Category Archives: Reviews

Pokemon: Path to the Peak Review

Posted on by
2


Pokemon has had quite a few of these short online series so far and this is another fun one to add to the batch. It takes place in the real world though so don’t expect a lot of action or anything like that but it’s definitely a pretty fun story. A good slice of life where you see what it’s like to be entering tournaments. Reminds me of my professional days playing Super Smash Bros.

The main character is a little girl named Ava who is having a hard time making any friends at school. One day she finds out about a Pokemon card club and thanks to an invite from one of the members she is ready to make her mark on the world. It turns out that her mom has a deck that can be used as well so this is perfect. Will Ava be able to make a lot of friends or will this end up being a much bigger deal than she had ever planned on? She will meet a bunch of friends and foes on this big adventure!

Each episode is fairly short so even if you merge them all together the series is under an hour. As a result it does go by very fast and you wish we could have had more episodes. The fights mainly have to be off screen’d except for one big challenge in each episode. Considering that we go through 3 different tournaments you can imagine how much time had to be cut out. I suppose the battles were not exactly the point of the adventure but regardless I’m always up for seeing them.

I used to collect Pokemon cards as a kid and had thousands of them but I really kept them to look at and didn’t actually use them in combat. So seeing the rules here was cool. I’m still a bit mixed on how you use the Pokemon energy to enhance your fighters but even without that you can follow along with what’s happening pretty well. The tournament nerves are addressed here which is nice because you definitely will feel a bit of a tingle for your first battles. How could you not right? It’s such a huge experience and not one that you are likely to forget. Definitely no shot of that.

Ava perhaps gets a little too good too quickly as she goes from not knowing how to play the game to being world champion level rather quickly. We can assume some time skips in between the episodes but nothing all that substantial considering that the designs don’t really change. It is the ultimate dream of all players to be the champ though so of course that does help make the series even more engaging.

The animation is decent. It’s clear they aren’t trotting out the A team here and the character designs take a little getting used to, but the fights with the Pokemon are fun. The scenes are brief of course but I could definitely watch a full Pokemon anime with those kinds of action scenes. The colors are vibrant and it’s nice seeing all of the attacks in motion. Make this a full length TV show so we can have more of those epic battles.

That’s really my only issue in general which is that more time would have been nice to really develop the characters and get more action scenes instead. Everything here feels like it’s on double speed since they have to move fast and while the stories are still enjoyable, you can see how they’re rushed. For example Ava takes one loss in tournament and then suddenly she basically wants to quit on the game forever. I just have a few problems with this.

For starters, that means she has been cruising through all of her tournaments up to that point without losing a match? That’s making her a bit too good at the game. Additionally she has lost matches before like the very first one so that felt like a real big overreaction to cause some drama. Personally I just didn’t buy it….I didn’t buy it at all! It does make the final boss look a bit more impressive because he takes his loss with the utmost grace. At the end of the day it’s just a tournament after all. Of course it always sucks to lose but to rage quit your career out of that was pretty rough.

There’s also one point where all of Ava’s cards fly away and so the team has to help her recover her deck. It’s a pretty intense moment but I dare say there wasn’t enough time to properly have this happen in the show. It’s short enough as it is without adding a big moment like this. So the show does sometimes bite off a bit more than it can chew and as long as you view this as an abridged series of sorts then you’re all set. I would have liked to have seen Ava have more of a rage mode against the first bully for beating up her father though. That was pretty twisted at least within the show’s context. Seriously it was so unexpected too because that just comes out of nowhere.

I was glad to see Ava dominate in that matchup. It would be nice if she was a little more confident and able to jump into the action though. She’s not a bad lead but makes enough mistakes where she wasn’t too high for me. I cut her a bit of slack because the whole point of her character is that she’s a bit socially awkward and has a hard time fitting in. Part of her character growth is getting past that which I get. There are just some points where I can’t cut quite as much slack like when she ran off to retire early. You just can’t really do that at such a late stage when her friends had really bet everything on her. Also coming in second usually gets you some kind of prize so that’s not bad right?

For the other characters, her main friend was nice enough. He helped teach her the game but at the same time he wasn’t about to go easy on her either and I respect that. Ultimately if you teach someone to win the right away as opposed to always holding back then you are setting them up for success. It’s a very good thing without a doubt. The ex bully also ended up being a nice person. Going after Ava’s Dad was a low blow but after that she was definitely someone that you could count on through thick and thin.

Ava’s parents were good although a bit underwhelming. It was disappointing to see her father get completely destroyed at the Pokemon tournament while not even knowing what was happening. Cmon he has been playing for a long while so he should at least know the score right? Then the twist about Ava’s mom rage quitting after a loss was pretty bad too. I guess it runs in the family there but nah that wasn’t very satisfying. I was instead hoping she would jump in as a final boss at the end. As I said before I did like the final boss though. He took the loss like a champ and kept on moving. Plus I liked his confidence.

The series is aimed at a fairly young audience so there may be some moments that aren’t as engaging or turns that don’t go in the epic direction that you would like but in the end the writing is consistently solid and that’s exactly what you are looking for in a title like this. It all goes by fast and there really aren’t any negatives that would make me pause. I could also easily rewatch this one at any time even if it wouldn’t b

Overall, Pokemon Path to the Peak is a pretty fun series. It may go a tad fast but it was really cool seeing all of the big battles and how things progressed. There really is nothing like playing in a full tournament series like this. The stress from playing in front of a crowd but also that feeling of claiming victory. I don’t know about you but my hands tend to shake with excitement in times like that. There’s a reason why competitive titles like Blue Lock, Haikyu, Yugioh, and Cardfight get so big. It’s because people love watching those titles and putting themselves into the mix. And why not right? It’s just so much fun to picture all of that happening. I hope we continue to get more Pokemon specials and in the meantime you should absolutely check this one out. It’s just very wholesome and uplifting.

