A Minecraft Movie Review

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This film really ended blew up in theaters and did better than anyone would have dreamed of. It was really impressive and showed just how powerful the world of gaming could be. It took me a while to see it but after watching the film I can confirm that it was pretty solid. The story was on point and the gags were solid. Throw in the fact that it was really not ashamed to be a video game adaption and you have a confident movie on your hands. I would definitely recommend it.

The movie starts off with Steve arriving in the world of Minecraft and quickly mastering the world’s mechanics. Unfortunately he bumps into the dark side of this realm where he is captured by the villains. His dog is able to escape with the gem connecting the two worlds though. Now there is no chance of harm coming to Earth. Unfortunately the gem is found many years later by a guy who is down on his luck. He ends up arriving into the world of Minecraft with two kids and a local real estate agent. Can they find a way to stop the evildoers from getting to the surface world?

I thought that the opening sequence really set the right tone from the start. It was all very fast paced. Instead of waiting 30 minutes for the heroes to make it to this new world, Steve does it in 5 minutes. I liked how quickly he was able to master the different mechanics and wasn’t acting like a tourist. Steve just got to business and it was even pretty heroic how he was able to escape prison long enough to get his dog out of there. Naturally the scenes are played with a slight grin from the movie’s part as this is still a comedy first and foremost but it is actually funny.

That’s something that the film really gets right. The jokes tend to land well with a lot of tried and true gags. The film isn’t exactly going into uncharted territory but it doesn’t need to do that. When you execute an old joke well then it hits as hard as it did the first time. Of course if you don’t tend to like the sillier type of films then this one’s probably not going to change your mind either. It’s all about those old school fundamentals and this is the kind of film you could picture watching on VHS back in the day. If you play Minecraft then you’ll probably recognize more of the gags right away and if not, you’ll still understand all of the important ones.

Steve was definitely the best character throughout the film. He was always in charge of the situation and managed to keep his cool even when things didn’t go as planned. He may not have been a huge success back on Earth but once he was in Minecraft world he was quick to dominate over there. He didn’t whine or complain about his lot in life. He found a creative solution and that’s the way to go.

Garrett becomes one of the main characters early on as another version of Steve to an extent. He was hugely popular at one point but is now poor in the real world. He just can’t find any way to get successful again and is forced to pretend to be someone’s uncle in order to make some pocket change. When Henry finds the magic orb, this becomes Garrett’s chance to make some money. In Minecraft world he is able to finally be the tough guy that he has always portrayed himself to be. It’s not easy but Garrett just makes it work.

He does break down at one point as the pressure becomes too much but for the most part keeps it together. He has a big rivalry with Steve throughout the movie and then eventually earn each other’s respect. Garrett is far from perfect but still makes for a really likable character. It also made sense that he would want some diamonds because he was about to be evicted in the real world. I thought the whole plot line was very reasonable and it’s not like he was doing anything super drastic to get it.

Henry and Natalie can be more on the annoying side. Natalie actually doesn’t get as big a role as you would think. As the older sibling she does her best to look after Henry and make sure that he’s okay. She makes him a pie to bring to school and does her best to be supportive. So I wouldn’t say that she’s a bad character but does randomly try to make Garrett look bad at times by trying to debunk what he’s saying. I never got why some characters want to just be spoilsports like that.

As for Henry, he doesn’t look very good here. After Garrett helps him throughout the movie, Henry is quick to be upset at him later on. I would have preferred for Henry to keep his cool there. Yeah Garrett wasn’t fully honest with him which isn’t cool but I would argue that he still didn’t do anything that was super drastic. It would have been a different story if he ended up being a full traitor or something. Henry’s just a kid so you have to cut him some slack but honestly the film could have worked better without him.

Finally you have Dawn and she ends up being a bit of a downer as well. She just doesn’t know how to have fun as much as Garrett and Steve. They do their best to keep the adventure light while she either starts complaining or trying to get them back on task. What’s the point of exploring a whole new world if you have to be stressed out the whole time? I guess what it all boils down to is that Steve and Garrett didn’t really need any side characters here.

I suppose that would have hurt the banter though. It’s not like every joke landed but on the whole there were more wins than not. If anything this just didn’t leave much room for the villain to be memorable. She does have a really good final scene as she tries to land a hit on Steve when he drops his guard though. That was pretty good, especially when she tried more than once. It was one of the better gags in the film. If you can’t be a serious threat then the next best thing is to be funny and she pulled that off.

The effects throughout the movie are pretty good. I appreciated how much it was copying the game as well like the villains turning into meat. This was a movie that really paid attention to the details of the game. Now if you don’t like slapstick then that would be the only reason to avoid this film. A lot of the humor is physical so you’re going to have characters getting thrown around and beat up but these scenes just work. I’d even say that about the movie in general…it just works.

There is only one weak plot in the film and that’s the subplot of the divorced vice principal dating a random Minecraft character. That said, it’s still 100X better than the similar plot in Pixels. This one doesn’t overstay its welcome nearly as much and the scenes tend to be short. I’d say they should have been cut out as they had nothing to do with anything but at least they aren’t really in your face the whole time. So I won’t be too harsh on that front.

Overall, A Minecraft Movie was better than I expected it to be. I figured it would be a fun time and all but more like a 6. In the end it surpassed that to be a pretty good experience that I could recommend to anyone. I’m definitely eager to see how the sequel plays out. There are a lot of fun things they can do with a sequel like introducing the Ender Dragon. Of course this is the kind of title where a sequel can mess up easily by not being funny. That’s hard to predict though so we just have to hope for the best for now.

Overall 7/10

Yona of the Dawn Review

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Yona of the Dawn is a romance drama that went on for quite a long while. It was fun reading that along with Snow White with the Red Hair since both titles had similar vibes and were around the same time period. There’s a lot to enjoy about Yona but I do feel like the series took a turn later on and went down a less interesting path than it could have been on. Mainly everything involving the main villain is quite unsatisfying and some things are not so easily waved aside.

