Attack on Titan No Regrets Review

Posted on July 6, 2014 by dreager1

Attack on Titan is still mega popular and that won’t be changing anytime soon. The anime was a big hit and now we have 4 different manga series with many more likely on the way. This one finished pretty abruptly with two volumes, but it goes to show that some prequels do know when it’s time to quit. I think they made the right move keeping this to two volumes because they can blast through the plot a lot quicker without having any pacing problems.

The plot involves Levi and his two friends: Isabel and Farlan. They are from the underground area where thugs run rampant and it’s very chaotic. They are used to just trying to survive and they are experienced. One day, the Survey Corps arrives and they force Levi and his partners into joining them. The “heroes” plan on destroying the leader of the squad, Captain Erwin. For now they shall play along and once Erwin has served his purpose….then they will destroy him!

Well, Levi is a whole lot better in this manga than the main series. I really disliked him there due to how far he will go to protect his ideals. It’s fine to save the world, but you have to prevent yourself from becoming a villain in the process. There are complex scenarios where becoming the villain is used so that the others can be saved,(Yugioh GX) but the circumstances were completely different and it was done in a much more acceptable manner. Back on topic, the Levi in this series is more like your typical action hero. (Ignoring the fact that his whole mission is to destroy one of the “good” guys) Levi is skilled and he doesn’t fear any of the other humans. He’s not really friendly with other humans, but he means well. Levi is just always thinking about the mission so he has no time for sentiments. His two friends keep him in check as well. I may never get around to liking Levi as a character due to the main series, but I can definitely say that I like his portrayal in this series. The author certainly did a good job.

Isabel is one of Levi’s friends and she’s pretty cool. She’s very enthusiastic about the whole thing and she loves bragging about how tough Levi is. Her skills are pretty fierce as well. She may not be quite as intense as Mikasa, but she still outranks plenty of the Survey Members that we’ve seen in the franchise. I would easily put her in the top 10 characters in the franchise and I would expect her to be playable in an Attack on Titan fighting game. (Someday)

Farlan is Levi’s other pal and he’s not incredibly interesting. It helps that his design is pretty similar to Erwin’s so it can be very easy to mix them up. Luckily, the plot usually doesn’t have them together so this isn’t a real problem. Farlan is usually the guy who gets Levi to back off from his quest on beating everyone up. Farlan’s a tough guy to read because you’re never sure of his true intentions. He doesn’t enjoy combat quite as much as Isabel or Levi yet he’s really into the mission of taking out Erwin…except when he’s not. I couldn’t really get a read on the guy. He’s definitely not a bad character so I guess he’s just average for me.

Erwin is the big Survey Corps member and he’s mentioned a lot. He’s barely a big enough character to be mentioned despite the fact that he’s always in the summary. He is the guy who makes the series possible as he forced Levi and the gang to join up. He’s definitely not likable though and he believes that the end justifies the means. He did something to one of the higher ups to cause him to change a vote and it likely wasn’t a heroic deed. Forcing Levi and the group to join his cause also took some measures that no self respecting hero would likely commit too. At the end we’re supposed to admire his passion to make the world a better place, but I really can’t get on board with the plan. Humanity is so corrupt in the manga that they’re not much better than the Titans. (Of course, that would bring up the Titan debate on whether they can actually think or not. The Abnormals are the wild card. I definitely am not rooting for the Titans in this case, but the humans make it hard for me to root for them. I guess I’ll just root for nature)

The art for the manga is pretty solid. I would definitely make the case that it looks better than the original series. Everything is clear and even the fight scenes aren’t hard to follow. The Titan rampage scenes also aren’t as unnecessarily violent and it feels (Ironically enough since this is a Shojo series) more like a classic Shonen Jump battle.

One reason why this spinoff is a lot better than the main series is because the violence isn’t quite as over the top. Now, I mentioned that it was good that the series is so short and this is the main reason. As it stands, the first volume was much better than the second one. (The series would have gotten a 6/10 if it had just been a one shot) In the first volume, Levi still takes out a Titan and it’s still a violent act, but it’s not as detailed as it could be. The artist doesn’t place emphasis on the slash and it’s more of a normal effect that you would see from Bleach. It wasn’t over the top at all and I can definitely live with that.

The second volume gets a little more dicey as it veers back into main series land. Cheap shots to the weak parts and a lot of humans getting taken down for the count are included this time. Levi taking out a bunch of titans is cool of course and it’s handled pretty well for the most part. I just don’t like when they go all Legend of Zelda on us and aim for the eyes. No, just defeat the villain! Making the heroes essentially beg for their lives before going up against the Titan may make the whole thing emotional, but it can also be a little over the top. (Of course, emotion is another thing that has to be carefully used. The classic example is Frieza blowing up Planet Vegeta. It was emotional and well done. Itachi taking out the Uchiha Clan? A little more towards the gritty to be gritty with plot hax side. Especially after the 30th plot twist.) Just die with a quick panel and let the Titan move on. Still, the violence is definitely a big step down from the main series and that’s a good thing.

What isn’t cool in the second volume is that the horses get involved. I can’t wait until they bring in the cars so that the animals can be safe. Supposedly, Titans only eat humans so they would be safe otherwise. Luckily, the horse part isn’t necessarily graphic since they’re in the background, but it’s still enough to put down the book and sigh. Of course, one thing that is almost as bad is the fact that Hange actually got a few lines! I’m glad that Levi gave her the cold shoulder and then she’s written out. Please, we don’t need her drama right now.

Overall, This was a pretty good prequel for Attack on Titan. I have to say that Levi proved to be a better main character than Eren and his friends could hold their own. This mini series is only two volumes so it didn’t have time to add in a lot of characters and plots, but that’s all right. This is just a nice stand alone story. I do think that the second volume wasn’t quite as good as the first one and started to show signs of the main series, but luckily it quickly ended before things could escalate. The ending is rather sudden, but it works. You sympathize with Levi and the humans one more time until you read the main series. I recommend checking this out if you like Attack on Titan and you should otherwise like it if you’re in the mood for a story about reaching out for your goals. (And being aware that this is related to Attack on Titan so it can be a little intense) Get ready for the ultimate battle against Titans!

Overall 5/10

DC Entertainment Graphic Novel Essentials and Chronology 2014 Review

Posted on July 6, 2014 by dreager1

This book looked interesting because it is basically a way to know which comics should be the first DC ones that you read. I already read plenty of DC comics, but it’s always nice to see how the company orders their favorites. Naturally, this is a book that is best if you are about to start reading comics or want to check out some of the classics.

That being said, I felt that the book plays it a little too safe. In their Top 25 Graphic Novels section, I heard of at least 20 of them…possibly every title. Batman Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, V For Vendetta, etc. They were all titles (Except Superman Earth 1) that you essentially expected to be on the list. I would have liked some surprises. A few obscure titles would have been great.

Of course, the classics should make up most of them. They are the classics for a reason and I would have been sad if The Death of Superman hadn’t made it. Most of the comics are from The New 52 since that is where they want you to start reading from. It’s nice to see the summaries for all of the graphic novels and it reaffirms the fact that most of DC’s comics have great artwork. Only a handful of them didn’t look so good and most of the issues were 5 star quality.

The older comics mostly show up in the character section. Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, and Superman get two-three pages to themselves where the book lists their best comics. While the New 52 ones are always present, there are also older ones to keep things interesting. After all, you can’t mention Green Lantern and skip the War of The Green Lanterns graphic novel. That’s simply not done!

The only section of the graphic novel that wasn’t very entertaining was the Vertigo lineup section. (I think it was just Vertigo, but there may have been a few other obscure sections) The comics just weren’t my style since I’m more of a superhero guy. The fairy tales thing was intriguing until I read the summary. Eh, I’ll just stick to the usual DC fighters.

There aren’t really any comic previews, but the Top 25 Graphic Novels all get a few panels to show off the art and the dialogue. The pictures are very small so you’ll have to squint if you want to read them. I had already read most of the interesting ones though and comics like the Watchmen didn’t interest me. (The Watchmen is pretty overrated if you ask me)

The collection nearly 200 pages, but it’s really about half of that since the last half is all made up of checklists and such. You’ll breeze through the guidebook, but that’s actually a good thing. The print isn’t small and intimidating like the Marvel counterparts. It would have been nice to get even more data in there, but containing the size is important so I’m glad that they succeeded.

Overall, this is a very good guidebook. It covers a lot of ground while also making the fonts easy to read and staying under 200 pages. The reading list at the end is also very fun and reading all of the comics in them would be a pretty great feat. Checklists like that are simply fun to have. I do think that they should have included some more obscure titles in there, but there were still a lot of comics that were covered. If you’re jumping into DC comics, then this is the perfect guide to get you all set. This review was rather short, but you can only write about a guidebook for so long. There simply isn’t a whole lot to say. Back on topic, I recommend getting the Justice League comics if you really were going to buy a comic for the first time. Nothing is more accessible than the firs issue of that series and you’ll get to meet a whole lot of characters!

