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Sword Art Online II Review

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The first Sword Art Online show had started off as an all star but quickly turned into a trainwreck. This one doesn’t crash and burn in such a way, rather it suffers from a myriad of issues from the get go. The sequel just seemed to have lower standards across the board. I still can’t call the show good as a result, but we do get some nice fight scenes. This series has 3 arcs, but most of the review is spent on the first one, as it is the longest. Get ready folks because there’s a lot to bash here! That being said, this still manages to beat season 1!

Kirito doesn’t really want to go on dangerous virtual reality missions anymore. Why would he want to do this after nearly dying right? Well, things change when the government makes contact with him regarding two pieces of important intel. Someone has been terminating players in the new Gun Gale game. Kirito quickly reminds the agent that it’s impossible to injure a real person from a video game. The agent agrees, but he wants Kirito to investigate a little anyway. Kirito heads into the game and things get personal when he finds out that this “Death Gun” character may be a Sword Art Online survivor. Can Kirito really take this guy down or will his long break from playing shooters come back to haunt him? Granted, Kirito finds a beam sword, which greatly helps him in the battles.

Meanwhile, there’s a new character in the mix. Her name is Sinon and she intends to win the big gun contest so that she can get over her fear of those weapons. It’s an intriguing way to cure her fears although I do see the logic in it. Still, it’ll be very tough to win the contest when Death Gun and Kirito have also entered to complicate the situation rather dramatically. Kirito is and always will be known as the ultimate gamer so he’s not going to just let Sinon win when there’s still a job to do.

One gimmick that the anime decided to use for this arc was for Kirito to be in a feminine designed avatar. Another character makes it clear that it’s still a male one so that’s good for Kirito, but he still manages to look like Lucina and decides to mess with the other characters a bit. It’s rather unnecessary if you ask me and I missed his standard design. Kirito’s normal design is just so cool that you didn’t need to mess with it.

This does lead into the animation angle a little. The first show’s animation was top notch. Some of the best animation in the business and it was at a theatrical level. Every episode felt like a movie. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case in this show. It looks good for the most part, but it never comes close to looking like the first show. It still keeps the theatrical feel to an extent, but there are episodes where the budget is noticeably low and the quality really falls. Most of the fight scenes aren’t very exciting and that’s why we always need Kirito to save us. If it’s an action scene from Sinon, you can expect the animation to not be all that great. The anime uses more shortcuts and simply feels a little more like a cash in sequel. It’s rather unfortunate.
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As for the soundtrack, it gets completely lolstomped by the original. Disclaimer: it’s not a bad soundtrack. Sword Art Online II still does the world proud and I like the battle theme. It also reuses a lot of themes from the original to help itself out. That being said, you won’t be blown away like you were with the first show. It’s sad since more techno music would have been appropriate for this season, but we only got a few really good tunes. Again, that’s impressive for the average show, but it’s not enough to even come close to topping the original.

While this show doesn’t explode like arc 2 of the original, we get another similar villain. The show seems to be obsessed with this kind of plot. The heroine even gives up once again temporarily and while Asuna had no choice, but to stick around, this other character has no excuse for this brief hesitation and lack of will power. It’s pretty unacceptable. Moreover, the show also has more fanservice than the original. I won’t say that the original completely avoided this trap because it most certainly did not, but this show was more frequent with this issue. Sinon’s costume isn’t terrible and it’s certainly no Satana, but the camera always zooms in on inappropriate angles, which makes it bad.

I’ve always felt that the costume is not much of an issue. You can have a character with Power Girl’s costume and provided that the camera plays it straight and never focuses on the gap, then it’s basically fine. For example, Harribel’s costume never seemed all that bad. Kubo quickly made this an issue by having her super form make it worse, but in the manga there was never any attention drawn to it (Besides the cover) so it was easy to just ignore. The anime completely shuts down that escape option and it’s pretty disappointing. We’ve also got random scenes of Asuna in the bath and the show continues to show why the quality of the original arc will never return. It’s just another thorn in the show’s side.

Finally, before getting into the positives let’s tackle another negative. The show takes itself way too seriously this time around. As a result, the show makes Kirito, Sinon, and most of the characters look bad at different times. Gone are the days when Kirito was completely fearless and picking fights with anyone who crossed his path. He is petrified when Death Gun shows up and constantly freezes up during the series. He nearly cries during a few different moments and while he initially took the Sword Art Online experience pretty well, his personality regresses rather seriously in this title. The show is really trying to appear to be very deep and emtional when it really isn’t. One of the reasons why the original Sword Art Online was so great (Arc 1) was because it was very happy and chipper despite the stakes. The stakes were raised and things got serious in the climax, but it adapted accordingly. The whole plot with Death Gun just feels forced and rather out of place.

Likewise with Sinon. You could have whole episodes about her shaking in front of a gun and reminding us of her origin story. (Which honestly wasn’t even that traumatic considering that she saved everyone in the shop and became a bit of a hero. The whole thing was also super unrealistic since the mother didn’t appear to be pleased, but anyone would be glad to have their life spared and the villain defeated. Sinon should have been looked up to by the masses. It just didn’t make sense) Cut the drama Sword Art Online and let’s get back to what made the show good.
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As for Sinon as a character, she was decent at first. It’s quite sad that one of her very first scenes involves a guy trying to hit on her, showing once again how sad this show has become. Still, in Gun Gale, she is a tough warrior who has a great reputation. She wants to destroy Kirito in the competition for betraying her trust and puts up a good effort, but I can’t stand her human form. It’s probably the worst from all of the Sword Art Online protagonists and it makes it very hard to root for her. It was simply too much of a contrast and is basically like Homura’s form from her origin days…if she had no character development and never gained any strength of self or conviction to make the hard calls. Sinon is decently good with a gun, but is virtually useless in close combat situations. There’s no way that she would have done very good had Kirito not been around.

As for Kirito, he’s still the epic character that we remember from the original show for the most part. He manages to drive something that is almost impossible to drive within seconds and constantly pulls off hype moments like nobody’s business. He even beats a speed challenge that had never been beaten in the history of the game. I feel like the author tried to make Kirito as extremely awesome as possible and it was definitely a good move on his part since that’s why I like Kirito. He’s basically the ultimate character and never loses. How can you not root for him? Well, there are actually a pair of reasons that I can think of.

For starters, he finally made the decision to have a girlfriend in the first show. You all know what I think of the many flawed romances in media, but for the sake of argument, let’s say that this is an okay decision. In that case, then he needs to make this clear to everyone, but when introducing Sinon to the gang, he referred to Asuna as being merely a friend. That’s just terrible writing and really seems out of character for Kirito now that he’s not a free agent. He should have stayed as a free agent, but since he didn’t, he’s got to play by some new rules now. Also, Kirito looks uncharacteristically weak during the final fight against Death Gun.

Due to the true identity of Death Gun, we learn that he’s actually pretty weak and that Kirito should own him rather easily. Instead, Kirito is actually getting wrecked in the close quarters fight. Gun vs Sword would be fine, but it’s a sword battle so Kirito should have the massive edge. The fight makes no sense and is just very frustrating as the writers clearly have no idea on how they should handle the show anymore. It all comes down to the author of course and I feel like he’s losing his grip on the show. Correction, he already lose his grip on Sword Art Online and I feel like the anime are going to continue to stay in the negative zone. It’s too bad since the show always has the potential to be an 8 or a 9, but it simply can’t live up to that.

