TV series: Ash vs Evil Dead

Well here we are. Moving back into TV I came to the conclusion that a lot of what I view is very dramatic and less and less funny. How about a series involving deadites, possession, a book that resurrects the dead? Sound too bizarre or does it sound like a few movies prior? Well folks, this show involves the Chin himself. The master of B Movies and patented splatterstick (comedy horror violence with humorous content) as Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert.

This is Ash Vs Evil Dead.

Well, that was mind blowing.

30 years prior, stock boy of Value Mart, Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell of The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, Army of Darkness, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Jack of All Trades, Spider-Man, Burn Notice and Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe) went to a cabin in the woods with his friends when they discovered renowned Professor Knowby's reel to reel recorder of notes, an ancient dagger carved of bone and steel and the book, Necronomicon ex Mortis. Bound in human flesh and inked in human blood, the book contained ancient burial rites, incantations and demon summoning. It was never meant the land of the living. The book awoke primeval forces in the woods, demons taking over human beings and the only way to stop them is through the act of body dismemberment.

The Classic!!!

Burying the remains of his friends, girlfriend and sister, Ash put this insanity all behind him but he kept the book. Life is rough for Ash living in a crappy trailer and chasing after various women and hitting bars left and right he takes a girl (Marissa Stott of Blood Crime, Orphans and Angels, Shortland Street and Power Rangers Megaforce) back his place, they blaze up some wacky tabaccy and proceed to read passages from the book releasing the evil again. With the evil back, Ash decides to get the hell out of dodge when his work partner Pablo (Ray Santiago of Girlfight, Raising Hope, Touch, Sex Ed and Trash Fire) tells him that whenever evil comes there is always a chosen one to battle it. Ash reluctant to his calling decides to hit on the new girl at work, Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo of Peep Show, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Eagleheart, Californication, Impress Me and Driving Arizona) when a storm of darkness start swirling around, taking over susceptible souls making them meat puppets of evil to lash out at Ash. Pablo and Kelly get caught up in the middle of this mess as Ash breaks out the boomstick and chainsaw.

Two other souls grabbed up in the lunacy, Special Agent Amanda Fisher (Jill Marie Jones of Girlfriends, The Perfect Holiday, The Longshots and Drool) loses her partner in a deadite shooting and Professor Ruby Knowby (Lucy Lawless of Xena: Warrior Princess, Bedtime Stories, Spider-Man, EuroTrip, Battlestar Galactica, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Spartacus: War of the Damned and Parks and Recreation) looking for the man she believes slaughtered her mother, father and sister.

Can Ash send back the evil? Should the book be destroyed? How many crackers will be possessed??

My only issue is a production argument over the Army of Darkness production issues. Renaissance Pictures may have created Medieval Dead or Army of Darkness' rights are owned by Universal Studios and rather than accommodate an understanding they decided to be total wankers. Barring Starz from making any references of Army of Darkness, Ash does get a robotic hand rather than a medieval gauntlet with gears, alloys and molecular stuff. They also establish their big stink on if the show did any Evil Ash but (LOOPHOLE!!) that reference falls back to Evil Dead 2 so tough noogies, Universal.

So if you loved the originals for its goofing and gore gags, then you will love Ash vs Evil Dead as they stick to the same medium of his cheeseball lines, hitting on young women and violence against the deadites. Groovy.

We'll swallow your soul... as get through your screen.

Evil Dead Games: Army of Darkness: Defense

Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up! This is Day 5 of Evil Dead Games. We are moving app games this time around. Yeah it looks like Evil Dead: Regeneration is our last console/PC game thus far. Given the impending Ash Vs Evil Dead series premiere in October 31^st it is feasible that another game is in the works. Until that glorious concept, we have the app game available for Windows, Apple and Android by Backflip Studios (Paper Toss, Paper Toss: World Tour, Harbor Havoc 3D, Strike Knight and Tunnel Shoot) This Army of Darkness: Defense.

Boomstick action!!

Army of Darkness: Defense is a tower defense game involving improved weapons and leveling up both "The Chosen One" and his knights on a 2-D side scrolling bout of battles with humans vs deadites. Trying to incorporate elements of not only the universe of the Army of Darkness but aspects of the story as well. You will need to upgrade the boomstick which cheap to upgrade as you earn coins for shotgun damage, melee attacks via chainsaw and health. You create units made up of Peasant, Swordsman, Spearman, Sword-Boy, Armored Guard, Horseman and Torch-Boy. You can add the characters Wiseman, Henry and Arthur but only one of those three.