Overall 8/10

Prince of Persia The Fallen King Review

Posted on July 6, 2014 by dreager1

The Prince of Persia franchise is a pretty good one. I enjoyed the film that came out and both games for the PS3 were very well done. I enjoyed the GBA installment as well and the only one that left much to be desired was the “Battles” spinoff for the DS. This is another Nintendo DS spinoff so there was definitely a reason to be a little worried. I’ve actually been working on this game for years and I finally got around to beating it. It’s definitely a decent game, but nothing more than that.

The plot is pretty convoluted and while it is a sequel to the PS3 game, it’s back to just being the Prince. (Evidently the epilogue explains why this is why, but I wasn’t about to spend money to buy the DLC) The Prince is basically looking for the King so that he can help out to stop the dark forces that he unleashed in the last game. He finds a mysterious being by the name of Zal, who is also dealing with some issues at the moment. Pieces of the puzzle have been stolen and villains are running rampant with all of their newfound power. The Prince agrees to help out Zal since he’s such a nice guy. Can they find out who the mastermind is and stop him before it’s too late? (The plot is a little vague because my recollection of it isn’t too good. Good ole Wikipedia definitely helped for the early parts.)

The gameplay for the game is essentially the traditional 2D Prince of Persia style from the good ole days. What’s the problem? Well, you should always be able to jump in a 2D side scroller. Always! Unfortunately, you can’t do this. The stylus is used to control everything and it’s very sensitive. A single misstep will cause you to lose and be forced to go through a long part again. I’m guessing that’s why the developers decided to give the player infinite lives. The only way to jump is if you are leaving a platform and tap the air or the next platform. This will cause the prince to do a little jump, which may destroy you when he jumps unexpectedly. Your partner (Zal) is around to fire energy blasts that can’t hurt your opponents or to disarm them. He grabs onto the purple energy, which is used to finish off puzzles. He can do all sorts of things that are just variations of each other throughout the game.

The actual combat is pretty rough. You have to tap the enemy and hope that the Prince won’t roll and leave you open for attack. The enemies are generally pretty easy since you just need to attack, block, attack, over and over again. It’s a winning cycle, but a tedious one at times. You really don’t feel like you’re fighting at all since you’re just tapping the same part of the screen a lot of times. Thanks to the infinite lives, nothing will really be a challenge for long. The final boss took some time because I couldn’t figure out what the game wanted to do, but I eventually solved it. (Hint…some giant swords can be stuck for a while.)

The Prince is all right, but definitely nothing special. He talks a good game and saving the world is a cool goal to chase after. He just doesn’t do anything noteworthy and The Prince is really along for the ride. I’m sure that he can fight, but there isn’t anyone for him to fight. Most of the game is just banter between him and Zal, but it’s not very good banter. The writers could learn a thing or two from the Sly Cooper writers.

Zal is really the only character in the game aside from the Prince, or at least the only notable one. I did not like him because it felt as if he was constantly making things harder for the Prince. They just need to hash out their differences and team up long enough to go and save the world. Zal may have some noble sentiments in there, but it’s hard to root for him. It doesn’t help that the plot is so vague and the story isn’t that well told. He’s just a really unmemorable guy who happened to be around for most of the game.

Graphically, the game isn’t very impressive, but the cutscenes aren’t bad. The “cutscenes” are stills where we get to see the plot advance. The artwork may not be top tier, but you do know what is happening and how to get there. While in gameplay, you’ll really just see a pixelated figure running around. The Megaman Battle Network games would put this one to shame. The Prince’s super form is awesome, but you can only see this thanks to the illustrations. In gameplay, it’s just not that effective. I don’t think a whole lot of effort was put into it.

There isn’t really a soundtrack. Sure, there is music in the game, but it’s just generic desert music. Nothing special and you won’t be remembering it after a while. This is unfortunate, but just how it has to be. I don’t believe that the music even changed all that much for the boss battles, but maybe it was a little different. Either way, I typically don’t expect much out of the DS games in terms of music, but this won’t win the game any stars. (Now, the GBA had some incredible tunes!)

Uh oh, this is not sounding like a positive game is it? It definitely fails as far as sequels go and it’s really just filler. I think the game was quickly made for a few bucks and you can tell that the quality control just wasn’t there. That being said, the game was pretty long so you definitely got what you paid for. (I got it for 5-10 dollars, which wasn’t bad) I forgot how many levels there were, but around the same as a typical Mario game. Unlike Mario, you cannot go back to play previous levels and you are permanently stuck to the world that you are up to. This means that I can only play the final three levels if I wanted to relive the good ole days. Trust me, I have better games to play so I wasn’t planning on it, but it’s disappointing that the option isn’t even there.

Overall, this is easily one of the worst Prince of Persia games. I’m tempted to say that it is the worst, but I’ll have to go and play the other one a little more first to be sure of this. The story is pretty dull and the characters aren’t very interesting, but the gameplay length is good. The actual gameplay could be much better, but it could also be a lot worse. I would say that the game isn’t very good and it gets repetitive very quickly. Still, the game is decent and I would never say that it was a downright bad game. I do wish that the stylus didn’t have to be used because the controls are definitely prone to cause unnecessary deaths because any movement will have the Prince running or jumping to his doom. I can’t say that I recommend this game and buy the New Super Mario Bros game if you want a true 2D side scroller.

Overall 5/10

BX Heroes 2.0 Sketchbook Review

Posted on July 5, 2014 by dreager1

This is what happens when authors decide to go with the dark angle for a comic. It’s all right to have a dark plot and it can be very well done like in Hunter X Hunter or Kenshin. That being said, there is a line that you have to make sure to not cross and BX Heroes makes sure to cross it. I ended up stopping before the end because it just went too far content wise.

Now, this is a sketchbook so it was mainly just illustrations for various series at first. That’s fine. Most of the series weren’t really my type of comics, but they didn’t look bad. The roach story gave me a lot of bad vibes since it will likely have a lot of animal violence, but I would just skip it. Things went too far when they showed a preview for one of the upcoming comics. In it, we see a lady get taken into a car and then the comic goes out the window.

Any kind of nudity is really too much for a comic and that was enough for me to close the comic. The whole situation was just unnecessarily dark and it means that I’ll never bother checking out the series. I also have to hope that it doesn’t really sell that well because comics like this are just in bad taste. I think that writers are just forgetting how to make interesting villains nowadays.

Making a villain evil doesn’t mean that you need to make them do something unseemly or incredibly graphic. Look at Unicron or Bass EXE. They became threats by destroying planets or just having great dialogue. I can guarantee that they are many times cooler than the villains in this comic.

Overall, there’s not really much more to say about this sketchbook. The illustrations were fine, but the story was terrible and this is not the kind of thing that you’ll want to read. It’s naturally not suitable for kids and I wouldn’t say that it’s appropriate for anyone. Your best bet is to completely skip this comic even if you get it for free. It’s just not worth your time and you’d be better off picking up a book that you’ve already read a few dozen times.

Overall 0/10

Transformers Review

Posted on July 5, 2014 by dreager1

Nothing beats the original Transformers film and that never changes no matter how many times I see it. It’s easily the definitive robot film and I actually don’t believe that any will ever be able to pass it. Nonstop action and a solid cast of characters keep this classic afloat and after Transformers 4, it was time to relive the good ole days. Get ready for an emotional war as the Autobots and Decepticons have their climatic clash!

The plot starts after most of the TV show events have already occurred. The Decepticons have a huge advantage thanks to the fact that they have already conquered Cybertron and the Autobots seem to be very weakened. The heroes are low on energon and they only have a city on Earth as well as a pair of moons. The Decepticons decide to destroy this resistance once and for all and a climatic battle ensues. Meanwhile, the legendary Unicron is on his way to Cybertron and he’s already conquered several planets. Defeating him is basically out of the question at this point. Can the Autobots even afford to worry about him with all of the Decepticons who are around? Only time will tell!

The film is really fast paced and so many plots develop throughout the course of the film. This is considering that the film isn’t even a full 90 minutes! The first half hour is easily the best part of the film as we witness a big Decepticon invasion and the heroes heroically try to fend them off. It’s emotional and the fight scenes are just intense. The film doesn’t really slow down until we get to the planet of Junk where the film gives the audience a brief rest. After that, it’s time for the climax against the planet eater.

Ironically enough, the climax is one of the least exciting parts. After the first 50-60 minutes of nonstop action and battles between the two sides of Transformers, the final half hour is a little uneventful. We have a water planet, the junk planet, and then a quick battle against Unicron. It’s still solid of course, but nothing beats the first chunk of the film. All of the classic fighters get their chance to show what they’re made of.

