Monday, May 27, 2013

Top 10 Super Bowls: Honorable Mentions

I am a huge football fan. I just love the sport and have followed it since I was eight years old. Some games are exciting, some are not. Same goes for the biggest game of the season, the Super Bowl. These days, the NFL's championship game is the most exciting, but it wasn't always like that. I have been told by other fans who've been around longer than I that the biggest game was often a big blowout, with scores of 55-10 (Super Bowl XXIV), 52-17 (Super Bowl XXVII), and other very lopsided contests. The list that I have is going to of the most exciting Super Bowls, mostly games that I have seen, and some that I have not. 

This list is based off of three factors:

  • The game must have been close at least toward the end of the game.
  • Featured at least one comeback.
  • Must have some historic value to the overall course of the league, a team in particular, or even a single player, be it a great pregame storyline, a great upset, or something else.
But first, some honorable mentions:

  • Super Bowl XLVI: Giants vs. Patriots (2011 season) This game featured a rematch of a previous Super contest between these two teams, the main difference here is that neither team was undefeated going into the game. This game had everything: The storyline, the miracle play (a 38-yard pass from Eli Manning to Mario Manningham who was double covered on the sideline), the upset (Patriots were favored, Giants won 21-17). The only reason this game does not make the list is that it felt like a redux of another game that made the list.
  • Super Bowl I: Packers vs. Chiefs (1966 season) The game itself was not particularly exciting unless you're a Packer fan. The game did have quite the storyline: It was the fist game between two rival leagues, the NFL and AFL, who merged before the season started. The owners of the various NFL franchises put a great deal of pressure on Packers' coach Vince Lombardi for them to win the game, and not just win, but to win big, to show the AFL that the older league was still vastly superior. The Packers did just that, winning 35-10. The game did feature a few interesting plays, most notably two touchdown catches by Packers wide receiver Max McGee, who himself had been out the entire night prior. 
  • Super Bowl XLI: Colts vs. Bears (2006) This one is notable for several reasons, It was Peyton Manning's first Super Bowl trip, the Bears first trip since 1985, the first Super Bowl to experience rain, also the first to have an opening kickoff in the history of the game (returned by Devin Hester of the Bears) and the first Super Bowl to feature two African-American head coaches. Problem, the game outside of that was nothing special, no other memorable plays, the game was sloppy due to the weather, and it also featured one of the worst quarterbacks to play in the game (Rex Grossman, Bears). The Colts won 29-17. It does not make the list because of the game was lopsided after the first quarter.
  • Super Bowl XXXI: Packers vs. Patriots (1996) The Packers return to the Super Bowl after 29 years, having a run of futility during the 1970's and 80's, but becoming competitive again in the 90's under General Manager Ron Wolf and Head Coach Mike Holmgren. The Patriots were transformed from laughingstock to competitor under coach Bill Parcells and owner Robert Kraft. The game itself was exciting, the Packers scored first on a long touchdown pass from QB Brett Favre to WR Andre Rison, the Patriots came back to lead at the end of the first quarter 14-10. The Packers came back to lead 27-14 at halftime. The third quarter showed a momentum shift to New England and cut the lead to 27-21. The kickoff however, decided the game, it was returned by Desmond Howard (Packers) 99 yards for a touchdown, putting the score at 35-21 after a two point conversion and no further scoring happened afterward. This one doesn't make the list as there were better Super Bowls involving the Packers or Patriots that are on my list.
  • Super Bowl X: Steelers vs. Cowboys (1975) The first of two Super Bowls to feature the two best teams of the decade. The Pittsburgh Steelers were the defending champs, and the Dallas Cowboys appeared in their third of five championship games in the decade, have won Super Bowl VI at this point. The game featured several Pro Football Hall of Famers on both teams, Head Coach Tom Landry, CB Mel Renfro, QB Roger Staubach, LB Randy White, and OT Rayfield Wright for Dallas; and Head Coach Chuck Noll, QB Terry Bradshaw, CB Mel Blount, DT "Mean" Joe Greene, LB's Jack Lambert and Jack Ham, C Mike Webster, and WR's John Stallworth and Lynn Swann. The Cowboys were the first NFC wild card team to make the Super Bowl, while the Steelers were the first official #1 seed to reach the game (the NFL instituted the seeding system for the playoffs that same year). The game also featured a failed comeback by Dallas at the end of the game and ended in a Pittsburgh victory 21-17. This game also does not make the cut for the same reason as Super Bowl XLVI, there was a far better game between these two teams a few years later that did make the list. 
That's all for the honorables, next up, #10.

Until then, God Bless.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Manga Review: School Rumble Chapters 5 & 6

Spoilers Ahead...

Chapter 5 Summary: Harima is facing off against a whole gang of punks, and takes them down with ease. He narrates that he refuses to lose because he is a man in love! Later, in class, the other students are shocked and afraid when they see Harima in class, except for Tenma, who tells him to not use his desk to crush briefcases.

