Category Archives: Reviews

Light Crusader Review

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I’m venturing further into the Genesis library and Light Crusader was the next one on the list. It’s a pretty fun game and one that feels retro while still getting some unique mechanics in. It’s a game that was well made for its time and I had a good time in the present. It is fairly short so you’ll need to keep that in mind but it does a better job of being a big dungeon/maze than most of the newer ones that show up.

The game starts with a lot of people being kidnapped by a cult and so the main character heads off to save them. Underneath the castle is a 7 floor dungeon where these people are being kept. His mission, should he choose to accept it is to rescue them all and destroy all of the villains and monsters down there. The hero is equipped with a sword and has basic mastery over all elements. With these abilities at the ready he can handle these guys.

The gameplay style is mainly that of an overhead exploration game. The idea is to get to each set of staircases to reach the next floor. On the way there you will need to defeat the boss of the floor and solve a lot of puzzles to get there. The puzzles range from using boulders to fall into the right holes or trying to jump and hit different switches in order. They range from being extremely easy to sometimes being completely unknown. Some of these puzzles just felt like good ole fashioned button mashing to me. One of them for example was to hit 4 numbers in a certain sequence and I didn’t come across any hints in the game. So I just got cracking on trying every combo out until it worked.

If there were too many puzzles like that then it would have definitely hurt the game but fortunately that wasn’t the main focus. They would appear from time to time in the background but most of the game was about running and defeating enemies which is more up my speed. I also enjoyed the platforming puzzles because those tend to be run fair and square You can absolutely solve those puzzles just by deductive reasoning and without using any gimmicks or relying on hints. Those are the best kinds of puzzles I’d say. Since those represented the majority of puzzles in this game, I was all set.

Additionally this game has one of the better maps that I’ve seen. It was very detailed and easy to comprehend at a glance. I didn’t have to be wondering if I was looking at the screen right or anything like that. No, this was a map that would let me get to the end. The game’s length is fairly short as it’s only a few hours long. That said, it’s better to be short than to have had some forced length at the end. With this amount it felt like the game was running at full speed the whole time and never had to pause or try to buy some time.

We even got to squeeze in a classic boss rush as you have to save 8 wizards near the end and fight all of the old bosses there. That was pretty fun. Each boss has a very different gameplay style to them so there aren’t any clones here. Additionally, the final boss has a pretty cool design. It makes for a very impactful climax with a lot of color and depth to him.

The only area where the game is a bit weak is with the hitboxes. For most of the game they don’t even make much sense. There will be times where you know that you hit the enemy but nothing happens and other times when your blow seems to fall short but you land the move. I don’t think it was lag or anything like that but instead it just felt like for some reason the hit boxes were added to odd areas. Eventually you just get used to the difference and adjust accordingly but for a while there it definitely ends up feeling weird.

The soundtrack is solid here. No tunes that I will remember by the end of the week but they still work well enough with what the game is going for. Likewise the graphics are pretty good. Perhaps not out of this world good but they are clear and it is always obvious what is happening on screen. The art style is appealing too so I really have no issues there.

Overall, Light Crusader is a pretty good game. I definitely had a solid amount of fun with it and this would be a good template for how you should do a platforming puzzle game. It’s a genre that would definitely be difficult for most titles to pull off after all. It takes a whole lot of engineering and quality of life features but this game was clearly up to the task. There are even different collectibles and rooms that I didn’t get to explore so there’s even a bit of replay value here. If you have the Switch Online then you should definitely check it out. The experience is a very memorable one and while you might be annoyed at the short length if you had paid for it, that’s the perks of getting it through the Switch Online. If they ever wanted to bring this franchise back I would say there is a lot of potential there.

Overall 7/10

Tetris (NES) Review

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It’s time for some more Tetris adventures! I played the Game Boy port of this one a while back but now I have the home console experience. It is one of those games that everybody knows about at this point but it still manages to be quite fun. After all, the core fundamentals of the game are sound and when that’s the case you can always rest assured that the end product will be good. At this point there are other Tetris titles that have surpassed this one but that doesn’t take away from its own ability.

The game has two main modes. You have the endless Tetris challenge where you try to get a high score and then you have the other one where you race to complete a certain amount of lines as fast as you can. Both of them have their fun points to be sure and when you get a new high score you will get a little animation that is pretty fun. This one also doesn’t bring in the cheesy factor of having you start off with a high score when you enter the higher speed arenas. Instead no matter what mode you begin with, you end up with 0 points. It’s definitely a whole lot fairer to the player. Ultimately my best run here was around 32,000. A far cry from other players who would deal in the hundreds of thousands. Well, what can I say..I’m more of a casual player myself.

In general the best speed I can handle tends to be around 6 out of the 9 possible options. When you get past that, the objects fall down faster than I can match them all together. Ultimately I end up going down while on the slower speeds I can really keep it up forever. That said, the game never lets you stay on a speed for very long. If you pick a slow speed, the game will automatically start leveling you up as you continue to make more lines get completed. As a result it’s almost like an online match making setup in a fighting game. It all balances well.

The game surprised me with the option to pick out of 3 different music tracks while playing the game. Music makes a lot of sense for a puzzle game like this but at the same time I wasn’t really expecting it. The tracks are fairly catchy too which goes a long way. it makes the game stand out and also gives it more replay value. I wouldn’t want to be playing in silence after all. Having a second mode for taking out lines is also a lot of fun because the main mode can be very time consuming with how long it takes to lose. This other mode is clearly better equipped for fast founds of knocking out as many matches as possible. It’s way more fast paced as a result and works out well.

In terms of any gameplay tips, I suppose I would say to always use the long 4 piece object for the sides. Mix and match the others well to take care of the center and that way you can usually knock groups of 3-4 rows out when needed. I’m assuming it helps with the score multiplier since that’s the case in other Tetris games but additionally it also makes it easier on you to keep track of the board. By knowing what you will be doing with each piece ahead of time, you don’t have to waste as much time thinking while you’re actually on the field.

Overall, Tetris is a fun game as always. It may not have anything on the newer ones like Tetris 99 but it’s a game you should check out as long as you have the Switch Online. There is basically no downside to downloading it after all so why would you not do this right? Just something to think about at the very least. I’ll be playing another Tetris game soon so we’ll see how that one stacks up. Due to how straight forward the game is, there’s not a whole lot to talk about here. You will either like the game or not and it only takes seconds to tell if it’s your kind of game. Now if it had a true story mode then that would be another matter but we’ll have to wait a little longer for that one.

Overall 6/10

ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron Review

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Toejam has returned for another big adventure. This one’s definitely pretty different with how it plays out as a 2D platformer this time. It’s okay in most areas but does lag behind the average platformer. It could use more of a plot and also more straight forward levels. This = is one of those games that is all about finding a ton of collectibles in a way in order to complete the game. That’s not exactly my cup of tea as you may know.

The basic plot involves a lot of craziness but the important thing to know if that you must capture all of the humans who have been released into the wild across 17 levels. Each level varies in term of how many humans are captured and fortunately you have a compass that lets you know where the next one is at all times. When the compass turns green then you have caught all of the humans in the level and can proceed. You must capture all humans before you can get to the next level so in that way the game really makes sure that you have done a thorough job. It often involves going through quite a few different paths to locate them all.