For example, if we go to the pros for a second, let’s look at the technical merits of Sword Art Online. As I mentioned, the animation is still pretty good for the most part. The soundtrack is very good as well and the fight scenes are great. They pale next to the original SAO, but shine when compared to the average show. It still feels like a movie and Kirito makes for an amazing main character. However, the fanservice, repeat of the Fairy Dance Asuna plot, and the uncharacteristic moments from the main characters are what really hurts the show in the long run. It just can’t survive these negatives and I feel like the author will just keep on making these mistakes over and over again.

Aside from the main arc, there are two minis that are included. The first one is a quick mission in fairy world as the heroes try to get Kirito a new sword. The animation hits an all time low in this arc and there’s really no point to it. The heroes face some monsters and then they head home. It’s fun to see the whole team together again, but it also makes them all look a little bad as they have a tough time facing off against some monsters. Still, I’ll admit that it’s a little nostalgic and Kirito’s back to his real design so it wasn’t all bad. Klein also got a bigger role, but it’s not much of a role and he’s just around to make Kirito look good. He wasn’t needed as a result since Kirito always looks cool.

The final arc tries to be even sadder and more dramatic than the Death Gun arc and fails miserably. Asuna meets a new fighter named Yuuki, who is supposed to be the strongest swordfighter of all time. She even defeated Kirito. (lol) Asuna agrees to help Yuuki and her team beat a boss in the fairy/SAO merged game so that their names can be engraved for all of time, but will they be able to accomplish this before another team shows up? Well, this arc did have 1 really good moment. Kirito shows up to fend off dozens of teams of players and manages to slice apart a magic blast. That shouldn’t have been possible and led to a lot of hype moments for Kirito, which is always a blast. They hint that Kirito still lost in the end, but it was still a great entrance and probably the best cliffhanger in the entire show. It was an awesome moment. We also got some good fight scenes like Asuna vs Yuuki and Yuuki vs Kirito. I remember the fights only being all right in terms of animation, but it was still nice to see. There was just a lot of plot hax everywhere and I still don’t buy Kirito getting beat, but I’ll just mark it down as him deciding to hold back to spare Yuuki’s feelings. Yuuki was in a difficult position after all and Kirito’s a nice guy so letting himself be defeated is the least that he can do.

If the arc had been played straight with a lot of action and cool moments, it would have been great. Instead, we get some drama between Asuna and her mom as the subplot and the main plot is also bogged down by the drama. For Asuna and her mom’s plot, you could think of it as a classic case of being in a Star Wars discussion. (Epic way to drag the name into my review for more clickz) While everyone is debating whether or not Episode VII or Episode V should be known as the greatest in the series, you’re off to the side shaking your head since you know that Episode IV is the way to go. Why is this relevant? Well, Asuna and her mom are both wrong in their debates.

I was on the Mom’s side for part of it. I agree that Asuna clearly has no idea what she’s doing and she’ll probably regret not having any aspirations or deciding to play video games for so long while she’s abandoning her real world connections. Video games are clearly epic and should be played for at least 20 hours a day, but it starts to get in the way of the real world. Still, the mom decides to give her more arranged dates and has a very old school way of thinking which is completely outdated and makes her look bad. As for Asuna, she looks terrible in the debate the whole time since her answer to everything is that she’ll be okay as long as she’s with Kirito. It’s pretty naive and sad, but she’s right that being paired up with some random joe is even worse and marrying based on social standings is not the U.S. way unless you’re a celebrity. Still, in the end, it’s hard to be invested in the plot.

May as well put this out there now, Yuuki’s a better character than the rest of Kirito’s allies combined. Unlike Asuna who always wavers and went from being a strong female lead to a character who has literally switched game positions to be more of a healer, Sinon who used to be a strong female lead and then had a dose of the real world, Klein…who is Klein, etc; Yuuki’s a strong fighter who never gave that role up. Her abilities were at a high level and she was a determined character who could have easily been the lead heroine in another title. She has the right attitude when teaching Asuna that sometimes you have to fight back against the bullies instead of letting them step all over you and your politically correct demeanor. It’s a shame that due to circumstances she won’t be a main character. She was also needlessly cryptic about the whole thing, but I suppose that she still made a good decision. After all, otherwise she would have to have a long conversation filled with tears and drama from the other characters so maybe it was for the best. Of course, she didn’t count on genius level Kirito being able to track her down from anywhere on the planet. That’s Kirito for ya though.

This series of Sword Art Online may have been bad, but at least it was still epic. Arcs 2 and 3 weren’t, but they were basically the side show bonus stories in the anime as Gun Gale was the main focus. (Alllllll though, if the series had just been Arc 3 or Arc 2, maybe the show could have gotten a solid 6) The first arc still feels like a nice movie event despite it not being quite as professional as the original. It has sown the seeds for future arcs so I’m sure that this villain organization shall return soon. The laughing coffins (And their recycled flashback that appears maybe even a dozen times during the show) will be back and in full force. Hopefully they end up being good villains and hopefully Kirito isn’t depowered since he should wreck those guys with ease.

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Overall, Sword Art Online II feels like a cheaper, cash in version of the original. However, it doesn’t tank quite as horribly as the first show so it still gets the better rating. It’s a bad anime in the end and can’t cross the halfway mark so I don’t recommend it. I’d sooner recommend Attack on Titan actually so if you want a more intense anime with the same English Dub voice actor for the main character, that’s the show to check out. Or Blue Exorcist as well. For Sword Art Online, I’d recommend just watching the first arc of the original show and then pushing the rest of the series to the side. It’s simply not worth the time and who knows how the next SAO show will turn out. It may just be on a downwards slope that will keep on sinking and sinking as time goes on. No matter what else happens though, the series will still have Kirito and that means that it always has a chance.

Overall 4/10

Kirby’s Dream Collection Review

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This was definitely a very big title when it first came out and it’s safe to say that just about everyone was hyped to finally get to play this big masterpiece. The Dream Collection brought back 6 classic Kirby games to introduce them to the new generation. I haven’t really played any Kirby game before aside from the classic Epic Yarn so this was an enticing offer. I stayed my hand for a while until Christmas rolled around and then I made my move. I was able to blast through the games and can definitely say that it was worth the money. The Kirby series is here to stay. I’ll go through this review game by game.

Kirby’s Adventure is a fun little Kirby game. You got to suck up monsters and get their abilities, which was cool, but I decided not to use it. The ability’s not really worth it, nor would it be until Kirby 64. There’s not a whole lot to say about this game since the plot is fairly direct and not really deep…until the ending. The twist that King Dedede was just trying to help out is brilliant and Nightmare is super cool. The final boss is really intense and has the best final boss theme from any Kirby game. It’s also very difficult as you try to face off against both forms and I won with just one health point remaining. It’s truly a well crafted boss battle. Difficult, but never unfair. It’s all about learning the patterns and pressing on as you try to take the win. Kirby’s Adventure started the series off with the deep plots so I’ll give it credit for that. The graphics also look quite good considering how old it is.

Kirby’s Dreamland was the first of the Kirby games. It’s really short as this came out a while back and the plot is fairly minimal, but it was a fun way to start off the collection. I took to the air quite a bit as you could “break” most of the levels that way since dodging enemies became an easy thing to do. It’s slower than dashing so that’s the cost that you have to pay for choosing such a strategy, but it was worth it for me. The gameplay was simple and effective. You could pick up the game and 5 minutes later, you’d know what to do. Facing off against King Dedede and his cronies is also fun because the iconic character keeps his moveset across every single one of the Kirby games so there is definitely a strong sense of continuity across the titles. King Dedede also seems to be misunderstood and is actually a nice guy once you get to know him.