Afterward, the class takes a test. Harima struggles with the test, but notices Tenma taking hers, not stressing at all. He also notices that she forgot to put her name on the test. He then tries various ways to get Tenma to notice this fact; mouthing it out to her, yelling that he forgot to put his name on his test in hopes that she would get the hint, but they don't work. He then writes a not stating she forgot to put her name on it, she notices it, but she still doesn't get the hint. Tenma copies what Harima wrote as an answer on the test. Harima's last idea is to place her name on his test, having a fantasy about it and how she would fall for him in finding out that he did this. He goes through with it, but it backfires on him; and Tenma for that matter as the test she receives back has a zero score. She's shocked, and Harima prays for forgiveness.

Chapter 6 Summary: Harima comments on his past and how his life was changed when he fell in love with Tenma. When he arrives at his shoe locker in school, he receives a challenge letter from another student, Tennoji Noboru, and he rips it up. Later, he puts a love letter in Tenma's locker, asking her to meet him behind the gym at 4 o'clock.

At that time, Harima arrives behind the gym, finding Tenma waiting for him. He also finds someone else there, Tennoji, waiting for him as well. While waiting, he notices Tenma, makes some small talk, notices her letter, takes it from her and reads it. Harima is ticked that that he read his letter. Tenma likes it, however; upon hearing that, Harima notes that it is the happiest he's felt ever since falling in lover with her. Tennoji lies to her and says he wrote the letter, but Tenma rejects him, saying that she likes someone else. He's heartbroken. Harima arrives, offers some sympathy, and then beats him up and knocks him out; then mocks him for the way that Tennoji read his letter.

Review/Analysis: Chapter 5 is the funniest I've read in this series so far. The not-quite-direct contact between Harima and Tenma was amazing, he's trying to do a service for her so that she writes her name down, but she never figures it out. The punchline at the end with Tenma receiving a zero grade shows off two things: She's dense, and Harima's a moron, intellectually speaking

I liked chapter six as well. What it served was to introduce a rival character for Harima. Tennoji does fill that role somewhat, but he seems to be a standard-fare, one dimensional delinquent. He mocks Harima's poem, but he does not know that Harima himself wrote it since he didn't sign it. I only wonder what would have happened if he actually did sign it. I think it would have killed the story since 1) Tennoji gets punched out earlier, and 2) Tenma rejects Harima, since she already is in love with Karasuma.  Not signing that letter, in fact, continues the story since Harima does not realize (yet) that Tenma is not in love with him.

These chapters primarily featured Harima, with Tenma in the background more or less. He tries to reach out to her in both chapters, but those attempts backfired badly; the zero score on the test that he took, but wrote her name on there, and the misunderstanding with Tennoji and the love letter. Harima's attempts at getting her attention, while they fail like Wile E. Coyote, serves as a source of comedy. Tenma's attempts with Karasuma has a similar effect of failure, but it keeps us laughing. But there is a possibility of these attempts getting old to us after a while, so hopefully a slightly different tract is taken sometime in the future, but then again, the same method's are not being done over and over, which I like in a gag manga. For now though, establishing characters and settings is paramount, as it builds a foundation for things to come (I know what happens later on, so I would think that this is a good assessment.)

I find that these chapters here establish a common theme- misunderstanding; along with the sub-theme of putting your name on something, as seen with the test and with the letter, which leads to Harima placing Tenma's name on his test, and Tennoji lying about the letter. I see the theme of misunderstanding as a primary building block for most of the events in the series. 

I like where the series is going, but the only thing I find wrong is the lack of a continuous story. It's all self contained in each single chapter; not a bad thing in a gag manga, but not so much in a romantic comedy. I see this story taking on more of a romantic comedy genre at some point. I think Kobayashi-sensei understands this as well, but we'll see what happens.

Let's see what happens in the next two chapters. Until then, God bless.  



 
 

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Video Game Review: The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess Part 1

Twilight Princess, the first 3D Zelda that I have ever played, is also one of my favorites, and one of the best that I have played.

Allow me to go further, Twilight Princess was released as both a Wii launch title and as one of the last Gamecube games in 2006 (November 19 for the Wii, December 12 for the Gamecube). I have played the Gamecube version a little, but that was after playing the Wii version, so that is the version this review will be based on. So where to begin? Where else, let's talk story, but not Rohn Storey. Be warned, though, there may be spoilers. Part one here will summarize the story somewhat in depth, along with some thoughts on it. Part two will review certain aspects of the story in further depth along with character analysis, and part three will review gameplay and everything else.



I found the story to be well done. It starts of with Link, who starts off as a ranch hand in Ordon Village, leading a normal life, and is then thrown onto action once his village is invaded by monsters, taken into twilight and transformed into a wolf. He meets Midna, who travels with him throughout. Shortly after, he meets Princess Zelda, who explains their situation. They clear out the Twilight in Hyrule, revive the Light Spirits, and recover something called the Fused Shadow. Immediately after finding the last Fused Shadow, they encounter the (false) King of Twilight, Zant, who brings back the twilight, turns Link permanently into a wolf, then restores the light in order to punish Midna.