You throw bottles as your main attack but you have two super moves. One of them lets you run around like crazy throwing bottles everywhere while the other one has you summon a washing machine of sorts that absorbs all nearby enemies. They’re both pretty handy so you should save them for when you really need them. Some of the humans are rather powerful after all so you want a good move in your back pocket after all. Sometimes you are up against a whole pack of dogs and they make good use of their sheer numbers. A single hit takes quite a bit of your health away. Then you have the photograph pros who really don’t play around. Their pictures stun you for a few seconds while also dealing a lot of damage. Underestimate them at your own peril.

The toughest enemy has to be the guy on a flying carpet though. It takes a lot of hits to defeat him and since he is constantly flying away it is difficult to go on the offensive. A few sucker hits is enough to really take the fight out of you and that is the whole plan in a nutshell. There are burgers and such that you can grab to replenish your health but you have to be careful checking the trees because they also contain items that will make you lose health like bowling balls. Naturally those are infinite while the health items are one time use only.

You can use ESP to see through objects and know which place are safe to check but as you can probably guess these run on an energy meter. Once you’ve used them up it’ll generally be a while before you have enough energy to do it again. You can teleport infinitely though which is really handy. Not just handy, it is absolutely necessary in order to beat some of the humans so you need to keep that in mind. I kept forgetting that I even had this ability for most of the game.

As far as the graphics go, I would say those are pretty good. The character models are fun and the levels definitely keep that odd look you would expect from the series. Everything always appears to be a bit off which is of course the entire point. This has always been a crazy universe and the game keeps that same energy. The soundtrack is more on the boring side though, I’d like to see them get more creative with it than what we have seen so far. I know there is a whole lot of energy there that they can channel into some really good beats.

There’s not much in the way of replay value since you have to round up all of the humans anyway. The game’s length is pretty decent though because like I said it takes a while to get all of those humans. They keep running around trying to buy time after all. All you really need to do in order to make the game better would be to make the platforming a bit more fun. I dare say that the bottle throwing should be removed in favor of a more traditional punch or jump. It would feel a lot more satisfying when defeating the humans and would also help the platforming. Having to hold the down button while jumping to go higher also doesn’t feel very intuitive. It works well enough but it just feels so random in the end. It’s definitely there just to mess with the average player.

I’d say again, it’s not a bad game but it’s not a particularly good one either. It could have been a lot more interesting and as it stands it will end up forgotten. If not for the Switch Online I would bet that most people haven’t even heard of it before. That’s just how obscure this title is. The series definitely needs some kind of a big modern AAA remake that can turn the franchise around. As it is, this one just isn’t performing well enough to break out on its own.

Overall, Toejam has its moments but having to capture all of the humans can be more on the annoying side. The 17 levels feel quite long by the time you are done with the game and you have to imagine that they could have made the levels a lot more compressed and fun. Give me 34 shorter levels instead of the 17 really long ones. If you have the Switch Online then you should check this one out but it’s probably not a game that I would have searched for otherwise. It’s just not really hitting the heart of what it means to be a platformer. That didn’t happen.

Overall 5/10

Banjo-Tooie review

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Banjo-Tooie is one of those games that gets worse the longer you play it. Initially it isn’t so bad but as the worlds go on and the mechanics get more and more annoying, you really feel it. It’s a game that should only be around 12 hours long and yet it ends up getting stretched to over 30 hours. The game just keeps on going on and on and on. Even after you unlock the initial ending, then there is a true ending after that. The main goal of a game is to be fun but the problem is that this one stops being fun early on. It lacks every possible quality of life feature and that’s just a shame.

The game starts off with a few years passing since the first one. Gruntilda is back and she is definitely aiming to take her revenge on Banjo. It starts out well for her as she murders one of our friends. We have to take her down now and avenge him but to do that we will need to collect all of the Jiggies and stop a bunch of powerful monsters. This may sound like a tough mission but it’s nothing that Banjo hasn’t done before. He is a trained hero after all.

Okay so the basic gameplay style here is that of a 3D platformer. You run, jump, and fight your way through the levels to grab some Jiggies. There are 10 of them per level which can be gained by completing different tasks and sub missions within the world. You need 70 out of the 90 in order to get the true ending here. As you complete the worlds you will learn more and more abilities that let you get more Jiggies. So in that case you could almost call this a vania type of game. There is a lot of backtracking that you have to do over and over again.

The worlds are all connected by the hub world but another way to phrase that is you have to constantly be going to the hub world to then go back to the actual level. There is no instant travel or anything like that. There are shortcuts and warp points but none that will ever get you to where you want to go directly. Trust me when I say that is a very annoying thing. With a huge game like this that is absolutely a must.

Additionally the actual walking speed of Banjo is incredibly slow. You should run with Kazooie as much as possible but the more the game goes on, the more times you have to completely use Banjo to get the jiggy which means that running is not an option. Just travelling will take you a very long time. The game also has a gimmick where every world has you control Mumbo at different points and also transform into various objects. You have to go to their huts to do this and then to transform back you have to run all the way there. Often times they have to take different routes around the level which means even more places to explore.

The worst one is definitely the dinosaur world which is absolutely massive. In addition to the usual transformations your dinosaur mode has two forms. You guessed it…you have to run back to Mumbo’s each time to set this up and then go back to the magic tent. Nothing is made to be easy here and that is a massive problem. It’s not something you can just handwave either. Not when it takes hours upon hours to get past this.

The annoying part is that at first it’s actually rather fun. It’s enjoyable to first enter a world and start to check out each of the passageways and find the Jiggy that you are looking for. That is the heart of this genre after all. Where it all goes horribly wrong is when you have to keep on coming back. At the very least they should have a limit like you have to only revisit world 1 once, or something like that. It’s fine to gradually unlock new powers but you shouldn’t spread them out so completely. Every time you have to go back to the same worlds again is more time that is just wasted. It wasn’t planned out very well at all if you ask me.

The technical aspects of the game are surprisingly good though. The graphics are quite sharp with all of the character models being good and the stage deigns are on point. They hold up really well to the current day. Then there are quite a few catchy tunes to listen to in the game as well. At least that helps you to ignore how long you’ve been playing the game. It’s not enough to block the negatives to be honest but having a bad soundtrack would have made it all way worse that’s for sure.

Throw in some maps, basic descriptions of what’s missing and an effective quick travel. Adding those 3 things would do a whole lot of good for the game. Keep in mind that it took this long even with all of the rewinding and such to avoid going down random paths that lead nowhere. If not for that then this would be even worse. That’s a rather terrifying prospect because some Jiggies require an insane amount of platforming while others are very unrelenting with the damage count. A single death will send you wayyyyyyy back which is definitely something to consider. When I say there are no quality of life considerations here I really do mean it. They were all ditched long ago which is a real shame. his may be the most realistic treasure hunting game in the sense that it is so hard and you are given no direction but that’s no a good thing. The game manages to squander some really entertaining writing and a good story which is an absolutely tragic feat.

Overall, Banjo definitely fell down pretty hard here. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first by any means but it is worlds better than this one. Whenever you have a sequel that is worse than the first one then you’ve got a big problem. That kind of thing just should not be happening. The core concepts are here that could make this a good series but this game did not reach its potential. I’d definitely advise you to stay far away from this one. It’s just not worth the playthrough and makes for a very exhausting game.

