I laughed my head off through out the entire video, especially at the ending.
Comes with English subtitles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbCwJ7M6RBg&feature=related
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
The development behind Meet the Medicharu
With Team Fortress 2 (TF2) reigning all over the internet and the gaming community, video game fans enjoy looking at TF2 parodies done by artists on art community sites such as deviantART, as well as artists who also enjoy drawing them.
The most common and simplest TF2 type of drawing that exists in the art community is dressing up different characters from other video games, cartoons and comic books or their own characters as Team Fortress 2 classes such as the Scout, Medic and Heavy. This is also known as a crossover. The last TF2 crossover that I did was with Street Fighter by dressing up Sakura and Ibuki as BLU Scouts stealing the intelligence from Zangief as the RED Heavy. I was originally going to make a sequel to that drawing by drawing Ibuki as a BLU spy because of the Spy's new Kunai weapon from the Shogun Update. Unfortunately, I didn't have much inspiration for drawing it because of the difficulties of drawing a female version of the Spy's outfit.
Just recently, I got my interest back into Ape Escape due to Playstation Move Ape Escape's release in North America. Not too long ago, I made a video called "No Dinner For You!" where I used the Heavy's quotes to be the Professor's voice and the Scout's quotes to be Kakeru's voice. That was when I decided to make a crossover between Team Fortress 2 and Ape Escape.
There were a few challenges that I have to overcome when I drew "Meet the Medicharu". The challenges were:
1) Choosing which Ape Escape character to draw
2) What class should that character be?
3) If the character is female, how would the female edition of the outfit look like?
1) I thought of dressing up the Professor as the Heavy Weapons Guy due to their similarity in physical shape. It was a good idea but I did not enjoy drawing the bullet vest around the Heavy, so the idea was scrapped. There were two other Ape Escape characters that I considered: Charu and Kakeru. I thought of drawing Kakeru as the Scout and giving him the hat the Scout got from the Uber Update, but it was immediately scrapped due to the difficulty of drawing Kakeru's hair. I do not want Kakeru's hair to get in the way. I may consider drawing him one day. In the end, I chose Charu because she is compatible with two possible TF2 classes: The Engineer and The Medic, which opens up numerous options. Moreover, I drew her more than any of the Ape Escape characters so I was very familiar with her.
2) Between the choice of making her dress up as the Engineer or Medic was a somewhat difficult thinking process. She could go well with the Engineer because she has the capability to carry heavy equipment and utilize her right hand as a weapon. She can also go well with the Medic because she is the only Ape Escape character to wear glasses in the anime [She wore glasses in Episode 18, Season 2]. It seems that dressing her up as the Engineer is the obvious choice, but there is one big reason that made me choose to dress her up as the Medic instead of the Engineer. Charu is designed to assist people around her, somewhat similar to how the Medic is trained to help heal his teammates in the battlefield. She is not meant to build and operator heavy duty machinery like the Sentry or Dispenser. Haruka is more suitable to be an Engineer than Charu.Therefore, the Medic class was chosen.
3) In my previous TF2 parody, I didn't much problems with drawing Sakura and Ibuki's outfit since Ibuki's doesn't need to be altered, and Sakura's lower part of her outfit was changed to a skirt. For Charu, I wanted to give her a long skirt like how she wears her maid outfit in the anime. The idea of giving her a long skirt was scrapped because I don't want to deal with the folding and cloth marks on the long skirt. I later on thought of giving her a short skirt, but it was scrapped because a Medic in the frontline needs to be fully covered to protect him/her-self. Finally, I decided not to make any alterations to Charu's Medic outfit and made her wear the Medic's original outfit. Her glasses is based on her glasses from Episode 18 in Saru Get Chu ~On Air~ 2nd, and I made the color of the glasses to have the same color as the Medic's glasses frames in TF2.
The drawings on that paper above are the concept art and samples that I did prior to drawing "Meet the Medicharu". I was not very familiar with drawing the Medic so I drew some samples, choose which would look good in my final draft and fit them together like a jigsaw puzzle.
