Darkstalkers Season 1 Part 2 Review

Supernatural things. Magic and sorcery. They're

back. From out of the gloom, stop your worst

nightmares. Ghouls, zombies, werewolves, vampires.

You can't be sure what lurks out there in the

darkness of night. We're the dark stalkers! Pyron,

intergalactic collector of planets, wants the

Earth. And he's going to get it, even if it has

to wake the undead. He summons Demetri, Lord

of the Vampires, to launch a Reign of Terror,

to release a plague of monsters and bring humans

to their knees. But other night warriors are

on the prowl. Monstrous, awesome contenders with

bizarre fighting powers. Immortal creatures locked

in battle to decide the fate of the world. It's

enough to make your blood run cold Hello and

welcome to the 65th episode of pixels in the

animation I am one of your hostage you and Mike

and joining me is TV's mr. Neal Hello everyone

and on the last episode as you may recall Mike

Ash had just captured a Bulbasaur and was on

his way to Cerulean City That's the cartoon we're

watching right? Sadly no I don't wanna For you

know, honestly, I'd rather watch that I'd rather

watch Digimon even though there's like a billion

episodes of Pokemon there's like There's got

to be as many episodes of Pokemon as there are

detective Conan for Christ's sake Or the Simpsons.

Yeah that too Like there's sometimes on this

show folks that way like I knew going into this

this was going to be a journey and the journey

changed halfway through before I found my current

resource I mean I could technically take us back

to the original plan of this podcast at this

point now that I found all of the episodes of

Donkey Kong Country But I don't think we want

to sit through all of those episodes so we're

still gonna stick with the plan of doing an overall

discussion on Donkey Kong Country, but oh My

god, I don't think we had any idea like we well

We knew. We all knew. Mario is not the best thing

in the world, but it's... Episode 64 and Episode

65, the Darkstalkers episodes of this podcast

are going to basically break GCRN records as

far as ratings go. As far as how many times we

actually stalled this episode. Stalling the episode,

but no, actually it's, you know, it's gonna break...

How we rate the actual... I'm pretty much betting

we're going to give the thing 13 zeros between

last episode and now. Oh, it's pretty much ruined

my curve. I don't even know what's going on now.

This series, it's a giant screwball. It really

is. And I don't mean that lovable squirrel either.

lovable mischievous squirrel that always gets

oh what's his name um screwy squirrel oh uh yeah

i know i know i know his name is screwy squirrel

i was trying to think of the dog's name meathead

meathead that's right oh you meathead well that's

the end to him uh you people want hit on a little

secret you want to know how i tricked that guy

all through the picture We would switch all the

time My cartoon would have been cuter Oh God

if you really think about it screwy squirrel

is Archie bunker Yeah, can we sit here and review

screwy screwy squirrel cartoons Okay, so dark

stalkers season one part two you've got season

one as if as if it needs that that that Clarification

because there's only one season well for us Because

how I've been breaking up for the 13 episode

seasons of stuff seven and six and all that we

get the final six episodes When I read the title

of the first of the Eighth episode eighth episode

overall, I guess but the title the first thing

I thought of was oh god, they put Harry Potter

and Highlander My Harry is in the Highlands,

I'm like god Okay, so this one this is the one

where Harry becomes Anakin Yeah He's a strange

amalgamation of Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen.

No, he's just pure Hayden Christensen. I slaughtered

him like animals Yeah, I this show I just can't

wrap my head around this cartoon series and I

don't even like We've gone through that, you

know, I haven't played every single Mario game.

I haven't played every single Zelda game I haven't

played a lot I played a lot of the games that

were on Captain and all that stuff. But with

Darkstalkers I have never played the game and

It just this show has no Emotional resonance

has night. It's not even nostalgia folks. It

just has nothing for it going I mean, the voice

acting is okay, but the more and more and more

I see of, what's his name? Oh, was it Pyron?

I'm like, it's just M. Bison, but he's, because

Richard Newman did the voice for both characters.

