Best Robot Master: Sting Chameleon
Worst Robot Master: Flame Mammoth
Best Moment: Looting Zero's body. I'm rolling need on the arm cannon!

Due to my impoverished state as a college student, I often have to resort to replaying older games or diving into the bargain bin at the video game store to get my fix. I recently bought Mega Man X Collection for my boyfriend, but since I stole his PS2 to play Xenogears (which, by the way, to me FOREVER to find), I went ahead I "borrowed" Mega Man, too.I saw this as an opportunity to redeem myself, since I could NEVER beat these games as a child. I only recently started playing Mega Man again, beating both MM 9 and the original within the past year.

Playing MM X was definitely a walk down memory lane, though the game was nowhere near as hard as I remember. None of the robot masters posed a significant challenge, save Armored Armadillo, whose name sounds like it was thought up by a 7-year-old. Only the final boss, Sigma, forced me to fill up by subtanks, and then I only needed to use two of 'em. Even the levels, which are usually where the real challenge lies, could have been a little harder.



What the hell is a Mandrill?

Despite the moderately easy level of difficulty, I thought MM X did a few things right. The majority of the special weapons were useful. However, I thought it was stupid that you couldn't charge them until the end of the freakin' game. Makes me wish Zero would died sooner so Mega Man could've jacked that arm cannon of hisbeforefighting all the robot masters. I also liked how Flame Mammoth's and Spark Mandrill's level would change after certain events. It really adds some replay value to the game.

Anyway MM X2 is next on my list. See y'all laterz!

Special Thanks to David_lck and his blog on female character leads on giving me this idea. If you don't think this first attempt at blogging totally sucks, check out my blog at http://amnesicprophet.blogspot.com/.

Sarah Kerrigan, a predominate figure in Starcraft and main antagonist in the expansion Starcraft: Brood War, is one of my all-time favorite characters. Her development from a reserved, but highly intelligent and competent assassin to the self-proclaimed Queen of Blades of the Zerg is one of gaming's most radical transformations.

As a child, she was singled out by the Confederacy, the terran government, because of her latent abilities as a psychic, and was trained as an assassin, or in Starcraft lingo, a Ghost. Later, as an adult,, she betrays the Confederacy, and joins Arcturus Mengsk, who is the leader of the revolutionary group called the Sons of Korhal that fight against the Confederacy. During one mission that takes place on the Confederate home world of Tarsonis, Kerrigan is sent down to stop the Protoss, a psionically-empowered alien race, from eradicating the Zerg that is currently ravaging the planet. Successful is her mission, the Zerg begin to advance on the human base. Kerrigan calls for an immediate evac, but Mengsk has no intention of rescuing her, a costly mistake he will surely come to regret.

She is presumed dead, but is, in fact, alive and kicking, though not as we remember her. She has been infested by the Zerg, which has subsequently removed her psionic implants that acted as a restraint for her massive psychic powers. Over the next few campaigns, she acts as the Overmind's, leader of the Zerg, new favorite pet. It is not until after the Overmind's death at the end of Starcraft that Kerrigan is freed from his control, and she truly comes into her own character.

What makes Kerrigan great is simple. She gets **** done. Over the Brood War expansion, she kills three storyline characters, two of which die during the campaign in which you play as her; captures the Matriarch, leader of the dark templar, and forces her followers to do her bidding in killing the cerebrates, which allows her to gain more control over the Zerg, which she uses to repel three forces at once in the final mission. Oh, and the Matriarch? Yeah, she's infected, which really sucks for the dark templar because they don't find this out till they've gone through the trouble of rescuing her, and she has to be killed by their own hands. Also, I'm sure if we had a video tape recorded hidden somewhere in her throne room, we'd see her laughing her ass off at the stupidity of all of her enemies, wondering how you could fall for the old,"Hey guys, let's team up to fight a bigger threat than me right now ,and I promise I won't fill in the void of power they leave behind and sneak into your bases in the middle of the night and cut open your throats."

What also makes Kerrigan such a likable villain is how good she is at. There are a plethora of fancy adjectives and phrases that could be used to describe her, but I think she does it best in the final mission briefing when she calls herself "Queen **** of the Universe." Throughout the game, she convinces the other characters that she is a lesser evil among a galaxy of real threats and dangers. Because of her past friendships with many of the characters, they believe this ploy, but they also have hope that under the mottled carapace lies the friend they once had. They even trust her more to control and restrain the Zerg than the other cerebrates and the UED, who eventually create a new Overmind and battle with her for control of the alien race. Kerrigan realizes this and plays on this feeble hope. In one mission briefing, she tells Jim Raynor, with whom many in the gaming community suspect she had relations with, that she is back to the old Kerrigan. She emotionally manipulates a man who once loved her to get something else she desires, and has no regard for the safety of those who she uses. I think her description of herself fits quite nicely.

With Starcraft 2 on the zerg-infested horizon, we will get to see more of our friend Kerrigan. My fear is that Blizzard will try to redeem Kerrigan, make her into a "good guy." Screw that. In my opinion, Kerrigan is one evil lady, and is not one to go into rehab and to start feeling sorry for what she's done. Completely unfettered and with unlimited power, I certainly hope she does not stop until the universe in under her control or dies trying, and If this entry into Starcraft lore marks the end of her reign, she better go out with a bang.