The sequel was naturally an improvement over the first. Kirby’s Dreamland 2 did everything that the first had done and also made some improvements. For starters, I actually liked the gimmick of having animal sidekicks to help out. When you would jump on one of them, you would gain a second health bar (For the animal) and then you could use their respective abilities. Super swimming, faster flying, etc. They were very helpful and while you couldn’t use your sucking ability while on them, you could still deal a lot of damage and didn’t have to worry about taking damage. This game also improved on the plot angle as the Kirby series finally began to get high tier in terms of the power levels. This was the first time that the Dark Matter would appear and the aerial boss fight was epic. You needed to do bonus things in the game to reach the final, final boss so I didn’t get to play it myself, but looked up videos of it afterwards. It’s impressive that the Kirby games had such cool final bosses back in the day. Kirby is certainly a skilled swordsman.

Kirby’s Dreamland 3 took a few steps forwards while also taking a step back. The main negative that I had with this game was the fact that while on the animals, you did not get an extra health bar this time. As a result, I avoided them entirely. I also avoided obtaining any special abilities because most of them simply are not worth it. Sucking up enemies is still the best way to play if you ask me. This was the first Kirby game where I actually didn’t spend a whole lot of time in the air. Flying felt slow for some reason so instead I played the games more like how they were meant to be enjoyed, on the ground. It was fun and I do enjoy playing that way even if I took more damage. This was the first Kirby game where I didn’t get any Game Overs though so that was a plus. The final bosses were even cooler in this title and the games continued to have that dark, cosmic angle that Nintendo’s other titles did not have. The stakes continued to get higher and higher, but things would really get ramped up in Kirby 64.

Kirby Superstar is a party game that’s mixed in with the other Kirby games. I’ll admit that I spent the least amount of time here compared to the other titles. Since it’s less plot oriented I suppose that I just gave it lower priority. I do like the fact that it feels like an Arcade Game. One of the minigames essentially plays out like a mini Kirby’s Dreamland, but with arcade gameplay. It’s hard to describe, but everything is just a little simpler and more to the point so you can dash through the levels and take the win. Absorbing abilities is actually useful here although it’s odd that the Gamecube controls randomly switched over a little here. It should be noted that you actually can exit a minigame once you start it. Just hold A and B along with 1 and 2 on the Wii remote and it’ll take you back to the main menu. A great way to get out of a jam. Another minigame is a reaction test one where you have to use a hammer to smash a star in half. It’s why Kirby’s so massively powerful..he just can’t be stopped! There’s another reaction test where it’s a sword duel. The minigames hold up quite well and make for a fun experience.

Finally, we had Kirby 64 in this collection. It was the first 3Dish Kirby game and also played out more like a home console experience than the others. We got full cutscenes this time and a big team up as Kirby allied with King Dedede and some other friends. Dark Matter and Dark Star are back and are corrupting everyone with the powers of darkness. It was very intense to make it to the ending as we actually get a horror esque stinger unless you have enough of the gems to see the true ending. Man, that’s definitely an ending that would scare and excite a lot of people and I wish that Nintendo would have more endings like this. Certainly the best ending to a Kirby game and one of the best endings to a Nintendo game in general. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, this was easily my favorite Kirby game. I beat it very quickly in a few hours and didn’t get any game overs as I stuck to the ground, but the plot and the fun gameplay are why I really enjoyed it. The stages had a nice amount of variety and I actually used the abilities a little bit this time since you could always just spit them out and use them as a powerful projectile. Finally, I had a reason to absorb these abilities. It’s not hard to see why Kirby 64 can be seen as the ultimate Kirby game. It’s really tough to top it and Kirby continues to show us why he’s a great lead. His physical powers are amazing and the aerial fights at the end continue to help show why he’s a top tier fighter. Kirby 64 is short, but that’s fine since it’s such a great game.

This collection is certainly jammed pack with content and you can imagine how much replay value is in store here as well. There are lots of things to do even once you have beaten the main stories. You can go back to each game and collect the necessary artifacts to grab the secret endings and each game will take you quite a while to pull that off. The games are also a lot of fun so you can easily just replay the stories for the fun of it all.

The soundtrack from the games is certainly great as well. It’s a blast to hear all of the iconic Kirby themes from over the years. Many of them have certainly become popular through the Super Smash Bros. series and you can see where the popular fighting/party game series got a lot of inspiration from Kirby. Melee’s Adventure Mode as well as Brawl’s Subspace adventure incorporated a lot of elements from the classic Kirby games including the colored walls that would try to squish you and the gameplay in general. It’s like a great blast to the past.

Overall, Kirby’s Dream Collection is a must buy for all Kirby fans and even just for anyone who likes a good platformer. You can’t go wrong with the Kirby games and each one is fairly short so most can be beaten in a day. I typically tried to beat 1.5 Kirby games per day and it was a strategy that worked out quite well. In particular, Kirby 64 and the first Kirby game are probably the shortest ones and you’ll beat them before you know it. A lot of levels can be broken by flying the whole time in each game, but it comes at the expense of speed so you have to decide if it’s worth it. I did that for the first 3 games and then for the final ones, I mostly stuck to the ground. So, it really depends on how you like to play since both work out. The game officially came with a soundtrack, but my copy didn’t bring it. That’s fine, but worth noting as it is why I did not discuss the soundtrack CD in the review. Once you’ve played the collection, you can properly compare it to other 2D titles like DK and Mario. Mario still wins out for me, but Kirby holds its own. I look forward to playing more Kirby games in the future, I’ll probably end up getting Kirby’s mirror and the DS games before I get the next big title, but eventually I aim to complete the Dreamland saga.

Overall 8/10

Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! Review

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It’s time for another Charlie Brown special! I got to see this one right after the ball dropped to ring in the New Year right! I actually missed the ball dropping because I had been playing video games right before this, but that’s okay…these things happen. I knew that it would be tough to beat the Charlie Brown Christmas special, but that’s all right. It’s still a solid film and the main plot about Charlie Brown having to get some reading done is good. Unfortunately, he still cannot manage his time very well.

Charlie was looking forward to New Year’s, but his teacher decided to spring a big homework project on him during the last day of class. He now has to read War and Peace during Winter Break. He decided not to start it until a few days before New Year’s Eve though and then he spends a lot of time spacing out. It doesn’t help that there is a big party going on to celebrate the New Year and this means that he has naturally been invited. Charlie is stuck on page 5 for days and things are not looking up for him. Then again, things rarely go over very well for Charlie Brown and that’s because he’s not a very strong individual. He lets the other kids push him around the whole time.

Charlie loves to pull out the friend zone card when the other kids try to make a move on him, but they always ignore him. The only person that Charlie actually likes also has the friend zone card at the ready, which means that it is a very vicious cycle, but one that I can get behind. Given that all of the other kids were able to finish War and Peace a while back, it just goes back to show that Charlie may not have the best work ethic and his attitude towards life in general is a little negative. He aims to be more positive moving forward, but I can’t say that it is a great improvement for him at the moment. An improvement is an improvement though and while Charlie is still not one of the more likable main characters out there, he’s not terrible. I just don’t particularly like the guy and getting stuck in the mail slip when trying to send a letter across was pretty sad. He could have tried opening the mail slot again, but I suppose that it was simply too much work.

Snoopy really stole the show this time, but that’s no surprise. He was ready for this party a day in advance and didn’t have to worry about doing any required reading. Snoopy took care of everything that needed to be taken care of so then he could have a good time at the party. The only thing that wasn’t very fun with Snoopy in the Christmas special was that he would pick on the little bird a lot, but here they were closer friends and now worked together as Snoopoy looked after the little guy. He even knows how to dance, further cementing the fact that Snoopy is the most complete character in the entire cast.