Optimus Prime is still the fearless leader of the Autobots and this continuity was easily his best portrayal. Prime means business and he effortlessly takes out quite a few Decepticon warriors. His climatic battle against Megatron is still famous and the battle was very well done. Prime is essentially the perfect main character and he really had no flaws in the film. I doubt we’ll ever see him look quite this good again, but he’s consistently been a solid character across the multiverse anyway. His shotgun/cannon also looks impressive and it’s definitely one of the stronger weapons in the film. He may not have gotten a very large role, but it was definitely a critical one.

Megatron is also an excellent villain. He is a great leader for the Decepticons and his plan is a solid one. Infiltrating Autobot city nearly ended the war in an instant. He took out quite a few Autobots and he seems to have a lot of energon since he was fighting all day. I will admit that I was always surprised with the fact that Megatron begs for his life at one point. I suppose that he doesn’t care what he has to do in order to defeat Optimus Prime, but as Prime said “I thought you were made of sterner stuff.” Megatron is able to get past this thanks to the fact that he’s an awesome villain and the film wouldn’t have been the same without him.

It was good to see Grimlock since I really didn’t like his portrayal in TF 4. This is the Dinobot that I remember and he’s acknowledged as one of the strongest Autobots. There’s a reason why Prime sent the Dinobots to take out Devastator! Few other robots could have been challenged with such a task. Grimlock may not have crushed Devastator, but he did pretty well with the other Dinobots. (The other Dinobots are cool as well and I believe that Slag may have done more damage than Grimlock, but their roles were a lot smaller so I won’t really be talking about them) Grimlock even humors Wheelie for a while and then takes command of a huge army of Sharkticons. That’s what I’m talking about!

Hot Rod is essentially the main character of the film and this is how I became a big fan of the character. He may have gotten a little watered down in the comics that came out after this, but he still looks pretty good in the film. He shoots at the Decepticons upon seeing them and then he embarks on a dangerous journey with the others so that they can mount a counter attack. When he finds out that the Matrix has been stolen, Hot Rod immediately says that they should attack and get it back.

Now, his only sad moment is when Megatron is able to easily overpower him and shoot Prime. It’s a controversial move since it can be said that Prime would have won otherwise. I am confident that Megatron would have still shot him, but maybe it would have only been once instead of several times. It’s definitely a debate, but Hot Rod’s intentions were sound and he really did try to help. It just turns out that his power was feeble compared to Megatron’s and he never stood a chance. He still pulls through when it counts and that’s what ultimately matters. He officially ended the wars and changed history!

Bumblebee gets a very small role in the film and he only gets a line or maybe a few more. His design is definitely interesting and it’s one of the only ones from G1 that didn’t really become mainstream. I will always prefer this version since he can talk to most of the others, but he definitely wasn’t a star in this film. He doesn’t even say thanks at the end when Daniel saves his life. It was still good to see him get a cameo though.

Unicron is the big bad villain of the film and he makes for a solid threat. Instead of talking tough and doing something gritty to call attention to himself, Unicron just destroys the planet in one fell swoop. After that, he sets his sights on Cybertron and it’s a pretty epic journey. He takes out two moons for fun as he gets closer and closer to his goal. His attack on Cybertron is also one of the few times where we actually get to see Shockwave mobilize the troops so that was cool. (Although the Decepticons did not last for very long) Unicron’s decision to transform into robot mode was his big mistake. The enemies quickly took advantage of this and Unicron is essentially defenseless in this form. It’s why I am opposed to villains being too large. It just makes them vulnerable in the end. Ignoring that, he was still a pretty solid opponent for the Autobots and his voice was nice and menacing. Not even Megatron was able to stand up to his tricks.

Galvatron is the new villain who was introduced for the film. He’s not as new as you may think, but that’s another story and you’ll realize this as you watch the film. His arsenal is impressive and taking on Starscream is a pretty good feat. The scene should be pretty cool if you’re a fan of Galvatron or if you’ve just wanted to see this happen to Starscream for a while now. Galvatron talks tough throughout the film and he can back it up with his high amounts of power. You have to respect the fact that he never gives up and keeps on trying to make his plans succeed. He’s just in a very difficult position to make this actually happen. He is a very good villain for the film.

Wheelie is definitely the worst Transformers robot. His voice is definitely tough to understand and you stop trying after a while. The rhymes were a little over the top. I do applaud the fact that the film tried to make the voices unique, but it just didn’t work this time. Wheelie ends up sticking around through the next TV show, but I can’t say that it was a good thing. He doesn’t really bring down the film a whole lot, but he’s still unnecessary.

Wreck Gar is from the Planet Junk and he talks in radio signals mixed in with TV. It’s very hard to understand him and I can’t say that I liked him as a character. It helps that the whole Planet of Junk was a little uneventful and I didn’t like the Piranha world that much either. Wreck Gar just doesn’t really add much to the plot and I’m a little skeptical on how that junk would be so sturdy. He must know something that I do not.

Kup is one of the major players in this film, but he’s never been one of my favorite Autobots. He can fight and he has a lot of experience, but it just wasn’t enough to win me over. He’s not a bad character, but he’s really not the type of guy that I tend to find likable. He’s just too old and he doesn’t fight all that much. He talks a good game, but he typically can’t back it up. Still, he did pretty well when he took out the tank so I give him props for that.

Ultra Magnus is one of the major Autobots and I used to think that he was a powerful fighter based on the name. I’m sure that he’s tough, but there’s nothing to really suggest that he’s tougher than the other Autobots in this film. I’m definitely a fan of his, but the film really tried to show why he wasn’t a terrific leader. He didn’t have time to worry about his comrades and his one on two fight didn’t go over so well. Dropping the Matrix of Leadership was likely his biggest mistake. It would have been great if Ultra Magnus could have went down putting up more of a fight. He may not be the next Prime, but he’s still a likable Autobot.

Daniel is the new human companion to the Autobots, but he isn’t a great character. He means well and he helped the Autobots to become aware of the Decepticon threat, which likely saved many bots. However, he just wasn’t much of an asset to the team and he didn’t figure out how to use his energy gun until the climax of the film. Also, asking the Autobots what happened to Spike during such a dangerous situation was a little on the dicey side and he even broke the great air board from the intro of the film. He’s still a step up from the protagonist of the Transformers Trilogy.

Spike was one of the main characters from the TV show, but he doesn’t get a huge role in the movie. He decides to leave Unicron a little present in the form of a bomb, but he took too long admiring his craftsmanship to make enough time to escape. I can’t say that he was very likable, but he wasn’t a bad character either. He was just pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things and he definitely panicked a lot when Daniel hesitated to save his life. I suppose that it was understandable though….

Arcee doesn’t look very good in this film and it was before the big social wave that helped to make female characters much stronger in today’s media. This is before Arcee became the pro fighter that we see in Transformers Prime. She helps Daniel out through the tough times, but she never gets a chance to fight back. I would have liked to see her fight some Decepticons and the closest that she comes to this is when she breaks one of the tires on an enemy car when the Junk bots attack. So, she definitely couldn’t look as good as the other Transformers without any fight scenes, but she was all right I suppose. Definitely needed some action though.

Starscream really steals the show for the Decepticons. He’s the one Decepticon in the film that I prefer to Megatron. His shreeky voice is iconic at this point and some would even say that it is more memorable than Prime’s or Megatron’s. That may go a little far, but it’s definitely one of the first things that comes to mind when I think of Transformers. This is Starscream as he was meant to be portrayed and the fact that he directly insults Megatron instead of beating around the bush is intense. “How do you feel mighty Megatron!” as Starscream kicks him while he’s down. His lines to Megatron as he throws him out of the starship are great as well and he even got to wear a crown. It’s hard to find any character that’s as good as Starscream.

Soundwave gets a pretty small role in the film, but he is the only Decepticon to show any loyalty to Megatron. He may not have stopped the others from throwing him off of the ship, but he did save him from the being left at the Autobot base. Soundwave’s definitely one of the more useful Decepticons and I’ve always liked him as a character. Letting the constructicons know who was superior was definitely a nice line as well.

The film’s soundtrack is dynamite and just about all of the songs are catchy. The only one that I didn’t care for played during the planet of Junk as they all held hands and danced around. It really wasn’t my type of film and I definitely could have gone without it. Aside from that, it’s hard to even know where to begin. It really makes you feel like you’re watching a theatrical film. The music is loud and it’s energetic. You really get into the fight scenes and they’re well played. The main Transformers theme is easily my favorite tune and I’ve listened to it many times. It ends up making the opening credits really exciting and you know that you’re definitely getting your money’s worth.

