BASE

''WHY ME?!'' Why not?Sol the Gr8 (known early on as RYU) first showed up in early 2000, then made a splash when Dracula's Curse: THE MESSAGE BOARD!!! opened up as part of Scott Helfrich's CastleVania Interactive in the summer of 2001.

Sol, like me, was a major ALL YOUR BASE maniac! During the time when the fever seemed to be waning, we'd keep the nonsense hot within our circle well into the next year. We also had a common ground in our major respect for Techno Soft's AWESOME Thunder Force series; it shows in his Thunder Force CV pics!

Reflecting an affinity for Guilty Gear sensibility, style, and profile, RYU would stand as Sol the Gr8 across the EZBoards, including DCTMB, though here he would remain listed as RYU until the warmer days of 2002.

2000

01. Richter's Boxers - This one goes out to all the ladies.  "You're words are a empty as...what was that line?" A hilarious first from  RYU!

02. Snake!  Stop playing CVIII!!!- And this one from RYU goes out to all the Metal Gear Solid fans! ...and you thought Pyscho Mantis was reading your mind... :]

03. ADBR: As if!- A character select screen we would ALL love to see.  It's Akumajo Dracula Battle Royale!  And look!  We've unlocked Maria's hidden costume!  You get a treat if you can figure out how. By RYU! HADOOKEN!

04. OOPS! 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
CastleVania Bloodlines' Skeleton has an EXTRAORDINARILY BAD DAY!  Also by RYU. 

2001 

05. The Far Side 1- A salute to the one-panel witticisms of Gary Larson's The Far Side, by RYU!

06. The Far Side 2- Indeed, why haven't they thought of this?! By RYU.

07. Bloodlux- John Morris is left in a stupor as Dracula goes for a transformation in this screensnap by RYU!

08. Dracula X4- Presenting COUNT DRACULA in RYU's cool spoof of the Mega Man X4 boss title cards!

09. Metal Slog- Looks like SOMEONE took a wrong turn! By RYU.

10. Thunder Force CV 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6
A shoot-em-up crossing CastleVania with Thunder Force, another of my favorite series ever?! Hell yeah, and RYU's the one to bring it on! In scenes 1 through 5, RVR-01 Gauntlet rips through NO BLUE, putting away enemy fliers and Fish Men, then it's down into the drink to face off against a HUGE Bone Dragon! Next, our hero skims the surface to outrun jets firing...Flame Ghosts? Lastly, a deep purple bat rises from the sea for a skirmish. In scene 6, Gauntlet tests its mettle against a Bone Golem at the end of the WOODs.

2002

11. Thunder Force C\/ 7- In another screensnap by RYU, Gauntlet is about to run into a little bit of a spot beneath the canopy in Thunder Force CV Stage 2: WOOD!

12. Thunder Force C\/ 8- Gauntlet takes out the trash above the canopy before descending into the WOOD! By RVR-GR8 RYU.

13. KONAMI VS CAPCOM 2!!! DRACULA BATTLE NEVEREND!!!
[We're gonna take care of this one a bit differently, since RYU sent this group of descriptions along with the Zip pack of pics quite a long time ago...come around October 29, 2000... Look for my comments in these brackets. Looks like I'll have to give this guy his own section soon, huh? FEEL THE POWER!!! KONAMI VS CAPCOM TWOOOOOOooo!!!]

Konami vs. Capcom 2 screenshot! Here, a pissed-off Gaibon knocks Sloggy around with a 12-hit AIR COMBO! Hey don't worry, Sloggy takes on a much meaner opponent later on...

Richter knocks up Drac's best buddy Death with a ground-to-air OTG combo setup finishing with a Cross Boomerang attack. But that's not all...

Richter cancels into a Marvel vs Capcom 2-style Hyper Combo... [LOVE the light rays in this picture!!! Awesome use of the close-up, too!]

...and beats the CRAP out of the Grim One with the Holy Cross Item Crash!!! [AWESOME. Absolutely one of my favorite pictures ever. I just HAD to try animating how it would play out!]

2-on-2 mayhem! LeCarde, pissed at not hitting an airborne Fang, calls in Grant to shoot him out of the air with his kitchen knives. At the same time, Fang calls in Morris to swing kick Grant off the wall while he himself uses the Ion Punch weapon on Eric (check out the background; it's the Haunted Ship of Fools--aye mateys, arrrr!)!

Like I said, Slogra takes on a much meaner opponent. Ryu, Fang and Slim Sloggy give Drac's second form the boot with a Team Hyper Combo! Ryu uses the Shinkuu Hadouken, Sloggy uses a hyped-up version of the exploding fireball from Super CV4, and Fang uses the Ion Dispenser weapon. [This has GOT to be the coolest scene! EXCELLENT use of the Vampire Savior hit commentary! DO YOU KNOW WHAT TWO HUNDRED AND ELEVEN HITS IS?!?!?! MAN!!!!!!]

[By the way, guys...don't call me asking about what an OTG combo is...RYU doesn't know what it is (he got that off an MvC 2 fan site), and neither do I. ^_^ ]

14. WHO'S THA MAN?!?!- This particularly awesome DCTP B-Day gift was drawn and CG'd for me by RYU!!! Or should I call him from now on...SOL THE GR8 BASEFACE?! In case you didn't know, the girl is Suzuna Kuraki, one of my favorite H-Game chicks of ALL TIME. Kao no Nai Tsuki for life, foo! Try not to pay too much attention to what might or might not be happening behind her, okay?

15. UKOY- Sol the Gr8 and I love to rag on Samurai Spirits' Ukyo Tachibana, and several times, we ended up calling him Ukoy while painting him over with bright, red colors and funny makeup. Sol made this pic one eve in history during one of our spells of random SS madness. Here, we see...Skull Knight about to get trounced. ^_^ Ukyo IS LORD.

Created: December 4, 2006
Debuted: June 5, 2009
Last Edited: June 5, 2009