Essential Avengers Volume 9 Review

Posted on July 25, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for another Esssential review and this time we’re taking a look at the 9th volume of Avengers! Their new film is coming up soon so it’s always good to revisit the classics and the stories were pretty solid. The Avenger comics were typically my favorite ones from back in the day as far as Marvel is concerned. This collection does bring an infamous Ms Marvel comic with it as well, which I shall definitely discuss. Even without Comicvine to back me up on this retro review, I definitely wouldn’t forget that one.

There are many comics and plots contained in this Essential. As with the previous reviews, I shall not mention all of them, but I’ll make sure to give as many plots as possible. The first adventure that I shall mention was a mini Vision story in the Tales to Astonish series. The Vision has to help the passengers of a plane, but then he learns of a murder that is about to take place. He has to decide whether to stay in the plane and help an old man prevent a heart attack or he could go and stop the murder. The Vision may have to make the toughest call of his life. Is he more machine than man? That’s the question that we have to think about.

The Avengers Annual featured a story with Arsenal. Arsenal is definitely a powerful Marvel villain and he made for a really good villain. The Avengers find out that this unstoppable beast is in their mansion and now they will have to stop it. The only problem is that this villain’s power is almost immeasurable and Iron Man only barely managed to stop it last time. Luckily, he’s brought along Captain America and Thor (among others) so they are ready this time. It made for an interesting comic and Arsenal was cool. I guess he’s more of a one shot villain than most, but the world’s never too small for an extra powerhouse.

An interesting comic saw the Avengers head to Russia to combat a supervillain threat. The enemies were a group of elemental villains who didn’t seem natural. The Avengers would have to find out how they were created and react accordingly. The villains aren’t what made the comic interesting, but the Avengers’ attitudes about it were. Captain America initially did not want to help because Russia was being attacked. After all, he’s Captain America and he believes that the Avengers are country based. The Beast (considering that he’s typically an Xman and not an Avengers makes things interesting as well) defies Captain America and he says that it’s the Avengers duty to help out anyone in trouble. Captain America grudgingly agrees in the end and then the group goes off to help. (They’re ultimately chased off, but only after they’ve solved the problem) This could have been the first comic where Captain America didn’t act as heroic as we are used too. (Pre AVX days)

The next comic arc proves once again why the Avengers can be a little annoying. Wasp ventures to an asylum after hearing a story from one of the guys who escaped and his tale turns out to be true so she is quickly kidnapped. The Avengers head there, but decide that they can’t bust in because of legal issues. I can’t help but wince whenever I see one of the Superheroes saying that. They should worry about the consequences after they bust in and save the day. Instead, they send in Antman and Yellow Jacket to secretly check what’s happening. They’re quickly defeated soooo….time for Plan C! Who could defeat three Avengers anyway?

After that, the Avengers get locked in their elevator, which makes for an amusing story. This was the calm before the storm as the infamous Ms Marvel comic occurred shortly after. Uh oh….herrrrre we go! Well, as you may already be aware, Ms Marvel quickly has a baby and the process only took a few hours when it should have taken months as in the real world. The Baby immediately begins to grow up and boss the Avengers around as he tells them to gather some tools. The Baby then builds a dimension or time machine. (I forgot, but it doesn’t matter all that much) The baby grows into an adult and he tells the Avengers about how he basically turned his essence into a baby and put himself in Ms Marvel and he’s the one who originally had the baby with her. Now that he is an adult again, he wants to go away with her to his realm. Ms Marvel doesn’t really object to this and she leaves with him, but we have to remember that the guy seems to have some form of telepathy so the whole thing was very suspicious. He did make Ms Marvel forget about their affair after all.

Naturally, the worst part about this is the fact that the Avengers didn’t really do anything about it. They just wished the two of them well and forgot about the whole affair entirely. I can definitely see why fans can’t stand this comic and I have to agree that it was poorly written. I’m not sure what the writing staff was thinking when they wrote it. Nobody is in character and the Avengers should have at least gone with them through the portal or quickly begin preparations to find them. They just forgot the entire matter and it didn’t seem very heroic. This was definitely one of the largest errors that the Avengers have made.

Next, we got to see the iconic Jarvis comic. A bully enters his old neighborhood and it’s up to Jarvis to put him down for the count. What’s a regular teenager going to do to a man who’s helped the Avengers take out guys who could destroy planets? Jarvis is going to show him that you never mess with an Avenger! We also get a comic where Ultron returns to plague the world with his greatness, but it was surprisingly uneventful. Just a typical day with the Avengers.

The final comic was interesting because the Human Torch got to make an appearance. Unfortunately, his flames were not potent enough to put out the chemical flame inside of a warehouse and it was actually draining his abilities. The Avengers are forced to go in, but is this place really safe? One thing’s for sure…this was not a natural disaster!

The art is pretty good and it’s classic. All of the character designs are clear and easily understood. The comics are all in black and white of course since this is the Essential series. I definitely wouldn’t say that there was anything wrong with the drawings and sometimes I miss the good ole days. The facial expressions were definitely a little more life like at times back then.

One thing that always made these Avenger comics fun was the amount of suspense and drama that was added. The characters would always be at the limits of their abilities. The headlines would be startling and the heroes weren’t afraid to panic or say their thoughts aloud. It was a different era and the heroes were typically pretty cheerful. The Vision was not, but he had his own subplot with the Scarlet Witch that was present the whole time and they were at odds for a bit. The Falcon also had a subplot where he felt like the team was excluding him. I can’t say that I sympathized every time. There may have been a few times where I felt bad for him, but the Falcon did overdo it on several occasions. He was mad that they didn’t ask his opinion before going on a dangerous mission, but the Avengers typically don’t ask for opinions. Guys like Hawkeye and Iron Man just volunteer their thoughts whenever possible since they love to be at the head of the group. Falcon just needed to be more proactive in his attempts to let the team know what he thought they should do. Ironically enough, the Avengers asked his opinion next time, but the Falcon gave a mean retort like “What does it matter what the new Avenger thinks!” since he needed to let more missed opportunities go as he flew off…..you can probably tell that I’m not a huge Falcon fan either. He can be all right, but usually he’s just not very likable for me.

Overall, This collection was pretty good and all of the comics were basically enjoyable except for the controversial Ms Marvel one. The Beast and Wonderman team up wasn’t that interesting either, but it was all right. I would definitely recommend the collection to comic fans and it would be interesting to see what you thought of the Ms Marvel issue. The art is solid and you get to see a lot of the classic Avenger villains test their mettle against the heroes. I would say that Thor’s role is a bit smaller than usual since he is not always around in these issues, but he did turn up for the big battle against Arsenal so that was good. Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor are definitely three Avengers who should always be around. (Of course, Steve Rogers will be passing on the mantle in the current comics and Thor is no longer Thor…but that’s another story of how the current comics like to change the status quo for a few months to draw in fan rage and sales) We are drawing to the end of the retro reviews that I’ve had on the backburner for quite a while. Only one left and then the other reviews will be back to being a lot more thorough and point by point since I can evaluate them better. Nevertheless, this is one collection that you should obtain!

Overall 7/10

Beneath The Planet of the Apes Review

Posted on July 24, 2014 by dreager1

I’ve never liked the Planet of the Apes franchise. It wasn’t terrible, but the films just weren’t for me. I mean, a series where the main villains are Apes? This will inevitably lead to humans shooting apes and apes shooting people so the films were doomed from the start. Even the new Dawn of the Planet of the Apes looks pretty bad if you ask me. However, even I was not expecting this film to be quite as bad as it was. It actually ranks up there with Sucker Punch…and that’s definitely not a good thing!

The plot takes place shortly after the first film. Taylor and Nova are still aimlessly wandering about. One day, Taylor sees a big fire so he jumps into a mountain, but the mountain wasn’t actually there and he must have met a sad end. Nova moves on with her life and treks across the planet until she finds a guy by the name of Brent. Brent crash landed on this planet along with another guy, but the futureshock was too much for him. (That’s what Judge Dredd calls it anyway) He quickly dies so Brent decides to go with Nova to find out what’s going on. Unfortunately, the Apes still want to conquer the world so Brent runs away, but he’s quickly captures. His only chance is to get off of this planet or to find some more humans who have a mind. The sad thing is…Brent’s doomed either way!!

It’s hard to know where to begin describing this “film.” We may as well go in a semi chronological order. The first scene that you’ll have to wince at is when Brent’s partner wakes up. We get several minutes of Brent telling him to stay alive as he tries to help the poor guy. The guy won’t hear any of it and he loudly exclaims that everyone he knew is dead. That’s pretty obvious since they’ve time traveled 2000 years into the future and Brent doesn’t seem to care. The guy just dies and you have to wonder why he was so weak willed. He was a pretty sad character.

