MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!

Greetings, g1s!

At long last, I am free from the grasp of finals and now my dark blogging powers have returned to grace the Internet once more!  MWAHAHAHAAA!  .....ahem.... Anyway, on a lighter note, the holidays have officially arrived!  To start the celebration, I have decided to kick things off with my obligatory holiday top ten!  What shall I do this year?

Well, since I'm sure that there are many "Top Ten Snow Level" lists out there, I can't do that.  I also had trouble finding enough reindeer, candles, etc in gaming to make a top ten list for.  HOWEVER!  I came up with the brilliant idea to have a list on the Top Ten "Stars" in Gaming!  It fits the holidays perfectly!  I mean, there's the star that goes on top of the Christmas Tree, there's the star of David, and there's the star of Bethlehem!  I'm a genius!  Luckily for me, stars have also been a big part of games as well.  .................however...

Most of the more famous stars are from the Mario series. In an attempt to make the list less Mario-heavy, I will "try" to find stars that aren't in that series for this list.  I'm going to take a whole big look at video games as a whole to find stars for this list.  But, keep in mind that for this list, my term for a "star" will be very....VERY LOOSE.  Like, expect a lot of humor around how loose I will call something as a "star".  I mean, according to the big bang theory, we technically are all stars....or....at least made up of star matter.  .......ON TO THE LIST!  It's probably the weirdest Holiday list I have ever made.  ......yes, even more weird than my rabbit one from Easter.

 

 

I told you that this list would be very loose as to what I call a "star".  Well, either way, Johnny Cage is such a big Hollywood star in the Mortal Kombat universe that I think that he deserves a spot on this list...even if he doesn't actually "qualify" as a star.

Johnny Cage is an actor from Hollywood and stars in action films that deal with lots of hand-to-hand combat.  He is rather muscular, has an infinite supply of expensive sunglasses, and is so self-centered that he even has his name tattooed onto him (and has his last name on a belt buckle).  He is very cocky and will easily pick a fight if something doesn't go his way.  He also enjoys making (funny) one-liners.  However, his muscles aren't (always) for show since he can definitely hold his own against other-wordly beings in a one-on-one match to the death.  He also has some magic powers (perhaps for being a star?) imbued into him that allows him to shoot projectiles and to attack faster.  He also has the balls to punch others in the balls--even in a "friendly" match.  He is the type of jerk you want to be.  He can talk trash as much as he can back it up, he is the most famous actor, and he is insanely powerful to boot.

Johnny is such a star that I believe that he is a character used quite often in Mortal Kombat tournaments.  Even Chad had trouble playing against a pro that used Johnny!  Johnny will certainly shine through as a star player.

Something that always bothered me though was that Johnny's ending in the Arcade Mode in Mortal Kombat 9 caused him to go to some schooling while Stryker's ending allowed him to get all of the glory.  No....no I can't allow that.  Johnny deserves better than that.  At least Johnny Cage practically made the Mortal Kombat movie to be even better......probably because he's an actor.

I should also mention that Johnny probably has his own Hollywood star with his name on the pavement.  You know, where all of the other Hollywood bigwigs put their stars?  Yet, Johnny Cage TECHNICALLY isn't a star so he's #10 on this list.

 

Again, this list will be very loose.  Star Man was one of the more memorable Robot Masters from Mega Man 5.  Although....look at this guy!  You HAVE to put him on a list of stars since he seems so obsessed with putting stars all over his body.  He even has his blaster have a shape for a star so that his energy shots will be star-shaped!  ............Then again when I think about it, isn't Dr. Wily the one who would be obsessed with stars since he made this robot?  Then again, Dr. Wily is crazy for using the same (bad) strategy of taking over the world at least 10 times by having robots weak to other robot powers.

If Star Man can shoot a shield of mini-stars...then....something in his body is made of stars or at least stores them right?  I dunno, Star Man is weird....almost......OUT OF THIS WORLD! *ba dum tsh* Star Man's stage also has low gravity to give you the feeling that you are in outer space or something.  You can see many stars in the background throughout the stage and everything feels very spacey themed.  Star Man himself though is rather easy to beat since not only is your charged main weapon rather overpowered but his attacks are very predictable and his ONLY attack is just to throw his shield of stars at you.  For not posing as much as a threat (and for not technically being a star) he will get the #9 spot on this list.

 

Admittedly, I don't know that much about Starfy since they decided to keep this franchise in Japan for the longest time.  The first I saw him was as an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  He would pop up and do some twirly attack that would do minor damage if it hit the opponent.  ....Hey at least he's better than a Goldeen, right?

Despite not knowing much about Starfy, he is one of those more "symbolic" characters and whenever I think about a star in a video game, I think of this guy.  In fact, I'm not even sure if he's actually a star....or a starfish but since this list is very loose on what a "star" is then I guess he will qualify.

