Frogger returns with another installment here. This one isn’t quite as solid as the last one but I’ll give it some credit for trying to have more of a complete story. You’ve got a whole ninja clan here to wreck havok on the world and a villainous mastermind. At the very least this feels a little grander than the usual Frogger experience although it’s a little less epic than it may sound.
The game starts with Frogger enjoying a good time at home when he is roped into another adventure. His grandfather has gone missing after working on another excavation. Unfortunately nobody knows where he is but it all seems to tie into the mysterious relics being found around the island. Maybe if Frogger finds all of these then he will find the answers? Along the way Frogger will encounter truths about this island and its inhabitants that he may not be ready for.
While there is a story here it doesn’t feel like the game is especially interested in it either. It all goes by pretty quickly with twists thrown at you but then you go right back to the levels. In terms of design I thought more time could have been spent in making the game a little more seamless. You have to constantly walk between two houses on the opposite sides of town to talk to someone. Often it will be a very small cutscene were you feel like you could have saved time if it was put into the other one. Alternately just have the game auto jump you to each house as if it’s all a long scripted cutscene. Surely that’s the better option right?
The gameplay is good though. It brings us the classic Frogger experience where you have to really think about where you’re going and how you will handle the next obstacle. For the most part the levels are fairly easy though and I would say the Gamecube levels were a lot more difficult. At the same time though those levels were sometimes hard not for the best of reasons though. At least this one is focused completely on Frogger. In fact, the worst level in the game is the underwater one where it goes away from the classic gameplay which is quite telling. The gameplay’s not bad there or anything, it’s just a lot more sluggish and doesn’t feel as natural as the others.
I’ll give the game credit for the various bosses though. They’re fairly unique and do have you try a lot of different things. One that was good in particular was the final boss. You have to move really fast if you don’t want to be caught unprepared. A single change in trajectory and suddenly you’re on the back foot. You have to jump across lava while dodging the attacks which really takes a lot of concentration. It took me several tries before I was able to take this guy down for good.
The graphics are fairly decent. Nothing to write home about but the levels look good and the character models are on point. For the GBA era this was definitely as good as you would hope. The soundtrack isn’t particularly memorable though. It all felt like rather generic tunes so you’ll forget them all almost instantly.
I suppose the main gimmick for this game is how you can use the various relics at your disposal. They give you new abilities in the game although most of them aren’t all that helpful. Instead of being able to use your tongue to grab items from afar like in previous games Frogger relies on the backpack to do that now. The best relic though is the one that temporarily stops time. Now that is handy even if the charge runs out very quickly. It doesn’t take too long to charge if you’re patient enough.
The downside of this mechanic is that you can only equip two items at once. Jumping counts as an item by the way so for the most part you’ll probably just be holding one other item. I would have preferred each item get a button so you could equip them all. Although, I suppose in that case one item may have gone to the L button which I am unable to use on my old DS so perhaps that is for the best. It’s not the most intuitive feature but at least it adds some sci-fi to Frogger.
In terms of replay value you can go back through the levels to get a bunch of coins and buy all the collectibles at the shop. They’re quite expensive though so you may end up spending even more time in the post game than on the story. Hopefully you at least get a bonus cutscene or something. Admittedly I haven’t looked it up although the game is so obscure it’s possible that nobody has posed the results of that online anyway. So in case there is no reward, proceed at your own peril. If you like the game a lot though I suppose it may be worth it.
Overall, Frogger’s Journey is a fun game. I always tend to enjoy this kind of gameplay style since it really makes you think and strategize. It’s not quite as good as the last GBA adventure but it’ll hold your attention all the way through. This is not a particularly long game so you can probably beat it in a weekend. It took me around 4 hours to complete and I did die quite a bit on the final boss. Also, make sure you don’t spend any coins on the collectibles until you beat the game since you will need a lot of them to unlock the relics. As long as you have money you will not need to replay any of the old levels.
Overall 7/10
Stats time!
Play Time 4h 55m
Furniture 2/9
Curio Bags 18/147
Max Life Items 0/7
Mini Game Max Life 0
Hearts Lost 106
No stats this time since the game deletes its data at the end….
