This Notched and Rusted Blade

Author: Sparky668
Game: Mount & Blade: Warband
Genre: Story

It's quite clear that narrative isn't found in a large abundance when watching what would be considered "main stream" Machinima, a prospect that becomes quite evident to anyone with even a peripheral knowledge of the current state of Machinima the company., this notched and rusted blade by youtube user, Sparky668, could be considered the foil to this argument, simply on the grounds of the engine that he works with. Mount and Blade: Warband. save for spectating a large map in multiplayer creating any sort of production using this game would be one uphill battle after the next. Which is what makes this series a brightly shining supernova amongst dull white dwarfs in the universe that is the Machinima relm.

The story focuses on Martin Herrick, a hunter from the damp hills of northern England , he is forced to work off the dept his father had incurred by not being able to pay that month's tithe. The narritve is fantastic, the music fits the story like a good glove, and the cinematography....just yes! The audio mixing could use a little work, as in some portions of the videos I had a hard time discerning what he was saying as the music reached a climax, and at later times a buzzing noise is constantly or his voice is too low.

While the series may be narrative heavy, that isn't to say that there are no battle or action sequencies, on the contrary, there's one in every episode, however, their main purpose isn't to catch the attention of the shaky cam, automatic rifle, and explosion crowd, it's to allow you to understand the internal fight that the protagonist is going through and to empathise with him as he changes from a boy, to what the world considers a man.

I do feel that the earlier episodes were cut off a bit too abruptly, however that could just be my inner writer speaking, also, one could argue that there was an over use of the panoramic camera, however I would be willing to forgive that on the grounds of the type of production that it is.

I wouldn't reccomend this to those that have a large affinity towards action shows or movies, but if you enjoy a good novel or just an enthralling story I can't reccomend this highly enough.

Rebel Panther

Author: Tigura21
Game: Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Genre: Story

”There are two schools, Genkou "Heaven" and Gokudo "Hell." For the longest time, they've been at war, determined to take out one another to come out on top. A new school year has recently begun, and the 10-year-long conflict emerges once again...”-Video description

Video(10/15)

        I truly enjoyed watch this newest release from Tigura, it continues along with virtual Smash's anime-esqe style of story telling, the character introduction was what I found interesting about this particular Machinima. From what is shown, the characters aren't formally introduced to the viewer until they do something that relates to their role in the Machinima. I noticed this during the second showing of the “Yellow Jay” character, he was shown in the beginning but wasn't introduced until his second appearance. The same applies to “Pink Cerise”, another character that received a second appearance introduction. For those that have yet to watch this, you will notice that of the two characters I have mentioned both have a color leading their name, this seems like quite a double edged sword, what happens when he runs out of colors? Do the villains receive colors? Is the color appended to each character their only color? Or is it just a name? One of these was answered with the introduction of “Hell hound” who, obviously, doesn't have a color and is set with his standard color palette.

Our protagonist.

        From the beginning it was obvious that a lot of movie magic will be used in this series seeing as how the setting is in a school, many of the scenes contain more characters than is allowed per match such as the third scene shift. This is where things start to get complicate, not only do you have the three teachers at the entrance you also have a good amount of students in line to take pictures, by, you guessed it, two more characters. Some problems were noted such as the scene where the students are explaining what happened to the others who were with them on the bus, notice who's missing from the picture? This is also prevalent in the “escape” scene after this is a spoiler and has been removed, there were gratuitous amounts of hard cuts that were not as discreet as they could have been.

Sound (15/15)
The sound is absolutely sublime, there is a very pleasant background music to help set the tone of the current scene and the VA's all have nice quality microphones.

Script Quality (20/20)
 Saying that Tigura is a talented writer would be an understatement, Later this week when more of his works are reviewed it will become more apparent that this is true talent. His jokes are nicely done, innuendos and all that, the characters are perfectly pegged, from the scheming mannerism of Yellow Jay to the sarcastic Hell hound, everyone seems to fit together.