This is the pencil draft of "Meet the Medicharu" before I edited it on Photoshop. The development behind her expression was interesting. I was thinking of giving her a friendly and helpful look but it wasn't fun because I find it to be the most overused and boring expression in the art world. I watched Valve's "Meet the Medic" numerous times to grasp the Medic's mad emotions and expressions, and I realized that his expressions when he said: "Let's go practice medicine." and when he healed the demoman were the ones that I wanted.
The most noticeable and only change from the pencil draft and the one that I posted is Charu's left glove. I was not satisfied by how it looks like a glove made of cloth instead of rubber. Her left glove was the most difficult part of the drawing because I never drew or colored rubber before and it took me a longer time than I expected.
At the last minute, I thought of adding blood stains onto her clothing and the background but it did not turn out what I wanted on Photoshop so it was cut off.
I really had a lot of fun drawing this tribute to my favorite First Person Shooter: Team Fortress 2, the world's most underrated video game franchise and android/computer program, and the late Tomoko Kawakami (She did Charu's voice from the first Ape Escape game to Ape Escape: Million Monkeys) who lost her battle with ovary cancer two months ago. It has been a long while since I last drew anything. I also hope that this drawing will motivate Team Fortress 2 fans and Ape Escape fans to come up with numerous ideas of Ape Escape and Team Fortress 2 crossovers. Ape Escape has a lot of potential when it comes to drawing crossovers and parodies, and it's a huge untapped gold mine waiting to be mined. One day, it may get the big break that it truly deserves in the video game industry.
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
TechieWidget
The most common and simplest TF2 type of drawing that exists in the art community is dressing up different characters from other video games, cartoons and comic books or their own characters as Team Fortress 2 classes such as the Scout, Medic and Heavy. This is also known as a crossover. The last TF2 crossover that I did was with Street Fighter by dressing up Sakura and Ibuki as BLU Scouts stealing the intelligence from Zangief as the RED Heavy. I was originally going to make a sequel to that drawing by drawing Ibuki as a BLU spy because of the Spy's new Kunai weapon from the Shogun Update. Unfortunately, I didn't have much inspiration for drawing it because of the difficulties of drawing a female version of the Spy's outfit.
Just recently, I got my interest back into Ape Escape due to Playstation Move Ape Escape's release in North America. Not too long ago, I made a video called "No Dinner For You!" where I used the Heavy's quotes to be the Professor's voice and the Scout's quotes to be Kakeru's voice. That was when I decided to make a crossover between Team Fortress 2 and Ape Escape.
There were a few challenges that I have to overcome when I drew "Meet the Medicharu". The challenges were:
1) Choosing which Ape Escape character to draw
2) What class should that character be?
3) If the character is female, how would the female edition of the outfit look like?
1) I thought of dressing up the Professor as the Heavy Weapons Guy due to their similarity in physical shape. It was a good idea but I did not enjoy drawing the bullet vest around the Heavy, so the idea was scrapped. There were two other Ape Escape characters that I considered: Charu and Kakeru. I thought of drawing Kakeru as the Scout and giving him the hat the Scout got from the Uber Update, but it was immediately scrapped due to the difficulty of drawing Kakeru's hair. I do not want Kakeru's hair to get in the way. I may consider drawing him one day. In the end, I chose Charu because she is compatible with two possible TF2 classes: The Engineer and The Medic, which opens up numerous options. Moreover, I drew her more than any of the Ape Escape characters so I was very familiar with her.
2) Between the choice of making her dress up as the Engineer or Medic was a somewhat difficult thinking process. She could go well with the Engineer because she has the capability to carry heavy equipment and utilize her right hand as a weapon. She can also go well with the Medic because she is the only Ape Escape character to wear glasses in the anime [She wore glasses in Episode 18, Season 2]. It seems that dressing her up as the Engineer is the obvious choice, but there is one big reason that made me choose to dress her up as the Medic instead of the Engineer. Charu is designed to assist people around her, somewhat similar to how the Medic is trained to help heal his teammates in the battlefield. She is not meant to build and operator heavy duty machinery like the Sentry or Dispenser. Haruka is more suitable to be an Engineer than Charu.Therefore, the Medic class was chosen.