The animation is also excellent. This film came out in the 80’s and yet, it looks so much better than some 2014 shows like Pac Man and Teen Titans Go. (Still airing in 2014 anyway) This film always helps to reinforce the fact that animation has been on the decline in America. We need to get away from Flash and CGI so that we can go back to traditional hand drawn shows/films. I’ve viewed this film on dvd many times and it’s finally starting to show some wear and tear. The final 20-30 minutes saw a drop in quality, but it wasn’t the film, just the disk. This film definitely deserves the blu ray treatment and then more people can see the epicness from which Transformers was born. The animation definitely holds up very well to this day and I can say with confidence that it is timeless.

Overall, this is not just the definitive Transformers film, but it is the best robot film out there. The cast of characters is excellent and the soundtrack is top notch. The animation pulls no punches and there is action throughout the film. The fight scenes are very well done and the robots focus on winning instead of tearing each other to shreds for a while. This results in accurate shots that take the robot down in an instant. There were only a few characters that I didn’t really care for and things slowed down towards the end, but that’s not a major concern. I highly recommend this film to Transformers fans and to anyone that wants to relive the good ole theater experience. The film is nearly perfect and I doubt that it shall ever be surpassed by another Transformers film. I recommend watching this one whenever you are about to watch the Michael Bay version.

Overall 9/10

Roogoo Twisted Towers Review

Posted on July 4, 2014 by dreager1

Roogoo is a game that I had never heard of before and I was surprised to see that it won an award from E3. It must have been before my time since I only started keeping up with E3 in detail last year. I don’t own a whole lot of puzzle games and I typically just go with a game of another genre, but the cover intrigued me. (As well as the 2 dollar price tag at Gamestop) Knowing that you really can’t go wrong with a 2 dollar game, I ended up purchasing it and I was ready for epicness! (My journey of buying the game was long and arduous as I left it the first time to do some research on Youtube. What sold me was the Airship mode and then I went back after the weekend was over)

There is a plot heavily concealed within the video game, but it’s almost impossible to decipher. There is a quick cutscene at the very end of the game and one at the end of the first world. Beyond that, you have to try and figure out what is happening and the little text bubbles at the beginning of a level do not help. They are all tutorial based with only one of them referencing the fact that you have to save the world. We know that the hero is on a mission of global significance, but that is about all that we can understand. Perhaps…that is all that we are meant to understand at this point in time!

Either way, the plot isn’t quite as important as the gameplay. This is especially true for a Puzzle game where it is easy to mess up and make the puzzles too easy. Just as dangerous is the possibility of making the puzzles too long and tedious. Roogoo does a good job of steering clear of this although the game is definitely on the easy side. I never lost a shape level and only lost a flight battle once. (I’m not even sure if you can lose in Roogoo since I let the timer go and then I still got to play. I believe that it revolves around getting too many of them in the wrong shapes, but I didn’t go and prove that theory. Not this time!

There are two forms of gameplay in this game. The shape levels and the airplane levels. I shall talk about the Airplane levels first as it was the best part, but unfortunately, there are very few of them in the game. You get to control a pilot and you move around as if you are the rim of a soda cup. You can’t go in the center and you can only go around the rim. It’s a very unique way to play. This game is pretty easy for the most part, but I did manage to lose once so maybe I was underestimating it. You mostly just have to collect jewels and survive until the finish line, but there’s also the occasional boss or minion that you’ll want/have to defeat. I really would have loved another 10+ Airplane levels, but it wasn’t meant to be.

The other mode is the Shapes part. In this one, you have to make the shape go through the shake on the bottom. For example, you are given a square. Then you’re taken to a wheel that has several shapes. You must keep on turning the wheel until the hole on the bottom matches the shape that you are holding. It takes a lot of dedication and time since there are around 80+ levels of this. It’s pretty intense when you think about it. After all, you’ll likely lose the round if you end up dozing off. The levels get more complicated as villains try to obscure your view or steal puzzle pieces. You can fight back by capturing them in a net or just knocking them out so we can tell that the main character is definitely a fighter.

One of the complaints that I would have had is the low difficulty level of the game, but that’s actually not an issue since the game has two harder modes. Roogoo mode and I forgot the name of the other one. I can definitely see how this game might get harder so you’ll definitely find a nice challenge in this game when all’s said and done.

You don’t need to worry about replay value because this game is definitely a long experience. There are 10 worlds and they total in about 90 levels. That’s definitely a huge amount and you can’t even compare it to the Casper game for the Wii, which had around 5-8. After you finish the 90 levels you can try beating them on hard mode or buying the DS version to unlock a few bonus missions. The replay value may not be insanely high, but definitely high enough that your two dollars were well spent.

The graphics aren’t exactly outstanding, but this is the Wii and I doubt that the game had an incredible budget at its disposal like Super Smash Bros or Skyward Sword. The game looks decently good, but nothing will stand out. The graphics are terribly average and maybe a little less so, but they’re definitely view able and it shouldn’t hurt your overall experience.

The soundtrack is essentially blank or it may as well be since I can’t recall a single tune. That’s never a great sign for a game. Now, there is one big thing that kept the game from getting a 7 or higher. That is the fact that there are only two modes of play. It gets tedious after around 60 levels of placing the objects in their correct shapes. Having 90+ levels is certainly a good thing because it increases the length, but there should have been more ways to play or at least a better way of dividing up the shape and air levels. There are only around 10 or less air levels and the puzzles got the other 80. At least make it a 50-30 level split since that would be a lot more fair.

Overall, Roogoo is a fun game to play. It’s best in short batches of 5-10 levels since it can get a little repetitive if you play all of them at once. There are 11 worlds, but the amount of levels inside differs from world to world. It’s currently going for around 2 dollars at Gamestop so there is really no reason not to buy it as soon as possible. I recommend it to all puzzle fans and I would also recommend that action gamers give it a shot. It’s definitely not going to be the next Titanfall or Call of Duty as far as quick mainstream games go, but it can be pretty fun if you give the game a chance. How many games can say that they have over 90 levels? A little more plot would have been nice though.

Overall 6/10

Sonic Saga Series Volume 1 Darkest Storm Review

Posted on July 1, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for another Sonic review and this time he’s finally back to being the main character! This is the first volume of the Sonic Saga Series and I can definitely say that it’s off to a solid start. A lot of plot lines are being introduced the cast is very large. This definitely gets me hyped for a new Sonic video game or TV show, but the comics will have to fill that void for now.

The plot is all over the place here as many plot points are quickly formed. The main plot deals with the fact that Ixis Naugus and Mammoth Mogul have both escaped from their confinements and Eggman has hatched a brand new scheme. A new villain who is currently sticking to the shadows as Anonymous has started to talk about how he will be the greatest threat that our heroes have ever faced. The Destructix is back to face off with the heroes as well as Scourge. Sonic will have to deal with all of these threats and protect his friends at the same time.

There is also an issue about Knuckles and the Chaotix group as they have to Renfield. They don’t know what his current plan is so they will have to tread very carefully if they want to achieve success. There is also a small comic about Sonic as he keeps reliving the same day over and over again for some reason. He’ll have to find a way out of the cycle before it drives him mad!

Sonic is back and he’s definitely as fast as ever! It was nice to see him speed right through the battles and his big challenge to Ixis Naugus and Master Mogul was pretty intense. Sonic definitely doesn’t beat around the bush and if he wants to do something, then he does it! Sonic looks more impressive than the other heroes and while he didn’t get to see a whole lot of action just yet; Sonic will definitely be making some waves. In all of the fight scenes that Sonic does partake in, he tends to come out as the victor. Whether it’s Scourge or Ixis Naugus, Sonic never backs down from a fight.

After his big roles in the last two Sonic collections, Tails doesn’t really accomplish all that much in this one. He is taken hostage by one of the villains and Sonic is forced to relinquish one of the travel rings as a result. It’s not a huge tragedy, but you can bet that Sonic would have taken them down otherwise. I will assume that Tails was too shocked when the villains took out the gun to retaliate because his speed should be sufficient to get away. I will expect Tails to look more like his current self in future issues.

Eggman is finally back as one of the big villains in this collection. He may seem rather weak compared to some of the other villains in the collection, but one should definitely not underestimate his cunning genius. Eggman has some pretty big plans at his disposal and they’re pretty good so far. We don” know the full scope of them at the moment, but these “grapes” seem to pack a lot of power and are very potent. Sonic will need to bring his A game with him to stop his plans once and for all.

I have seen Mammoth Mogul a whole lot in the last few collections. He is supposed to be one of the strongest Sonic characters of all time, but I can’t say that he is terribly impressive. His spells and elemental attacks are definitely impressive, but I’d say Sonic’s speed over that any day. Mogul definitely has a high opinion of himself and I do respect the fact that he never backs down from a fight. He makes for a decent villain.

Ixis Naugus is one of the most popular enemies from the Archieverse and he is definitely supposed to be tough. Unfortunately, he is a little out of his depth in this collection because he went up against Mammoth Mogul. Naugus has powerful spells of his own, but none of them are potent enough to overcome Mogul. He can still last a while and make it a close fight at the very least. I didn’t care for Ixis Naugus here, but he definitely has time to improve.

