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Friday, January 27, 2012

1 year and 119 posts later...

Hi guys! Today is a very special day for the Underworld Trio. Today, one year ago, Danny and I created the blog. We are really happy that the blog's finally one year old. So I'm going to tell you about how we created the blog. By the way, this is our 120th post :D
It was January 26, 2011. Danny and I where in Computer class. Our teacher, Mr. Raf, told us to get in pairs and decide which would be the theme of our blogs. Danny, Judini and I had been with the idea of creating a store that would sell videogames, comics, manga, and things related. We decided to call the store "Underworld" because here in Honduras gamers, frikis, otakus, and related are like way under the social class in people of our age. Sadly, "the top class" are those who listen to a crappy "music genre" called reggaeton. :/ So using our idea of the store, Danny and I decided to create a blog about videogames, manga, trading card games (which ended up being only of Yu-Gi-Oh! XD) and comics. We named the blog after our future store and added Honduras to the name to avoid problems with other things called "Underworld something". That same day, I created our account in Blogger and edited the blog. But it was until January 28 that the blog had its first post. That day, I made a post of Yoshi, which was practically a copy/paste of the article in Wikipedia only that it was written in green XD That same day "I wrote" 2 posts more, one about Kiba and Akamaru and the other one about Ghost Rider. Two days later, I wrote my first original post, my post about Bardock ^_^ I remember being super excited about that post. The next day Danny made his first posts, one about anime and the other about otakus. So time went on and Danny and I started making more and more original posts. In February 13, I made my first post using white letters :P In March 2, Danny made the first Yu-Gi-Oh! post of this blog. Around this dates, our teacher told us that we had the 2nd best blog of our generation :D We were the only ones that had reached 500+ views in all the partial that we were supposed to work in the blog (Our closest competitors barely reached the 250 mark ;) ). So our teacher told us that he would stop checking the blogs, and the great majority of our classmates stopped using their blogs. That we know of, we are the only blog that is still alive :D By March 30, Judini had finally joined the blog, so in my post about the Nintendo 3DS, we used for the first time a signature. On April 2, Judini made his first post, and he being a Mortal Kombat fan, made his first post about it. On April 26, Danny made one of my favorit posts of the blog. It was about some of the best Latin American anime openings. I really liked it because it reminded me of my childhood. :') The blog was already starting to get around 20 visits per day. We reached the blog's first milestone between May 1 and May 2, our first 1,000 visits. We couldn't believe it. We where really happy about it. When we checked some of the few blogs that were still active in those days, our closest competitor was still in the 500+ views. In May 13, Danny made a post about the best Latin American Endings, which I also liked a lot. During May, I wasn't able to make any posts due to the fact that my father decided to cancel the internet -_- I didn't make a post until June 14, when I made my post about The Flash. In August 8, Judini published the blog's first interactive poll about the Top10 MK Fatalities. In August we also reached the next biggest milestone for the blog, the 10,000 visits :D September's biggest highlights for me would be Danny's post about the 100 Laws of Anime :P October's best posts for me would be Judini's post about winning at all costs vs having fun and Danny's post of a "guide" for the people who are new to Yu-Gi-Oh!. In November I made Danny an addict to Plants vs Zombies because of may post about it XD November's biggest highlight was the second edition of the Megacon HN. Danny and I owe you guys the post about it XD Judini sadly couldn't go because his parents couldn't take him :/ Finally we reached December. December was really strange due to the problem we had with Judini's signatures being from someone from DeviantArt. "Thanks" to that problem, our views skyrocketed O.o With that, we reached 2012, and are now here, in the blog's first anniversary.
Now, some words from the Underworld Trio:
Judini: "Hey was it really necessary to mention that -.-'' I mean its all over now why mention it again -,-'' Anyways I thank you all for all the support you people have given us and hope for a bright future for the blog in its second year of life :D thank you guys for making this happen!!"

Danny:

Pérez: "I'm really happy that the blog's finally 1 year old, and this is all thanks to you guys, the underworlders. I hope that we have another awesome year, and who knows, maybe even reach the 250,000 views by next year's anniversary :D "

The image says: Underworld Trio "Pentagon Formation!"
Danny is Pikachu, Judini is Mewtwo and I'm Wobbuffet (according to a Facebook quiz XD)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Seriously?

