Essential Xmen Volume 11 Review

Posted on July 17, 2014 by dreager1

The Xmen may not be as popular as the Avengers, but I dare say that they tend to have bigger plots with more characters involved. The Xmen can have up to 5 different comic series at a time and nobody bats an eye. We’re just used to all of the mutants forming different groups and joining up for events. Because of this, it can be one of the more confusing comics and this essential definitely kept to that. The comics were a lot of fun, but it can be easy to forget what’s happening in the dozens of subplots.

I read this volume a while ago and I just wasn’t able to get the review out sooner because of others that kept pre empting this one. It doesn’t help that so many things were happening at once either. Luckily, Comicvine is great for this since I can check out which issues were in the graphic novel to jog my memory. Naturally, that can only help so much so this review may not be exactly like the standard Essential reviews. Still, let’s give it a shot!

This volume brings annuals from Uncanny Xmen, X Factor, and New Mutants along with issues from X Factor and the Uncanny Xmen series. As I mentioned earlier, there are a bunch of plots, but let’s go with the ones that I remember the most to start things off. That would be the Skrull plot!

I never forgot that big twist because it’s what made some parts confusing. The Xmen have to deal with a lot of Super Skrulls. Basically, they can steal your form and they also learn how to use your abilities, which makes them formidable. So, originally, you believe that some of the Xmen are merely being mind controlled or tricked and then it’s found out that some of them are Skrulls. Naturally, a lot of the classic questions arise like, “How long have they been abducted” and “Who’s the genuine article.” The comic doesn’t really answer all of those questions and it’s hard to tell.

The whole situation mainly starts with Psylocke and Professor Xavier as they use their abilities to mind control most of the Xmen. After that, I guess some of them are switched out in place of skrulls while others are kept in mind control. Gambit and Jubilee are really the only ones left to fight this! It was also a little surreal to see Xavier in the comic because we don’t see him that often anymore.

There’s also a mini arc where Proteus returns and he’s still one of the Xmen’s biggest threats. I liked his portrayal in the show as a villain, but I don’t really care for the character. He’s still a threat in this comic, but there’s only so much that a writer can do to make him interesting.

Somewhere between these various story arcs is a subplot about Nick Fury, Magneto, Rogue, and Kazar. They are in the jungle and Magneto has lost his powers while Rogue’s are a shadow of what they used to be. Together, they will still need to free the inhabitants of the Savage Land and attempt to get their powers back. Nick Fury doesn’t trust Magneto as one may have expected so it results in a lot of threats within the group.

The Uncanny Xmen comics in this collection end with the Shadow King saga. It results in the iconic cover that is featured above. I don’t care for the Shadow King either, but his ability to possess people makes for an interesting plot device. He makes sure to go after Colossus among others and it’s a pretty emotional experience for the Xman. He knows that he’s being mind controlled, which makes it all the worse. This saga was pretty good and it may not have had a lot of fights that I can remember, but it was still solid.

Finally, the collection also brings the first three issues of the Xmen series that began after this. It brings Magneto back as the antagonist, but he’s not in it for world domination as he used to be. Magneto merely wants to live out the rest of his days in peace along with his fellow mutants. Unfortunately, that’s not to be since some of the mutants that he brings along only want trouble and the Xmen are forced to get involve. Magneto’s only option is to retaliate and we get the inevitable clash of wits between them.

The art in the volume is pretty chaotic and being in black and white doesn’t help. I never really cared for the fact that they switched the colors to black and white for the essentials. What’s the purpose? It is all right though. It just makes it a little hard to follow the fight scenes since it can be harder to distinguish between the characters and many scenes are bustling with action. The actual art is pretty good though and it has that exaggerated 90’s feel. Everyone is typically out of proportion and everyone including Magneto and Cyclops have six packs. In the 90’s, everyone worked out!

This was a pretty rough breakdown of events compared to the usual review because of how long it’s been since I read it. I have three more older reviews coming up, but they aren’t quite as old and they’re less convoluted so the reviews should look to be back to normal for the most part. Most of the characters in this volume were pretty true to character except there was a bit of romance hinted between Rogue and Magneto, which was pretty sad. No matter how desperate the Savage Land can make you when your super powers are gone, it still felt forced. Cyclops unfortunately didn’t get much of a role until the Magneto saga, but he was still around for the other battles. The comics may have been confusing, but it was still fun to see such a large cast being forced to team up. It’s also why I love the Skrull plots since we get to see Xmen fighting other Xmen.

Overall, This was a solid Xmen collection. It would be a whole lot easier to read and comprehend everything if it was in color though. One positive is that black and white acts as a natural censor, which can help depending on the comic and the 90’s were an interesting time for the Xmen so this may have been for the best. These collections are always a great buy since they bring so many comics. This one likely had at least 400-500 pages of content inside of it, which never ceases to impress me. Any Marvel fan should enjoy this one, but you should not go into it expecting a simple plot with lots of action. The action is definitely there, but it is also pretty plot heavy. I would say that this is a good thing though and the writing is pretty solid. There is some fanservice for Psylocke unfortunately and some others as well, but the black and white (slightly) helps to reduce how sad this is. It’s still unnecessary and hopefully future volumes are better with that. There isn’t too much romance aside from the one plot and the cast of characters are likable for the most part. Apparently they never came out with Volume 12 so this may be the end of the road. It’s a good place to stop though since it brings the big climax for Uncanny Xmen as well as the first issues of the next Xmen series.

Overall 7/10

Fate Stay Night Review

Posted on July 16, 2014 by dreager1

Fate Stay Night is one of those anime that you will likely hear about during your anime adventures. Even if you have no idea what the plot is, it’s just hard not to hear about this title. I’m always up for an action anime and this one involves a tournament so that’s always a good sign. The DVD cover could have been a little more interesting, but we can’t always have an action cover I suppose.

The plot involves Shirou Emiya as he is still haunted by an event 10 years earlier, which burned away a large part of the area nearby. He lived through it and now he likes to help people out whenever he can. He thinks of himself as a hero of justice and he leads a rather ordinary life. He does have some magical abilities as he can reinforce an object to fix it or make it stronger, but that’s about it so he’s not much of a fighter. His life changes when he is selected to participate in the Grail Wars. He ends up summoning a servant by the name of Saber and together they must win or be crushed by their adversaries.

The Grail Wars consist of 7 teams. Each team gets one master and one servant. The master is the human who is selected and the servant is a legendary hero who has been brought into the present to help out. The winning team can have their greatest wish granted by the Grail once all of the other teams have been terminated. Naturally, Shirou wants to win the Grail Wars without destroying anyone. He doesn’t really have a need for the Grail, but he has to win so that a villain does not. A noble goal, but will Saber agree?

There are quite a few references to the previous Grail War throughout the show and it’s basically a subplot since it heavily involves Shirou’s past as well as Saber’s. As expected, the average humans don’t really know about the Grail Wars and are likely convinced that random fires just occur. The police don’t really appear at all and I suppose that they would ultimately be powerless, but you would think that they would make some kind of move after a big event happens at the school. Well, Shirou is the hero anyway to it’s up to him to save the day.

Shirou is the main hero of this story and he’s a decently good main character. He makes his share of mistakes, but his intentions are usually sound. He does want to be a hero so he typically tries to save as many people as possible. He’s at odds with Saber most of the time because of how their battle strategies differ. He would rather fight the enemies on his own so that Saber doesn’t have to get hurt. That’s usually not a viable option so things don’t always turn out well for him. He can be pretty selfish at times since he wants Saber to stay on Earth instead of fulfilling her wish. He ultimately makes the hero move and he doesn’t attempt to force her with a command seal so that’s good. He’s hardly what you’d consider to be a perfect main character, but he gets the job done and he’s pretty determined. He also learns how to fight, which is a major plus.

One thing about Shirou is that he’s not very smart. Usually, the main hero might be unsmart during normal situations and then become a fighting genius like Naruto, Luffy, and Goku. Shirou is like that to an extent, but one can argue that it’s more on Luffy’s level. He knows that he should never go outside without his servant because everyone wants to destroy him, but he loves taking a stroll around town and staying out until after dark. Nobody can attack him if their are witnesses (in theory) so he takes the time to go to school. The problem is that he waits until everyone else leaves because he was walking around in a daze. This leads into trouble of course. Next, Shirou goes to the park during the afternoon, but it’s in a secluded part of the city and nobody’s around….not his best move. Shirou makes these kinds of mistakes often and it can be a little tough to watch since you have to wonder why he would make these mistakes. Once or twice is acceptable, but it constantly happens to him and he definitely doesn’t seem to take the tournament seriously until the second half of the show.

Saber is another one of the main characters and she gets a lot of hype. She’s known as the strongest servant and most of the enemies are supposed to fear her. I have to say that this is one of the problems with her portrayal. She acts as if she’s a very tough fighter and the others acknowledge her to be very powerful. Despite this, she spends a good portion of the series getting knocked out or fainting from fatigue. Her worst battle was when she was losing to a human. He was amped up with magic, but it should be physically impossible for him to defeat Saber.

Now, the main reason that the show gives us for how underpowered she is…is because Shirou isn’t a great master. He doesn’t know how to give Saber any of his mana (energy) and he constantly takes hers away when he gets destroyed and his essence steals her energy to heal himself. That’s fine…..but it’s not great if you’re a Saber fan. Because of this, she’s constantly losing and we can’t even blame Shirou for wanting to keep her out of the fight. He does have a point that she is almost always injured and she can’t even use her ultimate attack without running the risk of dying from the energy drain.

Aside from this, Saber is still a good character. She’s more no nonsense than Shirou and she doesn’t mind slaying her opponents as long as it is done honorably. She wants to win the Grail to fulfill an obligation, which Shirou disapproves of. I also think that the goal isn’t that great. Saber’s invisible sword makes for a good weapon and it reminds me of Creed’s blade. Saber prefers to stay detatched from the situation so that she doesn’t get emotionally invested, but that’s pretty hard to do when you’re responsible for keeping your partner alive through a long tournament. She gets a lot of character development as the series goes on. Luckily, she stays as a good character throughout the show.

Rin is another one of the contestants in the Grail Wars and she’s allied with Archer. Unlike Shirou, Rin has always been aware of the Grail Wars and she’s been preparing for this for a long time. Evidently, she was not preparing for long enough because she ends up getting Archer instead of Saber. She’s disappointed, but she’ll devise a way to make Archer a threat. She uses more strategic means to attack her enemies and she’s willing to destroy anyone in her way.

Rin is also a solid character and without her, Shirou would have been doomed from the start. She can actually fight on her own to an extent since she can fire energy blasts and use her gems to cause powerful explosions. She does make some controversial moves like trying to destroy Shirou to put an end to his misery, but she mostly makes the heroic calls when necessary. Most of what she did at the time was to help Shirou get more ruthless and to take the tournament more seriously, but he wouldn’t have any of that.

