Sinister 2 - The scoop and digest

Ciaron Foy takes over directorial responsibility, but Scott Derrickson co-writes and helps produce.

In case you skipped previous meal, Babylonian deity Bughuul is affectionately known as 'the eater of children'.

Plot details and/or spoilers love to boogie.

(Sssshush), while the camera rolls for:

James Ransone - Ex-Deputy So & So
Shannyn Sossamon - Courtney
Dartanian Sloan - Zach
Robert Daniel Sloan - Dylan
Lea Coco - Clint

A family are strung up like scarecrows and burned alive in the centre of a corn field.

Quick, somebody call Taggart because there's been a murder.

Turns out wee lad Dylan was having a nightmare.

His mother Courtney and brother Zack reside at rural farmhouse, in homage to Stephen King's Children of the Corn.

After Dark Originals poorly remade 1988 gore classic Scarecrows as Husk in 2011.

Anyway...

Dylan is regularly visited by spectral children who insist watching snuff movies on 16mm (not super 8), will cease bad dreams.

Fishing Trip - alligator jaws snap shut.
Christmas Morning - shallow graves can be chilly.
Kitchen Remodel - flooded dining area is left in a shocking state.

So & So (now private investigator), burns down every house of horror (including Oswalt's residence) before keys can be handed over to the next sucker.

Remember, bad things only happen if you vacate property where murders took place.

Thanks in advance for letting me refer to nameless geezer as PI.

Attention abusive husbands, partners or boyfriends - you're all fucking cowards.

Falling under that category is hubby Clint, who turns up with a couple of uniforms to take custody of children.  However, having no means of legality forces a swift exit.

Milo shows Dylan how Sunday Service plays out.

Rats are trapped inside communion goblets and heated with hot coals, forcing rodents to munch their way out of respective abdomens.

Anybody with historical knowledge, and/or visited a decent dungeon will recognise this to be lifted from a popular form of Medieval torture.

Did any prisoner make it out alive?

Gnaw.

On a lighter note, Basil caused widespread panic inside Farty Towels.

Untitled movie (household drill and dentistry) provides background noise, and because Dylan turns spoilsport - the window of opportunity opens for Zach...

An associate of the missing Professor Jonas comes into possession of a ham radio which in PI's presence, emits garbled frequencies.

Observance of violence?

Courtney and the children are forced to leave when Clint shows turns up with the necessary papers.

Uh oh! The chain has been broken.

Zach begins filming build-up, but Dylan manages to secretly text PI.

It seems brother's dream from opening sequence will become reality as Zach incinerates Clint.

Turning up in the nick of time cliché, PI hits Zach with off-road vehicle.

Shortly after, a determined Zach gives chase carrying a sickle.

Talk about making a speedy recovery.  Did Skynet send the bastard Terminator?

Ha ha ha!

Despite best endeavours to flush out Courtney and Dylan, Zach predictably doesn't complete family murder.

Bughuul condemns failure to ashes while remainder escape now burning house.

PI gathers belongings from motel room but uninvited ham radio begins to crackle, before Bughuul pops up to say hello.

This takes a giant dump on far superior original and one of the most ill conceived sequels ever.

Snuff fails to make skin crawl, story is dreadful and characters generally encourage nausea.

If the third revolves around Jonas, thematic staleness requires more than swift injection of unbridled menace.

Street Fighter II - The World Warrior and Champion Edition

Due to the enormity of task ahead, extended analysis will be resisted, but sporadically contradicted.

Even though innumerable differences existed between SNES and arcade, they still fought a great fight and are God compared to the majority of dross that followed.

To paraphrase ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan’s famous quote in Magnum Force:

“A system’s got to know its limitations.”

The World Warrior

Home computer ports were handled by Creative Materials (for US Gold) in 1992, except the Spectrum version, which was developed by Tiertex Design Studios.

Results clambered the ugly tree and hit every branch on descent.

C64

Commodore’s creamy coloured qwerty is arguably the greatest games machine of all time.

Unfortunately in this case, somebody high on crystal meth death threw several tins of paint and hoped for the fucking best.