Oh no, this one was bad. This one was reeeeeally bad. It has to be one of the worst mobile games out there so my good run of mobile titles is definitely over between this one in Crash. This is an extremely lazy game to the point where you have to wonder how it’s official. Burning Godzilla is blue!! Yes you head that right…in this game Burning Godzilla is just the normal character model but turned blue. Oh no……this game wasn’t even trying.
Okay so lets get into it. The game only has a single main theme so get ready to hear this forever. The game starts with two guys throwing info dump at each other. Effectively they decide to pray to a shrine and Godzilla appears. These two can create Kaiju out of prayers…..but only temporarily. After 9000 seconds the Kaiju will die of old age or just wander off. The cutscene’s kind of meta so maybe he just leaves. Now that they have a Kaiju I suppose we’re going to save the world, fight other Kaiju or do something like that right? WRONG!
The two guys decide to have Godzilla race against other Kaiju. And that’s the extent of the game. Now you may be thinking this can be cool as you control Godzilla against these other Kaiju and use attacks to slow them down though. That’d be fun so of course that’s now what happens. The A.I. controls Godzilla completely. Wanna know what you can do? You can change the camera angles which has absolutely 0 impact on the race and you can cheer for Godzilla which makes him happy and speeds him up ever so slightly. Fortunately there is a skip option so after a few seconds you can skip to the end of the race. Your cheers barely have an impact as he’ll usually win even if you skip the race so I recommend doing that.
You can already see how futile this feels. I’m just getting started too. So in the hub world you can feed the people praying to Godzilla so they pray harder….it also extends their life. They’ll die in around 600 seconds otherwise. You can use gems to buy(?) more followers so maybe instead of dying if you stop feeding them it just means they won’t bother to pray anymore. You can also use gems to upgrade your forest.
Now the kicker, the game uses a time system. So all those upgrades you spent on the shop? All gone as soon as you participate in any kind of race…which you’re supposed to do. Your Kaiju also loses a lot of his remaining time left on the planet if you race. Yet, that’s the only thing to do in the game so why wouldn’t you race? There are 38 levels in the game. I managed to clear around 24-25 of them. Its a little tedious though because only 2 levels show up at a time and sometimes they’re both old. You have to keep exiting and re-entering the menu to shuffle the levels until a new one shows up.
At least you have a sense of progression though right? Wrong! When your Kaiju dies all of your data is erased as well. Yes, any record of your completing a single level is gone. You lose all of your apples, gems, followers, milestones, everything. The only thing that carries over is a fraction of your original Kaiju’s stats so your next one will be stronger. At least you’ll get a new one next time right? No, not that either. You have to pay 2 bucks a piece if you want any other Kaiju. Otherwise you’ll keep on getting color swapped Godzillas to play around with.
I admit that as it is I never like when games don’t let you control a character at all. Still, it could have at least tried to be decent but with the game completely erasing your data every time your Kaiju dies (Every 9000 seconds and you lose 200 seconds every time you enter a race) then there is really no point. The entire game feels completely pointless if it’s going to be erasing your data like that. Why bother getting invested or trying to have a good time if it’s just going to be like that? The game is punishing you for playing it a lot since you can keep the game off which will postpone how long your Kaiju has until it dies.
The writing is terrible as well. The info dump from the two characters at the beginning is handled poorly. They’re both talking in circles about things that don’t even matter while not even properly touching on the mechanics of the game. Instead they lazily tell you to just read the help section in the menu at the end. If you’re going to do that then don’t have a half hearted tutorial at the beginning.
The graphics are also awful. This is the kind of game that will forever taint the image of mobile games for someone. These have to be the least detailed character models I’ve seen in a long time. I’m sure a Godzilla fan with some good computer programs would be able to churn out something better in a day. It feels like the studio was given the budget of a snickers bar to come up with this. It would explain why there is only a single mode here and virtually no budget. The game still has the nerve to ask you for a lot of money to upgrade your facilities and buy new Kaiju. They’ll all be deleted within 9000 seconds anyway so why would you possibly spend that kind of money (20-50 for bundles)?