Shinji used to be Shirou’s friend although we never really find out how this could have happened. From the beginning, Shinji is portrayed as a bully who is very insecure. He gets rejected two times by the same person, once for more than friends and once to be teammates. He was already corrupted, but this helps him accelerate into madness as he decides to destroy everyone at his school so that he can power up his servant and win the Grail Wars. He has Rider at his side and she’s the weakest servant in the tournament so it’s a little rough for him. That being said, it’s no excuse to turn into the villain and he’s forced to go up against Shirou. Shinji doesn’t have any redeemable qualities even though Shirou acts as if he’s merely made a few mistakes. Shinji started out as an unlikable character and that’s how he ended as well.

Sakura doesn’t get a huge role in the anime and she mostly represents Shirou’s normal life. She helps him out around the house and it seems like they’ve been friends for a while. She’s a nice person, but she’s also a bit of a liability for Shirou since she’ll always be in danger as long as she hangs around him. Naturally, the villains know this as well and Shirou has to go to rescue her. It’s not really her fault that she can’t fight so it’s not a negative of course and she does stand up to Rin when the latter tries to stop her from going to Shirou’s home. (It was for her own good and all….) Sakura’s role is fairly small, but she’s a good supporting character. She doesn’t have any annoying traits like the friends in the average Marvel show….meaning the current Marvel shows of course.

Kirei is the guy who’s in charge of the current Grail War. He’s there to make sure that everyone follows the rules and he seems like a decent person deep down…right? Well, it’s hard not to go any further without obvious spoilers, but he’s definitely not a great character. He believes that the end justifies the means and he basically loses it. He’s certainly not a likable character by the end and he definitely did seem shady from the start. He can put up a decent fight when necessary, but he typically relies on the element of surprise or abilities that happen to be around for him to use.

Taiga is another one of Shirou’s friends and she doesn’t really add much to the show. She’s mainly there to keep the show light and to bring in some comedy once in a while so that the show won’t be too dark. If that’s the reason for her character…then it doesn’t really do a great job. It adds some light scenes, but they aren’t very interesting and Taiga isn’t the greatest character out there. She only has one emotional moment where she tries to get Shinji to sound the alarms….but this is Shinji that we’re talking about. Taiga means well, but she’s a little overdone for comic relief. Also, eating a lot is supposed to be the main character’s job…but his friend’s!

Issei is Shiro’s most minor ally. He only appears when Shiro needs some practical data or to stop Shiro from making the wrong calls. Issei does a decent job on the latter part, but he’s not very subtle about it. He’s a moral person who tries his best to stay to the straight path of being nice, but it’s tough since a villain infiltrates his main group’s building. He’s naturally oblivious to this and he never gets to do anything that is relevant to the plot. I would say that he is my favorite character from Shirou’s friends though. We needed a guy like him to keep Shirou alert.

Illyasviel is another one of the masters and she’s pretty good as well. Her character change is one of the more drastic ones and yet…her personality isn’t really affected. She’s one of the more dangerous opponents because she definitely has no qualms about destroying all of the other combatants. She also doesn’t mind using a sneak attack to put her in a better position to win the Grail. That being said, I was still pretty shocked when she used the paralysis spell in the park. It really came out of nowhere and I had thought that there would be a truce since she had been acting like a friend. Ah well…that’s why you shouldn’t underestimate her! From the humans, I dare say that she’s the best master in the show with Shirou and Rin not being far behind.

Soichiro is the final master and he’s pretty good as well. He’s portrayed as one of those guys who will do anything if it will please his partner. His servant is Caster, but only in technical terms since they fight as if it were the opposite. He doesn’t seem like he was actually a bad guy, but he still is. Essentially, he’ll do whatever Caster tells him to do even if it means sacrificing an innocent person or destroying a student. He’s far more likable than most of the other enemies, but he’s still not someone that you can really root for in the end. I just loved his fight scenes, which helps him rise up in my books. He ended up being a little too overpowered so some help from the plot was in order for his ultimate end.

Lancer really gets the shaft in the show. He appears at the beginning of the series and he’s hinted to be one of the strongest fighters. He gets a hit on Saber and his Noble Phantasm seems to be very lethal. Unfortunately, he manages to vanish until the final pair of episodes where he pops up out of nowhere. Unfortunately, we don’t even get to see him fight as his action scene is off screen. Well…..so much for that. I still do like him and he was one of the best servants in the show. He was an antagonist, but he still had honor and he believes in fighting the right way. It’s too bad that he couldn’t appear more, but his opening fight scene was still fun to watch and I suppose that I’ll just have to make do with it. I have to say that the writers must have forgotten about him during the show.

Archer is easily one of the best characters in the show. His banter with Shirou is always fun to watch and he’s pretty rebellious. He disobeys Rin’s command to help Shirou and he never wants to help out. He only does so to protect Rin and the whole tournament seems beneath him. There was one really out of character scene where Saber defeats him in a single blow, but I think that was really to help the Saber hype. The problem is that he’s out of commission for quite a few episodes and then he just gets one more fight in the series. Ah well, he’s still an epic character to root for and I believe that the voice really helped. It definitely matched his character and the voice actor delivered the lines well. Archer’s Noble Phantasm attack is pretty good since he has a lot of weapons and he can keep on replenishing them. He easily had one of the best fights in the show.

Assassin is the main reason why Archer isn’t my favorite servant. He’s easily the best character in the series and it’s regrettable that he didn’t get a whole lot of screentime. He’s just interested in having a good fight and he gets to pit his skills against Saber’s twice. Those two fights are his only battles in the show, but they’re pretty good and show how powerful he is. He doesn’t have any big attacks and his Noble Phantasm is actually pretty straight forward compared to the others. He really relies on pure swordsmanship and that just shows how skilled he is. Many of the others others would not have been able to manage without some kind of edge. Assassin’s plot twist at the end is pretty sad so you also feel bad for the guy. At least he got to have a little fun before the end.

Gilgamesh appears during the final phase of the anime so he appears very suddenly. He easily has the best entrance in the series. No other character got to appear in such an epic fashion and he instantly proved why he was a cut above the rest. I was actually a decently big fan of him for a while, but his goals start to get more and more iffy as the show goes on. By the end, he’s basically not likable anymore, but he is definitely a powerful villain. He knows how to put up a good fight and his design instantly reminds me of Saint Seiya. This guy definitely has the appearance of a Gold Saint and he has the power to back it up as well. He is one of those characters who is still a little too powerful, but luckily the show manages to find a (semi) believable way of handling him. It was still a little dicey, but definitely more believable than some of the other fights.

Rider seems to be the weakest servant and I can definitely see why. She is not impressive in the slightest and I would definitely say that she’s my least favorite servant. She uses a chain to attack and once she stabs you with it, then it’s hard to break free. She’s very quick, but that basically rounds out her array of abilities so she’s hardly a threat to the other fighters. She actually has multiple battles with Shirou, which is something that could not happen with most of the others. Shirou and Lancer’s battle had an abrupt end and likewise with Shirou’s one second battle against Gilgamesh. Real servants should be able to take down a human in an instant and that didn’t happen with Rider. I definitely couldn’t wait until she was defeated so that we could move on to a more interesting fighter. To her defense, Rider does have an ultimate attack, but it’s more like she’s just using someone who actually has power so it’s barely worth mentioning.

Caster uses magic to fight her battles since she’s not much of a physical fighter. This is pretty unique for a servant so she makes sure to have others do her bidding. She amps up their abilities so I wonder why she cannot do the same thing to herself. Either way, she’s still more than a match for Rider, which is also a little embarrassing for the latter. She had an interesting backstory and one would almost think that she was not completely evil until you remember her present actions. She was much better than Rider, but not nearly as cool as some of the other servants. There just doesn’t seem to be any way to sympathize with her and I have a feeling that getting the grail using a cheap trick like the one that she attempted would backfire in some way.

Berserker is….the strongest servant! Yes, I already said that Saber got all of the hype, but Berserker got all of the feats. Personally, I would choose Assassin to defeat Berserker in a fair fight, but everyone basically starts to admit that he was the best one. (Of course, that’s before Gilgamesh stepped in) He relies on brute strength, but his special ability is formidable since defeating him once is not enough. What makes me skeptical is that he never appears to be very fast. It should be a simple matter for some of the fighters to just keep on outspeeding him until they finally take him down for the count. Berserker has absolutely no character so I can’t say that I’m a fan of him. He’s not really interesting and he’s really just there as an obstacle for the heroes. He’s a legitimate threat as a villain, but he could have been a much better character. (Talking would be a good start)

I have to say that Fate Stay Night is a great anime to watch at night. There’s always some tension in the show and most of the episodes conveniently take place during the night time. Even if it’s day time, it’s always cloudy so the sun never really comes out. You can never let your guard down because everyone is out to destroy Shirou. The series just has a scary vibe to it and it can feel like a horror show at times. Only in the atmosphere luckily as horror doesn’t have the greatest track record in any form of media. It’s definitely a change of pace from the average anime and the darkness isn’t too overblown.

Now, one part of the show that I really didn’t like was when Shirou had to give Saber some of his power. To do this, it involved a CGI dragon which was all right, but the real world things that were happening were pretty awful. It makes Rin and Shirou look terrible as well and I can safely say that it was a sad moment to be a fan of either of them. It’s just one scene and it’s luckily never really mentioned again, but it’s still hard to forget. It’s also hard to call Shirou a hero after that since he was told not to do it by Saber. Shirou just kind of ignored that. I mostly just block the scene out, which is why the sections for Shirou and Rin are still positive. It’s just one of those moments that comes out of nowhere and the writers must have just panicked. It was probably the only really big wince worthy scene in the show.

That being said, the show does unfortunately have some fanservice. Not a whole lot of it luckily, but there are two major scenes with Saber that come to mind. The generic hotsprings/bath scene is in just about everything nowadays and these two are used to show how Saber’s personality has changed from the beginning to the end. There are many better ways that they could have done this. Compared to other shows like Index and Sword Art Online, it’s definitely not bad, but it could be better. If nothing else, Attack on Titan did get one thing right and that was the fact that it basically had no fanservice in the entire show.

Despite the dark tone of the show, Fate Stay Night isn’t really that violent. The only big scene that you would want to be on the lookout for is when Rider first uses her final attack. Using it involves stabbing herself in the neck for whatever reason and we get a big Bleach spray. A few characters basically lose their arm or get critically injured, which looks a little more violent thanks to the really high budget for those scenes (Like Index) but it’s not that bad. If you’ve seen Bleach, then this should be okay and the Rider scene is the only one that you may watch out for. The Church’s underground is one scene that’s pretty disturbing since we see a lot of parts so many people didn’t quite make it. Luckily, they don’t go into detail so I like to think that they met their end quickly.