Overall 6/10

Mystery Tower Review

Posted on by
Reply


Mystery Tower is one of those games that’s really unique so I have to give it a lot of credit there. That said, I don’t think it’s a game that would remain fun for too long. I played a decent amount of levels and the puzzles can be fun but after a point you’re just ready for the next thing. On one hand it’s impressive that they made a whole game where you basically just use one button but on the other hand that means the gameplay will inevitably be rather limited. There’s only so much you can do with that after all so eventually you just have to press on.

Basically what happens is in each level you have to get to a door which lead you into the next level. To do that you have to arrange blocks just right. You can spin and move them, also you can cause large domino effects by moving the bottom block from a tower. If they fall into an abyss then that’s game over. Additionally you die if any enemy comes into contact with you. So that’s simple enough right? Just move around and eventually you will have the right block in place.

Of course this wouldn’t be a full game if it was that easy right? So it’s a lot harder than it sounds. To give you an example, you’ll have a door high in the air and have to stack the boxes up just fight. You can only jump up one level at a time so if you lift the box from the wrong side then you won’t be able to jump up because each box has an awkward lant where only one side is jumpable. Then there is another issue on top of that, if you make the wrong choice then you’re done for the level. You can end up being soft locked out and will need to rewind or just let an enemy bump into you.

You also can’t afford to try too much trial and error because the amount of times you can lift something in one level is limited. If you try to exceed that limit then you end up losing a life. Now you’re seeing where the difficulty lies eh? I had to restart the levels over and over again in order to get as far as I did and even then I was unable to make it even halfway through the game. It would definitely take a lot of time and serious dedication to actually make it all the way. I’d say that would be something to really consider at some point but only once I was really done with every game and every post game. So effectively never to be honest.

The graphics aren’t bad. They look pretty decent for a NES title. Nothing spectacular or anything but they work well enough with what you’ve got here. It’s always clear what is going on in the game so you’re not confused. The soundtrack is definitely a lot more bland and not particularly memorable but it’s fine. So on the technical aspects the game is certainly acceptable, I really didn’t have any problems there.

One thing the game is lacking is a real story. That’s the kind of thing that can easily enhance any title. Throw in some kind of story here with a few text cutscenes every few levels and it would give me a massive incentive to actually go ahead and play through all the levels. Don’t underestimate how effective a good story mode is to taking a game to the next level. Yes that would have been excellent!

Overall, Magical Tower is an interesting game to give a spin for a little while. If you have the Nintendo Switch Online then there is definitely no reason not to play it. That said, I just don’t see it ending up as one of the all time big titles. It really couldn’t keep my attention for more than an hour. I can respect the puzzles here because nothing is hidden. They’re all just brain teasers that you have to figure out but beyond that there isn’t anything extra to the game. The puzzles are literally the only feature around and so that’s just not going to do it. Maybe if they ever make a big budget remake of this it could be a little better.

Overall 5/10

Fifa 20 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for another Fifa title but I have to admit that this one doesn’t really have anything super new and exciting. It’s basically the same as Fifa 19 although I suppose you could say that for pretty much any sport game with its sequels. They just don’t innovate much so you either love what they have in store for you or you don’t. I’d still like to see a more dynamic level of gameplay like Mario strikers but a lot of people do like these games so they’re doing something right.

There are a ton of modes here as expected from training to minigames and of course the actual thing. I went right into the main game mode to try my luck and at least I did force a pretty solid 0-0 loss in sudden death, a 3-1 win, and then a 1-5 loss. So the results varied quite a bit, it’s hard for me to recreate any of my goals. I would say I haven’t yet mastered the patterns so I would need some serious training in Blue Lock to actually get to that point. Still, I gotta say that scoring feels pretty good so that’s better than in some of the previous games where I couldn’t score at all.

One thing I definitely do like a lot about the game is how during the loading screens you can practice your shooting and running. It gives you something to do while the actual match is being prepared and absolutely destroys having a traditional loading screen. This is really the way to go without a doubt. Even in the drills I found it hard to score though. I’d say my main issue with the game is it’s very much simulation style but for that reason you can’t turn and move the ball as you would want too. I’d like to be able to turn on a dime and really control where I’ve got the ball.

The older games all feel a lot smoother on this even if perhaps they were less realistic. This one just takes things too far into the other direction. Ah well, there is a lot of depth to the gameplay with the controls so you can absolutely get better and better if you put the time in. Train hard enough and learn all of the moves and you should be in a really good spot. It’s just no walk in the park so you will definitely need to apply yourself if you want to pull this off.

The graphics are naturally very solid. You can tell right away that this is a very modern game with top of the line visuals. There isn’t much of a memorable soundtrack at all but that’s fine for a sports title. You will be totally focused on the match itself anyway. So I would say that EA did not hold back on the technical elements and to their credit, they never really do. They always go all out with the sport titles and in exchange they get tons of sales so it is truly a win/win for all parties involved. That’s the best way to go.

We’ll see if Fifa 21 shakes things up. I’m definitely a few years behind on this franchise but I always like waiting a few years on these compared to Madden which I like to get a lot sooner. There’s just less of a rush and it’s a huge incentive to be able to get a game for around 5-10 bucks instead of 60 right? I suppose in a way I’m supporting these games in churning out more by doing this but ultimately it’s super negligible since I’m really just picking up a used copy which someone else already got. If they ever make a true Mario strikers that plays like the original? Then that would definitely be a different story!