Hey guys Draconic Emperor Ricardo here :D This will be real quick, so please make sure to understand :)

Maybe some of you.... or a majority of you may have noticed that our blog was taken out around 2-3 days ago. Well, it appeared a message that said that Underworld Honduras was erased....

Neither the 3 of us did it.....

At first, Danny and I thought we were SOPA'ed (if you don't know what SOPA is, check it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act). But according to Pérez, the blog was shut down internally, and after checking some Blogger forum, there were a HELL LOT of  complains about getting their blogs erased. Our blog in particular was taken down for about 18 hours according to Pérez, and over that span, I want to apologize to all who tried to enter our blog during that time. Also about SOPA, you should know that it is frozen at this moment, but that doesn't stop places like Megaupload and Fileshare from being closed, so we can say that the internet as we know it may die unless we unite against this law. So show support! Stand against SOPA for the being well of internet and our right for online freedom!! Anonymous has made a move, make it count :)

This is all for today, my next post will include a series of komics that were requested and some FAQ people have been asking, from things I didn't specified or wasn't very clear on them.

See ya later Underworlders!!

Sorry no sig, apparently we can no longer post any images.... or my computer is retarded and doesn't let me do it, I hope it is the second one xD

Friday, January 20, 2012

Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock

Hi guys! Pérez reporting for duty. I wanted to apologize for the lack of new material this year. Danny feels "unmotivated" to write, so we have to find a way to make his part until he feels like writing again. As I writer, I understand him. Right now I have an unfinished story that I haven't touched since November because I haven't felt the inspiration to write. So, let's hope that Danny recovers from it! ^_^
Well, we are now 1 week from the blog's first anniversary!!! :D The blog's anniversary is January 26 ;)

Okay, now with the off-topics aside, let's focus on the post. Yesterday I finally watched the new Dragon Ball OVA about Bardock. Since I'm a huge Bardock fan (I prefer him over Goku and Vegeta :O ), I thought that it would be a pretty good idea to make a post about it. :)
So the story begins with the final attack of Bardock against Frieza. Frieza sends his final attack and destroys Planet Vegeta. In Bardock's first OVA, you thought that he died because of the attack, but in this OVA, Bardock somehow survives and appears in Plane Vegeta, but in the past. These purple tadpole/salamander/snail-like creatures are the ones that live on the planet (If they're the ancestors of the saiyans, what an amazing evolution they had XD). The town's "doctor" cures Bardock's wounds using the same liquid that is used in the healing machines of the future. He leaves the house/hospital because he saw a spaceship that resembles the ones that Frieza uses. Two creatures get out of the ship and say that the planet is now property of Captain Chilled, Frieza's ancestor. They start attacking the people and town, but Bardock killes them. Bardock goes to a cave and stays there to train. The doctor's son everyday goes to the cave and gives Bardock food. They progressively start like a friendship. But obviously Chilled wasn't happy that he didn't get the planet, so he and a few minions go to the planet. They arrive saying that they're intergalactic policemen and get information about Bardock. Suddenly, they start attacking the natives. Bery, the doctor's son, begs Bardock to help them, but Bardock refuses. He finally accepts and goes to the town, where he easily killes Chilled's minions. When he sees Chilled, he thinks that it's Frieza, so Bardock attacks Chilled. Chilled gets mad and starts beating up Bardock. Chilled is about to send an attack to Bardock, but decides to  send it to Bery instead. Bardock gets mad with himself. He wishes that he was stronger and remembers his dead friends. Thanks to that... BARDOCL BECOMES A SUPER SAIYAN!!!!! He easily beats the crap out of Chilled and sends him towards space with the same attack that he used to try to defeat Frieza. Chilled appears inside his ship in like a futuristic hospital bed and tells one of his minions to inform Chilled's clan to beware a race that can turn blonde... The Saiyans. And that's the story of the original legendary super saiyan ^_^

With this OVA, I feel that someone could make a series based on the DB Universe before Goku. It could show Bardock's adventures, the origins of Planet Vegeta and so on...