The animation style is certainly iconic. It may be very old, but at least the animation has a standard air about it and they didn’t try going for any gimmicks, which would have made the film not age as well. I can get behind this animation and I also like the voice acting more than expected. I like how the characters are practically yelling the whole time. Since there aren’t many background sounds to distract the audience from the words, each character really gets to project and it makes them all look like they’re about to just go back home and take a nap as they’re so hyper with a sugar rush. That being said, the characters did decide to drink some Root Bear with a plate of cookies to celebrate so maybe I’m on to something here. I do think that the food combo is quite brilliant though.

There was a game of musical chairs at one point, which was neat. I was definitely surprised that Charlie Brown performed so well in the match. He got second place, but spaced out at the end as he was listening to the music, which led to his untimely demise. Game Over Charlie….it’s why you must stay focused when playing any game. You can’t underestimate your opponent or how your hunger for dinner can alter how well you perform. The song wasn’t quite as catchy though and I can’t say that any of the songs were particularly interesting, but the kids don’t have the greatest voice out there so the song choices have to be a bit limited.

I enjoyed the ending a lot as the teacher realized that Charlie Brown was trying to pull a fast one and acted accordingly. Even Charlie couldn’t defend himself and quickly had to admit to it all. Maybe he will start reading the next book a little sooner to avoid a repeat of what happened this time, but seeing as how Charlie Brown doesn’t always learn his lesson..it may be a bit tricky. Still, I do think that he mostly handles the situation with his friends pretty well. There’s a lot of drama everywhere so Charlie tries to keep out of it and that’s usually a small move. Now, if only Peppermint would get the hint.

Overall, Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! is a pretty good TV special. As far as the main plot goes, it was pretty engaging and can hold its own against the Christmas special. That being said, the special doesn’t have the great morals that the Christmas one had, which sets it down 1 star. Still, I definitely recommend checking this out for New Year’s and if you already missed that date, then watching it whenever you have time is another good option. Think of your New Year’s Resolution and then compare it to Charlie Brown’s to see if you gave yours enough thought. These specials are also very short so they don’t drag out and the plot keeps moving at a rapid pace. It’s a winning strategy. The Charlie Brown specials have definitely been enjoyable thus far and hopefully Snoopy continues to get the leading role. He really outshines everyone else!

Overall 7/10

Finding Nemo Review

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It’s rare for me to actually dislike a video game, but sometimes you just end up pulling out a bad egg. This was one of those times and it is safe to say that without exaggeration…Finding Nemo is one of the worst video games of all time. It is simply a sad experience and the puzzles will frustrate you to no end. Mix that in with the bad graphics and drawn out story mode, and you’ve got yourself a broken game. It’s too bad since I went to great lengths to finally get this game again after selling it many years ago. Of course…I can see why I sold it the first time around.

The plot of the game is just like the movie of course. Nemo gets kidnapped by some humans so his father and a fish that he meets along the way must travel to save Nemo. This leads to a lot of missions which will have you solve puzzles, navigate through dark tunnels, and play tag sometimes. In theory, this sounds pretty good…maybe that’s a stretch. It doesn’t sound bad anyway, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, I was about to be amazed as how sad it was.

For starters, the graphics are really bad. The whole game is so dark that you can’t really see where you are going a lot of the time. You just have to crawl forward and hope that an enemy is not there to greet you. The dark levels are almost unbearable at times and you have to alter the brightness settings on your TV to keep yourself from dying over and over again. It helped a little, but I feel bad for my TV. I definitely should not have to adjust my settings just for the sake of this video game.

Let’s jump to the worst part of the game right away though. There are puzzles in this game that are so long, so boring, and so artificially difficult that I can’t imagine how it ever lived in the final version. There is no way that the kids in this game’s target audience would be able to complete the puzzles. It was so boring that I would have to play the game while on the phone to keep myself from falling asleep. It’s essentially a Rubix Cube and you have to arrange the pictures without harming the others. That’s not terrible in theory, but with no way to reset the puzzle once you’ve started, you can constantly set yourself back quite a few plays and never even know about it. It’s madness. One level took me over an hour as a result..an hour on a single puzzle. That’s not cool.

The average level is more like 1-4 minutes so you can see the contrast. The puzzles don’t seem like they’re supposed to be so long, but it just ends up happening that way because of how they are constructed. It’s a shame since the rest of the game could have probably gotten a 5 or so, but the puzzles destroyed it. They’re hardly the only issue of course, but certainly the most important one.

Even the final boss is fairly annoying because Nemo dies due to a single hit. That’s present in the whole game of course, but you can at least gather little fish to protect you in certain levels. In the final boss, that is not the case. You have to tag Dory 10 times while dodging falling rocks that move very quickly and appear out of nowhere. It took me quite a while to finally beat the level and it’s not an experience that I would want to have again. The game is really just annoying and I feel like the developers did not know what they were doing. Just about any company could make a better game than this.

It’s also a little hard on the hands. You have to keep pressing the A button to swim faster and faster during the levels and it’s really hard to keep up the pace. There are booster rings that help with that, but it’s hard to hit them because of the graphics. It’s a bad mix of elements that combine to make each one all the worse. Let’s also talk about the long loading times, which are pretty sad.

I usually don’t even bother with the loading times in my reviews, but these are infamously bad. You have time to go and make a sandwich while the game is loading between levels. They just drag on for minutes at a time and it’s very uncanny. It’s not surprising once you actually play the game, but it’s like adding insult to injury. My salt levels would always rise when playing Finding Nemo so you should be sure to have a bottle of water at the ready during your playthrough of the game.

How about replay value? I’d say that it’s basically at a 0 since the game is no fun to play. There are some collectibles though. You can get 3 stars during each level by doing certain things. Of course, these things aren’t actually explained so you’re completely out of luck unless you’ve picked up a strategy guide or can find a good walkthrough. It would be a very loooooong case of trial and error otherwise to find out the requirements for each star. They’ve thought of everything haven’t they?

Overall, Finding Nemo is a game that I highly recommend avoiding at all costs. The graphics are terrible and make games from 20 years ago look good. The loading times make Super Smash Bros look instant and just having the fish float around while staring at the audience doesn’t look very impressive. The soundtrack is very bland and while the game only has 18 levels, the puzzles really stretch out the play time. If you’re curious about this game, watch some Youtube videos of it. It’s definitely not worth purchasing at any price and you will likely regret getting this game. There really aren’t any positives to say about Finding Nemo. The only promising parts of the game, like hopping across little lily pads, are wrecked by the fact that any contact with any enemy will send you back to the last checkpoint. Not having any health in a game where enemies pop out of nowhere is definitely not cool.

Overall 2/10

Superman Adventures Volume 1 Review

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Mail time Mail time…Mail Tiiiiiiime! Anyone remember that classic jingle? Well, it’s time to dip into the DCAU for some fun comics. If there’s any character who can always give you a good time, it’s Superman. These comics are a nice blast from the past and really feel like they could have been Superman episodes from the TV show. Everyone’s in character and that means you can expect the colorful cast to each play their parts with good ole Superman in the center of it all.