Snively was having a good ole time helping out the heroes when Eggman pays him a visit and he has to choose between working for Eggman and staying with the heroes. Let’s just say that he made the choice that I was expecting him to make. I can’t say that he’s ever been a really likable villain, but he was pretty intense in the original Sonic TV show at times. He just isn’t that much of a threat at the moment since Sonic and his friends have grown to be so powerful.

Knuckles is one of the major players in the Sonic universe so it’s always good to see him around. There is some drama between him and his father, which is very similar to Thor and Odin’s debate throughout the Marvel comics. Knuckles wants to stay and protect the Earth alongside his friends instead of leaving. Both options had their pros and cons so it definitely wasn’t a win-win situation. Knuckles looks decent in his comic at the end, but definitely not great as he was defeated rather easily. It’s all right because he took out a lot of enemies during the other comics, but I’m expecting him to pull his weight when the going gets tough.

Rouge joins the cast as she gets interrogated by the Chaotic before helping them out on a mission to gain their trust. It’s debatable as to how much this plan actually works since all of them seem very skeptical about trusting her. They do have good reasons since you can never be too sure with a government agent. Rouge definitely hasn’t lost her hand to hand training as she makes short work of Julie Su and proves why she is the better character/fighter at the moment.

Renfield Rodent is a villain who gets involved towards the end of the comic in what feels like a filler arc/issue. He can’t fight and he has to rely on technology and gimmicks to win his battles. Luckily Sonic isn’t around so Renfield only has to deal with Knuckles and the Chaotic. However, even this may prove to be too much for the rodent and he’ll have to gracefully accept defeat. He wasn’t a bad villain, but he was definitely as generic as they come.

Fiona is one of Sonic’s new pals and it’s definitely hard to trust her since there can be a lot of drama in the Sonic universe. I’m not a fan of her at the moment and she seems to be included for drama purposes. I’m afraid that real character development will defeat drama every time. As far as I can tell, she isn’t even much of a fighter. That’s no good….

Julie Su is one of the supporting characters as she’s on Knuckles’ group of fighters. Unfortunately, she’s not a great character at the moment and she’s busy picking fights with Rouge. At least Julie Su can fight and that’s always a plus in this universe or really any franchise. Hopefully she gets a solid fight in the next volume.

Scourge gets a small appearance in this volume, but it’s pretty epic for the most part. His banter with Sonic is always fun and he’s definitely a skilled fighter. His mild flirting is a little sad and drops him down the character ranks. Hopefully he will remember to put more focus on fighting next time instead of getting distracted. Sonic had the upper hand in their fight so Scourge is going to need his power up.

Sir Connery is one of the heroes and I have to say that I couldn’t really take him seriously. He’s powerful to be sure, but he just seems out of place here. He has a lot of power, but no real speed to back it up. Leaving the fighting to Sonic sounds like a good idea at this point. Maybe he will be around for the next volume.

Mecha Robotnik is a character that I’m not familiar with, but he was a good villain. He’s not the strongest robot that we’ve seen in the Sonic comics, but he can definitely hold his own when the going gets tough. He didn’t last too long, but I’d be open to seeing him appear in the video games and getting some action. Robots always have the potential for epicness.

Anonymous is a pretty big villain, but we haven’t seen what he can do just yet. So far he seems to be watching from the shadows as he manipulates the other heroes and villains to fight for him. He sounds like a really powerful villain, but I’m not going to get my hopes up too high just in case. Either way, he’s a pretty good villain so far and it’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here.

The Destructix are a group of small time villains who trouble the heroes from time to time. None of them are really that interesting and I was surprised to see them giving the heroes a tough time. (Until Sonic and Knuckles showed up) Tails was getting defeated by the speed member and then Sonic arrived with a timely spin dash. Having the blue blur back is certainly great for the heroes. I don’t mind if the Destructix appear again, but I hope that they’ll get more character or a nice power up.

Once again, the art is very good for these Sonic issues. The action scenes are well done and every scene is very colorful. There aren’t any big inconsistencies for the characters and the backgrounds were drawn nicely as well. Archie has definitely found a format that works for their Sonic comics and I definitely hope that they don’t decide to change it anytime soon.

Overall, This collection was a very good way to start off the Sonic Saga Series. The backup issues with Knuckles teaming up with the Chaotix and Sonic having to escape the cycle were pretty fun. That being said, the real action was at the beginning when the all out war between the Freedom Fighters, Ixis Naugus, and Mammoth Mogul occurred. That was pretty epic and I hope for more big battle scenes like that one. Sonic continues to have a pretty happy atmosphere while allowing for some serious battle plots to make the whole thing very exciting. I highly recommend checking out this volume as it’s Sonic The Hedgehog at his best. The cover for the next comic has Super Shadow on it so you can consider my interest to be piqued.

Overall 8/10

Sonic Universe Volume 5 The Tails Adventure Review

Posted on July 1, 2014 by dreager1

Tails is definitely on a roll as this Sonic collection brings another arc where he is the main protagonist. It’s good to read this one after Sonic Select Volume 8 since you will get the references a lot quicker. It’s always a little sad to see that Sonic won’t be around, but the supporting characters do need their time to shine and this is easily one of Tails’ best appearances in the Sonic comics. His adventure is pretty solid and a fun read.

The comic starts off with Tails driving Antoine and Bunnie over to a deserted island so that they can hang out while he goes over to his workshop to have fun tinkering. Things are going smoothly until they are attacked by the Battle Armada with Bunnie and Antoine being kidnapped. Bunnie decides to pretend that she is with the villains while Tails gets his second wind and decides to take the villains down for the count. The heroes are certainly outnumbered, but Tails has learned a lot from watching Sonic fight and he’s finally ready to step into the main character role.

Tails is at least 100% better than he was in the Select comic and he was already cool there. This time, Tails plays the part of the seasoned veteran and he’s easily the best fighter from the three main characters. He gets to show off his super speed a lot more in this comic and he is able to keep up with Speedy. His plans are more well thought out and he takes control of the situation. Now he can even take on a big mech without any backup whatsoever. The heroes have given him a chance to prove himself and Tails did just that.

Antoine isn’t a bad supporting character and he’s a good actor, but he can still show glimpses of his former self. Reminding Tails of the good ole days may not be the best way to motivate him. Antoine has to rely on hand to hand combat for the majority of the collection since he didn’t bring his sword along for the ride. That being said, he still does pretty well and he manages to take out a lot of fighters. Once again, Archie has improved him a lot since the original Sonic days.

I’ve always thought that Bunnie was a solid supporting character and she’s always been a fighter. That doesn’t change in this collection and her barrier comes in handy against most of the fighters. It’s definitely not something that should be spammed and Bunnie finds this out the hard way, but it certainly helps to get them out of some sticky situations. I would have preferred for her to take a more direct role in defeating the enemies as opposed to playing along with their plan, but either way she got the job done.

Speedy is the best villain of the collection, but his design is definitely very similar to other characters like Jet and Bean. I dare say that he is stronger than Bean and possibly a match for Jet. His speed is pretty impressive and he’s around as fast as Tails. He seems like a nice guy even if his loyalty is in the wrong place. His no nonsense attitude helps the reader to take him seriously despite the colorful character design. It would definitely be good to see him appear more in the future and maybe he could be Tails’ big speed rival like Metal Sonic/Shadow is to Sonic.

The Battle Kukkku is the main villain of the comic, but I will admit that it’s hard not to mix him up with the Doctor. Both of them don’t have a whole lot of character development and they weren’t as interesting as Speedy. The Battle Kukku isn’t the most intelligent villain and he is definitely susceptible to enemy mind games and traps. The worst part is that he can’t really fight and we already have Eggman for noncombatant enemies.

One of the gimmicks for the Doctor is that nobody can pronounce his name the right way. The problem is that this results in the reader forgetting what his name is as well. I could look it up, but he’s relatively minor anyway so it’s not a really big deal. He can build robots and he’s fairly smart so he can be a threat, but definitely a mild one at best.

Archie never disappoints with the art in the Sonic comics. It fits perfectly for the fight scenes as you can really see the speed at which Tails and Speedy were fighting. Everyone looks good and the detail is nicely done. There aren’t too many details for the characters, but certainly enough so that everyone looks in character. There aren’t many comics that have consistently great art like the Sonic series.