The series introduces us to Yona who is the princess of a peaceful land. Her father rules it well but one day he is brutally assassinated by her childhood friend Su-Won. Her bodyguard Hak helps her escape the palace to regroup and hopefully reclaim the kingdom someday in the future. Along the way Yona realizes that perhaps her father wasn’t the perfect ruler that she had envisioned him to be. Also…..she is the descendent/reincarnation of the original crimson king who has 4 powerful eternal dragon warriors at her beck and call who will help her achieve greatness.

Yes that last part may seem like a bit of a stretch but it’s never too late to add a supernatural touch to the story. Right away I can tell you that the most interesting aspect of the story here is about how Yona can possibly win her kingdom back. There are several stories about needing to get back in power, the Heroic Legend of Arslan is a recent one. In most of those there are a lot of supporters along the way who can help though. That’s not really the case here as Yona mainly has to rely on Hak and her dragon warriors.

Now you can rightfully point out that an uprising would be possible with dragons. Hak also has superhuman strength to a nearly supernatural level. There’s nothing stopping Yona from breaking into the kingdom and slaughtering the oppressors but the problem is that there is no way to do that without murdering a bunch of innocent people. Unfortunately for Yona, Su-Won is quickly shown to be ruling the land rather well and being the only thing keeping other kingdoms from invading it. If Yona does something to weaken the country then everyone will be in danger. Her best bet may be trying to take Su-Won down quietly but he is a master strategist and so that will not be easy.

It’s all very personal as well since Yona had nearly married the guy. So you’ve got some great pieces in place here for the inevitable showdown. There’s a lot of setup and the series ran for nearly 50 volumes. I personally forgot just how long it was, that is incredibly impressive. The story twists and turns as it goes on but one thing I can say is I would never picture Yona being able to be friends with the guy again after that. If you ask me, that should be absolutely impossible.

A big theme in the series is about growing up though. Yona can’t just do whatever she wants as the weight of the crown begins to become more and more pronounced. Yona constantly has to think about the country when making her decisions and that can be annoying. I don’t fault Yona too hard for this though. She is trying to do the right thing but you are waiting to see her land some good blows on Su-Won and take him down for the count. To do anything less would be to accept his decisions as being something that actually was necessary.

Before we go more into the characters, I’d like to say the artwork is pretty strong here. It may even be one of the better Shojo titles out there. It’s always very clear and all of the character designs really stand out. There really aren’t any recycled ones or anything like that. The fights also look really intense. The series would only get better and better at this as it went on.

Now for the characters, first we have Yona who does well in really transforming from being a princess who was shielded from everything into becoming a powerful warrior. She learns how to use a bow & arrow as well as a sword. Yona also improves as a ruler as she gradually gets used to the idea of giving out orders She had to get through a lot of trauma in order to get to this point as well. So I give her a lot of credit throughout the series even if I didn’t think that she handled the Su-Won situation very well.

It was tricky and she had a lot of people to look out for but sometimes forgoing vengeance isn’t the right path. That probably sounds a bit off but sometimes you can’t just let bygones be bygones. Su-Won’s actions weren’t something minor like being a pickpocket or something. He actively assassinated a king and I just wasn’t able to get over that even by the time the series finished. Of course you’ve probably realized that by how much I’ve already brought it up.

The series also managed to do something successfully that is very rare. It actually established a main romance that was pretty decent. Dare I say even pretty good at times? Yona and Hak is a very slow burn romance but it’s one where neither character wavered once they found each other. Yes, Yona was going to initially marry Su-Won but that shattered when he turned evil. Yona didn’t go back and forth on this which would have been bad for her character. You can make the case that Hak may be a bit of a rebound but that’s where the long duration of the series comes in.

We get enough time with the two of them to the point where the romance was developed well. I really had no issues with the pacing or anything like that. This is exactly how a romance should be moving forward and both characters should be proud of themselves. If anything the ending of the series may be a bit annoying with the weak excuse used to split both characters up for a while. I didn’t think that was necessary.

Meanwhile Hak is a great character as you’d expect. He tends to steal most of the scenes in the series. He is technically a normal person and yet he fights with enough strength that he is considered to be on par with the 5 dragons. That is a big feat since those characters are superhuman and cursed with amazing abilities. Hak tends to be untouchable even against great odds. His loyalty to Yona is also very admirable and he makes for the perfect right hand man. Definitely the kind of guy that you want to have on your side.

He also takes Su-Won’s betrayal very hard and was ready to murder him on several occasions. Ultimately he would be stopped by the other characters who were around. When it comes to Yona, Hak is willing to take anyone out of the picture. He even leaves his clan in order to protect Yona and that is the kind of one track mind that always makes for a superb character.

Then we come to the main villain, Su-Won. Like I said earlier, the guy doesn’t go mega evil for most of the series. He basically believes himself to be doing everything for the betterment of the kingdom. It doesn’t excuse his actions and he doesn’t want any forgiveness. Su-Won is always 5 steps ahead and plans everything out so the kingdom will be fine even once he is bumped off. As the series goes on we also see how he is dealing with different health issues. A long life was never really in the cards for him.

To be clear this does not exonerate him at all but he does make for a pretty fun villain. He can even fight a tiny bit but I would stress that he is unable to physically defeat any meaningful character in the series. He would be absolutely crushed if he were to even attempt that. It’s why he stays in the strategist role which works well for him anyway. I do feel like we got cheated out of a big confrontation with him and Yona though. Just due to how the plot goes, we don’t get that singular moment that would have been really cathartic.