But he's an orange, glowy thing now. The only

is... No, the other thing I read the title is

My Harry's with the Hendersons. And Morgan turns

Harry evil, so it's your standard, hey, let's

take a good guy and make him bad. You have anything

else for this one? Just exasperation. Oh, I did

write something down here that Harry is thrown

off a cliff, survives, and climbs up the side

of the mountain. But this is when I watched the

episode. like maybe a month ago, so I no longer

have any context for what that even means. Probably

bad animation. Probably. That's double zeros,

I assume. Double zeros. Next up, we have aliens

keep out. Ripley ain't here. Believe it or not,

she ain't. Tim Allen tried to talk her into it.

She was like, well, fuck that. plots are so convoluted

and crappy and then so aliens meet Tron what

the hell like I don't ever want us to know we

do not need aliens and Tron in the same universe

not everything is peanut butter and chocolate

So this is pretty much your Stanley What's the

tiny tunes episode the one where um It's not

doesn't not duck Vader it's um Yeah, it is duck

Vader. It's the way where the two kids come down

the alien kids and they think plucky is the Savior

Or whatever That Portrayed aliens better than

this did yeah Okay, this this video game is just

a big like what if all these movie monsters and

creatures came together and and Fought each other

and by the way, these are non copyrighted characters.

So you can't sue us Universal so yeah So, you

know, it's like it's weird when you try to write

a story around them because they're just kind

of to put them together they in an actual story

it just comes out of left field it's like what

the hell is this even about it's like you have

a robot basically fighting the devil and that's

that's what pyrons supposed to be supposed to

be the devil but you know they can't have that

yeah no you can't have that at all i mean he's

clearly the devil but anyway yeah yeah yeah I

mean just wow it just I don't know this this

series is just way too way too weird I mean there's

just so much going on and at the same time nothing

going on yeah let's see my notes I don't know

if I'm even gonna know what these mean anymore

Let's see, Donovan finds the Merman. Oh yeah,

there was something about, what's a Merman character?

I can't remember. But anyway, there's a subplot

that everyone finds them curiously attractive.

And I'm like, what the hell is going on? Even

the guys are like, that guy's really attractive.

No, no, he's not. No, he's not. Yeah, that's

the that's the problem with that is that his

character design is not attractive I would give

him credit. I would actually say that he was

attractive if they drew him that way, but no

Should we have just skipped this entire series

and just gone to night warriors is night warriors

any better night warriors Darkstalkers revenge

the 1997 anime miniseries. Oh the anime that

might be I've never seen that it looks very well

animated, but you know it's like animes kind

of hit or miss it's like Yeah, it's like it may

not be a good story and you know sometimes sometimes

anime is just stupid There's only four episodes

of the thing we couldn't yeah, we could have

it would have been a lot less painful Okay, so

For the anime, the North American DVD cover is

not bad. For the anime, in the midst of a war

between the families of Dmitry Maksimov and Morgan,

or Morgan Islam for control of the demon world,

alien veteran Pyron invades Earth and plans to

take it over by taking out those who stand a

chance of stopping him, namely the Darkstalkers.

Meanwhile, Donovan Bane seeks to rid himself

of the cursed blood which runs through his veins.

Four of the original Darkstalkers in Icarus,

Ryuku, Sasquatch, and Victor are not featured

in the OVA's main storyline, apparently having

been killed by Pyron in a flashback sequence

shown in the beginning of the fourth episode.

Yeah, that sounds a lot more like the actual

games, where it's like everyone's really in it

for themselves. There's no real like this side

versus that side. It's like you have a war between

Morgan and Demetri and Pyron just shows up and...

That sounds a bit more like the plot of the game.

The only... This is interesting though, you got...

Pyron got recast. Really? In the anime. In the

English voice acting section of it, it's David

Kay instead of Richard Newman. It's Megaton.