Overall, Fifa 20 may not change anything up but it’s still a fairly high effort soccer game. There’s enough of a foundation here where it probably doesn’t have to add anything for 20 years and it will still be getting tons of sales and recognition. That’s just how big Fifa is as a brand and how effective it is. Nothing is stopping EA at this point. It’s still not super fun for me against computers but I think playing some live games would be entertaining enough even if I would probably get smoked. I like to think I would absorb some good techniques from playing a real opponent as there’s only so much you can learn from a CPU. The game is really cheap so you may as well check it out.

Overall 6/10

Kirby’s Star Stacker Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s always neat to play a new Kirby game and especially when there’s one that you hadn’t even heard of before. I definitely didn’t know anything about this game but I have to say that it holds up pretty well. I do wish it was translated though because it can be hard to find the mode that you want to play. I ended up spending most of my time in some kind of unlimited survival mode. I made it all the way past 600 matches there which was cool but naturally the story mode is more fun.

It’s hard to say what the plot is per say but it seems like some kind of dark spirit is taking over all of Kirby’s friends. The young hero must now defeat each and every one of them in order to bring them back to their senses. It won’t exactly be an easy feat and yet it is something that has to be done. Without the powers of Kirby the world is doomed. Are you ready to put your matching skills to the test?

I’d always have a bit of a hard time describing exactly what the gameplay is but the best way for me to describe it is that it’s sort of like Tetris but instead of fitting shapes together, you’re matching blocks based on color. They are all in the same shape though. The more connections you make, the higher your opponent’s tower goes. Whoever is unable to keep up with the rise and has the tower go past the top of the screen first loses. This is definitely not for the faint of heart for that reason as the speed will continue to increase as the game goes on. There is no safe area! You really have to make sure you keep up.

The soundtrack is pleasant and charming enough as you go through the game. I feel like Nintendo kept giving this their A game even though it’s not exactly one of the mainstream titles. Additionally the visuals are solid and have held up well over the years. I definitely had no issues there.

In theory you’ll easily complete this game since you can rewind and use access points but the rounds are fast enough where you never feel tempted to do so. With all the RNG running around and how much of a good time you will be having regardless, you’re just ready to dive in and have some fun. One thing to note is that in the Kirby version of this gameplay there are stars running around in addition to the usual colors. Think of the stars as a wild card, they can help you connect to any color. So if you have two reds, if you have a star in the middle it will connect them for you.

It’s a bit of a tricky dynamic to get used to compared to the normal rules but it does help this one stand out. There are also bombs around but personally I actually found those to make things a little more difficult. They would ruin combos I was getting ready to use rather than actually helping me out of a pinch. That’s the way that I saw it at least. Still, just go for those combos and ignore the gimmicks around you. Eventually you’ll be where you want to be, at the top of the rankings taking down all opponents!

Overall, Kirby’s Star Stacker is a pretty fun game. There isn’t a whole lot to say about a game like this because it’s all pretty straight forward but that doesn’t take away from the experience. I had a good time with it and it would be even better if the game was translated. I can’t believe this didn’t come to America sooner. If it was in the mobile age then I think things would have been different because this kind of game sells really well on the phone. The gameplay is easy and addictive so all you need is a quick story and you’re set. There’s a good amount of content here and since it’s free if you already have the Switch Online, I recommend checking it out.

Overall 7/10

Prom Night (2008) Review

Posted on by
Reply


Why’s this poster so awful?? Seriously you can’t tell anything about the film from this and if anything it just makes you want to stay away. Trust me this is not the way to advertise any kind of film. Regardless this is a really bad title though so you will want to stay away. It ends up being a painful experience from start to finish with no real smart characters.

The movie starts off with Donna watching her family get murdered by a psychopath named Richard. We jump to the future where she is now being taken care of by her uncle and aunt. She is still rather traumatized but wants to at least try and enjoy her prom. It should be the perfect day and so she heads out to be with her friends. Unfortunately though Richard has escaped from prison and because everyone is incompetent in this film it took 3 days for the cops to be notified. They let the guardians know but instead of taking Donna out….they decide to let the prom continue since it would be too traumatic to cancel. Okay……how many victims will it take this time before Richard is stopped?

There are so many issues with this film but I think it’s safe to say that the biggest issue you will run into right away is just how depressing and mean spirited the film is. A high body count is to be expected but so many people keep dying and nobody is safe. A lot of these characters had nothing to do with the story and they’re still getting bumped off. Sure that’s technically true for a lot of slashers like this but I think part of the problem with having this take place in the school is you’re basically having a bunch of kids get murdered the whole time. We had an elementary school kid get bumped off in the intro even which is taking things a step farther.

Allowing the prom to continue is also complete insanity. Winn has a moment where he mentions that they don’t see any reason why Richard would come here. Really? They see no reason why the crazy psychopath who made it explicitly clear that he would do whatever it took to go back to Donna would try to attack her now that he’s broken out? That had to be one of the silliest lines in the film without a doubt. I could barely believe what I was hearing. Come on………come onnnnnnnnnnn.

Okay so the prom’s going to continue, but you’re going to let the hotel staff know that there’s a crazy guy on the lookout right? No, the hotel concierge asks the police officer if they should be afraid and he just says “Nah, probably nothing to worry about” and leaves. The hotel staff don’t know anything is wrong until near the end of the film so of course they start to get picked off too. I’d be fuming if I was the sole survivor from the hotel staff because that makes no sense.

Then of course Winn isn’t able to get the villain at the hotel so he tells the two police officers to keep a lookout at the house. Naturally both have to be completely isolated so taking them down is child’s play. Why even stay at the house? The first order of business should have been to take the characters over to the police station. Keeping them in the house that Richard knows the address of is crazy. Even worse is that Donna is kept to her room…where she is right next to a window. You can’t make this stuff up.