We aren’t given a break either as the next scene involves Nova coming to help. This scene was pretty terrible since it feels like 20 minutes of Brent trying to talk to her. The problem is that Nova doesn’t believe in showing emotion and since she can’t talk and only has limited hearing…it makes discussion difficult. The two of them just stare at each other in awe as they can’t communicate and Brent finally jumps on the horse. The horse looked exhausted after a few steps and I felt bad for him.

Things don’t really get any better as the Ape scenes were pretty boring. Skipping along, the next sad moment was when the Horses started to get shot. This occurs throughout the movie and it was pretty awful. Classic animal violence is something that is common in the Ape films and that’s just too bad. The Apes themselves look so fake that I don’t really count them for the most part, but the horses are definitely enough!

After that, SPOILER ALERT……………………………………………They find a human colony and some more wince worthy scenes follow. The humans have advanced ESP and they attempt to force Brent to drown Nova. After a terrible scene, Brent regains control and heads into the enemy base. They beat him up using their mind abilities while telling him that they are peaceful. In particular, a guy by the name of Ongaro seems to despise humans as he continues to blast Brent. They use their mind abilities to try and make Brent destroy Taylor as well and the two of them have a boring fight. The film wasn’t even two hours and it felt like a millenia.

Another factor of the film that didn’t help was the random violence that jumped out towards the end. It was pretty over the top towards the end as someone gets violently impaled and another one gets shot to death in a graphic fashion. We see live apes burning to death in one scene and even though it is an illusion, it is a realistic one. The statue also begins to bleed a lot and we can’t forget Brent and Taylor’s fight as they keep throwing each other into the spikes. (Well, Brent was getting pummeled the whole time so he didn’t really get a chance) I dare say that this film is much more violent than the two newest Ape films in theaters partially due to the effects. This amount of blood usually doesn’t pore out so quickly and it’s due to the difference in special effects.

Brent is the new main character of the film and I can’t say that he’s very likable. Maybe for the first few minutes, but he died once Nova came along. He is very weak willed as shown when the telepathy people came along. Brent isn’t much of a fighter as he got pummeled a lot and he just seems to be very rude whenever he talks to anyone.

Nova isn’t any better than the first film. It would be good if she could at least react when someone was talking to her or a sound was made, but she’s just lifeless the whole time. Her scenes just aren’t fun to watch and while she does get a big “hero” moment, it’s not very cool and it’s a little too expected.

Taylor is from the first film, but he doesn’t get a huge role and he basically goes out while begging for help. He made an interesting call as he fell down and that was cool, but I can’t really forget how he was weak against mind control as well. Jumping into the mountain was also pretty risky and he had a gun with him so he should have had the edge against any opponent.

Ongaro is the antagonistic human who likes to mess with the primitive humans. He blasts them with his mind for fun and he likes to watch them destroy each other. He claims to be a peaceful person, but you can tell that it’s all fake. He’s just lying to them because he finds it to be fun.

Dr. Zaius isn’t really likable either. He refuses to help the main characters because they cause a lot of destruction as he helps the Apes murder everyone in sight. He doesn’t like to oppose authority and he believes that everything should stay the same. He doesn’t have any ambition in him and he’s pretty weak willed.

Mendez is basically a joke the entire time. He has a nuclear weapon at his disposal and he’s ready to use it against the Apes. The problem is that he waits until they enter his room so they shoot him down before he has time to use it. That’s extremely sloppy and he basically died for no good reason. He didn’t really have a point in the story since he was just going to stand there and die.

Ursus is the leader of the Ape military and he doesn’t really have a point in this film as well. He talks tough and he wants to help end a famine before it begins so he goes into the forbidden zone. There was not any food to be found so you could say that it was a wasted effort anyway. He may be the leader, but he is very interchangeable. He only got a handful of lines and he bit the big one in a very quick fight.

Zira is mostly there to rebel against the government, but she never does anything about it. She’s really all talk and gets written out of the film very quickly. It’s good to talk to the government and try to change them, but she has absolutely no political power so her efforts were doomed from the start. Her husband tries to talk her out of her plans as well, but Zira does get a chance to be leader for a few hours so we’ll see what she does about it…or not.

The soundtrack is nonexistent in this film. It’s too bad since that could have ever so slightly helped the film, but we can’t even have that I suppose. The special effects are pretty bad as well, but this film is ancient so one can overlook that. The photoshopped fire…..it burrrrrns!

Another thing that hurts the film is the fact that the characters aren’t likable. It’s a classic tale of how everyone has been corrupted. The Apes worship their idols and the humans have forgotten God and they now worship a rocket. The humans are completely evil and likewise with the Apes so it’s a lose/lose situation. It’s why the ending was one of the only ways that could have helped the film. It was a good ending (Last 2 seconds anyway) but it couldn’t really help in the end. (Too bad this film got a sequel eh?) I can’t say that I expected the humans to look That bad. Their scenes are also pretty unnecessarily gross as their faces are rotted and they all look like a pile of veins. It’s not pretty and you almost have to exit the room when they appear on screen.

I’m also not crazy about the setting. It’s basically a big desert and the landscape is primitive. Because of this, the heroes don’t wear much and they’re barefoot. Personally, that kind of thing has always bothered me and the acting is horrendous for everyone as well. Every character is constantly grinning, but their face looks like they’re in pain. I’m guessing that the actors were told to grin and squint as if the sun was shining very brightly upon them. It definitely didn’t help from a viewer’s perspective as it just made the scenes that much harder to watch.

Overall, This is easily one of the worst films that I have ever seen. There is not a single redeemable quality about the film and it was painful from start to finish. None of the characters were likable, The Setting was bad, The action was boring, and the violence was really there for no reason. I highly recommend avoiding this film and don’t let the G rating fool you. This is easily PG-13 stuff by the end and the 90 or so minutes of the film actually ends up feeling like a Lord of The Rings movie. This is just one of those films that you should just take a pass on. If you want a good future story, then check out Yugioh 3D Bonds Beyond Time. That film has heart and passion…two qualities that this film could have used. At the very least, I’m sure that the rest of the Apes films cannot be as bad as this one.

Overall 1/10

Bujingai The Forsaken City Review

Posted on July 24, 2014 by dreager1

The PS2 has had several hidden gems over the past few years including Eve of Extinction and Oni. This was my next blind purchase as the description on Amazon was pretty intense and it looked like a must buy. I believe that the game is a little short, which can hurt the experience, but the levels that we do get are pretty great thanks to the solid gameplay. This is definitely another all star by the PS2!

The plot is nice and simple. Lau was having fun surfing through the cosmos when he finally decided to go back to Earth. His old pal has turned to the dark side so Lau has to put him down once and for all. Luckily, his sensei is around to help as well as a sorceress by the name of Yohfa. Together, these heroes can surely defeat this one villain right? Well, the mastermind has hundreds of demons by his side so it’s a whole planet of inhabitants against Lau….time to fight!

“You have to fight!” is basically what the game is about. The levels are fairly linear and there will usually be a few locked doors barring you from continuing. To unlock the doors, you must defeat a few enemies or grab some kind of key. The platforming part of the game is decent as you can air jump, which is fun to look at. (But not practical since it’s slower than walking) Of course, the main chunk if the fighting part!

Picture Dynasty Warriors and you’ll have a grasp on the main part of the gameplay. You have two ways to attack and from those two buttons you can chain many combos. I typically went for the classic 20+ combo since it breaks through most shields, but there was one exception so watch out for that boss! Aside from your attacks, you also have magical abilities which range from fireballs to light arrows to amplifying your physical strength. I typically went for the fireballs and the physical power up, but all of the abilities are fairly useful. Once you have your magic ready, you’re ready to face off against anyone!

When you clash with a boss, your magic crystals come into play. Essentially, both of you begin to duke it out with your blades and you can continue to duel like this until one of you runs out of crystals or you can jump to the side and strike at the boss from behind. The latter method seems to be full proof against humanoids, but the first method is great as well and you just need to watch out for the times where it doesn’t work. It’s safe to say that most of the bosses are humanoid, but there are a few creatures as well. Those are a lot tougher to fight because their moves aren’t quite as predictable or easily dodged. The varied enemies help keep the bosses fun. They would have been enjoyable either way, but each of them use a different style so it gives the game a better all around feeling.

Lau is the main character of this story and it’s hard to get a read on his character. As with Link and many of the other legendary heroes, he’s not much of a talker. He is a hero and he tends to do the right thing, but he just doesn’t have a whole lot of personality. He’s also pretty cheerful at the end considering that he had to take down his ole friend..permanently. He’ll never be the next Mario or Sonic, but Lau has potential and a sequel or anime adaption could flesh out his character. After all, a character who dances his way from deep space to Earth can’t be all that bad right?

