing a flute in front of a barrel. Coming out of the barrel is Baladium, one of the many creatures that Klonoa fought through this first journey with Huepow.
Klonoa:
“All these people who are working in the castle, did they come here for healing as well.”
Tapir:
“All will be revealed in the throne room.”
They reach a large door and the Tapir opens a smaller door in it. In the center of the room is a purple Baku sitting on a modest chair.
Baku:
“Ah Tapi, you have returned with a new companion.”
Tapi:
“Yes Mistress Kabi. This is Klonoa, the hero of Phantomile. He is need of healing from a series of false memories implanted into his dreams.
Kabi:
“I see. These memories are that debilitating to you, Hero?”
Klonoa:
No, they just mean so much to me that I wish they were real. Every night I see myself playing volleyball with him, eating burgers, and I remember every leg of our journey. I just...I just want to know if they are real or just the tool in someone’s plan.”
Kabi:
“What you ask of, is something I cannot do for free. What are you willing to offer as payment?”
Klonoa:
“What do you want in return, Mistress?”
Kabi smiles and rises from her chair.
Kabi:
“Just hearing that from you, Klonoa.”
She places her hands on Klonoa’s cheeks and kisses him. In that moment, Klonoa sees the one thing that was never shown to him. The night Huepow planted those memories in his head. A wave of rage washes over Klonoa and once Kabi removes her hand from his head, he is scowling at the door.
Klonoa:
“HE...HE USED ME... I’LL NEVER FORGIVE HIM FOR THIS!”
Klonoa turns on his heel ready to find Huepow only for Kabi to pull Klonoa into a hug. The two stay there for a few minutes.
Kabi:
“You have no idea how to get back to the one who hurts you on your own. Are you prepared to send every waking moment of your life hunting them for this? Letting this go is the only way, you will find healing.”
One of the palace guards' bursts into the room.
Guard (Mcchonohie):
Dire news mistress, we are under attack. A blue portal just opened at the southern gate followed by a gale of wind
Kabi:
“How did someone managed to get here without my permission?”
Guard:
“After the portal opened, a gale of wind forced the gate opened. Then three people ran out of the portal. I think they are making a beeline towards the palace gate. Fortunately, I do have a visual of the interlopers.”
Kabi places her head on the guard’s head and sees his last memories. She frowns as she sees two girls and a green knight running towards the palace gates.
Kabi:
“Tapi, rally all our forces in the castle. I want these three captured alive. As for you Klonoa, stay here and I will show you my power in full.”
As Huepow, Lolo, and Lephise ran towards the inner sanctum of the castle; they are attacked by Ghadius and Baldium.
Ghadius:
“We all found healing here, and yet you have come to destroy our sanctuary.”
Lolo:
“WE’RE NOT HERE TO DESTROY YOU, WE JUST WANT TO SAVE OUR FRIEND.!”
Baldium:
“To deny him his own healing, right? Our mistress showed us what you did to him and you think you can save him?!”
Huepow:
“We won’t know until we try. The Klonoa I know is forgiving and goes out of his way to help others.”
Ghadius:
“Our mistress gave us orders to bring you in alive. Give up peacefully or you will be forced to kneel.”
The three charge their adversaries with steel determination. But as the battle goes, they found themselves overwhelmed by every other person in the castle. Huepow in a last-ditch effort pulls out his chakram and creates a tornado that blows straight through the ceiling and knocks out everyone else in the room. Huepow looks around for Lolo and Lephise only to be knocked out by the back of the head. A second wave had managed to be just down the hall when the tornado was unleashed.
When Huepow wakes up, he is now in the throne room being held in place by Kabi’s forces. He looks to the left to see Lolo held in the same path and then to the right to see Lephise in the same position. All three of them are forming a triangle with a circle in the center.
Kabi:
“Good you’re awake. Now we can begin the healing process.”
Huepow:
“WHERE IS KLONOA AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM?”
Kabi:
“He is central to the process, so please be patient.”
Klonoa walks in a robe adorned with Kabi’s symbol in the center. He looks over to Lolo and Lephise and then scowls at Huepow.
Kabi:
“Klonoa, who would you like for me to use my powers on first?”
Klonoa:
“Lolo, I want to save Huepow for last.”
The ritual begins as Klonoa sees the dream that Lolo had been having for some time now. It is of Klonoa, Lephise, Balue, and her having a nice picnic on the beach followed by a game of volleyball. Klonoa’s scowl moves into a neutral position. He shakes his head and as he moves over to Lephise, he hears Huepow scream that Kabi is a baki and she is destroying those dreams. He sits in front of Lephise and begins the process anew. In Lephise’s dream, Klonoa sees not a dream but a memory of the day they met from her perspective. Both of them have a bit of a sparkle as they advanced on her. Despite the full possession of Nahatomb, Lephise still retained some semblance of herself.
Lephise:
“Klonoa, Huepow please end this.”
Huepow:
“Klonoa, put me on a wind bullet and shoot me into Nahatomb’s mouth.
Klonoa:
“But what about you.?”
Huepow:
“Don’t worry, we’ll always be together. Now shoot me.”
Lephise couldn’t help but shed a tear and smile at the two friends. She honestly wishes that she had someone that felt that way about her as well.
Once the ritual ends, Klonoa is crying, as he feels that all Huepow did was lie to him throughout their journey. He scowls again as he moves turns towards Huepow.
Klonoa:
“When you sent me back, that was your last lie Huepow. NOW YOU WILL SHOW ME THE TRUTH!”
When going through Huepow’s dreams, Klonoa sees the aftermath of Huepow’s decision to send Klonoa back.
Huepow:
“I’m sorry I had to do this to you Klonoa and I’m sorry I had to break my promise. But I will return to you one day and I will be strong to help you keep the dream realms safe.”
Klonoa sees everyday as Huepow trains to use the wind bullets, followed by forging the gale armor he’s wearing today, and finally we see him use the chakrams to fight off another knight wearing a crown and wielding a scepter. WIth every day that passes, Huepow says “wait for me Klonoa, I’ll keep my promise.” The vision ends with Huepow opening a portal back to Klonoa’s world and jumping in.
Klonoa:
“You, you wanted to come back. But you put those memories in my head. Why did you want to come back?”
Huepow:
“Klonoa, I placed those false memories in your mind so that you would help me stop Ghadius from bringing forth his nightmare on all of us. But I regret having to do it that way.
Klonoa:
“SO WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST ASK ME TO HELP YOU?
Huepow:
“Because I was scared you would say no or bow out during the journey.”
Huepow was right. There were plenty of times where the forces of Ghadius put the fear of God into Klonoa. But as he went on, he understood if Ghadius got his way there would be no peace in Breezegale. He takes a deep breath and turns to Kabi.
Klonoa:
“I’ve found my healing. Let them go.”
Klonoa is immediately bound by the robe he is wearing. Kabi stands to both of them and scowls.
Kabi:
“I will do no such thing Klonoa. All those who find healing here can never leave. And with you here, I can complete my collection of all those involved in the siege of Phantomile.”
Klonoa tries to struggle against the binding but to no avail as the robe squeezes so tight that he passes out.
Kabi:
“Now all of you sleep as I begin the process to give you your healing.”
Lolo and Lephise pass out next and just as the process begins for Huepow he transforms back into his orb form and he tackles into Kabi and her minions. He screams bind release and every one immediately wakes up. Kabi stands back up and looks absoleutely livid at the state of event.
Kabi then begins to absorb all of her minions and transforms into a kaiju sized beast pictured below:

Our heroes stand up and pull out their weapons except for Klonoa. Huepow comes over to Klonoa and offers him a hand.
Huepow:
“Klonoa, do you want to fight this creature with your friends?”
Klonoa nods and takes Huepow’s hand. A blinding light shines in their paws creating a new bracelet in the shape of a dreamcatcher
Huepow:
“Alright people, a baku can make themselves intangible after feeding on the dreams of its victims. What we have to do is run her rampant until she turns tangible again, then we ensnare her with the dreamcatcher.”
Kabi proves to be a difficult foe, as it moves around the castle shooting beams from its eyes, slashing with its claws, and stomping through the grounds and walls with its paws from its intangibility. Klonoa uses the wind bracelet to grab as many of her minions and throwing them wherever Kabi is visible. It is only after Joka is grabbed and thrown at Kabi that she unleashes a beam that wipes him out. Kabi then becomes tangible to catch her breath. Lephise shouts to send Kabi towards Lolo who then binds her with a spell. Klonoa then runs ahead and slams the dreamcatcher on Kabi’s head. Kabi then responds but swallowing Klonoa in one gulp.
Lolo:
“KLONOA!”
Klonoa and Huepow wake up within the belly of the Baku. All that is there is just a platform and a heart. But they quickly find that they're not alone, within the heart is the very Tapir that brought Klonoa to this world. The two realize that this is Kabi.
Kabi:
“I just want to be healed. All these dreams just make me wish for something real as well”
Klonoa uses the wind bullet to grab Kabi and pull her into a hug.
Klonoa:
“Do you want to find your healing with me, Kabi?”
With tears in her eyes, she says yes.
Two months later...
Klonoa walks out of his house and stretches, ready to face the day and have a good time. As the credits roll, he is joined by Lolo, Lephise, Huepow, Balue, and finally Kabi at Bell Hlll ready to have a nice picnic.
Reception:
With a rating of C+ by IMDB and a gross revenue of about $112 million in foreign territories. Klonoa would go on to be Nickelodeon Movies #2 highest grossing film to date only being beat out by The Rugrats Movie. While the film did well enough to greenlight a sequel, instead a animated series would be put into production in July. This series would premiere in 2003 as Klonoa and the Dream Knights on NIckelodeon’s Slam block alongside Viz Media’s Yu-Gi-Oh, Mirage Studios’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mattel’s He-Man and the Master of the Universe, and Moonscoop’s Code Lyoko.
In December, the movie would be released on VHS and DVD along with a special edition packaged together with Klonoa’s handheld release Moonlight Museum. This game, developed for the Sega Pluto and the Nintendo Game Boy Alpha; would serve as a follow-up to the movie and to the first game but not an official sequel. The boxset would sell modestly and would be the final catalyst for Namco to give Paramount their blessing to go ahead with adaptions of their other IP’s.
For its production staff, Hiroyuki Imaishi and Mitsuo Iso would be the main showrunners for all three seasons before moving onto their dream project: Tengen Toppa Gurren Laagaan. As for Tensai Okamura, he would be reunited with former Gainax Director Hideaki Anno for the 2004 live action revival of Cutey Honey. Finally, series creator Hideo Yoshizawa would begin development of the next home console Klonoa game: Empire of Dreams which would be released as a timed exclusive for the Macintosh platform in 2003, followed by a release for the Neptune, PS2, and GNES in 2004.


