Comic Review - NorthStars Volume 1

With the holiday season in full swing and everyone gearing up for Christmas and other winter holidays, lots of people are in the mood for some good holiday specials. While Christmas themed comics are rather rare, some options can be found. One such story is the light fantasy adventure comic NorthStars. Can this book put you in the holiday spirit?

Let’s look at NorthStars.

STORY

The story takes place in the magical region of Polaris, located in the area around Earth’s North Pole, and the residents of the town of Snowville, where Santa Claus lives, are getting ready for Christmas. Our two protagonists are Holly Claus, Santa’s daughter, and Frostina, the princess of the yetis, while the dark Christmas demon Krampus appears as our main villain. When Krampus steals a magical artifact that Santa needs for his Christmas deliveries, Holly and Frostina take it upon themselves to get it back and save the holiday.

The story is a nice little adventure. The girls do come across some genuine threats and switch between either fighting through them (with Frostina doing most of the fighting) or solving them with some creative thinking. There are also some good jokes peppered throughout the story, reminiscent of Adventure Time. While there isn’t any deeper story going on, at least in this volume, traveling with these characters and learning more about the world they inhabit and the kinds of other creatures and characters that live in it is itself engaging.

CHARACTERS

The characters that get the most exploration in this story are Holly, Frostina, and Krampus, as we see how they behave around others and what their motivations are. Sorry if you expect to see Santa appear throughout, but he only appears briefly at the start and in flashbacks. There isn’t much character development in the protagonists, as Holly and Frostina aren’t challenged in any big way, but since there are other comics in this series, this can be seen as more of an introduction to the characters and the world. We learn a few small things about the characters, like Holly being able to jump higher than a normal person and Frostina being very strong, and we are sure to learn more about them as the series progresses.

We also learn a fair bit about Krampus as portrayed in this story. While Santa’s job is to reward nice people with presents (or coal if they’re not so nice), Krampus goes out to punish the naughty, though sometimes he goes too far with his punishments. Also, it’s said he wants to take over control of Christmas from Santa and that’s why he goes through with his plan in this story. He also has powerful magic at his disposal and can even summon creatures to do his bidding. His basic motivations are laid out and he has room in the series to grow into a threatening villain.

VISUALS

This comic has a colorful and cheerful art style, fitting seeing the holiday it draws its inspiration from. A lot of characters and parts of the setting make use of white, reds, and greens, which set in the Christmas theme nicely. The characters look vibrant and interesting with a lot of variation while still fitting in with the world of the story. Even some of the elves in Santa’s workshop have distinct looks. Settings range from the quaint snowy town of Snowville to the subterranean mushroom village of Undertown and there are creatures from soldiers made of straw to ice dragons. It wants readers to go further to explore more of this world.

FINAL THOUGHTS

NorthStars is a fun and entertaining comic that presents itself as a Christmas-themed Adventure Time style story. There is a large world to explore with interesting characters to lead you through it. While the plot isn’t that deep, there is plenty of humor and clever scenes to keep you moving through the story that will hopefully be expanded on in future issues.

SCORE: 4/5

 REREAD VALUE: MODERATE

=

What did you think of this review? Does this comic sound like something you want to check out? Make your voice heard in the comments below. Thanks for coming!

Assemble! - Fighting Game Archetype Roster - The Diversity Pick

 

This is Assemble, where we look at several different characters across multiple series to form a perfect team-up. Whatever the case may be, whether it’s a fighting game roster or an RPG adventuring party, we’ll find the best team for the job. In a change of style from the more long-form articles featured here, these articles will be shorter entries, focusing on one or two characters each, and spread out over time until the complete roster is formed. 

What would a fighting game be without a roster of several different, powerful, and engaging characters? In this batch of articles for Assemble, we will be assembling a fighting game roster using characters from several different fighting games based on different character archetypes.

The picks will be based on where the characters fit in terms of game mechanics and their place in the story and world of the game. Only characters that originated in fighting games will be observed here. That means no guest characters, no licensed fighting games (unless their roster includes original characters), and no crossover titles. Finally, I’ll only be discussing games or characters that I am at least somewhat familiar with. While this means I won’t discuss all the fighting games out there, there should be at least some variety from just the major titles.

=

THE DIVERSITY PICK

As they say, variety is the spice of life.

Common in fighting games with large casts, the Diversity Pick is a character meant to represent a cultural, regional, or ethnic group not well represented by the rest of the cast. Their appearance, personality, or moves may contain references to their culture, with the best examples shown as a good homage to the culture in question and the worst examples seen as stereotypical or borderline racist. The character fitting in this role for our roster would be one representing a culture not seen yet within our roster who manages to represent and portray their culture in a positive light.

Our choice for the Diversity Pick is…

Rashid from Street Fighter.

Several of the characters in Street Fighter contain references to their countries of origin and, as pointed out in a video by Youtuber Gaijin Goombah, Rashid is one of the best in representing his culture, especially with Middle Eastern characters being a bit rare in fighting game casts. While his exact place of origin isn’t listed as anything more specific than “Middle East”, Gaijin Goombah states that there are clues in Rashid’s character that imply that he is from Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates.

I recommend watching Gaijin Goombah’s video on the subject, but I will summarize a few of his talking points. Link here!

Rashid’s outfit is a Kandura, a type of traditional Middle Eastern clothing commonly worn around the Arabian Peninsula, and his high-tech eyepiece and love of modern technology hint at hailing from an area that is on the cutting edge of technological development, which Dubai is. For more subtle hints, his special moves have bird-inspired names and some of them involve wind and tornadoes, with the Arabian Peninsula sporting both high winds as a common occurrence and falconry as a popular activity.

You can even see a city that kind of looks like Dubai in his official artwork.