Castles are defended by Archers up on the wall and catapults. 

Peasants make great deadite shields.

 Early Waves of the deadites can be thwarted with swordsmen but you don't need to upgrade them right away until you get the Sword-Boy. Even the peasants with swords are pretty effective.

Middle Waves need you to bring out the heroes whenever possible. Horsemen gets into the battle right into the crap ASAP but your peasants are too weak for that kind of action.

The Latter Waves get rough so you need to prep the following: Arthur because his health range is so huge and he has an company of archers which are cheap and easily upgraded.

You lead your knights into a series of fights against the deadites from buying up attacks like Arrow Volley damaging and cooking enemies in an area of effect and the Deathcoaster (the 88 Delta Oldsmobile modified to cut down deadites).

The fans of the film will love the game and it didn't disappoint me at all. I am not really a huge tower defense fan but this little side scroller was entertaining. The leveling has price indexes or you take your time at it but nothing against leveling slowly.

Even the King gets damaged, baby.

Evil Dead Games: Evil Dead Regeneration

What's goin' on kiddies? Welcome back for Day 4 of Evil Dead Games. Well shockingly enough we will heading back to THQ to bring us another heaping of blood, gore, one-liners and decent creature creation and once again published some more chainsaw and boomstick. Produced by (get this) Cranky Pants Games (Red Faction II, Evil Dead: Regeneration and Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon) . This is Evil Dead: Regeneration.

They think I am crazy.  Just because I hacked up my friends and girlfriend.

Feeling again the vibe of an action hack and slash game again this almost feels like an alternative reality or Earth where Ash did not end up going through the temporal portal that sent him to 1200 AD at the end of Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn. Instead he is captured by the state troopers and dropped by at the Sunny Meadows Asylum.

Locked away in the wacko basket for the criminally insane, the truth as always far more worse than anyone suspected. Ash (voiced again by Bruce Campbell) is visited by his lawyer Sally (Nika Futterman of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm, The Last of Us, Tenkai Knights, Sofia the First and Dead Rising 3) and is convinced he is stuck here and no one will believe when Sally slaps Professor Knowby's diary down on the table. Sally points out that Ash's shrink, Doctor Reinhard (Jim Ward of Spirited Away, Spider-Man, WALL-E, Despicable Me 2 and Batman: Arkham Knight) seems to want to keep Ash who survived two encounters with the Evil Dead that he may lead to some of the incantations that he may be useful.

Okay bub, yer goin' down.

Reinhard releases the evils with the book but needs the necessary passages from Knowby's diary and the asylum is flooded with the Kandarian demons taking over inmates and guards alike. Ash jumps to attention and steadies himself for the craziness to ensue. After fending off the deadites and the level boss he is visited by the ghost of Professor Knowby ( Jim Ward of Spirited Away, Spider-Man, WALL-E, Despicable Me 2 and Batman: Arkham Knight ) who tells Ash he must close the existing portals that Reinhard has opened in order to stop it from taking over the world but he will need help. Yeah, finally after 3 movies and 3 games prior Ash gets a sidekick in the form of a midget that was made partially deadite by the name of Sam (Ted Raimi of The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, Intruder, Army of Darkness, SeaQuest 2032, Wishmaster, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess and Spider-Man). So grabbing his clothes, boomstick and chainsaw Ash is ready to give the deadites the business end of each and save the world.

The overall gameplay is similar to Fistful of Boomstick for the hack and slash options. There plenty of little puzzles to solve and fighting off the hordes of deadites is not unusual but different levels offer up different weapons including a harpoon gun and a flamethrower. While killing a friend, colleague or fellow survivor in game is considered a huge taboo, Sam can die over and over again in some of the most goofy and comical means like chucking him at deadites or kicking Sam in through doors to unlock them.

Unlike the previous games Ash seems to have unlimited ammo and gas for the boomstick, harpoon gun, flamethrower and chainsaw which really takes away any feeling of desperation and doesn't make you have to be as observant as you did in Hail to the King. He has a rage meter that fills up after x amount of enemies are slain allowing him to invoke Bad Ash and just slaughter anything in his way and also means his life meter won't ebb down as quickly.