Sixteen pages later, it is done. Now to start writing out those three Mario games I've had lined up for the GBA and GNES. @Megafighter3, please place the threadmarks on this and on Spyro when you get a chance.​

 

[Megafighter3]

Contra 3: The Alien Wars

Directed By: John McTiernan
Written By: Shane Black/Fred Dekker
Produced By: Orion Pictures
Distributed By: Columbia-TriStar
Based On: Contra by Konami

Cast
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Bill Rizer
Sylvester Stallone as Lance Bean
Lucy Liu as Lucia Mandrake
Karl Urban as Ray Poward Jr.
Uma Thurman as Sheena Etranzi
Jesse "The Body" Ventura as Commander Doyle
Steve Blum as the voice of Emperor Gava

Release Date: August 25, 2001
Budget: $350 million
Box Office: $710 million​

The final entry in the Contra trilogy sees the Contra team return to the United States to face off against the Red Falcon forces. The film itself was built around three set pieces, each one facing against a familiar boss from the series. They're joined by the mysterious cyborg Lucia and her canine companion Fang, found traversing what remains of New York.. While Bill and Ray are accepting of Lucia, Lance and Sheena are suspicious of her throughout. After defeating Kimkoh, a crawling cicada-like creature with a giant face resembling a human woman, they discover that Lucia is a bionoid created by Dr. Mandrake, furthering tensions between the Contra team.

The battle with Java ends with Lance getting captured, making the third act a rescue mission. At the climax, the team find Lance in Gava's personal spacecraft landed in the center of Madison Square Garden, discovering that he's been possessed by Emperor Gava, resulting in the moment that sold the movie: Arnold vs. Sly. The fight goes on while Ray, Sheena and Lucia work on launching and detonating the ship. In the end, Gava releases control of Lance to try and stop the launch, Bill and Lance working together to stop him while the others escape. The ship launches with Bill and Lance inside, entering warp speed and detonating. The film ends with Ray radioing Commander Doyle to inform him that Bill and Lance were KIA, but that Gava has been killed, completing the mission. Doyle tells Ray that all that remains is sweeping the area of Red Falcon's forces.

The film was criticized as being more of a special effects showcase than a film and being far more ridiculous than its predecessors with the cybernetic dog Fang being a sticking point. The actors were praised for their work during the inter-team tension over where Lucia's loyalties lay, but otherwise it was seen as a popcorn film, and stale popcorn at that. Regardless, the film managed to make even thanks to a lack of competition and many action fans did praise the Schwarzenegger/Stallone fight for finally happening, even if there wasn't a conclusive winner.

 

[kinnikuniverse]

Released in october 2001

Produced by: Lionsgate Films
Distributed by: Lionsgate

Directed by: Brian de Palma
Screenplay written by: Brian de Palma, Mark Daly

Executive producers: edward pressman, frank giustra

Budget: $15 million

Cast:

Anne Hathaway as Jennifer Simpson
Lacey Chabert as Charlotte
Anna Paquin as Laura Harrington
Sophia Bush as Anne
Nancy Allen as Ms. Mary/Mary Barrows
Mark Hamill as Simon Barrows
??? As Scissorman/Bobby Barrows


SUMMARY​

When young Mark Daly, a scriptwriter who only did low budget indy films and a dark comedy that saw limited release, went to japan as a christmas gift along with his geeky friends in 1997, he would never have imagined that a fateful trip to a video game store would change his life forever.

As he visited the store, his friend james Yukimura, who worked as a translator of manga at Viz Media, presented to him the PS1 version of the original clock tower video game. He remembered being fascinated with the cover art, how inviting, yet disturbing it was.

Playing on their hotel room's PS1, Daly played through the game, with Yukimura translating the story to him as they played. He played many video games before, but he never played one so scary and stressful! In fact, he thought that it would make a pretty good movie, wht with its slow pace and tight plot.

He then began writing the first drafts of the movie script with Yukimura's help, Spending the whole of 97 and 98 going to studio after studio, each and every producer in hollywood wanting nothing to do with such an obscure and niche Licence and project.

Thinking his script wasn't up to snuff, he returned on the typewritter, except inspiration started becoming rare...that is, until he played another playstation game: Silent hill.

Enamored by the more psychological take on horror that silent hill proposed, as well as binge watching a twin peaks marathon and watching Eraserhead, Daly began rewriting the script, toning down the occult aspects and adding most notably the relationships between the girls as well as the tragic depictions of the barrows and the infamous "Danielle" Scene.

With that second draft in hand, Mark toured studios again. this time, however, he would find a suitor. During a party he attended with his friend and producer Andy Richards, mark was introduced to Frank Giustra, founder and producer of emerging studio Lionsgate films, and Famed director Brian De Palma, whom Giustra wanted to direct a separate film produced by lionsgate. He showed the two his script, and the two were impressed, Especially De Palma, who even helped revise a few details of the inexperienced writer's script to present to Giustra and american Psycho Producer Edward Pressman at a Lionsgate meeting.

And thus, the Clock Tower movie was born.

De Palma and the studio spent the whole of 99 and 2000 working on and filming the picture, including on-location shots filmed in california's napa valley, as well as having a cast of young, relatively unknown actresses surrounded by experienced actors Mark Hamill and Nacy Allen. Filming finished in fall of 2000, while post-production finished in summer 2001, the movie finally released on friday october 26th, 2001.

After an initial box office result of $24 million, a slight profit over their $15 million budget, the movie would quickly increase its profile as positive word of mouth, mainly coming from Horror fanatics and Moviegoers that normally don't play video games, would see its stock rise, but it's not until De Palma's friend Steven Spielberg praised the movie on Siskel and Ebert that the movie really started taking off. Eventually, more and more people began going to theaters to watch it, making Clock Tower the Sleeper Hit of 2001, with the movie making way more money via VHS and DVD copies than in theaters, a similar path to success as John Carpenter's The thing (1982). It also helps that the home video version of Clock Tower was released at the same time as the boom in similar types of psychological horror flicks such as the ring and ju-on: the grudge.

And safe to say, it's easy to see why this movie became one of this generation's most influential horror films! Back to the roots that made him famous (Carrie, Sisters), De Palma brings a slow-paced, hitchcockian/french new wave approach that was a much needed breath of fresh air in the endless seas of horror movies following the fast-paced, jumpscare-filled, MTV generation-pandering "Scream" mold of the time period. Instead of going for cheap scares, De Palma makes us witness each and every minute of the slow and dreadful descent and decay of the relationships between the main group of victims composed of orphans Jennifer (Anne Hathaway) and her 3 friends Charlotte (Lacey Chabert), Anne (Sophia Bush) and Laura (Anna Paquin), as well as the despicable, yet sad tale of the movie's antagonists, The Barrows family, as the secrets of the Eponymous Clock Tower are discovered one by one.


It was a bold decision, going for an unknown actress who never appeared in a single movie before, but De Palma and Daly knew during the auditions that young Anne Hathaway was the one to play Jennifer. With De Palma and her co-stars allen and Hamill's experience and guidance helping her and the other young actresses massively, the girls pulled off solid, convincing performances, with the standouts being definitely Chabert's rough-yet-sensible tomboy with a certain subtle hint of homosexuality in her interactions with jennifer, especially in her emotional monologue to Jen about her past and their friendship, which almost reads like a hidden declaration of love, which makes her soul-wrenching death by Mary (nancy allen)'s hands even more poignant,as well as sophia bush who, thanks to De Palma and hamill, pulls out a good performance as the confident and caring-looking, but ultimately selfish and cowardly Anne, whose death scene is a very memorable moment of the film: the image of a mentally-beaten Anne, depressed after finally realising that her attitude led to things getting worse, crawling in front of the courtyard's pond, her reflection on the water, reminiscent of the famous painting of narcissus, before the camera switches underwater, where we see each and every step of Anne drowning in the pool, watching her expressions of pain and suffocation as life slowly drains out of her body as the pool gets filled with blood from a scissorman stabbing, being among the most haunting scenes in the film.

But it is the main star hathaway, as well as The most famous name on the bill, Mark Hamill, that truly shines in this film. Hathaway is very convincing as this soft-spoken and sensible, yet determined young lady trying to get her and her friends out of this creepy mansion, and she bring her character's story arc to life with an eerily realistic portrayal of Anxiety disorder, which, given what we know now of hathaway's own struggles with it, is perhaps no surprise.

Meanwhile, despite being the biggest name in the movie at the time of its release, Mark Hamill only appears in one or two scenes, yet he definitely made it count! His simon Barrows chills the bone of any moviegoer, his sulking, Cerebral demeanor pretty reminiscent of Anthony Hopkins's Hannibal lecter, and he even sneaks in a small, darker-toned pinch of his Joker voice during his show-stealing monologue about Simon and Mary's mutually abusive relationship and the "cradle under the stars". However, Unlike Lecter, Hamill's performance is tinted with sadness and sorrow, you can really feel the regret in his words as he spoke to hathaway, who sells the entire speech with her facial expressions, showing both fear, disgust and sympathy to the broken, tortured soul inside the crass Dungeon cell.

Normally, when a horror movie has a villain like the Scissorman, they usually go the typical "slasher" route. De Palma thought otherwise, and opted to use a page out of his idol hitchcock's book by not showing the threat for almost the entire movie, constantly building up our villain using shadows, camera tricks and generally keeping him in the dark, only witnessing the aftermath of his gruesome murders. Finally, at the end of the movie, when Mary and Jen confront each other, we finally see what the famous scissorman looks like, and again, de palma and daly subverts expectations by having our slasher villain not as an intimidating force of nature, but a young man...a deformed, unstable mess of a young man, the product of Mary and Simon's abusive relationship that turned cute little Bobby Barrows into a tragic monster (further emphasised by the excellent makeup job on Bobby's face, reminiscent of horror legend Lon Chaney's Phantom of the opera) , and also took the life of his stillborn sister Danielle.

