Category Archives: Reviews

Super Bomberman R 2 Review

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It’s been quite a long while since I played the first Bomberman R. I can’t say this one was too high on my list but I ended up with a gift card to Best Buy thanks to the McDonalds monopoly event. So at that point this game was basically free and so that meant it was really time to have a little fun with this. The gam decided to add quite a bit of gimmicks and minigames to the usual Bomberman formula. I wouldn’t say they landed too well. It’s a decent game but this prevents it from being pretty good. The only thing that will help the game to stand on its own would be to get a lot of value out of the multiplayer mode.

The story starts with the Bomberman brothers being called into action once more as a dark force is taking over multiple planets. It quickly threatens to destroy life as we know it. Fortunately there are nice life forms made out of energy that want to help and can power up multiple objects and landmarks to help out the heroes. With these creatures, victory should be close at hand. But is there something that the main characters have not yet accounted for?

The story gets surprisingly dark by the end. For 90% of the story it’s all sunshine and comic relief as everyone is messing around but the dark truth behind the situation is what really ends up hitting hard. I would say that the heroes even make the wrong call here. They continue to go down a path that will lead to more deaths in order to save a bunch of people in the end. Sure, it makes sense if you’re purely looking at this in terms of the greatest good achieved, but sacrificing everyone along the way just feels like a really rough thing to do. I feel like most protagonists would end up trying to save the day on their own in order to spare everyone else.

As with the last game, Bomberman’s brothers are all on the very annoying side though. They really feel like they are just here to hold him back in a big way. Without them, Bomberman would be taking center stage and fighting without distraction. The game tries a bit too hard to make them all very quirky and likable. They end up being quirky but purely in an annoying way.

Now for the gameplay, it’s pretty standard Bomberman stuff. You walk around the levels and blow stuff up. Eventually you get to the end of the area which leads to a boss battle or to another area. There are 3 main worlds which each have 15 areas and then a fourth world which is basically a boss rush. The actual platforming is fairly fun. It feels like the retro days of Bomberman and works out well.

I also liked the castle boss levels where you have to run through a level as you try to grab a key to steal the crown. Along the way you have to dodge bombs from your allies as well as the enemies. It ends up being pretty easy as the AI isn’t very good but the concept was definitely very solid. So these two gameplay styles are very good but where things go sideways is when you get to the defense levels. In those levels, you have to defend a crown from a bunch of enemies who want to grab it. The problem is you really have to rely on the enemies making mistakes because otherwise this mode is heavily skewed to the attacker. You have control over how the level is set up so that’s where you really need to put most of your effort. I would always aim to funnel the enemies through one path by putting a lot of cannons.

The first world was really rocky but then I got the hang of it. Still, the tower defense levels just aren’t particularly fun. You are trying to survive them as opposed to just having a bunch of fun the whole time. it feels like this was rather forced and shouldn’t have been in the Bomberman adventure. Tower defense can be handled well but this game clearly didn’t have the chops to pull it off.

Meanwhile the graphics are pretty solid. There isn’t a ton of animation here but the art style works really well. Additionally the soundtrack isn’t bad. It’s mainly forgettable but then you have a really intense credits song that hits you with a whole wave of emotions. I was absolutely not expecting that at all. It really showed that you can’t underestimate the series at all. Bomberman was ready to take on any AAA title in that regard. It was real catchy and I will definitely listen to it again.

There isn’t much replay value n the single player experience. Most of the content is built around the online portion of the game. Likewise most of the trophies are online based so if you want to get the Platinum trophy then you will be out of luck there. Of course if you have PS+, then you get a lot more content right out of the gate. The character roster is also fairly large so that gives you some variety in gameplay since they all have unique skill. It’s one of those areas where it felt like the game put in quite a bit of effort. The developers feel pretty random in that regard as some thing are polished and other areas are not.

