 This article belongs to the Classic Continuity
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Video Games is the fourth episode of the first season of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, and the fourth episode overall.
Synopsis[]
Ben's celebrity lands him a starring role in his own video game.[CN 1]
Plot[]
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Four Arms' debut in Ultimate Alien
Ssserpent has been paroled from prison and is going on another rampage. Ben arrives to stop him and transforms into Four Arms (briefly showing surprise that Four Arms is "still in there") to do so. Four Arms easily defeats Ssserpent by crushing him between two cars. As he transforms back, a helicopter arrives on the scene and a sharply dressed man introduces himself to Ben as Oliver Thompson, a video game producer who plans to make Ben the star of his own video game.
At Mr. Smoothy, Ben meets with Kevin and Gwen who have just returned from a disastrous driving lesson in preparation for Gwen's driving test. Ben tries to tell them about his new video game, but Gwen and Kevin are busy arguing about Gwen's driving skills in contrast to Kevin's terrible teachings. The argument is finally put aside when Ben agrees to teach Gwen.
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Nanomech's debut in Ultimate Alien
Kevin goes with Ben to watch him screen for his video game, and Ben shows all of his aliens' moves to Oliver (except for Nanomech who's too small for the scan). Later that night, Oliver is revealed to be a poser working for Will Harangue who ominously tells him that he now has everything he needs to destroy Ben.
When Ben tests Gwen on her driving in the Mark 10, they are attacked by Harangue's robot called the Stalker. Gwen keeps driving to escape it while Ben fights off the robot on the roof. He transforms into Spidermonkey, but his silk washes off the armor on impact. He then tries to transform into Chromastone but becomes Swampfire instead, but it comes equipped with fire extinguishers and an acid sprayer that render fire and tangle weeds useless. Things appear hopeless as the Stalker arms it's cannons at the Mark 10. However, things go from grim to weird when the Stalker sets its sights on a minivan passing by on an overpass above them. Ben transforms into Jetray to intercept the van before the civilians get hurt while Gwen is held up with engine problems. Unfortunately, the Stalker ultimately defeats Ben with a mirror it uses to deflect a neuroshock blast back at him. Things once again appear grim before the Stalker finally retreats, leaving Ben hopelessly confused as to why that thing would attack him, counter all of his moves, and then go after somebody else before running away. Back at Harangue's office, Oliver explains that the Stalker's AI is apparently not smart enough to tell the difference between a minivan and Ben's car. So, Harangue decides to remotely pilot the thing instead.
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Gwen's driving test with Mr. Webb
Ben and Gwen return to Ben's house where Kevin has the TV on Harangue's channel and Harangue is framing the attack on the highway as one of Ben's "rampages". Gwen reasons Harangue is the only suspect as to who could be behind the attack given the rather uncanny footage he was just showing. Ben denounces any notion of a TV blowhard like Harangue being behind a state-of-the-art alien-killing battle robot and reminds Gwen of her final driving test coming up.
She reports to the DMV and when she is doing well behind the wheel, she and her instructor, Mr. Webb, are attacked by the Stalker again. As the Stalker chases Gwen and Mr. Webb, Ben notices the action and transforms into Cannonbolt to intercept it. Once Ben shows up, he and the robot stand off and Gwen is able to get Mr. Webb to safety. Ben tries fighting it off, but the Stalker shoots a powerful glue that traps him. Cannonbolt transforms into Big Chill to escape, and the robot is also able to melt away the effects of Big Chill's ice breath. With one more transformation left before the Ultimatrix times out, Big Chill transforms into Lodestar only to realize the robot is non-magnetic. Soon enough, Lodestar transforms back into Ben who gets too weak and faints as Harangue is about to finish him. Harangue decides not to finish Ben off, saying that with every fight, his ratings skyrocket. Instead, he decides to challenge Ben to a showdown where he will finish him off for good. Harangue then challenges Ben live on his show to a battle in Washington D.C. at 8 PM and Ben accepts, declaring that he's looking forward to finally putting Harangue in his place.
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Ben's team and the Stalker with a monitor screen
Ben, along with Gwen and Kevin, go to Washington D.C. and arrive at the National Mall. The Stalker comes and turns on a monitor with Harangue's face on it, and through it Harangue asks Ben if he has any last words. Ben simply says, "None that I'm allowed to say on television" and the fight is on with Ben transforming into Humungousaur. Ben's direct assault fails until Gwen and Kevin pick up the slack. However, they don't fare much better until Ben tries taking him from behind. Unfortunately, the Stalker is prepared with tasers that Humungousaur is vulnerable to and sends him tumbling into the Washington Monument. As he bench-presses it, Harangue's ratings are in and declares that it's time for the showstopper. That's when Ben finally realizes that the video game scan was a setup to catalog all of his aliens' powers and combat skills, which Harangue then programmed into the Stalker with an endless arsenal of anti-alien countermeasures. Acknowledging the robot can't be defeated head-on with any of his own skills, Ben decides to use the moves from one of his Sumo Slammer video games as a clever way of going at the Stalker with unpredictability. His attack proves too effective, because doing so breaks the Stalker's remote uplink to Harangue's control room and it rampages through the park. Ben tells Gwen and Kevin about the Stalker's secret weapons, but Kevin reminds him that the only alien the Stalker has no defense against is Nanomech. Ben transforms into him and Nanomech gets inside the robot when Kevin shoots him through a straw straight into it. Once inside, he smashes apart the robot's circuitry until he finds and crosses two power plugs, shorting it out and defeating it for good.