I always was interested in finding out a bit more of this illusive character.  I found out that he has his own DS game (that I think is actually available in the states) so I probably don't have much of an excuse to find out more about him.  Then again, I haven't seen it myself nor have I heard raving reviews about it so that might be the reason.  From what I see online though, I don't think that many people know as to what Starfy truly IS other than that he is some...thing that lives in some aquatic environment.  Wish I could say more on the #8 but....can't.

Editor's Note: The Legendary Starfy is the only game in the franchise to get a North American release and it's available for the DS.

I know that this doesn't truly qualify as a star but this star power is so necessary (and very much wanted at those crucial moments) that I wanted to put it on the list.  .....I later learned that the notes themselves don't actually turn into stars (despite what I thought).  But it's too late and I'm running thin on ideas for stars so it somehow makes the list at number 7 somehow because star power is that cool!

Star Power is this special magical power that you can obtain in Guitar Hero games by playing a set of notes without any misses.  You can even get some extra star power by spazzing about on the whammy bar on a long note.  This star power is so crucial since, if it's activated, then your rock meter will become green in no time just by playing a few notes while using the power.  This will make those super hard parts for some of those songs much more easier to get through and it will cause a lot less frustration as well.  There is nothing more needed than that star power for when you really need some juice in that rock meter to prevent failure on a song.

Even for pros that don't even have to worry about failing a song, star power is STILL very much needed!  After all, while you are using it, your score multiplier automatically gets multiplied by 2!  This means that you can crank out that multiplier to 8x easily....and it is very crucial to use this star power on a segment that has a lot of notes so that you milk those points as much as you can.  After this number 7 spot, however, is when I start to get a little bit more serious...

 

Solar is the red dwarf star of the Lylat System in the Star Fox series.  Interestingly enough, even though this star is more popular, the Lylat System has a bigger blue star called....well....Lylat.

Solar is an awesome star since you get to do a LEVEL through it!  I have this conspiracy going on that I think Star Fox 64 was remade just so that it can recreate this level!  ......OK maybe not but it still has to be mentioned that it looks really cool on the 3DS.  Solar isn't just some lousy star either since it houses tons of fire-based life forms, including an organic bio weapon that the dark lord Andross wishes to control.  Much like a real sun, this sun is stupid hot and apparently is hot enough to damage Slippy's custom made shielding on the Star Fox fighter jets (which I can assume is some of the best shielding in that solar system technology-wise).

Simply put, Solar is on this list due to the memorable Star Fox 64 level you had to battle on.  I usually go on the Solar path while playing Star Fox 64 anyway since it will allow you to choose the easy ending or the harder ending on the level afterwards.  I never did get the medal for this level since you pretty much need a near-perfect score to get it, but hopefully that will change in the future.

 

I don't know too much about Ristar but I know enough about him to know that I should place him on this list.  Ristar was a game that Sonic Team I guess in an attempt to find a rival for Sonic other than Mario.  The game Ristar was a platformer where the main character, Ristar, used his FACE to bash opponents to death.  Geez...talk about a hard head.... Well, he did have the help of his stretchy arms to do it though.  From I heard that the game was really good and that it had some memorable final boss battles.  .......Unfortunately I never played it even though I don't have much of an excuse since I believe that this game is on the Virtual Console.

Worse for him though, was that his name truly was a falling star.  I think only two Ristar games were made since his name never caught on, despite that the games were fairly good. Perhaps it was poor advertising, but whatever the reason, not many games were made of him.  It is strange though, since Ristar certainly does look....unique.  Especially for a star.

Luckily though, he as had enough fame to be able to have a cameo appearance in the game Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed.  See there?  He somehow made it to be an all star!  .....Too bad that I don't think he was an actual playable character and instead Wreck it Ralph got his way in despite him not being a real Sega character and being very new.  ....Makes you wonder if Ristar will have a grudge against him.  Will Ristar become a rising star?  One can only hope.

Editor's Note: Ristar is a fun and challenging platformer and it's available as part of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360 and PS3. It's Such a shame Sonic Team couldn't develop a sequel. 

Ohhhhhh yeah.  This star is so cool that the richest man in the galaxy wishes to make his home right in front of it. I mean, think about it.  He could have placed his hideout ANYWHERE in the galaxy but he chose of all places to be in front of the grand Anadius star. It pretty much does make an epic backdrop for his office, I have to admit.  It seems to be like a massive lava lamp that you would place into a dark room to make it look otherworldly I suppose.  According to the Mass Effect wiki page, it is the size of 20 times of our Sun's mass....which I'm guessing is pretty friggin huge.  Although what's weirder is that the Normandy can seemingly fly THROUGH IT (or any other star for that matter) without any harm on the galaxy map.  I'm assuming that the map is only for show though and that your ship doesn't ACTUALLY travel like that. .....But how does that explain how you get a game over if a reaper ship touches the Normandy?  

