Random Hoo Haasthe blog with the guff

A Correction 65 Million Years in the Making

Wednesday, September 19, 2018 at 9:54 pm Comments Off on A Correction 65 Million Years in the Making

I’m a lazy bum and didn’t write blog posts for the last few updates, so let’s get it all in one go!

MS:MIA has a few bits and pieces here and there: some unused graphics, remnants of a debug dipswitch in Advance, translated bits from the Metal Slug Official Guidebook, and a bit of general maintenance, that sort of thing.
The Bomberman shrine sprayed a bunch of stuff  all over the place, mostly unfinished pages, but there’s some notable content like a translated interview!
I’m afraid Scans & Bits is my new jam for content-light research-heavy updates! There’s new pages for Comic Bom Bom (with Ganbare Goemon, Sly Cooper and Dr. Mario scans), CoroCoro Comic (Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Sonic the Hedgehog and assorted 4-koma), Shogakukan Learning Magazine (Super Mario Kun and Famicom Manga for Mario, Zelda 2 and The Goonies), Fami2Comic (Rockman ZX Advent and the rest of Go! Go! Mario Kart), and Dengeki Nintendo DS (Animal Crossing, Sonic the Hedgehog #6, #24 and #38), and English translations for the Star Fox Super Capture Guide, Wai Wai Wario and Klonoa manga courtesy of MiloScat, ReasonablePerson and Moonpie!).
Phew!
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The box of words

Saturday, March 31, 2018 at 10:33 pm Comments Off on The box of words

The Bomberman Shrine Place updated recently with a big pile of merchandise coverage and a neato cameos article aided by pal Steamy Jimmy, and Scans & Bits has some new manga: Go! Go! Mario Kart #3 and #4, Kaze no Klonoa, Oshiete! Kinipio, and Hichako no Game Taiken-ki.

I keep thinking of the most inane possible subjects to ramble on at length about, like the fragile nature of internet history or the secret merits of Sonic Labyrinth, yet when it comes to padding out a blog post my mind’s a total blank. Maybe sometime I’ll have it in me!

Wild Guns: Live & Reloaded

Friday, February 9, 2018 at 9:02 pm Comments Off on Wild Guns: Live & Reloaded

Metal Slug: Missing in Action updated recently with some debug menu gubbins for 7 and XX. Still holding out for that debug menu in Metal Slug Advance! Anything to close the book on that game!

I’ve been playing a heck of a lot of Wild Guns lately, both the SNES original and the fancy-pants Reloaded edition. For some reason it’s simply pushing all my buttons, it’s the exact type of game I want to play at this point in time! It’s short, it’s sweet, it’s intense, and it pushes me to play better with every attempt. I’ve finished the game on the hardest difficulty with all characters in one credit on both versions now, and I’m still playing it… partly because I don’t know what to move on to next! Bot Vice, maybe?
I’m still kicking myself for short-changing the game’s new content in my last “Some games I played in 2017” post, though I’m shocked there still isn’t a good list laying out all the changes and differences yet. The game’s been out for over a year! Not that it’s a huge deal, the preview trailers do a decent job of showing the highlights, but I’ve been playing both versions so much I want to get it down just for posterity.
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Some games I played in 2017

Sunday, December 31, 2017 at 10:10 pm Comments (1)

Sneaking in a quick Bomberman update with Bomberman 2001, a game that barely existed as a game. Any chance of finding new information it via search engines had already been squandered when at least three forum threads sprung up about it, so I might as well chuck this up. If someone happened to have raided that E3 booth seventeen years ago and done a runner with its contents, maybe we’ll learn something!
Despite no intentions of another yearly review article, I still keep track of the media I consume. I played nearly sixty games this year and watched eighty-something movies… and I’ve, like, barely anything to say about any of them. I’ll try and squeeze out some thoughts on the noteworthy ones under the cut!
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Some comics I read in 2017

Sunday, December 24, 2017 at 12:58 am Comments Off on Some comics I read in 2017

Another year’s about to wrap up, so you know what that means – I write dumb opinions about media I barely remember! I know, I’m sorry too. I’d no intention of doing a full article, and even the abbreviated list for last year was just too boring to go through again… but I still had a whole bunch of dumb opinions on media I barely remembered that needed an outlet. So, hey, let’s talk about some comics I read! If the thought of writing more doesn’t lull me and the audience into a never-ending sleep, expect another post for games and movies too, maybe.

Star Fox (Nintendo Power)

I’d been keen to read this since my big Star Fox kick last year. My early years online drifting around tiny fansites suggested people found it more compelling than the games, portraying a darker and deeper take on Star Fox lore that, most importantly for fanfic writers, gave Fox a girlfriend, Fara Phoenix. (he can’t fuck Wolf and Falco all the time!)