3) In my previous TF2 parody, I didn't much problems with drawing Sakura and Ibuki's outfit since Ibuki's doesn't need to be altered, and Sakura's lower part of her outfit was changed to a skirt. For Charu, I wanted to give her a long skirt like how she wears her maid outfit in the anime. The idea of giving her a long skirt was scrapped because I don't want to deal with the folding and cloth marks on the long skirt. I later on thought of giving her a short skirt, but it was scrapped because a Medic in the frontline needs to be fully covered to protect him/her-self. Finally, I decided not to make any alterations to Charu's Medic outfit and made her wear the Medic's original outfit. Her glasses is based on her glasses from Episode 18 in Saru Get Chu ~On Air~ 2nd, and I made the color of the glasses to have the same color as the Medic's glasses frames in TF2.
 |
| Concept art for Meet the Medicharu |
 |
| Pencil draft of Meet the Medicharu |
This is the pencil draft of "Meet the Medicharu" before I edited it on Photoshop. The development behind her expression was interesting. I was thinking of giving her a friendly and helpful look but it wasn't fun because I find it to be the most overused and boring expression in the art world. I watched Valve's "Meet the Medic" numerous times to grasp the Medic's mad emotions and expressions, and I realized that his expressions when he said: "Let's go practice medicine." and when he healed the demoman were the ones that I wanted.
The most noticeable and only change from the pencil draft and the one that I posted is Charu's left glove. I was not satisfied by how it looks like a glove made of cloth instead of rubber. Her left glove was the most difficult part of the drawing because I never drew or colored rubber before and it took me a longer time than I expected.
At the last minute, I thought of adding blood stains onto her clothing and the background but it did not turn out what I wanted on Photoshop so it was cut off.
 |
| Final Draft of Meet the Medicharu |
I really had a lot of fun drawing this tribute to my favorite First Person Shooter: Team Fortress 2, the world's most underrated video game franchise and android/computer program, and the late Tomoko Kawakami (She did Charu's voice from the first Ape Escape game to Ape Escape: Million Monkeys) who lost her battle with ovary cancer two months ago. It has been a long while since I last drew anything. I also hope that this drawing will motivate Team Fortress 2 fans and Ape Escape fans to come up with numerous ideas of Ape Escape and Team Fortress 2 crossovers. Ape Escape has a lot of potential when it comes to drawing crossovers and parodies, and it's a huge untapped gold mine waiting to be mined. One day, it may get the big break that it truly deserves in the video game industry.
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
TechieWidget
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Momi the Maid
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Summer 2010 Doodles
Prior to Pokemon Black and White's release in Japan, I was wanting to draw and color Touko, the female protagonist of B/W. I also drew Touya (not in this doodle) but he didn't turn out the way I wanted so I scrapped the idea of having to draw both Touya and Touko playing DS's.
I was also practicing on drawing chibi Mario and Rosalina, and I drew Momi for fun. I attempted to draw Mijumaru and my attempt failed.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
My thoughts on Ape Escape Million Monkeys
Ape Escape Million Monkeys is arguably the best Ape Escape game outside of the main Ape Escape platforming games (Ape Escape 1, 2 and 3). It is the most intense monkey-catching game Sony has ever made, and it proved to be a huge hit in Asia, selling over 25 million copies as of 2011 despite its average reviews. Unfortunately, it never got released in North America. It almost got a release in Europe, but it was postponed due to Ape Escape 3's release and got cancelled later on. This game came out on July 13th 2006, around the same time when the first episode of Saru Get Chu ~On Air~ came out.