This collection brings 10 issues although the back only talks about 5 of them. A little harsh to the half that are left out right? Well, each issue will get its turn in this review. Starting things off in this collection was when Lex Luthor made a fake Superman to frame the real thing. This takes place very early on in the show so Lex Luthor wants to eradicate Superman since he knows nothing about him. Lex can’t control the Man of Steel after all, but Superman’s one step ahead of him the whole time. It was a fun way to start the collection and the fight between the two was definitely great. The android was tough, I’ll give him that. Superman always has the last laugh though and the ending was pretty hardcore since Superman made Lex give him more credit. That’s how you get the villains in line.

Another story had the return of General Zod and Mala. They had been shrunk down to an ant’s size, but thanks to prison guards allowing the cell to be attacked, they escaped and Zod turned into a giant. Can a pea sized Superman stop Zod and force him to turn from his evil ways? I don’t think so, but it would be pretty intense! It was a fairly amusing story, but not quite as action packed as the others. Dan Turpin certainly looked good though and he actually got some good shots in. It’s always good to see the cops and detectives get some props over here.

One of the most interesting comics was about Clark Kent remembering his days as Superman. He once came upon a plot that actually blew up Metropolis. So, his classic pal, Mr. Mxy—-etc decided to rewind time to give Superman a fighting chance. Superman got to follow the cause of the explosion a very long way and it turns out that it all started because a clock exploded, which made a kid throw a curve ball, which, etc, etc. Superman also had to deal with a guy who had a kryptonite rock, which made things very difficult as well. It was fun seeing the chain reaction in motion and Superman had a pretty good line when he told the kids not to play Baseball. Just a fun story through and through.

One of the sadder stories involved Livewire. She realized that the world had grown to be very sexist so she decided to control the media so that whenever a guy would be seen on screen, the station would only play static. The female news anchor loved this, but it was pretty extreme so Superman decided to step in. He got crushed since it’s hard to trap lightning so this comic saw the big team up between him and Lex Luthor. The big fight with Livewire happened and it was pretty epic. I only say that the story is sad because then Livewire is locked up and the people around her start to make sexist comments once again. It was a bit much since Metropolis shouldn’t be quite That bad and I felt like the comic didn’t need to add that in. Superman’s around to keep everyone in check after all right? Still, Livewire is one of Superman’s deadliest foes so their fights are always fun.

Continuing on from that, another story involved a kid who looked up to Lex Luthor and Superman. Little did he know that his father was framed and died because of Lex though and his mom finally breaks the news to him alongside Lois. Visibly shaken and startled, the kid must try to get past this as he attempts to save his sister from a burning building. It was a decent story and it actually tried to make Lex look at least a little good. If nothing else, he never meant for the kid to get hurt and actually wanted to honor his part of the bargain about helping the guy’s son since he would end up staying quiet on the Lexcorp issue. Unfortunately, minions aren’t very good at counting and the karma caught up to Lex. No real fighting in this story though.

Toyman’s back in town and he means business! He starts to sell a lot of Superman action figures in Metropolis and then a lot of thefts occur in the city. Everyone is baffled by what’s happening, but a little girl tells Clark that it is all the action figure’s doing. he decides to follow up on this lead and the kid was right! Can Superman stop Toyman from damaging the Superman brand? It could hurt his marketing sales for years to come if something is not done. Another good story and the plot is definitely classic. The figures are relying on quantity vs quality and they manage to cause some damage, but Superman’s always got the edge. Even if Toyman escaped rather easily.

Many black cats appear on the streets and it turns out that Brainiac has decided to attack Metropolis to get Superman’s orb and find out what it knows. Superman will not stand for this and decides to fight, but the black cats can merge into a Super Fighting Robot. It’s actually a pretty even fight and lasts for most of the issue. That instantly makes this one of the better issues. Lois doesn’t look too good here though as she is easily turned into a captive and as a result, Superman is forced to let Brainiac get to the orb. He can’t really do anything while inside of there, but the memories have now been defiled. Noooooooooo.

Due to an enraged citizen telling her hot dog stand owner that she is Superman’s girlfriend, Metallo decides to kidnap her. This story was another decent one, although you wouldn’t expect the super villain to walk around thinking that just anyone who claims to be related to Superman is on the money right? Either way, it’s a good thing that Superman is always around since he comes through when things are at their diciest. Metallo is usually a good villain although it depends on the continuity, but in this case, he was just a little bland and didn’t actually put up much of a fight, which was a little disappointing.

Finally, we had a comic where Jimmy tried to prove himself as he took pictures of Superman in action. It was probably emotional for his fans to see Jimmy in such duress, but he proved that with a little guts and some pizzazz, he could take pictures with the best of them. There were no super villains this time, but a new gravity gun took away Superman’s ability to fly, which made for a neat tribute to the old comics as Superman had to run everywhere. He even got an epic burn against Lex, although I give Luthor credit for going through the front door. He is certainly courageous.

As for the art in the collection, I’d say that it’s good. Superman’s chin can be a little too big, even for him, but I suppose that the art can’t be perfect right? It’s still pretty smooth and makes for easy reading as you blast through the collection. It’s bright and fits the Superman tone. It’s certainly a far jump above the Teen Titans Go issues, I’ll tell you that much. I also do like how the artists are able to draw the DCAU to the point where you could look at a single pace and say “Ah, that’s from the Superman TAS designs right?”

Overall, This collection does the Superman series justice. I highly recommend this to any Superman fan and certainly to anyone who likes to see a good fight scene. Superman may be the strongest comic book character of all time, but he doesn’t let it go to his head. He never forgets about the smaller folks and comes across as a really nice guy, even if he has to pretend that he’s a little meek as Clark Kent. Unlike most collections, I can’t say that I actually disliked any of the issues. I didn’t like the ending to the Livewire one and the Jimmy comic wasn’t very eventful, but they were all fun and entertaining with their respective plots. Hopefully the library gets more volumes of this series since the Superman Adventures is definitely a keeper.

Overall 8/10

Naruto Powerful Shippuden Review

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It’s time to finally review one of the newest Naruto games. As you may recall from my Rock Lee review, I was not a fan of the manga series and I actually gave it a 0 for effort. The game’s story is pretty bad to be honest and shows me why the series didn’t know what it was doing, but the gameplay is good. This raises a pretty big issue that I’ve never really had to tackle in a video game before. What wins out, the horrendous plot or the gameplay? It’s a tough call so it’s time to explore this issue in the review.

There are two story modes in the game, but it may as well just be one since you have to keep on going back and forth between the two. The story modes belong to Naruto and Rock Lee. Each character will have 4+ missions at the ready when starting and you can keep on completing the missions until a gate appears. The gate can only be opened by a certain amount of keys. Let’s say you’re in Naruto mode and the door will only open if you have 2 Naruto keys and 2 Rock Lee keys. Can you guess what that means? It means you have to go to Rock Lee mode and beat some missions to get the necessary keys. It’s odd because this sort of defeats the purpose of having two different story modes right? It’s just not right!

Naruto mode plays it straight for the most part and actually adapts the manga. It covers the Shippuden series all the way through the Kage summit, which is pretty impressive. There are also a lot of filler missions that you have to play along the way to defeating the final boss since you need those keys. It’s slightly luck based as to when you will beat the game as well since there are a lot of paths that just lead to more filler missions and keys. It’s why I completed Naruto’s story at level 75 without beating Rock Lee’s, where I got to level 100 a long time ago. You just have to try and pick the right path or you may complete just about all of the filler missions along the way.