Overall, Bomberman R2 is a good game but the developers should have had more confidence in the actual bomb gameplay. If the whole game was a mix of the platforming and boss levels, then this would have been an absolute success. Instead, the game tried doing a whole lot of other things and they didn’t work out. We also have plenty of puzzles which appear during the game and for some of those I don’t know how you were supposed to solve it. I would just put bombs everywhere until I got an opening. I know that wasn’t the way the puzzle was meant to be defeated though. That’s the problem there. Hopefully a third game returns to the basics.

Overall 6/10

Bendy and the Dark Revival Review

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It’s time for the next Bendy adventure. I actually beat this one a little while ago so this review has definitely been waiting. Bendy is one of those titles that is always intense and so it’s a good October type of game. It’s fairly short so you won’t be playing it for too long but there is a decent amount of replay value in trying to Platinum the title. You do not want to miss out on this one if you have not played it yet.

The game starts out by introducing us to the new main character. She was working the late shift when she notices just how abandoned the place is. The only one left is the janitor and he tends to act rather suspiciously. Unfortunately the two of them seem to be locked in the workplace now and monsters are appearing everywhere. Is she even still in the real world? There are a lot of questions to answer and no obvious clues in sight. The only rule here is to never let your guard down.

That’s why the heroine does come across as being rather naive or just unintelligent for a good chunk of the adventure. The way she acts just doesn’t make sense at times like listening to a guy who is obviously evil and falling for the most basic of traps. It’s one of those games where you’re basically pleading with the main character not to talk into the 10th trap in a row but there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. In general there always tends to be a lot of backseat driving in a horror title for any medium but I dare say this one was more extensive than usual. You’re just really wondering why she isn’t coming to terms with what is going on.

The gameplay is initially more of an inspection game. You walk around and click on things that are suspicious. As the game goes on you get a weapon and that’s when the core gameplay really changes. Now you’re bashing all of the enemies that come your way with a few exceptions that are immune to your weapon. There is actually a super weapon that can beat them but I never came across it in the playthrough. For the most part I think I did a pretty good job of getting almost all the collectibles but I still missed a few.

You want to use the vending machine as much as possible and constantly hit enemies with the shock pipe since both things help you accumulate trophies. The more stuff you do upfront, the less grinding you will have to do in the post game after all. Same with knocking out enemies from behind, if you get into one of the areas where they respawn forever, I would recommend taking advantage of that.

I would need to go back and get them for the Platinum but that requires beating the game at least 3 times so I would definitely want to space that out quite a bit. There is a form of quick travel in the game that you unlock at the very end but unfortunately it is one of the clunkiest ones that I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to find various sewers and each one takes you back to another location but there is no map and this gets confusing very quickly. I appreciate the attempt but it is something that the next game could improve upon.

The gameplay is smooth outside of that though. Also if you think the action takes you out of the experience, you can play on a higher difficulty where I hear attacking is not nearly as good of an option. Stealth is the name of the game there and that will probably feel a whole lot more like vintage Bendy. I personally like the combat as it turns the whole thing into a full action title but to each their own.

The graphics are really good and you can clearly tell the difference between this one and the last installment. The developers made the most out of the new tech and it also helps with the scares because of how realistic everything looks. There isn’t as much of a soundtrack but of course that’s by design. I would have liked some hard rock tunes of course but it works well enough with what they’re doing.

While the game length isn’t super long, there is enough here where you don’t feel bad about the purchase. You’ve got a pretty good amount of content to go through as it is. Meanwhile like I mentioned earlier there is a good amount of replay value with getting the trophies. The story is also compelling so this is definitely a perfect example of a game that is worth the money and will provide you with a fun experience. You really can’t go wrong here.

Overall, This is definitely a really fun game and one that I would recommend. Longtime Bendy fans will get even more out of it as I didn’t notice some of the guest stars or easter eggs that popped up. It has more combat than the first adventure so you really get to have fun taking out the enemies and progressing through the adventure. It has a good amount of difficulty as well so you won’t just be closing your eyes and progressing through the levels. You’re going to have to work for your victories here and I look forward to seeing what happens in the next story. There is certainly a lot more Bendy to experience!