Luckily, those are only a handful of scenes and they don’t really derail the show. Some parts may be unnecessary, but no show can be truly perfect. (Not even Yugioh GX) I would have liked some more city battles because anime in general seem to avoid them. There is only one of them in the show and that’s when Saber fights Rider on top of a sky scraper. I don’t care for Rider and her battles aren’t the most entertaining, but I did enjoy the setting for the battle and I’ll never get tired of city fights.

The animation for the show was only all right at first. It actually looked a lot older than I had been expecting and the fights with Saber were very stiff. The way that they drew her attire made it look like more of a dress made out of steel than something made for combat. Because of this, she could barely move in the fights. Luckily, the animation got way better for the second half of the show. It’s hard to say when it got better, but definitely after the first fight with Berserker. I’d say that the Archer vs Berserker fight was when the animation began to shine and it didn’t really look back from there. All of the final fights are pretty great and the animation quickly rose to be top tier in quality.

The fights are nice and varied throughout the show. Technically, most of them use swords or similar weapons to fight, but their personalities and Noble Phantasms are different enough to make them all exciting. At it’s best, the show definitely contains some of the best fights that you’ll see in anime and the speed is comparable to Bleach and Sword Art Online with how fast they’re swinging their swords. My favorite fight is actually Soichiro against the heroes (Round 1) since it was fun to see how a hand to hand fighter would fare against them. Let’s just say that I have my answer!

Fate Stay Night doesn’t disappoint with the soundtrack either. Most of the themes used in the episodes are opera themed and they fit the dark atmosphere perfectly. The battles all have an epic feeling to them and even the to be continued music is pretty catchy as well as the preview music. I didn’t care for the first theme song at all and it likely helped the first half to not be quite as exciting as the latter episodes. Luckily, the second theme song is pretty great and I would say that it’s easily one of the best anime openings. The music is definitely 5 star material and there aren’t many anime that can match it in the end.

Overall, Fate Stay Night is a pretty solid anime and it can hold up against the current mainstream titles like Sword Art Online and Attack on Titan. (Slaying Titan and Completing its victory against SAO) The cast of characters is pretty large and while some of them may be bland or unlikable, there are quite a few of good characters in the mix. The soundtrack and animation are pretty good and help to make the show that much more enjoyable. I highly recommend this show to action fans. The plot is also pretty deep and the dialogue is interesting so you should also enjoy it for the story if you don’t care for action. My only regret is that Archer didn’t get to fight Gilgamesh.

Overall 7/10

One Piece Unlimited World Red Review

Posted on July 15, 2014 by dreager1

I currently own most of the One Piece games that have come to America, but none of them have really stood out. I don’t own the Wii installment, which is supposed to be pretty good and I just had the GBA and Gamecube games. Luckily, this one is a few leagues ahead of those and it’s definitely the definitive One Piece game. As Budokai Tenkaichi 3 revolutionized DBZ and Ninja Storm Generations helped Naruto, Unlimited World Red is currently the ultimate One Piece experience.

This game takes place after the long time skip and the Strawhat Pirates are in the New World. They stop by an island to resupply and let Pato go home. Luffy goes to get some food, but that’s when Pato breaks the news. Luffy’s comrades have been kidnapped and Luffy will have to find all of them. Pato seems to be pretty happy about this and he follows his master’s orders without question. That’s just the kind of guy that he is. Luffy isn’t thrilled about this and he’s also a little skeptical since his comrades are supposed to be tough. Nontheless, Luffy begins his journey and sets out to save all of them. Guarding his friends are most of the big fighters that Luffy has met in his travels and it’s odd how they have all appeared. Are they real or are they fake? It doesn’t matter since Luffy plans on winning either way!

Meanwhile, the game also has a Colosseum Mode. This acts as a separate Story Mode which covers the current arc in the manga, but very loosely. Luffy and Law have formed an alliance and they need to win the large tournament to take down Doflamingo once and for all. Doflamingo mostly seems to be amused by this and he allows the two fighters to stay in the tournament. Will they be able to defeat all of the challengers as well as Doflamingo? The journey begins!

The gameplay is one of the main highlights since it is a classic beat em up. Picture Dynasty Warriors, but add a little more substance to the attacks. It’s not a straight fighter like Naruto or DBZ, but it does take some of those elements and ends up incorporating them into the beat em up style. Because of this, most enemies won’t go down so quickly. The health of the minions is pretty formidable and while they won’t pose a threat, it is wise to use combos to take them out as soon as possible.

I do think that beating the minions can be a little time consuming at first, but it gets better as you level up. I have not attempted hard story yet so I cannot say how much tougher they get, but I do plan on completing that mode soon since it’s necessary for a trophy. The boss fights are really fun since you’ll need strategy alongside your button mashing. You are given the option to dodge (Like Luffy) or block (If you’re Zoro) an attack right before it connects. This holds true for most final smashes as well, but there are exceptions as seen with Shanks and Doflamingo. You don’t want to use too many power attacks in a row since it can eliminate the option of dodging or blocking an attack.

You can equip words, which act as your equipment. They can from something to help in battles like an attack boost or something more subtle like extra money or exp. I highly recommend going for the EXP option since that’s just about always worth it. Having some items at the ready can also be the difference between a victory or a loss since those healing potions are crucial. Typically, you’ll be fighting in a group of 3 members. Even if one member dies, you can just switch to one of the other two. One key thing to know is that your partners never lose health while the computer is controlling them. In light of this, you should never let one of the members die and just make sure to switch when you’re at low health. This way, you’ll still have two partners draining away at the enemy’s health. It’s a pretty solid strategy!

One part that makes this game stand out as a cut above the rest is the fact that the developers really went all out with the story. We get many cutscenes throughout this mode and some of them feature actual fights. We get to see Red take on the crew and we get a brief glimpse of the fight between Lucci and Luffy. Scenes like that are just great because I always love to see a good fight. Even if you’re a video game, there is no excuse not to have an animated fight. Currently, it is still pretty rare so the game did a good job of including these scenes. Luckily, the graphics are solid so the fight scenes work really well. I would definitely say that the characters are drawn in more detail than the average game and this one definitely looks like a modern PS3 game. It’s not at Final Fantasy levels, but one could argue that it’s intentional since One Piece is supposed to be colorful and fun to look at. I’d say that the game managed to show this perfectly.

Naturally, this game has trophies. There are more of them in the game than usual as it contains 57. I have amassed around 35 of them so far and I’m lightly aiming for the Platinum. It seems to be a little on the time consuming side, but I’ve already posted around 30 hours so I may as well go all the way. None of the trophies are unreasonable although finding all of the strong words will take a while. A lot of the trophies are simply grinds like rocket jumping 500 times or slicing a bullet 100 times. The trophies are not very difficult and you should definitely get the Platinum if you purchase this one.

The soundtrack for the game is decent. There aren’t a whole lot of tunes in the game, but the ones that are present as decent enough. It definitely does have Soul Calibur feeling to it and it compliments the gameplay. I would have liked some really fast paced music as well, but you can’t have it all in one game. Otherwise, the others wouldn’t look so good.

Red is the new villain who was made up for this game. He’s known as one of the legendary pirates since he could fight on equal grounds with guys like Gold D Roger and Whitebeard. He’s decided that he needs to be immortal and he sets off on this quest while mocking the heroes. He’s a very formidable foe and he’s easily one of Luffy’s strongest opponents. I definitely respect his raw power, but I can’t say that I care for him all that much as a villain. Towards the end, he never became one of my favorites, but he is decent and he definitely beats some of the other fighters as well as the other two game original characters.

Pato is a raccoon who was with the Strawhats prior to this game and he ends up revealing that he is working for an unknown master. This destroys a lot of the trust that the Strawhats had had in him and it was definitely a low move by Pato. I never cared for him by the end because his heart may have been in the right place, but I just couldn’t take him seriously. He doesn’t have enough power to back up his tough talk and his personality was really similar to Chopper’s. I don’t know, we could have had a better fighter.

There’s also the shop owner. She doesn’t get a whole lot of screentime, but we know that she’s decently tough since she stands up to the thugs at the beginning of the game. She mostly lets us know which parts of the town should be built first and it’s a noble sentiment. That being said, she just doesn’t have much of a role in the story and she didn’t really change any of the events. Things would have played out with or without her.

The Strawhats are interesting to see since they’re in their New World forms. I still can’t say that I’m a fan of most of the changes. Luffy, Sanji, Nami, Chopper, and Robin are all right. I don’t dislike their new forms, but I can safely say that I do prefer each of their old forms. Brook is beyond saving from before the timeskip so it’s really Usopp and Franky that are a little hard to take in. They’re all still in character besides that and the banter between them is good. With the exception of Brook, this group is one of the stronger Shonen Jump casts and they’re far more interesting than the Genin 11 and Ichigo’s pals. It should be noted that this game was not dubbed so everyone is talking in japanese. That shouldn’t really affect the game for you since the text is still in english and it’s fun to hear how they sound in their original voices.

There is certainly a lot of replay value present in the game. The story mode takes around 4-6 hours as there are 9 levels and each one takes around 30 minutes. Aside from that, you are also tasked with building the city and it can take a while to get all of the necessary parts. After that, the trophies require you to buy 100 things from just about every store. There is fishing to be done, insect catching, running a museum, planting, etc. We also have the alternate story mode, which is about as long as the main one and there are many bonus challenges to do in the Colosseum as well. I’ve clocked in around 30 hours and I still have plenty of things to do. I’d say that this game will last you at least 50 hours and that’s definitely a lot of content. You certainly can’t say that this game was empty.

Overall, This is easily one of the best games for the PS3 and one of the best ones out there. The gameplay is nice and smooth. It doesn’t get repetitive after playing it for a long time. The trophies will take a long time to get, but they are achievable so it’s a fun goal to work towards. (No online trophies so no worries about servers!) I highly recommend this game and it’s a good way to get into the One Piece franchise. You’ll be able to meet the characters and see how strong they are. It may be a beat em up, but I wouldn’t call it a complete button smasher thanks to the depth. I highly recommend checking out Colosseum mode as well as the normal story mode because you get to play as some of the stronger bosses. Whitebeard, Doflamingo, Shanks, they’re all in it! So, this is a golden opportunity to play as the strongest warriors around. Hopefully, all One Piece games will reach America starting with this one.

Overall 9/10

Sonic Saga Series Volume 3 Eggman Empire Review

Posted on July 15, 2014 by dreager1

The Sonic Saga Series continues in this installment. After the big fight with Anonymous, the series had a lot of options as to what the next story should be about. There are many subplots still going, but this one decides to focus on Eggman. He unleashes his new scheme and it may be the most devastating one yet!