Now granted, Richard still shouldn’t have gotten as far as he does but apparently he is so skilled that he can take out virtually every opponent without making a sound. The house is also sound proof I guess because even with the door open and Donna screaming, the parents and Winn can’t hear her while not being all that far away? The amount of plot holes and stretches of imagination here are really pretty insane.

Going back to the tragic part though, it just feels like the film should have let more of the characters get a happy ending. Pretty much everyone was destroyed and the sole survivors are going to have a complex for the rest of their life. It doesn’t stop the film from having a fairly upbeat song for the credits but there’s nothing happy about the ending. There’s nothing really happy about the film in general which is something I have an issue with. A slasher film will rarely be happy of course but the tonal contrast here was a bit much. The film would try to be really happy at times and it didn’t work because obviously you can’t feel that good when everyone’s getting destroyed.

The film’s not as bloody as you would expect but it still tries to be as violent as possible within the confines of not being an R rated horror flick. Characters get stabbed tons of times and the deaths are all rather grisly. Nobody seems able to put up even the slightest amount of a fight against this guy and the whole film feels futile for the heroes. Every scene has so much build up that you see the deaths coming several minutes in advance which is annoying. There are a ton of fake jump scares but they’re always before the real death to the point where you can pretty much set your watch to them.

At one point Dillon even has a dream of the future about what’s about to happen and….she decides to do everything that she did in the dream anyway. A bit of an odd choice if you ask me, wouldn’t you want to not do what you did in the dream even if it wasn’t real? I just don’t see why you would actually try to copy your answers there. Seems like a recipe for disaster by any metric. It’s why hiding under the bed wouldn’t be a good idea since that worked last time so don’t do the same thing twice. It was also rough that she didn’t step in to save her mother. Obviously that’s easier said than done and in the moment it’s hard to make that decision but it’s yet another brutal scene. The cast of characters are all pretty forgettable and the romances are all paper thin. There’s just nothing of substance in this title. The film almost should have just played this off as part parody with the heroes deciding to have the prom party instead of cancelling it.

I keep going back to that because the whole scenario is absolutely crazy. Nothing makes sense in this film, people don’t act the way they should with a mass murderer on the loose with an obvious place of attack. At least in most films the characters reasonably don’t know where the villain will be but this time they actually do know. A whole lot of lives could have been saved if Winn did the responsible thing instead of waiting to see this all play out.

Overall, Prom Night is a film that you should absolutely avoid. There are no redeeming qualities to be found in this film. It starts off rather brutally and ends on that same note. There are no scenes that are actually all that happy because they are happening in the context of ugly things about to happen to the cast. There was basically no escape for them and any victory is a rather hollow one. The slasher genre tends to be doomed right from the jump and this film doesn’t do anything to convince you otherwise. It’s very by the numbers and for a genre like this that’s about as bad as it gets.

Overall 1/10

Living Review

Posted on by
2


Living is a movie about the meaning of life and coping with death. It makes for a decent movie even if some parts can be a bit drawn out. It’s likely hard to avoid that since they really want to freeze the film at some points to give you time to ponder about what’s going on as well. It just starts to show itself more in the ending as we jump between present and past several times. I personally would have kept the film chronological even if I see what they were going for there.

The movie starts off with Wakeling getting ready because it’s his first day at a new job. It’s one of those classic desk jobs with a lot of paperwork but unfortunately there is a ton of bureaucracy so it is hard to do anything. It’s also a very old school type job where you can’t ride in the same train as the boss and once you’re at work everyone is at the same table together. It honestly seems like the kind of job that is a dream come true if you get along with your colleagues but a complete nightmare when there are ever any problems because it’s deathly quiet as you’re all huddled in together. The boss Rodney is known as a very cold guy who only talks as needed. He’s not mean or anything but it’s just hard to connect with him.

One day Rodney goes to the doctor’s office and finds out that he is terminally ill with only 6 months left to live. He doesn’t really know who to turn to or to confide in because he has no real relationships. His relationship with his son has been strained since the guy married a lady who isn’t particularly pleasant and the guy’s rather spineless so that was game over. Eventually the only person he can find to talk to is Miss Harris who used to work at his company. He’s an old man and she’s fairly young so some gossip starts but he really has nobody else so they hang out and he tries to find some real purpose in his life. Can he do this with the final 6 months or is it game over?

Finding purpose in life is definitely something you want to do when you’re young because if you wait until the end like this then you can really get depressed. Some would say that life is what you make of it, others consider it a trial you must get through until you die and others would just say to live every day as if it’s your last and have a blast. People put their meaning in life in different things. Some do this through money, fame, fortune, friends, material desires, religion, politics, making a difference in the world, etc. Ultimately what you choose will greatly alter your perception of death and how you feel about this.

For example as a Christian I can look forward to death. However good Earth is, Heaven is infinitely better. There are no shortcuts there so you just have to accept Jesus Christ into your heart and live a full life but if you are given a diagnosis that you are going to die, it would be a positive thing. You would enjoy your last days as much as you could and then well, the trial is over. Not to be too blasé about it of course, I know plenty of Christians who still fear death and others who don’t fear it but want to last as long as possible. Everyone has different feelings about the subject and it’s fair to say that your thoughts about it are very likely to change once it actually happens to you. 6 months is a lot of time for some but barely any for others.

I would just say to always have some hobbies and things to keep you busy so if this were to happen you have things that you can do. I feel like not having hobbies is a very quick way to get depressed because then the days will feel long and you wonder what you are actually doing with yourself. Be careful on what you pair to your identity, what makes you tick. If you place it on something external like sports or politics then that can often backfire, you want to place your faith and personality on something you can more actively control so something directly in your life.