In the anime? Yes. Usually the... Usually the

anime has a totally different cast. I'm really

surprised to see David Kay in that Yeah It looks

like Kathleen Barr Paul Dobson Scott McNeil all

returned. Oh, yeah And like I said this thing

was only four episodes so I Thought it was just

one long movie when I saw it on on on on the

wiki here um all right so uh double zeros for

aliens keep out uh samurais honor you must fight

on the side of good forever oh oh this is this

episode was super shit because it starts and

it's got the same opening as as episode one Yep,

and I I stopped the video cuz I'm like what what's

going on here. I really thought I had the wrong

video And I I made sure I was clicking on the

right one and I'm like what the hell It was playing

with my mind And I'm like, oh wait, this is just

shit. That's what's wrong Yeah But yeah, so we

get a samurai episode Which I guess we could

say there's character development for the samurai

character at least I mean yeah, he does change

throughout the series They tried at least with

that one. I can't say that it was actually interesting,

but it's Still I'm sorry double zero Now, folks,

there's no business like Dragon Business. This

episode is so out of place, but it is probably

the best episode of the entire series, because

you have Lord Raptor, or whatever his name is,

voiced by Scott McNeil, trying to go around and

basically be in the movie industry and the music

industry and all. Honestly, it's probably the

only episode of the entire series that I actually

had fun with. There are so many references in

here. They even put Arnold in here. That's right

Uh -huh, and then we get I Think it's Felicia

that asks. What's the area code for New York

City? First thing I thought of was well, here's

my number six four six. Do I have to dial a one?

No, no, it's what happened to the whole Seinfeld

area code Yeah, this one I just for how fun it

was I have to give it a three The only time I'm

not gonna give a zero to any of these episodes.

I'll give it a one Yeah, this this series is

dragging the average down Yeah, it really is

So we have Darkest Before the Dawn, which is

the penultimate episode before the finale here.

Did he just say Crystal Skull? Oh, hell no. Oh,

hell. I know this happened before that movie,

but I'm sorry. Anytime anyone says a Crystal

Skull. Someone with a turkey neck shows up. Hi,

I'm George Lucas. I'm going to write this episode

for you. Felicia You have the magic touch Harry.

What are you gonna do with it? Anything I want

Yeah, double zero I know this isn't exactly very

exciting folks. We're just trying to ease our

way through this Yeah, this is gonna be a really

short show Crap Everyone's a critic This is by

far like they're out of the 13 episodes I'd say

this is the worst one of the entire series like

don't give you know We you know for years and

years and years that you and I have been doing

cartoon stuff or whatever that I've been recording

with other people in podcasting for movies and...

We know there are standard plots. We know there

are bad cartoons out there. Just look at all

65, 75 episodes of Mask. It's the same plot every

episode, but whatever. But I am sorry. This episode,

everyone's a critic. I would rather watch The

Critic than watch this episode ever again, because

this episode basically shits on whatever character

development, if any, that Pyron ever had, because

you bring in his older big brother, and he turns

into... Pyron turns into a little bitch! He does

a face turn. Yeah, pretty much. And like, they

pile everyone into the episode, because like

season one of Street Fighter, they were like,

well, this might be the last episode, so let's

end on something that's kind of an ending and

also maybe a cliffhanger. And of course, they

never picked it up for a second season, thank

God. And by the way, the plot of this episode

is, there will be no war today, Optimus Prime.

You have earned Galvatron's respect Someone needs

to make that an entry on TV tropes, please Just

call it Galvatron's respect It's whenever the

bad guy turns good and helps the good guys solve

whatever problem there happens to be Especially

if it's like the last episode of the season This

said that well technically return was the last

episode of that season but yeah Yeah, okay. I

was gonna say, technically it isn't, but it is,

because Rebirth only was three episodes for that.

Both Rebirth and Return of Optimus Prime are

kind of in this weird limbo where it's like,

this isn't really part of the episode order,

but we'll just kind of pretend that it is. I

was so shocked when watching Rebirth, not Rebirth,

Return of Optimus Prime. I was never expe - because

I don't - As much as I love G1, as much as I

loved it as a kid, I only saw episodes here and

there. I don't remember seeing the episode. I

know I only saw bits and pieces of Rebirth as

a kid, but Return of Optimus Prime, as a kid

and as an adult, because I forgot about it, I

was shocked as shit to see The Touch show up.