Rei is the main villain and his goals are pretty ambitious. A dark event turned him against humanity and he now leads an army of demons. His skills are definitely real since we actually get to see him slice a moon in half with a single shot. If nothing else, that’s a very serious feat. He makes for a decent villain, but his backstory takes away any threatening aura that he may have had. The dancing makes it a little hard to take him seriously as well. His red blades make for good weapons during the boss fights. Rei’s only a decent villain, but it could be worse.

Yohfa is Lau’s main partner and she helps him out on the journey by opening portrals for him. Her cutscenes are typically odd since her mouth never moves while she’s talking. It must be fun to have telepathy. She’s not a bad character, but she never really added anything to the story. She’s really just there to help out the main character.

The same could be said for Lau’s old master. He’s not really a character when you think about it as he’s just the sensei. He likely got a name, but I quickly forgot it. One cool scene that he did get was when the master speedblitzed Lau. He quickly assured our hero that he had surpassed the master, but the scene really made you question that statement.

The soundtrack is pretty fun and it fits in well with the rest of the game. The boss themes can range from really fast paced to more dramatic in tone and both of them work pretty well. The game definitely did really well in that category and I find that the beat em up type of games typically don’t tend to have great soundtracks so that was good for this title.

Graphically, the game is all right. I can’t say that there is anything spectacular about it, but they can look good at times. The big cutscenes try to have a more live action esque feeling to them while the regular ones are standard. What can be a little…interesting about the regular ones is that the characters like to dance and slash away at thin air. The final cutscene before the final boss is actually pretty fun because the characters keep on jumping and skipping instead of actually fighting. It’s an interesting effect, but I have to wonder if it was intentional or not. It’s just a little odd. Back to the big cutscenes, it worked most of the time. The scene were pretty impressive given the style and one could possibly say that it looked a little like Final Fantasy. The actual gameplay graphics may not have been excellent, but overall it can hold its own.

The overall setting of the game also helped to make the game enjoyable. The levels can have diverse designs as you fight near Lava, in Snow Mountains, and more. The main place is The Forsaken City and it’s a pretty fun place to fight in. I love fighting in city areas and I don’t believe that will ever change. It’s a whole lot of fun to fight an enemy and then jump onto a few buildings before challenging the next one.

In terms of replay value, the game is fairly low. There are 8 levels and I ended up beating the game in around 4 hours. You could beat it in a much shorter time if you don’t get lost in the maze level or spend too much time wandering around in circles. There are 40 medals to obtain throughout the game and a lot of magic spells as well. I assume that they carry on throughout your next playthrough, but there is also a stage select, which should allow you to find them all. There aren’t any multiplayer modes though and this was before the PS3 Trophy days. If you enjoy the game, it’s going to need to be for the Story Mode. It’s a brief, but epic experience!

I would say that I have one main negative with the game. It’s too bad that it’s short of course and the characters could have been more interesting, but I’m talking about the levels. Sometimes, it can be very hard to know where to go and the map is too small to really help you. The Snow level was very long since you had to keep reentering rooms until you figured out the puzzle. This was my least favorite one and it took me about an hour. So, that one level took up a quarter of my whole play time. I believe that they could have smoothed it out a little more. The 7th level had a tricky jump segment that was maybe a little overdone, but it is a good way to challenge gamers so I’ll leave that one as an ambiguous element. You could make the argument that it was a negative or a decent positive.

Overall, Bujingai is a pretty fun game. It has all of the fun beat em up traits that you would expect while adding a bit of the anime element to it. The characters were very powerful and the gameplay is very fast. The fighting system was pretty deep and the magic aided the regular combat to make it all flow together. The game is short so be aware that it will only entertain you for a few hours before you’ll have completed it. That being said, it is definitely worth it for this low price and you can experience one of the PS2’s hidden treasures. Any action fan should definitely enjoy it!

Overall 8/10

Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 01 Review

Posted on July 22, 2014 by dreager1

Judge Dredd is a fairly big name in the comic world, but I have to say that I was never familiar with the character so I can’t say that I was impressed. He was just another variation of Batman right? This collection showed me that Judge Dredd is definitely a legitimate character and he’s very well written. He definitely shares some traits with Batman, but his heavy usage of the classic handgun is already one big difference. This is a great way to become a fan of the character and get started on the franchise!

This collection brings together dozens and dozens of Judge Dredd issues. Maybe even 100+! This is because most of the Judge Dredd comics were only 2-4 pages back in the day so the adventures were very quick. As you go deeper and deeper into the book, you can see how the issues started to get longer and longer. One thing is for certain, continuity was always important to the series. Past issues are constantly references and no character development is lost. These issues are very tightly connected so it makes for a great read in this collection form.

The setting for the story is that everything is taking place in the future. The Earth has been reduced to three cities and Judge Dredd is stationed on Mega City 1. There are 800 million civilians living there and most (if not all) of them are criminals. Luckily, the city is kept safe by an organization of judges who fight to keep the peace. They have been granted virtually unlimited power to deal with criminals and Judge Dredd is known as the best of the best. This reputation is well deserved as Judge Dredd continues to prove why he is the best throughout the collection.

The first big arc in my opinion is the one about Call Me Kenneth. He is a robot who breaks free from the current robot code that no robot may hurt a man and they must obey humans no matter what. The humans are pretty smug about this and they love to tell the robot to blow themselves up or melt themselves. Call Me Kenneth won’t have any of that and he quickly frees many other robots from this code. It becomes a full scale war between the Judges and the Robots as things escalate quickly. The battle is no joke as thousands of civilians perish and over 100 Judges as well. It’s safe to say that this was the toughest battle that Judge Dredd and the other heroes had to face. I was also surprised at how many casualties were involved and they don’t lessen as the comics continue. The villains definitely aren’t playing around here.

Call Me Kenneth is a pretty good villain and one can mildly sympathize with him. You can’t really sympathize with his actions by the end, but he does have a point that robots should have freedom. Very few do and most of them are essentially treated like slaves. Unfortunately, Call Me Kenneth goes too far when he enslaves his own robots as well. It basically makes the whole thing pointless if you think about it. So, that really hurt his character development and he wasn’t quite as likable after that. I do like his design though and he made for a powerful enemy.

Another reoccurring villain is Whitey. He’s the very first villain to appear in the collection and he takes out a Judge with ease. Judge Dredd makes short work out of him, but Whitey got his 5 seconds of fame. He later appears again when he breaks out of jail, but it’s a very short escape since Judge Dredd is always on the job. (The man doesn’t even take Christmas breaks!) He was a pretty interesting villain since he stands for the one shot villain who one would expect to never appear again, but he didn’t stay down for the count. I also find the name to be a little humorous and I may have him battle on this site’s fight section soon.

Judge Dredd is a great main character and he’s much better than I could have guessed. He does destroy many of his foes, but this is typically by accident. Usually, he shoots his enemies, but he doesn’t aim at any of their vitals so they get to limp off with dignity as they’re sent into prison. He’s as serious about crime as Chase is from Transformers Rescuebots and I’ll admit that I read all of his lines in that voice. Judge Dredd is portrayed as an expert in the collection and that never really fades. Throughout all of the adventures, he’s only defeated a handful of times. He typically defeats his opponents with ease or with a pretty great plan at the ready.

Judge Dredd’s passion for the law is a great advantage to have over the common miscreants, but it can also be a dangerous weakness. An example of this is when he allows a few criminals to run amok because he had to wait for a new badge. Knowing that it is illegal for an average citizen to take the law into his own hands, Judge Dredd had to wait until he was reinstated. He also quit when the other Judges would not deactivate the various robots. They were too confident that they would never turn evil…right before the war started. Judge Dredd’s punishments for crime are pretty serious as he fines someone over 200000 credits just for stepping on the curb. It is a crime though so you are supposed to do the time…

Judge Dredd may have one other weakness and that’s his selection of friends. He’s a Judge so he’s as emotional as stone, but he did allow a few to get close to him. One was his best friend at the academy, but I forgot his name. Unfortunately, the friend became corrupted and he started to murder people while disguised as a mutant. Dredd was forced to destroy him and strike his name from the school’s honor roll. Deja Vu occurred when Dredd’s cloned twin arrived and Dredd quickly mowed him down as well. Luckily, Dredd did make one really good friend although he’ll never admit it.

Walter is Judge Dredd’s best friend and it means a lot to the robot. Walter is the only robot who has been granted freedom I believe, but he doesn’t care for it. He just wants to be with Dredd and he even gives him presents at Christmas. Walter definitely gives the Judge a lot of trouble since he’s certainly not one of the stronger robots out there, but he gets the job done. Without Walter, Judge Dredd’s social life would truly be nonexistent. He does have a cleaning lady who is around to help from time to time, but her role is incredibly small and she’s basically written out of the series once Walter appears.