Now back to the film, unfortunately Rodney really doesn’t have anything. He sees his job as being pretty much pointless for a while there and he has no actual friends or anything that has made a lasting impact. This is what encourages him to finally do something really kind for someone and he works hard to help a local group with a playground they were trying to build. He opts to do something meaningful with the remainder of his life which makes for a pretty positive message in the film. I’d still say Rodney was depressed for most of the film and it took him a while to find his passion but at least he did before the end.

The film doesn’t end on a total happy note though. One character mentions how not everyone can ultimately turn their life around the way that he did and the ending heavily underscores that point. There is always a big difference between knowing what the right thing to do is and actually going ahead with it. It’s easy in the spur of the moment to say that you will do something but actually going through with it is another matter entirely. It would have been nice if the film could have had a brighter ending but it’s not tragic enough where it will hurt the score.

As mentioned before, the only thing keeping the movie from a higher score is that the pacing could really die down at times. You can only have so many lingering shots before you get the idea of how deep the scene is supposed to be. I would say the movie is quite clear with its messaging so the extra drawn out moments and such really aren’t necessary. The movie can really tell its own story quite well. The supporting characters also aren’t bad. Miss. Harris is probably the best one here as she did help Rodney a lot in finding his own peace and making his last 6 months be a positive experience. The rest of the staff ultimately didn’t step up.

Not like most of them had much of an option of course so I usually wouldn’t be dunking on them but the last scene was pretty bad. Also Rodney’s son looked pretty bad so while you feel bad for him in the ending, it really is on him. He should have made an effort to talk to his father before it was too late but he was just busy getting pushed around by his wife the whole time.

Overall, Living does a good job of being an emotional film where you get to wonder what you would do if you found out that you had a terminal illness. I would say to always remember that no diagnosis is perfect though so one recommendation is not to rack up a lot of debt. I’ve heard several stories where people did that but ended up living well past the designated death time and that became very troublesome. You should absolutely live large and have more fun than you normally would but do everything in moderation. Stronger miracles have happened in the past after all so you’ve always got a chance out there. I recommend this film if you don’t mind more of a slow burn title with a lot of drama. There aren’t any high action moments here after all but the writing is on point so I had a good time. It was somber without being too try-hard about it.

Overall 6/10

Temtem Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for another super long Switch game in Temtem. This one’s basically a Pokemon homage for the modern audience. In some ways it definitely surpasses Pokemon like the fact that the story can get a lot more out there but on the other hand it does have some extra issues like endless battles that do bog it down somewhat. So it’s a good game but not nearly as good as it could have been.

The game starts off simply enough with your character getting his first Temtem. He can finally travel the world and fight all of the Dojo Masters. Unfortunately his journey is interrupted by the fact that a big terrorist organization is making a move on the planet. They are building some kind of super Temtem to take over the world. The lead will have to stop these guys while also improving his skills, but what can one kid do?

Basically this is like the plot of the original Pokemon game but with a few additions and twists. Additionally the game definitely has fun being really self aware about the whole thing. You are often given 3 dialogue options, usually a nice one, a mean one, and a random one. I certainly had fun playing around with the responses. Note that this doesn’t actually change the story or anything like that but at the same time it does give the lead some personality. Also the characters do actually react to what you’re saying which is nice. In Harvestella this didn’t really happen as the two options were almost always pretty much identical.

I wouldn’t say that most of the characters are all that memorable but I did like the final boss because of how insane he got and I also enjoyed the general. The rival Max started out good but basically fell off a cliff. Where the game gets a bit dicey is it tries to be as edgy and modern as possible which works in some ways like this game having a body count and you getting to fight unwinnable battles. Where it doesn’t work is with the game getting rather PC and shoving a bunch of iffy romances at your face. The game constantly trying to ship me with the rival was pretty awful. At least there’s always an option for you to tell him to back off or just be really mean to keep it from happening but making that a main plot point was definitely not a good idea. A ton of the NPCs you beat up also have romance drama going on, at least two being story plots you can’t skip so the game wanted you to absolutely know where it stood on the gender politics. It’d be nice if all of that could have been sidelined so I can focus on the actual game!

To the rest of the plot, at least the lead actually has real character and can talk. That’s a big departure from the classic Pokemon games where this was absolutely not the case. Even now Pokemon doesn’t really do that and I think it will be years before it’s ready to be more of a full RPG the way this one was. The game doesn’t want to invite too many comparisons to Pokemon beyond all of the inevitable ones so it does go and switch all of the type advantages. Because of this it took me forever to learn them and even by the end I was mostly working off of memory from when I fought the Temtems. I still couldn’t tell you most of the types.

As this is one of those games where you are always online, the game is constantly saving. That’s good because the game crashed several times where I definitely would have lost some data but fortunately in this game when you restart it takes you to the exact point where it crashed. Literally if you’re mid battle you will respawn on the same turn within the same battle. So that was definitely cool. You also have a portable Pokemon center of sorts which you can use to recover all of your health once after every poke center visit. This is huge because otherwise I would have to be going there constantly.

As I mentioned earlier there are tons and tons of fights and they generally keep really close pace with your Temtem. So you can probably beat maybe 2 of them before you have to go and heal. So with this item you can do 4 fights before you have to reset. There is no EXP share or anything like that so most likely by the end of the game you will have 2 super powerful Temtem and the other 4 would be fodders. I basically resorted to just catching my last ones in the wild since they would at least be level 70 that way but my main two were both over level 90. This made the final fight tough since there’s a timer and I had to keep on reviving the main two but it worked out.