Stan Bush, The Touch. I was like, wait, wait,

wait. Well, what's it doing in here? Wait a minute.

It's like the movie soundtrack. That doesn't

belong in the TV. Yeah. Get your movie out of

my cartoon series. Is Vince DiCola going to do

a bit in here too? You know, it's okay. So since

we're talking about this, since we kind of have

to fill some time here. The final the last fun

pub bot con happened this year and it was here

in Louisville and Didn't go to the actual convention

because there really wasn't like they they just

I'm sorry They just weren't trying and it was

great that they had Judd here and all that Judd

Nelson and all that but it just like They weren't

really said they tried to celebrate 20 years

of East Wars. They weren't even really celebrating

30 years of TFTM, but The coolest thing was that

Stan and Vince teamed up and they did a free

concert at the entertainment district down here.

I went to it. It was pretty damn good. I mean,

yeah, so there's that. But Darkstalkers, yeah,

I can safely say this is a cartoon I will never

watch again. I knew it was bad. This is the first

time I've ever watched it all the way through

and I was like, oh, oh my. god it's just so bad

this is just i i'm not anti -capitalist but this

is crass commercialism at its worst yep all right

so i assume double zeros zeros i almost want

to give it a triple zero because oh my like I

don't get me wrong, the characterizations are

all over the place throughout the other 12 episodes,

but basically taking the Pyron character and

basically making him a whimpering little bitch

to his big brother just ruins all... It's almost

as bad. I just recorded it. It'll be out in a

few months. Optimus Solo and I, Kevin Optimus

Solo, we're doing the Powers of Grayskull series.

We're in the middle of reviewing all the She

-Ra episodes from Filmation. We just got to an

episode where I have tried to keep this count

of what her sword changes into every single time

and how many times it changes. We just got to

an episode where she says, sword to blanket.

I just, I give up. The thing I said in the episode

of Kevin, I said, I wrote this down. So, sword

to blanket. I give up. I'm done, folks. I just

can't... And, you know, that's the same thing

here with Pyron. You know, they take his... You

can take character development and kill it, but

to kill it to that extreme is just way too much.

Just way too much. Alright folks, we're going

to take a quick break. We're going to come back

and talk about what's going to be coming up,

the plans of the podcast, and all that other

good stuff, and just how much longer it's going

to take us to get through the remaining, what

is it, 30 -something episodes? Because there's

like 35 left after this, or 34 left after this

show, so we'll be back after this. Don't worry

kids, it's almost over. Alright folks we are

back and If I really hate to you know pour ice

on the on the cremation furnace here, but my

mom passed away last year and If that hadn't

happened we would have already been up to Sonic

at this point or we would have been in the middle

of the sonic episodes that we're gonna be doing

and this year is the original Sonic the Hedgehog

Sega video game's 25th anniversary. Well, we're

not starting Sonic until next year, so we're

going to be celebrating 26 years of Sonic. Nice

round number. It evens itself out But yeah coming

up we've got episodes 67 66 67 and 68 which is

all of earthworm Jim 66 and 67 are season 1 part

1 season 1 part 2 and then 68 is season 2 all

together since season 2 only had 10 episodes

We'll just split them up 5 and 5 and in the same

one in episode 69 we're gonna talk about stre

- oh wait, that's the other show. Hard Cartoons.

Yeah, yeah. Stre - yeah, Stre - yeah, Streparella.

That's the other show. That's the other podcast.

We're gonna talk about Battletoads and what was

the other one? Was it Bubsy? That's Bubsy, and

there was the alternate Mortal Kombat pilot that

never turned into Stre - Yeah, so we're gonna

be talking about video game cartoons that only

got - the pilot episode, that kind of thing.

Episode 70 will cap out the year here in Pixels

and the Animation, because I've got a whole bunch

of other stuff that I'm doing. this year for

podcasting so episode 70 will be our overall

donkey kong country discussion steve megatron

is going to join us for that sometime in january

of next year we will start the sonic the hedgehog

reviews episode 71 to 79 will be the sat am version

of sonic and then episode 80 through 80 through

you think I'd know I think it's isn't 93 or 94.