Here's the OVA:


I hope that you like the OVA. I personally loved it :)
PÉREZ
I HOPE TO SEE IN THE FUTURE SOMETHING LIKE A BARDOCK SAGA ^_^

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Need For Speed The Run (Wii)

Hi guys! Pérez finally reporting to duty after "my vacations" XD. I got the special bundle of TLOZ: Skyward Sword and NFS The Run :D. I also bought a collectible tin starter kit for the Wii of TLOZ: Twilight Princess and a Classic Controller Pro.
I'm really excited because we are two weeks from the blog's first anniversary! :D I can't believe it been almost a year. I can still remember the day that our Computer teacher told us to get in pairs and decide what would be the theme of our blogs.
So returning to the post, I'm going to make a review of NFS The Run. I've decided to make like a structure for my videogame reviews, so I'm going to focus in the 5 aspects that I feel are the most important ones in videogames: Gameplay, Story, Sound, Graphics and Replay Value. For me, gameplay and replay value are the most important aspects, but the other 3 are also important. So here we go!


General Aspects
Developer: EA Black Box
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: November 18, 2011
Genre: Racing
Rating: E+10 (ESRB)

Story
Well, the story is about a driver that enters "by force" to a race called "The Run". The Run is a race from San Francisco to New York. You go to cities like Las Vegas and Denver. During the race, you get attacked by the police and some mobsters. I personally liked the story. It is a little better than the usual NFS-story. The story is told in a comic way (comic as in Superman or Iron Man), which I thought that it was a nice touch.
The career mode is made up of 5 acts that divide into 26 episodes. There is not a lot variation in the types of races, but that doesn't take away the fun. The most common race types are "Finish in 1st Place", "Destroy x-amount of enemies", "Finish the race under x-amount of time" and "Escape from the enemy OR Don't let the enemy escape".
A good thing is that you don't start like in other NFS where you start with a super car to then get a crappy one to start the game. In this game you start with a good car and then start using better and better cars. I liked that you don't get to choose your car, its color or even make its performance better. You only focus in the big race, not like in the other NFS where you get new parts and put them to your cars to improve it. You CAN change the color and aspect of the cars in the Challenges and Multiplayer, but not in the career mode.
In the Wii version, you can't get out of your car like in the PS3/Xbox360 version, which is something that I'm grateful of because I think that it would have been like playing a Grand Theft Auto.
Score: 7/10

Gameplay
When I bought The Run, I thought: "I hope that this game has a good gameplay because from what I've heard of the gameplay of other NFS-games in the Wii, they usually suck." Well, let me tell you that I haven't been disappointed by the gameplay. :D I played this game with the Classic Controller Pro. I felt that the cars responded good. Remember that each car responds differently. For example, there are cars that make the turns easy and fast, while others suck with that.
In general, the game has a good gameplay. I thought that it was interesting that they added stunts to the game called "Heroic (something)". The stunts during jumps reminded me of Mario Kart Wii, but the majority are in the ground where you must evade bullets, RPGs or avoid collisions by pressing the correct sequence of buttons that are shown in the screen.
I liked that the game has a damage bar for your car, so now you have to drive good, if not, your car will get destroyed. In each race you get 3 lives to complete the race. So don't waste them destroying your car very often ;)
Another good thing is the physics of the game. It's not the same thing to drive in a sunny weather than in a snowy wether nor a rainy weather.
One bad part of the gameplay that I had was when you destroyed other cars. When you do that, the camera changes so that you can see the car flying through the air. It's nice to see it, but while you see it, you can't control your car, so you run the risk of crashing and destroying your car. Another bad part that I found was that when your car is running under 150 km/h, the car "resets", The screen goes black for a blink of an eye and your car reappears running at 150 km/h. This is annoying for two reasons, one is that if that happens to you during the chase/escape races, you immediately get out of range and lose, the other reason is that your car may appear in front if another car or wall and crash -_-
Score: 8/10




Sound
By sound I mean music and sound effects.
In the sound effects part, I must say that this game has good sound effects. The cars sound amazing, the crashes incredible. NFS has always had great sound effects, and this game isn't the exception. I feel that the sound effect of the nitrous oxide is simply great.
In the music part, all I can say is that it is ok.
Score: 7/10