Anyway, Anadius *SPOILERS* serves as an epic backdrop to cool (and rather difficult and Insanity, I might add) boss fight.  All of the windows smash as ninjas come in while you are at it too despite the heat that the sun may radiate!  .......does this mean that Anadius actually isn't that hot for a sun?  I might be thinking too hard.  Commander Shepard even feels the urge to sit in front of the Anadius sun for a moment......to do his/her work (and unfortunately not because he/she was mesmerized by the glory of the Anadius sun....lame). *END SPOILERS*

 

How can you NOT have Pop Star in a list with stars?  Sure, it doesn't exactly LOOK like much at first glance....other than a stereotypical yellow star with two rings around it, but you shouldn't judge this star by it's surface alone.

For one, this star is very, VERY different from most stars out in the galaxy.  It is actually a star that is somehow inhabitable and houses areas such as forests, snowy mountains, cloudlands, deserts, and oceans despite that it has a....yellow surface.  I don't know HOW but apparently that's just how that is.  It is also the home for the famous pink demon known as Kirby who terrorizes the land by eating and smashing anything in his path (and sometimes defeats some nightmares now and then because he feels like it).  Something else I should mention is that this star seems to be very fragile but somehow has regeneration powers.  During this one mini-game in Kirby Super Star, Kirby can crack the whole star with one punch! .....and then it reforms back again inexplicably!  ....WHAT IS THIS STAR??

It is also strange how the inhabitants transform into stars themselves if they get destroyed or if Kirby spits them out.  I guess that they are a part of the Pop Star?  It certainly would make sense.....

 

Call it a little bit too egocentric since, after all, it is the star of Earth, but I feel that this star is one of the defining ones in all of video games for a myriad of reasons.

Throughout games, sunlight is always a key factor into anything....for better or worse.  In the case that it's better, sunlight causes Creepers in Minecraft to stay away, sunlight weakens many undead beasts, sunlight causes rocks to crumble to dust in Zelda, sunlight causes Dracula to bite the dust, sunlight helps plants to grow, etc.  However, the sun can also have negative effects.  I mean, in Super Mario Bros. 3, the Sun will try to kill you by flying into you!  Or the sun may cause the area to be too bright for a brief second, allowing an enemy to defeat you in that short moment.

Which is weird since the world should first become ablaze if the Sun ever came that close.

The Sun is a powerful star that should certainly be reckoned with.  It pretty much determined the flow of time, determined months, etc.  Many epic backdrops of scenery wouldn't exist without sunsets spawned from this star.  It has even spawned one of more iconic video game characters Amaterasu, who is the goddess of the Sun.  People should never forget that the Sun is a star, and a very good and powerful one at that.  After all, if it wasn't for the sun, then.......evil would rule the land!  MWAHAHAHAHAAA!!!  I should probably find ways to block out the sun then, shouldn't I? *wears sunscreen*

 

In a choice that surprises no one, the legendary Starman from the Mario series makes the number one spot.

Although, let's quickly go over the other stars first.  My personal favorite is the red star from Super Mario Galaxy since that one grants you the ability to FLY....and it's a classified star too! >: )  Other stars of note include the Millennium Star (that turned out to be a fraud), the Rainbow Star (pretty much just what the Starman does except that Mario now is a rainbow...), and the Crystal Stars (that were the devices of a thousand year old demon) to just name a few.

However, the Starman truly steals the show.  The Starman is so iconic that I'm pretty sure that most people you would see would have an idea as to what it is and where it comes from.  It is also the symbol of what every star wants to be (I guess)---power and longevity.

It has power in the sense that it gives the user invincibility (for a limited time unfortunately).  Hearing that iconic music while Mario is.....uh....well....feeling "invincible" and destroying anything in his path is something that I'm sure all of you know.  More importantly though, is that is the main thing coveted in the Mario Party series.  People will sacrifice time, coins, and probably the skin off their palms from playing evil mini-games to obtain these stars.  Everyone knows that the only way to become the Superstar is to obtain as many Starmen as possible, which is why the Starman is number one on this list.  Also getting all 242 (or 120) stars is so worth it.......OK well at least the initial 120.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!  I hope to post more blogs that deal with g1s before Christmas comes around since I have a trip then, so hope to expect some more great content later!  MWAHAHAHAHAAA!!!

 

 

Today's Ganon Award goes to g1 Tom the Iron Man for his video that shows an incredible ranking for Chad's fighting skills!  I COMMAND you to watch it!