Overall, This was another great Sonic comic to read. It’s the first volume that I’ve checked out of Sonic Universe, but I already like the concept. Getting to see the supporting characters in action is a nice twist and Tails can always use a few more comics. The villains were pretty unimaginative for the most part, but I did like Speedy. A few villains make a guest star cameo at the end of the collection, but they aren’t the coolest characters around so it’s only all right. It does set up more plot lines for the future which is always a good thing and it would be interesting to see this leader take on Speedy. We’ll see who really is the fastest! I highly recommend this comic to all Sonic fans and all comic readers. It has a nice blend of action and humor and I can’t really say that it has any negatives. It’s just a really fun comic to blast through. The only thing holding it back from an 8 is that it needed a few more fights or big characters like Sonic and Shadow. The collection is very short, but that’s not so much of a negative as it just could have been a positive with more issues. Enjoy the Adventure!

Overall 7/10

Transformers Age of Extinction Review

Posted on June 30, 2014 by dreager1

I’m a pretty huge Transformers fan and the franchise has been great in many areas. Comics, TV Shows, and Video games have all been greatly produced. The live action films is the area in which Transformers typically falters. I had some decently high hopes coming into the fourth film despite the first three because the trailer was pretty solid and it should be a fun experience. Well, it’s essentially the same as the last film so things didn’t get much better for me. The film jumps in head first and manages to fall into just about every hole as it struggles to the finish line. Still, the film had some good moments…let’s look at how things played out.

Everyone is still sad over the battle of Chicago and the world has moved on. The government has decided to start destroying all of the Autobots who are still out there. Well, the CIA is doing this and the President is unaware of the situation. (The government is very uncoordinated in this film) Meanwhile, Cade finds a truck when he is buying things to help him invent something amazing and it turns out to be Optimus Prime. Together, they must find the other Autobots and stop Lockdown. (Who has made a contract with the humans) With a film that’s around 3 hours, there are definitely a lot of subplots to help keep the plot from ending too fast. Those will be mentioned in the character bio sections.

Cade is the main character and he’s a solid character. He’s definitely not great, but he does his best to get through the days. He’s tough when it counts. He may have been a little on the generic side and lacked character development, but it happens. He’s very overpowered and it’s hard to take his fight scenes seriously, but he doesn’t squander the power. He’s definitely one of the only likable humans and without him the film would have been a little tougher to watch. He did the right thing in helping his daughter to stay away from guys for a while and while it didn’t ultimately work, you can’t blame him for trying. Cade’s a noble character and we get so few of those nowadays.

Optimus Prime is back of course and this portrayal of him is definitely different compared to any of the others that we’ve seen in the past. Prime isn’t advocating for human safety anymore and he’s not here to show that all sentient beings have the fight to freedom. He’s here to destroy enemies and leave the planet. It’s definitely a big change from what we have seen in the past and I can’t say that it’s a good thing. Optimus starts off the film in a badly injured state thanks to the events which have transpired off screen. The humans want the Autobots dead after all and with their primitive technology, they’ve just about done it.

This likely hurt Prime’s logic circuits and his first few scenes are all about him saying how he will destroy the opponent as he fights a (losing) battle against the humans. The feral Prime battles with Lockdown, but it’s more of a chase scene since the Autobot is on the run. He begins to regain his reason once he’s back in normal form, but things don’t go so well during his big break in. After that whole operation and seeing what was being done…why didn’t he wreck the place? Leaving it intact was a huge mistake and then we get to watch the heroes get beaten up again. They weren’t as unprepared as last time, but it can be a little irritating to see.

Prime then makes the right move to leave once and for all after finishing up a mission, but ends up making a controversial move. After Man of Steel, everyone loves to use the controversial card as we have heroes stretching their limits to see if they are still heroes. We saw some of that in Amazing Spider-Man 2, Xmen Days of Future Past, older films like James Bond and Star Wars used this as well. It’s pretty unnecessary, but not nearly as bad as Superman’s moment. It will hurt Prime’s portrayal as the hero a bit, but it wasn’t a terrible moment. Letting his guard down is another story. I also really disliked how he handled the Dinobot situation. Threatening them and then forcing them to help out is pretty uncharacteristic and it felt like a Decepticon move.

In the end, I have to say that this version of Prime may be the worst one that I’ve seen. He’s not terribly heroic anymore and he seems slightly more mindless. Not completely of course, but he’s always going on about how he’s going to destroy someone. He just really sounds as if he’s broken and maybe that will be a plot point later on. Perhaps not because his voice slowly starts to go back to normal by the end, but he was definitely off. Since the next film will likely be a sequel, it’ll be interesting to see how his character arc goes. I do wish that Prime had taken a more traditional personality in the film, but these things happen. He’s still the best character in the film (Which says a lot eh?) and I just had a lot of complaints about his portrayal. I do like that he took matters into his own hands and finally decided that the humans are not always worth the trouble.

Galvatron gets a role in the film, but it’s relatively small. There are a few twists about his origin and they were well played. I wish that he could have appeared more since his short appearances were pretty epic. His plan is decently well thought out and his minions being so weak was likely not in his calculations. Otherwise, it could have been the end of everything! He’s the best antagonist in the film and I was surprised by how cool he was.

Lockdown is the main villain of the film at least according to all of the trailers. In the actual film, it is a little debatable with all of the major human players around. Still, Lockdown’s a solid villain and he definitely means business when battling the Autobots. Since he’s a mercenary, Lockdown gets to make fun of the Autobots and Decepticons. Power wise, he’s high tier, but one of the weakest ones of that caliber. He would likely get wrecked by Sentinel Prime, Optimus Prime, Galvatron, or Megatron in a fair fight. His battles in this film were typically against opponents who were already weakened or against one who could get distracted. In a fair fight, I don’t believe that he would have done quite as well. Of course, power isn’t everything and he still looks pretty good. I can safely say that he’s much better in the film than in the video game. He’s one of the few likable villains in the film since he at least makes sure to have a motive and solid lines.

Bumblebee’s character is a whole lot different from the last ones. He’s a lot more reckless and he picks fights whenever possible. He risked jeopardizing the mission just to finish a personal vendetta. These are all great traits, but his character change just came out of nowhere. Also, getting humiliated by Drift didn’t help with this. Overall, Bumblebee was still a good Autobot and great compared to most of the other cast, but he didn’t feel like Bumblebee. Regardless, I wouldn’t mind if he kept this personality since it’s a lot more intense than how he used to be.

I really don’t like Hound and I have to wonder why they chose to include him when there are so many better Autobots that could have been in it. He’s the “hardcore” Autobot who’s been through his share of fights and now he’s very gruff and experienced. He shows this by shooting a defenseless alien creature after going to the cage and getting spat at. Hound completely destroys the creature and it was essentially an unprovoked attack. He definitely doesn’t make the Autobots look like the heroes with actions like that. Hopefully he is not in the sequel.

As much as I didn’t like Hound, Crosshairs may have been even worse. How he became an Autobot is beyond me, but he’s always acting like a Decepticon. He clearly says that he plans on becoming leader and he loves to start fights. We’re supposed to get back on his side when he makes the “hero” move to take out a few enemy ships, but why should that make me like him? He essentially had to do it as they would have blown him up anyway. He’s another Autobot that I hope doesn’t get to appear in the next installment.

Drift was one of the main Autobots in this film, but he was also wrecked. I didn’t care for his character as he was essentially a Japanese stereotype. He strongly believes in honor and he doesn’t resort to violence…except when he does. His only good scene is when he defeats Bumblebee in their fight, but even then I can’t say that it was very impressive. He barely even got a chance to use his swords and there was nothing to separate him from the others. He’s an excellent fighter in the comics and his personality is great. We don’t get to see any of that in the film. He just isn’t likable and I can’t say that I really care for the character design.

Ratchet gets a very small appearance in this film and it’s not a good one. Unfortunately, he suffers from the fact that the Autobots must stay true to their beliefs and stay away from retaliating against humans. Even so, I believe that he should have looked a lot better. At least put up a fight as you go down! The design also didn’t even look remotely like Ratchet. His scenes were definitely not enjoyable and it doesn’t help the Autobot cause.

Joshua (KSI head) is one of the big antagonists from the start and we get to watch his “character development” as he becomes a likable guy. Unfortunately, he was just too far gone and I couldn’t sympathize with him. I also just didn’t find any of his scenes very humorous. It was just over for me at that point and his faint attempts as being likable and emotional fell short. I just found it odd as to how much screentime he got in the later half and how we’re supposed to feel sorry for him. He’s not as bad as some of the other villains, but definitely bad enough.

Tessa was definitely one of the more unlikable characters in the film. We have another rebellious protagonist who makes things hard for Cade and she’s constantly lying so that he won’t know that she has an affair. At least she didn’t make “The call.” (You’ll know what “the call” is when watching the film. Let’s just say that it involves a whole lot of money!) Tessa was really just annoying from the beginning and it would be great if she could have been written out along with shameless Shane. (More on him in a bit) Making matters worse is her refusal to cross the bridge later on due to the dangers of heights. I can sympathize as I’m mildly hesitant to go to high placed myself, but I’m in the middle of a firefight…I would make the effort. Her character development just took her south the whole time. She was a decent character at the beginning and slowly started to fade when Shane appeared on the laptop. Then she dropped off of the character development cliff when Shane actually appeared. Staying out late and deceiving Cade just aren’t cool traits in a hero.