Overall, maybe I got spoiled by the first Godzilla mobile game which was actually great but this one was shockingly bad. It’s the kind of game you want to finish up and delete right away. Having the game delete my data made that a whole lot easier. This is the first of the 3 mobile games from Toho that were being hyped up and now I’m worried for the next two. I just downloaded the second game. While it’s too early for me to pass judgment I am a little worried. The next game has the exact same musical track, character designs, menu layouts, etc. It seems to be a clone, only this one is about destruction and you can move around. I just hope that doesn’t mean it also has a time system because that will absolutely be super annoying. This is easily the worst mobile game I’ve ever played in my life, I highly recommend staying far away from it.
Overall 2/10
Looks like it’s time for another comedy film involving a main character who’s in over his head and villains running around. The Gazebo is a solid film all around with a lot of suspense and crazy antics going on the whole time. This kind of film always has a lot of replay value and with the writing on point, it’s a film you can basically recommend to anyone. I can’t say I would ever be tempted to add a Gazebo to my backyard though.
Elliott is a writer/director who is super stressed out all the time. His blood pressure is up and the guy hasn’t been sleeping very well. Part of the reason for this is that he’s being blackmailed by a crook over an affair he had a while back. The guy is threatening to take this to the magazines and Elliott’s wife Nell would end up finding out. Elliott has been paying the guy off but at this point he’s pretty much out of money. He could sell the house but even after sabotaging it, Nell doesn’t want Elliott to sell it. Elliott believes he only has one option here…he has to murder the blackmailer.
Of course the whole film would have been over if Elliott had just told Nell from the start or better yet…if he had simply not had the affair at the start. He has a great marriage right now so that was definitely a terrible move. Even though it’s an event from before the film even started, it does mean that he’s not quite as sympathetic as he would be otherwise. He certainly goes in depth with his plan to wreck the house though. Whoever gets it next will definitely be in a whole lot of trouble.
For Elliott’s character, the fun is often in seeing him panic all the time. His voice cracks quite a lot as he really isn’t used to doing this kind of thing. There also tend to be a lot of people making house calls so his plans are interrupted a whole lot. Keeping a secret in a house like this is awful hard for him and the Gazebo ends up making things a lot trickier for him even though he initially thought it would save him a lot of trouble.
Meanwhile Nell is really solid here and she is the best character here. She defends Elliott a lot when the police come along and is doing well balancing her work career and home lifestyle. The Gazebo may not have thrilled Elliott but it was a nice thought since she was trying to get him a peaceful place to work. I also like how she handled a similar blackmail scheme that was targeted at her. She’s definitely not a character who stays on the defensive.
Elliott has a best friend named Harlow…but that guy is definitely pretty suspect. He does get a little overly familiar with Nell which Elliott notices and while it may just be the guy trying to be friendly…I wouldn’t trust him either. Harlow is trying to just do his duty as a detective so naturally some suspicion falls on Elliott. Ultimately you do get the impression he doesn’t want Elliott to be guilty but the hero does make himself seem super suspicious the whole time.
Elliott did adopt a pigeon named Herman early on in the film which was nice. The pigeon gets a solid role here and is always around to keep things light. He even had a solid role in the climax which was nice to see. The final scene made for one last gag to end things off on that even made a good amount of sense. I could see the event happening especially since caps are easily replaceable.
There are also a few supporting characters running around like the guy in charge of installing the Gazebo. That guy was cool and had great customer service. He did everything he could to maintain the Gazebo and even gave a lot of free advice. Then you have the lady trying to sell the house. She was certainly dedicated as she even worked after 10PM.
I feel like the various time periods mentioned in the film had to low key be a bit of a parody or part of the humor though. The construction guys would show up at 10:30PM, the lady showed people around the house close to 11:00PM, the best friend randomly entered the main character’s house after 1:30AM to chat, etc. It seems like the film intentionally had everyone enter the house super late and you just wonder if everything would usually be that late. Even Nell apparently always gets home close to midnight so I guess the shows are always late night plays. That part makes the most sense since if that’s the schedule then it’ll always be the same. The rest felt a little suspect.