For appearing as an accurate and positive representation of his culture, we now add Rashid to the roster.

ADDED!

= 

What did you think about this article? Want to see what other characters get picked for our roster? Do you think someone would fit this role better besides whoever got picked? Make your voice heard in the comments below. Thanks for coming.

The Arsenal - Super Smash Bros.

With Super Smash Bros. Ultimate recently coming out after a long wait, fans of this platform fighter can now experience everything this game has to offer, from the characters to the stages to even the items. Despite not being a favored feature for competitive play, items contribute a large part to the game’s atmosphere. But when looking at just what this crew of powerful characters can use, which of these items are the best?

To clarify, we will only be looking at items that can be picked up or otherwise interacted with during a match, so weapons and gear that a character carries into battle as part of their move-set don’t count. For those, certain characters may get an Arsenal article of their own in the future.

Here is the Arsenal of the Super Smash Brothers.

=

Best Close Combat Weapon – Hammer

First seen in the original Donkey Kong arcade game, picking up the Hammer gives the wielder a few seconds of going into a frenzy trying to pound whoever comes close to them. Hits from this large weapon do a lot of damage and can send opponents flying. There is a chance that the head may fly off the Hammer leaving you helplessly swinging the handle around for no damage, but even then, the head can afterwards be used as a throwing weapon for heavy damage.

Best Ranged Weapon – Super Scope

Based on the real peripheral for the Super Nintendo, the Super Scope in Smash Bros. is a laser gun that can shoot rapid-fire laser shots or be charged up to shoot one large blast, Samus Aran style. The smaller shots are a good way to rack up damage and keep opponents away from you and the large shots can effectively KO high-damage targets.

Best Thrown Weapon – Spiny Shell

These spiky terrors are most infamously seen in the Mario Kart racing games, where they seek out the racer in first place and end their lead with a well-paced explosion. They work similarly in Smash Bros., where after being thrown, they hover over the fighter currently in the lead (except the one who threw it) before slamming down on them and exploding, launching them off and dealing heavy damage.

Best Explosive Weapon – Smart Bomb

First seen in the Star Fox games, where they give the members of the Star Fox team powerful explosives to fire, the Smart Bomb is a thrown weapon that creates a similarly large explosion after hitting an enemy. It creates a large blast zone that traps enemies within it damaging, racking up damage for them before launching them at the end.

Best Assembly Weapon – Daybreak

Coming from Kid Icarus: Uprising, Daybreak is a very powerful weapon and the same can be said for it in Smash. In a match, it comes in three pieces that can be picked up during the fight and can be knocked out of another character’s possession for someone else to pick it up. When someone collects all three pieces, they can form a large cannon that can fire a devastating energy beam. Catching someone in this beam is an almost guaranteed KO.

Best Healing Item – Heart Container

In the Legend of Zelda series, Heart Containers both heal Link and add an extra bit of overall health to his life bar. In Smash, this item heals 100 points from your damage meter. No extra conditions, no complications, no sharing with opponents or teammates; it simply heals the user, no fine print. Something that simple, yet that effective, is hard to disregard.

Best Defense Item – Franklin Badge

Those who have read previous articles here may remember seeing this item in the Arsenal for Ness and his friends from Earthbound. In that game, this badge can reflect any lightning attacks shot at the wearer back to sender, making it useful against some key opponents that used electrical attacks. In Smash, this item gets upgraded to being able to reflect energy-based projectile attacks, making it very useful against characters who use such moves, of which there are several.

Best Summoning Item – Master Ball

From the Pokemon series, this ball used to capture Pokemon has a 100% capture rate, making it a very effective item to use against rare Pokemon, particularly legendaries. This is reflected by the item’s appearance in Smash, where they are guaranteed to summon a legendary or mythical Pokemon that can deal out powerful attacks or buffs to aid the player who summoned them. Assist Trophies and normal Poke Balls are present too, but there’s more of a chance you could get ineffective assist characters or flat-out duds.

Best Power-Up – Smash Ball

A Super Smash Bros. original, this item floats around the stage until a character attacks it and breaks it apart like a piñata. Afterwards, when they start glowing with energy, they can use their Final Smash ability, a strong super move that, if applied correctly, can almost guarantee a KO on an opponent, or at least, inflict a high amount of damage on them. The resulting moves are always on theme with the character that uses them and are always a spectacle to behold.

Best Power-Down – Timer 

Another Super Smash Bros. original, this clock slowly floats down to the stage after appearing. When grabbed by a fighter, time temporarily slows down for everyone else but the user, allowing them to pound on the competition while those affected try to adjust and hope they don’t get KO’d before the effect expires.

Best Miscellaneous Item – Special Flag

Originating from the Namco game Rally-X, this 8-bit flag was a high-scoring item that would double point totals for every subsequent item collected. In Smash, this is a very valuable item, not for directly affecting the battle, but because when held up for a few seconds, this item would grant the user a free point in timed battles or an extra life in stock battles. The effect can be interrupted however, so users must make sure they’re in a safe place where they can avoid getting hit before using it.

Best Item Container – Rolling Crate

The items in Smash don’t always appear on their own. Sometimes, they appear in special containers. They can house one or many items and come in many forms like capsules, barrels, party balls, or crates. They can even change appearance depending on which stage they appear on, gaining a futuristic look on outer space or futuristic stages or appearing as gift-wrapped presents on more whimsical stages. The Rolling Crate stands out among these as not only do they hold items, if they are hit but not destroyed, they can go rolling off in a direction and can cause damage to whoever they run into. Fighters can even stand on these crates, giving them another function as a platform.

=

What did you think of these choices? Is there an item you think should have been highlighted? What characters do you think have an arsenal worth looking at? Make your voice heard in the comments below. Thanks for coming!