Riri is a fun character who shows up later on. She is royalty from another kingdom and gets along with both Yona and Su-Won. It puts her in a rather interesting position. If forced to choose, I would say that she would be on Yona’s team though. The two of them became good friends and she is always looking out for her friends. Riri may not be particularly powerful but she has bodyguards for that. She is strong in spirit though and refuses to live in denial. When her kingdom has big problems she sets out personally to stop them. I would say that she ends up being one of the stronger supporting characters.

Yoon is someone who was a main character but gradually appears less and less as the series went on. His role as a healer just naturally made him less and less plot important. While the others were on the front lines he would be in the background trying to mix some herbs together. He was never bad but I would admit that Yoon wasn’t super interesting. I wasn’t exactly broken up about him not appearing anymore. Yoon had the unfortunate role of having to be the guy trying to keep everyone in line. That’s never a particularly fun role to have and so he naturally could not keep up with the others.

Then we get to the dragon warriors. First is Kija who has a strong dragon arm. That is his super power and it can slice through people and stone with ease. He was a lot of fun and definitely the best member of the dragons. I just enjoyed seeing him around and he is really selfless. Initially he seemed to like Yona but made sure to never let his feelings blossom since he was aware of her feelings for Hak. You could say this was just part of the dragon’s devotion that makes him bond to Yona but it seemed a bit different than the others. Either way, Kija was a great ally and someone that Yona could always depend on.

He would have some fun banter with Hak and Jae-ha the whole time which was also nice. Kija would constantly improve the dynamic with every scene that he was in and just makes for a very memorable character. That said, all of the dragons were fun as well. Next up is Shin-ha and he probably had the saddest backstory. He was alienated because of his super eyes which can paralyze anyone that he looks at. He also has super senses even compared to the other dragons. His abilities are super handy so the way this series balanced that out was by not letting him master them. Shin-ha was constantly afraid that his abilities would go out of control and so he was careful not to use them much.

I would have liked for him to have grown bolder with these powers but that never really happened. He would still dive in to protect Yona whenever she was in danger so that’ll have to be good enough. He got a pretty satisfying conclusion in the end so there were o open threads left for him. He may have had the most complete journey in that sense as it tied all the way around to his backstory.

Then there is Jae-ha who is the flirt of the group. I appreciated the fact that he never tried to cause drama between Yona and Hak though. In fact he would constantly be trying to get them together with his line of questioning. The guy was sort of playing 4D chess by basically rage baiting them the whole time. He’s pretty good about that and was another heroic soul in the group. His abilities were based around his legs so he could jump really high and kick with a lot of power.

Jae-ha was a pretty well balanced fighter and he grew up with the most combat experience since he was a pirate. I would say by the end of the series that he may have been the strongest of the dragons but the series would consistently show that he and Kija were extremely well matched. Finally we have Zeno who is cursed with immortality. He had a really rough road since the other dragons could at least die and reincarnate. For Zeno he had to keep on living and he has one of the more painful types of immortality.

He has to take damage in order for his physical abilities to go up. So if he wants to protect Yona then he has to let himself get thoroughly beaten up first. Not a really fair deal if you ask me and it is also easy for villains to exploit this. They can just tie him up if needed. Self inflicted injuries do work so Zeno can harm himself but that’s definitely not fun. It’s easy to see how this all really messed Zeno up by the end to the point where he couldn’t really lead a normal life.

That said, while I felt bad for Zeno, I still have to say that he fell down the ranks by the end. He just made the wrong move one too many times. The other characters are very patient with him but he was really pushing it at different points. It wouldn’t have only been him going down if his plans had succeeded. The heroes probably forgave him a bit too quickly but after years of hanging out, it’s easy to see why the bonds of friendship were so strong. The series really takes place over a very long period of time after all.

There were a number of other villains running around although maybe I should just say antagonist. All of the tribes were working with Su-Won for the most part but it’s hard to call them evil. They just continued to follow the kingdom no matter who the ruler was. They tended to still be kind to Yona’s group and weren’t going out of their way to cause trouble. The wind clan in particular was always friendly since Hak used to be one of them even if he ended up having to part ways.

One of Su-Won’s big allies was Han Joo-Doh who was pretty powerful like Hak. (Man it would be tough to get all of these names without the Yona wiki) His role wasn’t as big as I would have guessed but he has a lot of history with Yona from the past and continues to be a strong fighter in the present. Definitely not someone to be taken lightly. I thought he was a pretty fun character and definitely works well in the series.

Kye-Sook is another one of Su-Won’s men. This guy is the top strategist and so he has a massive role throughout. Initially he disagrees with Su-Won’s decision to let Yona alone. He feels like she will be a threat and honestly isn’t wrong there but that’s just not how Su-Won operates. A strategist can offer his opinions of course but at the end of the day does need to fall in line and obey Su-Won’s directives. While I can appreciate his loyalty as an antagonist, I did want the heroes to beat him up at some point. He caused way too much trouble.

There was one arc where Yona and friends had to work with Su-Won due to some political prisoners and Kye-Sook nearly saw to it that Hak died there. That was really the point where he should have been taken out instead of the heroes just being really chill about it. There is a time and a place for that. Ogi for example is someone who would help Su-Won out with information gathering. It was fairly neutral and he would help out the other side for a fair price. He mostly stayed neutral in the war. While that may not be super satisfying to both sides, it does make me less upset at the guy.

I will admit that the series started to get a little lost in the sauce by the end though. We get a whole lot of exposition about the crimson dragon king from back in the day and how that relates to Yona in the present. We meet these dragon spirits who have incredible abilities that transcend time and space as well. It was just a bit much by the end. Not the supernatural element of it because that can be fun but it just felt late for all of that exposition. Again, I’d have preferred a big battle with Su-Won’s forces over that.

It also would have been interesting to see which characters helped or not. For better or worse, a lot of the clans had already accepted Su-Won by this point. We probably would have seen some real hero vs hero battles throughout the kingdom. Perhaps it would be too sad to see all of the characters fighting like this but it would have been really compelling at the same time.

