Batman The Animated Series, The Game

 The post last Friday was supposed to be on this topic, but to really show you why this game spoke to me, I had to first explain what it was about the show that made me love it. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can move on to the topic of the hour.

Batman: Arkham Asylum came out 2 years ago, and it encapsulated the Batman world extremely well. It was a perfect match to the world of The Animated Series. They had writers from the show, the same voice actors, kept it just as dark and foreboding as any game set in Gotham should be. Nothing was better than walking down the halls of Arkham, occasionally being taunted by Mark Hamill's Joker, never knowing what villain would take a run at you next.

I'll admit, the game wasn't perfect. The story was great, and so were the characters. And I loved the sneaking gameplay, which is exactly what Batman should do (there was little better than watching your antics freak out the enemies). But the gameplay also had a major flaw: the combat system. It was slow and tedious, and as multiple major boss fights were just "fight a lot of enemies at once", this could make it really drag on. I only remember Poison Ivy and Scarecrow being different, but they still weren't anything special. It can make you question continuing to play, when you have to fight 20 enemies using a system that feels unresponsive. Of course, the rest of the game was way too awesome for it's own good, so there was no way I'd stop.

Of course, the other reason why this post is today: the sequel, Arkham City, comes out tomorrow. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't planning on buying it.

What? I don't want to miss out on Harley and Joker's taunting. Or Strange's machinations. Or Two-Face's revenge. Or Catwoman's...well, you get the point.

And to end this on a note of awesomeness, I present to you the Batman: TAS theme over Arkham Asylum/City Gameplay:

I am the Bat

When I was a kid, I watched my fair share of after-school cartoons. We had the Disney greats like Duck Tales, Tale Spin, and of course, Darkwing Duck. There were the standard Nick Toons of Doug and Rugrats. And the new Warner Brothers hits like Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain.

But none of the others could hold a candle to my favorite: the World's Greatest Detective, the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, the Batman.

Batman: The Animated Series was what cemented a lifelong love of Batman. He is simply the coolest hero. Whereas other superheroes have powers reaching even invulnerability (it's easy to win when you can do anything, Superman), Batman has three things: ingenuity to defeat those much more powerful than him, a mission to prevent crimes like the one which took his parents from him, and boatloads of money. Sure that last one is a little out of the blue, but he had to have some way to afford all his cool gadgets, right?

Why is he so great?

He's a standard tragic figure, trapped in fighting the good fight, no matter what path that leads him down. This sets him up to make decisions which he knows are right, but might be costly to him. In other words, he gets to be the courageous one, making the sacrifices to save others. He couldn't do all this without a solid moral compass pointing him.

But to top if off, he's not afraid to get his hands dirty. You try to steal a purse? Black eye. You shoot someone? Maybe a broken bone. You try to kill everyone in the city? That'll land you in the hospital for days, maybe weeks. He'd never kill, but has no issues dishing out justice like a fry-cook dishes out grease-covered plates.

So that's why he will always win: he has the will to do what must be done to save the day, and he'll kick ass to make sure it gets done. Of course, when Batman wins, he also tends to lose...

But the show wasn't great just because of the subject matter, there was also the stellar voice acting.

Kevin Conroy is the only voice I will ever associate as Batman or Bruce Wayne, and he does a stellar job separating the two (without the need of extra computer-generated gruffiness like some current actor playing Batman in movies).

Mark Hamill, the farm boy who took down an empire, takes a turn as the menacing Joker, one who keeps you unsure of if you just sat on a standard whoopee cushion, or somehow just set off a bomb (and that laugh is killer).

And the guest actors, though we didn't know it as kids, were well known to our parents: John Vernon, Michael York, Kenneth Mars, Roddy McDowall, Richard Moll, Melissa Gilbert, Rene Auberjonois, John Glover, Thomas F. Wilson, Tim Matheson, Ed Begley Jr., Ron Perlman, Tim Curry, David Warner, and Ed Asner. (look them up, you'll probably recognize more than you'd think)

And then there was the writing.

The show was so good that parts of it worked their way back into the comics. The villainess Harley Quinn, was immediately accepted into canon, and is really the only character that could ever be Joker's second-in-command.

Also, the Emmy award-winning episode "Heart of Ice" retconned the origin of Mr. Freeze, something which has stayed as canon to this day.

The show was even ranked the #2 in two separate top 100 lists for cartoon series (IGN and Wizard Magazine), both times coming in second only to The Simpsons.

And then there was the music.

I can't embed the video (the user disabled embeds), but here's a link to the opening theme. As you can see/hear, they chose a theme close to the standard set by Danny Elfman in Tim Burton's Batman. This dark theme, plus the intro cartoon, set this up as what it was, a dark and "mature" cartoon. Sure, it was still a cartoon, so it couldn't be that mature, but it matched and maintained the tone set by Tim Burton: a horribly corrupt Gotham City with one lone avenger trying to help redeem the people and save the city.

From the tragic lost love of Dr. Freeze to the drug-addict Clayface, this series gave us new characters with real stories, not just a villain-of-the-week superhero cartoon. The music and voice acting were above and beyond what was expected from cartoons at that point. And it was a new approach, to have a series for kids which wasn't always happy, and even if the good guy won it didn't mean everything turned out fine. All in all, this show was, and forever will be, the best animated series, period.

Lastly, because I couldn't resist, this should be everyone's best outfit:

Six O'Clock - TV Hour

Here we go, because I didn't want to write a real post, instead I'll give you my take on this past week's news:

1. Devil Went Down to Georgia: I don't know if Troy Davis was guilty (though it's hard for me to believe he wasn't given the amount of times the details were looked back into), but I can tell you that Lawrence Brewer sure was.