Overall 7/10

Satellite in the Sky Review

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It’s time for a sci-fi film that is a whole lot more low key than you may have suspected. As a result it can struggle to hold your attention at times even though it is fairly well written. The characters aren’t bad or anything but at the same time you do feel like some of the turnarounds are a bit too quick. Mainly the dynamic with the main heroine and the main character but I’ll get into that in a minute. So if you’re up for a low key film about space, then this could be the one for you.

The film starts off with Britain announcing their great Stardust spaceship. It is such a modern design that it will be able to travel in space indefinitely. Captain Michael and his crew are ready but Kim the reporter has a lot of choice words about this. She thinks exploring space is an absolute waste and keeps talking about how the rockets and science are too dangerous. It’s a fool’s game and all that. Now she’s welcome to her opinion but it goes a bit far when she sneaks aboard as a stowaway. That could have thrown everything off with weight limits and all.

Additionally, she is still quick to be flirting with Michael and the two of them hit it off. The tough talk feels like a weak front and the banter while fun, also feels fake. How would this be working out when Kim is insulting everything Michael stands for? They fight a whole lot but I guess all the insults just bounce off. The romance doesn’t make any sense and I don’t know why we needed it when there are two other romance plots going on here with the other passengers on the plane. The film certainly was not lacking in drama.

The biggest drama here is actually that the U.S. steps in to announce that they’ve covertly hijacked the mission to test a bomb. It was a quiet takeover since the U.S. funded the research and it was definitely a good power move. The main characters didn’t like it but ultimately fell into line rather quickly. They knew that otherwise there would be no space trip and they had been prepping for a long time for this mission.

Likewise, as the audience we were waiting a long time for this because it’s not until about halfway through the film that the characters even leave the Earth. I like a good setup as much as the next guy but I was expecting quicker pacing than that. The film is taking itself extremely seriously and I dare say that was a mistake. It might sound counterintuitive, but for a sci-fi film I’m going to be most interested in any issues that occur in outer space.

I think you could have cut some of the general scenes on Earth like one guy fighting with his girlfriend because she had to go to work and couldn’t make their date. He completely overreacted there by the way since he essentially admitted he would have done the same thing if his job suddenly called him in. So why should he be so upset at her for that? He barely even apologies a instead he calls her about a ring and that’s their big reconciliation scene but he needed to be more upfront on owning up to the fact that he made a mistake.

What probably makes the film feel a bit off is how there is no real antagonist here. Yeah you could say the government as a whole would fit that bill but it’s not really played out that way. Yeah the scientists are annoyed about having to work on a bomb but it’s not as if they think the government is suddenly evil. You don’t have the classic saboteur with a gun or anything like that. So the main conflict is when the characters have to find a way to safely jettison the bomb without everyone blowing up. Ultimately it is the power of science that is able to solve this issue. It’s fitting enough but not super exciting.

The film just abruptly ends when they solve the issue. I’m always up for a quick finisher but it does underscore that the characters weren’t really interesting enough to see how their stories ended. I would have liked to see if there was any blowback to the USA doing secret stuff in Britain’s experiment or if that would have just continued to be expertly covered up.

So this film will have its main appeal if you go into it expecting a slice of life. Travelling into space may not exactly be routine but it’s sort of treated that way. Everyone involved in the voyage is a professional aside from the reporter and so they’re rather relaxed about the whole journey. Kim makes sure to try and stress them out but rarely ends up succeeding. I can’t emphasize enough that if you’re looking for an exciting film you will need to look elsewhere. However, if you are looking for a calm experience then this will be up your alley.

Overall, This film ends up falling right in the middle for me. It’s not funny or thrilling enough for it to have any replay value and so I wouldn’t really be recommending it to anyone. On the other hand it doesn’t really make any mistakes and the writing is good on its own. So that’s why it ends up just being one of those films that will be forgotten in short order. Not making any mistakes is a solid start but you also have to have some individual strengths as a film to really make people want to watch it. If you’re going to do a very serious film about what it’s like to travel in space, then you have to punch up the writing a bit with extremely likable characters. Kim actually could have been that character if you just shredded the romance subplot. Have her try to sabotage the mission or just constantly making fun of everyone and then you have a solid antagonist right there.