Rock Lee’s story is the one that decides to include as much low quality humor as possible. Those certainly get old fast and you’ll want to just focus on the gameplay so you can ignore the plot. Remember how I mentioned that I got to level 100 very quickly with Rock Lee? Well, wait until you make it to the Kisame boss battle and then use that one to grind with the expert criteria “Don’t get hit” Completing the mission while following that guideline will give you over 4000 exp points per battle and that’s enough for 3-5 level ups. You can easily just keep on beating that boss until you are at level 100 and it should take you about 30-40 seconds to beat the boss each time. It’s an incredible grinding level and I felt pretty proud of myself for figuring that out. I’m sure that there’s somewhere like that for Naruto, but it’s barely even needed. Just beating all of the filler will likely get him to level 90 or higher.

The levels follow a specific formula depending on the objective. There are survival missions, where you must survive for 30-90 seconds without fighting back. Those are certainly the toughest missions since a few hits can typically down you if you’re not prepared. It’s always good to have an ace up the sleeve for these missions. (Meaning a level up that you haven’t bought with your EXP yet) The best missions are the boss battles since they’re just a classic 1 on 1 fight where you can overwhelm your opponent with pure power. The only boss battle that wasn’t too enjoyable was the Deidara one and that’s because he just hides in the sky the whole time. Not very sporting of him is it?

Another fun mission type is the one where you just have to defeat 30 enemies. Simple and to the point. Another tricky type is one where you can’t let enemies pass you to the goal line. For the most part this was easy, but towards the end it got a little dicey. The minions are just so fast and it’s hard to stop them all. The most annoying missions are the ones that play out like a platformer. You have to find scrolls, minions, or just the goal line. You can actually get lost with how many rooms are available and the levels are just a little too long for my liking.

The gameplay is smooth though and it should remind you of the original Naruto Ninja Council games. It’s essentially the same concept so it’s cool to see them making a comeback into the modern day. Just keep on attacking and the bosses will certainly fall before you. As for the graphics, I’ve heard that they were great from one reviewer, although I’m not sure if he was serious or not. Regardless, they’re all right, but all of the characters are drawn really small with disproportionate bodies so it’s a little hard to say for sure. Everything is fairly bright and clear so I suppose that I’ll give the game kudos for that. Aside from the PSP, there still aren’t any extremely powerful portable consoles yet so you have to weigh in your expectations accordingly. I will say that the graphics are pretty good when you really think about it. They hold their own and then some.

As for the soundtrack, it’s typically just the same themes over and over again. There is not a whole lot of variety , but there is one or two really good themes that managed to sneak in there. When those scenes arrive, just be sure to savor them and to remember the good ole times of Naruto as you defeat whichever boss is before you.

As far as replay value goes, the game has a little. By the time you will have beaten the game, there shouldn’t be a whole lot of missions left, but enough to last you 2-3 hours. After that, you’ll probably be at level 100 with both characters so then the game will be over. Considering the size of the game though, I’d say that it’s not lacking in content. There’s enough here to certainly warrant your purchase.

Overall, Naruto Powerful Shippuden is very good from a video game perspective. The gameplay is solid, the graphics are good, and the soundtrack can also be pretty epic at times. Unfortunately, story mode really drags it down. The game has a constant stream of bad jokes that would only make the cast of Pixels smile and it really drags on. You’ll enjoy the game more if you just skip all of the cutscenes and jump right into the gameplay. I definitely have to deduct a pair of stars for the story. That means that this is probably the most positive Rock Lee product that I’ve reviewed since the show will probably get a 1-2 at best and the manga was a big 0. So, the gameplay is good enough to recommend this title, but I’ll recommend picking up Naruto Clash of Ninja 2 instead.

Overall 5/10

Mario Pinball Land Review

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I’ve played most of the Mario games at this point so it’s always neat to finally play one of the elusive ones. I love pinball and I’ve had fun playing many variations of the game. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a big fan of Pokemon pinball and the Metroid Pinball game that I bought never actually worked. It’s the risk of buying used games, but only 1 in every 100 doesn’t work so it’s been a fair trade off. I’m happy to say that Nintendo once again showed that the extra effort they put in can pay off big. Mario Pinball Land isn’t your average Pinball game and chooses to alter the core gameplay a bit to make this more of a complete game. It comes at the expense of the old style where you would try for high scores, but that’s fine since it ends up making Pinball Land feel like more of a full Mario game.

Peach is kidnapped by mean ole Bowser so Mario makes the hero call and turns himself into a pinball. He’s taking the fight to Bowser now, but since he’s a ball and his friends launched him to a circus instead of the castle, it’ll be a long journey. Mario must now gather the four star keys to open the doors to the areas where he can really deal some damage to big bad Bowser. Can he make it in time or is he toast?

The gameplay is essentially pinball. You have two flippers and you must try to bounce Mario around. Unlike an average game of Pinball, there are typically 2 or more exits in the levels, which you can use to get to other parts of the world. When you want to leave, you must go to one of the pipes in the level. That part can be a little annoying as you can’t just pause and escape to the next world. You must make it to the pipe or die trying. Meanwhile, the pipe only shows up once you beat the boss of that world, which can be tricky. Your only other recourse is to get a game over, which takes you to the first world, where you should have a pipe since you must have beaten the first boss…right?

There are around 35 stars to obtain in the worlds, but you only need 15 to go and fight the final boss so that’s pretty lenient. You should get that amount as you wander through the levels, but don’t underestimate the doors. You’ll find yourself getting rolled to the next room whether you want to go or not, which can definitely get sad at times. I was actually surprised at the merciless difficulty within this game. It may be a Mario game, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that it’s an easy ride. This will require patience as the final boss took me around an hour or so. At one point, it took me 2 hours to get 4 stars because of how many times I would shoot past the enemies and have to redo the battle.

Each star is won by achieving certain feats. Typically, this involves defeating each of the enemies in a room or something like that. You’ll know if a room has a star because a star will glimmer for a split second as you enter. The enemies aren’t tough and the risks of falling through the level and losing a life are slim so it’s really just a matter of time. Eventually you will be able to secure the win and the whole game is auto save ready so that’s a nice plus.

The graphics are surprisingly good and Nintendo did a good job of giving each character 3D models. It’s sort of like playing Mario 64 portable with a different control scheme. Everything seems to be based off of that game and why not right? Mario 64 is still the ultimate Mario experience. So, the graphics aren’t just good, but very good. Meanwhile, the soundtrack is decent, but certainly less remarkable. I probably couldn’t tell you any of the themes from the game because they definitely were not all that memorable. It’s Pinball so that’s to be expected and the constant sound effects would distract you from that anyway.

Since the game is so tough, the duration isn’t as short as you would expect. Getting the 15 stars will take you some time unless you’re some kind of Pinball whiz. It’s a complete game and there’s a good amount of replay value as you can go back and try to get the rest of the stars. One important aspect of the game that will help you during the tough fights are the power ups that Toad gives…for a price. You pay him in coins and he can give power ups like Mushrooms, Lightning, or 1 Ups. Lightning is the best power up in my opinion as it destroys all enemies on the field. A perfect way to instantly get a star. The Star power up is also good since it makes you invincible and sometimes you can injure bosses that way instead of going through the actual fight.

Speaking of which, I actually believe that Mario Pinball has the toughest Mario final boss from any Mario title. That fight was seriously hard and I could not beat it at will. It may take less grinding than the final boss of a game like Mario and Luigi or Paper Mario, but once you get the level ups, then you’re set. In this fight, even though I know what to do, it would still probably take me a few more shots if I tried to complete it once more. Luckily, the second phase of the boss is pretty easy, which helps to balance that insane first part.