The Gazebo is certainly a funny film most of the time but you also do get some scenes that feel like they have real danger to them. One such scene is when the villains capture Nell for example or when the blackmailer calls. The movie does a good job of building up some tension there to offset the rather light hearted nature of the film. On the whole I’d say it’s definitely a cheerful movie of course but it does have range.
Unsurprisingly the writing in the movie is very good. The characters all sound quite reasonable and even when hurling insults they tend to be polite. Well, Elliott is pretty direct in how he talks to people so he can just throw insults out rather plainly. While I wouldn’t say this is a film that is built around a bunch of twists, there is one particular aspect involving Elliott’s big confrontation that plays out throughout the movie. It takes a while before you know everything that happened as each character slowly gives Elliott more information that completely changes the situation every time. You have expect him to have a heart attack by the end.
Overall, The Gazebo is a fun film. It’s got a solid blend of funny scenes and some tension as Elliott continues to dig a deeper and deeper hole for himself. Every time a character misinterprets the situation and throws him a life line, he manages to get himself right back into trouble again. It’s a movie where the humor has held up quite well and the writing is good as expected. With a satisfying conclusion at the ready, this film won’t disappoint if you’re looking for a good time.
Overall 7/10
Tenet is a film that certainly got a lot of hype before it came out. You really would see it just about everywhere and the trailer promised to bring in quite a lot of concepts. Tenet definitely delivers on bringing in an intricate experience. While I would say the film itself may end up getting lost in its own concepts, it makes for a pretty solid film that keeps up with Nolan’s previous adventures.
The movie starts with the main character in a pretty tough mission and unfortunately he isn’t able to get out in time. He’s captured by the villains and his whole team is murdered. He manages not to cave in when they start torturing him though and tries to eat his cyanide pill, only it was a fake. He wakes up back in a hospital where he is recruited into a global secret organization known as Tenet. They use technology from the future to keep the present in safe hands. Right now, a force is threatening to unleash World War III using this technology. The only lead is a man named Sator so our hero is going to have to find out what is going on by learning about him.
There’s a lot going on here right from the start. There are also a lot of plot twists and new developments of course along with time loops so you do want to keep track of things. The main concept here is the introduction of the “Inverted” premise. For example, an inverted bullet is one that not been fired yet, but it still exists anyway so you can fire it. Essentially you are reversing cause and effect.
As a quick aside, I always thought that would be a really useful power. In Fate, Lancer’s Gae Bulg has this ability and yet it has never worked a single time in every Fate media I’ve seen. It’s a shame because there’s a lot of potential there. Back to Tenet though, it rarely seems to work here either so maybe reversing these things isn’t as effective as I thought it would be? It’s interesting to see the bullet holes before the bullet appears and things like that though. An inverted nuke could even destroy the past according to a character in the film.
Mainly all of this works due to time loops. Tenet follows the time travel theory I like where you can always go to the past and change things as opposed to it being stuck by destiny. In a sense all timelines run at the same time so when you change it you probably end up creating another verse but to the characters here there is only one base universe. Due to that, in a way they will keep on reliving the same days for all of eternity with no end but each self only experiences it once.
I like time travel so these things are always pretty interesting. That said, at times it does feel like Tenet is trying to hard to throw in a bunch of new elements that it doesn’t actually consider how they would all work together and gets lost in its own experience. For example, take the Inverted humans. (Yes, humans can go inverted as well) We are shown that they can create body doubles by time leaping more than once and can invert at will. At one point the hero is fighting one agent and every time he comes close to winning the guy would rewind time a bit to try different tactics. No matter what he tried, the hero would keep countering but with unlimited retries the guy would eventually find a good option.
How can a normal human beat them? At the end of the film we have a chaotic battle where there are 4 sets of teams fighting, two inverted and two normals. The normals are holding their own though and that’s hard to buy considering all of the advantages that the inverted ones have. It’s hard for me to see how they would lose. If you take this a step further, you also don’t see how the future team can possibly lose since they started this and have the full glimpse into the past. Keep in mind that the hero is absolutely essential to crushing the villains and he wouldn’t have been around for the first loop.