Overall 5/10

Paradise Canyon Review

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It’s time for the last of the John Wayne films in this marathon. This one has a bit of a larger cast than usual thanks to everyone from the medicine show. It’s a pretty fun way to end things and John has a fun time trolling everyone as per usual. He is always ready for a fight and is the smartest guy around. I’d also say the film is going for even more of a comedic spin than some of the other installments

The film starts off with John being tasked with a mission to stop all the counterfeit money being produced in a nearby town. He dashes over and a medicine show will be a good cover so he helps out a group that was on the run from the sheriff. This group is not the most professional so it could be risky but John knows he will have to take some risks here. After all the villains are led by Curly Joe, one of the most dangerous outlaws out there!

One thing that will probably annoy you right from the start is how John is protecting Doc and his travelling band of scammers. Yes, it will help him get into town and keep a low profile but these guys are actually con artists. Doc apparently gets dunk so regularly that his daughter isn’t even surprised anymore. He’s apparently promised her dozens and dozens of times that he would stop and yet instead he still gets disorderly and skips out on the bill.

Yes, the characters are played for comic relief but they’re still crooks. Doc should have found another way to get into town. Even to the end Doc never ends up being a good character but he is a fun antagonist if you view him that way. He even goes out of his way to antagonize the cops once he is right outside of the state lines. Definitely not something you would respect out of a more reputable character. The pair of thieves who work as his assistants are hardly any better either.

As for Linda, she’s mainly here for the inevitable romance plot. There’s not much development there, it’s just around to tick off a few boxes. As for Curly Joe, he’s fun enough. He stands out more than some of the other western villains. The guy knows that bribery is the only chance he’s really got against John once the hero gets serious. Ultimately it’s all for naught for him but the guy was doing well with his criminal enterprise for a long while so he did still know what he was doing.

John is a fun main character even if he had to compromise on his morals for a while there in order to get things working. At the end of the day he still saved everybody and really showed the villains who was boss. Curly may not have made the best sales pitch but it was still good to see John shut him down right away and even delivered some more good one liners.

As always, one of the things that really helps make these films so much fun are all of the one liners. You can expect witty dialogue across the board throughout the films. This one is no exception as everyone is rather overconfident and of course the script is good. I definitely miss these kinds of old school films for that reason. The songs can use a little work and temporarily slow down the pacing during the show but I guess the film anted to squeeze at least one show in.

The overall soundtrack is definitely iconic to me after I’ve seen so many of these though. Then the fight scenes also aged well with the good hand to hand fights as well as a little gun action. John is always able to come out on top. The pacing is good which goes without saying since the film is under an hour long. It’s not particularly hard to move at a fast pace when that’s your runtime after all. Technically the last maybe 15-20 minutes are all for the long climax so the film has its priorities straight.

Overall, Paradise Canyon is a pretty good film. The title itself doesn’t feel like it has much to do with the film at all but I suppose they just wanted a catchy title that is easy to remember. It definitely works in that respect. There isn’t a lot for me to say to really make this stand out from the others so I would just say that if you enjoy John Wayne films then you’ll like this one as well. This movie has it all, the classic frame up job, John taking on numerous enemies, long horse chase scenes, etc. They manage to squeeze all of this into under an hour as well. Now if you don’t like the old western setting or want to see something a bit more unique, then that’s the only reason to skip this one.

Overall 7/10

Pokemon Legends: Z-A Review

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It’s time for the latest big Pokemon adventure. I was definitely hyped to get this one as soon as they announced it. At this point Pokemon is just one of those games that you have to get right away. It may not always have the life or death stakes that you will see from other big games but the pure gameplay and quality of life features are always on point. This game is incredibly smooth and while you may run into the occasional issue, I can recommend it without any reservations. It’s really just a lot of fun all the way through.