Gameplay (5/5):
Ape Escape Million Monkeys is a combination of the main Ape Escape series' monkey catching gameplay, and Pumped and Primed's action-based gameplay. Sony does a wonderful job at combining the two of them together. They also removed the sky flyer and replaced with a jet pack so they can make one extra room for the monkey net and an extra gadget for Coliseum Mode. The monkey net is one of the best gadgets in the game. Not only you can catch monkeys in front of you, you can catch monkeys from a far distance. Million Monkeys is the hardest Ape Escape game on a home console. Harder than Ape Escape 1, 2 and 3. In the main Ape Escape games, the monkeys would normally run away from you until you caught them. However in Million Monkeys, you really can't let that monkey get away or it will teleport away. Million Monkeys is also one of the few games where you fight a boss in the first level. The other game I know where you fight a boss in the first level is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Besides monkeys teleporting away from you when they lose their armor and weapons, they have a huge arsenal of weapons from giant robots to tanks to throw at you!! Even on Normal Mode, it is very difficult but it's really fun.
Sony also added a combo system and gives players the ability to juggle their opponents in Story Mode, Multiplayer Mode and Coliseum Mode. The one huge feature that Sony added into this game is the crafting system. By using a customized character and after beating every round, you win two computer chips. They can be used to make weapons, vehicles and costumes. There are numerous combinations of objects you can make in the game, so it greatly enhances the replay value and makes players play the same levels again to get the chips they want. There is so much content in this game that I couldn't describe every single thing in the game.
Million Monkeys offers a larger roster of characters than Pumped and Primed. To my knowledge, this is the only Ape Escape game where you can play as the franchise's main villain: Specter. He is playable in both the story mode and coliseum mode. Pipotron G, Dark Specter, Dark Hiroki, Virus Charu, Volcano (monkey) and Legend (monkey) were also added to the roster but they are only playable in Coliseum Mode.
Ever since the day I got this game, I never dropped the PS2 controller and it kept me playing for months or a year and a half. A combination of two different types of gameplay proved to be a great combination.
Story (3/5):
Ape Escape Million Monkeys has the darkest and the most interesting storyline in the franchise. Not only you can play as the main heroes: Kakeru, Natsumi, Charu and etc, you can also play as Specter. It doesn't matter which path you take. Although they both share the same ending, each have different cutscenes based on their perspectives on the storyline. This is the only game where Specter is not the main villain.The only things that I don't like about the plot is the lack of backstory for the Super Pipotrons (J, Meta, Kraut and G) and the Man of Mystery. Even from the guide book, it doesn't give much information about the Man of Mystery except that he is a cruel man who created J, Meta, Kraut and G, access to really advanced technology and it didn't say anything about his intentions of conquering the world. He's more likely used as a plot device or he could the same guy who made the Pipotron Brothers. Also, Pipotron G is the only Super Pipotron to have a back story which shows that he was once a gorilla. This is also supported in the later episodes of the first season of Saru Get Chu ~On Air~. Overall, story is not bad but it has a number of plot holes and characters' names that were never explained in the game.
Controls (4.5/5):
The controls are similar to Pumped and Primed. The four shape buttons have your gadgets, you use the analog sticks, left for movement, and right for using the gadgets. The jetpack can be used by holding down the jump button. The camera angle is not bad, but it can be somewhat hard to see some of the escaping monkeys in Story Mode with using the camera.
Graphics (5/5):
The graphics in the game is a major improvement over Pumped and Primed's. The characters look a lot better than they did in Pumped and Primed, and the development team does a great job at using real-life actors in this game. It's not as awkward as Pumped and Primed's interview with the Professor, where you have a real-life person talking to an inanimate person. The live-action cutscenes almost made it look like this is happening in real-life, and the monkeys in the live-action cutscenes do not look like they are out of place.
Music (4.5/5):
The music in the game is great. This is definitely one of Soichi Terada's best works. I love how the music in the title screen excites the user, and the large variety of music in the game. It's almost as good as the main Ape Escape games' OST. A big improvement over Pumped and Primed's OST. I recommend listening to the complete OST from the game (Link to download the Complete Soundtrack for Million Monkeys is at the end of this review).