That gets you into a debate on time loops itself though. For a time travel film that’s why you can typically protect yourself from official plot holes. If something doesn’t make sense, you can say that it’s just because it hasn’t been explained to the protagonist but for another character it would make sense. Time loops aren’t meant to make a lot of sense either because somehow they started without an entrance point and in theory there should be no way to end it or it would have already ended unless you have a specific point of entry. So I wouldn’t say any of these things are plot holes, but more like logical inconsistencies where I would argue the heroes never would have stood a chance. If you ask me, the inverted humans should have just been a little nerfed. Take away their ability to rewind time at will and I think that solves everything.
Back to the film, while the story and time travel is a major part there’s still other things to talk about. For starters, the writing is pretty solid here. You couldn’t even attempt to do such a grand plot without good writing and this film pulls it off pretty well. From the start you’re definitely interested in what is going on. I would actually say the first half beats the second half in that regard. I liked the mysteries going on as the hero tries to find things out. Their “Mission Impossible” on breaking into a building and also breaking into the safe later on were a lot of fun.
The movie has strong dialogue throughout and partnering that up with these stealth missions worked really well. In a way you’re even more invested in these moments since the poor hero is really thrown into a rather strange situation. While the climax has a ton of action, with all of the time looping going on you don’t feel the same amount of tension since you can always redo it if things go wrong. It made for some nice visuals but it’s a bit of an emptier climax than you would expect.
The actual ending of the film is quite excellent though. We get a great final conversation between two great characters and one sub par guy who always follows rules even when they’re awful before cutting to the “present” for one last great scene of closure. It ties back to another scene really well and delivers an excellent final line for the hero. I was definitely quite pleased with the ending that’s for sure.
One plot I didn’t really care for was with Kat and Sator though. Sator’s the main villain here who is also an abusive husband who has his wife Kat trapped in a relationship she can’t get out of. Part of the drama here is that she is hoping the hero can get her out of this but he can’t get rid of Sator directly without causing more trouble. I wouldn’t say Sator ends up being even a remotely decent villain. He certainly knows how to describe the violent ways he ends his enemies but that’s about it. The guy can’t fight for beans and is only in such a powerful position because he lucked onto a great connection with future tech. Kat’s plot is definitely quite tragic so you’re rooting for her to get out of this, but it’s not the kind of tragic element you really needed in this film. The plot comes full circle and does tie in so it’s not extra baggage or anything but I would have just substituted it with something else. Their scenes tend to be the weakest ones in the film.
Tenet is at its best when the main character’s partner Neil is around. I liked this guy from the start. He’s quick on the uptake so no matter how crazy things sound, he wraps his head around it. He’s not constantly being shocked at everything or panicking. He’s just ready to get the job done no matter how dangerous it gets. He was easily my favorite character in the film and the hero should definitely be glad he was around.
The hero is also solid. In case you haven’t noticed by now, he never shares his name in the film which is why I haven’t said it. It’s an interesting approach, almost like a video game since you can make his name out to be anything. He gets the job done and is always ready to make the right call which is also like something out of a game. As a result I could certainly say he’s an ideal lead and someone you can count on as well. Teaming up with Neil, the two of them could clear any mission here.
Overall, Tenet is definitely a solid film. I can see how the plot could make this a trickier watch but films that go for deep/ambitious stories end up being really well done when executed well. Sometimes it doesn’t work out so well like the Godzilla trilogy or the final Iron-Man anime film which went for deep themes but it felt more on the empty side. This one may try at times to get things a little too entangled but I did like the core concepts introduced here. As long as you like a well written mystery/thriller then you’ll like this one. There’s also one theme that plays many times during the film which is quite catchy. It has a nice ominous feel to it. If the film starts to get too crazy, don’t overthink it and focus on the main crisis at play here of stopping WWIII. If we do get a sequel that would definitely be pretty interesting but in a sense I think the loop would need to be broken to get some more tension in here unless you have the sequel take place far enough in the loop where we’re not sure of how it ends.
