A handful of games

Now, there are a decent handful of Buffy the Vampire Slayer games out there, right? The console games are pretty ok although from all accounts the handheld games are in the oh-my-god-when-will-the-hurting-stop category. Still, what if one was really gaming on a budget? What BtVS games are there out there for free? A quick Google search will turn up a handful of fan-made flash games to experience. Let’s take a look at them, shall we?

Ok, first up there’s Be the Slayer, available here, amongst other places. Frankly, this thing is pretty horrible, largely because it’s so unbelievably taxing! You will have a sore clicking finger after about five minutes of this thing, if you even give it that long. The gameplay basically involves throwing stakes (?) at vampires who spring from out of graves and from behind tombstones, essentially making this a very simple kind of first person shooter. The problem? Those vampires are just too fast! If you don’t stake them the very moment that they appear, they will slash out at you with their claws (??), doing you a lot of damage. How on Earth they can reach you with their claws when you’re halfway across the graveyard and throwing stakes is anybody’s guess. Anyway, after a few attempts at this, all ending in your swift death, you’ll soon realise that the only way to beat the game is to learn the pattern in which the bad guys appear in order to pre-empt them appearing and slashing at you (!!!). Trust me, this is a game for people with a lot of time on their hands. Time that they don’t mind spending on horrible but mercifully short games. Here, let me save you the trouble of playing: this is the screen you’ll see most often:

Next up, there’s Chronicles of the Slayer by Chromeshark. This is actually a fairly fun little fan-made game that was clearly made with a lot of affection for the show and its characters. The game also features a couple of different game modes, multiple characters, weapons... In essence it’s like a simple, fan-made version of one of the console games. Still, the emphasis here is on simple, as this thing really could do with a bit more polishing all round and the gameplay is, once again, definitely going to end up hurting your fingers after about five minutes of play. Pressing Q, W, A and S in rapid succession in order to hack away far too slowly at wave after wave of vamps and other monsters is going to end up killing your left hand. Still, I can’t fault Chromeshark for his cute takes on the characters. With the artwork it seems as if he just deliberately decided to eschew realism and go straight for making things cutesy and, well, square.

Cute!

Chromeshark has several other flash games available at his website.

Phew! After all that I need to give my hands a rest. They are dog tired! Ooh, here’s a simple, relaxing little ‘game’ (or so it calls itself): Dress Up Buffy. If you’ve ever spent a spare second wondering what an almost-featureless Sarah Michelle Gellar decoy would look like in a series of blander-than-bland outfits, please, feel free to give this a try. Believe me though, it gets painfully dull after about thirty seconds. What’s next?

Ooh, it’s good to see that the BBC Buffy site is still around, and it includes a ton of quizzes and a couple of games. Well, one ‘which character should you date’ quiz, something that’s hardly exclusive to the BBC, and one simple Top Trumps game (that appears to be impossible to lose, might I add). It’s not too flashy, but I still have some affection for this site, so can’t find myself being even remotely harsh towards it.

Ok, now let’s see whether the Dark Horse Comics Buffy page has any...

Gahh!!

Eek; I’m never going there again. I’m really not in a hurry to see a super-deformed, ghostly pale ‘Buffy’ looming at me like that.

So, in summary, if your curiosity regarding free Buffy games just cannot be sated, I guess I’d recommend Chronicles, but you may need some kind of futuristic, high-tech prosthetic left hand before even attempting to start.

Buffy and Angel Comics: Vlog Review

Greetings and salutations, dear readers, old and new. Today is not only an important day in the 'verse but also for our little site. Forbidden Planet (my favorite comic book shoppe) has graciously agreed to include free Buffyfest inserts (read: awesomely smexy bookmarks) with the purchase of any Buffy or Angel related fare. These are some tasty hotcakes though, kids, so they be goin' fast!

In honor of our newfound readership and the release of both new Buffy and Angel comics today, we present to you Bitsy's Bearded Buffyfest Review! Please enjoy with Darjeeling.

Spoiler Alert below for current Buffy comics:



In conclusion: welcome once again to our new readers. Feel free to take a gander around this little site of ours. Since you are likely (like me) a comic book nerd, might I reccommend our recent articles with Peter David and Scott Allie? Go on. Click 'em. You know you want to.

P.S. You can follow Forbidden Planet on Twitter here

NYC Can't Stop the Serenity Recap

Can't Stop the Serenity in New York's East Village was definitely shiny! Bitsy and I had a fantastic time. There was dancing, there were prizes, there was of course, Serenity. From what I hear, the Browncoats of NYC raised somewhere around $6000 for Equality Now! This bunch really knows how to throw a party all while doing something amazing and important. We were very proud to sponsor and attend this sold-out event. Can't wait for next year!

Bitsy and I - Browncoat Style.

Buffyfest with part of the NYC Browncoat crew.