Yeah 80 to 94 will be the adventures of Sonic

the hedgehog the funny one the comedy one And

so that's 80 to 94 and yeah pretty much next

year Will be the final year for pixels we started

this so at 2012 2013 so it took us Five six years

to get through this whole thing. Yeah It's not

that bad. Could be worse. What do you got coming

up? Anything you want to pimp out? Well, I've

been putting up new stuff on new teaser images

on Decian .com, so the comic should be resuming

fairly shortly. I've been stalled on it for a

while, but I kind of got back into it because...

Don't know when when you're drawing, you know,

sometimes you think of new ideas and you have

to go back and fix old pages and I'm really anal

like that I guess a lot of people just like keep

going but I you know, I always have to tinker

with it until it's finally out Yeah, you gotta

make sure it's right. Yeah mediocrity is forever

delays are only temporary Victor Ireland once

said wise man So the dark stalkers section of

the show is over with and Next time around like

I said we get into earthworm Jim. I do not ever

remember I think I played like maybe one or two

levels of the game of the original first game,

but I Again, we're in tarot like the sonics won't

you know? Next year when we get to the Sonic

stuff, like I remember a lot of that early sat

AM stuff and the adventure stuff and all that.

And I'm sure people are going to ask us, Oh,

why aren't you doing Sonic Underground or why

aren't you doing Sonic X or why aren't you? Cause

we want the show to end at home and what the

podcast and the a hundred episodes people, I'm

not going past a hundred episodes. And if we

did that, like half, literally half the podcast

would just be Sonic. Yeah. Uh, yeah. I mean.

What I will say that could possibly happen with

Sonic is that with Underground and Sonic X and

wasn't there another new one there beyond there

might have been I don't remember What we'll probably

end up doing is we'll make those two and cast

beyond episodes where we do We just talk about

an entire season of the show however many seasons

there are So but next year with the sonic reviews

we're gonna go back to episode by episode and

I'm pretty sure the sonic fandom is a lot more

They have a lot more people that pay attention

and actually write out plots unlike the dark

stalkers people Yeah, I don't even know if there

are fans of this I don't know. I don't think

it ever came out on DVD. I Don't think so either

by it Talk about a loss All right, thank you

for joining us here on pixels in the animation

There's several ways to get in contact with us

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You better start posting a whole bunch of stuff

about these cartoons. We got coming up I'll try

I was really depressed during dark stalkers.

Yeah, no, I was just saying we're coming out

of the dark tunnel we're going into the light

or talking about earthworms and and and donkeys

and well there might not be much to talk about

with Earthworm Jim because there's only really

the two games and this is this upcoming cartoon

is like the weird one is in that not only is

it probably the best cartoon we're gonna review

on this show but it's also the one where the

cartoon is probably better than the game because

the game is really well animated but it's I don't

know when you have like when you have like five

or six animations per per action. There's an

attack in the game where Earthworm Jim takes

his worm body out of the suit and whips it like

a whip and that works in Castlevania. It doesn't

work quite so well in this game because you end

up attacking like a second after you press the

button. Oh god. Just so wrong. You can call the

voicemail line 502 -526 -5821, tell us the show

you're leaving the message for, and your name.

We hope you enjoyed the latest episode of Pixels

in the Animation, and wish you'll join us next

time when we will be reviewing the first seven

episodes from Earthworm Jim Season 1, those being

Sidekicked, The Book of Doom, Assault and Battery,

Day of the Fish, Conqueror Worm, upholstered

peril alls I can think of is somebody upholstered

Penelope pit stop what the hell oh and the sword

of righteousness god I have no idea what to expect

I have no idea what to expect out of this show

let me reassure you here it's it's firmly in

the in the theme and style of the Animaniacs

and Tiny Toons okay so it's it's much more enjoyable

so we're gonna get a one two three tongue two

three no not that there's no there's no Glen

Kennedy in this show but you will it'll be like

the Sun coming out after a long storm I'll say

that that's true for now I am TF2 on Mike with

TV's Mr. Neil tune in next time and help us find

the pixels in the animation