Including all chars is impressive and India has SIX, that’s right – six elephants.

Spectrum (128K only)

If 8 bit nemesis was Jackson Bollocks, I’d tentatively call this ‘better’.

Did I really say that?

Using only two colours, (red and yellow, white and blue, green and black etc), inanimate backgrounds look something like the real thing, as do chunky sprites.

To avoid infamous attribute clash, sprites are presumably unmasked, a la R-Type.

Let’s not beat about the burning bush – this is still horrendous.

Plodding gameplay, no music and appalling animation means I’d rather place my hand in a food blender.

Amusingly, scenery can be switched off to 'speed up’ despicable loading.

Oh yeah, how the fuck can Vega climb on his fence without metal structure?

Hmmm.

Amiga (OCS only)

For the benefit of those who aren't Amiga savvy.

Various generations of their hugely successful machine housed different chip sets to increase performance.

OCS (Original Chip Set) – A1000, A2000 and A500

ECS (Enhanced Chip Set) – A3000, A600, A2000 and A500+

AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture) – CD32, A1200 and A4000

Paula, Agnus, Gary and Lisa (not a joke) and others are found under plastic shell.

Most will have probably experienced this on the good old A500.

Six elephants, all arcade bonus stages and the first ever home version to incorporate intro.

About that intro, randomers choose to settle macho dispute in front of zero audience.  After black guy is thwacked, aggressor and victim are punished with suspended animation.

Decent graphics are paler than a passionate albino and hearing completely the wrong tune for whichever stage understandably baffles.

Chun-Li, Zangief and Ken (Balrog), Dhalsim, Blanka, Guile, Sagat and Bison (character select), Honda (Ryu) and Vega (Ken).

Here's the really funny part.

Ken's stage is used for Balrog's casino.

Ha ha ha!

Limited but legible special move speech compensates for terrible sound effects.

Announcer says jack all apart from ‘fight’.

The regularity of swapping discs and loading required is beyond ridiculous.

To help perform nigh on impossible specials, how about inviting the qwerty?

LMFAO!

So after exhausting so many positives, what about gameplay?

OH GOD! OH MY FUCKING GOD!

Sprites opposing and defying gravity ensure potential orgasm for frustrated astronauts.

Atari ST

Framerate is even worse than previous diarrhoea stain, making this officially one of the worst games EVER.

DOS

This is deliciously BIZARRE!

Every much a piece of shit to play as Amiga, but seeing arcade perfect sprites, portraits and backgrounds was cool.

However...

No stage moves a muscle and sprites squashed inside display look completely unnatural.

Once again, nauseous music makes no sense.

Ken's theme is used for intro, title screen and character select, yet title screen and character select feature throughout entire game.

Overall, it's messier than a baby's nappy.

Here comes a head fuck

Content condemns these fitting between somewhere and nowhere.

Game Boy, 1995

4 megs of hard-hitting action.

'Street Fighter II' isn't a straight port of 1991 original.

Line-up:

Ryu, Ken, Blanka, Zangief, M. Bison, Balrog, Chun-Li, Guile and Sagat.

Vega, Dhalsim and E. Honda missed respective flights.

So with most grand masters selectable, the whiff of cut-down Champion Edition lingers.

But scratch that, because portraits and stages are TNC/Super Turbo.

Call me snooker loopy, but what's the fucking point of moonlighting as third update if none of The New Challengers compete?

I don't care about system limitation, it's a nonsense.

No speech, sparse sound, difficult to execute specials and stages are permanently paused.

Is it fast? Snails needn't worry.

Still, themes beep along quite merrily and chars have a certain amount of 'weight'.

Using a Super Game Boy device applied very limited colour and static SNES World Warrior stages surround.

Excuse me, WHAT?

As this was released after Super on its big brother, logic says go fuck yourself.

Requiring link cable for 2P action sounds obvious, but Crawfish Entertainment's frankly amazing 1999 port of Alpha 2 for Game Boy Colour wasn't so generous.

