Okay I’m back, I hope you all had a good Easter and whatnot. At the very least I hope you got to enjoy plenty of chocolate. In this Blogg I’ll be looking at several games, anime, and movies in a quicker way than normal but there’s a possibility of some mild ranting. You’ll find out checking down bellow obviously but right now I have no clue. Some more notable things in this blog include Pokemon Yellow, Batman v Superman and Zootopia. Anyway on with the show I guess, lets kick it off with some remixes.
Aldnoah Zero (Anime):
A sci-fi action anime with a lot of potential and a pretty good first season which focused on the protagonist overcoming the odds using wit, with a secondary protagonist having to deal with living life amongst the invaders and treated as a slave of sorts. Visuals and Audio are fine but half way through the writing starts turning to shit, the narrative loses focus and a lot of meaning and outside of an awesome battle or two it doesn’t do much to redeem the losses and quite frankly it has a terrible ending. It’s a loss of great potential and not a show I can recommend at all.
Grim Fandango Remastered (PSVita):
A fun classic point and click adventure game, a type of game I haven’t had too much experience with but one I find to be interesting. This game has nice visuals although the remastering isn’t much to brag about. The soundtrack is very nice and while the game has it’s frustrating moments that make you feel stupid, it’s still an enjoyable story with nice voice acting and humorous dialogue. Aside from small frustrations there’s also issues with performance as the game froze on me several times and often took ages to save (which you need to do a lot since it can freeze at random). Overall though if you can find it for cheap it’s well worth playing and I am glad I got to play it.
The Finest Hours (Movie):
A live action Disney movie based on a true story about an oil tanker accident in the 1950s. It’s a fairly straight forward movie that was nice to watch but didn’t leave much of an impression. Maybe watch this with the family or something, you could do far much worse and there’s at least some interesting themes and characters although the romance element might be a tad sappy for some (Since I have little idea on how to define levels of sappiness). I personally thought it was handled decently and tugged at the heart strings a little. Nothing amazing but I don’t regret going to see it.
Zootopia (Movie):
Due to obnoxious crowds I missed the very start of this movie so I can’t quite say it fully captivated me. In fact all I can say it was an enjoyable watch with the usual Disney polish and a movie that certainly trampled over the lacklustre Frozen. The performances are enjoyable for the most part and there’s some good humour and plenty of visually stunning action. However there’s also this weird shakira character all over the place and the message of the film is very on the nose to an almost a cringe inducing degree. Thankfully the ending saves this to a degree but something still feels off and I can’t quite put my finger on it, however chances are you’ll be in the majority and enjoy it so it’s probably worth checking out.
Pokemon Yellow (3DS VC):
Back in the day I received a copy of Pokemon Red alongside my game boy colour. Of course I was quite young and was absolutely terrible at it, never getting past the halfway point (until replaying it on emulator). Somewhere along the line I lost my cartridge and I’m glad to finally to own an official copy of a gen 1 game again. The game hasn’t aged terribly well but it was still enjoyable to play and in some ways the simplicity was refreshing. If you want to enjoy a nostalgic flashback I can recommend playing this, however you may just want to try it out on emulators. Emulators will allow various mods and other cool shit which could make things fresh. It’s got an excellent soundtrack, great core gameplay and improved sprites over Red and Blue versions, plus the gen 1 mons can be moved over to the new games coming out this year which is bound to make things interesting.
Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo (Anime):
A short romantic comedy anime that somewhat under performs in it’s visuals but excels in it’s soundtrack. For such a short show I was surprised by the amount of closure at the end. In some regards it was a little rushed (mainly in the latter half) but I’ve seen far worse when it comes to pacing. The characters are for the most part well written and charming, although many don’t get enough screen time. The story was engaging and thankfully the romance elements were well executed although I’ve also seen a lot better. Overall it’s a good anime that may be worth your time if the genre appeals to you and if you’re searching for something shorter.