Aside from the replay value, I also feel like mentioning that Mario Pinball Land has difficulty that is fair. Some games (Finding Nemo) are tough, but for all the wrong reasons. Poorly explained puzzles, bad graphics, etc. Mario Pinball Land is tough, but the mechanics are all solid. Your reaction times just have to be on point and eventually you will be able to hit the ball where you want it to go. It’s all about player skill and none of that luck or puzzle nonsense. This is a game that leaves you feeling satisfied.

Overall, Mario Pinball Land is a great pinball game and probably the best one that I’ve played. It easily beats the Pokemon version and the Metroid one has not worked yet so I can’t say for sure, but I’m pretty sure that it beats that one. I finally got it to work earlier today so I may play it a bit for a review later on. I definitely recommend Mario Pinball Land. It’ll give you a nice challenge and it’s still close enough to the real Pinball game so that Pinball fans can enjoy it. It’s a very unique Mario game and one where you can feel proud of yourself upon completing it.

Overall 7/10

Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July Review

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Rudolph is back for another adventure and this time he’s being assisted by Frosty The Snowman! This was my favorite Rudolph special and we even get a nice action scene to top it all off. In the previous specials, I was a little annoyed by how timid Rudolph could be. He shirked away from the fights and never seemed to defend himself, but that all changed in this special as he finally stood up for himself. Frosty’s guest star appearance was also a blast.

Rudolph and Frosty are the best of pals. When they heard that starring in the circus could help one of their human friends in his rushed romance, they decide to help out. Unfortunately, it’s in a very warm area where Frosty can’t normally reside so they ask a shady fellow to give them magical wards. They will only work for a little while so Frosty calls in Santa to save the day, but Santa gets lost and starts driving in a circle for days. Without Santa, Frosty and his family quickly melt so then it’s all up to Rudolph to make a deal with the villain. The problem is that these deals typically come at a steep price.

As you can see, we can blame most of the film’s problems on Frosty and his family. They should not have agreed to come to the circus if it would force them to be dependent on a mysterious sorcerer. You never want to be in someone’s debt if you don’t have too and much more so if it’s a sketchy looking fellow who probably does not have your best interests at heart. Frosty was also the only reasonable Snow person in the film. His wife and kids are ingrates who shove Rudolph aside right away. “They wouldn’t let him play any reindeer games!” Why does no one understand poor Rudolph?

Frosty’s a good character at least. He tries his best to make things right and goes to the magician to stop this madness. Unfortunately, he’s as gullible as he is kind so everything is up to Rudolph once more. Unlike the New Year special where Rudolph didn’t know how to fight, that changed in this special as he launched into action and we got an aerial fight. The sharp shooter parody also got to jump into the action as she used her gun to destroy the magical wand. A little action is always a nice touch to make the ending of something a little more epic.

This film also helped to bring together just about the whole franchise of stop motion characters from this series. Rudolph, Frosty, Jack Frost, Santa, and more characters got to show up for this event. Jack Frost’s role is a little sad for his fans since he has to keep blowing cold air for hours and hours. Truly a sad fate and Santa didn’t fare much better as he got lost in a snow storm for the whole film despite his magical abilities supposedly being immensely powerful. Even the whale got to appear to give Rudolph a helping hand when the going got tough he knew when to get going.

I won’t comment on the animation since you know my views on that already from older Rudolph specials. This kind of animation just isn’t my style, but I won’t let it hurt the film too much. After all, we finally got an evil Rudolph in this film, which was a neat parrallel. The film could have done more with this angle though as the idea has a lot of promise.

Meanwhile, this film also adds a plot twist to the original Rudolph film, which makes it imperative that you quickly re watch that one after this film before rewatching this one. Let’s just says that big storms don’t just happen randomly. Frosty’s story is also retold and while there is no twist, we are reminded on how high tier his hat is. Frosty’s hat has more magical power than most fighters can even dream about. It was fun to see both films again since they actually got decently long flashbacks, which served as film recaps.

Bringing the universe together like this and also setting the power levels was most impressive. Not to mention that we also got a very large soundtrack as a result. Songs from both titles ended up appearing and even the Misfits song played, which was nostalgic. Of course, Frosty and Rudolph’s main themes are probably still the most catchy even if Rudolph’s may make you want to cry since the lyrics are so sad…in theory.

I haven’t really talked about the villains right? Well…they are all right I suppose, but they didn’t do much. Scratcher was a pretty decent villain. Getting kicked off of the Reindeer team made things personal for him, but Scratcher was still unable to really deal any damage here. Winterbolt had some pretty powerful magic and it may even be deadlier than Santa’s since he beat the old man rather easily with the storm. It was a little iffy, but it seems like he can’t beat Frosty or Rudolph in a fair fight since the hat is too powerful and Rudolph’s determination never lets him give up. There’s also a human villain, but he’s of no consequence in the long run.

Overall, Christmas in July is a fun film and it’s actually the best Rudolph film that I’ve seen. The idea of a crossover is a good one and it’s safe to say that people had been waiting for this team up for some time now. It’s like Batman vs Superman, you can imagine the hype that was building up when this film was announced. If I had to choose which fighter I think would win, I’d go with Rudolph. Frosty’s powerful, but Rudolph’s quick and he can basically fly. That being said, Frosty can probably throw snowballs so maybe I had better rethink this. Like with Batman and Superman, I can think of scenarios where either fighter can claim victory. I hadn’t heard of this film myself until a few weeks ago, but it’s still most impressive that the two heavyweights could finally fight and hopefully this gets a sequel someday. That being said, hopefully Rudolph’s friends are a little more loyal since just about all of them betrayed him when it counted. That’s not what I expect to see from these guys, but Frosty stayed strong and knew that Rudolph wouldn’t steal things that weren’t his. After all, you can’t steal something that you already own and that’s the only way Rudolph would pull off a heist because he’s a nice Reindeer. I certainly recommend checking this out for Christmas.

Overall 7/10

Rudolph’s Shiny New Year Review

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Everyone’s favorite reindeer is back for this uplifting adventure. He may have saved Christmas, but there is no rest for the weary as this takes place immediately after his first iconic adventure. It’s not quite as enjoyable as the first film of course, nor does it beat the crossover with Frosty. That being said, it’s still a complete Rudolph adventure and a nice way to get set for the New Year.

Santa Clause learns that the New Year will never come and December 31st will last for eternity because the New Year ran away. In this world, time is a physical being and the years are all babies that he raised. Unfortunately, the New Year had big ears so everyone laughed at him. He decided to run away so that he would be understood a little better. He’s just a newborn baby though so he crawls his way up to the islands in the northern most part of the world. Rudolph is given the task of finding him within a few days or all is lost.

Rudolph sets out and is accompanied by a few of time’s friends like an Alarm Clock and a Whale. The Alarm Clock is one of the guys who laughed at the New Year so I can’t say that he’s a great friend, but the whale was always sensible and helped Rudolph out when he was in a pinch. Unfortunately, a bird by the name of Aeon aims to stop Rudolph in his quest. Aeon loves to laugh and he actually has the upper hand against Rudolph. Poor Rudolph looks nervous when Aeon appears and can’t seem to land any good hits in. If only Rudolph had more fighting experience.

Aeon isn’t your average villain though and you can sympathize with his goals. He knows that he will perish in the morning if the New Year starts so he wants to prolong this day forever. After all, what’s the worst thing that can happen if the New Year never rolls around right? His life is on the line here so it’s not completely unreasonable. Still, Rudolph fights for the greater good, but also knows that there is always another way. The ending is very fortunate for Aeon and even the baby learns that he shouldn’t mind the ears. In a sense, the plot was completely ripped from Dumbo, but we’ll let it slide this time.