Graphics
Graphics... For some people the most important aspect of a game...
Well, the graphics for the Wii version are pretty decent. The scenery has like a cel-shaded touch. They are between realistic and cartoony graphics, but mostly realistic. You can see pretty well the effects for high-speed. The cars look pretty nice also.
A good thing about the game is that you can see pretty well the course and the cars. Some people say that the roads look horrible and that the cars practically jump in front of you, but I never had that problem. I could perfectly see the road and the cars.
Score: 7.5/10




Replay Value
Replay value is what IGN calls lasting appeal. It is the aspect that makes you want to continue playing a game after you have finished its career mode. The best way to have a a good replay value is by having a great multiplayer. Thankfully, NFS The Run has a local multiplayer mode of up to 4 players. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think that this is the first time there is a NFS with a 4-player local multiplayer mode in a Nintendo console (I must say that this is my first NFS in my Wii, so I don't know if the other Wii NFS's had a multiplayer of up to 4 players...) The sad part, is that it doesn't have an online multiplayer mode.
Another aspect that raises the replay value are records, challenges and unlockables. This game has a set of challenges that raise the lifespan of the game (the career mode sadly is very short). There is a good amount of challenges. Also, you must make the challenges and/or replay the career mode to get all the cars and the parts to pimp your ride.
Score: 8/10


Final Score: 7.5/10 


I hope you liked the review and that you give the game a chance. See you later!
PÉREZ
All images belong to Electronic Arts

Friday, January 6, 2012

Sprite Komic Makers

Soooo much for posting huh? Well Pérez I understand, I don't understand Danny but ohh well gives me more chance on making something stupid irrational xD Soo hmmm were was I? Ahh yeah an old passion of mine :P This time around I want to talk about what we refer to komic makers. So if you are one or are interested in making sprite komics (no, not the beverage Sprite, I'll explain which type of komics later :P) then read on becuz I'm gonna give some basic tips to get started and the experience itself (also some kind of idea on how it would look ;D) so hang tight! I'll take you on a wild ride!!

KOMIC MAKING! THE BEGINNING!
So what is a komic maker? A komic maker is someone who uses character sprites from any source and make it into something funny/make a story/use your imagination xD This guys pretty much look out for what we call sprites, backgrounds, and then edit and create stuff for a simple view or create a story line and continue down on different parts (what we know as different pages of a single komic) and go on like it as if it were a komic like Green Lantern or something like that :P I'll introduce to some aspects and a little example on each, and I'll try to encourage to follow people who make this type of komic or to make one yourself :D

KOMIC MAKING 101: HOW TO START.
So for starters, you have to make sure you have a program in which to edit backgrounds, stages or such, you can use Paint. Once you have that covered, look for a basic idea you want to start (for this example, I will use the Underworld Trio in a funny situation xD). Once you have the idea, you have to look pages where you can get sprites/backgrounds (for this example I'll be using MK sprites, so we'll use MK Warehouse :D You can google the sprites you need don't worry ;D) Anyways, once you have that, you're ready to start. I recommend you do the steps as you read the guide so you may get the hang of the idea but don't worry if you just wanna read :)

KOMIC MAKING 102: SPRITE/BG BASICS
Okeii, we got a place were to get sprites, backgrounds (BGs) and other props we may need, now let's start!
So first you gotta open your image editing program (Paint). Now, enter the page were you are going to use the sprites/bgs and firstly look for a background to work with. I told you we're gonna use MK Warehouse so here's the link http://mkw.mortalkombatonline.com/ Now, I'm gonna use "The Subway" stage from MK3 for this example but you may use any stage you want :) Now save the image of the stage and open it on the image editor (or copy-paste it the one you prefer). *NOTE* In komic making, we have what we call "slides" which are the practically the BGs where you are working at. I usually work with only 4, also, it's true that you can use any number of slides you wish, but I'd recommend you don't use more than 6-8 or it'll become troublesome. *END NOTE* Okeii, now we got our stage on the program like this:
Now something important, if your going to use the SAME BG for all your slides, then copy and paste that BG  x the number of slides you will work with. If not, then proceed to look for the other BGs your gonna use and arrange them properly as you go on the komic. I usually arrange the BGs and then add the sprites, but you can arrange the slide as you wish and then pass to the next slide, but remember the BG ALWAYS goes first. The same procedure goes with the sprites, copy/paste or save the character sprite and then incorporate it into the comic, as I said, I'll use the Underworld trio for this example, so the sprites I will use will be Scorpion (UMK3 Myself), Reptile (UMK3 Pérez) and Sub-Zero (MK3 Danny). So now look for the sprite your going to use and do the same procedure you used for the background (this case, the 3 chars are walking, so look for the walking animations and procede)... you should have something like this:
*NOTE 2* If you can rip the BGs or the sprites, PERFECT!! I congratulate you!! You can work with that also!! If not don't worry you can google them ;) *END NOTE 2*
Now to give it some life!!