You need to watch out for the fact that money is hard to come by from Pokemon encounters though. In fact I think you don’t get any money from those so you need to fight with trainers a lot and that money goes really quickly. It makes losing really high stakes since the game saves so often and then you don’t have enough cash to buy more revives. You can always grind out more levels of course if it gets to be too much though. Fortunately I didn’t have to much after the first chunk of the game, for the most part it stays manageable. Just pick your main two Temtem carefully so that you have a balanced form of attack. I used a thunder type and a bug type which covers most matchups.

The soundtrack is a bit more on the forgettable side so you likely won’t be remembering too many themes. The graphics are also not super impressive, they do the job but ultimately I wouldn’t say that they’re high tier or anything. This could pass for a much older game than on the Switch but it feels like it’s an indie title to an extent so this isn’t exactly coming with a Mario budget or anything like that. It could have probably put some more effort into it, but it’s not bad at least.

One thing this game really lacked was a better fast travel system. There are large parts of the game where you’re running from place to place and it just takes a very long time. Being able to teleport to a town once you have been there would be huge. The main Pokemon games have always done this so Temtem deciding not to bring that feature along was a big mistake. Maybe they thought it would feel too similar but there are tons of ways around that and most RPGs have fast travel so it shouldn’t have been a big deal. In short, this game’s biggest weakness is easily that it is missing a ton of quality of life features. It feels a lot grindier than it needs to be with all of the constant fighting and that means there is less time to just enjoy the story even if the story could have also been better. There are a lot of elements that I liked but also things left on the table. For example the climax is a huge missed opportunity. Lets just say that you’re expecting one more huge battle at the end the whole time and then it just doesn’t happen. I was really surprised about that. It may have also been a budget thing but it was absolutely not a good idea.

Overall, Temtem is a good game. It’s held back a bit by how hard the game is being drawn out towards the end though. There are just so many battles. They may not be super tough but you still have to go back to the healing station each time after fighting them and this gets old quick. Especially because the minion spawn rate is rather high too so you have to be running away a lot. This is a game where you will need to have a book or something with you while you are playing for all of the dead time. It’s a turn based combat game after all so there are a lot of animations and the battles tend to be a little on the long side. It could use some Asdivine Hearts quality of life features to cut out animations and speed things up if you ask me. Still if you want a Pokemon type game with a story that can go a bit harder than the main games then this should be right up your alley. It’s not like there are a ton of Pokemon type games out there either so you need to grab each one that you see.

Overall 6/10

Harvestella Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to look at a farming game and this is the first time that I’ve bought one like this. I was a little hesitant because farming isn’t necessarily my thing but I had heard that this game had a really good story and was still in large part a full RPG with lots of combat. So I decided to take the plunge and it really is a great game. Certainly on the long side as it took me over 50 hours though and nearly ended up catching up to Tears of the Kingdom. The Switch has definitely gotten a whole lot of playtime lately!

The basic plot is that one day you wake up in the middle of nowhere during an event call Quietus. You have complete amnesia but fortunately the local doctor nurses you back to health and even gives you a little farm. You are determined to make this the best farm of all! Eventually an alien ship lands and a girl appears from it. She claims to be from the future and needs a way back to her time. So now you have to help her, tend to your farm, and you also need a way to save the world. See these Quietus events are dangerous since if you stand outside during one you could die and they’re happening very regularly now. Something’s up, but what? As you travel to different towns to buy farming ingredients you meet more people to add to your party and find out more about this time traveler. Ultimately the pieces will fit together but you’ve got time.

There’s a lot to enjoy here but the one thing I will take away from the game is that I would have liked more voice acting. For a modern day Switch title it’s pretty odd to just be reading text the whole time. It’s not like they couldn’t have voice acting either since your fairies call out to you every day when you leave the house and when you return. For two of the final bosses we suddenly get full voice acting as well. So to me it just seems like a budget thing or they were hurrying a lot but it’s unfortunate since voice acting could have helped to elevate this further.

The actual graphics are really good though. I really like the colors and the overall atmosphere of the game. It has a bit of a sci-fi feel to it even when you’re on the farm because of the crystals everywhere. The visuals and the fun soundtrack do a lot to make this game feel grand. It’s an RPG that is taking itself very seriously and I can definitely appreciate that. As a mild negative it would be nice if the fairies didn’t have to greet you home or say goodbye every time. They only have 1-2 sound clips so this gets really old fast. It’s one of those audio things the devs really need to think about since you will be performing those actions well over 100 times.

The RPG combat is really solid, if a bit complicated. Basically you have around 10 different job classes which all change up your attacks and element type. You can use a sword and just slash away at the enemies or you can use futuristic energy blades to fire at opponents from long range. Each job seems to have some advantages to it. I used the Mage class for around 80% of the game and then went to the fighter and holographic classes for the climax. I didn’t experiment too much with the others but they all seemed pretty fun.

There is a stamina system like Breath of the Wild which can get a little annoying. You can’t regenerate it naturally so the only way is to eat some food or go to sleep and start the next day. Not ideal when you’re in the middle of a dungeon though. Additionally you have a hunger meter so after a point you can’t eat anymore. You want to stock up on fruit juices because those you can continue to have even once your character is fully full. This is probably the main point where the game is being just a tad too realistic. I think the game should have dialed that back a bit.

I’m also not typically a fan of the day system and you can bet that this was not an exception. Having to rush home because the day was ending is not really my idea of a good time. I like to just relax and do things as they come so that goes against my gaming style. I’ll make it work of course but yeah these are all mechanics that I could do without. I suppose the most satisfying part of the farming is gathering resources though. It was always nice to finally build something.

