Topic: Western Animation Discussion (Cartoons)

Batman: The Animated Series is the best superhero TV show ever made. Hit the right balance of serious drama and comic book camp, IMO, which is right where Batman should be: somewhere in the middle between Adam West and The Dark Knight Returns. Hamill's Joker is legendary at this point, and pretty much the canon depiction of the character for a lot of fans.

I really liked Nolan's interpretation of that universe, but that always felt like its own thing to me.

@Kidfried There was a long period in Batman's comic book history where that wasn't the case. Although it's definitely unique in its own ways.

Anyway, it's not so much the "broodiness" as it is the way characters were interpreted. The Nolanverse doesn't feel like the comics, or the animated movies, or anything else Batman related.

Wut

This song works on so many levels for this trailer.
Can't blame them for giving that iconic roll to Mark Hamill, it clearly fits.

Edit: Turns out this is more of a sequel than a reboot.

"The war for Eternia culminates in Masters of the Universe: Revelation, an innovative and action-packed animated series that picks up where the iconic characters left off decades ago. After a cataclysmic battle between He-Man and Skeletor, Eternia is fractured and the Guardians of Grayskull are scattered. And after decades of secrets tore them apart, it's up to Teela to reunite the broken band of heroes, and solve the mystery of the missing Sword of Power in a race against time to restore Eternia and prevent the end of the universe."

@RogerRoger

No problem matey, apparently it's the same team that put together Castlevania which was incredible, so we're definitely in for a treat. Just uh, don't read the comments.

So goddamn excited that the next Castlevania series will be focusing on the Rondo of Blood and presumably Symphony of the Night story with Richter, Maria and presumably Alucard returning

As someone whose favorite pre-SOTN title is Rondo of Blood I'm really excited to see how they adapt it with the quality of writing behind the Netflix series

Having Sypha and Trevor give birth to Richter before Simon is an interesting deviation from the game story arc but I'm all for it. Hope we get some rearrangements of that legendary OST from Rondo of Blood like Slash, Opus 13 and Divine Bloodlines

@TheFrenchiestFry Rondo of Blood is absolutely brutal but I do like it. The 3D version of it on PSP ruined me.

@nessisonett I don't think Rondo's bullsh*t comes close to the level of stuff like Castlevania 3 or the Game Boy entries but it has a lot of that old school design mentality all over it like knockback sending you into pits and the jump still not letting you change direction

I'm actually fine with Dracula X Chronicles. Admittedly the PSP being the platform for a lot of these 2.5D remakes like Mega Man Maverick Hunter X and Ultimate Ghosts n' Goblins always perplexed me but I do think the extra content and having the original game as an unlockable alongside Symphony of the Night made the package for me, and besides now the original is way more accessible thanks to it being part of that PS4 Requiem pack with SOTN

In terms of Classicvania difficulty:

Dracula's Curse > Simon's Quest > Castlevania: The Adventure > Castlevania > Bloodlines > Dracula X Chronicles > Super Castlevania IV > Rondo of Blood

Rondo is the easiest of the older titles when playing as Richter. When playing as Maria, IMO, it's one of the easiest games in the entire franchise. But she's a lot of fun to play as, I'm not always looking to get my teeth kicked in, and the ending to her playthrough is funny in a stupid way, so she's the usually my choice when I replay the game.

@Ralizah I dunno, I’d say the original Castlevania and IV were easier than Rondo of Blood. IV especially due to the 8 direction whip. The original is perhaps just easier to learn due to the simplicity. Rondo just has a lot more truly irritating sections like the sewers. I found the bosses a lot harder too.

@Ralizah I consider IV way easier than Rondo personally

Simon actually having fluid control and all the things he can do with the whip just makes so many of those frustrating things I had to put up with in the preceding games and Rondo a lot more tolerable like attacking medusa heads or those damn frogs that jump everywhere

@TheFrenchiestFry I found a lot of the whip platforming in general didn't agree with me, and led to a number of deaths. There are also a few stages where I found the environment killed me a lot, which wasn't true in Rondo. With that said, I could see the argument for SCIV being easier than Rondo if you're playing the latter as Richter (even if that's not my own personal experience). Rondo is just flat out easier in every way if you're playing as Maria, though, between the sheer range of her attack and how much movement range she has.

@nessisonett OG Castlevania is unnecessarily brutal during the final stages. Particularly that damn hallway leading up to the Death boss battle.

A few things clinch Rondo being easier for me:

• Level designed to minimize insta-kill BS, which was a major factor in the difficulty of the NES games.
• Item crashes
• Backflipping
• Easiest version of Dracula (although SCIV's Dracula fight is pretty easy as well)

@LieutenantFatman Are you familiar with Stressed Eric and did you watch it back in the day, old chap?

@TheBrandedSwordsman
I missed out on that one, I was probably watching stuff like Dexter's lab at that point. Before moving onto Spiderman and Xmen.

@LieutenantFatman It's an adult cartoon, I'm sure you can find it on Youtube.

@LieutenantFatman I always thought that Xmen was quite dark for a children's cartoon, no?

@TheBrandedSwordsman
It could be a little. But they were pretty strict about things like violence. It was very noticeable that Wolverine couldn't use his claws on most enemies, just robots.

@LieutenantFatman Those robots had it coming.

@LieutenantFatman The episode that stayed with me, for being the darkest, though, was the one where The Brood (reptilian-looking alien race) show up, dousing Rogue and her ex-bf with their spores so they can touch etc.and allowing them to be together, Rogue is all for it until she discovers the aliens her ex-bf is in cahoots with, Rogue escapes the fate of transforming fully into a reptilian monster but her ex isn't so lucky and the episode ends tragically with him becoming one of the beasts as she flees the scene. Do you remember that one? If not, think it sounds dark enough?

@TheBrandedSwordsman
I only saw that episode once but it certainly is one that sticks in the memory. It's a fair comment to say that's quite creepy for a children's cartoon but I've seen worse.

Can't say I felt sorry for the bloke, he deserved his fate. But the whole genestealer cult type thing where aliens can permanently transform you into their species against your will is always quite unsettling.