It’s a breezy light-hearted space romp that paints a fun picture of the Star Fox world. I guess to a young audience it might seem slightly mature, what with Fox grieving over his lost parents and hating Andross so much he’s willing to go on a kamikaze mission, forcing Falco to pummel him senseless… but it’s just so breezy it’s hard to see it that way. The dialogue is jokey and full of dreadful puns, and Andross’ goofy schemes undermine any attempt at seriousness, including his Gundam-shaped living-battery android pig assistant, and his brilliant plan to work alongside a clone of himself is foiled when his clone gushes his love for Fox’s gal. It’s a 80-20 skew of cornball and melodrama, and I love it.
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Update #4 of 2017

Wednesday, December 13, 2017 at 1:00 am Comments Off on Update #4 of 2017

Metal Slug: Missing in Action has some bits and bobs, most notably more early footage and some weird discoveries in Metal Slug 7‘s missing areas.  The Bomberman site has a pile of guff I just wanted out of the way, though Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Bakuretsu Bomberman is worth spotlighting for its sheer strangeness (also hello i’m still looking for issues of dengeki nintendo ds please hook me up), and Super Bomberman 2’s media section because we all need a bit of GamesMaster in our lives.

2017’s been a bit of a blur – so much has happened in the world and so little has happened in my life! It’s weeks away, but I’ll probably tune out for the rest of the month, so I hope everyone has a good December and wish you all have a decent new year.

Have I any plans for Random Hoo Haas next year? Pffft. I barely accomplished my plans for this year! I’d like an excuse to write more guff, be it reviews or blog content or just spewing nonsense out of my mouth that’s hopefully amusing or interesting (though no promise on both counts). As always, the best I can say is I’ll see what happens!

The Justice Pals of Komorebi

Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 10:53 pm Comments Off on The Justice Pals of Komorebi

Just uploading stuff that should’ve been uploaded months ago!
Metal Slug: Missing in Action has more concept art courtesy of Division å…­‘s lovely scans from Neo Geo Freak. You’re best just browsing the directories to see what’s new, those thumbnails are a nightmare to navigate (and even worse to update!).
Scans & Bits also has some new content, including the City Connection manga, some Animal Crossing, plus more Peach’s Great Adventure, Go-Ketsu Wario and Sonic the Hedgehog.

I’m still writing bits and bobs on the side, though whether it’ll find a home on the site is up in the air. All this documentative gumbo scratches an itch, but I do miss a good all-purpose waffle. Sometime, hopefully!

The fifty-billionth Random Hoo Haas revamp

Monday, August 21, 2017 at 5:51 pm Comments (1)

All that waffling about gaming manga wasn’t for naught – there’s a page for scans now, starting off with some Mario, Sonic and Kirby manga as well as a big pile of research on Dengeki Nintendo DS and Fami2Comic! More cleaned-up stuff will appear in future, but until then you can browse my MEGA for the raw scans.
The Random Hoo Haas main page has also been overhauled a bit, cramming in a new logo, another sidebar and a new page to shuffle all the miscellaneous crap (or Additional Impedimenta if I’m going to stick to my branding) into instead of dumping it all under General Writings. Do people still use site maps? I’ve been real tempted to make one, if only because I’ve no idea how to navigate this site without just browsing the directories. Let me know how you cope and I’ll see if I just turn the front page into a phonebook instead.

Metal Slug: Missing in Action has some odds and sods, including lovely concept art scanned by a site reader (hats off to Division å…­!), and the Bomberman Shrine Place also got a makeover for its front page (with some light coverage on media, merch and the Jetters anime – more to come when I’m not stressing myself to death under self-imposed deadlines!), and now has a full banner on the hub. Now it won’t be taking over Random Hoo Haas’ updates log! (i’ll probably change that hub banner sometime – it was an “it’ll do” job, not one of my best collages)

There’s stuff I had to leave out of these updates that’ll probably come out soon-ish, but we’ll see what happens! Maybe I’ll finally take a break and enjoy some other pursuits instead. One of the two!

Big Guff Power Hour

Saturday, June 17, 2017 at 10:23 pm Comments Off on Big Guff Power Hour

Thanks to a reader submission, we now know there was a level select and sound test hidden inside the first Metal Slug! Now if only we could find a way of loading different objects – looking at those test stages shows some curious object behaviours I didn’t notice before. I’m also testing the waters to see if SNK really do poach my updates for Metal Slug Attack fodder. I’m not crazy, I swear.

The Bomberman site got a lot more stuff, but I couldn’t tell you if any of it is worth looking at; I just got tired of sitting on them until I had a bigger, fancier update to bundle them with.

More talkin’ ’bout manga peeps won’t care about

Sunday, May 7, 2017 at 1:39 pm Comments (2)

I don’t want to make this a routine, but you might have guessed (because I’ve become incredibly predictable ever since I exchanged my personality for nerd-ass obsessions) I bought another Japanese gaming magazine for the sole Bomberman comic in it: the August 2007 issue of Fami2Comic.

It’s kind of interesting comparing this to the Dengeki Nintendo I also acquired for the same silly reason; despite being an offshoot of Famitsu, the hot shot magazine whose reviews were taken as gospel for years until people realised, huh, they sure do like bribes, don’t they, Fami2Comic feels like the definition of “second-stringer”. You look at that other blog post and the games its manga were based off, and there wasn’t a game there that wasn’t some manner of international success. Fossil Fighters probably ranked higher than Bomberman during that period in terms of awareness and popularity! (during that comic’s run there was only ONE Bomberman game on shelves… in Japan, Europe and Australia only. welp!) There are four years between the two issues, mind – Dengeki’s lineup might’ve been trash when this one came out for all I know.
I thought it’d be amusing to do another quick looksie at the manga Fami2Comic has to offer, and it’s probably the only spotlight they’ll be getting on the English internet anytime soon, so why the heck not.
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