By the end of the game I had completed all side quests and managed to build almost all of the items. So I really got a whole lot done and it shows jut how tough the final boss is because I needed all of that in order to win. I would recommend creating a juicer as early as possible because that is really what let me beat the game. I saved up over 40 fruit juices and had to spam almost all of them in order to win.

You could probably do with less of those if you got more level ups I suppose but I capped out in the early 50s so I didn’t have a ton of health. Without all of the health recoveries I would have certainly gone down. You can only get one juice per day too so the earlier you start the better. I ended up beating the game in around 1 year in-game time since I got to experience each of the seasons once so that was pretty cool.

It goes without saying that there is pretty much unlimited replay value here. You can keep on playing for a very long time as you keep upgrading your farm and getting level ups. I imagine it would take an extremely long amount of time for you to 100% this game but at least you do have a final goal of sorts. So the game never feels aimless. I can’t picture myself ever trying for the 100% but at least it is there should you ever be tempted to try and pull that off. Beating the story was satisfying enough for me.

Finally one of the big things about this game is how you can’t do everything you want to do within the day since it goes fast. You always have to decide between resource grinding, progressing the story, doing side quests, or working on equipment. Some of those categories can be broken down even further as well. I would usually focus on resources since there are always enemies to fight along the way but attacking enemies uses stamina which you need to pick up items so it’s still a tough call. Go with your gut on this one and remember there’s no time limit so eventually you will have what you need to get the win.

Overall, Harvestella is a pretty great game. I do think it survives entirely based on the combat gameplay and the great story though. You really get to know all of the characters after being with them for 50 hours so the climax hits really hard. You also had some tough moral decisions to make and ultimately this was just a very complete story. Ultimately this tells me that I still wouldn’t be fully on board with a big farming title. It doesn’t hold the game back enough to hurt it but it would absolutely be really bad news if the whole game had to rely on that. So if you’ve ever been curious about the genre, check this game out. As long as you like RPGs you will still enjoy it and this way you get to have a taste of what the farming is like. It’s really a full win/win for you. There’s also so much depth to the game that it’s hard to mention it all in one shot so trust me you will come across a lot of things that I didn’t even touch on here. The main thing to remember is that this is a game with a serious amount of grinding so pretty much all power ups and equipment really have to be earned. Prepare for a long journey right there!

Overall 8/10

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein Review

Posted on by
Reply


Wait a minute, shouldn’t the title actually say that they met Frankenstein’s monster? Hmmmmm, well that’s a mystery for another day. Honestly I would have exchanged that for the Werewolf since it makes the most sense personally but I suppose it gets the idea across that the supernatural monsters are here and they are ready for action. It’s a pretty good film and the Abbott and Costello banter works really well. It’s always fun to see them having a hard time communicating with one taking everything super literally and the other one not knowing how to phrase things a bit better. Ultimately the monsters have the edge in firepower but can they overcome this duo’s creativity and unexpectedness?

The movie starts off with Larry Talbot stealing the show as per usual as he calls in to try and stop the world from unleashing the powers of Dracula and Frankenstein on the world. Unfortunately his power is too great and he turns into the legendary Wolfman which ends the call. We then cut to Chick and Wilbur who are messing around and getting into trouble! They got the deliveries of the monsters and end up bringing them to the client’s place but allow the monsters to escape. Now Dracula and Frankenstein are primed to destroy the world and even steal Wilbur’s body if they aren’t stopped. Will Larry arrive in time to stop them? Also can Wilbur stay focused as the villainess Sandra tries to pull the moves on him?

There’s quite a bit to unpack here but first off it’s really nice to see Larry return. He was always the best out of the original Universal monsters and is an even more sympathetic character than Bruce Banner/Hulk and Jekyll/Hyde. You actually feel his distress with how he wants to keep the Wolfman at bay but it’s just so difficult. Ultimately in this movie I would say he has a decent handle on it as he uses his abilities to take on Dracula. His scenes are all played straight as true scenes of terror and he’s consistently great. The film may not be the best way to end his legacy in terms of a happy ending but his role was powerful.

Fans of Dracula should enjoy him here as well because he does get his respect. On the minus side he does get scared of Chick and hides a lot but on the other hand he is treated as the mastermind on the villains’ side. He is the one who powers up Frankenstein and leads all of the attacks which is pretty good. The guy is the most iconic out of all the universal monsters after all so it makes sense he would get the top billing as the leader there. As for Frankenstein, well he’s back to being fully mindless so you can really ignore him. He’s not actually doing much of anything here except stumbling around. I wouldn’t consider him to be nearly as much of a threat if you ask me.

Chick is one of the highlight characters in the film. I like how he always dominates the conversation and keeps Wilbur in line. Of course a lot of the time he does end up being wrong but you can always get why he would make the assumptions that he does because Wilbur is the kind of character who is always exaggerating and making a mess of things. Put it this way, he is always super hyper so aside from this adventure he’s probably panicking like this every day. I’m sure Chick has seen a ton of false positives over the years and in the end Chick helps out when it counts. He even talks tough to Larry. I just like how Chick doesn’t back down.

He is a bit desperate when it comes to girls though so he loses some points there. For example when all of the girls like Wilbur he keeps asking if he can have one for himself to which Wilbur is basically saying “No!” which makes sense. Additionally it’s not like he would have a ton of input in that. Either they like Chick or they don’t and in this case it seems like they don’t. The guy just needs to take his L gracefully and move on. No need to dwell on it, it is what it is after all.

Wilbur looks pretty bad though. He is pretty crucial to the humor of course and gets a lot of funny moments there but as a character he just isn’t very focused and often makes the wrong moves. He panics constantly and also doesn’t have the strength of will to stick to his girl. When the other girls start flirting he immediately folds and it’s a very sad look for the guy. He loses a lot of points in that instance and never really gets them back. The guy never really mans up by the end either. So while he is a net positive to the film because the scenes are funny, I wouldn’t say he ranks as a character.