Half of the collection is spent on Mega City 1, but the scenery changes when Dredd is assigned to the Moon. It makes for an interesting change of pace. I definitely prefer Mega City 1, but Judge Dredd’s new uniform is pretty cool. It’s also good to see him slap the local authorities into shape as he began to uphold the law once again. The Moon Saga had many plots including illegal super races and an evil Santa Clause.

Once Judge Dredd made it back to Earth, he had to deal with the ultimate car…Elvis! Elvis manages to snap away from his coding when it got damaged and he quickly went the Call Me Kenneth route as he woke up many other cars to the realization that destroying humans was fun. The Judges now had to deal with another war, but this one was likely not as lethal to the local civilians. Elvis isn’t quite as smart as Call Me Kenneth, but he does get the jump on Judge Dredd when he invades the latter’s home. He uses this as a shield against the authority and it’s a pretty bold plan. Can the authorities put him in his place?

The art for the collection is in black and white as per the norm, but it definitely works very well for this series. Everything is pretty clear so you can tell what is going on and the only characters who can appear to be very similar at times are the judges. I don’t care for the book’s actual binding because there were a few times where it was impossible to make out a few words because they were exactly in the middle of the collection. You can always tell more or less what the characters are saying because it’s only a few words, but the words shouldn’t be so crunched up together.

The dialogue is one of the strong points in this collection. Just about every line from Judge Dredd tends to be pretty epic. He’s really focused on making sure that everyone acts in accordance with the law and it’s cool to hear the various laws of the future. The villains are also ready with old slang and new terms to combat the Judges verbally. It’s a good way to stall for time I suppose.

Overall, This was a pretty great start to the franchise. I can certainly see why Judge Dredd has a lot of fans and I can safely say that he’s a lot more likable than Robocop. Mega City 1 is certainly a rough place since there’s always someone out to get Judge Dredd, but that’s what makes the issues so interesting. The universe is built pretty well as there are already many plots that can be explored in the future. The other two Mega Cities, The mutants underground, the whole robots issue, etc. The cast is relatively small as well, but the main heroes are both likable. Walter grows on you as the issues go and you almost feel bad for him. (Maybe not always…) I hope that Call Me Kenneth and Whitey return soon since that would make for a fun rematch. I highly recommend this collection to any comic fan and it really has no weaknesses. You can finally meet one of the bigger comic book characters and find out what true justice is!

Overall 8/10

The Core Review

Posted on July 21, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for another disaster film, but this one doesn’t really manage to be as interesting as the Volcano film. The main problem is that it runs on for a little too long and the plot takes away the chance of us actually getting to see most of the destruction. Is The Core as scary as the poster would have you believe? Not really, but the tone of the film is interesting.

The plot involves a guy by the name of Josh. He’s a professor at a university and he gets called in by the government after a group of people mysteriously die for no discernible reason. He starts to look into the situation and Josh realizes that the Earth is doomed. The Core is not turning anymore and soon the Earth will get cooked by the Sun. The Government actually believes him for once and a crew is assigned to go to the Core and restart it. This’ll be a dangerous mission and Josh must learn what it means to be a true leader as he embarks on the most dangerous quest of all time!

I do have to give the film some credit for the intro. It’s very ominous and action packed so it would have been fitting for something like The Avengers or Man of Steel. It’s a pretty awesome intro. I definitely did not expect something quite like that, but it really helped to set the tone for the film. Unfortunately, you can’t help but raise your expectations after something like that and the rest of the film couldn’t match this.

Near the beginning of the film is a big scene, which immediately destroyed the film’s chances of being very good. A flock of birds is attacked by The Core and there are dozens of fatalities. I definitely didn’t need to see that and it destroyed any momentum that the film had. We also get to see a lot of fishes and whales get terminated by the solar ray that the Sun shot out to take out the planet. These scenes doomed the film as far as I was concerned, but did the rest of it hold up?

Josh is the main character and he likes to keep it real. After he found out that the Earth was doomed, he did what any ~~cheap uncourageous unheroic doubtful~~ main character would do. He quickly went to a bar to get drunk and hopefully sleep it off. Luckily, the Government quickly threw him back into the thick of things and while Josh tried to intimidate them at the meeting…it didn’t work. Josh is still more of a hero than most of the other characters and he tries his best to make sure that everyone is safe. In that sense, he’s easily one of the best characters in the film, even if he wasn’t willing to make the heroic sacrifice at the end. Self Destruction for the sake of the world is a tall order so I can’t blame him for not volunteering even though someone like Goku would have done it without hesitation. Josh does have a quick scene with Rebecca that was incredibly forced and it wasn’t even to produce a romance as it was a spur of the moment emotion that just came out. There was literally no reason to add this to the film and it was likely just to make everyone get ready to exit the theater as it symbolized that we were approaching the climax. Why!!!? It could have been worse, but it was still sad.

Rebecca has a lot of experience at being a co-pilot in an air craft and she did make it all the way up to space with her crew. She saved them all with her superior navigational skills, but that was not enough for the others to take her seriously. She got her chance when the mission for The Core popped up. Granted, the government acknowledged her brave actions, but Robert was convinced that she is still not leader material. You have to lose a few times to be ready for that. (It would have been more convincing if Robert had actually won a battle or two)

Edward is one of the more sympathetic characters. His life’s research was stolen by one of his co-workers and he’s had to live out in the desert for over a decade. It’s been rough, but he never gave up on his super driller. The heroes finally come to help out the planet and they need his design so Edward joins the crew. Tensions are still running high between him and Conrad, which climaxes with a one punch fight. Edward is basically the down to Earth character and he keeps everyone in check.

Conrad is one of the smarter characters in the film and he makes sure to constantly boast about it. He always seeks attention while making sure to put others in the spotlight when things start to get dangerous. He never makes the hero calls though as his personal safety is very important to him. I actually liked him in the beginning, but he started to drop as the film went on. It’s good to see him being the voice of despair as he tries to keep the mood down, but it’s not enough to overlook the fact that he’s one of the big antagonists who’s portrayed as a protagonist.

Serge is Josh’s friend from the beginning of the film and he’s also a part of the crew when they head to The Core. He’s mostly there for the one liners, but he’s also pretty good at setting up weapons. He was all right I suppose, but he didn’t really add anything to the film. I dare say that he was basically inconsequential to the plot and nothing would have changed if he had not been present.

Robert is the GI Joe of the group. His role is likely the smallest from the group members and he’s just there to constantly remind Rebecca that she’ll never be a proper pilot. He’s technically the hardcore/experienced sergeant who makes the tough calls when necessary, but we don’t see a whole lot of that. He mostly operates from hype and that’s typically not enough to impress me while the situation continues to escalate. He was actually a good character for the most part, but he didn’t really help when it was needed. (Josh was having trouble with his tie and Robert didn’t give him any assistance)

Rat is the genius of the group when it comes to hacking. He may not be the nicest guy out there, but he gets the job done and he likes his Hot Pockets. I can definitely sympathize since they are some of the best microwaved food out there! He’s a decent character, but I had to suspend my disbelief a whole lot when he pick pocketed the main character and then hacked his phone in a minute with a whistle. It was also pretty sad for the government since he can hack just about anything. Ah well, he did what he had too and he made the hero call at the end so he’s a solid guy to rely on.

Another critique that I would have to address is the fact that the film tries to be too emotional at times. Every death consists of long scenes where: One character looks around a lot before getting compressed, One character laughs because his last actions will not be remembered, One character melts as he almost made it back…etc. I understand that an emotional death is part of the classic disaster film formula, but overdoing it is certainly not going to win the film any points. Especially when the characters are going to have to be back to their happy selves a few minutes later so the plot can continue.

I would argue that the film also gets hit by the Lord of The Rings curse in that it’s a little too long. I’m always glad to see films crack 2 hours, but this one just didn’t need it. I liked the beginning minus the animal violence scenes because it was pretty ominous and interesting. After that, the action and excitement just died down as they made it into the drill. It just wasn’t as interesting and I like disaster films because you get to see buildings blow up and cars ravaged. Being in the center of the Earth just isn’t as exciting because there sin’t a whole lot to see. I was glad that the film had such an excellent beginning, but it just made the second half’s drought more noticeable.

The soundtrack for the film is very good and the theme from the intro quickly comes to mind. I also liked the music that was playing during the first spaceship scene as the heroes try not to crash into the civilians as they manage to make it to a patch of water. The music in those scenes was very good and maybe movie soundtracks aren’t as dead as I remembered. There have certainly been a number of films that had a good soundtrack at this point.