Master System, Tec Toy 1997

Underrated 1999 thriller Stigmata and not very good 2006 horror Turistas have one thing in common.

They're both set in Sao Paulo.

Switching to pixels, Max Payne 3 and painkillers...

Finally, Brazil is a surreal 1985 Terry Gilliam film.

Nobody gets a prize for guessing which South American country developer hails from.

Street Fighter II' incorporates Ryu, Ken, Guile, Chun-Li, Bison, Sagat, Blanka and Balrog.

Once again, we have a stupid title and mugshots favour TNC.

Differing from portable, backgrounds are a lethal and garish mix of Super and Champion, less spectators.

Ken's vessel sunk and Thailand's slouching statue was used to fund Shadaloo.

Beep music and speech samples encourage ear bleeding, but chars audibly announced when selected makes piece of shit unique.

‘Round’ whatever and ‘Fight’ is spoken, but otherwise...

Just in case you care, same company gave Duke Nukem 3D a stab on Mega Drive, suspiciously dressed as Wolfenstein 3D.

Champion Edition

Normality is mercifully resumed.

PC Engine/PC Engine GT, 1993

The first ever independent port was Japanese only, so American equivalent (Turbo Grafx 16/Turbo Express) missed out.

Hu-card counted the same 20 megs as futuristic SNES Turbo.

New stage colours, playable bosses, barrel break bonus, elephant noises, spoken statements of ‘you win’, ‘you lose’, ‘perfect’, ‘continue countdown’ and whichever ‘country’ meant this kicked SNES World Warrior's ass.

With only two buttons (I and II), Run (usually Pause), is brought for third punch or kick.

Select toggles between fist and feet.

Six buttoned pads like Hori Commander and Avenue Pad 6 offered a more free flowing experience.

No parallax makes things flatter than a pancake and although identical to SNES in every other way, sprites are slightly bigger.

As Hudson’s machine can practically display its entire palette on-screen (481 from 512), theoretically 225 more than the SNES (256 from 32,768), is probably why appearance is more vibrant.

Tunes are technically tinny, but 'sound' superior because they're identical to arcade.

Hopefully that makes sense?

(Sniggers).

Backgrounds

Stages contain less detail than SNES Turbo, and even original.

E. Honda

Lantern on left removed without notice.

Blanka

Clouds don’t scroll.

Ken

Famous cruiser doesn't bob up and down but is at least consistent with lifeless sea.

Dhalsim

Four elephants trumpet during and after round like arcade.  On SNES, meek racket is only heard after round’s end.

Balrog

Extra guitarists either side of bull but sign above was taken down without notice.

Zangief

Additional poster on background’s fencing covers up hole on SNES, but foreground's fencing didn't acquire planning consent.

Weird.

Insert coin had no gap or second poster.

Playing great and looking the part, I suppose the pros and cons cancel each other out.

X68000, 1993

Aside from unavoidable loading and floppy swapping - this is THE arcade.

Basically, every conceivable detail missing from any home console port is here.

What a shame this machine was released only in Japan.

As standard input device wasn't much use, Capcom generously bundled adaptor specifically for use with CPS (Capcom Power Stick) and even SNES/Mega Drive controller.

Nice!

Special Champion Edition, Mega Drive 1993

Punches and kicks are swapped using Start.

Rather inevitably, Sega brought out six button pad and Arcade Power Stick II.

X, Y and Z complemented A, B and C.

Instead of ‘autofire’, we got megafire’ and speed settings.

Holy fucking shit! How exciting.

Weighing in at 24 megs (as opposed to 20), is bigger automatically better?

Let the inquest begin.

North America and Europe made soon to be assaulted black guy white.

How pathetic.

What's worse is arcade version of Hyper Fighting toned down skin colour and dyed hair light brown.

Japanese version (Street Fighter II’ Plus: Champion Edition) reflected coin gobbler.

Hyper is the same principle as Turbo, so peeps can take flight.

Remixed themes and Group Battle mode are welcome additions but sound and voices are fuzzy.

'Countries', ‘you win’ etc etc are heard.