Overall 3/10

Silver Bells Review

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It’s time for a whole lot of drama here. Silver Bells is one of those films that brings in the Christmas cheer but also puts the characters through a lot before that. It may not be able to take down some of the classic Hallmark titles but there’s a good amount to enjoy here. It’s always fun to see the big city after all and the writing is solid. The length is also fairly short so the movie really flies on by.

The movie starts off with introducing us to Christy and the family as they sell Christmas trees for a living. It’s been a really good family business but unfortunately Danny is not very satisfied with this arrangement. He’s always felt that he could do a lot more with his life and his passion is in photography. One day he runs away and vanishes. 1 year later, Christy has come to the city again and he is determined to find Danny but is the kid even still okay after all this time?

From the jump I can say that Danny didn’t handle things well. I get wanting to do his own thing and all but the way he handled it was absolutely dangerous and irresponsible. It’s completely possible that things could have gone badly here. If anything that would be the most likely outcome and he just got lucky a bunch of times. While the film makes it clear that Christy wanted Danny to follow in the family business, at no point did I get the impression that he would be violently against it.

I believe if Danny had built up to this long enough then he would have been okay. Instead he actively makes things harder on Christy like when he ran off to take pictures during one of their really busy days. He just felt really selfish the whole time and unfortunately he is also not very good at hiding his tracks. A lady named Catherine decides to help him out and he gets real close to putting her career in jeopardy many times. He leaves snacks lying around, the computer open, forgets to lock doors or close windows, etc. You wonder how he could have really lasted a year.

Also I know he was proud of his photos and remaining a mystery but the fact that he wouldn’t even tell Catherine the answer to where his big photo was taken is crazy. She could have easily been fired and then there would be no more connections for him. In short, I was not a big fan of Danny here, I thought he made too many blunders.

I also didn’t care much for Christy. He definitely made a mistake with how he handled Danny’s wanting to skip on the opera show but beyond that at least he did a good job in finding him. My main problem is with how dismissive he is of Catherine by the end and how quick he is to turn on her. That was an absolutely terrible look and it definitely made it so that you could not root for the romance in the end. The whole climax feels very unbelievable as a result and you will just be shaking your head. It doesn’t feel very plausible and even if it’s going for an unrealistic view, you’re actually hoping that it won’t work out.

As for Catherine, she’s one of the better characters here. You don’t see how she could possibly like Christy after everything they’ve been through though. Catherine is good at her job and doesn’t let herself get distracted too easily. She’s exactly the kind of worker you want to have in your company because she will give it 110%. Manipulating Christy in order for Danny to see his sister was definitely on the underhanded side but she was in a sticky situation.

I also liked corporate here. The son of the CEO is a pretty big character and he is forced into the role of the antagonist due to what’s going on here but he is very reasonable. Look, if someone is constantly breaking into your company and sneaking around then you have to do something about it right? Made perfect sense to me and even then he tried to de-escalate at every turn. I don’t think there is much more you can ask for him. His final emotional scenes were maybe a bit heavy handed though. That subplot about wanting approval from his father felt rather random.

His father also made for a good CEO. He cared about making a difference and seeing the long term vision instead of the immediate bottom line. That is absolutely the way to go here. It’s clear that the company is in good hands. The movie does a good job of fleshing out the world pretty well beyond the immediate main characters. I’d even say I probably cared more about the city and Catherine’s project than with the drama about Christy and the others. Maybe it’s because Danny felt so petty and Christy had his moments as well. They weren’t the best pair of main characters.

His little sister Bridget was okay but doesn’t really contribute much to the adventure. The only main weakness here is the romance like I said before. The film gives too many reasons for the main pairing to despise each other rather than falling in love. It felt pretty bold for Christy to even show his face at the party in the end. Catherine’s friend was definitely a bad influence with how hard she kept trying to make this happen though. That was going a little too far if you ask me.

Overall, Silver Bells is a pretty good film. It may not be an absolute top tier but I had a good time with it and it fits right in with the Christmas themes. You know right from the jump that you will be in for a fun time with lots of fun visuals and a wholesome ending. That’s the main appeal of these films after all, even after things get rocky for the cast, you know it’ll all end up well in the end.

Overall 6/10

November Christmas Review

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It’s time for one of the more emotional Christmas experiences. This one keeps you at the edge of your seat the whole time as you wonder what will happen to the main character….or does it? The movie unfortunately makes the massive mistake of spoiling the entire point of the film in the intro scene by having a fast forward. It’s still one of the craziest kinds of decisions no matter how often I see it. I mean it doesn’t happen often but it shouldn’t happen at all. In a way you’re better off skipping the first 10-15 minutes here.

So ignoring that, the film starts off by introducing us to Tom and Beth who have two kids. Unfortunately their daughter Vanessa is incredibly sick and the treatments have not worked so far. It seems likely that she will be dying soon and so Tom has the idea of celebrating every holiday early so that Vanessa will get to experience them one last time. This is a very unusual plan but Beth gives in and they decide to go for it. It’s time for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Is it possible that they will be getting a Christmas miracle at the end?

Naturally it’s an incredibly difficult situation to deal with when you have a sick kid like this. Tom and Beth are both trying to stay strong throughout the circumstances but they have different ways of handling it. Beth figures that Vanessa should really be isolated and kept away from anything requiring effort so that she can heal better. Meanwhile Tom wants her to have fun and encourages her to move around in order to build up some strength. Due to this there is some fighting initially.

I tend to be more on Tom’s side so I felt lie Beth was being unreasonable but it’s not a large part of the film. They both have to team up once the holidays part comes into play and from then on it is pretty smooth. I was glad about that because if we had a subplot about them fighting, that would have been pretty rough. The film is dramatic enough without any of that after all. I also think the idea of the early holidays is really fantastic too. No reason you can’t just celebrate early and whether it looks weird or not, it’s certainly worth it in case Vanessa does die.

We also have a subplot where the nearby farmer Jess shows up to help. He noticed a connection in all of Tom’s questions and decided to put his best foot forward. He even mended his relationship with his best friend. There’s a lot more drama there but basically Jess had a death of his own to think about and so he wasn’t around for his friend during a tough period. You sot of feel like the friend could have been more understanding there but we don’t know the exact context of how it all went down. Meanwhile the friend has a new girlfriend after his wife died and I didn’t think we needed a rebound romance in this film. Focusing on the main plot is good enough for me.

As always it was fun to see the strong sense of community spirit that you always see in these Hallmark type films. Everyone pitched in to help once they knew the situation with Vanessa and so she had a lot of support. It’s always nice to imagine a town where everybody knows each other and they plan evens and things like that. If you’re introverted it’s probably a nightmare but otherwise it’s like something is always going on.

This one can be a little relentless with how sad it is the whole time. Part of me thinks that is why they spoiled the final outcome in the beginning of the movie so that people wouldn’t be too on edge the whole time. I get it but I do think that it weakens the impact for that very reason. You have to commit at that point and just go all in. I’m a bigger fan of happy films generally but if you handle the tone and ending right, a somber one can work too.