I do have to give the Government some props for their plan since it was so terrible that I had to smile. To stop the Earth from blowing up, they were going to cause a massive earthquake/explosion to shake things up and hope that everything works again. Okay…..whatever brings in the dough for the inventor of the weapon I suppose. He was probably grinning from ear to ear in Europe when the general gave him the OK to fire it. The government had two agents who were always sent to get Josh and I’ll admit that they were pretty cool. They always had their guns at the ready and these guys meant business. They were easily the two best government agents.

Overall, The Core is not going to be the next hit as far as Disaster films go. The soundtrack was dynamite and the intro for the film is incredible. The first half hour really builds up the excitement and the film had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, animal violence and an uneventful second half filled with (forced) emotion helped to stop the film from reaching its full potential. The government is also very unapologetic at the end as they don’t even want to be bothered to look for the main crew. They could die for all they care since the government just wanted to save the planet. The government typically looks mean or corrupt in these films, but that was still stretching it just a bit. You would be better off watching the first Broly film in the DBZ series if you want to see a lot of destruction.

Overall 4/10

Minority Report Everybody Runs Review

Posted on July 21, 2014 by dreager1

On my video game quest to own all of the games worth owning, I sometimes like to take a step back and aim for a game that’s from the older generation. I got this one a quarter year ago and I have to say that it was easily worth the 4 dollars. This is one of the greatest movie tie ins that I’ve ever played and maybe The best one not including games that tied into superhero films. You don’t want to miss this action packed experience!

The plot is from the film I believe, but it involves a man by the name of John. He works at an organization where they target people who will commit crimes in the future and then take them out personally or lock them up in prison. One day, the future seers have a vision that John ends up murdering someone, but it’s not a unanimous decision as one of them does not report this. John knows that something is up and he aims to get to the bottom of this. Unfortunately, the entire agency made up of hundreds of fighters is out to get him. Will John be able to find out the truth about his alleged murder or will he be stopped in time!?

Since the game is based off of the film, I typically wouldn’t talk about any of the characters. I won’t here either, but I do have to comment that John made for a pretty good protagonist. He made the hero calls when necessary and he never lost sight of his goal. After experiencing a lot of twists and turns throughout his journey, John’s first words in the final level when meeting the final boss are “You’re under arrest.” Now that’s a dedicated hero!

The gameplay is where Minority Report really knocks it out of the park. It’s a mix of third person shooter and a 3D fighting game like Bouncer. It makes for the perfect blend of action types into the combat system. Shooting is pretty easy and linear as you have several guns. All of them are incredibly useful to a fight, but you don’t want to waste the ammo. More on that in a bit. The hand to hand combat techniques are surprisingly deep and there are about as many different combos in this game (20+) as in the average superhero game. You really feel the blows, but simple button mashing won’t be enough as you continue to progress through the game. You need something a little different.

What really makes the game interesting is how challenging it is. You don’t have a certain amount of ammo in each level. It really depends and sometimes you’ll be running on empty. You can spend some cash on it so have a temporary edge to beat the level, but then it can hurt you in the long run. Likewise, you can buy a permanent upgrade like extra health, but you’ll need to last through around 5+ levels without buying anything to work up the funds. Each choice has its amount of ups and downs. The items also aren’t unlimited for some of the temporary power ups like armor or an ultimate shield. I saved the armor for the final boss because…it’s the right thing to do. Trust me, you’ll want to save it! A helpful tip for the final boss is to use any combo that starts with A>B because it will stun her every time, which makes the boss fight a cakewalk after you get the hang of it.

Defeating any of the robots without a gun is very tough and almost impossible to be honest. They don’t flinch and you can’t risk more than 3 hits at a time or they will counter and knock you to the ground. Likewise, all bosses are impervious to guns as they’ll just jump over it or flip to the side. (With one exception.) This definitely forces you to think strategically about how you’ll want to tackle each situation. Saving up your bullets can be a wise move, but sometimes they can be useful to disperse a large crowd of attackers so that you can run by them. An attack that is really a must if you are to survive is the quick slide tackle. It can trip up opponents and deal damage so you should spam it to get the melee fighters out of the way so that you can target the gun fighters.

I also have to say that the game did a great job with the level designs. They do recycle a few old levels during the game, but the plot demands this since he goes to old locations. I especially loved the levels that take place inside of the base and the ones in the city. You actually get a jet pack to use for a few of the levels and it definitely comes in handy. It’s an amazing piece of technology and the gameplay for it is sound. You can move at high speeds and ram opponents to the ground instead of fighting them in hand to hand combat. Proceed with care though because the long range fighters are really good at hitting you no matter how fast you’re going.

The game doesn’t really have any replay value, which can be a little discouraging, but the actual story is pretty long. It contains 40 levels, which is certainly a lot more than one may have expected. The levels aren’t terribly long, but they’re long enough that you’ll feel like you got a good deal from the game. Not to mention that playing it at a higher difficulty will make things interesting. It was already very difficult at some points during the initial playthrough and the other levels of difficulty must be insanely tough. Playing through those would definitely be a fun challenge and that would likely keep you entertained for quite a while. (I would give it a whirl, but I have too many other games to try out….)

The soundtrack is great as you tend to expect from a Gamecube game. The random battle themes that play during the game are all very fast paced and they tend to really give the fights that extra boost. The themes are definitely very engaging and I would give it a 4/5 at the very least. Trust me, good music can certainly make the difference between a great game and a truly great one.

The graphics are pretty good for the game. The legs are realistically detailed as they turn into onion rings when you’re knocked to the ground. (They basically curl into a circle, which looks pretty painful for the main lead, but he tends to walk it off) The graphics definitely aren’t the next Wind Waker or Adventure 2 Battle, but they’re still good and that’s always fun to see from a Gamecube title. Gamecube is the King of Graphics after all.

Overall, This is a pretty great video game and I highly recommend picking it up. It’s going for a very low price and it’s a steal considering how flawless the gameplay is. There are also a few pain arenas where you get to face various copies of a boss, which makes for an unbelievably tough fight. How many games can you get for around 4 dollars that have 40 levels? The soundtrack is top notch and the graphics are good as well. You definitely don’t want to miss out on this title and you should stick around after the screen fades to black as there’s an extra scene in the post game. I can’t really say much more to hype up the game so you’re either sold on it at this point or you’re just not going to get it. Still, I have to say that you’ll be missing out if you pass on such a title!

Overall 8/10

Showcase Presents Justice League of America Volume 6 Review

Posted on July 19, 2014 by dreager1

I read this volume almost half a year ago, but the backlog of reviews doomed it to take a while as with the Essential X Men review. Luckily, I happen to be a little more of a DC fan and the comics didn’t have a huge plot back then so with the help of Comicvine, this review will be more thorough as it’s supposed to be. You really can’t go wrong with the Justice League and this collection was just as good as I could have hoped.

There are a whole lot of comics in this collection since it brings about 25 of them. Most of these comics contain different plots entirely, although there are some multi parters. The first two part comic is the one from the cover. Nazi’s have somehow won the war so everyone acknowledges that they need the real Justice League in order to win. Naturally, the Justice League and the Freedom Fighters are eventually forced to fight due to misunderstandings and one of the ultimate fights in comics is quickly started. We also get a comic where Hawkman decides to part ways with the Justice League and this isn’t pleasant news for the other members. They aren’t given much time to react as Eclipso strikes!

We get several more comics in the collection until we reach the saga where the Equalizer attacks. All of the heroes begin to equally share their powers so they are all as fast and strong as each other. This means that Superman is a pale shadow of who he once was and Batman can’t really think too well. He’s actually pretty scared and worried the whole time because he’s not used to being average. (I find this a little hard to believe) The League won’t be able to take on such a threat so they’re going to have to call in an ex Justice League member. Is this a good move or will it merely bring about their doom. It’s definitely a very risky gambit.

Now, I have to reference the Equalizer plot once again. That was the one comic where all of the portrayals were a little off. Batman shouldn’t really lose so much confidence even if he has been equalized and I would like to think that everyone would still be pretty strong since Superman’s strength is just that great. They also lost a lot of their abilities to the Equalizer himself so it’s a little arguable, but I like to think that they would still be pretty big threats in the long run.

There was a mini arc with Adam Strange, but it wasn’t very note worthy.
A fun comic was where Dr Light switched the civilian identities of each of the heroes. Now, they all had to live out a day as someone else and that was pretty fun. Will they be able to master their new abilities in time to stop this treacherous villain and will some secret identities finally become known to the public? This is an issue that’s a must read! One issue that was…interesting was when two real life DC employees find Flash’s treadmill and jump into the Comics world. One of them quickly gets corrupted and turns to evil while the other one must try to stop him. I can’t say that I cared for either character, but it was definitely a big change of pace from the typical issue.