Overall Impression:
Million Monkeys has got to be the best Ape Escape spin-off outside of the main platforming games. Its unique gameplay brings fun and excitement for months and the replay value is really high. In comparison to most of the Japan-released Ape Escape games, this game demands a higher learning level of Japanese for those who are learning the language than the other games in the series. As a fan of Ape Escape, I highly recommend importing this game and getting the guidebook. The guidebook will be really helpful and it's a nice addition to your Ape Escape collection. It's sad that this game never was released in the US/Canada and it was so close to being released in Europe. If you are planning to get this game, this game ONLY works on Japanese PS2's. If you want to play it, you have to mod it to break the region code or get a Japanese PS2. If you plan to get a Japanese PS2, make sure Million Monkeys isn't the only game you're getting.
I really love this game and I had tons of fun with it. It's a game worth reviewing.
For the final grade, I give Ape Escape: Million Monkeys:
4 stars out of 5
Gameplay (5/5):
Ape Escape Million Monkeys is a combination of the main Ape Escape series' monkey catching gameplay, and Pumped and Primed's action-based gameplay. Sony does a wonderful job at combining the two of them together. They also removed the sky flyer and replaced with a jet pack so they can make one extra room for the monkey net and an extra gadget for Coliseum Mode. The monkey net is one of the best gadgets in the game. Not only you can catch monkeys in front of you, you can catch monkeys from a far distance. Million Monkeys is the hardest Ape Escape game on a home console. Harder than Ape Escape 1, 2 and 3. In the main Ape Escape games, the monkeys would normally run away from you until you caught them. However in Million Monkeys, you really can't let that monkey get away or it will teleport away. Million Monkeys is also one of the few games where you fight a boss in the first level. The other game I know where you fight a boss in the first level is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Besides monkeys teleporting away from you when they lose their armor and weapons, they have a huge arsenal of weapons from giant robots to tanks to throw at you!! Even on Normal Mode, it is very difficult but it's really fun.
Sony also added a combo system and gives players the ability to juggle their opponents in Story Mode, Multiplayer Mode and Coliseum Mode. The one huge feature that Sony added into this game is the crafting system. By using a customized character and after beating every round, you win two computer chips. They can be used to make weapons, vehicles and costumes. There are numerous combinations of objects you can make in the game, so it greatly enhances the replay value and makes players play the same levels again to get the chips they want. There is so much content in this game that I couldn't describe every single thing in the game.
Million Monkeys offers a larger roster of characters than Pumped and Primed. To my knowledge, this is the only Ape Escape game where you can play as the franchise's main villain: Specter. He is playable in both the story mode and coliseum mode. Pipotron G, Dark Specter, Dark Hiroki, Virus Charu, Volcano (monkey) and Legend (monkey) were also added to the roster but they are only playable in Coliseum Mode.
Ever since the day I got this game, I never dropped the PS2 controller and it kept me playing for months or a year and a half. A combination of two different types of gameplay proved to be a great combination.
Story (3/5):
Ape Escape Million Monkeys has the darkest and the most interesting storyline in the franchise. Not only you can play as the main heroes: Kakeru, Natsumi, Charu and etc, you can also play as Specter. It doesn't matter which path you take. Although they both share the same ending, each have different cutscenes based on their perspectives on the storyline. This is the only game where Specter is not the main villain.The only things that I don't like about the plot is the lack of backstory for the Super Pipotrons (J, Meta, Kraut and G) and the Man of Mystery. Even from the guide book, it doesn't give much information about the Man of Mystery except that he is a cruel man who created J, Meta, Kraut and G, access to really advanced technology and it didn't say anything about his intentions of conquering the world. He's more likely used as a plot device or he could the same guy who made the Pipotron Brothers. Also, Pipotron G is the only Super Pipotron to have a back story which shows that he was once a gorilla. This is also supported in the later episodes of the first season of Saru Get Chu ~On Air~. Overall, story is not bad but it has a number of plot holes and characters' names that were never explained in the game.
Controls (4.5/5):
The controls are similar to Pumped and Primed. The four shape buttons have your gadgets, you use the analog sticks, left for movement, and right for using the gadgets. The jetpack can be used by holding down the jump button. The camera angle is not bad, but it can be somewhat hard to see some of the escaping monkeys in Story Mode with using the camera.