The ending was ultimately satisfying here so it ended up working out. It’s no exaggeration to say that the ending could have swung the film 2-3 stars in a single move depending on how it went. So this is a complete experience and has good writing throughout. It’s more of a holiday merge as opposed to a full Christmas film but it works well for each of them. The writing is pretty good and as always the film’s length is pretty short. That means there isn’t a ton of time for fluff or any of that. Instead the film really dives into the heart of things right away.

The only plot that seemed really out of nowhere with no reason to be included was the rebellious nice and her uncle at the cafe. She was basically rebelling and wanted to be a good artist instead of waiting tables. She comes off as very irresponsible the whole time especially once we learn about her backstory and how he came through for her when nobody else did. The film never paints him as being unreasonable at all so this plot needed some more cooking. The problem is that there just wasn’t much time for it and so they really ended up rushing the whole thing. She basically just learns to be a better person right away but putting more time into the holiday celebrations would have been a better use of the movie’s time.

Overall, November Christmas is a pretty good film. At times it can be a little too somber though. The ending really helps things out but I do feel like the replay value for this title would be very low. I suppose you would just need to really be in the mood for this kind of flick but I don’t see that being the case too often around the holidays. It’s well made and there are a lot of fun moments to be had but it does lag behind the average title. There aren’t a lot of big competitors in the somber arena though so if this sounds good then you should definitely check it out.

Overall 6/10

The Black Cauldron Review

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It’s time for a film that very much feels like how I would picture a Legend of Zelda movie to play out. There are some differences to be sure but you can definitely see the inspiration the whole time. It’s a very serviceable film. There have been way better ones out there to be sure but there’s also nothing really bad about this one. It’s a film that goes by quickly and should keep your attention.

The film starts off by introducing us to Taran who is super bored the whole time. He wants to be a cool warrior who gets stuff done and instead he basically just looks after the livestock. Well, things change one day when his pig uses future-sight to see that the Black Cauldron threat is very real and the Horned King will be making a move. Fortunately the King doesn’t know where it is so Taran heads out with the pig to keep him safe. Unfortunately it doesn’t take long at all for the pig to be captured. The King is ever closer to his goal. Can Taran become the hero he has always known that he could be or is it game over for him?

Taran means well and he makes for a pretty decent main character. The guy may be quick to get frustrated but at the end of the day he is trying to do his best. It would be good if he had some more real skill though. Sure he may not have had an opportunity to fight against any powerful super villains but he could have been training his body so that he would be ready when the trials arrived. The guy is incredibly weak and has to rely on a super sword to do anything. The sword is really cool but Taran needed to put in more work.

Then we have the Princess who is a go getter. She proactively goes after her goals and makes for a solid ally. Even when Taran blows up at her early on, she doesn’t let it stop her for long. She tends to look on the bright side of things. Whenever a princess is out there on the front lines I definitely respect that. She looks way better than Gurgi who takes too long to have his big courageous moment. It’s a classic character arc of going from being the coward to being a talented ally but you still have to go through it quickly because otherwise you’re just dreading his scenes. Giving up and deciding not to help out when the time comes is hard to really come back from.

I’m sure the old man who owned the pig was scared to send Taran out the way that he did but the guy just steadied himself and made the tough choices. It’s what you have to do. Then we have another ally in Fflam who is also not the bravest sort but he gets with the program right away. This guy was a lot more fun and had way more of a complete personality. In a way you could argue that his presence alone ended up hurting Gurgi quite a bit because it showed the gap between them even more than you would have naturally noticed otherwise.

Generally speaking the supporting cast are a bit on the weaker side though. I didn’t care for the small old fairies, the three fairy godmother of sorts who would be bartering, etc. One of them was constantly flirting which was definitely a choice but yeah these characters were just not going to keep the film interesting. It’s why we are very fortunate that Tara and the Princess were solid since thing could have been tricky otherwise.

I did like the main villain but he suffers from an incredible lack of screentime. He talks tough here and there but then he vanishes for large portions of the film. He’s just completely gone and then when he does show up in the climax he isn’t strong enough to resist gravity. Ultimately this makes him lose all of his hype because the tough talk means nothing by that point. It’s a shame because he has the design and the voice down 100%! Just another minutes could have really done wonders to make the film more memorable as well.

The animation certainly holds up really well too. It’s very active with a lot going on as the characters move around very rapidly. There is some intriguing CG type visuals near the end but those are still fun to see. The bolder CG can at least leave more of an impression than some of the modern ones that aren’t really trying anything serious. The best looking shot of the film is probably when the burning sword activates. It really makes an impact and just looks really impressive. It works well as a Master Sword substitute.

So at the end of the day the characters are the weak point here and what could easily fix the film is to make them a bit bolder next time around. Give Taran more of a hook or an edge to him beyond just wanting to be a hero. Give the princess more witty banter and for the coward sidekick, maybe just make him evil from the jump and eventually he starts to turn good. Just some ideas on how you could make them resonate more with the audience, I think that would be effective in keeping this from just blending in.

Overall, The Black Cauldron is a good movie. It starts out fast with the hero getting into the evil castle right away and from there the plot continues to adapt and change. It may not stand out next to other fantasy adventures but it still makes for an easy watch when you have the time. I would have liked a longer climax with more action against the main villain though. The actual ending was more on the anticlimactic side. They could probably do better in a remake but instead I’d say this film should just get a sequel. With the intros out of the way we can jump right into the action.

Overall 7/10

Jujutsu Kaisen Review

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It’s time to talk about one of the biggest manga endings of the year. Jujutsu Kaisen was a really big Jump title with a lot of action and a whole lot going for it. Its popularity was pretty high and it got a big budget movie and anime to itself. I definitely had a great time with it and I think it’ll be remembered fondly. I may not have been crazy about the ending but at the end of the day the ending is a small part of the experience. This is a series that was with us for a long while and had time to bring in a whole lot of fun plots and battles. You don’t just forget about all of that.

The manga follows a kid named Yuji who is pretty much on his own once his grandfather died. Yuji has always been physically gifted to the point of being a metahuman but is otherwise normal. Well one day some monsters show up and Yuji ends up swallowing a demon finger which seals the demon Sukuna within him. Yuji is now being carefully watched by a group of sorcerers in the Jujutsu world who think that he could end up being a massive threat. Some want to murder Yuji while others want to use him as a valuable asset. Yuji figures he will make the best of things for as long as he can and decides to help fight the evil spirits.

First up we have the pre arc which introduces us to some of the other sorcerers like Megumi, Nobara, and Gojo. The series sets the tone early on by introducing us to another friend who seemed like he was going to be a main character only to get bumped off early. Jujutsu Kaisen is a series where generally speaking nobody is safe. The series starts to walk this back a little towards the end but I would say that the theme i still accurate. In this world you are constantly risking your life and the line towards death is a very narrow one. It’s why several characters talk about the subject, how they would like to go and how they wouldn’t.

Kaisen’s main cast is also a lot of fun so it’s easy to see why fans are saddened that we don’t get to see the dynamic for very long. The big 3 hanging out with Gojo only happens a few times as they are almost always split apart. It’s rough but that’s just how it goes. Fortunately we have a lot of good side characters as well and if you’re really into action then you’re all set because a lot of the series is basically nonstop action. It does get rather text heavy with the abilities though so you better be sure that you can keep up.