The game starts off with the main character getting off the train into a new town. His luggage is stolen but a girl helps him get it back and asks if he wants to join her team. She helps keep the city safe while working at a struggling hotel. The manager, AZ is a guy who is said to be 3000 years old and is rather mysterious. Still, this means the main character has a place to live and immediately has 3 friends so it’s a pretty good deal. He agrees to help and gradually rises up the ranks. Still, there is something mysterious about the tower in the middle of the city. Terry may be uncovering a mystery that leads to disaster!

Now to be clear, around 90% of the game is just happy slice of life adventures. If you’re looking for a super epic game, this isn’t really it. Although the climax does end up being pretty intense so I have to give it some credit there. The game also has a good amount of callbacks to the original XY games and the continuity is pretty strong. I wasn’t expecting much in that area so it was a pretty nice bonus. Also while the game isn’t particularly difficult, the climax did raise the level for the opponents quite a bit. I ended the game around level 80 and that felt right for an adventure like this.

The main campaign took me around 20 hours and there is a short post game that would probably add a few more. You’ve got a good amount of content for your dollar here. Completing the Pokedex and all of the challenges will probably take a little time as well although probably not a ton. The game keeps the recent addition to the games where every member of the party gets EXP at the same time which helps a lot. You can also earn screws to permanently increase the exp boost and other passive effects.

I ended up getting enough screws for most of the passive effects. There are also about 140 side missions, I beat maybe 20 of those. They’re mostly all really fast and easy so you can have fun going through those. The most important thing here is that the game is just a lot of fun to play. It’s why you can even go out of your way to play the bonus content because it’s very easy to access. I didn’t come close to 100% or anything like that but I certainly had more fun exploring and doing bonus content than in other games. It just ended up feeling natural.

Now when it comes to the gameplay, this is a full real time adventure. So when you call the Pokemon out, you can have it use any of the 4 moves. There is no PP or energy meter this time so you can spam the attacks after the cooldown is over. This is fun but it does mean that the game is way less strategic than usual. Just spam your attacks until you win. Potions and revives are dirt cheap so you can keep on healing your Pokemon until you win. It’s why you should rarely lose here. The only time you may lose is if you let your guard down and let the Pokemon attack you directly. You have a health bar of your own but you can’t see the progress of it so sometimes you will die when you thought you had more health.

Occasionally your Pokemon will attack a wall by mistake or something like that but otherwise I didn’t really encounter many glitches. At times if there are too many Pokemon, the game can’t load them all so they teleport out of nowhere but these instances are few and far between. While the game may not be the most strategic, I still had a lot of fun battling. That’s a good thing since you will have to defeat well over 200-300 opponents over the course of the story. Many fights are over in less than a minute though so I have to underscore how quick they are.

Meanwhile the graphics are pretty solid. The game looks good even if it’s not quite at 2025 level. It looks like a game you may have played on the PS3 at some point. Nintendo isn’t worried about graphics though, they’re here to hit you with intense gameplay and they succeed on that front. The soundtrack is also way better than you may have expected. The songs have a lot of pop to them and there is a large amount of variety. Various bosses have their own theme which is really nice since lately you are stuck with just a general boss theme.

As you play through the game, you will have more and more areas where you can engage in a little platforming. It’s pretty fun and a good way to get more items. The world has an abundance of rare candies and screws to trade for more power ups. They even seem to be unlimited but I could be wrong about that. Either way the game is set up so that it’s very easy to level up. This allows you to switch up your party if you want to. For the most part I didn’t do much switching as I get attached to my main fighters but it wouldn’t set you back much if you did. Of course I recommend saving your rare candies as long as possible since each one is a guaranteed level up so you get the best bang for your buck if you wait until near the end in order to snag it.