Graphics (5/5):
The graphics in the game is a major improvement over Pumped and Primed's. The characters look a lot better than they did in Pumped and Primed, and the development team does a great job at using real-life actors in this game. It's not as awkward as Pumped and Primed's interview with the Professor, where you have a real-life person talking to an inanimate person. The live-action cutscenes almost made it look like this is happening in real-life, and the monkeys in the live-action cutscenes do not look like they are out of place.
Music (4.5/5):
The music in the game is great. This is definitely one of Soichi Terada's best works. I love how the music in the title screen excites the user, and the large variety of music in the game. It's almost as good as the main Ape Escape games' OST. A big improvement over Pumped and Primed's OST. I recommend listening to the complete OST from the game (Link to download the Complete Soundtrack for Million Monkeys is at the end of this review).
Overall Impression:
Million Monkeys has got to be the best Ape Escape spin-off outside of the main platforming games. Its unique gameplay brings fun and excitement for months and the replay value is really high. In comparison to most of the Japan-released Ape Escape games, this game demands a higher learning level of Japanese for those who are learning the language than the other games in the series. As a fan of Ape Escape, I highly recommend importing this game and getting the guidebook. The guidebook will be really helpful and it's a nice addition to your Ape Escape collection. It's sad that this game never was released in the US/Canada and it was so close to being released in Europe. If you are planning to get this game, this game ONLY works on Japanese PS2's. If you want to play it, you have to mod it to break the region code or get a Japanese PS2. If you plan to get a Japanese PS2, make sure Million Monkeys isn't the only game you're getting.
I really love this game and I had tons of fun with it. It's a game worth reviewing.
For the final grade, I give Ape Escape: Million Monkeys:
4 stars out of 5
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Project "Saru Show"
If you have endured Specter's evil laugh for 5 entire minutes while Annen Polka was playing in the background and saw Ukki Yellow, that was a small hint of a new video series that I am planning to make.
I haven't come up with an official name for the series, but its project name is called "Saru Show". It will be a series of 1:30 minutes videos composed of hilarious comedy. I could have done 5 minutes videos but I want to reduce the compression time, I don't know if this would be a hit and it would make way for more sequels.
I have extra good news today. I dug up my old DVD back-ups and I finally found the episode where the Freaky Monkey Five first appeared, the episode where Ukki Red gets his butt kicked by Charu, and the episode where Ukki Blue goes on an adventure with a group of monkeys. Thank god for DVD Back-ups! This is the power of DVD back-ups! Always have a back-up whenever your computer goes hay-wire! I hope to find all of the episodes and store all of them on DVD. YESHHH!! YESSSSSHHH!!
I also found the lyrics for the song "Yappari Saru Get Chu". I hope to translate the entire song into English by September 2011 and put them on annotations and in the video description. It's a long song and I have never translated a Japanese song into English before.
Update: This project is currently in hiatus, because I am transitioning from Vegas to iMovie atm.
I haven't come up with an official name for the series, but its project name is called "Saru Show". It will be a series of 1:30 minutes videos composed of hilarious comedy. I could have done 5 minutes videos but I want to reduce the compression time, I don't know if this would be a hit and it would make way for more sequels.
I have extra good news today. I dug up my old DVD back-ups and I finally found the episode where the Freaky Monkey Five first appeared, the episode where Ukki Red gets his butt kicked by Charu, and the episode where Ukki Blue goes on an adventure with a group of monkeys. Thank god for DVD Back-ups! This is the power of DVD back-ups! Always have a back-up whenever your computer goes hay-wire! I hope to find all of the episodes and store all of them on DVD. YESHHH!! YESSSSSHHH!!
I also found the lyrics for the song "Yappari Saru Get Chu". I hope to translate the entire song into English by September 2011 and put them on annotations and in the video description. It's a long song and I have never translated a Japanese song into English before.
Update: This project is currently in hiatus, because I am transitioning from Vegas to iMovie atm.
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