KOMIC MAKING 103: LETTERING
Yeah, now we're going to put some text into it, as komics require reading obviously xD *NOTE 3* There's NO excuse for bad lettering in a komic, nobody will read a komic if it looks like it was written by a preschooler, so check for mispells before anything else *NOTE 3* So well, there are possibly two ways to add text to the comic, you can either do it from paint itself, or you can write the text on a word processor and then print screen and paste in paint and finally crop them out and paste them on paint, whichever the way you want :D Also, you can use different fonts for the characters, you can use any font you like xD Also something else, in the world of komics, it is perfectly fine to have all text in capital letters, becuz some letters like "j" have a little tail that may go out of the word baloon (where the text in a komic goes) and to keep as little space as possible, so to avoid that people write in capital letters (also the great komic makers like Marvel and DC do this ;D). So now I'm gonna add some text to the komic to show you how it would look :
Notice, make sure the word balloons are in chronological order, never put first what is going to be said last, and add the balloon tails in order to know who's speaking. Also have a way of knowing when they are speech balloons or thought balloons!! *NOTE 4* Take into account that in komics that have fighting in them, people are usually mad, and when mad they usually like to shout, so try to look for fonts that reflect the characters personality and make it look like they are shouting accordingly! It makes it more interesting than simple making the letters bigger ;) *END NOTE 4*

KOMIC MAKING 104: HUMOR? STORY? WHAT?
This is VERY important for any komic maker so please attention. Consider this something important.... is your joke funny? Is your plot interesting? Be creative!! Don't use other people's jokes or ideas, make your own, but be sure it is funny or is a good plot. *NOTE 5* If you can't idealize a joke or don't have any good idea for a plot, then don't do komics, simple as that. Also, as suggestions, don't EVER make gay jokes, that's immature, and don't steal someone elses jokes, be creative. *END NOTE 5* *NOTE 6* Depending on the sprites, you can take ideas from rare things that happens in the game itself from where you have the sprites (like in MK, you can make a komic based on rare things that happens in games or on the storyline itself, like the multiple times Johnny Cage has died, or the various glitches that occur, be creative!!)*END NOTE 6*

KOMIC MAKING 105: FINISHING
So now you have your word balloons, your sprites, your BGs and all that set and hoping it's funny. You're ready to start wrapping up! First things first something I forgot to explain before. You have to change the transparency effs to other color that isn't white or you may experience problems (like the word balloons being white :P). To do that, on Paint go to the "Select" option and click on the bottom option that appears below, then go to the colors and right-click any color so that to make that color be transparent. Now on the Paint you have the word balloons, paint the background the color you chose to be transparent, select the word balloon, and copy paste it into the comic. Now you can repeat this to finish the slide and for the other slides as well!! And doing so finishes your comic!!

KOMIC MAKING XTRA: SOUND EFFECTS and SAVING
You may want to add sound effects to certain part of your komics that includes action in them, it gives it more life and makes it look more professional. You can look for them over in Google ;)

Now to save your komic, save it as a BMP!! If you save it as a GIF, it may lose a lot of quality :/

KOMIC MAKING END PRODUCT
Here's more or less how a komic would look ;)

So this is it guys!! Have fun doing komics hoped you enjoyed!!

See ya later Underworlders!!
Meklord Emperor FTW!
Draconic Emperor Ricardo :)