In general of course the reason why the film is so good is because of the humor. The humor is really handled well with a lot of high quality moments. It’s pretty guaranteed to get some laughs out of you and especially if you like this humor style then you’re in for a treat. The movie never slows down with all of the jokes and gags so they keep on coming rapid fire. We also do get some action in the monster battles which was pretty nice to see. Mix in the solid cast and you have all of the right elements here. I’d also have been game to enjoy this film straight up as a serious adventure with Larry as the main character but we already had a bunch of those so this works as a change of pace. It has definitely withstood the test of time and you don’t really see this kind of humor style anymore. It’s a relic of its time and a pretty solid one at that.

Overall, Abbott and Costello have another solid film here. It’s a pretty good time with a lot of funny jokes and good pacing. I would say the jokes hit the hardest during the first half while Chick doesn’t believe him so you have a solid dynamic there but of course the second half is still good too. The ending really works well with that last scene stinger and I really don’t have very many complaints with the film. It’s an all around solid title with a lot of positives going its way. My favorite film in the series is still the one where they meet Boris but this is another really good entry. I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Overall 7/10

Son of Lassie Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s no surprise that I didn’t really like the first Lassie movie. In fact it was pretty awful now that I think about it. It’s just not really my kind of film and the sequel is better but still pretty bad. You have the dog still getting shot and some general animal violence. It isn’t in the same level as the first film of course but why can’t we just have a happy dog film instead? That’s what the people want and most importantly, it’s what I want! Seriously just think about it, this has potential to be as big as Air Bud but instead the film ends up being more of a miss. Also more than the first film it just feels a bit aimless at times.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Laddie, the son of Lassie. This guy is really aggressive and doesn’t play by the rules. This often frustrates the Duke because Laddie messes up the flowers. Laddie’s owner Joe doesn’t really care all that much though because he correctly realizes that Laddie is just having a lot of fun. Well Joe gets drafted into war so he heads out while Laddie is to finally be trained professionally. The owners underestimate him though and Laddie travels across the country to find Joe. Looks like Laddie will be having a spot in this war after all but is it really safe for him?

I wouldn’t say the film has a huge plot beyond that though. A good chunk of the adventure is Laddie running after Joe, being taken back home, then finding him again, etc. It’s really a cycle that just keeps on going over and over again. Sure by the end we actually get to meet the enemies and Laddie gets to prove his stuff but that’s the very end of the film. For the most part it was relatively aimless until then.

Also Joe doesn’t make for a very compelling main character. Everyone’s always insulting him all the time and he typically doesn’t really notice or react. Intentionally not reacting to a diss is absolutely a good skill but the problem is that I’m not sure if he even notices so that’s not a good look there. You really need to be ready for action at all times and the digs aren’t exactly subtle either. So if you don’t recognize that then we have some problems. His lack of confidence is also huge.

He likes this one girl and she basically tells him to confess several times and it takes a lot to force it out of him. The guy’s just way too nervous and always running off. Some guys can be shy sure, but this was a bit much. You’re just cringing the whole time. The whole romance isn’t particularly good but it’s not a big part of the film anyway so I suppose it doesn’t have a huge impact. It’s just part of a bigger problem which is that any scene with Joe is brutal. The guy also had no plan when he was taken at gunpoint in the climax and Laddie had to do all the work.

I always say if it’s life or death what do you have to lose? In this case the villain is walking Joe up a cliff so that he can be shot and fall into the abyss. Joe knows that, the villain knows that, and I know that. So why would you possibly just keep walking up and wait to get shot? Lunge at the guy, go for the gun etc. What’s he gonna do…shoot you? Well that’s going to happen anyway so you might as well take a chance. It’s not like this is a scenario where you only might get shot. The guy made is clear that Joe has to be exterminated so that’s really it. You have to try and fight back while you still can. Definitely a pretty brutal moment for good ole Joe.

Still, like I said the main problem here is that the film can just be rather boring. The story can barely last 40 minutes, let alone the full length of the title. We probably should have focused more on training scenes or maybe even some military battles. You needed more plots or some kind of hook to pull this off. That being said, I was glad that Joe didn’t go with the other guy’s plan to hit Laddie. That would have been absolutely awful so in all of my bashing of the guy, he got that part right.

There’s really not a whole lot to even talk abut with this film in the end. I guess we can say there was a lot of plot armor in nobody being able to stop Laddie from travelling cross country each time. You’d think the characters would learn and keep the leash on each time but Laddie was always a few steps ahead of them. I would have liked the Duke to have appeared more since he’s always the most enjoyable character but he doesn’t do a whole lot here after the intro scenes. Lassie herself also doesn’t have a big role.

Having her step in to save the day would have been a clever way to get some excitement in here. Actually it’ such a great idea that I’m surprised they didn’t do it. Lassie doesn’t have any of the huge pivotal roles you would expect from the old main character appearing in the sequel. It’d be like if Naruto didn’t do much in Boruto or if Goku was slacking off in Super. Lassie should still be the one making a big play now and then even if Laddie is the one with the final moment.

Overall, Son of Lassie is just not a very interesting film. Mix in the animal violence and it was really out of its depth. I think there is probably a great film mixed in there somewhere…but it’s very deep in there so that’s not going to be all that helpful tbh. In the end a dog film should be a fairly upbeat one where the dog isn’t in any danger. Sure that can be boring if handled wrong but it’s all up to the writers. Surely you should be able to make a film that is still really interesting even without that right? If you can’t…well I guess now we’ve got a real problem now don’t we?

Overall 3/10