Shane is a pretty terrible character and he definitely didn’t help the film at all. Not only does he make sure to give up and essentially leave his friends to die whenever possible, but he’s really…stuck up. We’re supposed to take his side (I think) and sympathize with him because everyone only lives once and all, but I definitely did not. All of his lines were pretty cringe worthy and I’m glad that Cade gave him a tough time for the whole film. Shane should have just walked away and exited after his first scene. He would still be a bad character, but at least his appearances would be limited. His line about the mouthwash was just as bad as his other lines and I have to wonder how anyone could stand his “Cooler than you” attitude throughout the film. It works for guys like Gary Oak…but Shane. At least he (hopefully) won’t appear in the sequel.

Harold is another one of the big human villains in the film and he’s just as unlikable as you may have expected. There really isn’t any light at the end of the tunnel for him and he should at least expect that nothing will come of his plans. Does he really think that he will be able to just disappear and keep all of the money? I don’t believe that he thought things through and he just makes for a boring antagonist. Well, he also serves to bring up the moral aspect for the film, which we really didn’t need, but it happens.

James does things personally as opposed to hiring others to do the dirty work. He’s a decent fighter and he has a lot of past experience. In the end, he does get his own fight, but it’s out of place in this film and the fight scene is not fun. Michael Bay decided to make it ultra realistic and gritty so that it ends up being a scuffle that you want to fast forward instead of an epic fight. He’ll never be a likable character and I’m sure that everyone won’t even remember his name as they walk out of the theater.

Lucas is “The Friend.” Why the quotations? Well, in the Transformer films, there is always that one character who talks to the main character, thereby exposing that he’s a pretty petty person at heart. Sometimes, the character is just downright bad like Lucas. His first lines are terrible and I immediately disliked the guy. Haven’t we had enough characters who were attracted to everyone? Getting hit in the face by a Football was also embarrassing and his scenes get worse. He is supposed to be funny, but it’s hard to find him humorous when 1 out of every 3 jokes would just be in bad taste. Luckily, his appearance in the film is pretty brief. Tough to watch, but still brief.

As for the Dinobots, they were clearly added just to sell the tickets. They only really get to appear for a few minutes and most of their scenes have already been online for weeks thanks to trailers and clips. Worse than that is the fact that they just didn’t look very good. They were essentially mindless brutes who crave action, but lack skill. It’s cool for Optimus Prime fans to see him beat up Grimlock, but the fight is incredibly one sided. Prime just shows how slow and ineffective Grimlock is as he lands blow after blow. If he can be bested so easily, why are the Dinobots a game changer? It would appear that they are strong, but without skill and reason. Luckily, this is enough to take out the fake Transformers. The flying one was definitely the coolest design wise, but I can’t say much else for them. I expect much bigger things in the next film.

I have to say that I was disappointed in the film from the very beginning. Transformers’ intro for this film is one of the worst that I have experienced in quite a while. We start by getting to see an animal eaten and then a mass genocide where the animals don’t really get to make it. It didn’t get much better from there as that may have been the only big case of animal violence, but it was a really sad way to start the film.

The Transformers films have always had a lot of gross violence in them and I’m afraid that is doesn’t end with this film. An alien uses its tongue to attack one of the heroes and I’m sure that we all know what will happen as soon as the hero grabs the knife. It happens so often and it’s always pretty wince worthy to see the act. The hero may not have had a choice, but it’s the film made the choice to add the irrelevant scene as well.

How about the fight scenes in general? Well, the main problem with them is that there isn’t really any substance. The fights aren’t glamorous like Spiderman or expertly choreographed like Captain America. This results in really gritty human fights that aren’t even fun to watch and robots wrestling with each other. The human fight scene is just awful so I won’t really go into it, but it’s not enjoyable. It’s what you would expect from a film like 300 or a big war film like the Hobbit, not in Transformers. Then the fight scenes simply aren’t very enjoyable and I blame it on the effects.

Maybe Live Action simply isn’t ready to have large robots fighting each other. Every time they transform, the robots typically have to hit the ground or take a long time to complete the action. They just seem as if they aren’t comfortable as that size and every movement is an effort. A good example of this is when Prime tries to jump to another building as he’s being chased. His jump is pretty terrible and it would be akin to me trying to jump over a fire hydrant and tripping over it. Based on his size, the jump should have been no problem and easy for him. It’s as if the robots are just wearing robot suits, which restrict their movements and make everything stiff.

So, that translates into the fights. The only good fights in the film were really Prime’s final fight against Lockdown and also his fight against Galvatron. Even those weren’t amazing, but they were good enough. They were actual fights. The rest of the action in the film mainly consisted of just blowing up minions or car chase scenes. Technically, those two battles were probably the only fights in the entire film. We had a brief skirmish with Bumblebee and Lockdown, but it wasn’t long enough to be considered a fight.

That’s likely another one of the problems that we have here. The film has a lot of explosions and action throughout and it may have worked for another film, just not Transformers. I was waiting for the big mecha fights so I will admit that I was basically waiting for that the whole time and the rest was just padding. Unfortunately, that was pretty much all of the action that I was going to get. The film loves to show off Cade shooting the Transformers and the heroes “epicly” slaying the villains, but one hit KO attacks are never fun if they are around constantly. It’s like the Avengers film as they beat up on the aliens. At least we got some scuffles and a Hulk vs Thor fight before that. I would have been satisfied if we got more fights, but none of them really happened.

Horror films have a tendency to have the main characters swearing every few minutes, but typically action films don’t follow this. Now, Michael Bay is involved with the Transformers franchise and that could be why, but the characters are always yelling crude things whenever something explodes or they are shocked. We have the generic moment where the guy uses the “big” word and the audience clapped a lot. I could only metaphysically shake my head and wish that the G1 film would suddenly go on the air.

The next issue with the film was the….Fanservice! I really saw this one coming from a mile away, but it doesn’t make it any more bearable. We have the obnoxious friend of the main character who makes sure to be point it out and show that he isn’t a good person. Then we have the whole plot between Tessa and Shane, which is terrible. I’ve already talked about it in length so I won’t go into it so much, but it’s not cool. Naturally, Tessa is using the new fashion of super short pants that really do not even count as pants anymore. What is the world coming to? I could really go on, but you get the picture. To the film’s (Really) slight credit, there is much less fanservice than the first two films and possibly the third. So, the series is making some slight improvement in that area, but it’s happening too slowly. There really weren’t too many scenes like that, but the problem was that they were mostly at the very beginning, which really takes you out of the film as you have to try and forget them as soon as possible.

Human Empowerment is the theme that really helps to wreck the film. At one point, Cade gives Optimus Prime a speech about how he needs to learn how to trust humans again. Yeah…….no. No, that is not what Prime should do and Cade should feel ashamed for even mentioning that. He has no political power so he would be convincing Optimus to stay in a hostile place where the government will just destroy him at any time. Prime has already lost a whole lot thanks to the humans and he shouldn’t need to lose more. Unfortunately, we’re supposed to agree with Cade since we’re humans and all. I’d rather that Prime just blew up the planet or decided to rule it. Either way, the Earth would likely be a lot more peaceful.

Unfortunately, the biggest effect of human empowerment is that they look too good in the fight scenes. See, these kind of moments are added because it is supposed to unite us as fans. Many people cheered when Jaws was taken down and they did the same thing in Alien and Terminator. The problem is that it can be very hard to root for the humans in the modern films. I can safely say that the protagonist was likable in Alien and Jaws and the government wasn’t to bad so it was okay. Innocents were being taken down in Jaws so the main character took some steps. Capturing Jaws would have been a lot better and it would have helped the film jump up a few stars, but it happened. There weren’t really any innocents in Alien so it’s a little trickier and I don’t want to get too off topic. The problem in Transformers is that they show such a large amount of evil humans. These guys just want an excuse to murder sentient beings and they figure that destroying a Transformer will be fun. Thus, we get to see the humans destroy many robots and they’re sure to do it in cruel ways.

That’s one of the problems about being a hero. If the main characters had been 5 Decepticons, you can bet that the humans would already be destroyed. Unfortunately, the heroes don’t fight back until it’s too late and they’re never as advanced as the villains. The Decepticons always have some big weapon that they can use to enslave humanity, but the Autobot tech tends to be primitive in comparison. Aside from evil humans taking out the Autobots, we have the equally (un)believable moments of humans taking on villains.