The collection begins with Sonic and friends saving the Chao Garden from Eggman or they at least manage to save the Chaos. They bring the Chaos home and have a blast with them. Everything is going well as Antoine and Bunny finally decide to become partners and the heroes have not enjoyed such a time of peace in a long while. Unfortunately, Espio goes missing and then Eggman appears. This time, he plans to finish off the heroes once and for all! The peace has abruptly ended and Sonic will have to fight Eggman with everything on the line!

There is also a short backup comic featuring Blaze as she searches for the legendary blue hedgehog. She has to fight through some minions in order to do this, but she proves to be no match for the Swatbots. Eventually, she wakes up and is face to face with Sonic. She’s going to fight her way out of this, but can she really defeat such a legend? It’s going to take everything that she has!

The backup is pretty light and the tone is what you would expect from your average Sonic comic. The main saga is surprisingly dark (for a Sonic comic) and the situation feels a lot more dire than the last few events. Espio may have been assassinated and then Eggman begins to vaporize Sonic’s friends. All of them are destroyed except for Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and Tails. (Coincidence eh?) Now, everyone dying would be going a little too far so I’m sure that you sense a plot twist around the corner. Naturally I won’t say what it is, but there is a twist involved.

That being said, it still feels serious for the heroes. The comic plays out like The Death of Superman in that the first comics build tension as we get to briefly see Espio between comics as he finds out Eggman’s secret plan, but he is then caught. Then we see the shadow slowly creeping towards Mobius, but the heroes are completely unaware of the danger. It’s pretty nerve wrecking stuff and it doesn’t help that Sonic is still sad about not being able to save Tommy or Sir Connery. What if he simply isn’t fast enough to save his friends?

Sonic is the main star of course and he still has to do all of the heavy lifting for the heroes. He’s still having some mild romance drama and he’s not as chipper as usual because the tensions are finally getting to him. He couldn’t save his friends last time and he’s starting to be at odds with Tails. He still tries to act happy and without a care, but it’s an act that the other characters see through with ease. Sonic still takes command of the situation when danger strikes and he definitely gives the fight his all. You can’t help but feel bad for him after his big defeat against Eggman. It’s definitely a low moment for our hero, but he finally begins to look like himself after the heroes come up with a new plan. It’s good to see a serious side of Sonic, but I’ll always prefer his classic attitude. He’ll use his speed to solve all problems.

I don’t really get the drama between Tails and Sonic. It seems to mostly be on Tails’ end and he may be jealous of Sonic’s methods or the whole Fiona situation. Either way, it seems a little petty and he shouldn’t forget all of the times that Sonic saved him. He also calls Sonic out on not saving some of the friends who died, which is a very low move. I can’t say that I liked Tails in this volume and I have my doubts about the next one based on the cover. Still, maybe Sonic will start it that time and I’ll be on Tails’ side. I was definitely with Sonic in this one though. He’s the only one who ever really fights Eggman so why should that change?

Eggman has finally unveiled his master plan this time. He gives us a lot of plot twists about how he could take Sonic and the others out at any time and how the rest of the planet already knew this and that’s why nobody tried to warn the heroes. He does manage to take on all of the heroes with only two robots when he has a legion with hundreds of others. Technically, he probably could eradicate most of the heroes with ease, but Sonic and Shadow would likely survive. The thing is, most villains could beat their heroes if they truly went all out and Eggman is no exception. The main problem is that he always causes his own demise. It’s just something that villains have to do or else the series would be over.

That being said, Eggman still does a good job in this volume. His fight against Sonic is pretty big and it’s a very monumental win for him. He completely defeated Sonic and eradicated any hope for success. His biggest mistake was assuming that Sonic would become depressed and not go after him. I really don’t know why he ever thought that. Still, he’s not done yet and the next volume will be very action packed. I wonder how far Eggman will go to destroy the heroes. He’s definitely being portrayed as a serious threat right now and we’ll see if that sticks.

Espio’s subplot is what starts the whole thing off. He is a professional, but he really seems to have too much pride as he keeps on challenging dangerous missions on his own. It doesn’t pay off since Eggman’s plan is so diabolical that Espio can’t help but gasp and let the world know that he’s there. Eggman arrives and what follows is a really emotional moment where we realize that this could be the end of one of the cooler Sonic characters. (Playing as him in Sonic Heroes back in the day was cool) The fact that Espio gasped from shock was a little unbelievable though. I guess they had to give some excuse as to how the villains would find Espio, but they should have just had a robot that could see through invisibility.

Snively helps Eggman out during the big plan as he gets to pilot one of the big mechs. He makes short work out of Sonic’s friends while Eggman handles Sonic. He’s definitely come a long way as he started out as a villain, became a hero, then became a villain again. Eggman’s building skills are still good since Snively’s robot is very durable. He’s mostly just Eggman’s assistant who still doesn’t get any respect. Snively doesn’t get a whole lot of personality during this event.

Blaze appears in the backup comic and she’s all right, but losing against the Swatbots was definitely not very impressive. At least she put up a good fight against Sonic, but I couldn’t forget her first battle. Her test for Sonic was pretty extreme, but I suppose that it’s the shonen way of doing things. She’s a decent character and I look forward to seeing her actually team up with Sonic since we haven’t seen that yet.

As always, I enjoyed the art for these comics. It’s pretty colorful, but also dynamic enough to help the fight scenes get going. It still reminds me of DC’s comics and that’s always a good thing. The backup’s art is very different and it’s less detailed to give it a retro feeling. It’s a decently good piece of artwork considering the attempt, but I’d prefer if they just drew it as usual. (Now, if the comic is actually very old, then that mild complaint is moot)

Overall, this was a very good arc. It isn’t even over yet as the heroes are barely surviving and Eggman is now launching the rest of his armada. This may be Mobius’ darkest hour and I’m expecting Sonic to call for backup from Shadow or something. They definitely need some more support at this point since Eggman’s robot has proven to be too powerful for Sonic. That fight was pretty great though and one of the best ones in this series. I highly recommend this volume and it contains everything that you could want in a Sonic comic. It’s pretty deep, the fights are good, and the storyline is great. You could jump onto the series with this one since Eggman is the main villain and he finally makes a move. The art and writing is as good as always and this is really a complete comic. Better make your move fast because I plan on reviewing the next and final (for now) part soon. We shall see if Eggman’s Empire holds true or crumbles.

Overall 8/10

Volcano Review

Posted on July 14, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time to check out a classic disaster film! I’ve seen the world ravaged by Twisters, Aliens, Sharks, and more, but I had not seen a film that revolved around a Volcano sealing everyone’s fate. It sounded like an interesting film and I’m always up for some disaster mayhem. The film isn’t bad, but there aren’t many stand out scenes in it either, which leaves it stranded in the good, but forgettable section.

The plot of the film can easily be determined by the title, but I shall begin to describe it anyway. Mike works at a place where they handle emergencies and distress calls. Two men are destroyed from some heat and steam that arose from the ground and Mike figures that he should call in an expert. The other townsfolk, or the leader of the train company in particular, do not believe him so they continue with the trains. Eventually, this all climaxes into a big eruption as the Volcano begins to consume the land. Mike will need to gather up everyone he can to try and stop this catastrophe from taking out his city. It’ll be tough and while mankind can never hope to defeat Nature, they can try to slow it down and divert the power. Will such a strategy really be able to work!?

Of course, it’s interesting because the big fire danger doesn’t really occur until you’re around 60-90 minutes into the film, but there’s no other way to really describe the plot. We all know that the fire is going to start at some point thanks to the title so it really needs to be mentioned. Because of this, the film does suffer from some pacing problems. The first half of the film is pretty uneventful.

Volcano decided to take things slow and the first half is for character development and suspense building. This is a decent strategy I suppose, but it’s not one of my favorite ones. It works sometimes when you have to build up a bunch of different plots like in the disaster film I recently saw with Stallone as the heroes try to get out of a tunnel. It works because we get to meet and greet all of the characters. There is really only one big character plot going on in this film although we have some decent subplots. Nevertheless, the film did not need so much time to build up to the action. I think it really worked against the excitement factor in this one. The second half does help to make up for it as the battle against the lava is actually pretty interesting and it helps that Mike is likable so you’re rooting for the guy.

Mike Roark is the main lead of this film and he’s not bad. He’s one of the more heroic figures that we see, but he falls into his share of problems. I don’t get why he didn’t believe Amy when she said that a Volcano may be around. It’s really not that hard to believe and he saw first hand how hot it was underground. I don’t know, it just felt a little odd that he was so convinced that it couldn’t be a Volcano. Besides that, he did a good job of making plans and he kept on thinking of more when they were needed. He was a natural born leader and he did all of this on his day off. I can’t say that I appreciated his final move as he gave the phone to Emmit, but I suppose that it was one of the tough calls that he had to make. He ended up staying heroic overall and that’s what counts.

Kelly Roark is the daughter of the main character and she starts off as a pretty underwhelming character. Her first line made me worry as I thought that she was going to be a terrible supporting character. She didn’t really get much better for a while, but she ultimately learned what it means to be a good person and she turned over a new leaf. She’s much better than the kid that she was assigned to guard. That being said, I can’t say that Kelly turned out to be one of the more likable characters. She made the right characters, but it seemed to be more out of obligation at times and she was just going through the motions.

Emmit Reese is easily one of the main characters in the film. He’s the new chief whenever Mike isn’t around and he makes sure to use his new position for good. He doesn’t take his job with emotionless command like Mike, but he still does a pretty good job. His character was pretty good and he was someone that you could root for. I did feel bad for him at the end when Mike throws him into a tough situation, but he handled it with precision and care. Emmit may go on to surpass Mike when it comes to emergency control.

Stan Olber goes from zero to hero, but only arguably. Really, he may seem mean at first, but he’s running a business and he can’t stop his trains whenever there is a little danger. He has passengers to think of and they look forward to being in his trains. (Despite what they may say for the press) So, I didn’t mind him from the beginning, but he definitely got even better. When the stakes increased Stan ultimately stepped up to the plate and proved that he was a hero deep down. Because of this, Stan ends up being one of the better characters in the film. He may not get one of the happiest endings in the film, but he ended as a good person.

Amy Barnes is the professional who decides to help Mike out and she investigates the heat that has been taking lives and causing major injuries. She decides to evade the law to prove a point, but it only succeeds in causing a great tragedy. After that, she does help with a lot of the planning, but she wasn’t one of the more likable characters. She had some banter with Stan, but I can’t say that it was very great. She is really just a generic character who couldn’t leave a lasting impression.