Another comic finds Green Lantern in a dangerous position as he continues to charge his ring during the night without being aware of it. A villain seems to be controlling him so he quickly contacts the League. Hopefully the heroes can stop him before it’s too late! Wonder Woman finally rejoins the League during one issue, but finds out that they have all quit. The new villain is far too scary for them and she has to help them get their courage back. What kind of villain could intimidate the League so thoroughly? Those are just some of the plots, but you can see that we definitely have a lot of interesting ones in the mix.

From the characters, Green Arrow and Hawkman had most of the banter. They were constantly insulting each other and it made things interesting. They don’t actually want the League to fire the other person, but Green Arrow loves picking fights and Hawkman prefers to directly defend himself while the other Leaguers just ignore the archer. Batman and Superman are pretty great as always and any comic with them is usually fun to read…meaning that all of the comics in this collection are pretty great if I recall correctly. They usually make up some kind of reason as to why Superman would lose to a random giant monster each time. Wonder Woman gets a really small role since she is mainly with the Justice Society instead of the Justice League, but she looks pretty good in her guest star role. She ends up saving the team, which gives her some serious bragging rights. The Flash’s role wasn’t very big although he had a role in the issue where he and Hawkman merged with an alien and fought the League. His super speed ensures that he’s a good match for any opponent…assuming that he doesn’t get tripped up while running of course. Green Lantern is a solid character as well and at least he went to the JLA for help right away when he suspected that something was using his body for evil. Most heroes would just keep it to themselves and call it a day. He didn’t look too great when he allowed himself to be blindsided, which allowed Twoface to escape, but I suppose that he was really concentrating on flying at the time. Willpower is what runs the ring after all so it’s almost believable.

I definitely don’t buy the League all becoming cowards because of the fear that the villain emitted. Surely they have the strength of mind to resist such an attack and to become great heroes again right? Wonder Woman had to snap them out of it in the end and use her Lasso to get them into action. No wonder Earth gets worried sometimes….surprisingly the government doesn’t really appear much. It’s hard to believe that they used to wholeheartedly trust the League. Nowadays, there is always a shadow cabinet out to get them or even the President himself when the time is right.

Of course, it still makes for a fun plot. The collection has more continuity than you may have guessed given how long ago it came out. The Hawkman plot came several times and there are definitely a lot of references to the older comics. The cast is pretty large since the members are always rotating and we even got to see the Freedom Fighters and Justice Society. I felt bad for the Justice League when they met the Society because they got fooled by a villain into destroying the heroes. I’m not completely sure if it actually ended up that way or if there was a plot twist, but I do remember the Spectre intervening so I’m pretty sure that they actually died. As a result, the villains took advantage of this and used costumes of the Society so that the heroes would believe that their ghosts had come back to haunt them. Batman didn’t believe it of course, but he still couldn’t fight back since it was too emotional. The League definitely got pummeled once again, but we can definitely say that they are the strongest group. The Freedom Fighters certainly didn’t stand a chance against them.

The art is very easy to follow which is always a good thing. This collection is in black and white as per the norm so you can actually use it to try and draw the characters yourself. No colors to distract you after all. I still prefer color for the comics, but you can still follow the fight scenes and that’s what counts. The current DC art in the New 52 is amazing, but I’ve always loved the art from these days as well. It’s just crisp and easy to read.

Overall, These adventures really are timeless. It never gets old to see the witty banter between the heroes and the villains. Back in the day, a simple trick like an incoming box was enough to take out a Green Lantern and every villain worth his nickel had a chunk of Kryptonite up his sleeve. The heroes had to face some pretty tricky villains while also dealing with the occasional alien. All of the comics are pretty interesting and any big DC fan should definitely appreciate how fun the adventures can be. I would go as far as to say that any comic reader should get a kick out of this comic. The black and white style may turn off a few, but I’m sure that they would enjoy it if they only gave it a chance. Since this is volume 6 of the JLA Showcase series, the comics are a little more modern and you can tell by Superman’s design. (His is the most notable in my opinion) I definitely suggest checking it out!

Overall 8/10

Nerf N-Strike Double Blast Bundle Review

Posted on July 19, 2014 by dreager1

This is another one of the beauties that I snagged at the 5 dollar bin over at Gamestop. See, this game is a steal because it was a little less than 5 dollars and it brings the original Nerf N-Strike game as well as the sequel. You have to admit that two full fledged (Under 10 levels in the second one) games for such a low price is pretty great. The second game improves upon the first one and it’s a game that you’ll want to check out.

I guess I’ll talk about the first game first. It should be noted that the game originally came with a blaster and the sequel came with a red lens, but you don’t actually need them. It just means that you have to get the codes wrong and trip the alarms in the second time every time such a situation pops up. It means more danger for the player, but I’m sure that you could handle such a challenge right? Let’s hope so!

Back to the game. It all starts off when a kid by the name of Shane is playing with his friends at the arcade. He loses the (rigged) level and goes home only to find out that he has been selected to join the Nerf N-Strike team. B.O.B. tells him that he must defeat the other combatants in order to climb to the top of the ranks. Unbeknownst to Shane, B.O.B. is also goading the other combatants to defeat him. Whether it be through threats or insults, B.O.B. makes sure to get the job done. Can this kid fresh out of the arcade really defeat these trained (semi) professionals in a game of Nerf? To do this, the kid must infiltrate each of their hideouts and destroy the high scores at each minigame. Sounds like fun eh!? Let’s just say that B.O.B. may not be as heroic as he seems.

Nerf N-Strike Elite’s plot is a lot deeper and it has a more cinematic feeling. Jackal has decided to round up the team once again because a certain villain has returned and he feels like it’s their duty to stop him. Shane is arguably still the main character even though Tango is the one on the cover. The heroes join forced and take out their new Nerf Blasters. Only one group gets to walk away this time!

The gameplay for the first game is a little different from your typical shooter. There are 4 rooms and each room has 5 minigames. You have to beat them to proceed to the next room. We do have the classic FPS feel during the final minigame of each section, where you shoot all of the robots who oppose you. You cannot move as that happens automatically and you just focus on the shooting. It’s pretty fun and they did a good job with the mechanics until the final level. The other minigames are fun variations of the style. One of them involves shooting boxes out of the ring until you come across a purple one and you shoot it to win. Another one has you only aim at robots of a certain color. My personal favorite one is where you have to shoot boulders into a soccer goal/pool table. There’s also one where you have to shoot the boulders 5 times to blow them up without hitting the red ones. There are a few others, but that’s mainly the jist of it. There aren’t many actual FPS levels where you’re on an adventure, but the minigames are actually pretty fun so it’s all right.

The gameplay for Game 2 is more straight forward. Picture your average FPS game except that the game characters move for you. You just aim for anything that moves as you go through the adventure. I didn’t have the accessories with me so I had to incorrectly guess every password to let the villains come, which would let me go past once I defeated them. That’s all right and it doesn’t make things that much worse. I will say that the first game was infinitely tougher than this one, but the second does have difficulty levels that you can adjust to make the game harder. I’m sure that on Elite mode it would end up being even more difficult than the first game.

Shane gets the most character development from all of the characters. He’s pretty full of himself in the first game and he really rubs it in whenever he wins. He insults his opponent’s skills and he loves to hear himself talk. He does make the tough calls when it counts though as seen in the ending. In the second game, Shane has become a natural born leader and he’s an expert with a gun. He now believes in teamwork and he never leaves a man behind on the job. He’s essentially Duke from G.I. Joe in the second game. I’m not sure why he changed so much, but he is easily the best character in both games. His heroics rival Mario’s!

Tango is the army member of the group. In the first game, he’s a no nonsense fighter. He makes a lot of puns about his name and he proceeds to put up a decent fight against Shane. In the second game, he represents the strong, but not smart character. It’s a pretty big change and one that is a little hard to embrace. He’s scared of elevators and a few other things, but he does have the strongest (Nerf) gun in the group. Tango is a good teammate to have on board, but it’s hard to say that he’s likable.

Komodo is the first opponent that you face in the Nerf game so he’s also the weakest. From all of the characters, he easily gets the least amount of character development. I can’t say that I recall too many things about him and he’s just easily forgotten. He does have a pretty great moment in the second game though. After the most emotional moment in the franchise where someone betrays them and their hometown is about to be nuked, Komodo says “This is the best day of my life!” after seeing a cool rocket. That’s….a little insensitive to say the least since everything that they know was about to be wiped off the face of the Earth. Maybe it’s all just a game to him.