Animation is much the same for player but audience participation suffers.

Crowd doesn't audibly cheer after round’s end in USA (Ken), U.S.S.R. and Spain.

Ryu providing full screen stance replaces scanned poster and box art for special endings.

Regardless of char, he's all you get.

Lazily does it.

Parallax only applies to certain stages and palette limitation forces strange compromises.

Countries are largely SNES Turbo, but clang altered bell. 

Chun-Li

Guy down alley and water from bowl both move.

Zangief

Chain isn't as coiled, but posters are slapped on foreground fence.

Dhalsim

Elephant noise is made during and after round like arcade.

Ryu

Crescent moon adds authenticity but clouds remain static.

What's the bastard point?

E. Honda

Only one lantern, and water dripping from ceiling seems to be more delayed.

Guile

Guy sat on trolley and his bitch appear, breakable crate is positioned differently, therefore hiding radio.

To recap, trolley and bird didn't feature until SNES Super.

Blanka

Clouds are never given the cue to move.

Balrog

Fewer signs illuminate (Golden Goose) and women are blue as can be (dream a little, dream of me).

Guy chucking confetti is decked out in orange hat and suit.

Capcom logo alternates between blue and green.

Vega

Lanterns don't glow, sign above bull doesn't flicker and floor is blue, not green.

Sagat

Statue has green and not blue decor.

M. Bison

Yellow and not blue ceiling.

The excitement of Super and Super Turbo grows more than watered plant...

Pixels - The scoop and digest

Chris Columbus taking Patrick Jean's award winning 2010 internet short to the big screen is potentially an exciting prospect.

Raiders of the Lost Arcade from 2002 Futurama episode Anthology of Interest II being so similar is surely coincidence?

Ahem, moving on...

Plot details and/or spoilers breathes retro.

The future of Earth lies with:

Adam Sandler - Sam Brenner
Kevin James - President William Cooper
Peter Dinklage - Eddie Plant
Michelle Monaghan - Colonel Violet van Platten
Josh Gad - Ludlow Lamonsoff

June 1982.

Teenagers Sam and Will enter a video game arcade world championship and MC announces events will be stored on time capsule and launched into outer space.

Sam kicks the broad ass of competition, but Donkey Kong proves to be a challenge too far as he succumbs to pint-sized Eddie 'Fireblaster' Plant.

Years later, Sam works for technology installation firm Nerd (how original) and Will is President of the United States.

A military base is bombarded and Sam identifies formation to be one found in Galaga.

Ludlow informs Sam aliens misinterpreted footage as declaration of war and sends video games to attack.

Three lives lost and it's game over.

Will hires Sam and Ludlow to help soldiers brush up on hand-eye co-oridination and visual acuity.

Violet demonstrates light beams eliminate pixels, hence the development of light cannons.

Centipede invades Hyde Park and cliché alert - military prove ineffective and nerds secure the situation.

As a reward, aliens donate Duck Hunt dog as a trophy.

Will 'arranges' Eddie's early parole and 'waka waka waka' awaits in the Big Apple.

Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde are represented as cars and successfully defeat fruit chasing dot muncher three times.

Denis Akiyama portrays Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani with real geezer appearing as an arcade engineer.

Q*bert follows in doggie's footsteps...

It seems victory is complete but wait, we have a cheating bastard in our midst.

Violet's son Matty chats with Eddie and codes hidden behind glasses are the secret of success.

In retaliation of violating rules, aliens send in the video game cavlery and Max Headroom informs they must beam aboard mothership to take on end boss Donkey Kong.

During a mass battle, the appearance of Lady Lisa from fictional arcade Dojo Quest delights a lustful Ludlow.

Arcaders Sam, Will, Violet and Q*bert accept final challenge to rescue Matty and previously kidnapped.

Hairy monster is ultimately destroyed by bonus hammer, freezing all other sprite activity.

For some reason, Q*bert transforms into Lady Lisa and Ludlow happily entertains tongue wrestle.

Aliens bugger off back to whence they came and a year later, infant nosebots bounce impatiently in cot.