Animal spoilers coming up……………and here it goes. I give the film props for avoiding the typical animal death scene. That moment nearly destroyed the film for me, but it was saved because the dog lived. Sorry if that’s a spoiler folks, but trust me..you would have found out in my review either way. I would have deducted major points if he had died. It’s always good to see the dog make it out of such a dangerous situation and show the humans that he means business. They can’t compete with such a smart puppy after all.

There is one subplot that is pretty pointless. There’s a rich guy who buys a house and then he decides that he wants to escape the danger zones before the lava gets him. He tries to convince his partner to leave as well, but she is a doctor so she has to stay and help. He doesn’t like this and he basically says “We’re through” as he walks off. The plot didn’t have a purpose in the film and the Doctor didn’t get a whole lot of screentime so it really didn’t make much of a difference. It was really just there for drama and to show us how heroic the doctor was, but we already understood that from all of the risks that she was taking.

I can’t say that the film really did a good job with the emotional deaths though. One of them was pretty good and it involved a hero. The other two involved expendable characters who we hadn’t even gotten to meet yet. One of the main characters becomes saddened for a while, but the (fake) snow quickly snaps her out of it and she joins the fight once more. The other death happens so early on that I forgot who died. They may have said the name…maybe. Still, emotionless deaths are a staple of any horror, action, thriller, or disaster film since they help to show the audience why the threat is getting real. On that account, I cut Volcano some slack since it would be hard to develop the characters and then destroy them in such a short amount of time.

The soundtrack for the film was a little too dramatic. I technically enjoyed just about every tune that the film played, but it was mostly used in scenes where it just didn’t make sense. Now, it does make sense in the fact that it gets the audience ready for something tragic to happen. The problem is that most of the scenes are just false alarms and the danger doesn’t start for a while. We get dangerous music when the train first goes into the tunnel. Then, 30 minutes later, the train appears again and the danger finally starts. I suppose that it could work as a set up, but it’s just a little too soon to work properly. While the tunes didn’t really match the setting, I still did like the music a lot. I would give the soundtrack a 4/5 and it was a lot better than most (if not all) of the other disaster films that I’ve seen as well as the average action film.

Overall, this was a decent Disaster film. I think I was waiting for more of a disaster to happen while watching the film, but Volcanoes don’t typically blow up buildings so you have to wait. It was fun to see the lava spurts and there was definitely a lot of tension. Perhaps too much tension was included, but it happens. The main character was good and the rest of the cast varied in terms of likable to unlikable. The film got the dog scene right and that earns them some pretty major brownie points. I recommend this film if you want to see a thriller with lava as the main villain, but if you really want to get excited, go watch the Daylight film with Stallone.

Overall 5/10

The Lego Movie Review

Posted on July 14, 2014 by dreager1

The Lego Movie quickly became a hit with the fans and like Frozen, its main song, “Everything is awesome!” became a pretty big hit. I always thought that a movie with legos could be interesting, but there are also a lot of ways that the film could turn out wrong. It could be a little too kiddish and some of the plots could be a little cheesy. Luckily, the film manages to hit a lot of the right notes and I can see why it is enjoyed by so many people.

The film starts off with a guy by the name of Emmet. He’s a likable fellow and he has a book, which tells him exactly how to live his life and be successful at the same time. He follows it word for words and most of the town seems to already know how to behave without such an object. One day, Emmet comes across a lady by the name of Wyldstyle who tells him that he is the chosen one. Emmet is now the most interesting and coolest person of all time because he found the legendary object to save them all. The heroes have to unite with the last Master Builders to foil the plans of Lord Business before Taco Tuesday. Will the heroes be able to stop such a diabolical threat and is Emmet’s group up to this task? It’s time to find out!

One thing that really made the film fun was how it points out a lot of things that happen in society through parodies and hard truths. We get to see the TV show that is the instant must watch program like anything on CBS or NBC, which you have to like or else you’re not with the times. This comes in the form of “Where’s my Pants” which is about as interesting as some of the current mainstream shows. In that show, the same thing happens every episode and we can also see how many shows just use the same plots over and over again. It was pretty great to see this.

Another parody I liked was the parody of the long fall cliche. We get a lot of trippy colors and things that don’t make any sense whatsoever as Emmet is falling because that’s what typically happens in these types of scenes. Instead of playing it straight, they add live action pictures and random swirls as he’s falling and the film makes everything go into a lot of detail. Whenever you catch one of the images that is going at super speed, you’ll likely grin. They did a very good job on that part. We also can’t forget the whole “most interesting and coolest person of all” trope that the film smirks at since it’s all a part of the (real or fake?) prophecy. It’s true that in most shows and films, the main character suddenly becomes the best at just about everything for no real reason other than being the main lead. It was nice to see the film acknowledge this because the trope definitely relates to Emmet at times. He does things that no other Lego could.

The Lego Movie also had a much more action packed beginning than I had figured. We get a pretty great chase scene at night where Wyldstyle takes on the cops and Emmet tries to stay alive. It’s partially a parody of such intense fight scenes, but it also manages to be pretty epic. There is a lot of high speed hand to hand combat that happens and you can’t help but imagine how cool it would look if they weren’t made out of legos. Critical blows are landed and the setting highlights how much fun the fight is. This was actually my favorite scene in the film and I’d say that the film never really reached that level of epicness and excitement after that. It was just impossible to match such a big fight scene. Of course, the rest of the film made up for this with humor and other action scenes.

Emmet is the main character and he’s a pretty good one. I’ll admit that he was a little too flustered when he met Wyldstyle for the first time and he should never let his emotions get in the way of the mission, but I still liked him. He made all of the tough calls and I like how he was essentially a parody of the average citizen. He was technically around and he made sure to agree with all of the current trends, he never took the time to become his own man. It was a fun character arc and I won’t be forgetting him anytime soon. I’m not saying that he was an amazing protagonist, but he was someone that you could root for. (Even if the Double Couch idea was pretty sad)

Wyldstyle is the main heroine of the story and she plays the role of the hardcore fighter. She’s experienced and she seems to be the best Master Builder that the world has yet. She makes quick work out of the police force and she can essentially build anything. We get a big plot twist in the film when we find out that she’s with Batman. It’s one of those twists that was pretty unnecessary and I can’t say that it helped her character. Still, she was one of the better players in this big adventure and the heroes definitely would have been doomed without her.

Princess Unikitty is intense although I believe that the film should have just went all the way and used Pinkie Pie. Either way, Unikitty saw the best in humanity and she was always ready to lend a helping hand. I’m sure that everyone saw her “Rage Mode” coming since she kept hinting at it throughout the film. It’s good to see that Unikitty’s bite is as big as her bark. Her portrayal was basically as good as it gets and I shall never forget this fighter! Hopefully she is back for the sequel since she was one of the more interesting characters as well.

Lord Business is the big villain of the film and his goal is pretty admirable. He just wants everyone to follow the rules and to never come up with original ideas. I would sympathize with him more if he didn’t randomly go around destroying people and zapping them for ideas. His true form is pretty intense and his plan is well thought out. I dare say that he would have won if not for circumstances that were really beyond his control. He keeps up appearances as a nice guy on the outside, but he’s as evil as they come. One also has to wonder what he will do once his plan is complete as there will seriously be nothing left to do. He’ll be doomed to being eternally bored for the rest of his days. I have a feeling that he didn’t really think his plan through, but maybe there’s an insider angle that I’m not aware of. He does have some good qualities though and he realizes that a surround sound speaker system is crucial in order to be taken seriously.

Batman naturally gets a pretty big role. I didn’t care for the romance between him and Wyldstyle, but he was still a solid character aside from that. It’s good to hear him say “To the Batmobile” and he had some pretty solid lines. Telling the cast that it’s every man for himself was a pretty solid idea at the time and he definitely did a number on the Star Wars crew. He may have been outshined by Emmet in the end, but he was still a good addition to the cast. He’s one of the only characters who can get away with messing with the Bad Cop. This is like a preview of how he would be like in Lego Justice League as he will need to learn how to work with a team.

Superman doesn’t get a huge role, but his personality is mostly accurate considering that he is a parody of himself. He’s always open to suggestions and he’s a nice guy except for when he’s not nice. He doesn’t look very powerful and he’s basically outranked by most of the villains, but he does get a cool moment where he takes down a few ships. I’m just glad to have him in the film and he talks tough until the very end. He never surrenders without putting up a good fight first! (I’m surprised that the film didn’t try a Batman vs Superman scene, but I suppose that they’ll do that in the Lego Batman films)

Bad Cop is one of the best characters in the film. He also has his Good Cop mode, which is great for mostly different reasons. The Bad Cop makes sure to do what needs to be done and it was great to see him bring on the pressure. To parody the heroic choice, he makes the ultimate call to truly join the side of evil. Likewise, the Good Cop takes a stand for what’s right and he may have to pay the ultimate price. This character is very deep and his plot could have been an emotional adventure all on its own. You can’t help but root for the Bad Cop for most of the film and the Good Cop seems heroic enough that he could be turned to the good side. This is another character that should be back for the sequel, but it can be a little dicey thanks to the ending. The Bad Cop needs to keep at least some of his character for the next film or it won’t be the same.

Metal Beard is one of the characters that I didn’t like. It can be argued that I’m a little biased since I have a thing against pirates, but he just wasn’t that entertaining. We’ve seen his kind of character so many times at this point so he doesn’t bring anything new to the table. He may have had some plans back in the day, but none of them really worked so he’s not as big a guy as he thinks. I wouldn’t have minded if he was cut out, but we do need a good pirate once in a while so I appreciate the attempt. Maybe they’ll make him cooler in the sequel.

Vitruvius stands for the smart wizard character who is typically around in just about all of the big fictional movies involving legends. He’s a complete parody, but I never really cared for those old wizards so he wasn’t my favorite character. He was all right though and I’m glad that he kept on trolling the heroes by hinting that he will say something and then not saying it for another 30 minutes. He isn’t as strong willed as some of the others though so he quickly turns away from heroics when the need arises.

Most of the characters who got cameos were pretty cool as well. Michelangelo doesn’t really get any lines, but he is around. Green Lantern and Wonder Woman appear, but both of them are taken care of with ease. Shaquille O’Neal appears and his scene is pretty awesome as he tries one of his ultimate moves on the villain. The Star Wars cameo was also intense as Han Solo and Chewy looked pretty good. I can’t say that Lando was a good character, but when is he a likable person? His ultimate fate is pretty dire and I guess he didn’t see that one coming!

The Man Upstairs is a pretty great character at first. Unfortunately, his character arc is very rushed because he only gets around 10 minutes of screentime or less so his 180 personality change has to happen in that short time span. I would have preferred that he not actually appear and stayed conceptual, but I shall go into that more in a moment. I did like him a lot at first and by the end he’s only all right to maybe a little sub par. I just didn’t like the change and I actually felt bad for him. He basically lost to the moral of the film, which is good in itself, but it could have been handled better.