Cade is the main offender of this as we get to see him mow down over a dozen robots. There’s one particular scene that is reminiscent of the Storm Troopers as he’s in plain view and all of the robots keep on missing him. There is no one else in this scene so you can’t make the argument that they are distracted. The robots simply keep on missing until Cade has fired enough shots to beat them. Another sad moment is when Cade jumps into the climax and he actually blocks a sword strike by lifting up his gun. I didn’t know that this guy could bench press several tons. The robot was swinging with full force and Cade just blocked it. That’s really unbelievable and it drives the human empowerment thing way too far.

The soundtrack is pretty good and Lockdown’s theme is easily the best part of it. It comes whenever he appears and it’s a nice theme of tension and sadness as you know that things won’t go well for the heroes. It’s pretty catchy and it definitely works for the film. The insert songs are also decent some of the time. We get a nice rock song as one point I believe and then we also have some soft ones that can be a little off putting. It definitely depends, but through it all, the soundtrack was pretty good. Not 5 star material, but definitely good enough.

I won’t even get started on the “rage” scenes where Optimus Prime and Cade fail to deliver. Every time….it just doesn’t work. I expected some more retaliation from them. The guy in the elevator who knew hand to hand combat was good and the girl with the motorcycle was a decent character as well. These two just got really small roles although the girl’s was almost big enough to be considered as a supporting character by the end. The lady who finds the bones in the opening basically vanishes so I can’t say that she got much of a role either. It was essentially filler since the Dinobots weren’t there. Then again, this film had a whole lot of filler so that it could get around 3 hours. All you need to do is look at the scene where a man asks if Cade has insurance…nuff said.

The film did have a moment of brilliance as one of Hasbro’s biggest franchises of all time got to make a cameo. MLP…Yes, My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic got a cameo as Rainbow Dash entered the stage. It was pretty intense and fans of the series will either like the cameo or feel that it is parodying the whole Brony issue. I won’t get into that here of course, but I’m sure that it was the latter since Bay loves to throw in stereotypes whenever possible. It was still nice to see Rainbow Dash get included though.

Overall, my hopes for this film were shattered. I just barely didn’t give it a negative rating as the film had so many flaws. I’m a pretty huge Transformers fan if I do say so myself and seeing this version of it can be unsettling. They essentially wrecked Optimus Prime and Drift. The Transformers look very weak since simple armaments can take them down for the count. The Dinobots were essentially thrown in at the last minute and the film still had some of the usual (terrible) humor and fanservice. Most of the characters were downright unlikable and the action wasn’t really enjoyable. Lockdown, Prime, Galvatron, Case, and the soundtrack helped the film to stay afloat. Believe it or not, I still have high hopes that future Transformers films can be good, but I believe that they will have to change a lot of the current roster. Getting a new director and writer would be a very good start and it should be a remake. This continuity needs to end! The ending for the film is decent thanks to the fact that it could help the sequel if we follow the big plot, but I have a feeling that it will be ignored and the next film will be on Earth again. I certainly hope not. Either way, the film was really long so there isn’t any replay value and I would definitely not recommend this film to anyone. (There isn’t even an after credits scene) If you want a good Transformers film, check out the original animated one. Now that was a film!

Overall 5/10

Flingsmash Review

Posted on June 28, 2014 by dreager1

I really love the 5 dollar bargain bin over at Gamestop. I decided to get another 4 Wii games over there, which was a steal. This is the first out of the 4 games that I’ve managed to complete and I can say that it was totally worth the 3 dollars (Slightly less) that I paid for it. It’s not bad and I believe that the game could have been even better if it had Gamecube controller support or had been on the PS3. It’s a fun idea, but it doesn’t work to 100% just yet.

The plot is…intriguing. A kingdom is attacked by a villain by the name of Omminus. This guy means business and his abilities are truly frightening. The royalty is backed into a corner and forced to fight fire with fire. Long ago, a hero saved their people, but he was then locked up for unknown reasons. What if they unleash a monster who’s even worse than Omminus? The King decides to take this risk and he opens the box, unleashing Zip. Can Zip stop Omminus? More importantly…does he want too!? Things could get dicey for the heroes.

The gameplay is your traditional Mario/Sonic 2D experience, but with a big twist. Zip cannot walk or run around as you are always suspended in the air. To move around, you must yank the Wii Remote in a direction and then Zip will charge that way. Waiting a second before charging will allow you to go faster and break stronger blocks. The screen moves on its own so you have to wait until the screen is far enough to continue, but you can’t hang back for too long or you’ll be eaten by a dragon. It’s a delicate art. There are 8 Worlds like in a typical Mario game, but there are only 3 levels and then a boss like the classic Sonic Advance series. (Like I said, it’s similar to both Mario and Sonic!) You need to collect three out of 5 Bronze Medals through the level to complete it and secure the pearl.

Through the levels, you can eat fruits that give you power ups like turning giant or splitting into three different Zips. These abilities are very useful and I highly recommend using them whenever possible. So, that’s essentially the gameplay in a nutshell. Just focus on grabbing those medals and making it to the end of the goal in one piece.

Why didn’t this gameplay ultimately work? The gameplay had a lot of potential, but what most gamers and game developers learned the hard way is that motion controls aren’t ready yet. Thus, the game can get a little difficult as Zip won’t go where you want him to go. The motion plus doesn’t really help and Zip was flying all over the place. Several times I lost a level because he made me miss one of the bronze medals. It’s also a little hard on the wrist and I’m glad that I won’t need to move like that again for a while. I haven’t used the motion controls so extensively since Barrel Blast and Wii Sports. (Both of which did a better job of using it) With a gamecube remote, it would have been a lot of fun to shoot around and it makes for a nice platformer with a little strategy built in. I can safely say that the game would have risen to a solid 7 and matched up against Mario Galaxy. (Mario Galaxy is clearly better, but they would both be 7s all the same) That being said, at least the motion controls make the game a little more difficult.

Zip is the main character and he started out as a great guy. He gets scared very easily and he’s definitely no Link or Megaman when it comes to bravery. Still, he fights for what’s right and you can’t help, but root for the poor guy. One can totally sympathize with him because being locked up for so long must be tough. Unfortunately, that goes out the window at the very end of the game as we find out why he was locked up. It’s a classic hero to zero moment as I lost all of my respect for Zip. Zip’s no hero and now I know why he was so worried against the villains. He’s never had to actually fight such a tough opponent before! It’s all been a lie and nobody was able to figure this out until it was too late.

Omminus is the main villain of the game and he’s pretty cool. He reminds me of one of the Super Paper Mario villains, Dimentio. Their powers are similar as well since Omminus has basic reality warping skills or something similar as he keeps on changing Zip’s physical appearance. That not only takes skills, but guts since nobody wants to mess with Zip. Omminus keeps his cool throughout the game and he’s a fun villain. I wouldn’t say that he’s a very tough villain, but Zip isn’t very powerful either so they couldn’t let the gap get too wide. His final forms are pretty scary and I can imagine people being at the edge of their seats when first fighting him at his best.

The graphics for the game are decent. It definitely doesn’t look bad by any stretch of the imagination, but there is nothing that you will find amazing either. Zip’s facial expressions can be a little intriguing, but that’s intentional. His grin is huge and you can’t help but grin as he goes after the villain. I definitely liked his character design even if I didn’t care for his character. I guess I’d say that the graphics were about average and leave it at that.

The soundtrack for the game is surprisingly brilliant. The boss theme is very catchy and that’s a good thing because it plays for every boss fight including the final one. It’s just fun to listen to and it never gets old. The main theme music for the main menu is great as well. It’s happy without overdoing it and the cheerful theme really makes you want to take the win.

Is there any Replay Value? I’d say that there’s a good amount since you’ll want to play all of the stages until you’ve gotten A ranks in them all. (I’m sure that S ranks will also unlock something) You obtain minigames for this and while I only unlocked one so far, it’s pretty fun. That should already be a good reason for a person to replay the levels and that’s really all you need. There are 32 levels in all and only 28 of them are needed for the A ranks. That may not sound like a lot, but this game will definitely last you for a while.

Overall, Flingsmash is a fun game and I don’t see why it’s already down to 2-3 dollars. I guess it fell under the radar and I’m sure that many people would enjoy it if they happened to come across the game. It’s not your standard platformer and it’s a nice concept, but the Wii remote can zap the fun out of just about anything. It still works, but the Wii Remote prevents Flingsmash from getting to the next level. I recommend getting the game if you don’t mind using the motion controls and the price definitely makes it affordable. I beat the game in 3 hours so don’t expect a long playthrough, but the replay value helps to make up for it. 3 hours of fun for 3 dollars isn’t a bad deal right? I found the game to be a little tedious during Worlds 2 and 3, but the game stepped up after that as the future worlds were a lot more interesting. Zip isn’t that great so you may want to play as the female counterpart. She definitely has more composure. Let me know how you enjoyed this game if you ever give it a shot!

Overall 6/10

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