The songs aren’t quite as good as the original Rudolph’s, but when you consider the nostalgia and the iconic status of the original, then it all makes sense. No amount of sequels can measure up to that level of greatness when it comes to the audio, but they can try. The songs still aren’t bad either of course and they’re nice and retro. The animation style still isn’t my favorite, but this came out ages ago so it’s not as if there were a whole lot of choices back in the day. The graphics certainly won’t be hurting the score.

What does hurt the score a little bit is that the film actually has some boring moments despite its short duration. I really didn’t care about Father Time and his plot. It was rather boring to see him slowly walk around the room and explain to the audience that Rudolph already succeeded when the film was just getting started. I never cared for the gimmick of spoiling the ending so that we could enjoy the journey a little more. The George Clooney film where the heroes have to save the future did this as well. Tomorrowland was the name and spoiling was its game. I feel like it’s just used because otherwise the film would have been too short or they couldn’t think of anything for Father Time to say. They could have cut the character out of the film and nothing would have really changed.

I also can’t say that I cared for the Caveman all that much. From all of the islands, that was probably the most uneventful and I definitely prefer the knight in shining armor. That being said, as was commented on during the film, it was impressive for the caveman to be singing so well while he was jumping around the place and engaged in strenuous exercise. That takes guts and a solid lung capacity so bravo there! Doesn’t change the fact that it was an island that dragged on.

Well, you get the point. These supporting characters dragged Rudolph down instead of strengthening the movie. Rudolph doesn’t really need a supporting cast and the whale was the only other character needed. Aeon as well of course since every good story needs a villain. The actual journey just isn’t as good as the original Rudolph since it’s not quite as fun or enjoyable and that’s what keeps it from being as good as the original. There’s no rushed romance here though so that’s always a plus!

Rudolph is also more likable than his portrayal in the original film. Controversially, I wasn’t a huge fan of him there. In this film, he’s more experienced and is glad to go out and save the world even though it’s Christmas. He’s always thinking of how he can help everyone else and ends up being one of the most selfless heroes around. That’s why you always want to have Rudolph in your corner if a fight breaks out. He’s got your back even if he hasn’t learned how to fight just yet.

Overall, This is a good film to watch for New Year’s. Or rather, it’s one of the only films for you to watch on New Year’s. Santa Clause is definitely in character as he lets Rudolph do all of the hard work while he just chills out at home. The film is short so you’ll be done with it very quickly. It may drag a little and the supporting characters aren’t great, but I’d still call it a good movie. A little underwhelming, but good all the same. The writing is strong and Rudolph makes for a good main character. It’s hard to top that…but the sequel pulls it off rather easily!

Overall 6/10

Dial H Volume 1 Into You Review

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I remember reading the classic Dial H comics back in the day. It was definitely a pretty neat concept about how a phone dial could let the kid turn into many different superheroes. This modernized version definitely takes a darker twist on the classic series, but keeps in the key elements. It’s a fairly interesting start to the series, even if it is very convoluted. It can’t quite match up to the original, but it’s safe to say that it’s a little better than expected.

The main character is an overweight guy by the name of Nelson. He smokes a lot and his body’s not doing so well anymore. His friend tries to get Nelson to adopt a healthier lifestyle, but the guy won’t hear it. He likes the way that he is and doesn’t plan on changing. Of course, Nelson has little choice in the matter when his friend is beaten up by the gang that he had been working for. Nelson finds a dial and manages to turn into a superhero! He has fun messing with the gangs for a while, but the villains hire a super powered thug of their own. A mysterious individual by the name of Roxie (Well that’s her real name. I forgot the alias) appears to help Nelson fix his dial so that they can stop an evil threat that is quickly approaching. Will they be able to stop the villain?

Throughout the whole collection, we don’t really get to see what the Dial can really do since Nelson’s is broken the whole time. This means that he can’t control which hero he will turn into and some are definitely weaker than others. There was an interesting Chicken form, which had a chicken whose legs were just a cycle. Another form was an Indian who was essentially just a guy with arrows so he wouldn’t be much help against the monsters that the heroes would fight. Nelson actually got off pretty easy for the most part since he mainly just had to deal with ordinary crooks.

Towards the end of the collection, we got to see the all powerful villain, Abyss. He’s essentially made of cosmic energy and seemed to be just about invincible although X.N. was able to injure him a little. He doesn’t make a whole lot of sense like several of the other characters and speaks in backwards/fragmented English a lot of the time. Despite his gibberish, he is powerful and I like the design, even if the actual character is pretty bland as a result of his nonsensical dialogue. X.N. was also pretty insane. She tortures Roxie even when it’s obvious that the hero doesn’t know anything about what’s happening. None of them really had a clue since everyone was guessing with the dials. She wanted to revive Abyss, but didn’t think too much about what would happen after that. Naturally, Abyss wasn’t about to listen to an ordinary human and he was too powerful for her to control afterwards. She had a dial as well and got some pretty cool forms like a robot suit. It’ll definitely be neat to see how many other forms the author can think up as the issues go on.

I’m not a big fan of Nelson or Roxie either, which makes the cast one of the comic’s weak points. Nelson arguably means well as he uses the Dial for good, but he doesn’t have much of a personality and he certainly didn’t look so good in the intro comic. Hopefully he’s taking better care of himself now though and he’ll need to be ready for action since the Dial villains are only getting stronger. To clarify, Nelson’s not a bad character, but he’s not ready to be called a good one yet either. I’ll need him to get more personality in future volumes.

The art isn’t my favorite style as it’s more noir centered, but it’s not bad. The writing keeps the issues interesting and the art is clear enough for you to follow with what’s happening. It shows signs of being a DC styled book artwise during some of the scenes, but naturally takes a different approach from the average superhero adventure. I’d say that the art is “good” if I were to give it a ranking and is definitely passable in the end.

This volume was a little light on the superhero action bit, which makes sense for the series. Abyss made for a decent antagonist, but I’m certainly more hyped for the next arc. Near the end of the fight, the heroes were saved by another character wielding a dial. This character defeated Abyss with ease and we finally got to see a dial that could work. One that lets you switch between heroes in the blink of an eye. I definitely look forward to seeing more of that character, especially since the scene proved to be too much for the art. It couldn’t keep up with the forms and that’s one moment where the art could have been better.

Furthermore, the final issue showed us a glimpse into the other world where the heroes are from. As you likely suspected from the first issue, the heroes are real. That’s why they come with their own set of personality and memories. Whenever Nelson or another character summons them from the dial, it steals away their abilities in the other world. It proved to happen at a fatal moment so one of the heroes went into the real world and destroyed the Dial user. She went to jail willingly, but this does prove to be a serious issue for the residents of that planet. If Earth continues to suck away their powers whenever the users feel like it, the heroes will always be in danger. I’m assuming that they are going to have to invade Earth soon and maybe that could be an opportunity for some guest stars since the Justice League should be present for something like that. Yes, I’m definitely anticipating that to be a fun arc and hopefully it happens before the series is over since I found out that Dial H only made it to 15 issues.

Overall, Dial H was an interesting comic. It went for plot over action and that’s always a decent option to have at the ready. I nearly gave it a 7, but the weak characters coupled with Roxie getting kidnapped and Nelson just chilling out at home while she was being interrogated was a little iffy. Nelson shouldn’t need to be reminded that he has a job to do. Throwing in the new characters should definitely be a lot of fun and it’ll give us some extra action as Nelson hopefully fixes his dial so we can have some hero against hero battles. I recommend checking this volume out if you’re looking for a unique superhero story. It’s not like the usual comics so it’s a good change of pace.

Overall 6/10