Fabulous door prizes and Silent auction items. There were so many prizes that many walked away with 2 or 3 gifts. And party favors to boot! Chinese food containers full of Firefly-esque charms and Serenity comics. Class.

Browncoats of NYC.

Buffyfest's twitter pal @_adair in a very Buffy-esque city setting.

Check out the slide show below with more great pics from this CSTS event. 

Oh yeah, and we got really, really drunk. Again.

Now THAT I'd like to see...

Hello there readers, I’m Jayunderscorezero (aka Michael, so feel free to call me that if you like) and thanks to the kind people here at Buffyfest, it looks like I’m going to be your guest blogger for the next week.

When discussing Buffy/Angel, I can get a bit heavy (due largely to the influence of Buffy-based academic works; thank you, Roz Kaveney et al!) or just a bit bitchy (blame the stereotypical geek in me, I suppose), but today I’m going to go for something a bit lighter and just ask you guys to look in on a fun little thought experiment I’ve been having. I recently got around to reading “Time of Your Life”, the “Buffy vs Fray” storyline (I moved away from my local comic store last year and so have had to follow things like “Season 8” in the trades for now at least, hence the slight delay before reading it). To be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the storyline, but that’s neither here nor there. One thing it did get me thinking about, though, was what other Buffy crossovers I’d like to see Dark Horse put out in the future. Now, these range from the slightly-ever-so-possibly-feasible to the never-gonna-happen-but-wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if they did, but still, I invite you to join me on this little stream of consciousness and see what you think.

Crossover idea: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Aliens/Predator

Inspiration: These guys are Dark Horse’s classic crossover pair. Their original crossover seems to have been inspired by a simple “hey, these are both Fox/Dark Horse properties, so why not...?” and the same criteria is also true of Buffy now. Also, it’d be kind of nice to see Buffy return to her roots of taking on and subverting classic slasher/horror film clichés, and hey, Alien is one of the prototypical slasher films, you know, so it’d be a great place to start. Ooh, plus there’s that whole Whedon-connection to Alien Resurrection and the fact that Alien’s Ripley was part of the inspiration for Buffy.

Other than that though, it’d no doubt just be an excellent excuse to see these guys fighting, no?

Premise: Hmm, I don’t know, since the Buffy comics have already introduced time travel, it’s always possible that they could just jump further into the future and happen to encounter the aliens/Predators and perhaps even Ellen Ripley (unlikely perhaps, but with good potential for awesomeness). If one wanted to get truly silly, one could even have someone create some kind of Alien/vampire hybrid, just so we get to see Buffy take one of those things out with a crossbow. I mean come on, am I the first person to connect the vampire/H.R. Giger’s alien dots here? They’re both predators with alarming psychosexual undertones...Ok, I’m officially reading too much into this now. Still, think about it: Buffy, alien, crossbow...Cool, no?

Potential quality: Meh. There’s potentially a lot of good ideas here to be exploited, especially if Whedon himself got on board and brought some of his ideas from Alien Resurrection along with him. Otherwise though, this’d likely just be a silly fight comic.

Likelihood: There’ve been Alien/Predator crossovers with every comic property from Green Lantern to Magnus: Robot Fighter. Surely it’s only a matter of time...? Nah, I’m probably just being wildly optimistic there.

Crossover idea: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Star Trek

Inspiration: There have already been a couple of X-Men/Star Trek crossovers, you know, so there’s clearly a market for crossovers that feature two completely different but similarly popular franchises.

Premise: Ever see Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where Kirk, Spock et al travel back in time to 1980s Earth...and hilarity ensues? Imagine if they’d gone back to 1990s/2000s Sunnydale instead. Plus, what with the recent Star Trek reboot, you could even have the younger, sexier versions of the Enterprise crew meet up with the Buffy cast. Although that’d no doubt lead the way for some fans coming up with the craziest ship, the ship to end all ships and no doubt the ultimate expression of bizarre online fan love: Buffy/Kirk ("Birk"?).

Potential quality: Probably not good. Still, if you got a good artist involved, I really would like to see Chris Pine’s likeness making typical Kirk-like advances on SMG’s likeness.

Likelihood: Almost nil, sorry.

Crossover idea: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Wizard of Oz

Inspiration: Likely inspired by me just being a massive fairytale/oz geek. This one doesn’t make a lick of sense, but just hear me out, ok? Plus, Wizard of Oz crossovers aren’t so crazy, didn’t Marvel do that thing a while back where they did Wizard of Oz but with the She-Hulk as Dorothy (who falls asleep and dreams the whole thing after being attacked by the villain Whirlwind, natch)?