Then you had other villains show up like the ruler of a third country who wanted to cause chaos and his executive agents who successfully put the main kingdom on fire. It was a nice reminder that the whole series isn’t about a civil war. There are quite a few other factions who show up as the series goes on and it really helped to keep things exciting. These villains would typically be completely evil so it was easy to root for Su-Won and Yona to take them down. The two would even have to team up at times.

There is a whole lot of content to be found here in nearly 50 volumes so that will come as no surprise. At the end of the day this is a good story and one that is really a blast to marathon through. As long as you enjoy the time period and like to see some classic action then you will have a good time here. This series is well written and has a colorful cast of characters. Due to the time period it won’t be perfect about avoiding animal violence or some more unfortunate plots like arranged marriages and captives of corrupt rulers.

At times the series can get a little dark as well with some of the backstories. Still, the series doesn’t dwell on this for too long and I would say that on the whole it is fairly light hearted. So I’d throw in a little warning if you are expecting a really gushy series. This isn’t that kind of title and I think you’ll realize that right away during the opening chapters. Before Yona gets the dragons and more forces, the opening chapters are really more of a survival story. Yona learns exactly what it’s like to live in the trenches as opposed to the castle and adapts really well.

Overall, If you like a classic adventure story told during the era of royalty then you should enjoy this one. It’s also a story where I can actually say that the romance was well written which is still something that can be really rare. The artwork also really outdoes itself in terms of how clear it is. The length of the series may feel daunting but that’s really just a good thing because you get to see more adventures before the title is over. I always want a good series to be as long as possible after all.

Overall 7/10

The Misadventures of Tron Bonne Review

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My Mega Man Legends marathon continues with the spinoff. Tron Bonne is a pretty unique game as it’s essentially a collection of minigames that you play until you unlock the final showdown. It definitely makes for a good adventure though even if the game can be a bit more complex than needed. You should expect the difficulty to really ramp up by the end.

The game starts with Tron’s brother being kidnapped by some debt collectors. They explain that he owes them 1 million Zenny and so Tron will have to gather that amount in order to free him. It won’t be easy to earn that much money the right way and so Tron begins to rob banks and steal livestock from various farms. She will have to contend with the interest on the money as well but Tron is ready for this. She has been trying to prove herself for a while now and this is really perfect timing for that.

Right away I can tell you that these minigames actually have some decent levels of challenge to them. Fortunately you don’t need to beat every minigame in order to complete the game. You need to earn 3 million Zenny to unlock the final boss. How you do that is up to you. Clearing the minigames is advised because they can get you bonuses from 150,000 all the way to 800,000. Of course the higher the prize, the more difficult the minigame. I was never able to clear the 800K one.

So what do you do if you get stuck at the minigames? Well there is a free roam dungeon that you can challenge an infinite amount of times. You make 80,000 per run and each run only takes 3-4 minutes. So it’s a bit on the tedious side but in theory you can beat the whole game that way. I’d recommend trying to complete as many minigames as you can though because that variety will make the game more fun. Each minigame has 3 levels to it before they shut down.

The first one is about moving boxes around so that you can get the right ones onto a boat. It’s almost like navigating a Tetris run or something like that. I was able to handle the 3 puzzles for manual running but got stuck on the first puzzle with the tractor. Definitely not a minigame that is for the faint of heart.

Then you have the RPG levels which replicate the gameplay of Legends 1. You basically run through a bunch of caves and have to open chests and hit switches. It’s a bit more detailed than you may expect. These levels weren’t super hard but do take up more time than all of the other games to the point where you just aren’t sure if they are super worth it or not. I’d still say to go ahead and do it though, they add more story to the game.

You also have the robbing the bank levels. Those are the most fun because these levels are fully action packed. You have to destroy all of the robots in your way and break into the buildings. It definitely reminds you that you are playing as a villain which is something that you may end up forgetting after a while. There is a recurring character who is a cop that you have to stop. Trust me, you’ll feel bad for her after a while.

Then there are the farm levels. These got really tough and I got stuck on the third one that was worth the 800K. You have to corral animals which is easy enough but the final part has to trying to defeat a robot before it destroys your car. No matter how many times I tried that level, I just couldn’t do it. It seems like you need a better gun for that but I was stuck with my starter buster for the whole game.

To get power ups you need to play with your Servbots and that part of the game is pretty complicated. Basically there are 40 Servbots and each one has something that they like. You have to give them their favorite object to unlock other objects to give to other bots. You also need to improve their stats through missions and the gym. Finally there is a torture room where you have to take them whenever their sloth ranking gets too high.

It feels like the game really wanted you to spend a lot of time on this but that wasn’t really my gameplan. I would have done more of this if it was more intuitive but it’s all a bit too vague for me. Particularly when I was already close to the end of the game, I didn’t see the point in devoting too much time to this. If I had lost to the final boss then I would have had to consider it though.

The final boss was stressful because I had to defeat several segments with just my basic gun. It meant that the final boss was pretty long and a few hits would take me down for the count. Fortunately dodging actually wasn’t that difficult in this one. I was expecting the attack patterns to really change as the game went on but that wasn’t really the case. So just keep running in circles and the boss will not be able to keep up with you.

You should also buy a bunch of potions. This is one of those games where potions are absolutely broken because they are dirt cheap and yet you can stock up on a ton of them. I had only bought 2 potions but if I had bought more then the final boss would have been child’s play. In short, the game gives you a lot of decent options and that is the hallmark of a solid title. If you were required to complete all of the minigames and train up the Servbots then the game could have become annoying.

The graphics are definitely solid here. The artstyle has aged pretty well and definitely reminds me of the PS1 glory days. The soundtrack is also pretty good so you have a very well balanced title right here. At most you can just say that the game may be a little too short. It felt shorter than the first Legends even though they are technically about the same length. There is more replay value here because of the Servbots though. I imagine it would take a really long time to 100% this game.