This is the cinematic equivalent of swallowing deadly wasabi.

Impending doom should bask in frivolity and not deliberately revel in diastrous drama.

Dinklage's performance, (apparently cobbled together from various 80s gamers) is weird to say the least and Gad's behaviour disturbs, especially when spanking soldier ass and gestating on stage.

The consistent use of mild language is bizarre and unless I misheard, Sandler even f-bombs.

Unlike Wreck-It Ralph, in-jokes never occur during gameplay and dire dialogue is cheerless.

Why fuck with arcade folklore and have Q*bert speak coherent English?

Speech bubble does appear and audibly states 'crap'.

Referencing classics such as Breakout, Galaxian, BurgerTime, Dig Dug, Joust and Frogger do nothing to make giant pile of horseshit smell any sweeter.

Probe was sent in 1982 and because Tetris and Paperboy weren't released until 1984 and 1985 respectively, one detects anachronisms.

Alien obliteration is composed of voxels, making title factually incorrect.

Sam observes Matty playing The Last of Us and Q*bert is horrified at mutated strain of Cordyceps.

One of the biggest let-downs briefly showing undoubtedly one of the greatest games of all time?

More ironic than Alanis Morissette.

The Gift - The scoop and digest

Falling under the category of 'same title, different film', Joel Edgerton writes, helps produce and stars in his directorial debut.

Plot details and/or spoilers won't let bygones be bygones.

Dealing with the past:

Jason Bateman - Simon
Rebecca Hall - Robyn
Joel Edgerton - Gordo

Monkey phobic Simon and overworked wife Robyn relocate from Chicago to California to start a family.

While shopping, they bump into Simon's former classmate Gordo who husband claims not to remember.

Gordo begins leaving innocent presents, ranging from wine (always nice) and fish (ideally served with mushy peas).

Dinner party beckons and because Gordo often turns up unannounced, Simon reckons Gordo has become obsessed with Robyn.

Upon return from private phone call, Simon says let's close all comms.

Woof woof Mr. Bojangles goes missing and the finger of blame is predictably pointed at you know who, but without evidence...

Robyn finds sleeping increasingly more difficult and reacquaints with herself with old friend prescription drugs.

Overcome with paranoia of being 'alone', she collapses and as if by magic, wakes the next day in bed.

Meanwhile, Simon scores promotion at work as nearest competitor Danny McDonald misses out.

Shortly after dog turns up unharmed, they receive a letter from Gordo pouring his apologetic heart on paper.

Simon remains coy over what 'bygones' refers to.

Bun is baked inside Robyn's now relaxed oven but despite apparent harmony, the mystery of Gordo's letter still lingers, so wife seeks answers from Simon's sister.

It turns out that along with friend Greg, Simon was a bully and because of chatting shit over an incident regarding molestation and sexuality, his father was arrested for attempted murder.

When challenged, Simon refuses to accept he's done anything wrong.

A hostile, lying sociopath.  Nice personality combination.

Simon agrees to make peace and finds Gordo hosting a pub quiz.

After insincere apology is quickly rejected, Simon attacks a terrified Gordo.

While celebrating promotion, stone, rock or brick (who cares) is thrown through glass door and behind vandalism is Danny, who reveals that Simon purposely stirred up shit over email, leading to his sacking.

Robyn goes into labour and safely delivers child, but Simon loses job and Robyn tells him where to go.

What goes around comes around, and if you'll forgive me - ha fucking ha!

Robyn's hospital room is 237.

Yeah, I'm a geek for noticing a speculative reference to The Shining?

Christopher Smith's 2009 purgatory horror Triangle makes several allusions to Kubrick's seminal 1980 classic.

Shortly after Dufresne's escape in The Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freeman's cell is audibly announced as 237.

Most have probably forgotten it was 217 in Stephen King's novel.

Anyway...

Licking scheming wounds, Simon finds a large package left on doorstep.

Moses basket comprises of the following goodies.

1. Duplicate house key (self explanatory)
2. CD (audio recording of Simon ripping the piss)
3. DVD (footage of Gordo taking Robyn into bedroom after she fainted).