Metroid Fusion (GBA 3DS):
It’s been such a long time since I played fusion that quite frankly I don’t think I’ve played it once since joining his website. Quite frankly it’s because the game just doesn’t do it for me. However I felt like giving it another shot since it was taking up space on my 3DS (even if it’s just a small amount). Fusions soundtrack has a few decent gems, most of it though is on the forgettable end of the spectrum (So in that regards it’s on level with Prime Hunters). The visuals are kind of hit and miss, I personally think the style is a tad too exaggerated but that’s not really important to my enjoyment and quite frankly much, much worse is on the horizon for the franchise. The gameplay is a decent action shooter and has some cool ideas and innovations (like the ability to grip onto ledges), however in terms of its series it is ‘entry level’. By that I mean that this game barely qualifies due to the obnoxious navigation rooms and the stupid habit of locking doors for dumb reasons. In fact many of its design flaws became the basis for the series worst game and undoubtedly shine light on Sakamotos inability to design a new location that doesn’t suck ass. I’m sorry but a space station with themed sectors just feels lazy in terms of visuals and map design. This problem makes the collection of items feels like a chore before the end game (Zero Mission does this to some degree but it’s more tolerable). It’s sad but ultimately my opinion on this game hasn’t changed much and I can’t recommend it to anyone when the series has far better games available.
Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru (Anime):
Okay onto something more enjoyable. This is another short anime and one that really needs a second season, on it’s own though it is still an interesting experience. Sakurako-san is sort of a sherlock holmes character although I guess the characters quirk is more reminiscent of BONES, although this anime has far better writing, characters and presentation. It’s a rather dark series although that’s to be expected of almost any sort of crime drama (some episodes seem like regular drama though giving it a warm light hearted feeling at times). I think the series is at least worth trying out and I can most certainly recommend it to all but the most squeamish of individuals, although that may be motivated by my desire to see it continue in the future.
Batman v Superman (Movie):
A surprisingly enjoyable movie which seems to be receiving the harsh end of the stick from the critics and is also doing poorly with normal audiences or at least when compared with its competition in the genre. The film has a cool soundtrack, and does a better job visually than its predecessor, Man of Steel which is one of the worst super hero movies to come out in the past 6 years. If you lower your expectations what you’ll find is a fun action movie with some cool ideas and set pieces, plus some unintentionally hilarious faces (among other forms of unintentional humour). Just don’t expect an amazing plot or for any major character development, although by now you should be well aware of the problems most people find in the movie. For me though it was a fun experience and quite frankly the genre has lived through far worse (Looking at you early 2000’s Hulk).
Nova-111 (PSVita):
A small turn based puzzle game which is surprisingly fun and has some interesting mechanics. It has a nice soundtrack and decent visuals, although it is quite clear that the main focus of the game is by far the gameplay. It’s not the most engaging game but it involves some collectibles and secrets and the game does require you to think to obtain them all. It’s worth picking up on sale, but otherwise I don’t think I can recommend it at full price since its rather short and indie puzzle games are quite common.
Klonoa: The door to Phantomile (PSN):
A classic PS1 game that I don’t even remember hearing about as a kid, which is quite a shame since Klonoa is an excellent game that would’ve been perfect for my younger self in the adjustment between 2D and 3D. This game could be described as 2.5D however it functions far more like a traditional 2D platformer just with some extra cool shit. The games wonderful visuals, excellent soundtrack and surprisingly emotional storytelling make it almost a must play title for the system or at least platformers on said system. It was short most certainly but I loved almost every minute of it since the gameplay was just that fun and in many cases relaxing. I highly recommend it.
Heavy Object (Anime):
What seems a potentially generic mech based anime ends up turning into more of a series about a two man team taking down giant mechs, often with minimal equipment and often without the assistance of their own giant mech. It seems to be more of an action comedy than anything else and there is an unusually large amount fan-service which isn’t terrible but certainly wasn’t expected (it’s mostly worked into comedy scenes). The story telling was very segmented into arcs and the underlying plot never quite boils up to the surface. The series isn’t anything remarkable but it was still entertaining and in that regard I can somewhat recommend it.
Okay that’s it for now folks. I hope you voice your feedback and whatnot in the comments, and wish me luck as I undergo more testing to try and figure out what the fuck is wrong with me. Anyway please enjoy some pictures and I hope you have a good day.
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