 They then go back to back to Hyrule Castle and meet Zelda again, who reveals more information about how to return to his original form, he would need to find the Master Sword, hidden in the Sacred Grove. She also revives Midna from near death by sacrificing herself and disappears. Link and Midna leave, she feels guilty about Zelda healing her, but they go to the Sacred Realm. After going though a maze and "playing" with a skull kid along the way, they find the remains of a temple, and take on a puzzle challenge from statues guarding the way. The pass and reach the spot where the Master Sword rests. Link is reverted back to his human form, then pulls the sword from it's pedestal. 


Midna comes up with a new plan: to find the Mirror of Twilight, the last link to Zant. They head to the Gerudo Desert after finding a lead about a mirror in a prison there, the Arbiters Grounds. They traverse the desert and the dungeon, only to find the mirror broken, the other pieces missing. They go and find the pieces, in the mountains, through time, and in the sky. After gathering the pieces and restoring the mirror, Midna's true identity is revealed. She is the true ruler of Twilight, the Twilight Princess. They then head into the Twilight Realm. After traversing the Palace of Twilight (that word is used a lot), they meet Zant, and he is defeated after revealing himself as a psycho. After his defeat, he reveals information about his "god", Ganondorf, who apparently is in Hyrule Castle. Midna vanquishes Zant and then she and Link head back to the castle. After clearing the castle of monsters, they find Ganondorf in the throne room, who is waiting for them, he also has Zelda, unconsious and hanging midair.


 Link and Ganondorf commence battle. First phase: Zelda possessed; after, Ganon transforms into a boar, is defeated, Zelda is restored; Ganon comes back as a giant floating head, Midna fights him using the Fused Shadow, but is defeated, apparently killed. Link and Zelda were teleported outside by Midna beforehand; Ganon reappears, on horseback, and charges in; Zelda obtains the Light Arrows after calling on the Light Spirits. The fight begins with Link and Zelda on his horse, Epona. I will say this, I loved the fight on horseback, I will review this further later on in part three. Link is able to fight Ganondorf with Zelda's help with the Light Arrow, and knocks him off his horse.The final phase is a swordfight between the two, with Link winning out (naturally) by stabbing Ganondorf in the chest. He dies, and shortly thereafter, Midna returns, in her true form! The three of them return to the Mirror of Twilight, Midna leaves and has the mirror destroyed.

Whew! That was a long story summary, I didn't want to lose any context and this is how it came out. I will say I liked the story. While I say that, though, it did have a similar feel to past games; for instance, something happens, Link is thrown into action, gathers a few items, gets the Master Sword, finds more items, and fights the main villain. Twilight Princess is somewhat different in that first, it shows Link actually leading some sort of a productive life as a rancher, whereas in most other games he is an easygoing, but lazy child, as seen in The Wind Waker. That's not to say that the Link of Twilight Princess isn't easygoing, but he does have some additional depth, and I will be writing more on him later. The story is not just about saving Hyrule and rescuing Zelda, it's more about Midna, she had her throne as the ruler of Twilight usurped by Zant, is transformed, then exiled, which explains her motives. The story itself followed the same formula as in past games, first a forest temple, a fire dungeon, and a water temple, then the Master Sword is received. The twist here is that Zant appears, attempts to kill Midna and transforms Link back into a wolf with different magic. My favorite part in the game, though, is when Link receives the Master Sword. The glow of light emanating, overpowering the cloak of evil of Link's wolf self, then the fog claering out as he raises the sword. Epic. That is all.


The story took a lull after finding the first mirror fragment, though I did like the individual dungeons. The Snowpeak Ruins was very well done, being told by Yeta where the key is (not), and instead finding soup ingredients for Yeto (Yeta's husband if you didn't already know). The Temple of Time, however, it was not that impressive, although I do like the nostalgia with the entrance, but the main temple itself, just felt lacking. Sure some of the puzzles were interesting, fight the darknut was awesome, and controlling that big statue afterwards was amazing, but the dungeon felt to linear. You went up a tower and back down and then you fought the most poorly executed boss in the game, Armogohma. I'll talk more of that fight in part 2. The last dungeon before the Palace of Twilight, is The City in the Sky, I found interesting, if a little empty. The puzzles were great, the flying dragon miniboss, which you fight twice, was fun, guessing where he comes out and using your clawshot to bring him in was a great part of it. But, you know what's better than a clawshot, two of them! The puzzles involving them, awesome; the key to beating the boss, very well done. Again, though, I will go into further depth in part 2.

That's it for this part of the review, sorry it's so long, but I do like to go into detail. Part 2 will be up soon. Until then, God bless.