Overall, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne is definitely a fun story. The characters are charismatic and the gameplay is solid. While action may be less of a focus than in the Legends series, the gameplay holds true when you do get the occasional boss fight. I also like the idea of minigames being the way you progress the story. It’s pretty original and just works well as long as you have enough variety. This one probably could have used a few more minigames so you didn’t have to rely on the free roam grind but had enough. If you don’t have this game yet then I definitely recommend picking it up asap!

Overall 7/10

Spark The Electric Jester 3 Review

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It’s finally time to jump back into the world of Spark! Well that’s what I would be saying except the first two games never got a console port. So this ends up being the first one that I’ve gotten to check out. Well I can say it does a great job of reliving the glory days of the Sonic series. The 3D gameplay is incredibly fast paced and even the soundtrack sounds like Adventure 2 Battle. If you have enjoyed playing those Sonic games then you should definitely play this one, it is an amazing homage.

The story starts off with Jester running around and having fun as normal but then the stakes get higher. Not only is his old foe back but a mysterious girl has appeared who also has a grudge with him. Powerful forces are operating within the shadows and Spark is about to learn some things about his own past. Nothing will be the same after these revelations and Spark will need to try and keep himself in one piece by the end of this. It won’t be easy though.

I was not expecting an almost 30 minutes series of cutscenes at the end of the game but it shows how much thought the writer put into the story here. At first you mostly get context from short text bubble cutscenes but then later on you have full cinematics and everything. We learn knowledge that recontextualizes the entire trilogy which is no small feat. I can see this being a little jarring for longtime fans of the series but as someone starting with this title it was just hype.

The ending also stuck the landing which was important. Then we also have a top tier soundtrack. All of the stages sound excellent and then of course there is the one lyrical song that slips in during the 3rd last boss of the game. The song was excellent and I had fun Youtubing it afterwards. Some games may have been satisfied with replicating the Sonic gameplay but going the extra mile and getting the soundtrack was an extra cherry on top. The graphics are also really good so that is another point in Spark’s favor. It just kept on winning and winning throughout.

So lets talk about the gameplay. The main gameplay style is your classic 3D platforming. There is a big emphasis on speed so you use that to zip through the stages and try to get to the goal. Some stages are around 2 minutes while others can go up to 4. You have two jumps and 2 boosts so you have to use each one strategically to get to the end. You also have the homing attack and even a blaster. The game is designed to give you a ton of gameplay options and it’s up to you to choose the right ones.

There are also car segments where you have to drive around which was handled well. These levels were a fun change of pace. Then there is the free falling where you have to activate different moves to slow your fall as well as some levels where you have to locate coins around the level. It was pretty neat to have so many different gameplay styles in here. You don’t actually have to beat every level to get to the final boss, but about 90% of them are required. Beating the extra 10% will net you bonus lives on the final trial.

There are also combat segments where you have to use combos to destroy every robot in the way. These levels are pretty fun and can be challenging. You have to get very good at parrying every blow or they will really add up and deal massive damage. I got pretty good at it although sometimes I would just use my speed to dodge instead. It’s what Sonic would have wanted anyway I’d say.

Now for the final trial that was really intense. It’s a level that is over 20 minutes long and you have to get past every obstacle that appeared throughout the game. You have to have mastered every different element or you will not be completing this level. Before now you had unlimited lives with which to get past the levels but this time you only have a few. If you run out of lives by the end then that will be game over and you have to start again. I got the game over 3 times in this level so I got to spend over an hour on this single stage. Man that was easily one of the tougher 3D platforming levels that I’ve played. It really makes you stop to appreciate how tough Sonic gameplay can get if it tried.

Now if I could choose I’d have split it up into several levels. I like a good challenge but I think it’s better to keep that difficulty into smaller bunches so you can challenge each part without having to replay everything. I understand why you’d merge it though because that does inherently make it even harder. The mental strain of having to stay 100% focused through each obstacle can be challenging and then you start to overthink yourself. Suddenly even basic jumps start to get difficult. Whew, it was really a journey.

I’d say the most challenging part for me were the circular loops. Usually in these games you can count on it keeping you in the center but here you are in charge of keeping yourself level. So you have to react incredibly fast at every turn or you just fall off. I was able to cheese this a few times by reacting very quickly and jumping as soon as I started to fall off but that wasn’t always easy. I even ran across the outside of a bridge on the final trial to bypass 3 of the challenges. Probably not the intentional design but hey you have to break out all of the tricks to win.

Overall, Spark is definitely a great game. I had a blast playing through it and I just love fast paced gameplay like this. The stages were super creative as well as all of the gameplay tweaks to the usual Sonic formula. I wish they’d bring in the first two games at some point, or at least the second one since the gameplay is really similar. If you like 3D platforming then I definitely recommend getting this game as soon as possible. You definitely won’t regret it, this is AAA quality right here.

Overall 8/10

Somewhere in Time Review

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It’s time for a film involving time travel and that’s always an interesting concept. This one even went out of the box and came up with a brand new time travel strategy. Unfortunately the movie does have a pretty weak ending and on the whole isn’t the most exciting film. So I’d say that it’s okay and is entertaining enough to be around the middle point of what a film can be.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Richard who is a fairly successful playwright. He is approached by an old lady who cryptically says to come back to her. Richard has no idea what she meant and runs off to his hotel. He sees a photograph of a lady who looks so beautiful that he falls in love with her. Richard’s obsession grows very strong as surface level beauty is enough for him and he does a bunch of research on time travel. Apparently time travel is possible as long as you focus hard enough. So he goes to his room and focuses until he travels back time to when Elise was around his age. Can he get her to fall in love with him?