Jackal is one of the more intriguing characters. By that, I mean that he had the biggest accent. He’s always talking about how he hunts alone and “My grandfather used to say that one person starts the game and another one bags it. Watch as I bag this one.” It’s actually a pretty great saying, but the way that he says it is more humorous than threatening. (Which is what happens to most of the dialogue in the first game) His personality does a 360 in the second game as he gets a pretty huge plot twist that you may not have seen coming. I didn’t either, but the odds of any of my readers playing the game is low so you may not get to experience it. That’s pretty sad if you really think about it.

Raven is another one of the kids who was selected for the Nerf N-Strike team. She loves to remind her opponents that getting beaten by a girl is a pain that will never fade. She loves to use the girl power angle to humiliate her foes as much as she can when defeating them. In the second game, she’s mostly there to taunt Tango and she is the one who lets the villain know that the heroes are now N-Strike Elite members. She doesn’t get as much character as some of the others, but she is consistently around to help out when the going gets tough.

B.O.B. is the recruiter from the first game. His threats know no bounds and he’ll do anything if it means that he’ll get a new fighter for the N-Strike. His methods go a little far and one of the members gets suspicious when two of the kids disappear. B.O.B. can’t have that now can he? He doesn’t mind being frank with the heroes as he lets Shane know that he will not be able to defeat Tango. After Shane defeats Tango, it gets pretty personal and B.O.B. lets us in on a startling fact…this isn’t a game anymore! As a boss fight, B.O.B. is pretty impressive.

In the second game, he is more of a pawn than a strategic mastermind. He gets a big power up in the form of a giant robot, but is that really enough to defeat a few Elite agents? The boss fight in the first game was actually very difficult and it took me a handful of tries, but that was mainly due to the gameplay and the fact that I got a pretty bad gun. The second game smoothed out the gameplay a whole lot so the battle was a cakewalk. I definitely won’t be forgetting B.O.B. though.

The graphics for the first game are all right I suppose. The character models are a little sub par and that doesn’t really change for the sequel. Things just don’t look like they should for a big Wii game. The sequel does look a lot better. The difference is night and day between them and it helps that I played the second one immediately after the first game. Everything suddenly looks like it’s in HD and they put a lot more thought into the backgrounds. The second one’s graphics are actually very impressive and they can easily hold up to any of the other big Wii games.

The soundtrack isn’t really that impressive. I forgot just about all of the themes immediately after I finished playing the games. There isn’t really anything in it that likely took them a while to compose and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was all free domain music. The themes aren’t that important in a shooter since your shooting will likely drown it out anyway, but it can definitely help. Just look at the Metroid Prime games as a shining example of this.

The bundle has a decent amount of replay value, but I would’t call it an exceptionally large amount. In the first game, you can continue to break your records in the minigames until all of your medals are Gold Rank and you can try to unlock all of the guns. In the second game there are a lot of weapons to buy and upgrade for each of the characters so it should take at least 20 playthroughs to get everything. Personally, I’m not That dedicated to getting all of the items so I would never even consider if, but why not right? The actual story mode for game 1 is 21 levels and assuming that you beat them all in a single shot, it should only take 4-6 hours to complete. The second game is even shorter with 8 levels and they’re very easy. That game should take you 3-4 hours or maybe even less. Overall, counting the bonus content, it’s still a decent amount, but the second game’s story is a little disappointing level wise. 10 is really the minimum amount that I find acceptable for a video game.

Overall, This was a pretty fun bundle. From the 5 Dollar bin, I would say that it beat Flingsmash, but lost to Geometry Wars. It also managed to beat Roogoo somehow. This is easily worth the 4 dollars since it has a lot of content. Either game works as they’re both good for different reasons. The first game was fun for the minigames while the second one has some really great animation and the plot is really there. The first one had a loose plot with some cutscenes before each boss battle and for each intro, but the second one has a deep and cohesive plot that continues for the whole game as the heroes try to save their town. If you’re looking for plot then the second title is for you and you’ll love the first one for gameplay. Either way, this is a steal and you can show the world that Nerf guns can hold up against giant robots bent on world conquest!

Overall 7/10

Justice League of America Volume 1 Reveiw

Posted on July 18, 2014 by dreager1

We may have the Justice League and the Justice League Dark, but there’s always room for another group. The main difference is that this group is under government jurisdiction, which makes things intriguing. The cast can be a concern since the main members won’t be able to join, but I can safely say that it is still a good comic.

The plot involves Steve Trevor as Amanda Waller tells him that she’s forming a group. She wants him to lead it and Steve talks a good game, but he is basically forced into leading the group. Amanda has selected each member so that person can theoretically beat their Justice League counterpart. The members are kept in the dark about this of course and the team consists of Martian Manhunter, Stargirl, Catwoman, Green Lantern, (Not Hal of course) Vibe, Hawkman and Katana. The cover already shows Green Arrow so I may as well say that he joins up with them later as well.

The group doesn’t really do a whole lot at first, but they look into stopping the secret society. These guys mean business since even Green Arrow was powerless to stop them. The second half involves the real Justice League as the Trinity Wars kick into high gear as both groups are launched into the fighting. Only one team can walk away from this (maybe) and the stakes have never been higher…..in a while. Meanwhile, Pandora is still around so the adventure could get even more dangerous for the heroes.

Steve Trevor is the leader of the Justice League of America, but he’s definitely no Batman. Batman can fight in hand to hand combat when necessary and he has a lot of gadgets. All Steve has is a long list of witty comebacks at the ready and a good handgun. He gives Catwoman a decent fight, but I’m glad that she defeated him. If a regular guy can defeat a super villain, then there’s no real need for an Anti Justice League group now is there? Steve tries to be a good character, but almost all of his lines are really just bluffs in the end. He always ends up listening to the government at the expense of common sense and he needs to stand up for himself some more. As far as leading the group goes….Steve doesn’t actually give many orders. He mostly just stands around and tries to talk tough. Still, Steve is a good guy despite all of this and he just needs to have more courage to stand up for what he believes in. Once he embraces this, Steve can end up being one of the better GI Joes.

Martian Manhunter is the big hitter for this group. He does pretty well, but I can’t say that he looked like he was anywhere near Superman’s level. We get some flashbacks into his origin, which will likely serve as foreshadowing for a future arc. It was intriguing, but not much has changed from the original origin so it was pretty basic. We met a new villain who I’m sure will be back at some point. The Martian is pretty short and direct in his manner of speaking, which is always good to see. I still can’t say that I’m a huge fan of the fact that he signed up with this counter league to stop the original ones, but I guess that I could say that for all of the members. At least he tried to end things diplomatically.

Katana gets a really small role compared to the other members. It’s easy to forget that she’s even on the team because she only gets a handful of lines. I don’t have much of an opinion on her at this point, but I would say that she’s decent. She’s not really a hero so hopefully these good influences will help her turn over a new leaf. I can’t say that her sword is very impressive as a person either, but all of his lines were off screen so it can be hard to tell for sure how cool he is.

I’ve never really been a fan of Hawkman and I can’t say that he looks too great here either. He seems to be pretty delusional and he overrates his own ability. I don’t really see him standing up to Aquaman at all. Hopefully he comes back to reality soon because he definitely seems like someone that you wouldn’t trust as a fellow hero.

Stargirl seems to be one of the more powerful fighters, but Amanda Waller wants her to stay at the base and act as the team’s PR rep. That doesn’t really fly with Stargirl and she escapes, which is pretty cool. She’s easily one of the most likable members of the group and she even got her town to accept her as a real superhero. It’s a feat that only a few superheroes like Superman and Flash have been able to pull off. Hopefully she gets a good fight in the next volume so we can see what her abilities can really do.

Simon Baz only appears for the latter half of the volume so we don’t see that much of him. He’s definitely no Hal Jordan and he’s a little generic so far. I’m sure that he’ll improve as he gets more screentime and he beats most of the other members. He seems to be pretty experienced after his latest adventure so hopefully he will show this as he gets some action in the future.

Catwoman was definitely not one of my favorite members. Her unnecessary embrace with Steve to steal his wallet and find out about his past was pretty sad. We get her backstory once again so that we can sympathize with the character and also learn about the Martian Manhunter, but it doesn’t really change the fact that her current self isn’t really likable. Catwoman always has the potential to be a good character, but she typically squanders it.

Green Arrow is actually pretty likable and it’s good to see him blackmail the government since they’ve been blackmailing everyone else. He’s definitely a pretty shady hero and he only answers to himself, but it’s an interesting change of pace at this point. The New 52 Arrow is completely different from the Pre 52 one and that’s just fine with me. I may actually prefer this version of the green hero. He definitely doesn’t look very impressive in the fights, but he can’t really be expected to match up against these powerful foes on his own. I’ll admit that his villain costume was pretty simple so I can see why the villains saw through it. At least Green Arrow made for an interesting addition to the team.

