DICE Volume 3: To The Rescue (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 4 Released by Bandai Entertainment Language Options English Extras - Game Promo
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DICE Volume 3: To The Rescue (DVD)

Jet vs. The Phantom Knight.

This time, the Phantom Knight plays rough with Jet, and before they can settle their differences, they are attacked by a mysterious masked rider!

Third disc of DICE... at this point it more like junk-food than a gourmet meal; not particularly filling nor good for you, but when you get a jonseing for it, you have to partake.

Episode 11: The Mega-Gravity Planet

et has a bad start to his mission when he has another run-in with the Phantom Knight while trying to apprehend an art thief. The thief tries to make a run for it, but the Phantom Knight is the one who successfully catches the crook; and to make matters worse, Jet also is chastised for his reckless handling of Moto-raptor. However, the mysterious man seems to have some unusual skills, his drifting technique looks similar to that of Jet’s missing older brother (why don’t we just call him Racer X and cut to the chase?). The next mission is a recovery mission (getting a crystal on the planet), but will take place on a high gravity planet – so Jet’s carefully working on prepping his equipment for the environment and Sam gives him a weapon to test. The prototype weapon is a gravity-release bomb that should neutralize the gravity over an area and there’s no better place to test this equipment. For this mission, Jet’s teammate will be a member from another team – a former associate of his brother who specifically wanted to work with Jet.

As the mission progresses, the pair make it to the search area and split up to search the caverns where the crystal should be found. While Jet’s alone he notices that the Phantom Knight is also in the caverns and is making a bee-line to the crystal as well. Despite the increased gravity, Jet floors his bike and speeds past his opponent towards the target… but a chasm is in the way. Jet intends to jump it, but the depth

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makes the gravity more intense and he falls short. By transforming, he’s able to avoid being a smear on the bottom. The Phantom Knight is more deliberate and makes the passage much safer and is nearing the crystal. Jetdecides it’s desperation time so he decides to use Sam’s new weapon to make a last-ditch try at the crystal… except the bomb’s effect is quite dangerous in the underground. The caverns above start to

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impact and the magma below starts to rise which has the effect of creating a truly awesome death trap. The Phantom Knight grabs the crystal and both he and Jet try to make a run for the exit… but Jet makes a piloting mistake and gets Moto-raptor severely damaged by magma. The Phantom Knight stops to save him, chastises him, then escapes the cavern. Back on the surface, Jet is so furious about the incident that his partner decides to sedate him.

Episode 12: Jet Defeated

After his defeat and chastising, Jet asks for a leave of absence from DICE and decides to head back to main headquarters for some additional training. During his time there, he spars frequently with one of the masters but is continually defeated, and his attacks are labeled as too obvious (maybe if he stopped yelling out the moves?). Despite his lack of learning anything, Jet decides to challenge the Phantom Knight; he gets a likely location from Puffy then gets a job on board the ship where he’s most likely to appear. Laying in wait, the Phantom Knight eventually appears on board; although Jet challenges him to a fight, he has no interest in that and instead has a mission that he’s on. He heads to speak with the Captain of the ship, and asks him about the planet Heron (apparently a planet that can grant eternal youth) but the Captain not only refuses to answer, he tries to kill him. Jet jumps in as a distraction and saves the Phantom Knight (under the guise that he still needs to defeat him), but the Captain escapes.

The pair manage to escape the ship, and Jet once again challenges the Phantom Knight to a fight; this time he obliges and knocks him out with a single punch. While they posture, the Captain has managed to find them and is now piloting his personal Dino-breaker and is going to attack the Phantom Knight. Jet has come to and he decides that he’s going to fight the Captain to prove that he’s getting stronger. The Phantom Knight sneaks away, but after Jet gets his ass handed to him for an entire fight (again) he is saved at the last minute by the returning Phantom Knight. The now seriously injured and once-again-unconscious Jet is then brought to the nearest hospital, and his friends from DICE are called to check up on him.

Episode 13: Jet Returns!

Now to the heart-breaking episode (or in my case – soul-eating). Jet is back with DICE, but with Dino-raptor in intensive care… imagine a facility where they rehabilitate dinosaurs, intact with a pool… no I’m not kidding. Despite healing from the severe physical wounds, he has not regained consciousness and so Jet keeps a vigil over him when not at work. After a tense session where Dino-raptor almost died (I had a similarly traumatic scene with my Jeep Grand Wagoneer and it’s transmission), Jet becomes nearly inconsolable. Chow takes Jet under his wing and tries to teach him about trusting in his partner and believing that things will turn out.

Meanwhile, the Phantom Knight has caught up to the Captain and intends to get the information that he wants, but the pair end up in a huge battle. With the collateral damage, the planet’s government calls in DICE to stop the pair’s fight, but the entire team of F-99 cannot contain the pair, and the Captain has even started to attack the members of DICE. At this moment, Moto-raptor finally regains consciousness and so the pair join in on the fight (because everyone knows the best thing for someone recovering from a coronary is a spirited life or death battle). Jet is able to unseat the Captain, but they discover that he’s actually an android used to pilot the dino breaker. As the team turns to ask the Phantom Knight, he’s already escaped.

Episode 14: The Mutant Laboratory

A company is in the midst of trying to re-terraform a planet that has had its’ original population killed or evacuated as a result of a planetary war. One of the more important facilities is a former weapons research facility that was abandoned. A team goes to investigate the building with one of the surviving researchers, and discover that one of their experiments (a sentient weapon) has evolved and is running loose. With contact lost with the team, and only a few members remaining alive (or at least their transponders still active), the company has asked DICE to help. All teams on F-99 deploy to begin the search, and first to contact anything is the pair with Robert and Sam. Sam finds a small black cube that is apparently sentient, so he takes it as a sample but a larger piece then heads towards them and attacks. Robert moves to protect the younger member, and orders him to fall back; but Sam doesn’t want to leave him. So Robert activates an emergency lock-down protocol that closes a door in their path.

Sam is now upset and angry at the situation, but the rest of the team need him to analyze the sample to find a way to defeat it. With half the force out of commission, Jet is forced to continue alone and he eventually finds part of the group of survivors – they have left one person behind, the one who was most hysterical and refused to move. Jet calls for an evac for the team, and the scientist runs back to collect the remaining person. Sam has made no progress on the sample, and he needs to talk with the scientist to get any further work done so he heads to the evac point and when Jet intends to head back for the stragglers, Sam asks to join him. Back in the facility, they find the last 2 people but they are attacked by one of the monsters – Sam asks about weaknesses, and the scientist believes that alkaloid stimulants had an effect. As Jet and Moto-raptor are being surrounded, Sam has a flash of insight and throws his pot of coffee which kills the being (sounds like the coffee from some fast food joints). Now out of ammo, another beast attacks, but they are saved by Robert, who has managed to stay alive the entire time but was unable to contact the outside teams with a broken radio.

This disc of DICE has managed to approach Yu-Gi-Oh in the category of traumatic anime (but still lags far behind Moldiver). This show is at its’ weakest when trying to be serious, and with 3 very heavy episodes it really was a chore to watch this disc. I hope that the next disc lightens up a bit or at least avoids the drama that Jet really cannot pull off.

- Tazman

(February 28, 2006)

"...and Meg even went on a date with the announcer from the SuperFriends."

"Meanwhile under Meg Griffin's bra!" - Lois and Voiceover Guy (Family Guy)


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