So yeah that’s an interesting way to time travel. You basically have to will it and then make sure you don’t think of the current day or the time travel spell will fade. It would be a pretty exciting thing in real life but also risky as the ending of the film shows. A single misstep would really have you down for the count. The sci-fi stuff was interesting but then we turn to the romance which is much weaker.

Naturally I am already skeptical of Richard being this much in love with Elise from a single portrait. To me that is just a shallow crush. A crush is when you fall for someone due to one overwhelming attribute, commonly looks. Then true love is when you have really gotten to know the person and still love them as you always have. Richard had already settled his mind before he even met her. If he can keep that energy up forever then it’s not a problem but it’s all so sudden.

As for Elise, it’s really the same issue. She is quick to fall for Richard when he shows up and the guy wasn’t exactly looking all that rational. From the start he is acting like destiny mandates that they be together and is just fortunate that she was big on supernatural stuff too. Otherwise that would have been really dicey from the start.

Her manager William is actually very defensible at first in trying to keep Richard away. Richard just seems crazy after all and this romance could detail Elise’s career in a moment. As the film goes on William becomes more and more unsteady though and even hires some muscle to beat Richard up. At that point there is really no way to defend him so he falls into the realm of being a full antagonist. I suppose based on the events in the present we can say that he was able to recover from this though.

The film can be a bit of a slow burn but I won’t knock that much as it helps the romance a little bit. In theory you need a lot of scenes of the main two together in order to buy the romance. I still didn’t by the end but the film made a decent case for itself. I did think that the scenes in the present were more interesting than the ones in the past though. Researching how to master time travel was fun as well as visiting the professor who founded the idea.

The film has good writing and decent pacing on the whole. The script is solid and so this is a film that is easy to watch. At the same time, there just isn’t much of a hook here. The time travel isn’t used enough to make the film particularly exciting and like I said the ending is weak. It was absolutely the wrong message to show to the audience and makes Richard look pretty bad. The time itself shouldn’t matter at this point so he should live to an old age before getting to the reunion. I do appreciate that neither character was looking for a rebound though.

Somewhere in Time is a film that doesn’t mind being more of a tragic story. I tend to much prefer happy slice of life adventures though. When it comes to romance the doomed ones can be fun but that’s when both characters carry on and make the best of their lives. Elise certainly did but the same can’t be said for Richard. Honestly it just means that Richard gave up too quickly. When time travel is in play, you always have more chances. He just needed to gather his strength and do it all over again. I dare say that’s what most characters would have done.

Richard also has a pretty weak moment near the end of the film where he is jumped by some guys and doesn’t get to fight back at all. His whole journey is at risk here so I would have liked to have seen some more fight out of him. You just can’t go down so easily like that and he honestly should have expected that something was up. The whole sequence just made him come across as really naive.

Overall, Somewhere in Time is an okay movie but doesn’t have enough replay value to get it into the green. This is a film that would have really been better with a solid ending to cap things off. That would have been enough to make the difference. Still, if you like time travel then you should check this film out. No other title has taken the same approach. Alternately if you are a strong believer in love at first sight then this is a movie that takes the idea seriously all the way.

Overall 5/10

Mega Man Legends Review

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It feels great to finally play Mega Man Legends because that game has been around for so many years. I had hoped Capcom would go ahead and start a remake but they really dragged their feet on that. So it was time to play through all of the games thanks to PSN. The game is retro in all of the right ways with a fun artstyle and even full voice acting. No excuse for newer Mega Man games to not follow suit if you ask me. The game is a bit short but does have plenty of extra content.

The game follows Mega Man and his friends who crash land near a small town one day. They figure it won’t take long to get a power source and leave but it turns out that a crew of treasure hunters is around. They are not going to make things easy and then Mega Man finds himself knee deep in a big conspiracy. He will need to see this through to the end now and must make sure that the town is safe. This won’t be easy, but it is absolutely a job for Mega Man.

Right away you will be impressed by the 3D environments. The town is extremely large to the point where it takes up almost 7 areas. There are plenty of people to talk to and shops to visit. The amount of replay value in here is really impressive because of the side quests. I didn’t really touch those when playing through the game but can see how they would be useful. This game is fairly difficult and so a big part of the game is about earning money. You want enough cash to get a lot of upgrades and power ups.

I spent a full 90 minutes on just grinding money and I’m glad it did. I got my missiles leveled up a whole lot and this came in handy for a 3 phase boss fight in the sky. It worked for the whole game with the exception of the final boss who is actually a bad match up for the missiles. I had to finish the game with the basic mega buster but it does the job. Just make sure you open up every chest because the parts in there are incredibly useful. Without them it is safe to say that I would have been on the back foot.

The best tip I can give you is to constantly be moving side to side. You can fire the buster as long as you do that, but note that you can’t shoot while moving backwards. So keep making a circle around the boss and jump when an attack is about to land. With a little practice you’ll be able to dodge just about everything that gets thrown at you. The missiles are incredible for damage but do add a second of end lag to the beginning and ending of your attacks so you should keep that in mind.

You are always given the choice to choose between attack, range, ammo, and speed. Choose wisely since it isn’t possible to max everything out. Fortunately you can change your allocations at any point so you really should experiment. Range and attack are the most important if you ask me. Some enemies literally cannot be hit if you don’t have enough range after all. Ammo is the least critical since it’s rare to run out of weapons but I guess that may depend on your gameplay style.

The graphics are definitely really good and have held up throughout the years. The soundtrack can be a little less memorable but still sounds good on the whole. I don’t really have any issue with the technicals here although it’s worth noting that the voice acting can be really hard to hear at times. It felt like the audio was going up and down throughout. I was still impressed to have had full voice acting here though. The game probably just needed some subs or text boxes.

You’re going to be spending a lot of time in the dungeons throughout the game so keep in mind that you don’t have to beat them in one shot. If you want to just farm money you can go through a few rooms and then leave. I did that a lot while trying to get money for the various power ups. It’s a really good strategy so I would say to just keep that in mind. The game will be a lot easier if you even just buy a few power ups so you shouldn’t try to go it alone.