Finn is one of my least favorite characters in the film. I can’t sympathize with him at all since it is evident that he has enough objects of his own to entertain himself. Instead, he prefers to mess up the locations that took hours or days to set up and he’s not very apologetic about it. He doesn’t only try to wreck everything, but he also mocks the objects as he states that they are for kids. He’s in no position to take those shots since he is playing with them as well. That was definitely a not cool moment and I hope that Finn doesn’t return. He only appears for a few minutes, but they were pretty wince worthy.

Now, there was one big twist that I did not care for. Notice how I used the word twist. I would call this next part a big spoiler so I’d advise skipping this paragraph if you don’t want to know it. I’m adding in a lot of extra words to give you time to skip this paragraph without seeing the spoiler. I think that’s enough words so it’s time for the spoilers. The humans should not have appeared at the end. It was disruptive and just not necessary. I don’t want to find out that my Lego dreams were just dreams. I actually thought that the Bad Cop was intense and that the heroes knew how to build things. Instead, we find out that a kid and his dad have been controlling the entire world from the start. It means that all of their actions are completely pointless and nothing that they did mattered. They can’t actually think as the creators think for them. It would help if the humans were more likable or if they had less control over the Legos, but that is not the case. Now, Emmet did manage to move a little in the human world so you can argue that he still thinks, but it could just be the kid thinking for him. Hopefully, the human angle is just ignored in the sequel.

The soundtrack for the film is pretty great. The “Everything is awesome” song is pretty catchy and it’s easy to see why everyone loves singing it. It’s not personally my type of music, but it is a good song and I don’t mind listening to it. The action theme towards the beginning of the film was very serious and while it may have seemed like a parody since they’re legos…it was pretty great. It’s climatic and I wouldn’t mind seeing this tune in something like Godzilla II or Avengers IV. Those were the two main themes that I really enjoyed, but who can forget the Basketball theme cameo or Star War’s quick blast? This soundtrack is definitely top tier and other theater films could take a few cues from this one.

Overall, this was a pretty fun film. It’s a Lego film so it’s mostly a lot of comedy and in jokes, but they do manage to squeeze in some epic action scenes. A lot of the plot lines are actually very serious, but the comedy helps to disguise this fact. If one were to make a serious adaption of this plot, we would have a very gritty action movie with an incredible cast and many fights. The parents vs the glue scene was pretty emotional and we also get a brief flashback into one of the world’s greatest tragedies. Nontheless, the film managed to keep its humor light and the cast was enjoyable. I’m not sure how well a sequel would do since they may start to rehash old plots and cliches, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. I recommend checking out this film and you should definitely enjoy it or at least appreciate some of the thinly veiled social critiques.

Overall 7/10

Pac Man World 3 Review

Posted on July 12, 2014 by dreager1

It’s been years since I played Pac Man World 2 and this game has always been on my list. It just never made the cut and finally my bro ended up purchasing a copy. Does this game live up to the 10+ years of hype? Well, it’s tough for any game to do that and this one is a good game, but it’s not quite as enjoyable as the last installment…despite some fun additions. Time to see why it didn’t click!

The game takes place on Pac Man’s 25th Birthday. The festivities are cut short when Pac Man is whisked away into the Spectral Realm by Orson. Orson tells him that a new villain by the name off Erwin has kidnapped the four main ghosts and he’s wrecking both planets through his siphons. Once he has gained enough energy, then both planets will collide and the outcome will be devastating. Pac Man (extremely) reluctantly agrees to help, but he’s not too pleased about this scenario. Erwin is determined to stop him and he has the Spectral Fiend by his side to ensure success. In light of this, Pac Man gets some help from Clyde and Pinky.

Pac Man is the main hero in this game, but I’m sure that you expected that. He’s always the main hero in this series after all. He finally gets to talk in this game, which is a big gamble from the writers. We all come into the game with certain expectations of how cool Pac Man will be and this gives us less freedom for interpretation. He’s a little on the mean side and he believes in insulting first and fighting later. He’s an experienced veteran at this point, but he does complain a lot.

What might really get Pac Man fans is the ending. It’s not just Pac Man as Ms. Pac Man and Pac Man Jr look pretty mean as well. Let’s just say that if you’ve just been through a tough ordeal and you helped a hero save two worlds…don’t think that you’re invited to stay over. The situation ends up escalating very quickly and Pac Man decides to eat some people. Pac Man may have been a little on the mean side during the game, but that scene may have been overdoing it a little.

Pac Man did have his moments though and he gets a lot of witty comebacks. He typically outsmarts the villains and distracts them through discussion as they end up setting up their ultimate demise. Pac Man is definitely very crafty, but he arguably sacrifices his heroics in the process. I have to say that the character personality isn’t terrible, but it’s really not Pac Man. I’m sure that Mario fans would be outraged if he ever looked like this. Pac Man’s portrayal could have been worse though and we have a current example of that in the media…..

Orson is the helpful ghost who aids Pac Man throughout the game. “I’m sure there are many things that you don’t understand Pac Man” is one of his better lines as he insults Pac Man to his face. Usually, his insults aren’t quite that direct. He typically starts off every sentence by saying “Sorry Pac Man” right before stating what negative thing is happening this time. He typically teleports the hero into dangerous circumstances and you have to wonder whether it is intentional or not. The whole game he tells Pac Man that the worlds will be destroyed if they collide….and then the villain points out that this isn’t the case towards the end of the game. Orson quickly agrees and we find out that he knew this all along. Of course, most of that isn’t to be taken seriously as he’s a hero through and through, but his character was definitely interesting. He was a solid ally for Pac Man and he provided us with some necessary banter and epic lines.

Erwin is the main villain of the game and unfortunately, he’s not a very good one. He’s a comic relief scientist who is good at building robots and that’s about it for his character arc. Pac Man loves to humiliate him verbally whenever they meet. He’s supposed to be humorous through their chats, but while I do like Orson and Pac Man’s lines, Erwin’s aren’t really my style. They really needed a better villain to make the story more interesting. Erwin just isn’t very powerful and threats won’t be enough to stop the legendary Pac Man!

The Spectral Fiend doesn’t really get much of a name, but he’s a solid character. He’s tricky and he doesn’t mind a little deceit if it means that it will help him win the fight. He doesn’t seem to be much of a fighter as he talks a good game, but he quickly crumbles when things get dangerous. That being said, he was a fun villain and his voice is catchy. This is someone that I could root for and I wish that he could have been the main villain instead of Erwin. This guy’s design was also pretty great and he reminded me of a Sonic character.

The gameplay for Pac Man is your average 3D platformer. You walk and jump to the place where you need to be and solve puzzles along the way. Pac Man can ground pound and he can also punch in this game. Punching is pretty fun and it’s a great addition to the series. I definitely used it a lot at first, but ground pounding tends to be a lot more effective. There are also several orbs in the game that give him powers like thunder and circle explosions. They are pretty good and they can help to take out the villains a lot quicker than you could have otherwise. The gameplay itself is pretty fun and I just don’t care for the parts where you have to stop and fight a bunch of villains. There was something about the gameplay that made it a little less fun. It may have been the speed or something. That being said, it’s still a very good form of gameplay by any standard.

Once in a while, you have to enter the arcade and then the gameplay goes back to how it was in the original game. The only difference is that the gameplay isn’t quite as smooth and the levels are very small. You get 4 lives, but most of them are a cakewalk with one as you just grab a Power Pellet, regular pellets, and then repeat the formula. The ghosts will never even be able to recover and you’ll be set. If the levels were not so easy, then it could have been a challenge since the animation didn’t work well with the gameplay. It was hard to tell when you were being chased or not.

The gameplay itself shouldn’t be that bad, but it’s just not as great as it could have been. Each level is around 30 minutes and that’s not necessarily a bad thing although it is definitely a big threat when you are not a beat em up style game like Dynasty Warriors. Getting through a level can feel like a big challenge because the game typically leaves you to your own devices. I got lost or temporarily stuck several times because I was unsure of what to do next. Because of that, the game lasted for quite a while and I’d say that the game was around 7-8 hours long. It could have been a whole lot shorter though since 3 our of the 15 levels were very short. There are times where you get to play as the ghosts, but I can’t say that it really added a lot of depth to the game.

This game puts a lot of emphasis on fighting so there are many rooms where you simply have to stop and fight the enemies. Defeating the enemies isn’t really that fun because the gameplay simply wasn’t built for it. Beating an enemy can take a little too long at times and defeating the ghosts requires you to run to a power pellet and just eat them. The only problem is that they only come out 4 at a time instead of all at once so you have to keep running back to the power pellet.

There are also two levels where you get to play as Toc Man. His gameplay is fun although it’s a little too easy and simplistic. Just keep on punching away at the villains until they go down and then the level is over after a few minutes. I would have liked more of these levels since they were a pretty nice change of pace. They could have added in some more challenges and then I’d be set.

Pac Man’s graphics holds up pretty well. The ghosts can be a little hard to take seriously with their big mittens and all, but they don’t look bad. The level designs can be a little dark so it’s hard to see, but it’s not really an issue with the graphics. Older games just tend to come out dark on my TV. It’s good to see Pac Man have his classic design back as well. The graphics aren’t the next Super Smash Bros Melee, but they are very good.

I enjoyed the soundtrack in the game since it could be pretty catchy. Unfortunately, most of the good tracks aren’t in the actual gameplay, but around it. I like the theme that plays when you jump into the arcade and battle it out with the ghosts in a retro fashion. Losing always brings about a classic sound and the stages within the game were supported by the peaceful music. You’ll forget the in game music instantly, but the arcade one never fades.

The game has a decent amount of replay value to it. You can replay a level to get a higher score or to get more of the collectibles that are scattered across the stages. Doing all of this will take some time and you can always keep on playing the retro stages for points as well. The replay value is there, but there isn’t a whole lot of incentive to getting all of the collectibles.

The difficulty of the game is pretty low as you continue from where you were even if you lose a life. So, you can die during a boss fight and wake up in time to beat him. He won’t regain any health and building up lives is pretty easy. I had over 10 left when I completed the game. One area that separates this game from Pac Man World 2 is the boss fights. World 2 had several of them and they were all fairly interesting. This game only has two bosses and the second one is just a recoloring of the first. Since this game was more fight heavy, I was expecting a whole lot more in that department. When I saw the final boss, I couldn’t help, but feel like it was a wasted opportunity. We need a boss for Pac Man to punch!