Speaking of the latter, the story of Mary and her unborn child's fate is masterfully told through Nancy Allen's performance. We see her go from caring and generous, yet eery Surrogate mother to a broken, insane woman mad with grief and resentment through the film, and it's as emotionally painful as it is frightening. The scene where Jennifer finds the aformentionned "Cradle under the stars", which turns out to be a cradle containing the Fetus of the stillborn Danielle, is not only a direct nod to David Lynch's Eraserhead, but Hathaway's terrified and hurt expressions followed by Hathaway preaching for God to have mercy on Danielle's soul really sells it.

And what about the ending? After Jen finally arrives at the final floors of the castle to access the clock tower, Mary finally catches up with her and is about to blow Jen's brains out before Scissorman arrives and finally has his revenge, killing mary by stabbing her and making her walk back right into a fatal electric schock (a scene that many in the audience cheered for), before focusing on Jennifer, looming to finish the job.

After a tense and spectacular stair climbing scene, Jen reache dthe clock tower first, only to sprain her ankle while trying to run. With nowhere to go, she panicks as Scissorman slowly approaches her, scissor snapping repeatedly in anticipation as he went for the kill.

But then, in a last ditch effort, Jen grabbed the rope and pulle dwith all of her remaining strength, making the bells toll loudly and making both her and Scissorman's ears suffer from the loud ringing.

A mad scissorman in pain danced wildly with his hands on his ears, his scream of death completely absorbed by the loud bells as he fell to his death.

Jen simply fell on her knees, covering her bleeding ears, the bell tolling louder and louder.

And then...silence...

Followed by white noise...

Jen, who was kneeing in pain mere minutes before, removed her hands from her ears, not knowing where she was and not feeling anything in her ears anymore.

She slowly stood up and walked, with difficulty from her sprained ankle, towards the edge of the clock tower.

The sound of the bells was the only sound heard through the final minutes of the film as Hathaway looks at the endless series of moutains in the distance, showing that there is nowhere to go now, that there is no safe haven...

She then delivers an epic Thousand-yard stare at the camera.

Then, the screen slowly fades to black...


...cue credits.

 

[eldandythedoubter]

Nintendo Game Boy Alpha

Potential Launch Date: May 20th, 2001 in Japan, July 31st, 2001 in North America, and October 18th, 2001 in Europe and Australia.
Media: Philips Go Gear Flash Cartridges. Minimum Size: 12MB. Maximum Size: 80MB.
Screen dimensions: (2.4 in × 1.8 in), 4.24 in diagonally, 0.30 mm dot pitch, 24-bit depth (262,144 colors),.
Screen Resolution: 256 × 210 pixels
A 3-stage backlight screen is installed in the console.
Shell dimensions: A rectangle with the screen in the center, an 8-direction d-pad on the left, the back light power switch underneath it, 4 face buttons marked A, B, X, Y on the right along with the select and start buttons underneath it. On the bottom of the handheld is the cartridge slot which can hold all Game Boy Games, a ac plugin and the L trigger on the left and a link cable port and the R trigger on the right. On the bottom of the handheld is the volume switch on the left, , and a headphone jack in the center. On the right side of the handheld is the power switch.
CPU: ARM7EJ-S for Alpha Games clocked at 33 Mhz, along with an Intel 8080 set at 8.4 Mhz for Game Boy Emulation.
Soundchip: Philips SAA1099
Memory: 4 MB of ROM. 1 MB is used to store game saves, 1MB is used to run the OS, and 2 MB is used to store E-reader data.
Battery: Rechargeable lithium-ion battery. 10-18 hours depending on the backlight.

Development History:
In 1996, longtime engineer and creator of the Game Boy line Gunepi Yokoi departed Nintendo to form his own electronics company, Koto Labs. Together with Sega and NEC, his first post-Nintendo project, the Pluto would release in November 14th, 1998 to rave reviews from the gaming press and a commercial launch of over 750,000 units in Japan alone. Touting a 10MB cartridge limit, the ability to turn on and off the backlight screen, a battery life of up to 20 hours on 2 AA batteries, and eventually the ability to play all games through their next home console, the Neptune. Nintendo knew that once again they had an uphill battle to keep developer support on their handheld and keep consumers willing to buy their brand, so together with Philips they looked for a new group to create their next handheld. Philips decided to place a design pitch contest to various partners. Several companies pitched their ideas, including Nokia, Samsung, Hasbro; through their Tiger Electronics brand, and even Philips's partner in the LCD industry; LG Electronics. All pitches would be turned down by Nintendo due to the sheer cost of parts in the manufacturing. Ultimately, Nintendo and Philips would partner with Intel (who is also developing the main CPU for the GNES) to create the next handheld. Its codename: Project Cyprus.

Boosting the Power of Storage

From day one, Philips and Nintendo wanted to create a handheld as powerful as the Super Nintendo CD, but it just wasn’t feasible due to the memory size of 400MB. One such attempt, Project Atlantis; was a portable cd player with a flip top screen attached.

Pictured: A Project Atlantis Prototype running The Legend of Zelda: War for Hyrule.
Unfortunately, the unit cost $400 to manufacture in 1996 with the technology at the time. By 1997, the price had only dipped down to $350 effectively scuttling this pitch for good. With Sega’s announcement of the 10MB limit on Pluto carts, Nintendo decided to look back to another project used: the UNES Game Pak. When the UNES was in development, it was originally done in mind with cartridges. But once Philips was brought in with CDs, that project was abandoned by Nintendo. Philips however seem to like the compression technique used that allowed these carts to reach 32MB on their own. With Nintendo’s permission, Philips would use this compression technique in their own cartridge prototype: The Go Gear Flash Carts. These cartridges would have a minimum limit of 12MB minimum limit and a maximum limit of 80MB. With Intel providing the chips that would allow backwards compatibility with the previous Game Boy Carts and Philips providing the memory and soundchip. All that was left was the design of the shell. Head Engineer Satoru Okada (not to be confused with Satoru Iwata) insisted that the system should have a landscape layout to emulate the SNES’s controller as much as possible. As such the final layout is as follows: A d-pad on the upper left corner, four face buttons on the upper right corner marked a, b, x, and y, the select and start button a few inches down. In the bottom corners are two stereo speakers. On the bottom edge is the power switch and the headphone jack. On the top edge is the cartridge slot in the center, a plugin connector for the ac adaptor at the right, a link cable port at the left, and the L and R triggers at the very end. Finally on the right edge is the power switch and the backlight button.

Pictured prototype running Donkey Kong Country 2

The Spaceworld Unveiling

While development continued behind closed doors, the rumor mill began running like a wheel on a stock car. Nintendo kept tight lipped about the GBα throughout 1999 despite constant pestering from the press. This continued even into 2000 when the PS2 and Sega Neptune was announced its final launch lineup at E3. Nintendo would roll into E3 with only a tip of the hand. Tune into Spaceworld and you will see the beginning of a new era of gaming. That was all it took to light the fuse of both consumers and press officials alike. On August 24th, 2000, Nintendo Spaceworld opened with a massive demo reel of the Super NES greatest titles: Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, Megaman X, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and finally The Legend of Zelda: War for Hyrule. With the final release, the screen then shrunk to the GBα with practically no loss of detail on the sprites or backgrounds. The screen shifts to a montage of the new games, which are as follows: Return to Sarasaland, Zelda: Another Hero, Advance Wars, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword of Ellibe, Megaman 8, Faselei: Trials of a Mercenary, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Dragon Ball: Kami’s Trial, and finally Metroid: Zero Mission. The montage ends with the console itself.

Final Shell of the Game Boy Alpha

The show would continue with a demonstration of the console’s features. Backwards compatibility with all game boy family titles along with super game boy enhancements and the ability to speed up and slow down gameplay on these games. Link cable accessibility would be done through a new port for up to 4 levels of connectivity. Once all the hardware features were spoken, a gameplay demo for Super Mario Bros: Return to Sarasaland would be shown. After that, the official price was announced: $150 for the console and Mario as its pack-in game along with its release date: May 20th, 2001 for Japan, July 31st, 2001 for North America, and October 18th, 2001 for Europe and Oceania. Following that, the presentation would move onto unveiling to the Giga Nintendo Entertainment System.

Launch Titles:

Note: *- marks timed exclusive games for the system, * marks a multiplatorm release or the system.

Super Mario Bros: Return to Sarasaland.
Publisher: Nintendo. Developer: Nintendo R&D 1/Alphadream
An action RPG that sees Mario, Luigi, and Princess Daisy liberating the kingdoms of Sarasaland from Tatanga and his new consort, Queen Shroob.

The Legend of Zelda: Another Hero
Publisher: Nintendo. Developer: Flagship Games (a subsidiary of Capcom).
Set in the timeline of the live action movies, this game sees Prince Ricard Hyrule journeying to the protectorate of Picor to seal the Wind Mage Vaati from unleashing a gale storm on the kingdom and all that follow it. It is the first Zelda to have four player co-op as its centerpiece as Ricard must bring together three other warriors to brave the eight dungeons that can seal Vaati away.

Advance Wars
Publisher: Nintendo. Developer: Intelligent Systems.
Essentially the same as OTL but with the slight change that each nation is a clan in a popular online strategy game.

Megaman 8: Scourge of the Stardroids *-
Publisher: Capcom. Developer: Capcom CGDP Studio 1
Also available for the Pluto, this game sees Megaman and Bass teaming together to stop the machinations of the Stardroids, a group of alien robots hellbent on wiping out all organic life. This would be the final classic Megaman game until the release of the reboot, (NAME REDACTED DUE TO SPOILERS).

Faselei-Trials of the Mercenary. *
Publisher: SNK. Developer: Sacnoth Inc.
Released in otl on the Neo Geo Pocket Color, this is another tactical strategy game pushed to be a homage to Square’s Front Mission.

Dragon Ball: Kami’s Trial. *-
Publisher: Bandai. Developer: SNK (Dimps Division)
Developed in co-op with Dragon Ball Z: A Cold Retribution, this game is a what-if scenario detaling what would happen if Kami undertook the trials of Earth Guardian with King Piccolo still being part of him.

Megaman Battle Network. *-
Publisher: Capcom. Developer: Capcom CGDP Studio 3
Developed by former members of the Megaman Legends team, the game shows alternate universe where network communication became the front lead of technology in the 21st century instead of robotics.

F-Zero Maximum Velocity.
Publisher: Nintendo. Developer: ND Cube.
The massive fast paced racing game returns to its roots but with the addition of a 2D story mode that sees a bounty being placed on the the solar system's greatest bounty hunter: Captain Falcon.

Dodgeball Advance.
Publisher: Atlus. Developer: Million Co. LTD.
Same as otl.

Golden Sun.
Publisher: Nintendo. Developer: Camelot Software Planning.
Same as otl.