2. Busmageddon: The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Note: if someone does get killed by the falling satellite, I'll fully revoke my sarcasm and apologize. If not, I'll continue to think the media is slightly beyond sensationalist.




3. What's a Grecian Urn?: You've got a month, so you'd better get your shit together. Seriously, I've always been proud of being Greek, but now I'm almost embarrassed (almost, it's still pretty awesome overall). Also, the answer to the question is: Given their economy, nothing.




4. c++: CERN announces neutrinos went faster than the speed of light. Either their data is wrong, or the physics we know is wrong. I personally hope for the latter, as we can only learn while we disprove. We've gone through many theories, and this won't be the last one which is proven wrong.




5. Facepalm: Facebook, your changes make me want to give you up so bad. But you have the current monopoly on my friends, so I can't (yet). Now that's Google+ is open though, let's see if I can move them over there.




6.  




7. The Muppeteer: We miss you Jim Henson, but at least there's always YouTube for Muppet goodness.




8. Schweddy Balls: Great sketch, even better ice cream name. Ben and Jerry, you rule.




9. JUST TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY!: iPhone's on its 5th generation. Shouldn't it assimilate itself into our culture by now, getting fat and lazy like all good Americans. I'd never buy this thing, but on October 5th (or 8th or whenever it is) I'm sure the Apple stores will be packed with fanboys and sycophants (assuming there's a difference). I'll be enjoying a nice day outside, using my Nexus S on a network that never drops my calls...




10. Bases for your Buck: Moneyball, great movie, and given that I don't follow the sport, none of it was ruined by knowing what actually happened. Also, props to the A's for picking up Justice. I remember when he played for the Braves, and he was awesome.




11. Tis the Season Premiere: Fall TV has begun, with all new episodes of your favorite sitcoms and dramas. I have high hopes for TV this season in general, based on the couple premieres I've seen so far. (Sorry Steve, but the new Office proved they don't need you to be a good show)




12. End of the World: Not cool, REM, not cool. Though I guess if you have to quit, it's better to do it before you start fighting each other. I'll just return to rocking out to Orange Crush.

Final Note: "give you my take" is a really weird thing to say.

You Have Been Warned

I've been a bad writer the past few months (but Zous, you're always a bad writer). I had multiple ideas as to what to write about, and some of them you might've even seen pop-up in my feed because I scheduled them thinking "there, now I have a deadline". Unfortunately the deadline didn't mean anything and instead I just forgot about the posts completely. You're welcome, as I'm sure I saved you the horror of reading them.

Meanwhile though, I've been told to return to this, and as peer pressure is the wind to my house of cards, I gave in (for more examples of my lack of self-control, see my beard).

So if you're lucky, I'll be back. I'm thinking weekly at first, unless I come up with enough goodness to share with you more often than that.

Also, any pleas to stop writing will only be met with contempt, forcing me to write more out of spite.

Time Keeps on Slippin'

A year ago today I walked in the front doors of Google, picked up my badge, and started a journey that I could never forget. Or at least that's what I'd like you to believe.

Sure, those first two things happened, but that last part is very questionable.

I'd love to tell you my year was full of drama, with heroes and villains and victories and losses and, of course, loads of gratuitous sex scenes (As Hedonism Bot says, "Let us cavort like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean..."). Unfortunately, if any of that occurred, I'm finding the events difficult to remember.

Don't get me wrong, this year was great. New climate, new job, new friends, lots of great things. The downside? Being so far away from everything I grew up around, including my old (read "matured", or "better") friends. However, compared to the two previous years of grad school though, anything would look good.

The issue I find is that the year feels half-missing (or perhaps half-full?). I didn't actually miss anything, and it's not my memory that's failing, it's simply life. I just look back on the year, and find that there were months where nothing major happened. But c'est la vie, the important parts aren't the months I don't remember due to lack of drama; the important parts are the months I do (they must be important if my brain found a place for them). And what do you know, I might even be able to conjure up a few good stories out of those, with the hero Software Engineer solving the puzzle of the code and thus saving millions of users from boredom due to lack of cat videos!

Actually, I don't know why I'm complaining at all (beyond it being second nature to me). It's been a good year, better than I could've imagined. And this next year is looking even better, with trips planned and some good time to spend back in the ol' Hotlanta with nothing to do but relax.

And maybe, if you're lucky, I'll conjure up some of the better memories and share them. Knowing me though, I probably already have.

YouTube on TV: Leanback with a Vengeance

It wouldn't be YouTube if things weren't drastically changed every now and then. It can be jarring, but hopefully it leads to better use cases of the site and overall more satisfaction.

The most current case: YouTube Leanback. A new version was just released, this time focusing on helping users find content they want to watch, and then keeping them satisfied with both more videos from a single stream and an easy browse experience to discover related streams. At the moment it's a work in progress, but it meets all the expectations and use cases of the initial version with the added benefit of easier navigation. There are more ideas on the way though, hoping to help surface more common, but simple, actions for the user as well as providing discovery of better videos.

You can check out what's changed, or as always go play around with it yourself.

Might I suggest though: sign up and log in to YouTube. You'll get more things which matter to you personally that way.

Re: 80710A06

On one note, I was wrong. Netflix wasn't blocked by not being able to sign in (though I did get regular interruptions where it was trying to sign me in).

On another note, all my personal data has been lost by Sony. To any identity thieves out there: you can have my identity, I hardly want it myself. If you happen to come across the identity of someone awesome, say who owns an island and has no need for a job, can you send it my way?

What will I be doing tonight? Keeping a watchful eye on my credit card and changing all my passwords...