Random Hoo Haasthe blog with the guff

Super Marco Brothers

Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 12:37 pm Comments (1)

Metal Slug: Missing in Action finally saw an update after five years! Don’t get your hopes up, though – although a debug menu in MS6 was discovered, it’s not hiding anything wild or exciting. I’m still holding out for a debug menu in Metal Slug Advance to be unearthed, and I am seriously tempted to offer a cash prize for it. I mean, check out the newly rewritten debug menu page – there’s at least six unused areas waiting to be discovered!

Anyway, thanks to all the Metal Slug fans who’ve somehow held out with this outdated site for so long. This update wouldn’t have been possible without reader submissions – I’m struggling to emphasise the “your input means so much!” part, and not in a “I’m counting on you to do all the work for me” manner. When all the easy discoveries are done and the rest relies on hacking, I’m kinda out of my depth!

I spent ten minutes trying to think of a post title (and all I got was this lousy update)

Friday, December 25, 2015 at 9:25 pm Comments (1)

Logged a couple of more chapters into the Legend of Zelda playthrough. I’ve finished the game already, so the final chapters are just awaiting a write-up. Expect to see them… sometime!

So, Random Hoo Haas turned ten years old a couple of months ago. I’m still not sure what to think about that! To be frank, I’m not even sure what my ambition with the website is these days. Am I trying to be funny? A reviewer? Informative? I’m no wiser than you are, pal. Leave a comment and clue me in!

I admit I enjoy just using it as a way to keep myself busy. An outlet for noodling away at whatever dumb project strikes my fancy. It’s not glamorous and it sure as heck ain’t consistent – who bets we’ll see more than three updates next year? – but I enjoy it when I treat it as a light-hearted distraction.
I, er, do apologise to everyone who’s bored stiff of Bomberman minutiae and my foggy recollections of games I play each year. Let me know what you want out of Random Hoo Haas, and I might take it into account when I’m not making foolish purchases!

I have zero plans for next year, and I might take an extended break or two, but there’s probably some dumb thing nobody asked for that I’ll just have to upload. Lookin’ forward to it!

“It is face astringent juice with two people”

Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at 5:23 pm Comments (1)

An update, huh? It’s been a while since we had one of those!

Because one person said they wanted to see more of them, I finished translating four more Otimusya pages (F-Zero, Wolfenstein 3D, Final Fight* and Hokuto no Ken) and two more chapters of the Zelda playthrough. And because nobody asked for them, there’s some Bomberman coverage and reviews of stuff I played in 2013 and 2014.
* just a head’s up that this one has some rape and transphobic jokes if you’d rather avoid those

Tomorrow happens to mark the tenth anniversary of Random Hoo Haas.
I’ll be frank, the fact I’ve been maintaining this place for a decade now is a little bit terrifying. I wouldn’t call it a surprise I’ve stuck with it this long – I’m a terrible man for bad habits! – but knowing it’s entertained and informed a few folks over the years does make it feel like all those evenings and afternoons weren’t for naught. Thanks for the chuckles!

History trembles with unbearable anger

Sunday, September 13, 2015 at 12:47 pm Comments Off on History trembles with unbearable anger

So, how about that F-Zero: Falcon Densetsu, huh? Its coverage finished on Random Action Hour way back in April, if you missed it! It got a hastily-made characters page and everything!
I got around six emails during that period about what people want to see on Random Action Hour, which was actually pretty nifty! It’s neat to see folks still expressing interest in the site, and I appreciate the interest, though covering F-Zero was exhausting enough; I forgot how time-consuming that stuff can be! There’s a couple of shows I’d like to cover on it sometime in the future, but I can’t imagine it’d be any time soon. I need a break.

And having essentially watched the series two and a half times by now, I need to get it off my chest: my big dumb opinions on F-Zero: The Legend of Falcon can be found beneath the cut!
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“What? Corny? My clothes? You need a lesson!”

Sunday, September 6, 2015 at 8:13 pm Comments Off on “What? Corny? My clothes? You need a lesson!”

It’s a pity to lose one of my favourite running gags, but it had to happen sometime – the Puchi Carat shrine has finally gotten updated! There’s newly translated information for each of the characters, a lot more research into the game pages, plus a big dumb wiki-like glossary page that involved less writing and more deciphering pixelated place names.
This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t suddenly gotten two or three very nice emails about the shrine near the end of August; it tickles me knowing the game means a lot to folks out there, and that my dumb ol’ coverage of the site meant something to them. So I thought, dang it, let’s put my back into it again and get something done! To the Puchi Carat fans out there, thank you for your patience, hugs and kisses for your kind emails, and hopefully the update has been worth the wait. (and if not, shoot me an email or tweet me and tell me what it needs – feedback makes it all worthwhile!)

Mind you, since I’ve been living and breathing that game for weeks on end I can’t even tell what I’ve added to the site. I keep thinking to myself, “is that it? Is that all I’ve done? Wasn’t there more?” I probably remember the late nights more than what I did during them. Don’t make a website, kids.

Use your heart and Boost Fire!

Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 12:55 pm Comments Off on Use your heart and Boost Fire!

The next four episodes of F-Zero: The Legend of Falcon are up! Because I’m a sucker for schedules (and stressing over deadlines) there’ll be three to four new episodes every Wednesday and Sunday. If I find the time I’d love to write some thoughts on the series, but since I’m still in the middle of writing and editing the coverage that might be a little impractical. We’ll see what happens!

To be continued… Push Start!

Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 1:47 pm Comments Off on To be continued… Push Start!

Would you believe it if I told you Random Action Hour finally saw a new update with brand new coverage?
(if you said no then hoo boy i hear ya, i forgot how badly written a lot of that site is. i literally have no idea how anyone understood my transformers season 4 write-ups)
Yeah, it’s true! It’s just a teaser for now, but I’ve got the first episode of F-Zero: The Legend of Falcon (or Falcon Densetsu to folks in the Nippon zone) up for reading. I’ve already got half the episodes written up, but I want to hold on until I’ve got more of a backlog, and also time to proofread and tweak things. It’s a little embarrassing when I’ve watched the whole series and still don’t know some characters’ names – I wanna be thorough, man!

Status report!

Sunday, August 31, 2014 at 3:49 pm Comments (2)

It’s been eight months since I post anything, and when I do it’s two years out of date. I guess I’m overdue a little explain-yourself, huh?
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Two (and a bit) years in the making…

Saturday, August 23, 2014 at 10:06 pm Comments Off on Two (and a bit) years in the making…

Out of the primordial sludge comes something foul; something depraved; something no man ever dared to see again on this earth…
… a new Random Hoo Haas update!?
Yeah, erm, this took way longer than it should half. There’s a couple of new Games I Own reviews, and a brand new General Writing all about rundowns and reviews of all the media I consumed in… 2012. I’m not gonna name names, but I think someone was procrastinating.

I hope to have another blog post within the week containing a bit of a catch-up. I haven’t done anything exciting in the meantime, don’t worry!

Playing chess with cards

Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 1:05 pm Comments (1)

It wasn’t what I had planned for this month’s update, but here’s something: another chapter of that Zelda playthrough!

What I had planned was a “some games I played in 2012” article, only this time I’d also be covering books, movies, TV shows and whatever else of interest. It got a bit hideously long and half the stuff I didn’t write notes for, so most of the early entries amount to “I think it was okay, I guess?” Which admittedly isn’t that far off from my real reviews.
It might show up eventually, but it’s not even half-finished yet. I’ll see what happens! To tide you over, here’s the review I wrote for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which was shown on BBC1 around Christmas.

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In a word: Charmless.
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