Klonoa: Moonlight Museum *
Publisher: Namco. Developer: Phantomile Games.
Released alongside The Phantom Prison home video release, this game sees Klonoa and Huepow enter a Museum to find the information about the sleepless emperor.

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure *
Publisher: Universal Interactive Studios. Developer: Vicarious Visions.
Same as otl, but it would have do well as establishing VV as the go to studio for Crash Bandicoot. Their next game, Crash Bandicoot: The Twisted Timeline, would be released for all home consoles one year later.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon *-
Publisher: Konami. Developer: KCEJ Studio 2.
Same as otl.

Shantae: Half-Genie Shapeshifter *
Publisher: Capcom. Developer: WayForward Technologies.
Originally built for the Game Boy Color, this title is placed to be the next big 2D franchise for Capcom.

Spyro: Catacombs of Avalar *
Publisher: Universal Interactive Studios. Developer: Krome Studios.
Instead of the otl game Season of Ice, Catacombs of Avalar is a metroidvania game that sees Spyro, Elora, and Hunter explore a lost dragon colony underneath the castle of summer forest. Together the three must work together to bring these dragons back to the surface.


Overall Results:

Upon launch, the Game Boy Alpha would sell over 1 million units within its first month in Japan. As for North America, a modest 700,000 units. For Europe, 500,000 units sold within the first day. This beat out the launch of the Pluto’s launch in every territory except the U.S. launch where Sega pulled in about 750,000 in the first month. With the Pluto currently at 10 million units shipped worldwide at the end of 2000, Nintendo knows they have an uphill battle ahead of them. The next round of the handheld wars have began in full.

Part 2 of the launch will be about the pack-in game, Super Mario Bros: Return to Sarasaland.​

 

[eldandythedoubter]

Well it has been too long, but school is finally done for the term and I can get back into this story. So here it is: MORTAL KOMBAT 3: DEVESTATION OF THE FALLEN GOD!

Mortal Kombat: Devastation of the New God

Distributed and produced by: New Line Cinema
Directed by: Juan Carlos Coto and Jack Sholder
Writer: Kevin Droney with script doctoring done by John Tobias.
Based on: Mortal Kombat by Midway.
Release Date: November 14th, 2001.
Budget: $78 Million
Domestic Box Office Total: $ 470 million worldwide. $270 million domestic and $200 million in foreign territories.

Cast:
Robin Shou as Liu Kang
Bridgette Wilson as Sonya Blade
Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage
George Takei as Raiden
Ming-Na Wen as Kitana
Michael Jai White as Jax Briggs
Bryan Clark as Shao Kahn (Voice of Frank Welker)
Tony Jaa as Quan Chi
Brandon Lee as Sub-Zero
Chris Casamassa as Scorpion
Michelle Yeoh as Sindel
Kelly Hu as Mileena
Doug Jones as Baraka
Chris Morgan as Kabal (Voice of Kevin Michael Richardson)
Thuy Trang as Jade
Litefoot as Nightwolf
Chris Conrad as Kurtis Stryker
Kane Kosugi As Noob Saibot (Voiced by Steven Blum)
Ciarán Hinds As Shinnok
Production History:​

Midway entered 1999 riding high as a company. The final episode of Rampage: The Animated Series had premiered in November, the home video release of MK: Annihilation had brought in over $400 million worldwide by the end of the year, and the third film was well into production. With all of this in mind, Midway made the decision to make their first public offering in March for about 18% of their stock at $15 per share. Time Warner, which had been in a massive Acquistion spree for the last two years jumped at the stock not only to lock Midway into an exclusive contract with their film rights (Rampage is held by Paramount Pictures) but also prop up their video game division, Time Warner Interactive. Time Warner would buy about 15% of the offered stock, making them a majority shareholder within Midway.
As for the film itself, director Paul Anderson was at his limit. He wanted to return to writing his films again but executive producer Lawrence Kasanoff would refuse his scripts for each film. He was prepared to walk off the project in early 2000, but current CEO Robert Shayne would intervene to keep him on the project by signing a check around $15 million to make the film under these conditions. Anderson would refuse the payoff and leave in March with only about 10 minutes of the film shot and sent to print. To fill the hole, Juan Carlos Sato and Jack Soulder; the showrunners behind the HBO spinoff, Mortal Kombat: Chronicles would be given the task filming as directors.
As for the writing staff, John Tobias once again took more of an editorial role for this film as at the time he was in charge of the development staff behind the game that would be coming out alongside the movie, Mythologies: The Rise of Outworld. This game would see players take the role of Shao Zeung, guardian god of Outworld during the reign of Onaga the Dragon King, the campaign against the realms of Tarkata; Zaterra; and Edenia, and the repelling of Khaosrealm. The game would be released as a launch title for the Giga Nintendo Entertainment System, followed by a release to the PS2 and Sega Neptune in December.

The First Trailer:​

Post-production on MK3 would be complete in July 2001 and its first trailer would be attached to the theatrical release of Training Day. A transcript of the trailer is as follows:
Narrator (Kevin Michael Richardson): Five years has passed since Shao Khan’s invasion of Earthrealm and neither realm shows any sign of victory.
*The scene shifts to a battlefield where modern day soldiers open fire on a horde of Hellbeasts. Only ten of these creatures fall to the gunfire before the horde crashes and gores the first wave of soldiers on their horns. The next scene sees a conclave of Saurians fighting off Centaurs with their acid spray. Then, footage from Chronicles is shown with Kurtis Stryker and Kabal are fighting against a red kunoichi throwing spikes of blood made from their fallen squad mates. *
Narrator: The fools don’t even realize that their folly strengthens a greater foe.
*The next scene shows a dark portal opening from the ground of the sky portal. A geyser of green energy bursts from the portal with a chorus of screams. At the end of these screams, Quan Chi (played by Tony Jaa) rises from the portal with a now zombified Sindel, a black ninja with burning green eyes, and a dark green ogre creature wrapped in chains. *
Narrator: “If both sides do not put their differences aside, all realms will suffer a fate worse than death itself.”
MORTAL KOMBAT: DEVESTATION OF THE ELDER GOD
COMING NOVEMBER 14th, 2001.

Plot Synopsis:​

The film opens within a desolate red valley as three parademons pull on the limbs of a Tarkatan. The tarkatan’s blades were not attached to its body, as one is currently impaled through the head of a fourth parademon while the other is laid on the ground. We hear the body finally tears in two as we begin to zoom onto a cathedral made of bones.
Within the temple, Quan Chi stands in front of an altar as a vein of green energy spills out of his body into the altar. The vein stops flowing and Quan Chi collapses to his knees. After heavy breathing, he looks to a pair of stone doors glowing green with the same energy. This glow however, only goes up about 9/10 of the width of the doors. He smiles at his handywork because he knows he’s almost ready to open the seal of Shinnok, the fallen elder god. Together he will bring all realms into the sweet embrace of death.
???: Quan Chi.
Quan looks up to see a shadow approach him alongside a dark green ogre wrapped in chains. The shadow is known as Noob Saibot, a wraith and former assaassin of the Lin-Kuei clan.
Noob Saibot: “I have brought the leader of the Oni to you. How goes the progress on bringing down Khaosrealm?
Quan Chi: “Patience Saibot, the realm will fall in due time. Earthrealm and Outworld will be the next to fall.”
Moloch roars at both of them and charges at Quan Chi. He promptly shoots a skull ball at the Oni, stabs him with two meat hooks, and chants an incantation that pacifies him. Moloch stands back up with a dead faced look in his eyes. He immediately kneels to the two and Quan Chi smiles.
Quan Chi: “Take Moloch back to his people and send them to the portal, it's time for Queen Sheeva to stop being a thorn in my plans.”
The title then begins with the Mortal Kombat theme playing along with scenes from the first two movies and the chronicles before the title finally comes together.

Act I: Warzone​

The film begins with Kurtis Stryker (Chris Conrad) leads a platoon of soldiers. Their mission is to clear out a group of Hellbeasts who have been digging up a group of stone pillars in Millenium Park. The soldiers have been equipped with assault rifles that shoot armor piercing bullets. Once they reach the park, they find that the hellbeasts have dug up more than a group of stone pillars. They’ve dug up a shrine dedicated to Raiden. The two forces clash and only ten of the beasts are killed by the salvo, the other hellbeasts slap the bullets out of the air with their tails before running forward. Each of the soldiers continue firing and in one case throwing a flash grenade. The blinding light gives the soldiers time to fall back into a more advantageous position while Stryker runs forward and strikes one of the hellbeasts with another new piece of weaponry: the Haokah stun baton. The baton connects and sends a pulse of electricity through the beast's body and causing it to fall to the ground. Stryker follows up by shooting the beast in the head with his new pistol. A second hellbeast tries to swipe at him, but is promptly shot by another one of the soldiers. The remaining hellbeasts scatter in an attempt to avoid the next salvo of fire, but each are immediately struck by a group of ice tipped crossbow bolts. Their reinforcements had arrived led by the assassin Sub-Zero (Brandon Lee). He leaps forward and impaled a sword made of ice into the last hellbeast’s tail and turned to Stryker.
Sub Zero:
“Finish it.”
Stryker nods and promptly reloads with a new clip. He puts one right between the eyes of the hellbeast.
Stryker:
“What took you so long, Grandmaster?”
Sub-Zero:
“You of all people should understand that preparing for battle takes time, Lieutenant Stryker. These incursions from the Netherworld are not the only threat we have to remain vigilant about.”
Stryker:
“I know, but look at what happened to my men.”
He points over to his squadron and of the 50 men we saw with Stryker, only 15 were still standing. The other 35 were either wounded or dead. Sub-Zero says a command to his men. They gather the dead into a mass pile, and throw an incendiary grenade into the pile. Stryker scowls at the practice but knows its necessary. Every dead man whose body is left somewhat intact can be reanimated as one of Quan-Chi's slaves. He salutes to the pile and then turns around toward the entrance of the shrine.
Once in the shrine, he turns on a flashlight and points it toward a wall. On the wall are murals of several people walking toward the shrine and making a prayer to the Haokah. The next picture shows a blue light shot out from the shrine and engrossed the people. Once they walked out of the shrine, they began shooting elemental attacks from their hands, engrossing their body with the same elements, and showing super human feats. The final part of the mural saw these warriors fighting along with a large man covered in cyan energy against a horned red and black demon.
Stryker:
“I need to show this to Grandmaster Kang and Princess Kitana. This could help us bring the fight to Quan-Chi much sooner.”
He takes a picture of the mural and turns to leave the area only to dodge a missile. He is promptly punched through the smoke. After shaking his head, he sees a figure coming through the smoke.

