[Editor's note: This is a new series from Loot Ninja where we'll all be bringing you the origins of our online gamer ID's. Check back as we delve deeper into what makes each of our online personas.]
When we game, we tend to hide behind a certain degree of anonymity. With the advent of online multiplayer gaming, what’s in a name can often sum up everything we’re up against in another player. PumpkinHeadRex, my gamer ID, is an odd handle for sure. To understand the name, you have to understand the player.
Before I’m a gamer, before I’m a writer, I’m a horror filmmaker. Some of you may recognize Pumpkinhead as a low budget horror flick from 1988. Directed by Stan Winston and featuring his insane creature FX work, it starred professional badass Lance Henriksen, fresh off his duties in the legendary bloodsucker romp Near Dark. The other half, the one represented by that long-haired, toothy fella up there, is Rawhead Rex. Based on a lesser known work by Clive Barker, Barker’s disappointment in the finished product ultimately prompted his taking complete creative control of the now classic Hellraiser adaptation. As for Rawhead Rex … it’s aged well, what can I say? I think I’m won over by the sheer ballsiness of the urine baptism scene. Currently out of print, an official DVD (or even VHS) can run you a good chunk of change. On the other hand, Pumpkinhead just got a new Collector’s Edition DVD last year. Oh, and the name’s case sensitive, too. On video, Rawhead Rex was always written out as RawHeadRex, hence PumpkinHeadRex. Get it?
Now, does this mean I only play horror games? No. Not that I don’t like a good horror game, it’s just there are very few of them out there. I am looking forward to the new Wolfenstein and Castlevania. If either of them have good multiplayer, look for PumpkinHeadRex.
From its humble start as a mid-tier comic book property to its current status as a billion dollar movie franchise, X-Men has become a genuine pop culture institution. No successful property worth its own spit would be complete without lucrative video game tie-ins, of which X-Men has had many … mostly bad. While many of you are already getting giddy thinking of afternoons spent in front of the Sega Genesis playing 1993’s admittedly badass X-Men console game, for the rest of us it’s the Engrish lovin’ arcade side-scroller put out by Konami the previous year that will forever warm our hearts.
With colorful graphics that were well ahead of their time, innovative game play that saw the number of simultaneous players vary anywhere between two and six (some machines used a multi-screen set up), and snazzy character designs lifted straight from 1989’s unaired Pryde of the X-Men animated TV pilot, this is still the one to beat. Konami gave you a six member roster to choose from: Colossus, Cyclops, Dazzler, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Wolverine. The game’s plot sees our heroes fight through an army of Sentinels and other assorted baddies on a course to Magneto’s Asteroid M, from where the Master of Magnetism plans to wreak havoc upon mankind. If you’re a gamer or an X-Men fan and never played the X-Men arcade game in an actual arcade, you should be ashamed. Emulators are out there for download if you’re so inclined, otherwise just hit up eBay and hope for the best.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day was James Cameron’s wildly successful sequel to his 1984 tech-noir masterpiece The Terminator. Where that film was a clever stalk n’ slash starring ex-bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cyborg assassin from the future, T2 clearly had a more grandiose vision of its mythology. Defined in no small part by the visual assault of Stan Winston’s makeup FX and ILM’s pioneering use of then mind blowing CGI technology, T2 is bigger and badder than its predecessor in every way. Unfortunately, that includes the sheer tonnage of its seemingly endless home video releases. Like John Carpenter’s Halloween or Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness, T2 is just one of those flicks that, despite an umpteenth reissue, has a rabid enough fan base to ensure strong sales. This brings us to my big money purchase of the week, the limited edition six-disc T2 Complete Collector’s Set on Blu-ray, housed in a T-800 Endoskull bust that emanates movie sounds while its red eyes light up. If you’re a Terminator fan, how could pass that up?!
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Kristen Bell. If you’re like me, you were probably a huge Veronica Mars fan. While you’ve continued to mourn that show’s untimely passing, perhaps you caught Kristen in her co-starring role on the second and third seasons of NBC’s Heroes (as if Hayden Panettiere wasn’t already enough for one show). Fandom can further rejoice as Kristen now ups the ante, donning Princess Leia’s infamous gold bikini for the aptly titled comedy Fanboys, which apparently hit the big screen in some form of release earlier this year.
In any event, the flick sees a group of Star Wars geeks road trip to George Lucas’ sci-fi Xanadu, Skywalker Ranch, to snatch an early print of The Phantom Menace for their dying friend to take a sneak peak at. Yes, it’s a period piece, which means no easy access, pirated copies were making the rounds via torrent and thus no need for Hugh Jackman to have to smack a bitch. It’s just too bad the poor guy couldn’t hold out till Revenge of the Sith (or croaked right after Return of the Jedi and saved himself the embarassment … kidding, George). Anyway, it actually looks pretty promising in an irreverent, Kevin Smith sort of way. That and I had to accompany one of the hottest photos ever with some sort of an explanation, didn’t I? Gamers, many of whom just happen to be Star Wars fans themselves (hence this article’s inclusion on a gaming website), can pick up Fanboys as it hits SD DVD today with an as-yet-unconfirmed Blu-ray release to follow.
Hi, my name is Jonathan, and I’m a gamer. Maybe I’m not the biggest gamer you’ll come across, but I like to think of video games as the Choose Your Own Adventure of an increasingly tech-savvy generation that’s watched flicks like Hackers and The Matrix way too many times (at least I probably have). I’m actually a filmmaker myself. I make horror movies. That means, despite an overwhelmingly disappointed consensus, I’m still playing the hell out of Resident Evil 5. It’s the co-op mode, man! Currently, my console of choice is the PS3. I’m big into Blu-ray, despite having declared it dead a year ago. Having said that, I will defend to the death my opinion that the N64 was the greatest console ever to grace the world of gaming. Hell, I still play with a Dreamcast, so what do I know? Anyway, you’re going to see me contributing ’round these parts. My PS3 ID is PumpkinHeadRex. Hit me up sometime.
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