Hello and welcome to Season Four of Retro-Scrutiny! Just like the last three seasons, I am your host, Kendall!
(And I am her co-host, Alexia! It’s wonderful to be back in action. And speaking of action, that’s exactly what we’re beginning with on this new season of Super Robot Monkey Team! And what better way to start off with a drinking game!)
Same rules as always?
(Of course! One shot for every game reference. Now, let’s start off with Galactic Smash: Space Attack and battle through Game Over.)
OVERVIEW
A girl holding a strange crystal is being chased by guards with laser guns down a hallway. Using her laser whip to close a door and get some distance, she heads to the flight deck and steals a ship as more guards arrive and follow. She engages a warp drive of some sort before asking the crystal who in the universe can help her. It gives her an image of the Super Robot.
The team is going over Jinmay’s transmission again when they get the new girl’s message. They go to help her and find her camouflaged in an asteroid field. They take her in with less than stellar results, as she is disappointed that her heroes are a group of monkeys and a kid.
(Well, boohoo for her.)
She explains about the Varkon Commodore, a madman who’s destroyed hundreds of populated planes, including her home planet. She finally introduces herself as Olliana and the machine she attacked them over is an oracular device (Take your first shot.), which allows the wielder to cheat their own future, allowing anyone to win in any given combat situation. It’s the key to the Commodore’s power.
(It’s the equivalent of a deus ex machina is what she’s saying.)
Otto decides to test it out and discovers he’s going to get eaten by a big purple monster in order to defeat it.
(Wait, what?)
Chiro sees the Torso Tank blow up a tower with a person inside of it (What?) and Sparks sees Varkon Drone Fighters attack the Robot just before they arrive to attack the Robot.
They found her with the homing beacon hidden on her ship. Otto looks for it while the others fight lines of drones (Take a shot.). After locating it and a holographic device, they send it into the asteroid field, where the Varkons follow and destroy themselves. The Varkons are desperate for the cheating machine as they need it to destroy Shuggazoom.
Enemies invade the Robot and the Hyper Force splits up to deal with them. Nova, Sparks and Otto take on a giant segmented bug monster (Shot?). Gibson and Antauri fight a more human like creature that regenerates and Chiro and Olliana battle a floating sphere with a face and a mouthful of machine turrets before regrouping.
Antauri: Possession of this cheating machine gives one enormous power. Why does the Commodore use this power to destroy inhabited planets?
Olliana: He doesn’t care whether they’re inhabited or not. All he cares about is how many planets he’s destroyed. And he talks about being Top Five all the time.
(Sounds like there’s a bunch of freak jobs competing for the title.)
But the key to defeating his next attack is the holographic device on her ship.
(The same one Otto is using on Chiro?)
Yes, that one. After a bit of goofing around (Three shots everybody.), Otto tells them that if he tweaks the holograph to a high pitch frequency, it emits a noise that knocks out any holographic disguise. In doing so, he reveals the fleet of enemy ships hiding as asteroids.
(Nice job, Otto.)
The ships attack, blasting the Robot apart and flinging Olliana’s ship, Chiro, and Otto into space.The boys crawl into the ship and head back to their captured friends. As they enter the enemy ship, guards arrive. Otto has the idea to disguise Chiro as one of the guards and have him pretend to have captured the little green monkey.
Otto is escorted to where the others are as Chiro follows a group with Olliana. The two end up face to face with the Commodore. The exchange goes like this:
Commodore: Olliana… from Arcadia, wasn’t it? Soliders, that was a really satisfying Galactic Smash! Put us in the Top Five.
Olliana: Galactic smash? Is that what you call it?
Commodore: All the players call it Galactic Smash, all across the cosmos. Destroy as many planets as possible to get the high score! You can’t even begin to imagine how much fun it is.
Olliana: Fun? You did all this as part of a game? Destroying my world and everything I ever loved just to raise your score?
Commodore: Yes, and it isn’t easy my dear. Sometimes I have to use this little cheating machine. Please don’t tell the other players- it’s considered unethical. But it was all worth it. Now I am ranked number two. And I’m ready to go for the number one high score. Thanks to you.
He tells her she led them to their next target and helped them capture its only defense force as the soldiers cheer.
Otto is thrown into a maze and meets up with the monster from his prediction. He tries to escape the giant purple monster by flying only to learn there’s a force field at the top. He escapes by clinging to a wall before calling for his teammates. They don’t answer.