Vibe has a lot of room to grow so he has the potential to turn into a good hero. Right now he’s just a little too inexperienced and he doesn’t make the hero calls when necessary. He blindly listens to his superiors when they tell him to blast the Flash even though he didn’t know how it would affect him. Why take the risk when it could have potentially blown him up as with the robots? Vibe just cracked under the pressure and some more experience under his belt should help with that…hopefully!

Batman doesn’t get a huge role in this collection, but it’s good to see him thinking of a way out of this. He tries to help Superman get out of his predicament, but it’s tough without any leads. I have no qualms with his portrayal here. Superman was more on the dicey side since he allowed himself to be locked up. Luckily, the Leaguers are still watching him so the government can’t try anything, but it’s a little too risky if you ask me. Superman’s taking it pretty hard, but he should know that something’s up as he continues to get weaker and weaker. Wonder Woman actually gets most of a comic to herself as she consults the gods, villains, and finally the Justice League Dark to see if she can help Superman. She does a pretty good job although I do agree with the Welder that she didn’t need to be so threatening since they were on good terms. Bringing in the Justice League Dark was a good call….except that they turned out to be a little too unprepared for the battle.

Lex Luther didn’t get a huge role in this one, but it was good to see his portrayal went. Going after the box just to irritate the Justice League was classic and I’ll admit that I was rooting for him. It may have just been a cameo, but it was still good to see. The Flash didn’t really do anything either, but tackling Martian Manhunter was pretty good since traitors needs to be taken out of the fight right away. He may have misread the situation, but he made the hero move. (Although I believe that phasing through people should be a last resort unless they’re super powerful)

Amanda Waller is still a woman who only cares to help the government. She threatens the heroes and makes sure to be as unlikable as she can be throughout the comic. I was rooting for Stargirl to arrest her or to completely ignore Waller’s commands after the threats started coming in. Lucily, Stargirl did rebel, but I would have liked a more direct approach. Amanda always makes for a decent villain, but she’s seriously misguided in her attempts to help humanity.

The plot does jump around a lot in this comic though and you may not be crazy about this if you want to see the whole story. It jumps right into the 2nd or third part of the Trinity War and then jumps to the after effects of the event. That’s because only one issue was really in this series, but it can make for an interesting read in trade paperback form. The Secret Society plot also kind of vanished as the volume went on. I suppose that it could have ended in a way, but it didn’t really feel like an ending.

I have to wonder if Amanda Waller really thought her plan would work since her members are not nearly as powerful as the real league. Hal Jordan is better than Simon Baz in just about every way. The Flash would beat Vibe in his sleep. Batman’s better at hand to hand combat than Catwoman. Wonder Woman vs Katana is a bit of a joke. (No offense to Katana fans of course, but I don’t see her trading blows with Superman) Superman has heat vision to take care of Martian Manhunter. I forgot who Stargirl is a rival of, but let’s say that she loses to Cyborg and Aquaman beats the rest. That sounds about right. Amanda’s plan would not work and I don’t see how she can get past this fact.

DC’s done a really good job with the artwork in just about all of their New 52 comics. This one is no exception and all of the characters are drawn really well and the fights are pretty dynamic. We don’t get a lot of action scenes unfortunately, but we can still see that the art is solid from all of the other scenes. It would be hard for the aer to be even better than this so I’m completely satisfied in this area.

Overall, This was a fun Justice League comic. It’s kind of like watching the B listers instead of the main members, which is always good as a change of pace. I’d say that the only thing that brings down the comic a little is the convoluted timeline and the fact that there are no likable villains. The League needs a serious threat if it wants to establish credibility with the world after all. Some of the members are decent while I don’t really care for the others so it’s a bit of a mixed bag in that area. This comic had the infamous Catwoman getting shot scene that made its rounds on the web a while back, but it’s not that bad. I suppose that direct gunshots aren’t typically shown that often which could be a while, but you should be okay as long as you remember the classic comic book rule about characters who die. If not, it’s easy to skim through that part since there are a lot of panels leading up to it. Personally, I found the Martian Manhunter story worse in that regard since we got classic animal/alien violence that is always sad to see. It’s part of what kept this one from getting an 8 like the classic Justice League stories, but also the fact that we’re missing most of the main members. I recommend checking out this story if you’re a Justice League fan or if you like to read comics with very good art. There’s a decent amount of action and a lot of plot lines are developed that should help you get introduced into the New 52. I just wish that Hal Jordan could have been around to participate in the fights and maybe the Forever Evil tie ins will occur in the next volume.

Overall 7/10

The Adventures of Superboy Volume 1 Review

Posted on July 18, 2014 by dreager1

DC made some pretty great comics back in the day. Nothing beats reading the earliest adventures of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the other members of the Justice League. We get a pun a minute with some decently good action scenes that are really one sided between the heroes and random thugs. It may be a little cheesy, but it’s definitely fun. This collection brings some comics about Superman when he was a kid and it’s pretty fun to see how he grew up.

There are a whole bunch of stories in this collection because it is around 230 pages in total and each story is only around 5-8. There isn’t really a lot of continuity in the issues and you can read them in any order, but some characters so appear more than once so you may as well start from the top. Superboy is the main character of course and the stories revolve around him as he helps out the other kids or stops criminals.

One story had him help a kid whose car had broken down and everyone made fun of him. Superboy helped him fix the car and win the race because he’s a nice guy deep down. Another story tested Superboy’s moral limits as he beat the other kids in a marbling tournament even though he knew that he could not lose. This was because a secret plan was hidden in one of them and Superboy had to get it to the scientist. He gave them back the Marbles later anyway so it all worked out. Other stories include inventions that are stolen, kites that have bombs in them, Scout hunts that turn deadly, and a kid who became a cave kid.

There are certainly a lot of plots involved, but none of them are really long enough to speak at length about. They’re simply fun to read and then you move on to the next story. It’s likely that Superboy will be saving the day once again because it’s what he does. It’s pretty incredible to think about since Superboy is already a medical genius by the end of the volume since he was some books at super speed. I wish the current Superman had kept all of this because the old one was a genius at just about everything.

The portrayal of Superboy is consistently good throughout the comics. He always makes the right choices and Superboy is essentially the perfect hero. He also makes sure that Clark Kent is the perfect buddy as he never takes risks, but he always reminds the others to drive safely while giving other good tips. He can definitely exaggerate the Clark Kent angle though and sometimes I feel like he shouldn’t be afraid to win. Clark Kent nearly won the Spelling Bee, but he then decided that he should lost on purpose so that the kids wouldn’t figure out that he was Superboy. I doubt that they would have considered it for long though since Clark always makes himself look bad for the endings. In some ways, his deception is a little more drastic than Peter Parker’s, but not always. Clark still talks tough against the robbers and he’s usually the first guy to make a move.

Superboy was really the only big character in this one, but there were a few others over the course of the comics. Perry White guest starred in one issue and we got to see how he joined the Daily Planet. He did let the fame get to him a little as he got the job since Superboy said that Perry would forget Clark Kent’s name by the time he became Chief. Clark helped him get the job so I would expect him to never forget the kid. There was also another reporter who tried to hit it big and he was decent.

There were some reoccurring characters in the form of the local kids. They’re present in just about every comic, but good luck remembering their names. John, Bob, Tim, they’re all something like that and they all start to blur together as the comics go. They tend to be pretty confident as they rush into danger since Superboy always comes to their rescue. None of them are bad characters, but they’re mostly just around to help things get started. You could replace them with any other kid and the outcome would typically be the same. You can barely call them characters, but we didn’t have as many big characters back in the day so it’s not a really bad thing. Better to be a shadow of a character than a bad one.

The art for the comics is classic. It can be a little rough around the edges and I do admit that Marvel was winning this battle back in the day. That being said, it makes for a lot of funny facial expressions and Superboy sometimes appears to be in his mid 40’s if you were to judge his age from his face. It’s always fun to see the bullets bounce off of the caped hero and the art also lets you know who’s a hero and who isn’t. The villains typically look pretty sneaky and suspicious from the get go.

Overall, This is a pretty fun collection of short stories. It’s a good way to see how Superman grew up and it’s a lot better than any other form where they showed his childhood. It’s certainly a much better version than Smallville and nothing that the New 52 has up it’s sleeve from some secret twists and extra details to Superman’s origins can top this. This is the definitive version of how Superman became the hero that he is today and it’s a must read for his fans. Don’t go in expecting a lot of fights though because this is simply an origin story that took place in a very peaceful town. The only big danger here is the fact that there are many crooks who love to come to the town and people who want to get rich through quick schemes. Luckily, Superboy is always there to save the day…and his reputation as the world’s greatest hero!

Overall 7/10

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