I’d say in some ways the first big arc is the tournament against the upper classmen which transitions immediately into one of the more powerful demons challenging them. It’s always cool to see more characters show up and the tournament being a wide range survival type means that we got to see a whole lot of them at once. Todo leaves a fast impression and while some of the characters on the other team ended up being fodders, I was glad to have more opponents. You want to introduce as many characters as you can early on in order to really flesh out the world and I’d say the series did a good job with that. There is a whole lot of lore going on here.

This is even a series that doesn’t always explain everything. There are quite a bit of details that are kept in the background like Kenjaku’s plan where a bunch of people still don’t keep that part straight. Other parts simply aren’t finalized and you jut have to choose your own ending for it. I’ll go more into the ending in general but generally I don’t mind not having every question answered. Leaves more room for you to imagine what probably happened off screen.

After that we have Mahito running around, some more demon attacks and Megumi getting some rare moments to shine and then we jump into the prequel arc about Gojo’s past. This is a pretty massive arc because Gojo has been such a mysterious character so it was nice to learn more about him. It’s fun to see how cocky that guy is. He really hasn’t changed over the years at least on a surface level but by the end you can see how he did crack a little. It feels like he was more genuine before the time skip and now it’s more like a facade. He is a complex character though which leaves room for a whole lot of interpretations which I really enjoy.

Then we get to the famous arc which is Shibuya. This was a terrific arc in the manga and I dare say the anime even elevated it further. Shibuya is an arc that brings all of the characters together and in that way it feels like it is hard to top. (Although impressively enough, I would say that the climax managed to top it) There is a lot of nonstop action here and it’s cool to see all of the big shots going up against each other. It’s the kind of arc that only works because this has been a fairly long series so there was time to introduce all of these characters. It would not have nearly the same impact if we hadn’t known the characters beforehand.

It’s the reward you get for reading along for so long. It’s always risky waiting or a bunch of characters to face off in the end game because you need to keep people sticking around until then and Kaisen pulled it off. Also it is so rare for any series to be taking place in a big city environment so that made me appreciate this even more. Like in Yuji vs Choso we had them using the building in the fight and all of the other battles did something similar like Gojo in the train station. Lets get more manga with the city vibes like this!

Finally we get to the final arc which is the Culling Games. It’s definitely a lot more mixed than Shibuya but the highs are the peak of the series. We get what I would call the really old school type finale of everyone going off to fight Sukuna one at a time. It’s a super hype way to end the series. I may have some issues which I’ll get into later on but this was climactic. Then of course before all of that you had a whole lot of battles. This is basically a giant tournament after all and it’s one that has a ton of convoluted reasons to keep track of.

We even have the government getting involved later on which was definitely interesting. That storyline pretty much just gets dropped but we can assume that they will return and cause more and more trouble until they are either destroyed or the sorcerers are on the back foot. It’s not an ongoing fight that you can really have until one side is wiped out because neither one will budge.

A big positive I have to give the series right away here is that there is a very minimal amount of fanservice. For the most part it just isn’t a factor and that’s great. In general I would say modern manga are a whole lot better with that than they used to be. The story gets to take center stage this way and it is also a good sign that the manga takes itself very seriously. I will always be here to praise that when it happens.

Meanwhile the art is also pretty good. It sometimes has a bit of a rough look but that works with the general vibe that the series is going for. The fights are always clear which is the important part and you really feel the hype. Mix that in with the solid writing and you can see why the series got so big. I’ll say right now that I did really enjoy all of the big exposition and text bubbles here. I tend to enjoy theory crafting and ability explanations so it was all handled well. There are some exceptions from movies and anime but yeah this kind of dialogue I can read all day.

The nonstop nature of the series does mean that there is rarely any downtime. I know a lot of the characters don’t get to talk or hang out too much which can be rough but I can’t say that I minded it. I’m generally more of an action guy myself after all so if this is what had to happen for the battles then I’m all for it. The characters show a lot of stamina considering how long they had to be fighting for.

Now I did have issues with the ending which is a separate matter. Skip these next two paragraphs if you haven’t read the series yet. Begin Spoilers There’s no way Gojo would lose to Sukuna! I still think that whole fight was busted. Yes, Sukuna had a lot of fancy powers and was a serious threat but Gojo was too broken by this point in the fight. The idea of a single slash blindsiding him still has to be one of the worst twists to a fight. It had to be off screen because the author knew nobody would buy that. It just goes against everything we had seen before that point. Yeah I still shake my head just thinking about that. It was not a good idea by any means.

The whole time I was waiting for some kind of a twist but it never happened. In the end Kenjaku’s plan was also rather weak and I don’t totally wrap my head around why he had to wait and become Yuji’s mother to pull it off. I think part of this was waiting on Tengen but it feels like his plan would have been a lot smoother if he just kidnapped Yuji after birth or hid him away. A lot of characters somehow avoiding death in the end was a bit cheesy but I’m definitely more okay with that since I like a happy ending. It just felt like parts of the ending were rather rushed or the author wrote himself into a corner and wasn’t sure how to end it. Most of this could have been ended with a Gojo victory but that’s how it goes I suppose. End Spoilers

Okay so that’s a pretty deep dive into the series itself, now lets talk about the characters. There is a fairly large cast here so buckle yourself in because this is about to get real! I won’t go into literally everybody, you can read the series for that but I’ll at least get into the big figures here and anybody who seems worthy of a writeup. Naturally we will start with the main character himself, Yuji Itadori.

Yuji is one of those main characters who may get overshadowed at times because his abilities are a whole lot simpler than most. Basically he can hit opponents really hard. At least for 99% of the series that is his power. His punches can even rock an opponent’s soul which is really impressive but compare that to characters who need 3 pages worth of text to explain their abilities and you can feel the difference. Of course I like physical abilities so that is A ok with me. He has super durability as well which helps him compensate there.

As a character he is definitely really solid. A good hero who wants to do the right thing and is also able to just unleash on a villain once he’s had enough. He is absolutely willing to down someone like Mahito who is basically unable to turn good. He maybe gets a little overly sentimental at the very end but hey it’s hard to be too down about a character for wanting to spare the enemy. At the end of the day he is a good guy after all.

Then we have the rival Megumi and he is definitely more of a mixed bag. Part of the problem I’d say is that he doesn’t get much screentime and doesn’t feel super impressive. I’d say his summons are a pretty solid matchup for Yuji so in a fight he could stand a chance at least until Shibuya but after that he is probably getting wrecked pretty fast. It would have been good if Megumi could have gotten more scenes at the end to really show his stuff or something like that but in the end that just wasn’t in the cards.

After that we have Nobara to round out the trio. She is a fun character who also suffers from a lack of screentime. Her ability to land a hit on an opponent from any distance as long as she has their DNA is super handy. You could even say that it is a rather broken ability and perhaps that is why she had to be written out. She has a lot of good general confidence as well. So Nobara is definitely fun and helps make the cast more enjoyable. Physically her stats are basically human so she is best used as a support fighter once the others have gotten the villain into a vulnerable state. Then she can spam her abilities from afar to throw him off.