Overall, This was a good Pac Man game, but it didn’t have the usual aura of fun that the classic game and World 2 had. World 3 had too many stop and fight moments and the stage designs weren’t that good or unique. You were typically locked inside a pretty small place and you wouldn’t get to see the sun in all its glory. There are a lot less levels in this game than World 2, but they are longer. I prefer a lot of short levels to a few long ones, but it’s a matter of preference I suppose. Pac Man’s portrayal was unique and he didn’t really feel like a hero or Pac Man anymore. His family wasn’t much better and the ghosts were all right, but Clyde is really the only one who got a big role. Orson is a good supporting character, but Erwin isn’t a great villain. The writing can be pretty cheesy at times, but I definitely liked all of the insults that were thrown around by the heroes and villains alike. The graphics and soundtrack are solid and it’s still a nice way to end the trilogy. There may not have been a lot of closure at the end, but there was enough. I recommend this to fans of the platforming genre and especially if you like challenging yourself to solving tough puzzles. They definitely gave me a run for my money at times. Considering that the price for the game is pretty low, this is definitely a worthwhile investment and a chance to see the classic Pac Man one last time.

Overall 6/10

Geometry Wars Galaxies Review

Posted on July 12, 2014 by dreager1

After Chaosfield, I feared that I would never again play such a chaotic shooter filled with terror and honor. Luckily, I saw Geometry Wars in the 5 dollar bin at Gamestop and I snagged it. You have to make a move on a game like this quickly if you want to end up with it. It looked intriguing from the back, but I can’t say that I really knew what to expect from it. Suffice to say, the game was much more enjoyable than I had thought it would be.

There is no plot in the game and you are just launched onto the level select screen. Every Galaxy has 3-8 levels and you must earn money to buy the stages. When you buy a Galaxy, you are given two stages and then you must buy the other 6. Rinse and repeat for quite a few galaxies and then you have the game. There must be at least 40-60 stages in this game and completing them all is a true challenge. There is also a secret world at the end, which acts as on disc DLC. Instead of paying 5 dollars to open it, you must buy the DS game and use it to unlock them. One could argue that this is a more expensive form of DLC, but maybe you’ll like the game so much that you have to get both! (I like the game, but I won’t be getting it on the DS)

Geometry Wars Galaxy also brings a mini version of it called Retro Evolved. It’s a nice tribute to the fans, although I mainly stayed with the Galaxies part of the game. I’m glad for extra options, but it’s a lot more fun to launch into the main game and start earning those records and medals. The gameplay is the same except that you don’t have a robot to back you up and the exp bonuses take much longer to build up so your score will likely be considerably lower.

The gameplay in the main game is pretty simple, but describing it is tough. It’s essentially Galaga, but you are allowed to move throughout the space that you are in. The shape and size of the area will vary depending on the stage and the important thing is to simply stay alive. You have an endless supply of ammunition so you’ll want to keep your finger on the button for the duration of the battle. (With a few exceptions such as the block level. Shooting at the wrong time can bring out more enemies than you can handle)

You are allowed to bring an ally with you during the battles. There are several types of robots to choose from and it can be an Attack, Defense, Turret, Collector, or another kind of ally. It’s pretty self explanatory as to what they will do and the only three that I would use were the Collector, Turret, and Attack. The Attack bot saw me through the first few galaxies, then I turned to the Collector for a while and I would sporadically use the Collector. Those are the three best robots in my opinion (I have not obtained the final two though) and I made sure to max them all out.

Now, Attack and Turret may make sense, but why would the Collector be so useful? Simply put, as I mentioned, you will need to keep on destroying the enemies and rack up points. There is no timer and no end to the monsters so you just need to survive. At first beating an enemy may grant you 100 points. After you defeat him, the enemy will drop a yellow orb, which will increase your EXP bonus to 2X. You can go all the way up to 150 and you can see how much of a help that is. That same enemy will now give you 15000 points instead of 100 and that’s one of the cheaper enemies. Later on, some enemies will give you almost one million points in a single shot if you are that maxed out so the Collector is pretty awesome. That being said, he doesn’t fire at the enemies so you are truly on your own at that point. The Attack and Turret bots will give you a whole lot of backup, but then you must dash for the orbs yourself. Getting them is important because staying at 2X bonus or less isn’t very efficient.

Sometimes the enemies will just be too vast to overcome. In those cases, you will have bombs to help out. A bomb will take out every enemy in the area or at least most of them if it’s a very large arena. The bombs do not give you any points though so it’s truly a last resort if you are about to die. Otherwise, it’s simply not worth using one of them. They are certainly good in a pinch though.

The gameplay itself is masterful and it really provides you with a challenge. It’s easily one of the hardest games that I’ve played in a while and some of the levels can take many tries. If the gameplay was boring, beating this game would have been pretty painful. I’ve earned well over 400 million points at this point and I still don’t find the gameplay repetitive. It’s simply a lot of fun and I could keep on playing it over and over again. There is really nothing that drags the game down except for one factor.

This factor would be the Wii Remotes. The game is sensor based and I’m sure that we are aware of how sketchy the Wii Remotes can be at times. The nunchuk is perfectly all right, but the main remote has a tendency to destroy you when you are about to win. It happened to me several times and I would have to let the console rest for a few hours. This game would be so much better if I could use a Gamecube remote. The classic controller is compatible I believe so that would fix this negative. It really helps your reflexes out and the levels would be a whole lot easier. It would still be a challenging game, but you would feel like you were battling on even grounds.

There is one other part that affects the game, but it’s more of an annoyance than a total negative thing. That would be the money system. As I mentioned earlier, you do have to buy the future levels in order to play them. Earning money is by no means an easy task. Getting a medal for the first time gets a lot of money and if you end up getting a lot of Golds, then it won’t be a problem for you at all. For me, I finally had to start replaying a lot of the levels by the final galaxy because I just needed the money. Eventually, I just kept on replaying the same level since I would always get at least 10000 a shot and I would earn around 50000 if I managed to win. The final levels were 200000 and around 130000 so I had to play the level quite a few times. It’s not as much of a grind as in other games since the gameplay is always fun, but it’s an artificial way of lengthening the game.

The graphics are pretty good. They aren’t all star material, but the graphics are definitely important in a game like this one. You’ll constantly be blowing up dozens of enemies when playing and the screen is filled with tons of bright colors and pellets for the EXP bonus. If the graphics were bad, then the game would be much harder to play. Luckily, the gameplay is very bright so you won’t bang into an enemy by mistake and every object looks pretty sharp. This isn’t Final Fantasy of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, but it’s good enough. The soundtrack is pretty forgettable though. I don’t even recall hearing any music amidst all of the explosions and chaos. It’s something that you just forget by the end as the sound effects are what you’re focusing on. The sound of getting an extra life or bomb is pretty great!

Overall, this is a very good game. I dare say that it may even be better than Chaosfield. Gamecube remotes would have helped the game out even more and getting rid of the money system would have been great. It likely would not have jumped up to a 9 if those things had been appropriately changed, but it would still help the experience. The game is decently long thanks to the need for money, but you should still be able to beat it in under a week. Any fan of shooters or Chaosfield will enjoy this title and it’s a timeless classic like Pac Man. (The gameplay, not necessarily the game) The soundtrack could be better, but you can always mute the game and play a cool track from the computer. (At the risk of being unaware of a seeker alien coming out of nowhere) Hopefully, this game gets a sequel for the Wii U or PS4 someday. I do wish that something could have happened after the final level like a message or some bonus money to show that you’ve beaten the game, but nothing happens. Ah well, maybe I need to get all Gold Medals to unlock a message.

Overall 8/10

Sonic Saga Series Volume 2 Order From Chaos Review

Posted on July 11, 2014 by dreager1

The Sonic Saga Series continues in this volume and we finally get to learn who this mysterious Anonymous character is. I wasn’t very trilled at his twist since it wasn’t really a twist in the end. (It was as simple as it appeared in the last volume and I thought that something else was going to happen) This volume isn’t quite as intense as the first one, but we still have a lot of interesting plot lines and Sonic gets some solid screen time.

The main plot features the big battle against Anonymous. Shadow and Tails are abducted by him so that their abilities will allow the evildoer to capture all of the Chaos Emeralds and use them for his nefarious purposes. It’s going to be up to Super Sonic to stop this guy once and for all!

Meanwhile, there are a few mini stories in the collection. Espio and his team head over to an enemy base to gather some intel and Amy gets trained by Julie Su in the art of hand to hand combat. The Amy one was decent since she’ll ideally be able to fight more in future issues and the Espio one gave that character some much needed screentime. They were decent interludes from the main plot. It can’t be forgotten that we get a minicomic where Sonic’s back in his big hair design and he lets Antoine know the bad news about his father. Will Antoine be able to get through this!?

After the big battle against Anonymous, Sonic decides to find out what’s up with Fiona. She keeps on disappearing and his friends seem to know something that he doesn’t. Tails and the others finally clue Sonic in on the truth after he witnesses Fiona doing battle with Amy. Scourge enters the fray and the bond between Fiona and Sonic may be shattered. Sonic’s going to have to take these guys down!

Finally, we also got a comic where Shadow finds out that Eggman has been hiding something from his past. Shadow doesn’t like this and he quickly steals the disc, but Snively goes after him. Knowing that not even the Ultimate Life Form can defeat such a bald fellow, Shadow goes to Sonic and the Freedom Fighters for help. Will they help him!? It’s time to find out!

Sonic is back to being the main star and that’s definitely a good thing! He makes the hard choices and he also wisely chooses to listen to his friends instead of Fiona. This leads to him connecting the dots and realizing that something’s up. I’m not really a fan of Sonic being so into romance all of the time as he certainly isn’t like that in the games. It’s really something that’s only present in the games and they didn’t need that extra bit of character development. At the very least, Sonic gets over it pretty quickly and he still has time to crush Scourge whenever they meet. I would have liked him to get a few more good shots in on Anonymous though.

Sonic basically has all of the traits that you need to be a solid character and that has been consistent throughout the franchise. He’s always immensely confident and he doesn’t mind helping out a rival or an enemy if he gets to tease them a little. I want to see Sonic get more speedfights in the future, but his battle against Scourge will do for now.

Tails doesn’t really get a great role this time. He gets kidnapped yet again and he’s forced to wait for Sonic to arrive before getting carried off. He does get to live out his prophecy yet again though and he uses his super powers to help bring harmony to the land. He continues to be a really smart fighter, but he’s also lost most of his combat readiness. Most of the villains have just surpassed him at this point and letting Fiona sucker slap him was going a little far. He needs another miniseries so that he can deal some damage again. I think I was just annoyed that he didn’t let Sonic know the truth about Fiona when it could have saved him some time.

Eggman is back as well and he gets a decent role. I am glad that he was the first to figure out who Anonymous was and that he took appropriate steps to stop him. After that, Eggman is the guy who quickly helped Shadow and Tails get back to fighting strength so that they could secure the win. He essentially vanishes after that, but it was a decent role. He’s definitely played a lot more serious in the comics than in the games or shows.