(No time to dwell on it though- a guy on an energy motorcycle starts attacking him! Take a shot. Actually, take two if you’ve figured out Otto’s situation.)
Otto runs away from the thing’s attacks using his Razor Chariot and gets away using the walls and ceiling.
The Commodore begins another round of Galactic Smash, targeting Shuggazoom. Olliana asks why he’s doing this and he gives the obvious answer: Extra Lives.
(Dude, there has to be an easier way… Oh, and take a shot.)
Olliana uses her hair to smack the guards holding her (How does that work?) and rushes the Commodore. He traps her in a giant arcade cabinet and tries to blast her one life away (Take a shot.). Chiro reveals himself to the Commodore by rescuing her. Before they escape, they take one of the Commodore’s lives and the cheating machine.
The Commodore regenerates with three lives left (Shot.). He decides to take care of their intruders and sends a giant robot after them.
In the maze, Sparks and the rest of the missing monkeys are being hunted by blue robot creatures with tentacles (Don’t know the reference myself, but if you do, then take a shot.). One almost takes out Gibson until Otto takes it out from behind.
(YAY! Everyone’s back together. Oh, and a stranger comes along and stops to tell them to never stop moving before Otto’s monster comes up from behind and eats him. Irony, how cruel is thy.)
They run and reach a dead end. They can’t hurt it from the outside, so now it’s time for Otto to use what he learned from the cheating machine. He jumps into the mouth of the monster and the thing ends up exploding into pieces with him inside.
(NOOO!)
The team laments for a second before Otto appears before them smiling.
(YAAAH!)
The energy barrier is suddenly deactivated- apparently the monster was the one causing it- and they call their leader, who tells them to get to the docking bay.
Olliana and Chiro get chased by patrol bots as the Commodore tries to get rid of them. Unfortunately, the two of them are decent players.
(Speaking of them, they end up surrounded by patrol bots who snatch the cheating machine. But they get rescued by the monkeys. Oh, and take a shot if you recognize that sound that tennis ball is making.)
The Commodore ends up getting into an unwanted conversation with the number one player, Maurice before activating the Planet Pulverizer. He preps it and his fighter drones for the attack.
(Take a shot for Maurice. Just Maurice.)
The team reaches the Robot parts and start their counterattack. Chiro and Olliana go after the Commodore and take another two of his lives. The rest of the team take on the first fleet. The Commodore manages to knock the Torso Tank out of the sky as the Planet Pulverizer perps for the attack. Chiro races up the side of the machine and blasts the Commodore’s command center, taking his last life.
(GAME OVER! And with that, the entire fleet of hips explode. Oh, and take a shot.)
Later, Olliana informs them from her own ship’s video chat that a handful of her people survived and that they will be searching to a new home world. She says her goodbyes and the episode ends with her ship flying into space.
And that was Galactic Smash! This season started off pretty good, if you asked me. But we’ll discuss that later. For now, let’s take a look at our…
NEW CHARACTER(S):
OLLIANA (Tara Strong):
She’s okay, I guess. There isn’t much to her. Her planet gets destroyed and she’s already on the run when we meet her. She isn’t the most grateful of saved people when the team meets her. But she does manage to hold her own and doesn’t look helpless when standing with the Hyperforce. But she had next to no personality and that makes her a bit unremarkable. While Tara Strong is usually known for ability to voice some of the world’s cutest characters, she does manage to make an impressive teenaged voice come out of her mouth.
THE COMMODORE (Arthur Burghardt):
Part evil dictator, part hardcore gamer, part mustache twirling villain, and part loser. This guy would be so much more fun if there was more screen time given to him. Even if he does look like he spends all his time in his mother’s basement.
UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):
- How did Galactic Smash first start?
- How did the Hyperforce not notice it before?
- Who is the Commodore?
FINAL OPINIONS:
This season premeir wasted no time in getting us back into the action, I have to say, this episode was a lot of fun to watch. The one-shot characters don’t feel annoying or useless, the writing is decent, and the action is fast paced and constant.
(This episode is full of references to video games. Some are obvious, some are a bit more subtle, and there’s at least one you’re going to have to guess at. In fact, if this episode isn’t based on some sort of video game, then I’m going to be disappointed. Anyone want to tell me which kind it is?)
And with that, gentle viewers, we welcome you back to Retro-Scrutiny. We are very excited to be back at work. Thank you again for hanging with us. This is Kendall, signing out.
(And this is Alexia, hoping to see you all again. I hope you all were drinking safely.)
kendallcharleswell 