Gojo comes next and that guy is a total MVP of the series. It’s easy to see why he is such a fan favorite because the guy is awesome. His Infinity power is really handy and the guy is basically the embodiment of confidence. How can you not love a character like that right? The author was also very smart in waiting until the very end to have his big fight with Sukuna. As a result it was one of the most anticipated fights in all of manga with a ton of build up. I would argue it’s a fight that can be mentioned in the same breath as Goku vs Frieza, Naruto vs Sasuke, and Luffy vs Kaido as fights that were hyped up for ages and really delivered. it was incredibly climactic and no matter what flaws I had with the aftermath, he actual battle was absolutely top tier.

Seeing this in real time was really incredible. I also really appreciated Gojo’s origin story as a nice window into how he became the man that he is today. I’d ignore every part of the airplane scene since that seemed wildly out of character. Other than that he was shown to be a really caring guy, a good mentor, and someone who you could trust to have your back. Any scene with him in it really flipped the script on the villains. Additionally, I also liked how ruthless he could be with the villains. When it comes to cursed spirits he would just end them and also put the corrupt council on notice that they would be ended as well.

It’s pretty well explained that the society is super corrupt in a lot of ways and so you are glad that Gojo doesn’t just let them do whatever they want. Just the knowledge that he could try to take them down is enough of a deterrent. Unfortunately even then he can’t protect everybody. Another big character in the series is Yaga who generally seems like a nice guy. Unfortunately things don’t go so well with him and he’s a perfect example of one of those characters who has an abrupt end to his character arc that was unexpected. I can’t say that I ever became a big fan of his but he wasn’t bad. Another character to help flesh things out.

Kusakabe is someone who got likable a lot quicker. It’s easy to empathize with him since he’s a fairly ordinary guy trying to stay alive while all of these powerhouses are duking it out. It’s definitely not an enviable position to be in and yet the guy constantly finds himself in a really rough place. He ends up squaring up against the strongest villain in the series more than once. He may not be someone you can count on to win but at least he’ll buy time.

Shoko is more of a meme than anything as she almost never gets to really do anything in the series. She has a lot of potential and her healing is supposed to be top rate but yeah don’t expect her to be appearing too often. I like the concept of her character though. She’s certainly better than the shifty Mei Mei who shows up for profits and then dips as soon as possible. She’s definitely not the most heroic character by a long shot and tends to be more on the annoying side. Her scenes with Ui Ui are particularly brutal. Ui Ui may help out at times but yeah I could do without him.

Two sorcerers who are even pointless though are the sumo wrestler guy and then later on the Kappa. They basically appear for a quick training scene to power someone up but that’s it. You can safely ignore them but I don’t regret their appearing. After all, with the Culling Games we needed a lot of different sorcerers for all of the matchups. So these guys helped to fill in a few of the slots even if there wasn’t a whole lot else going for them.

A sorcerer who appeared later on that actually did leave a good impression was Takaba. This guy loves joking around and has a casual reality warping ability where anything that he finds to be funny can come true. There are likely some limits to this ability even though we don’t actually get to see those. It was a very interesting twist to the final arc as things would just get a lot happier and more comedic when he was around. It also works out pretty well that he showed up near the end since it’s definitely possible that he could have gotten annoying if he was around for too long.

Now Higurama is a real highlight. As soon as he showed up he left a really great impression. I already love court room plots, characters, and scenes. So throwing in a character like that was a really great idea. He actually did make a real difference in the series as well. He’s fairly jaded by the start of his appearances and then warms up near the end. There’s just a whole lot to his character and I’d have liked to have seen more of his abilities. There really just wasn’t time for him to get any more action scenes once we were that deep into the series.

Mai is one of those characters who ended up having a smaller role than I was expecting. She still played a pivotal role in the end but ultimately would not become one of the strongest fighters. I blame her weapon, you’re never going to go all that far with a normal gun. It’s just not a weapon that is meant to take on powerful opponents in any verse. There are very few exceptions and she starts out as a bully anyway so it’s not like she had much time to be a hero.

The rest of her team generally falls into that role. Look at poor Miwa. She basically became a meme and nothing ever went right for her. The manga teases something that will happen near the end and it’s extremely underwhelming. Ultimately you may enjoy her as a character because she is a lot of fun but at the end of the day that’s about all that she has going for her. It would have been nice if she could have gotten one big moment to end things off with.

Todo gets a huge role though and stands out from the others. For starters his clapping teleportation is incredibly useful and even at the end of the series it is generally considered to be one of the best abilities in the verse. The amount of uses that it has is absolutely incredible and beyond that he is just a fun guy to have around. He had a good personality the whole time and always enjoyed a good fight. Those tend to be big green flags for me. Todo also got to be involved in just about all of the big fights which was fortunate.

Meanwhile Maki is another big character and she certainly got a lot of development throughout the series. She started out as a fairly tough fighter but not one of the top tiers. Well, by the end she can hold her head high as one of the big ones. Her physical abilities are great and she’s very no nonsense. It would have been nice to have seen a bit more of her personality post time skip but at the end of the day she still got her share of action. It was always fun to watch her fight.

I do have to put one knock against her though which is when she erased the Zenin clan. Yes the clan was evil but it’s made clear that she completely wiped them out with no exceptions. We see her execute even people who could not fight back and that’s when you start to go from vigilante into full blown villain territory. Kaisen has always been a series where the heroes don’t even try to cling onto a moral high ground so there isn’t much of an uproar about this but I still thought that it was going a little bit too far. It just didn’t leave a good taste to be having a “hero” do all of that. There had to be another way to pull this off.

There are comparisons made to Gojo threatening to murder all of the elders and ultimately another character doing this but the main difference is that all of the elders were involved with what was going on and you can’t say the same for everyone in the Zenin clan. Speaking of Yuta, he certainly gets a pretty big role in the series. He originally started out as a protagonist in Kaisen 0 after all and it was a lot of fun to see him show up here. It was definitely an awesome intro and from there he never looked back.

Yuta is one of the biggest powerhouses of the series after all and by having his own volume first, it really felt like he was a crossover character stepping foot into the main series. You appreciated all of his scenes all the more as a result and the fact that he got to face off with Geto’s body once more. Not Geto himself but the effect was still there.

Panda is given a good amount of hype in his own right but I wasn’t the biggest fan of his. In part it’s because I didn’t find him to be all that impressive in a fight and also because his personality just isn’t as bombastic. It’s one of those cases where there is nothing super wrong with him, he’s just not my kind of character. Hey that has to happen sometimes. Then we have Toge whose ability to make you do whatever he says is extremely handy. As a result he is kept away from the action for pretty much the whole series. It would have been nice for him to have gotten more to do. As it stands I would say he is a good character but there really isn’t much to say about him.

Junpei is one of those characters who was set up for a whole lot of action but ultimately didn’t last too long. That said, I didn’t like him as much as most people did. I appreciated the unexpectedness of his ending but at the same time as a character he was tricked way too easily. It made him look like a grade A sucker. Unfortunately he likely would have been bumped off either way but he didn’t need to make it so easy. That’s something that will always be a huge slight against him.

Then we have Hakari who really debuts late in the series. He got mentioned fairly early on too, but that’s just how it goes. Well he’s a fun character and I like how his ability forces you to play games with him. The visual novel for example was crazy and also just so unique. The author was maybe having a bit more fun than he needed to in terms of all the dialogue and everything but it really did force you to understand what his opponents were going through. Imagine having to remember everything about how to counter the ability when you are in a life or death fight.