Anonymous is the big villain for the main plot of the graphic novel and he’s interesting. I liked him a lot more before he merged with Tommy and became a universal threat. As a computer, it was interesting to see him trick Eggman left and right while furthering his goals. Power seemed to make him into more of a generic fighter and he just wasn’t interesting anymore. Still, at least he was a threat even if Super Sonic should have had no problem with him. I wonder if he’ll ever appear again.

Knuckles doesn’t look too great as he’s pretty weak for a power hitter. Snively manages to defeat him and it’s rare that he defeats anyone. Knuckles still manages to talk tough until the end and I am always glad to see a familiar face in the comics. I haven’t seen him get a full fight yet so I’m still waiting for that. Hopefully he goes back to check on the Master Emerald soon since that island seems to be in a lot of danger.

Amy gets a small role in this comic. Unfortunately, her training with Julie Su comes too late after she is taken out by Fiona. She didn’t completely lose, but she was definitely losing that battle. Her hammer should have been enough to turn the tides. I am glad that she went to finish off Fiona herself though since it was basically the best hero move. After Fiona is in prison, then Amy can let Sonic in on how he was being played. It’s a win/win situation….if Amy had actually won the fight of course.

Fiona gets a bigger role in this volume and she actually gets to fight Amy. I was definitely rooting for Amy in that battle, but she was definitely on the losing side. It’s too bad since I would have figured that Amy could easily defeat Fiona. Fiona also lands a hit on Sonic, which was a little hard to believe and she was overhyped in terms of her power. Personality wise, Fiona isn’t really someone to root for either and she is constantly betraying everyone. That isn’t a bad thing for a villain, but her reasons seem pretty petty as these actions may be for emotional reasons. Hopefully the heroes stop her soon, but I guess she really isn’t much of a threat anymore.

Scourge is back in this volume, but he’s still not much of a threat. Sonic seriously stomps him back into the ground whenever they fight. His speed is pretty good, but he seems to lack Sonic’s fighting ability as he always relies on surprise hits. Personality wise, I can’t say that he’s the best as he also gets into the romance biz. He’s essentially forced to run away after Sonic knocks him around and I’m hoping that he gets a power up soon.

Shadow is still pretty emotional in this comic. He starts out all right except for the fact that he gets one shotted by Tommy/Anonymous. That was pretty humiliating and isn’t he supposed to be Sonic’s equal in power? He gets kidnapped and he only gets to help out a little in the climax while commenting on how hard it was. Next, he goes to find out the secrets of his past, but he has to ask Sonic for help against Snively. Unsuccessfully holding back his tears, Shadow uncovers the truth and comes to the realization that he is a hero. Luckily, this means no more being a pawn of Eggman’s for the hedgehog and maybe this is where he joined the government.

An emotional Shadow still isn’t a very good Shadow. I am still pretty skeptical on why he couldn’t just defeat Snively on his own. He shouldn’t need help to do such a thing. I’m waiting for Shadow to get back to his no nonsense personality. He’s awesome in the games and much less so in the comics. They should at least bring him back to Sonic’s level in power and then I would be satisfied. Anymore crying would just be sad.

The artwork seems to be slightly different from the first Saga volume as there are a lot more facial expressions similar to the Friendship is Magic comics. Besides that, I’m still a fan of the art and the battle scenes are very intense. The speed drawings help to show how fast they are going and Sonic especially looks sharp. I definitely don’t miss his huge hair days, but we get to see them in one of the mini comics.

There are definitely a lot of plots still playing out. Hopefully they will all come into play within the next two volumes since that will likely be where my fun marathon runs out. I have a feeling that Tails’ parents have been corrupted and the “ideas” that the father has won’t really be good ones. Maybe it will be time for Mobius to have a civil war and Sonic will need to pick a side. There is also some tension since Enerjak may be revived and I look forward to seeing where the plots lead. I do hope that Tails chooses Sonic if his parents decide to try and take him to the dark side.

Overall, This was another solid installment in the Sonic series. Once again, most of the portrayals were spot on except Shadow is still not acting like himself and I didn’t really like Tails’ role. Amy was particularly good as she went to fight Fiona on her own and I can’t wait to see Enerjak return to fight the heroes. I don’t think this volume was quite as good as the last one since the stakes seemed to go down rather than up. We still did get the decent action thanks to Scourge and the artwork is solid so this volume is still a good read. Watch closely for references since many comics are left out that take place between this one and the last volume. I highly recommend this graphic novel to Sonic fans and anyone who likes some action should enjoy it.

Overall 7/10

Sonic Universe Volume 6 Treasure Team Tango Review

Posted on July 10, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for another exciting storyline in Sonic Universe! The last one that I read involved Tails and it was a pretty fun read. The Sonic Universe series is a good way to give the supporting characters some screen time and this volume made sure to bring in quite a few of them. The series continues to go up as this volume increase the stakes and we get a lot more action.

The plot involves Princess Blaze as she continues to search for the Sol Emeralds so that she can save her planet. She tracks one of them down to Mobius where Amy and Cream had been scouting. The three of them eventually agree to team up when Team Shadow arrives to confiscate it. Along the way, six more fighter show up and it becomes a battle royale with everything on the line. If Blaze’s team loses, then her planet is doomed. Team Dark could have to endure a lot of insults if they fail and two of them would lose honor if they backed down. So…let the battles begin!

Amy is essentially the hero of the story although one could make the case that the main character is Blaze. Amy does pretty well in this collection and while she is unable to defeat Rouge or Shadow in head to head fights, she does a lot of damage. She has a very confident demeanor and her time around Sonic has helped her to become an excellent fighter. She ends up striking fear into the Treasure group and she helps Shadow to become a better person. She helped to make up for Sonic not appearing in this collection and this could be her best portrayal. Amy finally got to act as the confident leader instead of another Sonic ally.

Cream gets stuck in the big fight when she just wanted to have a good time with Amy. She still attempts to help out, but her ears weren’t built for combat and she hasn’t trained in the art of hand to hand combat. She has a Chao by the name of Cheese, but his bark is stronger than his fists. She can be a little too innocent at times and I would have liked a little more action from her. I’m sure that she’ll become more of a fighter someday, but until then…she’ll need to stay back. Having her around can be very dangerous for the heroes.

Blaze gets a pretty solid role in this comic as she learns how trusting other heroes can ultimately be beneficial. (She also mentions how she isn’t nearly as fast as Sonic, which was cool because we finally have a character who doesn’t brag and it’s a fact that I always wanted the comics to verify) Her flame abilities are useful and she makes short work of Omega. She seems to be one of the stronger fighters in the battle royale and she would likely be second to Shadow. I don’t blame her for distrusting the heroes since so many of them end up as traitors. It’ll be nice to see where her plot goes since she’ll still need the other emeralds.

Rouge is back to her usual tricks and she tricks the heroes into letting her tag along until she can get her hands on the emerald. Her hand to hand skills are as good as ever and she holds her own against Blaze, Amy, and Cream when they were teaming up. They hadn’t been fully expecting the attacks…although they should have been. Rouge is still a pawn of the government in this arc, but I like to think that she’s just playing them as well until she reaches her goal. I didn’t have any problems with her portrayal in this comic and she makes for a solid villain.

Shadow is definitely changed from how he is portrayed in the games. Shadow is a pawn of the government and he doesn’t have the courage to disobey them. This causes him to come into odds with his allies and he has to choose the mission over his friends. He eventually goes on to make the right decision, but he certainly takes his time. He’s not as intense as you may have expected and he spends a lot of time trying to be the hero. I would actually describe him as a more comic relief version of Sonic. He’s not quite as confident or powerful. Shadow does end up taking out Amy and Jet, which is pretty impressive, but I just didn’t like this portryal of him all that much. He’s still a great character and the best one in the volume, but it helps that I’m already a huge Shadow fan. I don’t know why he’s changed in the comics, but hopefully he goes back to normal at some point. He has his share of “tough” moments where he tries to get his intense demeanor back, but it’s one of those “too little too late” situations. Shadow is not supposed to be emotional and he’s supposed to be an ultimate fighter! At least he used his Chaos Control properly to instantly win battles.

Shadow’s change may have been drastic, but not as much as Omega. Omega’s personality is intriguing and I have to say that it’s just not good. He can’t control himself and he usually says mean things although he’s a nice guy at heart. This just doesn’t suit him and Omega just becomes annoying whenever he’s on screen. I can’t take him seriously and his dialogue is not humorous although it tries to be. They wrecked one of the cooler robots in the Sonic games and that’s no good. Omega actually seemed like he was a kid in the comics and that could explain why his portrayal was so sad. Hopefully they fix him in future issues because this Omega definitely isn’t a true fighter like the old one.

Jet is back once again and he’s still bragging about his speed. It was cool to see Shadow put him in his place, but Jet did pretty well against the other fighters. He is probably the third strongest member in the battle royale, but he ends up relying on his airboard a lot. It does give him a lot of speed to it may be worth it. He’s a decent character and I always liked him ever since I watched the Sonic Riders intro. Now that is how you introduce a new character!

Bean is pretty crazy in this comic and he acts like one of the looney tunes. Despite this, the collection shows that his power is considerable and he saves the team from a large array of explosions. He is a lot like Deadpool as he’s a threat when serious, but he typically pretends to be a joker so that the others will treat him like one. He was a decent villain in the collection, but it would have been cool if he was serious for more of it.

Fang is another one of the key players and he has his gun at the ready. He claims that he’s actually hit Sonic in the past, but that must have definitely involved heavy circumstances or plot demands since he should have no shot at tagging Sonic. Sonic’s just too fast and the speed difference is pretty drastic when you think about it. That being said, Fang’s a pretty cool fighter and I could definitely root for him. His motives for getting the emerald are pretty petty, but he’s just a thief. Money is really all that he needs.

As always, the artwork in the comic is very impressive. The character designs match the true Sonic games and the fight scenes all flow very nicely. We have many characters firing off attacks at once during the pages, but the art is clear so you can easily understand what is happening. Archie can definitely hold its own against DC and it’s one of the few companies that consistently achieves this with Sonic.

Overall, this was a pretty fun comic. Shadow and Omega may have had their personalities changed for the worst, but the other characters were solid. The collection was a lot of fun because it was essentially one large battle that kept on going and going. I always like to have a solid amount of action at the ready and I just wish that Team Sonic could have joined in on the fun. Hopefully future Sonic Universe graphic novels will bring this same level of intensity to the table, but it could be a while before I read another installment in this series. Luckily, I will be back with a Sonic Saga review shortly. I recommend this to all comic readers since the art is easy to follow and most of the characters are likable. It’s just a fun story with a lot of action and you get to watch our favorite Sega characters mix it up. Who knows, maybe you’ll like Shadow’s new personality more than I did.

Overall 8/10

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