The graphics are fair, the soundtrack is great and the gameplay is decent but it really is more silly than scary this time around. The story wasn't bad and I did like the absence of the Army of Darkness story arc making him a little less confident. All in all not a bad game but not a whole lot of re-playability.

You're toast. No bones about it.

Evil Dead Games: Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick

Hey babies welcome back for Day 3 of Evil Dead Games. Yeah even if you drink the juice, say the magic words and get cast through the vortex you never know what's going to happen. 3 years after Hail to the King, Ash is in his cups having whatever Midnight Hobo or Maker's Mark he can get his hands on when apparently on the local news in Dearborn that a colleague of the late Professor Knowby has translated the Necronomicon. Dare we say, problems a plenty? This is Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick.

Hey Slappy, go take a shower and get a meal. Gamers.

From the makers of Tom and Jerry in Fists of Fury and The Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-traction via N64, VIS Entertainment teams up with THQ to bring Bruce Campbell back into the horrors of a deadite world in Dearborn Michigan. Local TV station KLA2 (or Klaatu for you folks that loved The Day the Earth Stood Still and Army of Darkness) Professor Eldridge converses and explains to news anchor Trisha Pettywood the "real truth" behind the Necronomicon as he is a parapsychologist and now best-selling author describing the Necronomicon has a large amount of history but to say it brings forth demons and opens portals is sensational hooey mocking Ash's claims. Ash continues to drown his sorrows in a watering hole and the bartender (voiced by Steve Blum) points out the loss of Ash's girlfriend Jenny who died in a bus accident. Yup, this guy never seems to get to keep the girl period. Somehow Trisha got hold of Knowby's tape recorder and plays the incantation summoning the evil back into the world through multiple portals.

A little boomstick action later, Ash realizes he has to strap on his big boy boots, grab some weapons and stop the evil YET AGAIN and save the world...all for his minimum pay at S-Mart. 

Bleh, ass ahoy.

This game while gory, is more of an action theme hack and slash rather than the typical horror survival of the previous game and is still single-player. The controls are easier on the to roll with and was released for the Xbox and PlayStation 2.

With a three swipe chainsaw manuever you can spray the streets with the blood of the deadites and boomstick action is pretty feasible and yes I do like the over the shoulder blasting but overall the mechanics of the combats are too simplistic, the boss fights require a bit of strategy but not that challenging. Unlike Hail to the King, ammo is plentiful as is gas for the saw but that does make a bit of sense given you are in town rather than a remote location like the cabin and the surrounding areas.  

The respawn of the deadites is not as often as it was with Hail to the King but even that game didn't feel like they were as constant as many reviews would like you to believe. You find a spellbook that gives you are a fair degree of variety. Apparently you absorb the power, chi or energy of fallen baddies to power each spell with ranges from lightning, stunning large groups of enemies, increasing your strength to that of ten men and temporary possession of a deadite to use against their fellow rotting comrades. The spells do work better for solving puzzles rather than open combat.

The musical score by Stewart Clark is impressive, Bruce chucks out a few one-liners but the waiting or prodding one-liners were the better of the lot. The voice talents of names that I immediately recognized were Phil LaMarr, Rob Paulsen, Tom Kenny, Billy West, William Hootkins as the Professor and Debi Mae West as Trisha.

Overall, gameplay is fair but the levels seem way too easy and the story a bit short but if you are looking to lop arms, legs and heads off or just want a prime example of an action game than you are in luck.

Ew, squirted like a ketchup packet!