Overall 7/10
Whenever you have a film about a mobster trying to go legit it tends to be quite fun. This one is definitely no exception as things get quite tricky for Remy as he tries to do things the right way. The dialogue is quick and snappy with a lot of tight pacing throughout. Those are all the hallmarks of a good gem in the rough and this movie doesn’t disappoint. You may not have heard of it before watching, but you won’t forget about it afterwards.
The movie starts with the era of Prohibition ending. People are throwing parties and drinking as much as they can to celebrate. The only people not happy are Remy and his cronies since they had made a ton of money selling beer on the black market. They were the only game in town so everyone had to buy from them. Now that it’s legal again that ends their racket. Remy has decided to go straight though. He’s convinced that people will still buy his beer so he turns his headquarters into an official brewery. Unfortunately nobody wants to buy from them though since Remy’s beer is the absolute worst. He doesn’t realize how bad it tastes though. The worst part is that he is flat broke. Will he be able to earn enough money before the government takes his home away?
There’s certainly a lot of tension for Remy here since any day now he will be out of business. The bank certainly doesn’t hold back when they are coming to take their funds. They won’t listen to any talk about extensions or things like that. They just want their money and they want it right away. Naturally there’s some temptation to go back to his crooked ways as well so this is something he’s trying really hard not to do.
A fun part of the film is how into it his wife Nora gets. She really transitions into a formal housewife right away. Occasionally she slips back into more casual terms when talking though but it’s hard to keep up the act 100% at first. The mobsters are less thrilled about this to be sure but they keep on following orders as needed. They also try to help with getting the money and everything. Sometimes it works and sometimes it just makes things even tougher so it always depends.
The movie’s humor tends to be on point though. The jokes move at a rapid pace to the point where old jokes can end up turning into new ones as the film goes on. A lot of the time you can see some of the jokes coming as the characters have misunderstandings but the execution is always on point so it works out. Each character is good at talking fast and subtly insulting the others without it being too obvious. It’s certainly a talent and a pretty good one to have at that.
I should mention there’s also another plot going on here. Remy’s daughter Mary is engaged to someone and she wants him to finally meet her folks. What he didn’t tell her is that he has become a state trooper which is naturally not an occupation that Remy is a huge fan of. This leads to a lot of drama between them. Remy’s got a pretty tough personality so he easily walks all over that guy. Even this plot is used to contribute to the ending of the film but as a whole also serves to keep the movie nice and packed with a bundle of plots.
We also can’t forget the kid. Remy has a tradition where he takes one of the kids from the orphanage over to his home for the summer. It’s surprisingly a really nice thing of Remy to do so even when he was a crook at least the guy did give back to the community. This time he ends up picking the absolute worst kid at the orphanage and this guy is naturally going to cause trouble. He smokes, drinks, and in general has a bad attitude the whole time. Fortunately Remy’s group are used to dealing with tricky characters. In particular the main minion, Mike always ends up having the upper hand with the kid.
He did surprisingly well in fact. Usually the kid gets away with absolutely everything but here Mike was always on him in an instant. That’s definitely what I like to see here since it can be annoying to see a kid just wrecking everything. Here that never happens and the kid even helps out a bit even if it wasn’t his intention. With how the gang was helping to correct his spoiled attitude maybe he will even be a better kid when he eventually makes it back to the orphanage.
What really helps this film maintain its status as a great film is how well written the characters are. For example, Remy makes a lot of mistakes but he is still a pretty cunning guy who is always ready for what comes next. With people constantly throwing new twists and wrinkles at him the guy still comes up with new plans on the spot. Nothing can slow him down. When he ends up having to think of a way to get around dead bodies, loads of cash, and a state trooper he is able to conquer each obstacle. It’s easy to see why he became the leader of the mob.
Overall, A Slight Case of Murder is a great film that I would definitely recommend. At the same time it’s a fairly simple movie so there’s not a whole lot to say. At its core it’s a comedy where everything always happens in a rather extreme way so Remy is kept on the edge the whole time. The writing is on point and the movie is really over in a flash. The sheer high tempo of the jokes and scenes can be overwhelming if this isn’t your genre of comedy but I would definitely say to give it a shot and see what you think. I’m confident you’ll leave with a satisfied experience.
Overall 8/10
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