???: “Earthrealm operative detected. Proceed to execute capture protocol.”
The robots red plates then transform to yellow while the white plates turn black. Once done, he shoots a net at Stryker. Stryker dodges the net and pulls out his handgun. The bullets ricochet off the armor plates but one bullet strikes the eye. It shuts down the eye and forces the robot back a bit. Stryker pulls his shock baton out and swings for the head. The robot ducks, hits Stryker with an uppercut, and then teleports over to where he will land. He opens up his arm to create a buzzsaw. His attack is stopped by Sub-Zero, who creates an ice slide for Stryker to slide out of the shrine.
Robot: “Additional Assailant identified. Kuai-Liang, renegade member. You shall be retaken for processing and conversion.”
He hits a series of buttons on his arms and three more robots appear. One has the red plating, the second has an ice-blue plating, and the final has a grey plating. Sub-Zero plants his feet and moves into a fighting stance. The four robots surround him with capturing tools in one arm and dismemberment tools in the other. Sub-Zero promptly flips out of the ambush with an ice clone, sweeps the leg of the blue robot, dodges a swipe from the grey robots’ pulse axe, only to get caught by an explosion from the red robots’ missile. The yellow robot follows up with a bomb to the face which sends Sub-Zero crashing into the shrine itself. The robots surround him and shoot an electric net that shocks him unconscious. But as the reach for their downed renegade, the shrine glows white, overloads the robots, and promptly teleports Sub-Zero away.
Meanwhile in Outworld...
We join Princess Kitana and her handmaiden Jade in the former arena of Shao Khan. The two were allowed to enter here by decree of the Shokan queen, Sheeva (voiced by Vanessa Marshall). Their purpose, to hand out food and supplies from Earthrealm. Sheeva needs the help of the Earthrealmers to put down the final threat to her rule: the Centaurians and their leader Motaro. In return for the help of their champion, Grandmaster Liu Kang; Sheeva would help the Earthrealmers for their assault on the Netherrealm. But their humanitarian efforts would be stopped cold by a man with glowing green eyes. But the man doesn’t attack anyone, instead he grabs Kitana by the shoulder and speaks:

???: “You have a higher purpose than the Shokan, little kit.”
Kitana recoils in shock as she knows that only person has ever called her little kit: her father.
Kitana: “Who are you?”
???: “Someone with a higher purpose and someone who is being used against their will.”
The man runs off into the crowd and Kitana is shocked at this revelation.
Back in Earthrealm...
Stryker and his men report into the leader of the Outerrealm defense task force: General Jackson Briggs over their last mission. He reports on the ambush by the Lin-Kuei splinter group Saibou, the murals within the shrine, and the sudden disappearance by Grandmaster Sub-Zero. Jax fears that all of this happening is another strike by Quan-Chi due to the fact that no one within their ranks knows how to open a portal into the Netherrealm. He dismisses Stryker and then heads downstairs into an underground lab. It is here that a portal into other realms is being built. This project was helped along thanks to the remnants of Shao Khan’s shadow priests and monitored by Sonya Blade’s squadron. The two volunteer for the next test of the portal but upon activation the portal changes from green to white.
Back with Liu Kang, he is currently meeting with Sheeva’s trusted general, Kintaro (played by Rhassan Orange). The two are looking for a staging area for their assault on Motaro’s main fortress: the living forest along with finding a portal into the Netherrealm. Kang feared that this would be a difficult negotiation due to the fact that Kintaro learned how to fight underneath Goro, but he finds that the tiger striped shokan is a consummate professional. The plan is a pincer attack on the two paths within the forest. Liu Kang will lead the assault on the northern end to cause a panic within Motaro’s forces while his forces will attack the southern entrance. As a liason between both sides, Kabal provides the Shokan and the Shaolin monks with state-of-the-art helicopters to move into position. But as the forces move into position, a green portal opens in front of the advancing soldiers.

Goro grabs a monk and promptly rips him in half. He throws the top half of their comrade at the squadron only for one of the shokan soldiers to swat the half out of the way. This shokan promptly charges Goro only catch him in a bear hug using his bottom arms and begins punching with the top set. Goro only stops when he is struck by a fireball from Liu Kang. Goro roars and charges towards the squad of soldiers, only for Liu to follow up with a flying kick.
Liu Kang:
Continue with the plan, I’ll keep him busy.
Kang ties a headband onto his head and takes a fighting stance against the zombified shokan. Goro stares in response and charges towards the soldiers. Liu Kang shoots another fireball but it doesn’t stop Goro once it connects. Kang promptly kicks Goro in the shin and this causes the shokan to trip and land face first. Liu Kang follows up with a front flip, landing his feet directly on Goro’s head. He moves back to follow up with another kick to the head only for Goro to grab his foot and slam him into the ground multiple times. He throws Kang into the air and connects with a double fisted uppercut. The grandmaster flips backward into the ground, battered and defeated. As Goro moves forward to capture his opponent, a white light blinds him and teleports Liu Kang away.

Act II: The Elder God’s Fall​

Liu-Kang and Sub Zero wake up in a room covered by white pillars. The two look up and see statues of various men and women in the room. In between each o the pillars are murals detailing the formation of the realms, A blue and white man being sealed into a tomb. But the most noteworthy mural is of a man wearing a red and green hat fighting another man with a yellow hat on his head and a amulet in his right.

Liu-Kang:
“Lord Raiden? Was this your past?”
A voice booms into their mind, body, and souls.
???:
“FOLLOW THE STATUES!”
Sub-Zero:
“Who are you and why have we been brought here?”
???:
“FOLLOW THE STATUES!”
Meanwhile in another pillar filled room, Sonya Blade and Jackson Briggs begin walking out in an attempt to get their equipment to work.
Jax:
“No signal for the portal tubes here either Sonya.”
Sonya:
“We need to keep trying Jax. Every minute we spend here not finding a way back allows Quan Chi another attempt to raid our realm and our people.”
???:
“FOLLOW THE STATUES!”
Jax:
“You listen here, this better be a way back to our realm. Otherwise, we’ll find our own way out!”
???:
“ALL WILL BE REVEALED WHEN YOU FOLLOW THE STATUES!”
The two begin to follow the statues and see the same murals that Liu-Kang and Sub-Zero see. After some time, the four earthrrealmers reach a gazebo.
Liu-Kang: “Major Briggs, Lieutenant Blade. Do you have any idea where we are?”
Sonya:” No idea, but we followed the voices for a way to get back to Earthrealm. But what of the offensive on the Shokans.”
Liu-Kang: “I ended up with a fight against Goro when the offensive began, so hopefully its still ongoing.”
Jax: “And why are you here Sub-Zero?”
Sub-Zero: “I was fighting off a group of cyborgs to save your operative.”
???: “If you are done catching up, then it's time for me to explain this summon.”
A crack of lightning streaks through the sky behind him only to wrap around and slam into the center of the hall. When the lightning subsides, Lord Raiden stands up in all of his glory but with his body covered in a blue aura.

Liu-Kang: “Lord Raiden, you are the one who summoned us here?”
Raiden: “I am merely just a messenger for those even higher than me. You all have questions about your realm?”
Jax: “No, we need to get back so we can win this war against the Netherrealm.”
Raiden:” So quick to anger you mortals are, this summon is about the war against the Netherrealm.”
Raiden explains that eons ago, a group of powerful gods came together to banish their creator, the one being. They did so by using the six kamidogu to remove his soul, the closest thing to death that a god can ever feel. The leader of that group was known as Shinnok, but 2000 years ago he began a campaign against gods and mortals alike to bring about death. Raiden was the one who fought Shinnok with the help of a chosen few from each of the realms and this war led to the separation between earthrealm, outworld, edenia, seido, and ideia. While Shinnok was not killed, he was drained of most of his power and banished to the Netherrealm for eternal torment. This should have been the end of it but now that he’s free; nothing will stop him from killing us and all of your realm’s populace. You must stop him.
Liu Kang:
“But how can we kill a god. We don’t even know where the Kamidogu are?”
Raiden:
“It is in a vault within the sky temple. Our vessel will meet you there to show you the way.”
The four are about to be teleported back to Earthrealm only for a group of bones to spike out of the ground. This group opens a portal from which Quan-Chi, Noob Saibot, and a zombified Shao Khan. The four mortals take fighting positions.
Back with Kitana...
After that strange meeting, Kitana returned to her chambers to reflect on what happened up to this point. What could be the higher purpose that the man could mean, and why did he call her little kit? The last time she saw her actual father was when Shao Khan forced her to execute him as a test of loyalty. Kitana curled into a ball and began to cry as she remembered the horrible day her realm was taken by Outworld. The grief was so much that she was only broken out of it when she was grabbed by the throat by a familiar white weave of hair. She was immediately pulled backwards to the floor to see her assailant.

