Good animation...
I liked it, but I would've preferred an actual episode...oh well.
Reviews for "TOME Short: Hackers"
Adds a bit of perspective to the first episode.
I respectfully disagree with some of the other reviews, particularly that of DragonXander. I think this short was actually pretty interesting.
In the original series this is loosely based off of, earlier incarnations of both these characters appeared, with a premise of being spammers in a forum or chatroom-based game. It was obvious that they were hackers (Given that TVTOME Adventures showed their stats upon initial introduction and that said stats were outrageous) and the fact that they were "Cheating" on the game and using that capacity to abuse other players set them as clear antagonists from the outset. They're not operating within the conventional boundaries of the game, and this gives the conflict between Alpha's friends and these hackers context, relevance beyond just a PVP conflict between players.
There's a chance I'm over-thinking this (especially given that the original series was very rough and somewhat amature at it's onset. No offense to it's creator but it's very clear that he learned a lot while he went along) but in the first episode of the new TOME the "context" I mentioned about the old series is somewhat lost. We see the hackers causing trouble. We hear them called hackers. One can presume that they've somehow "hacked" the game. But without a great deal of context as to how the virtual world works we don't really see that they've done anything WRONG. We see other players in the game fighting each other without provocation (see Kirb vs. Alpha in the very first scene for a good example). The only difference between the behaviors of the characters (that we see) is that one is destroying terrain while the other isn't. You can't claim that the hackers should be punished for what they're doing because they're being disruptive (because if we did that to everyone who was disruptive on WoW they'd only need half the servers that they have) and we have little basis for knowing how "bad" it is that the terrain of the game is being altered or destroyed. There's a large number of games that allow for destruction or manipulation of the environment in today's lineup of computer games.
This short adds that context again. It establishes what the hackers can do that regular players can't, and establishes that the hackers are clearly operating outside of the context of the game. It's all stuff that someone who thinks about what they see in the first episode would probably be able to get, but not everyone analyzes things like that. That I think that this could probably have been a scene in the first episode is probably indicative of how highly I rate it. In fact, the only reason I give it an 8 instead of a ten is that I feel this should have been in the original episode rather than added later.
On a lighter note, Rockoon and Doubling are just amusing. They make a great zany/straight man combo.
same
I agree with Dragoonblade on pretty much everythingl, including taking FuzzyPinkGoo down a notch or ten
and seeing as everything i have to say has been said by dragoon, and more besides, not worth me typing everything again = )
Summary: Nice work
nuff said
Ok people, WTF?!
Ok, I get that this was a short and all, the voices were good, the charicters...less then memerable, BUT it was still a quality flash animation, despite what my fellow NG posters call as suckish animation. It was a quality short people! I KNOW some people have to hate, but what ive seen on this page makes me wanna blow chunks all over my computer in disgust. Guys, the negative comments wont be going ANYWHERE to developing a better flash! Keep up the good work everyone who worked on this flash, and haters...stop being so d@mn critical.
Love Rockoon. Everything about him: his poses, his way to talk and stuff. Man, I hope he'll become a good reccuring villain, I expect to see him in the Gemini tournament. And the ending picture is so awesome^^