Harangue is defeated and Oliver says that the ratings were fantastic and that there might be hope for rebuilding the Stalker. Ben then transforms into Way Big with the remains of the Stalker and crushes them in his hands. He then drops the remains on Harangue's car, dashing any hope of Harangue ever trying this again. The next day, Harangue criticizes Ben about framing him to be the bad guy and for also wasting the money that it cost him to build the Stalker. He also expresses his anger at Ben for the "childish vandalism" of his car. Gwen shows up and tells Ben and Kevin she passed her driving test and now has her full license. To celebrate, Ben decides to pay for the first round of smoothies, only for Kevin to remind him the riches from the video game he was promised was just a ruse. Nonetheless, Gwen goads Kevin into letting her drive Kevin's car to Mr. Smoothy's, ending the episode with Ben and Kevin racing to get shotgun.
Noteworthy Events[]
Major Events[]
- Will Harangue takes matters into his own hands and tries to destroy Ben once and for all.
- Ben believes that a video game starring himself is being made, but it is really a ruse to destroy him.
Character Debuts[]
- Ssserpent (Ultimate Alien debut)
- Oliver Thompson
- Stalker
- Mr. Webb
- Exasperated Guy
Ultimatrix Alien Debuts[]
Minor Events[]
- Gwen gets her driver's license.
- Harangue's car gets destroyed by Way Big, thus increasing Harangue's hatred for Ben.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
Antagonists[]
- Ssserpent (first reappearance)
- Oliver Thompson (first appearance)
- Will Harangue
- Stalker (first appearance)
Other Characters[]
- Mr. Webb (first appearance)
- Exasperated Guy (first appearance)
Aliens Used[]
- Four Arms (first reappearance)
- Humungousaur (x2)
- Nanomech (first reappearance; x2)
- Big Chill (x2; first time was off-screen)
- Brainstorm (off-screen)
- Echo Echo (off-screen)
- Swampfire (x2; first time was off-screen; second time intended alien was Chromastone)
- Jetray (x2)
- Spidermonkey
- Cannonbolt
- Lodestar
- Way Big (first reappearance)
Aliens on Video Game Computer[]
Video Footage Aliens[]
Quotes[]
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Naming and Translations[]
| Language | Name | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| Bulgarian | Відэа Гульні | Video Games |
| Hungarian | Videó Játékok | Video Games |
| Italian | La Sfida | The Challenge |
| Polish | Gry Wideo | Video Games |
| Portuguese (Br) | Video Games | Video Games |
| Romanian | Jocuri Video | Video Games |
| Spanish (HA) | Videojuegos | Video Games |
| Spanish (Spain) | Videojuegos | Video Games |
Cast[]
Allusions[]
- This episode shares similarities with the 1967 Spider-Man series episode, Captured by J. Jonah Jameson.
Errors[]
- When Ben tells Ssserpent that he is a deputized agent of Plumbers, the flaps on the sides of Ssserpent's head are missing.
- Humungousaur's hologram faces away from Ben.
- When Oliver is talking to Harangue after the video game scan, his voice is the same as the one he used when he was talking to Ben, but later in the episode, it changes.
- When Jetray sits on the top of the minivan after stopping it from falling over because of the Stalker, the stripes on his chest are missing. This error occurs again when he shoots his neuroshock beams and they are reflected.
- Mr. Webb tells Gwen that she signaled before she dodged the Stalker's laser even though the car did not show any signs of doing so.
- The Exasperated Guy asks Ben to sign his petition, but there is no paper on the table.
- When Cannonbolt opens his mouth after getting trapped, it is blue instead of black.
- Lodestar's mouth opens when he is attacked by the Stalker, before Gwen covers him in a mana dome.
- Gwen's driver's license has "Gwen Tennyson" written on it instead of "Gwendolyn Tennyson".
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Trivia[]
- This is the first episode of Ultimate Alien to feature a mistransformation.
- The crew referred to the creation of Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction during development of the episode and added many of the movements from the game to some of the aliens.[DM 1]
- The title for this episode was changed from Computer Games to Video Games due to issues with legal clearance.[script 1][ES 1]
- When asked how Harangue did not suffer any consequences for his actions during his battle with Ben in Washington, including firing missiles at the Capitol Building and other landmarks, despite broadcasting the battle live, Dwayne McDuffie replied "It must be fiction".[DM 2]
References[]
Production Material[]
Scripts[]
Crew Statements[]
T.J. Collins[]
Eugene Son[]
Dwayne McDuffie[]
- ↑ link unavailable
- ↑ File:Harangue VG No Consequences.png