Premise: Remember that one issue where Buffy falls asleep and dreams that she’s in an episode of the Buffy animated series? That’s not so far removed from the opening of the classic Judy Garland film, you know, and I’d be more than happy to read the further adventures of Buffy’s crazy psyche. So yeah, Buffy falls asleep (perhaps, in a little nod to continuity, after having just tried to watch Apocalypse Now again) and dreams that she’s in Oz (ok, maybe it’d make more sense if she were actually watching The Wizard of Oz). The good witch Willow instructs her to go and see the great wizard and on her travels she meets someone in need of a brain (Giles?), someone in need of a heart (Spike?) and someone in need of “the nerve” (Xander?). In the classic Wizard of Oz reveal, it’ll turn out that Giles always was the cleverest of the group, he just felt like an ineffectual “stuffed shirt” (get it? ‘Cause he’s a scarecrow, right?), Spike always had the biggest and most emotive heart (one could almost say “effulgent,” if one wanted to get really continuity-geeky about it) and Xander has always been the brave person he wished he could be.

Potential quality: This is too odd to really judge, honestly.

Likelihood: Almost nil. The more I write about it, the more I seem to convince myself that it’s an amazing idea and that it not seeing the light of day would be unfair to all of the fans who could potentially experience it, but then I just remember that I’m completely crazy and thatWicked warped my mind.

Crossover idea: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Firefly

Inspiration: This one just suggests itself, doesn’t it? I mean, picture the venn diagram of Buffy/Serenity fans; I can imagine a lot of people that’d buy this one. Plus, did you know that from the very moment Firefly started, I always pictured it taking place in the same universe asBtVS, just in the far, far future. Yeah, I know there are no vampires, but still, isn’t the whole point of them that most people are unaware of their existence anyway? It’s not so impossible, you know.

Premise: The crew of the Serenity encounter some vampires, they somehow find a way to bring some experienced vampire slayers from the past forward in time to help them out...This one just writes itself, really. Plus, imagine all of the cute little character moments that you could extract from this: Jayne being all dismissive of Buffy because she appears to be just a diminutive little girl, which promptly leads to a swift joint beat-down from Buffy & River; Willow and Kaylee having a massive geek-out together (shades of the Willow/Fred meet-up inAngel); Xander having lusty-wrong feelings for Inara...

Potential quality: Non-fans would find it inscrutable, fans would “squee” over the whole thing regardless.

Likelihood: I think they may have ruined this one by already making Firefly a property that exists within the Buffy universe. Didn’t Buffy wear a Serenity t-shirt in one issue? Still, I’m alsoconvinced that they had one of the slayers reading Fray at some point, and that little artistic Easter egg didn’t prevent that crossover, did it?

I could likely come out with dozens more, but I think I’ve had enough of my own strange thoughts on the matter for now. Still, as crazy as these may seem, do try to remember that we live in a world in which Archie/The Punisher exists.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Thoughts? Suggestions? What reality-shattering crossovers wouldyou like to see take place? I’ve only really covered the incredibly geeky side of things, but if you’re really desperate to see a Buffy/Gossip Girl crossover or something, let me know.

Welcome Guest Blogger JayUnderscoreZero

Michelle will be out of town for a spell, but we're happy to announce that blogger JayUnderscoreZero will be over to fill in. J_0 runs 2 fabulous blogs As, If and When (a potpourri of internet goodness) & Little Red Riding Blog (a selection of media relating to Little Red Riding Hood and other fairy tales.) We're very excited to see what he has in store for Buffyfest and would like to extend a warm welcome!

Samm Levine talks about Drones

Samm Levine turned up on Saturdays with Steve (Agee, that is). On top of being an awesomely talented actor who most folks will remember from Freaks and Geeks, he also will be in the upcoming Ambr Benson/Adam Busch co-directed film "Drones". Here he talks about all manner of projects but if you skip forward to around the forty five minute mark you'll see that yours truly asked Samm about "Drones". The whole thing is pretty spectacularly hilarious though so I recommend just watching all of it.







Total side story: I knew Samm's brother, Max, many moons ago so every time I see Samm in something I always think "Man, I wonder how Max is". Thank you for listening to my pointless ramble.

fanvid sunday(?): wtfox edition

As I started looking for this week's fanvid sunday, it became very hard to ignore that nearly every single one of my favorite vid creators have had their youtube accounts suspended or outright deleted. It's so infuriating to see these talented peoples' voices being silenced.

Does Fox not understand what fantastic free marketing they are getting? Do they watch and see what these videos are about or do they just send out their cease and desists every time the word "buffy" appears? They are doing such an incredible disservice to the fans and to themselves. I hope that if anyone from Fox ever reads our site, they will sincerely reconsider their policies on fan videos because I truly think the way they are dealing with them now is a unnecessary and counter productive. Food for thought.

Moving right along, thanks to vimeo we still have some fanvid goodness in the world. This week Saskia Van Endert plays us out like a piano cat with this great video. Click through to enjoy!

You can find more of her videos at the link I posted above and also at her Buffyftube page. There are both Bangel and Spuffy videos to enjoy there. I figure many of you would want to check out her site specifically.

Happy Sunday, Buffyfesters!