Sindel:
“You are pathetic and weak, girl. But in death, you will serve a higher purpose!”
SIndel screams a sonic blast at the ground, causing Kitana to fall into the catacombs. She is promptly stopped from falling by Sindel’s hair, but it’s wrapped around her neck in a hangman’s noose. Just as she begins to lose consciousness, the noose is loosened as SIndel falls into the same hole as Kitana. Kitana finds herself in the arms of Jade while SIndel is found trying to pull herself off of a stalactite impaled in her gut. The two leave Sindel to explore the catacombs and realizes that much of the ruins within are of Edenians, not Outworld’s. The two eventually find a crypt with a sarcophagus.
Jade:
“Could this be where the royalty of Edenia were interred? I assumed Shao Khan just devoured their souls and then disposed of the bodies with the Tarkatans.”
Jade proceeds to rub some of the dust of the sarcophagus to find a message inscribed: “Tomb raiders beware, the God’s tools are not playthings.”
Jade: “The God’s tools?”
Jade looks around to find Kitana and finds another tunnel that seems to head upward. She calls out Kitana’s name and gets a response at the top of the tunnel’s staircase. Just as she reaches the top a pair of sharp objects fly right by her head

It is Melina but what horrifies Jade isn’t the fact that she has her trademark Sais, but that she’s missing her bottom jaw. The clone charged while Jade pulls out her bo staff and took a fighting position. As the two fight, Kitana separates the two with her fans. The two flee back to the catacombs only to find Sindel with a hole through her stomach and her eyes glowing with green energy.
Back with the elder gods...
Liu Kang and Sonya are back-to-back with each other as Noob Saibot and a shadow clone advances on them. Jax and Sub-Zero have managed to kick Shao Khan off the platform only for Quan Chi to summon him right back. The former emperor promptly shoulders tackles Jax to the ground, swats Sub-Zero away with a sledgehammer strike, and finally impales Jax with an energy spear. Sonya screams in rage and charges Quan Chi. The sorcerer smiles but quickly frowns as he is yanked back by a familiar kunai.
Scorpion: “GET OVER HERE!”
Scorpion follows up with an uppercut to knock Quan Chi down and promptly begins punching the sorcerer's face in.
Quan Chi: “Scorpion, stop. I allowed you to...”
Scorpion: “MY NAME IS HANZO HAZASHI, WARRIOR OF THE SHIRAI RYU! MY WIFE AND MY SON WERE INNOCENT CIVILIANS AND YOU KILLED THEM!”
The blows continued to rain upon them and as Noob and Shao managed to pull him off, it only led to them being set on fire. As he moved back to the subject of his rage, Quan Chi quickly teleported away along with his minions. Scorpion screams in rage and teleports back to the Netherrealm. Sonya cradles Jax in her arms.
Sonya:
“Jax, hold on. We’ll get you back home. Just hold on.”
Raiden walks toward Jax and begins healing him with his lightning. The wound closes and this allow Jax to begin breathing.
Raiden:
“Know this Jackson Briggs, this healing is only temporary. You must hurry to the Sky Temple and claim the Kamidogu of Earthrealm.” He points to Liu Kang and Sub-Zero “As for the rest of you, rally your forces to begin the assault on the Netherrealm.”
A bolt of lightning teleports them back to where they need to be.
Back with Kitana...
Kitana once again finds herself on the backfoot as a now armless Sindel shouts causing stalactites to fall around the crypt. Jade stops the screaming by smashing her staff into Sindel’s throat. She follows up by smashing Sindel in the stomach, an upward swipe to the chin, and a sweep of the legs. Jade prepares to follow up with a stomp through the head only to be run through the gut by Mileena. Kitana screams in horror at the loss of her friend. She charges with her fans and promptly cuts Mileena in half at the torso. She proceeds to punch Mileena’s face in until a green aura oozes out of the Tarkatan clone. Kitana’s bloodlust is only stopped when she is grabbed again by Sindel. She is pulled toward the sarcophagus and laid down on the top. As Kitana struggles to maintain consciousness, she reaches for anything that she can use to cut herself free. She finds herself freed from the choke as Sindel screams in pain. When Kitana looks up, she sees the same man who called her little kit who removes his cloak to reveal Ermac. Ermac pulls out a dagger that has a yellow and white yin yang symbol on the side of the handle and promptly stabs Sindel in the chest.

She screams in pain and collapses on the ground. Kitana rushes towards her and holds her close.
Sindel:
“My daughter, it is good to see you again while my body is within my control. You must stop Quan-Chi before he releases Shinnok on the realm.”
Kitana:
“Mother...”
But before Kitana can finishes her question, Sindel goes limp. Kitana cries over the loss of her mother only for Ermac to put a hand on her shoulder.
Ermac:
“There is no time to grieve, little kit. We must move to stop Quan Chi’s plans.”
Kitana:
“Who are you to call me little kit, only my father would call me that?”
Ermac:
“Well, why wouldn’t I call you that if I wasn’t your father?”
Ermac goes onto explain that during the 1st MK tournament between Edenia and Outworld, he was planning to fight as the main leader and champion to put down Outworld’s war only to be pulled away by an invasion from Ideia, the realm of chaos. When he reached the town that was under siege, they were ambushed by a horde of parademons. The entire army would be lost and merged into one warrior, Ermac and then put through a rigorous torture by Quan Chi. Without their king, Edenia’s guardian god Argus would try to lead his realm in battle but fail ten times straight.
As for how Quan-Chi did this, it was through the use of the NetherRealm's Kamidogu: a scythe and the dark powers held within.

Act III: Preparation for Invasion​

Liu Kang finds himself back in Outworld only a handful of monks are still alive and breathing. The shokans are little better with only Kintaro still fighting on. He sees the shokan holding the undead Goro in a bear hug with his bottom arms while punching with his top fists.
Liu Kang:
“MOTARO!”
Motaro looks over as he continues to punch Goro’s face in and frowns. He throws Goro over to Kang who promptly kicks Goro’s head off and punches a hole into his chest. They feel as if the battle is over only for Goro to get back up as if nothing had hit him. They scowled and took another fighting position only for a centaur with goat horns to ram into Goro. This was Motaro and on his side was another dagger. This was Outworld’s kamidogu.

Motaro proceeds to slash off each one of Goro’s arms, followed by a plunge into the chest. On his face, Goro contorts into pain before while his body dissolves into dust. Motaro turns over to Liu Kang and begins to prepare a charge. But Liu dosen’t return the fighting stance, instead he bows and takes a knee. Kintaro looks incredulous at this action.
Kintaro:
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”
Liu Kang:
“Great Motaro, on behalf of Earthrealm and Princess Kitana, I wish to parley.”
Despite the plea, Motaro charges with his head forward. Kintaro shoots a fireball in his path, but it doesn’t stop him. Kintaro then grabs Liu and pulls himself out of the way of the charging centaur. Motaro continues to charge and goes straight off a cliff. The Kamidogu of Outworld is now lost to them.
Meanwhile, in the Nethherrealm...
Quan-Chi falls through his self-made portal with a kunai still lodged in his chest. He drags himself toward a small soulnado used for healing. As his wounds begin to close, a booming voice cuts through the air...
???:
QUAN-CHI!
Quan-Chi:
“Yes master Shinnok?”
Shinnok:
“You know that these soulnados are to allow me to return me to full strength.
Quan-Chi didn’t respond as he continued to heal. This brief respite was temporary as he was promptly tackled out of the soulnado. As he looks up, Noob Saibot shoots a ghostball that would connect with his head.
Noob Saibot:
“I have waited so long to do this.”
Saibot teleports out of sight only to grab Quan-Chi and suplex him into the floor. This brief attack has Quan’s wounds reopen. He tries to teleport only to be smacked out of it by Noob, his skull balls are struck out of the air with a shadow katana, and in desperation; Quan begins to chant a mind control spell only to have the katana shoved in his throat.
Noob Saibot:
“No incantation will save your life now.”
He pulls the katana out and decapitates Quan Chi with a second slice. He chants a rite that begins taking Quan's soul into his body, but a sharp kunai cuts his jaw. The kunai embeds itself into the wall with the name Quan-Chi written on it in katakana.
Scorpion walks into view with his arms on fire.
Scorpion:
“You may be innocent of his crimes, but of my death.”
The two begin a massive fight all along Shinnok’s crypt and despite Noob using both his darkness and ice powers to attack, nothing stops Scorpion from backing down.
Mortal Kombat- Scorpion VS Noob Saibot

Scorpion would bring up two hands to hold Noob’s legs and another one to hold his neck in place. He pulls a katana and prepares to stab down in his hated rival’s chest. But just as the sword pierced flesh, Noob stabbed Scorpion in the head with a dagger.

The two looked each other dead in the eyes as their souls began to float out of their bodies and into the soulnado. A bright green light shines outside of the crypt and once it subsides, Shinnok picks up the dagger and picks up a blood red scythe. He cuts the corpses of both ninja across the chest and this causes both of them to stand up and kneel before the elder god.
The movie ends with Liu returning to Outworld castle with Kintaro and being informed of Kitana’s disappearance; Jade, Kitana, and Ermac continuing their travel through the catacombs of Outworld; Sub-Zero, Stryker, Jax, and Sonya marshalling their troops for a raid on the sky temple; and in mid-credits scene, a young man with a razor-sharp top hat picking up the Outworld Kamidogu.
TO BE CONTINUED IN MORTAL KOMBAT: DEICIDE
Box Office and Critical Reception:
With the change in directors hampering shooting for about a month, many at New Line considered Devastation a potential flop. But the opening week bringing in $80 million would quell these fears. The film would a successful run of $270 million in box office revenue along with a massive boost in sales for Rise of Outworld. As a first for Warner-Bros, the DVD and vhs release would be included in a boxset that includes the previous two films and Rise of Outworld.
As for the critics, Devastation would only wow Siskel this time around as Ebert had felt that constant fights have run their course and the little sprinkles of character development did not pick up the slack.
Future:
With the success of the film, a fourth film Deicide; would begin shooting in February 2002. As for Chronicles, the final season of the show would begin air on HBO in January with Fire and Ice, a full season detailing the rift between the Lin-Kuei and the Shirai Ryu. On the gaming end, a special trailer for the next mainline MK series would be shown as a special feature on the DVD. This game, Wrath of the Dragon King, would be released alongside the movie in 2003 for the GNES, Neptune, PlayStation 2, and the new platform on the block; the Apple iMac computer.​

 

[eldandythedoubter]

Created and Manufactured by The Dolphin Consortium (Nintendo R&D, Philips, Panasonic, Intel, and IBM).
Chief Architects: Howard Cheng (Overall Design) and Dylan Cuthbert (Programming)
Release Date: October 21st, 2001 in Japan, December 14th, 2001 in North America, April 4th, 2002 in Europe, May 16th, 2003 in Australia
Technical Specifications:
Console Dimensions: 6.5 x 7.0 x 5.0 inches.

Mass: 6 lbs. 3.1 kg.

Power 48-watt AC adapter

Media: DVD format discs capable of holding 4.7gb of data on a single layer disc and 8.5 gb on a dual layer disc, DVD-Video playback, and backwards compatibility for all Ultra Nintendo and Game Boy Line games with through the Game Boy Player add-on.

CPU: Intel/IBM/Philips custom chip codenamed “Orca” clocked at 800 MHz and one Toshiba VR3200 clocked at 93.75 MHz

GPU: ATI/ArtX custom chip codenamed “Dolphin” clocked at 400 MHz

Memory:80MB overall on its own, 100MB when attached to the external hard drive: 20MB for the system, 24MB DRAM, and 36MB for Video Ram.

Display: Composite Video, S-Video and RGB Scart, and YPP component video.

Sound: Dolby Pro Logic II Analog stereo.

Storage: Memory Cards at launch, external hard drive.​

Controller: “The Wavebird” wired controller with 2 analog sticks, one on the upper left, the second on the bottom right, a,b,x,y face buttons on the upper right, a d-pad on the lower left, a start button in the center, an on/off switch for the wireless controllers, L, ZL, R, and ZR buttons on the top.

