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Genesis Power Battles Vol. 05: Egon vs. Gordon

Today in the Sega Arena we bring you a new Genesis Power Battle! It might seem unusual for today’s competitors to be contested against each other, but their similarities make them a perfect match for combat. Egon is one of the protagonists from the game Ghostbusters, based of the movie of the same name. Gordon is one of the top Alien Busters in the world, using his best to defeat the galaxy’s worst in Alien Storm. While it doesn’t seem like a fair fight at first glance, considering both use similar tactics for enemy disposal make this a lot more watch able.

The competitors will be judged in five different categories: Background, Appearance, Abilities, Speed, and Overall Power. Here’s a rundown of what we’re looking for in each one:

Background: Where did the participants come from? Would their backgrounds provide them with any distinct advantage?

Appearance: How intimidating would the characters actually be? Do their looks reveal what kind of opponent they’d be?

Abilities: What weapons or powers do the participants have at their disposal? Are they melee-based or long-ranged? Any special moves?

Speed: What some characters lack in power, they make up for in quickness.

Overall Power: How much damage do their special attacks do? Are they powerful enough to eliminate all enemies in sight or are they limited to a single foe?

And now, on to the fight!

Background

One is a college professor while the other is an alien stomping vigilante. Not much has been explained about either character in terms of history, but here’s what we do know.

Egon most likely comes from a family of bookish types. Doing so pretty much foretold his fate of going to college to study his favorite subject – science, and eventually become a professor, specializing in the paranormal and the afterlife. Along with his fellow professors Peter Venkman and Raymond Stantz, Egon started the Ghostbusters agency. The Ghostbusters were devoted to taking care of various problems of the “other” side of New York City. He is still working today, making a nice living because of his craft.

Gordon doesn’t have a real history. We can only guess what acts in his life were done to make him decide he’d be a career Alien Buster instead of any other honorable profession, like gardening or burglary. Even the game manual says that he’s generally described as the evenly skilled Buster, along with his female partner Karla and the cyborg soldier Slammer. Perhaps if Alien Storm had been more successful, we’d know more about Gordon, and find out that aliens killed his dog and the rest of his family in Buenos Aries, and he’s determined to get revenge… or maybe that’s just the movie Starship Troopers.

Advantage: Egon (simply because he actually has a back story)

Appearance

One seems ready for battle while the other looks ready for jogging, or working on a car, or fighting ghosts in matching uniforms with his coworkers. Gordon is showcasing red pants with matching boots along with a thin red vest. What really makes him the more dominant here is his actual presence of muscle mass and his giant gun, which you just can’t ignore most of the time when you’re destroying alien life.

Egon has a similar hair style to Gordon. His clothing style seems to be the real factor here; a full gray body suit complimented by his Proton Pack. Egon’s full body suit doesn’t really seem as much as a threat as Gordon’s neon red suit. Those glaring “nerd” glasses of Egon, which may have made him a badass before, just don’t help him here. Also, he gives a hunched over appearance while doing almost any task. Gordon meanwhile stands up straight as he’s laying waste. Egon’s less prominent weapon is the final nail in the coffin here.

Advantage: Gordon

Abilities

Unfortunately, considering both of our hero’s varied enemies, abilities seems obvious from the get go. Gordon pretty much stays static weapon-wise through out his quest. While he actually has more maneuvers physically, including rolls, high jumps, and his hyper speed abilities shown in some levels. Also, the name THUNDER BAZOOKA just sounds better than Proton Pack. Gordon can also call upon a war plane to take out screens of enemies. Pretty much, Gordon has the fight power to take out hordes of alien scum at once.

Egon instead comes into each level packing his proton pack, along with assorted other weapons including an exploding bullet and a bubble gun that actually works! Along with that you’ve even got special suits to protect against the dangers of New York, and infrared goggles to see his way through a lightless building. He also fights ghosts around the city. Simply put, both rely on guns to fight and don’t show any real hand-to-hand strength. Gordon can pick up the win here because of his agility, multiple attacks, and ability to not fly back five feet when hit by a table cloth.

Advantage: Gordon

Speed

Both are your average human beings, so there’s no real speed difference there. Gordon takes a longer time to walk through his levels, making the entire experience a bit slow at times. Egon can jump around and generally get around his challenges quicker. Gordon, however, has the ability to quickly run through certain levels, running at speeds double that of your average Radio Shack (shameless shill) RC car. Doing so with just his own two feet really give him an edge here, especially when Egon needs a car to move around.

Egon, while the faster of his counterparts Venkman and Stanz, still isn’t much faster than Gordon. While he still can’t outrun most opponents, his heightened agility level lets him dodge ghosts and flying knives better than others, and he is also a pretty good ghost catcher because of his speed. His vehicle of choice is the Ectomobile.

Advantage: Gordon

Overall Power

Both are barely more than human, like stated before, so overall power isn’t really much of a factor. Both do need to rely on weapons to defeat their foes. Egon has the power of science behind him to create his weapons, and he can also withstand some major punishment, even though the attacks he absorbs are a bit weaker since the baddies are “just ghosts.” Even with that though, Egon does have the screen-clearing bombs, which can only help. Pretty much, an assortment of laser weapons can usually out do normal explosives any day.

Gordon, meanwhile, has his Alien Buster’s gear, which include your basic run-‘n-gun weapons like bazookas and flame throwers. as I mentioned before, he can call upon a gunship to take down screens of baddies. This may seem like an obvious advantage to the cartoon bombs from Egon’s repertoire, but remember that special ability of the bombs. Using Egon’s bombs doesn’t take away energy! Sure, using the gunship may be fun and useful, but sometimes you can suddenly run out of energy at exactly the wrong moments, and are unable to use this special power.

Pretty much, having varied weapons for different enemies and screen clearing bombs that don’t take energy just outdo gun ships and static thunder bazookas.

Advantage: Egon

Winner: Gordon (3-2)

Unfortunately for the millions of Ghostbusters fans, Gordon just pulls it out for the victory. While Egon is by no means a pushover, Gordon can seemingly be the better character in more instances. Even though Egon fights the paranormal and Gordon busts aliens, don’t let that small difference stop you from trying out either game, since Ghostbusters will probably be the better of the two games overall.

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