Evil Dead Games: Evil Dead: Hail to the King

Welcome back for Day 2 of Evil Dead Games and I am not gonna lie to you but that previous Commodore 64 game was frightfully dull after about 10 minutes. This next chapter in the video game foray however is complex, easily hung up on corners, boxes and even chairs. The pixelation is a bit rough on the eyes and the levels are difficult but I think we have a more entertaining round of boomstick and chainsaw fun. This is Evil Dead: Hail to the King

Ax MURDDEEEEEERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Developed by Heavy Iron Studios (Evil Dead: Hail to the King, Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights, The Incredibles, WALL-E, Up and UFC Personal Trainer) and produced by THQ (Peter Pan and the Pirates, Red Faction, Red Faction: Armageddon, Company of Heroes 2 and Metro: Last Light) recounts 3 years after Army of Darkness' theatrical ending in that Ash swallowed the juice, said the magic words and ended up back in his own time to Dearborn Michigan. He is back to working retail at S-Mart and even lucks out meeting a girl from Housewares, Jenny. Racked with guilt and nightmares the two of them come to the conclusion that Ash simply needs to face his fears and go back to the cabin where it all started...cause that sounds sane. No sooner they are there that Ash's former hand plays Professor Knowby's recorder unleashing the evil back into the world, an unseen entity scoops up Jenny and Bad Ash from the mirror is off to do horrible things.

It's a fixer upper kinda house.

Ash of course is apprised in voice by Bruce Campbell. With pre-rendered backgrounds and those damn semi-fixed camera angles you feel a certain Resident Evil vibe, along with limited ammo for the boomstick as well as limited gas for your chainsaw. Standard d-pad or analog stick left and right to rotate the character then move the character back and forward for the d-pad up and down.

There are puzzles to be solved, deadites to slay and Hellbillies to contend with. Along with the usual bag of nasty to deal with, you also need healing packs from attacks, watch your ammo, health and gas reserves. With the typical tank motion movement, you have a few special attacks with the chainsaw and boomstick, there are other weapons to be found and improved on. A double-headed ax, Knowby's .45, rock salt for the boomstick, steel spikes for the .45 and a Winchester .30-30 modified with spikes as well do to more damaged to these dead punks and like Resident Evil a converter to make more healing and useful items.

The enemies are a bit out there. We have an assortment of what the hell with standard deadites, raised skeleton warriors, the undead hillbillies are called Hellbillies and a troop of boy scouts known as the Wolverine Scouts. So yes lots of Michigan references as well as Tennesee references. As time travel via portal in Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, there are a few gags there as well. This is not insanely hard if you are a Resident Evil fan and understand how much time you have between respawns. Yeah it is a bit rough and the save features are identical but Ash gets 8 item slots so suck it Chris Redfield, with your crappy six.

Made for Dreamcast, Playstation and PC this is a dark horror survival first player game that has limited saves, fast paced in some areas while it lulls you into a false security and them boom...possessed boars coming at ya! Yup, bad piggies! Will Ash save the girl and the world?? Is he doomed to be the "Chosen One"? Will he speak the exact words??

HE WHO FALLS FROM THE SKY!!!

Evil Dead Games

Well folks, October is almost here. The time of Halloween, prepping for Trick or Treaters, ridiculous outfits on popular TV and Film themes and far too many of the "sexy or slutty" costumes favored by men and women alike. As the Walking Dead will make its seasonal comeback, there lies another story. A story that invokes demonic possession, ancient burial rites and incantations. A book that was never meant for the eyes of humanity. Liber mortuorum or the Book of the Dead. While fiction will simply refer to it as the Necronomicon and the poor sap that encountered it and its effects no less than three times. I speak of the character that launched actor boy Bruce Campbell into film and TV. Ashley "Ash" Williams. Many of you have seen the Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn and Army of Darkness.

You got guts!.. on my chainsaw.

30 years have past since this phenomenon swept the VHS generation by storm and it has created fan fics, comic books, merchandise ranging from action figures to T-shirts. Director Sam Raimi, Producer Rob Tapert and actor Bruce Campbell joked numerous times on saying, "We'll get back to Ash when we are old and grey." No truer words have been spoken since the boys are back courtesy of Starz. 10 episodes are slotted for viewing pleasure and it looks to be bloody, crazy and more than a few old man jokes aimed at Bruce by Sam no doubt. But did you know there are more than a handful of video games based on Evil Dead ranging as far back as 1984??

This week we look at the evolution of the movie that brought us laughter, grossed us out and made this franchise what it is through the games that were inspired by it. It may be piss poor graphics, maybe the stories will seem over the top or damn silly. We will soldier through it nevertheless.

So grab a boomstick, gas up your chainsaw and try to remember every single syllable dammit.

It's Evil Dead Games Week as we hail the king of deadite slaying.

What the hell is that??  That thing offscreen.