User blog:Alexschmidt711/Rap Battle Review 2 - Ash Ketchum vs Super Mario by Video Game Rap Battles

When I was looking for another rap battle between Mario and Ash (this one, in case you're curious, which I won't be reviewing as it's in Japanese), I came across this battle by Video Game Rap Battles and immediately realized it was the type of battle I'd like reviewing. I didn't realize this was their first battle when I picked it, but considering how much VGRB seems to have done since then (with Cam collaborating with ERB and all that), it might be good to look at their first battle.

Video Game Rap Battles

I don't mind the robotic announcer. It's Video Game Rap Battles, so I'll take it.

Player 1: Ash Ketchum

This costume... it's not the worst, but it doesn't look that much like Ash. His hat is mostly fine, but doesn't have the vest which would've been required to really sell it. The background, though, is kind of lazy, with just this spinning Poké Ball and four Pokémon in the corner. At least it was before VGRB's phase of clumsily adding in shadows for characters.

Player 2: Super Mario

Suitable attempt, but how'd you forget the mustache? At least scribble it on with marker or tape it to your face. And why do they have to specify "Super" Mario? And this background is even lazier than Ash's - it's just an image of 4 pipes spinning around.

Another challenge? I'll show you that I rap faster, What's up with Ash's audio? It's tinny and so loud that I can barely hear the beat. Also, the flow on this line... yeah, it's not good. The way the line is written makes it not that easy to rap, but this is compounded by Ash saying "that I rap faster" when the subtitles just have the "that". And "another challenger" would make a little more sense than just "another challenge".

For you're just a plumber; I'm a Pokemon master! Why is Mario dancing in the background of his opponent's verse? And Mario's defeated Bowser several times, so I don't think it's fair to say he's "just a plumber."

I'll burn you like a Charizard, Zap you like a Pikachu, Whip you like a Venusaur, beat you like a Riolu! The rhyme scheme and flow on this verse is pretty good. However, Ash just stays frozen in the background after he does his moves. Granted, this is VGRB's first battle and staying frozen in place after that shot is done rapping is pretty common in fan-made rap battles.

My name's known cross the Pokemon world! Nice background change to this low-quality image of a Pokémon map. Was that really necessary? Even if you wanted to put it there, you could've at least gotten a better-quality image. Also, "cross" the Pokémon world? Not "across"?

Who you known by? Just some ugly blond girl! "Who you known by"? Ash doesn't use this kind of grammar in most of his other verses.

Imma ten year old BOSS, how you rap to that? So you can have multiple Ashes moving at the same time after all, and it works fine with this line. Admittedly it's a lot easier to do on this verse since they all rap at once. And the way he says "boss" doesn't really make it worthy of being capitalized. This battle was probably made around the time that kids thought saying "like a boss" was cool.

You may be the face of Nintendo but all you do is plungle crap! And back to the ramshackle flow again. Also, you waited far too long to cut to the "and all you do is plunge crap" line. Oh, I'm sorry, "plungle" crap, according to the subtitles.

Watch your mouth! You're rapping vs. Mario, boy! You just had to throw a filler line in here, didn't you. To be fair, Ash is a boy and Mario is not, so the line isn't totally useless. And the voice for Mario: it's OK.

Why don't you go home to your mama, and play with your toys? I haven't consumed that much Pokémon media, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Ash plays with toys. And Ash is in the background of Mario's shot now! Pick a side! And are those supposed to be toys? They look like Pokémon stickers (though the video quality is too poor for me to tell conclusively), but those aren't quite toys.

I've saved an entire galaxy, what do you do? At least this time the background transition was done fine, although it wasn't really necessary considering how it was only shown for a second.

Jam small animals in balls and play your Gamecube! I know that in the Pokémon games, they'd always give the main character the current Nintendo console, but by that logic Ash should've had a Wii or Wii U at the time this battle came out.

I show variety in my games, The games being shown on screen makes sense, but why couldn't you have done that for when Ash mentioned being known throughout the Pokémon world or when Mario mentioned saving a galaxy, instead of changing the background?

but not you,/It's the same story everytime you just change your costume! Yeah, this line is a pretty big problem. Ash is a character from the anime so thus hasn't really appeared in any games, making this point pretty much invalid. And all the player characters in the games are different, too. And why cut over to Ash for a second? And why is he doing that dance?

You have small animals (to) protect you in a battle scene, This is how you're supposed to show both characters on screen together! (They should probably have different backgrounds, but I'll let that pass.) So why couldn't you have done this before? The Pikachu throwing out electricity effect is quite basic, but I'll let it pass because it's not embarrassingly bad.

While I'm a super jumping, fireball throwing machine! Fair point by Mario, he does have many more powers on his own (albeit with powerups) than Ash does. And the visuals aren't that bad.

You think your so hot? But let me remind you! Ugh, the subtitles just HAD to choose the wrong "you're". And they'd been mostly fine up to this point, getting "you're" right in Ash's second line. OK pun on "hot," and Mario being in the background makes a little more sense now this time. And there's no reason to have 7 Ashes rapping in that last part.

You get power from eating flowers and smoking mushrooms SMOKING mushrooms? I don't think anything in the Mario series is really like smoking mushrooms. And I don't even think most people would smoke mushrooms in real life. And Mario did not need to appear holding a mushroom at the last second there.

You think your supierior? HA! At least I have a Mom, Wrong "you're" again!

You may be the superstar but, Luigi's the bomb! Luigi being the bomb doesn't make Mario any worse. Why bring him up? Were you trying to reference Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga?

Your raps are good, but everyone can see,/That your just doing this cause your jealous of me! WRONG "YOU'RE" AGAIN! TWICE! And what would Ash be doing because of jealousy of Mario? Their games are completely different!

You need to grow up, and maybe get a life, He hasn't grown up, I'll give Mario that, but I wouldn't say Ash has no life, considering that he trains Pokémon and all that. And is that 1-up mushroom just a normal mushroom tinted green?

Also, the end cards popped up while this verse was going on. That's probably just YouTube's fault though.

I'll Super Smash you hard, it'll be the end of this fight! Smash isn't really relevant here. At least you didn't go for the "Goomba stomp" line.

WHO WON The robotic announcer is fine for the opening, but it doesn't work here. And look, they have both rappers on screen, but on their respective sides with split backgrounds! So why couldn't you have done that during the rest of the battle instead of having characters randomly pop up on the other side?

That was Ash vs Super Mario, the first battle of VideoGameRapBattles. This channel clearly went on to do much bigger things, and for a first battle, it's not that bad. It's got plenty of things to nitpick, like the backgrounds being uninventive and not used that well, but the writing, while nothing special, doesn't feel that awkward and is pretty innocent, without any super-bad language or sex/gay jokes which seemed pretty common in other early fanmade rap battles. The costumes are not great but OK for something set up at home. The green-screens are pretty good for a first try, with fuzzy edges but decent keying otherwise. The audio leaves a lot to be desired but isn't all that hard to listen to. In conclusion, this isn't too bad of a start for this channel.