Development History:​

Development of the GNES would begin in January 1997 with founding of Dr. Wei-Yan's graphic chip company Artx. Under this union, the GNES would not only be able to play UNES titles but expand the overall graphical performance to keep pace with most PCs of the time.

The Macro split of Microsoft:​

In 1997, project Directx begins development at Microsoft. The objective was to create a console that could use the Directx platform as an easy to program development kit that would minimize the cost and time needed to make transition games from the PC. Both Intel and IBM were considerably interested in the product and thus offered the use of their most recent chips to power the console. Unfortunately, their efforts would be rendered moot due to situations outside of their control. On July 18th, 1998, the FTC would launch an anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft for various deals made with Compaq, HP, Toshiba, Sony, and Dell to require the use of Windows 98. After one year of litigation, Intel and IBM would pull out of project DirectX. Six months after that, the main designers would resign from the company to take a position at Samsung North America. Philips kept their eyes on the situation and with their sound chip for the Game Boy Alpha taking a fair chunk of resources to manufacture, looking elsewhere for Project Triton would require outside help.

The Announcement:​

Unlike the Ultra NES, no internal documents would be leaked to the public this time around. So, speculation ran rampant for three years straight. IGN would put together a hilarious April fool's joke in 1999, detailing the console as a cartridge-based system that would hold over 2 GB of data, a built in 28.8K Modem, and backwards compatibility with all former Nintendo consoles.

IGN’s Mockup of the Giga NES, titled the Gamebox.
The rumors would end at Spaceworld 2000 as the second half of the event’s press conference. Unlike the Game Boy Alpha’s showcase, the GNES would be organized with the following standpoints: (1) Technical Details for the console and the use of DVDs as its medium; (2) connectivity with the Game Boy Alpha through the use of an external connector; (3) the virtual console, an add-on that would allow the console to play all previous Nintendo cartridge games; (4) the external network adaptor for online connectivity built by IBM; and (5) an external hard drive built by Philips for storing game saves and extra data from certain games. Once all five of these features are explained, the games are showcased. First, a tech demo known as Super Mario Dolphin. In the demo, Mario would run around a large beach filled with fruits that can be pushed around, gather sand from the ground, and float in the sea water. Next, a technical showcase from Rare that shows off Banjo and an older Conker being chased by a horde of classic cartoon characters. The next demo would be for one of the new Nintendo studios, Hocotate Freight Games. This demo would show off a well detailed open arena as a male wireframe fighter rendered the colors of Pikachu would take on a female wireframe fighter rendered in the colors of Eevee. The two would act out a fight very similar to Tekken, a tongue in cheek reference to Hocotate’s head Masamichi Abe. Finally, the console would be shown to the public.

Final Design of the GIGA NES
The hype would continue in March at the 2001 Spring Tokyo Game Show. It was rare to see Nintendo make an appearance at the show but with the rise of Satoru Iwata as executive vice president, things were changing at Nintendo. On the show floor was playable demos of Luigi the Fearful, Pikmin, Pro-Am Racing, and Timu’s Golden Journey; a new title created by former Iguana employee Jeff Spandenburg. Also shown was the first trailer for Resident Evil remake, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and a tech demo for the next Legend of Zelda.
The final showcase of the console would be at E3 as both Smash and Resident Evil Remake would have a playable demo running on the show floor. The new head of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Amie would head up the press conference with the official release date for North America and price point. December 14th, 2001 for $350. Included with the console would not be a full game but instead a demo showing off builds of all first party games on the show floor along with the second demo for Super Mario: The Delfino Debacle. Also shown at the event was the Game Boy Alpha's e-Reader add on, which would add extra content to specially marked games. These titles include Zelda: Another Hero, Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade of Elibe, and Super Mario All Stars-Anniversary Edition.

Launch Titles:
Titles marked with an asterisk are Multiplatform releases.

Pikmin.
Publisher/Developer: Nintendo/Hocotate Freight Games.
Same as Otl.

Super Smash Bros Melee.
Publisher/Developer: Nintendo/HAL Laboratories.
The roster increases to a massive 40 characters with the following characters.​

• Mario (Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, Wario, Yoshi)​
• Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Cranky Kong, King K Rool)​
• The Legend of Zelda (Link, Zelda, Sheik, Ganondorf, Majora’s Mask, Young Link)​
• Metroid (Samus Aran)​
• Kirby (Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede)​
• Pokémon (Pikachu, Eevee, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Charizard, Amater, Tsukiyo)​
• F-Zero (Captain Falcon, Samurai Goroh, Jody Summer)​
• Earthbound (Ness, Lucas)​
• Fire Emblem (Marth, The Tactician)​
• Star Fox (Fox McCloud, Wolf O’ Donnel, Falco Lombardi, Andross)​
• Disney (Darkwing Duck, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command)​

Mega Man X: The 1st Maverick Hunters. *
Publisher/Developer: Capcom.
Created as a third person shooter, this game tells the story of Sigma and his mission to apprehend the Maverick Alselor.

Luigi the Fearful: The Poltergust Chateau.
Publisher: Nintendo. Developer: Brinstar Games.
Developed by Kensuke Tanabe as a prototype to the next Metroid Game, Luigi the Fearful is a Metroidvania that sees the green plumber trying to escape the Chateau of King Fantome. Armed with a sucking cannon and the help of Fantome’s sister Teresa, Luigi rushes to capture as many of the ghosts as possible with various upgrades to his cannon.

Pro-Am Racing: The Rare Circuit.
Publisher: Nintendo. Developer: Rareware.
Originally created as a showcase of several new projects as Rare, the game evolved into a Super Smash Kart including characters from the following franchises:
Donkey Kong Country (Dixie Kong, Kiddy Kong, Klubba the Kremling)
Banjo-Kazooie (Banjo and Kazooie, Mumbo Jumbo, Gruntilda, Klungo)
Killer Instinct (Fulgore, Jago, Black Orchird, Sabrewulf)
The Battletoads (Rash, Zitz, Pimple, The Dark Queen)
Conker’s Bad Fur Day (Conker, Berri, Queen Bee, Death)
Jet Force Gemini (Juno, Vela, Lupus, Mizar)
Monster Max (Max the Werebass, Lord Knord)
Circuit Island (Timber the Tiger, Wizzpig, T.T. the Stopwatch)

WWF: The Civil War. *
Publisher: THQ. Developer: Yuke’s.
The first WWF game of the post-Monday Night Wars era sees you create a wrestler to join one of the six factions forming around the main event: The Rattlesnake Army, Deadman Inc., The Game’s Court, The People’s Rock, Team Angle, or The King of Harts. Unfortunately, each of the factions are backed by the Mcmahon family: Vince: The People’s Rock, Shane: Team Angle, Stephanie: The Game’s Court, Linda: Deadman Inc., Trevor Mondt: The King of Harts, and the neutral party: The Rattlesnake Army.

Timu’s Golden Journey
Publisher: Nintendo. Developer: Retro Studios
This action-adventure game is based off the Indonesian fairy tale of Timun Mas. In it, a young girl named Timu with skin as green as a cucumber uses a special hoe to grow vegetables and fruits. She uses these fruits as tools and weapons to fight off the monsters of Buhto Ijo.

Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Rise of Outworld *
Publisher: Midway. Developer: Midway Chicago/Paradox Interactive.
Helmed by relative newcomers Joshua Tsui and David Michcich along with oversight by John Tobias, Rise of Outworld is a 3D beat-em-up that puts you in control of Shao Zeung as fufils his role as protector of Outworld from the Hordes of Tarkata, Zaterra, Khaosrealm, and Edenia. Combat is fleshed out by recreating as much of the move input from the fighting games while also adding various weapons and the environment to your advantage.

SSX Tricky *
Publisher: Electronic Arts. Developer: EA Sports Big (Canada Division).
Same as Otl.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 *
Same as Otl but in place of the Marvel characters; are Batman, Young Obi-Wan, and Master Chief.​

 

[eldandythedoubter]

Platform: Game Boy

Directed by: Satoshi Taijiri and Ken Sugimori

Developed by: Creatures Inc. and Game Freak

Scenario written by: Satoshi Taijiri, with assistance by Ken Sugimori and Takeshi Shudo.

Additional Programming by: Satoru Iwata.

Release Date: February 23rd, 1997 in Japan, September 14th,1998 in North America, and January 3rd, 199 in Europe and Australia.

Changes from OTL:


Pokemon Gen 1 Dex: 160 Monsters between all three versions of the games.

Pokémon added not official in otl:

Puddi: Fire Type. Evolves into Growlithe at level 25.

Mikon: Fire Type. Evolves into Vulpix at level 16.

Gorochu: Electric Type. Evolves from Raichu by Thunder Stone.

Miduck: Water/Psychic Type. Evolves from Psyduck at level 18. Evolves into Golduck with exposure to a water stone.

Tangles: Grass Type. Evolves into Tangela at level 28.

Cretowak: Ground/Fighting Type. Evolves from Marowak at level 45.

Pokémon from later generations that are being introduced here:

Smoochum: Ice type. Evolves into Jynx at level 32.

Elekid: Electric type. Evolves into Electbuzz at level 30.

Magby: Fire type. Evolves into Magmar at level 33.

Pokemon that now have evolutions:

Mew now evolves into Mewtwo when brought to the Cinnabar lab. The Cerulean Dungeon now has a final battle between Red and Giovanni before you get the chance to capture Mew.
Persian lv. 57, Tauros lv. 60, Nidoking lv. 63, Magmar lv.64, Cretowak lv 68.
Mew is now at Level 65.

Pokemon: The Animated Series

Developed for Television by: Takeshi Shudo, Sato, and Satoshi Yamamoto.
Produced by: Walt Disney Animation Japan
Executive Producers: Satoshi Taijiri and Ken Sugimori
Network Debut: April 13th, 1998 in North America on ABC.
Syndication Networks: Disney Channel and Toon Disney as of 2001.