Momo is one of those characters who doesn’t get anything to do and it’s easy to see why. She can ride a broom and that’s about it. She was so underwhelming from the start and never really got better. Then you have Kamo and the series sort of started to give him some importance but quickly took it away again. He had potential but just needed to do more to really join the big shots. Even when he got a team up with Maki it just felt like he was holding her back. Muta is the final member of the team who could actually fight and even then he made the worst moves possible.

I have a lot of points against him for betraying the team. His end was just so obvious the whole time and he puts everyone into a lot of trouble. There was no real going back for him from that point so I didn’t like him nearly as much as others. Yuki is a character who had very limited screentime but managed to make it count. I liked her mass ability. It was one of those abilities that is fairly simple but Gege managed to make it a little more intricate. He is certainly good at doing that. Would have been nice if she could have had one more fight though. I say that a lot with these characters and it shows just what a big verse Gege created in such a short amount of time.

Then we have Nanami who was a good intro instructor to Yuji. You don’t figure that he would last too long but he managed to make an impact. He’s one of those general all around types. Nothing too fancy in terms of ability or skill but still above average and enough to hold his own with most of the villains in the series. I was satisfied with the amount of fights and action that he got.

Finally you’ve got Tengen who is just annoying the whole time. He’s a perfect embodiment of all the corruption in the Jujutsu world. He continues to exist on the blood of innocents by sacrificing people which is messed up. When it comes time for a fight, he is powerless against the villains who matter. This guy tends to be a waste of space and you feel no real sympathy for him at all. Not much changes if you remove him from the series to be honest.

On the villains side we have Naoya who actually ends up being a really fun character. He’s the kind of guy who is very stubborn and determined. He keeps on returning over and over to take down the heroes and it is a good trait to have. The guy is a straight up villain and there is nothing ambiguous about him at all. He really works in the role though and was one of the more entertaining villains. That is really tough considering just how many colorful villains there are out there. I wouldn’t have minded if he got to appear even more to be honest.

Then we have Toji who is the best villain in the series. He is basically a human who stays fit and has a heavenly restriction that makes him extremely powerful. It’s a classic case of David and Goliath when he fights Gojo and that is part of the appeal since typically you would expect the hero to be the underdog. It’s why you have an easy time enjoying Toji here because he is using the tactics and planning you would typically expect out of Batman and he really dominates whenever he is on screen. Now here’s a character that I would have absolutely loved to have seen more of in the series. There is just so much to do with him but alas there is only so much time.

He certainly gets more screentime than Haruta which is a good thing. That guy is basically well known for being super weak and petty the whole time. What a thing to be known for right? I don’t even like the guy ironically, he’s just annoying the whole time. He’s also not very powerful and so he always has to rely on getting lucky with the matchups. But hey that’s his power so in a way it is fitting.

Uraume is much more interesting but she doesn’t actually get to appear very much. She’s sort of like Sukuna’s right hand man and her ice abilities are really impressive. Unfortunately most of her fight was off screen but from what we sae, she was very capable. I liked the concept of her a lot.

Then we have Miguel who wasn’t a villain for very long to be honest. That was back in the 0 days and here he shows up as a hero. His role is small but it was pretty cool seeing him show up for the final battle. Everyone got to contribute a little bit. Likewise for Geto who doesn’t appear much in the series at all yet he plays a massive role in it. He introduces a lot of concepts and debates into the series. Ultimately it’s just a bunch of lip service from a mass murderer with crazy ambitions but I always enjoyed the conversations. The guy also did go through a lot which is very clear.

Choso is one of the more fun antagonists with his initial aggression towards Yuji and then their bonds from then on. He was definitely real loyal and his blood powers were very good. Sometimes a big 180 personality shift like that may not work but in his case it did thanks to the circumstances around all of that. It was definitely a moment that the author planned out very well.

From the original villains the one with the smallest role is probably Dagon. He looks the least impressive initially and even by the end I would argue that he is probably the weakest. He does get a good fight and has a cool looking super form but ultimately this guy is more flash than substance. You can’t really put him in the same category as Jogo or Mahito. Those guys slam him every time.

Jogo has the worst luck I’ve seen for a big villain. He has to go up against the two strongest characters in the series. That’s an extremely rough fate and so while he is very powerful, we don’t get to see that very often. He is a very fun character either way though. Ultimately he had his own pride and fought hard til the end. I could definitely respect that and he even had the nice “Be proud” moment so the villain gave him respect as well.

Hanami has the rough luck of fighting Gojo but before that she did a lot of dominating as well. Her plant powers are really fun and she can also fight in hand to hand combat at an extremely high level. Another top tier villain and it reminds you of just how broken the group was. If not for Gojo then they could have easily taken down the Jujutsu society. All of the heroes combined would have really not stood a chance at that point.

Kashimo is one of those famous “Potential Man” characters. He had a really intense intro that caused a lot of people to become big fans of his but ultimately he never lived up to it. His ending was easily one of the most anti climactic ones out there. It’s very easy to make fun of him and hopefully the anime extends the sequence. As rough as it was, ultimately I still liked the guy. He just needed more screen time but still generally had a good personality that was exciting. I also tend to like thunder powers quite a bit.

Then we have Mahito who is one of the biggest villains in the series. The guy made things very personal with Yuji and the series really gave them time to develop this matchup. Both fighters really wanted to murder the other by the end of it. I remember enjoying Mahito enough where I wanted to see him fight Gojo but they barely get to interact at all. Ultimately it’s a terrible matchup for Mahito since it’s not like he can even touch Gojo. That removes his main advantage after all. Mahito is in a lot of ways like the Joker and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a hero vs villain rivalry as solid as this one. Maybe even since the Goku vs Frieza days which sounds pretty crazy but I would argue that either way this was a top tier one. Yuji probably shouldn’t have won in the end when you consider the power imbalance there.

Kenjaku is one of those villains who got worse and worse the more that he appeared. His plan just wasn’t all that great and while the randomness of it was intentional, it just didn’t feel fitting for such a mastermind villain. He really needed a better ending. There are a lot of fun memes due to how it ends as well. Like becoming someone’s mother and giving birth to a big character may have become relevant plot points by the end but it makes you wonder why he did the plan the way that he did. It all feels random once again and takes away major points from his mastermind status. If he had a more graceful end then it probably would have aged his character better.

Finally you have Sukuna who did end up being the final villain. This guy was hyped from the start and the series did a tremendous job with him. It’s not every day that a character gets to live up to the hype and make it to the end but Sukuna actually did this. There’s nothing else you could say except that it is very impressive. Sukuna got a number of super forms and kept pulling out techniques from under the hat. He knew how to really exploit all of the rules of sorcery and bend them to his whim. It made him the perfect final antagonist. I already discussed the matchup before so while I don’t think Sukuna should have lasted as long as he did, it still made for a really exciting climax. I don’t think we’re likely to see one quite as long and packed with characters for a very long time.

Now the series did end with a lot of unresolved plot lines, ideas, and concepts but like I said that’s fine in general. I don’t mind making up my own theories to fill in the blanks. I do think the weirdest one was how the series seemed to be implying that Yuji had some kind of reality warping with the delusions he showed Todo and Choso. For both of those to be coincidences was a real stretch so I didn’t quite buy into Gege’s plan there.