As for if you want to focus on your weapons or Mega Man himself, that’s up to you. You won’t have enough money to do everything and that’s why for the weapons I would recommend just sticking to one of them. If you mix and match too much then you’re going to not see as much progress. By sticking to the missiles, I was able to get it very overpowered before long.

We’ll see if the next game can beat this one. There are a few quality of life things that could be improved like your running speed. I know I said the town was large before but part of that is also because Mega Man can’t run very fast. So it takes him longer than you would like to get places. Especially if you get lost which can happen once or twice. Near the end of the game you’re told to go to the old city but turns out you were supposed to go to the re right outside of Old City. That threw me off for a while there.

Overall, Mega Man Legends is definitely a game that I would recommend. The most important thing to consider here is just how fun the game is. It’s really a blast and a half throughout which is really important. Additionally the story gets a little more intricate than I may have guessed by the end of it. The voice acting helps a lot but same with the characters just being a lot of fun. This is certainly not your average Mega Man adventure that’s for sure. There is a lot of room left over for the next game to pick up on some story elements and I’ll be playing that before long. The city environment is also just such a great backdrop because you don’t get to experience that very often.

Overall 7/10

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages Review

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The Legend of Zelda has returned but of course long time fans remember when the series was not doing so well. It has had some really impressive highs but unfortunately the lows are quite strong as well. It’s what keeps me from putting the series higher than where I have it. You just never know if it’s going to end up being the next top tier showcase or if it’ll be more of a stinker. Unfortunately this one was the latter.

The game follows a young man named Link who is tasked with saving the world. A queen has turned evil in the past and this is having a negative effect on the present. Link will now have to travel back and forth from the past to the present to find a way to save the day. It won’t be easy though as the villain appears to have similar abilities. Link may need some help this time around.

Now first up I do want to say the game has some interesting ideas. I was glad to have a different setting re than the usual Hyrule days. The supporting cast wasn’t even bad like another hero who wants to be the one to save the day and a happy witch that is always flying around. There is a decent plot going on in the background here which can be more than what you see for other Zelda titles. That said, it can still vanish for large chunks of time since this isn’t first and foremost a story driven title.

I would also say that the soundtrack is pretty good. There is one track in particular that is much better than I would have expected. It just works really well as a suspense theme. Of course on the flip side, the worst themes are pretty bad. The hub world theme in particular is super jarring because of how loud it is. Your ears will definitely be hurting by the end of that because you’ll be hearing the tune so often.

This is where most of the game’s issues come from. It just isn’t fun to play for decently large periods of time. The levels are tedious and the backtracking makes this worse. We needed a better form of quick travel and other movement options to help with the quality of life. In theory you should always be able to get past an area quicker the next time you enter it. I felt like the series didn’t really understand that part and that just made things tougher than it needed to be.

The hints aren’t always very helpful so you will be wandering around for a lot of the time. Ironically the dungeon puzzles ended up not being as difficult in comparison. The hub world is what took up the most amount of time. This ended up being my game with the most amount of play time on the Nintendo Switch Online’s game boy section.

A big problem with the gameplay is how you can only equip 2 weapons. As a result you have to constantly be pausing the game to switch weapons over and over. Let me tell you, that part’s not fun after the 20th time. You want to be able to just quick change your weapon. It’s those little things that make such a big difference after a while because it heavily inflates the play time but not for any fun reasons. It’s almost funny how quickly the bosses go down in contrast.

Still, the story is a bright light here. If they ever made a 3D remake of the game with great quality of life features then I actually think it could be really good. The potential is absolutely there after all, the game just has to live up to it. You also won’t be able to play the complete game without having a file for the other game. The true ending is only obtained by having save data for both oracle games which is a really bold strategy. Not one I’d recommend since it seems a bit greedy towards the gamer.

I’d also say the game’s graphics are pretty good. A minor nitpick is that it can be hard to tell when you are in the present or the past though. The coloring is just so similar at that point. The past has a slight blue tint but trust me when I say that it is incredibly slight. You need to have a really strong pair of glasses to be able to consistently note the difference. Otherwise you are really out of luck there. There’s not really any replay value but the main campaign is long enough where this doesn’t feel like a problem.

In theory if you don’t get lost at all and crush every boss then the game will be much shorter but that still feels like a stretch to me. I don’t see how you would be able to ace everything on your first go. It would be very impressive though and would make the game more fun. It steadily becomes less and less fun as you run around in circles so if you are able to counter that, then it goes without saying that the game itself would improve quite a bit. It would almost allow the game to hide its biggest flaws from you but maybe for that reason it is better than you do run into them.

Overall, Oracle of Ages is about on par with the Oracle of Seasons title but that’s not a big complement. The game just has too many downsides that take away from the experience the whole time. With modern quality of life upgrades it would be easy to fix this title. It’s not something that you an ever take as a given though. Some companies just aren’t as on the ball about that and I suppose this may be one of those times. I would only get this game if you are a massive Legend of Zelda fan. Otherwise it’s time to skip this one.

Overall 4/10

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Review

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Demon Slayer continues to dominate the box office every time it appears. People have really been enjoying the action here and I look forward to the next two films seeing similar success. Ultimately this one lives up to the hype of essentially being 2+ hours of nonstop action as the only breaks are with the various sob stories. While I wouldn’t put it above Mugen Train and its masterful climax, this one is very close.

The movie starts off with all of the slayers falling into Mugen’s trap. His infinity castle comes with an infinite amount of demons in addition to the last of the upper ranks. The heroes must try and destroy the immortal Muzan while he is still weakened from the various poisons. The most difficult part will be in tracking him down though. The guy could be anywhere in this labyrinth and the heroes have to keep their guards up at all times. A single misstep and it will mean their end.