Voice Cast:
Jeff Nimoy As Satoshi "Red" Ketchum
Will Freddie as Shigeru "Blue" Oak
Cree Summer as Delia "Leaf" Teremoto-Ketchum
Jesse McCartney As Osamu "Vento" Ketchum
Shia Lebouf As Tezuka "Crusader" Oak
Jo Marie Payton as Professor Ruto Oak
Lalaine Paras, Courtnee Draper, and Orlando Brown as Team Rocket.
Haylie Duff As Jennette "Waterflower" Marble
Lee Thompson Young As Satoru "Bruteroot" Sato
Christie Carlson Romano As Chifuyu "Flashfire" Soryu
Hilary Duff As Misty Agena
Phil Lamarr As Dr. Brock Harrison
Ikue Otani as Pikachu
Megumi Hayashibara as Eevee
Plot Synopsis:
The series takes place in the region of Kanto in the year 2098 of the Pocket Calendar. Twenty-Five Years ago, Satoshi Ketchum and Shigeru Oak-trainer callsigns Red and Blue both rose to become the Kanto League Champion. Blue was first only to be defeated three months later by Red. In those years, no trainer has been able to defeat the Elite Four; let alone Red and Blue. As a result of this, the Kanto Council proposed a reorganization of the Kanto Pokémon League. It is as follows:​

1. Every Four years, the eight gyms will open for challengers to fight for the gym badges. Gym leaders' teams will be dictated by the average level of each challengers’ team and the number of gyms badges the challenger has earned.​

1. All trainers competing in the League Challenge must be subjected to a proper background check every year they compete.​

1. Once one year has passed, the gyms will close and all trainers who have not gained all 8 gym badges are disqualified to compete in the League Conference until the next regular season.​

This was met with approval from both the Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, and the current champion. The winner of this tournament will be recognized as the Kanto Interim Champion and would have the right to challenge the Elite Four and the Champion. This series tells the journey of Satoshi’s son Osamu Ketchum-callsign Vento as he sets to outdo his father alongside his trusty starter, Pikachu. But as if intertwined by fate, he finds himself competing against not only Shigeru’s son Tezuka-call sign Crusader. But also three other trainers from all over Kanto with the three main starters of Kanto: Nami Himawari-callsign Flashfire. Tenchi Furassu-callsign Bruteroot, and the star pupil of Professor Daisy Oak Ruto Sakura-callsign Waterflower.

The story would be about Ash, who is now Red's son (callsign Vento) bonding more with his team because all of them (Pikachu, Nidoran F, Spearow, Charmander, Oddish, and Elekid) will be going through their own character arcs in between each gym.
For Pikachu, it is trying to keep his place as Ash's ace due to each of the other pokemon evolving past him. For Cyan the nidoran, its trying to keep the peace between the rest of the team due to this continued strength. For Aka the charmander, its becoming strong enough so that Ash doesn't abandon him like Flashfire did. For Gale the Spearow, its coming to grips with letting go of vendettas. Oddish and Elekid are both just going along with the team.

Vento’s Main Team: (Pikachu, Charmander, Nidoran F, Spearow, Oddish, Elekid, Poliwag).
Crusader’s Main Team: (Eevee, Caterpie, Nidoran M, Pidgey, Tangles, Magby)
Waterflower’s Main Team: (Squirtle, Growlithe, Jigglypuff, Smoochum, Cubone, Bellsprout)
Bruteroot’s Main Team: (Bulbasaur, Zubat, Machop, Abra, Paras, Psyduck)
Flashfire’s Main Team: (Charmander (previous), Dratini, Drowzee, Magnemite, Poliwag, Hitmonlee, Doduo)
Red’s Team: (Goruchu, Charizard, Snorlax, Lapras, Dugtrio, Venusaur)
Blue’s Team: (Blastoise, Machamp, Porygon, Exeqcutor, Arcanine, Rhydon)
Misty’s Team: (Staryu, Dewgong, Gyrados, Poliwag, Kabutops, Seaking)
Brock’s Team: (Geodude, Onix, Mikon, Chansey, Omastar, Aerodactyl)
Team Rocket: (Arbok, Wheezing, Victrebell, Porygon, Persian, Farfetch’d)

Jessie and James are now just two-bit thieves trying to avoid the remnants of Team Rocket from bringing them back into the fold. Finally, we have Osamu's rivals. Tezuka starts out with an Eevee in this run. The other three rivals start off with the respective starters of the game. Ash's charmander is actually the same one that Flashfire starts off with and she leaves it out in the rain after it loses to Brock. Bruteroot's arc actually explores the alternative career path one can have as a pokemon trainer aside from competitive battling as he wishes to be a herbal specialist. Finally, Waterflower serves as Ash's love interest and the longest tenure companion he will have. Her real name Jennette Marble, is the daughter of Commander Jennifer, co-founder of the Pokemon Sentai along with Red and Blue. An arm of the International Police set to investigate and combat groups like Team Rocket, Poachers, and Cults that would use both regular and legendary Pokemon to usurp the government. Jenny does not want to become a police officer, but has good reasoning and survival skills to last out here.

Pokemon: The Fall of Rocket
Season directed by: Masamitsu Hidaka.
Scripts written by: Hidenori Kusaka and Takeshi Shudo
Produced by: Walt Disney Animation Japan
Executive Producers: Satoshi Taijiri and Ken Sugimori
Network Debut: October 19th, 1999 in North America on ABC.
Syndication Networks: Disney Channel and Toon Disney as of 2002.

Voice Cast:
Jeff Nimoy As Satoshi “Red” Ketchum.
Will Freddie as Shigeru “Blue” Oak.
Cree Summer as Delia “Leaf” Teremoto.
James Carter Cathcart as Professor Samuel Oak.
Megan Hollingshead as Inspector Jennifer.
Tress MacNeille as Mistress Boss.
Lalaine Paras, Courtnee Draper, and Orlando Brown as Team Rocket.
Jamieson Price as Giovanni Teremoto.
Philip Bartlett As Blaine
Lisa Ortiz As Sabrina
Patrick Seitz As Lt. Surge
Christopher Corey Smith As Koga
Phil Lamarr As Brock
Hilary Duff As Misty

Red’s Team: (Raichu, Charizard, Snorlax, Lapras, Dugtrio, Venusaur, Tauros, Poliwrath, Fearow)
Blue’s Team: (Blastoise, Machamp, Porygon, Exeggutor, Arcanine, Rhydon, Scizor, Ninetales, Venomoth)
Leaf’s Team: (Vileplume, Pidgeot, Electrivire, Rapidash, Nidoking, Alakazam, Wigglytuff, Ditto, Granbull)
Giovanni’s Team: (Mewtwo, Kangaskhan, Steelix, Tyranitar, Nidoqueen, Honchkrow)
Jennifer’s Team: (Sawedge, Jellekinesis, Inukami, Zapstar, Granbull, Beedrill, Kingdra, Furrett, Rhyperior).
Mistress Boss: (Magnezone, Hijynx, Cretowak, Boureala, Aerodactyl, Dragonite, Scizor, Hitmontop, Blissey).
Koga: (Muk, Venomoth, Crobat, Gengar, Forretress, Ariados, Spherecoil, Venubell, Wheezing).
Blaine: (Magmortar, Typhlosion, Golem, Flareon, Jolteon, Hitmonchan, Arbok, Magneton, Porygon2).
Sabrina: (Alakazam, Mr. Mime, Misdreavus, Espeon, Persian, Venomoth, Hypno, Jynx, Jianpan).

Plot Synopsis:

2073 of the Pocket Calendar, Satoshi Ketchum callsign Red has reached the top of the Kanto Pokémon League after defeating his longtime rival Shigeru Oak. Since this win, Red has gone on to have five separate challenges against Fuchsia gym leader Koga, current Johto league champion Akiari Shimazu, another battle with Blue, an upcoming trainer named A.J. the Shogun. But the final challenge would be against another newcomer named Leaf. This battle ends with a tie with her Alakazam knocking out Red’s Snorlax and it collapsing on top of him.

After this battle, red and blue return to find Pallet Town being ransacked by of all people; Team Rocket. The two bring forth their Pokémon to fight off the Rockets. But at the end of this attack, red and blue witness Professor Oak being captured by Saffron Gym Leader Sabrina and her Pokemon. The two attempt to fight her off but are stopped by another Rocket Operative named Autumn. She manages to keep both at bay with her Vileplume and Nidoqueen, but loses her to reveal a young girl.

After this revelation, the two champions along with Pewter Gym Leader Brock and Cerulean Gym Leader Misty set out around Kanto to find any traces of the Rockets all while trying to discover why Professor Oak was tied to the Mew project.

​

 

[Megafighter3]

Gaming in 2001​

2001 was something of the adage "Out with the old, in with the new." for Nintendo and Sony as both wrapped up the life cycles of the Ultra NES and PS1. For Nintendo, the end of the line did come with a few notable gems such as Conker's Bad Fur Day, Dinosaur Planet and a localized release for Fire Emblem: The Archenean Starlord. They also gained a port of the first Mega Man Legends title, dubbed Mega Man Legends: Ultra and a few first and 2nd party titles such as Mario Party 3, Pokemon Stadium 2 and Dr. Mario Ultra.

For Sony, the PS1's end came with Mega Man X5 and X6, Castlevania Chronicles, Twisted Metal: Small Brawl, Time Crisis: Project Titan and most infamously, The Simpsons Wrestling.

However, the two were rolling out hits for their newer consoles. On the Giga NES, there was Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi the Fearful: The Poltergeist Chateau, and Pikmin. Along with those were Mega Man X: The First Maverick Hunters, Pro-Am Racing: The Rare Circuit, Timu's Golden Journey and more.

The PS2 had a number of major releases; Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, Twisted Metal: Black, Ico, Grand Theft Auto III, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and many more.

Meanwhile, Sega was rolling on with the Neptune, releasing new Sonic games such as Sonic Shuffle and Sonic Adventure 2. Along with Sonic was the racing game Daytona USA, Crazy Taxi 2, Shenmue II, the online RPG Phantasy Star Online and its updated Version 2, the strange horror game Illbleed, Dead Or Alive 3, Super Monkey Ball and Gunstar Heroes: The Third Eye for the Pluto.

A number of games went to multiple platforms: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 on the PS2, PS2 and GNES. Dragon Warrior VII on the PS1 and Neptune. Final Fantasy X on the PS2, GNES and Neptune. SSX Tricky on the PS2, GNES and Neptune. Finally, there was Silent Hill 2 on the PS2 and Neptune.

However, a major player in the midst of these was Halo: Combat Evolved, released on Mac and PC. The third person shooter, starring an armored space marine known as the Master Chief battling against the alien forces of the Covenant, was a big hit in the PC gaming space and would gain enough success for Take-Two Interactive to come knocking. In exchange for releasing their games on MacOS, Take-Two would get the publishing rights to Halo on consoles.