Kaisen is great no matter when you read it but I will say that it will feel a bit different without the live commentary. This is one of those series that was really fun to read live. There were so many twists and turns that generated a ton of discussion and memes. Again I don’t think we’ll be seeing anything quite so elaborate out of a manga again for a very long time aside from One Piece which has been around for so long. Kaisen really got to join the all time greats in how good it was at encouraging debate.

Overall, Jujutsu Kaisen is a great manga. It really nailed all of the big things that I would look for in a manga like solid characters and great fights. It made it to a pretty solid length as well. Naturally I wish it could have kept on going for a longer amount of time but at the end of the day it’s enough to be satisfied with. I would definitely recommend this title. It may be a tad darker than some Shonens but at the end of the day it is still a classic Jump title at heart. It has a lot of good messages and keeps you absolutely engaged the entire time. It’ll be difficult for any of the new up and coming titles to really defeat it.

Overall 8/10

Wolf of the Battlefield: MERCS Review

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This is definitely one of the more random games that I’ve gotten to play. I can tell you that I’ve definitely never even heard of this game before. It was a pretty fun one but definitely suffers from some arcade age. There’s one boss in particular that you have to play frame perfect or you get crushed. Even with rewind and perfectly dodging every hit it was super difficult to pull off the win.

You play as a GI Joe type of hero who needs to take down a whole army of opposing fighters and giant mech suits. You can bet that this is no easy task but he is up for it. You go through 8 levels of auto scrolling where more and more enemies keep showing up. When the auto scrolling stops, you get to keep on going and take your chances with the enemy gunfire or stay put and whittle them down first. Generally I found that it was best to keep on moving but of course that can also be super risky so you need to keep that in mind. The biggest factor to keep in mind though is the weapons that you pick up. These will change your experience quite a lot. When you pick up a gun, you drop your old one and can’t pick it back up so keep that in mind.

In my opinion the best weapon is the flame thrower and it’s not particularly close. A good blast from that weapon takes out most opponents and you can just hold down the attack button to keep it shooting forever. The catch is that it won’t have the same punch as some of the stronger weapons but honestly it’s a pretty decent trade off for me. Once I picked this one up I made sure not to pick any other weapons up. There was one boss that was nearly impossible to defeat with this weapon but in every other level it really served me well.

The game is also fairly generous with all of the health items that are dropped by enemies or found in boxes. More so than the average game in this genre so I definitely appreciated that. It helped prevent the game from getting too difficult to get through. It’s still very difficult obviously but it never feels quite impossible the way some of the old arcade shooters would. There are some shooters like that where you just feel like they were made to take all of your quarters.

The graphics have aged really well and I’d say that it is due to the art style. It’s very colorful and helps complement the sprites well. The action also works really well although there isn’t much of a soundtrack. You can’t win them all I suppose. In terms of replay value, there technically isn’t one since there are no collectibles or bonus levels to play through. I guess you could try to beat the game quicker or with less deaths as some self imposed challenges though. That would be a hard sell unless you really loved the game though. Otherwise this is clearly made as the kind of game that you play through all the way once and then call it a day.

Nothing wrong with that kind of game of course, that’s how a lot of them were back in the day. It’s definitely worth playing through this title on the Switch Online. The fact that they put a good amount of effort into this one instead of letting it become generic shooter 3000 was also a really good touch. Even with that we’ll see how long I remember this one though. In my defense, there really are a whole lot of army games with no real end in sight. It’s the kind of game that people just enjoy a whole lot so why wouldn’t they continue them right? One of these games in 3D without the first person camera work would really be awesome! Hopefully that ends up being the case at some point.

Overall, MERCS is a pretty fun game. I dare say that a lot of the enjoyment is because I am playing it through the Switch Online though. Without that I would probably be in a really tricky spot. I’d give it a few whirls but in general when you are sent back to the beginning of a game, I’m not too keen to keep on trying. You just lose too much progress even if you are having fun. At minimum, all games need to allow you to replay from the latest level when you have a game over. That is the way to go.

Overall 7/10

Vectorman Review

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Vectorman is definitely nostalgic because I played through it many years ago. I don’t remember if I beat the whole game and if I had to guess, I probably didn’t. It’s a very difficult title which helps to make up for its length. The concept for the game is really sound and I enjoy the gameplay. It really is like an alternate Mega Man of sorts and it’s too bad that this one didn’t spawn a lot of sequels and turn into a complete franchise or anything like that.

The general plot is that Vectorman is the only one to resist mind control and so it’s up to him to destroy all of the enemies. This may sound like a daunting task but Vectorman isn’t the kind of villain to go down so easily. He has his blasters and only gets stronger as the game goes on. The basic gameplay style is that of a 2D shooter. Your gun can spam bullets and along the way you can get temporary power ups that makes you gun even stronger. On the flip side, Vectorman is very flimsy and a few hits will put him out of commission for good.

Virtually all of the enemies have super armor which also makes them very difficult to defeat. You have to be extremely careful or you will end up soaking up a bunch of damage in the blink of an eye. Once that happens then you are really doomed. You always want to keep at least two health points on hand because you can lose 2 in back to back hits before you can really react. You don’t have many invincibility frames here.

There are a number of bosses in the game and they are all crafted well. The way you defeat each of them is unique so there are no re-used bosses or anything like that. Each one is a unique experience all the way through. The graphics are also really good. All of the worlds really stand out and are very colorful. I like the enemy designs and the energy blasts look good. It’s a very well balanced title all the way.

Then you have the soundtrack which is a very solid Sci-fi blend. It sounds like Mega Man but even more modern for its time. The soundtrack ages extremely well and works with the gameplay. The final boss is also really intense so the game gets to end with a real bang. It certainly succeeds on the technical aspects.

When it comes to the gameplay, my main tip would be to make sure and get every single health point. You will need them for the bosses which are all designed to absolutely obliterate you. They are not balanced in any way so don’t get that twisted. These guys are as overpowered as they get and will give you no quarter. You will be on the defensive the whole time and you can expect to die a whole lot. It has a case for being even harder than Mega Man to be honest but the Wily runs do tend to be crazy so that may be overdoing it just a tad.

This is another series that could really use a modern remake. Vectorman would be an absolutely stellar main character and he already has the deign for it. You’d probably need to focus on the supporting cast next since right now there isn’t much of one but that wouldn’t be too hard to do. You can also give him more attacks but perhaps that would make it feel too much like a Mega Man ripoff. That can be avoided for now but with how he’s made of a lot of balls for joints, using some kind of shape manipulation could be within reason.

Naturally I would also add more of a story. It certainly can’t hurt right? So you can have that at the ready as well and you’ve got all the makings of a fun title. That’s probably the most fun thing about playing all of these old games which is that you can sit down and think about the concepts outside of the old limitations of the ancient systems. Something like Vectorman is a perfect example of this.

Overall, Vectorman is a pretty good game. It holds up really well both in terms of gameplay and graphics. It’s the kind of game you can pop in at any time because of how extremely simple it is. It’s ultra difficult but very simple to understand. I would definitely appreciate more of a plot but for now I will be satisfied with just having some opening text at least. It’s more than some other games bother to deliver after all. If you haven’t played or even heard of the game before then you should change that right away. Don’t let your expectations get too crazy here but you can definitely be assured that you will have a positive experience. In the end that is the most important thing after all.

Overall 7/10