Did he rape her?

We don't know, as footage abruptly ends.

A battered Gordo visits Robyn and pleasantries are exchanged.

Robyn glares holding baby, Simon slumps to his knees and Gordo walks away - leaving father's identity undisclosed.

So like It Follows, ending is left ambiguous.

Leaving the strong taste of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (is the hand that rules the world), whiffing of Fatal Attraction and exhaling Unlawful Entry, strong performances bolster Edgerton's well put together psychological thriller.

Bateman's metamorphosis from hotshot to principal scumbag, Edgerton's socially awkward oddball and Hall's gradual fragility is testament to character development.

Although rollercoaster driven plot plummets into disappointing cliché, I openly recommend with Gordo's smiley face.

Video games stealing film and famous faces - Reel 2

Box art is the perfect place to begin.

Famed for fluid character animation, platform action, puzzle-solving and digitised speech, Epyx's Impossible Mission was an instant C64 hit.

Although title is extremely similar, this bears no connection to Mission: Impossible.

Professor Elvin Atombender (what a fucking name) is back for revenge in a more complicated, but largely unchanged sequel.

His large weapon suggests Magnum Force.

T.I. album Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head was heavily influenced.

Is it reasonable to say everybody forgets Rockstar's Red Dead series began in 2004 with Revolver?

Maybe.

Whatever, angry gunslinger really rings true with 1976 classic The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Using surprisingly effective b/w footage, Prize Fighter is Raging Bull on Sega CD.

Box art is what you'd expect.

Maybe they saw De Niro's Jake LaMotta self-destruct against Sugar Ray?

For the purposes of dramatisation, pummelling received was greatly exaggerated.

Pre-dating FPS, observe Taito's Final Blow on whichever home computer.

After knocking out an in shape, but mentally damaged Mike Tyson in 1990, Mega Drive port (outside of Japan) was renamed James 'Buster' Douglas Knockout Boxing.

The man himself dominated box art (much like actual fight), but was merely a lazy palette swap of regular The Detroit Kid.

Master System discarded arcade's look and settled on a Rocky clone.

As if two giant dumps weren't enough, the toilet flushed another turd in 1991 with Heavyweight Champ.

(Shakes head).

Drago getting walloped in Rocky IV is another example of sporting violence.

Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power and I Didn't See It Coming by The Professionals are albums of unlikely coincidence.

Released after Cabal and building upon Contra's 3D perspective, 1988 arcade Devastators is consigned to Konami obscurity.

Still, it was the evolution for G.I. Joe, just like Capcom's Black Tiger became Magic Sword.

Gun toting twins aside, Rambo III provided the perfect, ahem, inspiration for title screen.

You'll note anonymous chars are differentiated by red and blue headbands.

It's a bizarre and innocuous thing to duplicate, but the same shit happened in SNK's 1986 cult classic Ikari Warriors, with future King of Fighters participants Ralf (red) and Clark (blue).

Why?

Newscaster 'Clark Kent' brings a bizarre report in messed up 1991 PC Engine shmup Download 2.

Complete with leather jacket, Neo Geo borefest Riding Hero had Taylor as Max Rockatansky.

Nerozzia from Taito's gangster farce Dead Connection was a fan of Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone.

Remember, evil power steals on.

What the fuck does that mean?  Ha ha!

Chars James and Philip pose as Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) and George Stone (Andy Garcia) respectively, from Brian de Palma's 1987 smash The Untouchables.

Secret agent from Mega Drive's Rambo III looks nothing like Roy Batty, right?

Bomb Kick is a weird arcade by developer Yun Sung Electronics.

Spot the difference game Search Eye lifted Cammy's theme from SSF2: The New Challengers.

You needn't rub a lamp to conjure up this Genie.

The assholes couldn't even be bothered to recolour boss.

Abu (monkey), Jafar's guards and Aladdin?

Bomb Hack?

Copy that.

Thunder Blade had no right to display such amazing scaling effects in 1987.

Title screen imagery looks innocent enough, but I yell Blue Thunder.