As this is just the first part of a 3 part saga, you should expect a lot of characters to get the shaft. Most of the various Hashira appear but only two of them actually get big fights in this one. Fortunately for Tanjiro he gets to step into one of the fights so the main character will not be absent from the proceedings. If you tend to be a plot first kind of guy then the film might end up lacking for you but know that the true story of any title is hidden within each blade clash.

There are 3 main plots in the film. First up is Shinobu against Doma. Doma is the 2nd strongest of the Upper Rank demons and generally you would need two Hashira ranking fighters from the heroes to go up against one of these. Shinobu has never been known for her raw power either as she strikes with poisons. Unfortunately upper ranks are pretty resistant to such tactics. This battle is all about Shinobu trying to find a way to stop Doma and to avenge her elder sister who fell prey to him in the past.

Each fight in the film tends to follow the same pattern of fight, then origin story before the climax. Doma’s is certainly not about making him look sympathetic at all but showing just how desperate the humans around him can be. They were desperate to find easy answers instead of just realizing that the real world doesn’t work like that. Meanwhile Shinobu got a brief backstory but just to explain why the fight was so personal. Doma is one of the creepier villains with how sadistic he is so that’s a lot or Shinobu to have to deal with.

The fight is super solid although it does feel like Doma is toying with her for most of it. If he got serious, she would seemingly not be much of a threat to him. The movie definitely establishes why Doma is such a big threat but Shinobu does good the whole time and never gives up. She really did justice to her title as a Hashira. The rest of the characters would have been proud.

Then in the second fight we have Zenitsu going up against Upper Rank 6, Kaigaku. On the surface this should be a stomp in the demon’s favor because Zenitsu is several ranks below a Hashira. He is hoping that Kaigaku’s lack of skill will be the difference here. Naturally this also involves a backstory and a lot of personal feelings all the way. Kaigaku is another guy who isn’t really meant to be sympathetic and you can appreciate that for a villain. That being said, it wasn’t surprising that he didn’t care when Zenitsu tries telling him about their old mentor.

The guy’s a demon, I bet he stopped caring many years ago. I did like his design though and the fight was definitely real intense. Zenitsu is also someone who may seem out of character to people who watched the anime. Usually he is the comic relief character who is always panicking but this fight is an exception. He looks tough from the start and really does great. I like the idea of someone being able to lock in for the most important fight of his life. If not then, when would you ever be able to gather up the courage right? This was a good way to cap off Zenitsu’s combat career but hopefully he’ll show up more soon.

This film’s really about the finial fight though and that’s where the hype was coming from. Akaza shows up once more as Upper 3 to take down Giyu and Tanjiro. It’s clear from the start that only Giyu has a chance and yet it’s tough to defeat someone who has infinite stamina. The longer a fight drags out, the more a demon gets the advantage. No sunlight will be making it into the castle either so that makes things even more difficult. The fight is the longest out of the bunch and really has a top tier animation budget behind it.

We get to see different power ups from the heroes as well as Akaza while the fight is underway. It was nice to see Tanjiro improve as he was mostly just a liability for the start of the fight. He means well though and I would say that Tanjiro is definitely a quality main character all the way. Even in this film which is more about showing each member of the cast, you can tell that Tanjiro is the main character. He has the big emotional flashback near the end and gets the big power up after all.

Akaza is the only villain with a sad backstory. It does a good job of not absolving Akaza’s crimes in it though. A lot of what happened to him is directly the guy’s fault after all. He made some really big mistakes and paid quite heavily for them. Ultimately he was probably the most dangerous of the villains, I dare say I would put him above Upper 1 and Upper 2. Fans may disagree on that based on the ranking system itself but nobody had Akaza’s sheer adaptation.

As for Giyu, he continues to be one of the best characters in the series. He’s certainly not big on showing emotions but doesn’t let it dull his blade. He does get annoyed when Tanjiro ruins the element of surprise but I get it. Tanjiro could have gotten a clean kill there instead of showing off. Sometimes when the stakes are so high you need to go for the sneak shot. It may not seem super honorable and all but this is a fight to the death with demons.

I was surprised that the film didn’t end with more of a cliffhanger though. I would have had a quick ending with Inosuke joining a fight or something like that. I guess the one catch to a part 1 fight like this is that some characters really didn’t get to do anything. It’s probably why we had almost 20 minutes at the start of the film to show everyone fighting off a bunch of demons. That was definitely an intense opener and I’ll take those crumbs until we get the next two films.

The animation is top tier as you would expect. The colors are incredible and the choreography is great. Ufotable is still one of the best animation companies of our generation and they do not hold back with all of these battles. This title does get pretty violent at times so I would say to keep this in mind if you’re not too good with violence. There is a high body count particularly thanks to the backstories and the humans tend to meet rather painful ends. There is also a random scene of a bear getting murdered that could have been cut. We already knew understood the concept of hiding aura so that could have been done a different way.

I would say that generally the film doesn’t linger on any one kill for too long. It’s probably a bit borderline though, the kind of title where just a bit more would probably have started to affect the score somewhat. You never want to go full Attack on Titan after all but at least we didn’t have people begging for their lives while being eaten or anything like that. This one is still more of a battle Shonen first and foremost. The soundtrack is also pretty good with a solid amount of variety and a good Akaza remix. I was listening to some of the tunes while writing this review and will continue to check some of the others out as I go forward.

Overall, I would definitely recommend checking this film out. As long as you enjoy good fight scenes then you’ll have a real blast here. The only context you need is given during the battles and honestly it’s always clear who the hero and villains are. This isn’t one of those titles like Netflix’s DMC series where they’re trying to make the demons sympathetic. The demons are self explanatorily evil and the humans have to wipe them out so nobody else gets hurt. From there you can just enjoy the excellent choreography and maybe it’ll inspire you to go back and check out the previous seasons of the anime.

Overall 8/10