If that's the meat, let me pour gravy.

Cast mince pies over Martial Masters.

IGS practically cloned Washizuka's stage from The Last Blade 2.

Fire at the Wadamoya
"Flames"
The extinguishable hate

I distinctly remember the Dreamcast port omitting superb ripple effect.

But wait, look at setting for end fight between Genma and Kibagami Jubei in Ninja Scroll, not to be confused with 2003 television series.

Swapping boat for house? Tut fucking tut!

For more burning ambition, see Rebecca's stage in enjoyable 1995 spin-off Double Dragon.

After sieving through each with fine-sword comb, here's what Samurai Shodown half-inched from Yoshiaki Kawajiri's excellent 1993 action thriller.

Temple Mist (Nicotine's stage) vs random scene

Tall trees, concrete steps leading to temple and moist air engulfing sombre atmosphere?

Identification positive.

The deeply flawed third and more balanced fourth dedicated proceedings to bamboo.

Hmmm, nothing like when Jubei takes on Devil of Kimon Utsutsu Mujuro.

Ukyo is a man of few words, when compared to blind samurai.

Original portrait retained principle.

Nicotine vs Dakuan

Just in case you're still not convinced, check out staff's end.

Undoubtedly more Shameless than Chatsworth's finest.

Before SNK bought them out, Metal Slug was Nazca's heavy machine gun.

Super Vehicle-001 is transport we strive to control.

Or put another way, how Dominion Tank Police trundled about.

Jealous of Minnie's beauty, witch Mizrabel shakes up the harmony of Vera City by kidnapping female rodent in Castle of Illusion.

Stereotypical hag on broomstick later transforms into her larger and younger self.

Okay, she makes no effort of disguising she's the Queen from Disney's 1937 adaptation of Brothers Grimm fairytale Snow White.

Licensing issues?

Doesn't make a great deal of fucking sense.

2013 HD remake.

Before Angelina Jolie wore antagonistic horns in 2014 big screen outing, 3DS adventure Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion painted Mizrabel as Sleeping Beauty villain Maleficent.

Others with Mr. Jack Shit to do with Disney were perversely less subtle.

Mr. Nutz (various)

I'm still Hoppin' Mad superior Amiga game ignored consoles.

Diet Go Go (Arcade)

Parody or piss take? Only Data East will know.

Crossed between SNK's Prehistoric Isle and Carrier Air Wing (spiritual 1990 follow-up to U.N. Squadron), P-47 Aces is Jaleco's opulent 1995 sequel to The Phantom Fighter.

Manga and eventual anime Area 88 is less mysterious than its 51 counterpart...

Capcom trumped Jaleco's 1988 card four years earlier as 1942 (first in the long-running 19XX franchise), debuted in 1984.

Some broad gives mission heads-up and bloke barks orders in U.N. Squadron.

After all that tomfoolery, enter Tony Scott's cult 1986 classic Top Gun.

Sergeant Kim Blair becomes flight instructor Charlie (Kelly McGillis).

Bond legend Sean Connery starred in Carrier Air Wing and/or Japanese namesake U.S. Navy.

I reckon...

James Roy vs Goose (Anthony Edwards)

Mark Olson vs Ice (Val Kilmer)

Did Lt. Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise), more affectionately known as 'Maverick' escape Capcom's attention?

In a word, no.

Mick Ford is based on famous publicity still.

Thumbs up in F-14 Tomcat is given thusly.

If you're going to rip something off, do it in fucking style.

Charlie flying fighter jet in Ryu's ending to Street Fighter Alpha 3 might be some kind of reference to Carrier Air Wing?

Congratulatory screen is reminiscent of wild celebrations.

Group hug didn't deliver the climax he'd hoped for. 

I'll stand corrected, but is T2 the only film to feature After Burner?

Note cabinet artwork.

For North America, SNES weapons orgy Super Aleste was renamed Space Megaforce.

1994 Neo Geo shmup Zed Blade changed things around.

In space, nobody can hear peace scream.

Rambunctious entertainment will continue...