Overall, This was a great game. I do get the concerns about the company phoning in the effort to an extent. It’s clear that this wasn’t a super high budget game and the lack of voice acting is still disturbing. That being said, it’s a lot of fun to play and at the end of the day that is the most important part for any video game. It never felt like the story was dragging on for me and there was no point where I just wanted to put it down. I could easily keep on marathoning it for a long time and I have to give the company a lot of credit there. The gameplay itself is really tight and that makes up for having a smaller world/cheaping out on different areas. I’ll still be eagerly awaiting the next Pokemon game as soon as it comes out!

Overall 8/10

Sensor Review

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It’s time for one of Ito’s horror titles. This one definitely brings on the scares but I would say it is significantly less scary than any of his anthologies. It’s just missing that crazy atmosphere those had, but it could be because as a serialized story there is just less chance to be as weird. Also it is scarier than some of the short stories so maybe it was more luck of the draw than anything else. Either way it’s interesting but does have a very weak ending.

The story starts with a girl named Kyoko who happens across a village where everyone seems a bit off. They insist on her sticking around to see the stars with them as they explain how they have cosmic awareness. There was a prophet who used to live there and when he died, his remains were in the volcano and occasionally his golden hair shoots out. The whole thing seems a bit hard to believe but they all die during an eruption while Kyoko is protected by the golden hair. It all merges with her and she now understands the truth of the universe. The problem is that various cults are now after her and she must spend the rest of her life on the run.

This brings us to a reporter named Wataru who becomes interested in the case. Unfortunately the more that he digs into it, the more he becomes tangled within this affair. Why has Kyoko not aged in 60 years? Do these cults actually have super powers or are they just crazy? Wataru’s world is about to go upside down from normal events to something that does more than just border alongside the supernatural. If he’s not careful, this will be the end of his short lived career.

The story works on a mostly episodic perspective until the end. Of course with this being one volume it does move pretty fast during the climax. The story also maintains the mystery angle all the way to the end so for the cosmic stuff you just have to roll with it. Kyoko has vague powers regarding seeing the future and being able to read people’s minds but she is unfortunately not able to see her own future and can’t read the minds of the characters who really matter. By the end it’s hard to say how much is still her and how much is the cosmic awareness within her actually trying to get out.

It makes for an interesting storyline but it does come at her expense. We never got to know her for very long so it’s hard to really say what her real personality was. She is a good character though and stays strong no matter how many trials she goes through. In a way it would be an interesting predicament to suddenly have all knowledge but to the point where it is crippling so you have to actively turn your cosmic mind off and on at times.

Meanwhile for Wataru, he’s completely out of his depth the whole time. He’s not bad but a little slow on the ball. It feels like he spends the whole series confused. For a while there it makes sense but once he’s seen enough things, I think he’s just got to roll with it. It should be obvious right away why people can’t see him in the past and for the stalker girl who was after him, he needed a more aggressive approach once she was working with a whole evil organization. Now there’s not much he could have done about all of that, but that’s why he needed a more aggressive front.

The stalker girl was probably the most interesting antagonist though. In some ways I would say she is the scariest because she’s a total psycho and with her magic powers, no cop can stop her. So Wataru has to truly live in fear whenever she shows up. Her eventual goal of merging with him would also be super scary. The cult leader gets some intense visuals but the reason he’s less scary is probably because his goals involve the cosmos and you can tell that he is absolutely over his head. In a sense that makes the terror be a bit less because he can’t accomplish his goal, compared to the girl who could crush Wataru.

Aside from the general horror, the volume also goes into some gross horror which tends to always be a thing with this author. There’s one story about a bunch of suicidal bugs who want people to smash them and then they regenerate to do it all again. Definitely some tough visuals to look at but I will give the author some credit. It’s such a specifically spooky concept that I don’t think anyone else would have come up with that.

Some of the stories in the anthology could go a bit too far in different areas as well while this one feels more on the same side. You can tell Ito isn’t afraid to tackle any topic and the volume is still dark but at least people are mainly dying in normal ways this time. They aren’t drowning in oil or anything like that. It would be a bit tough to recommend this volume without knowing a lot about someone’s threshold for all kinds of horror though. Then for people who are huge horror buffs, some of this might be a little too subtle with the slow burn approach to really get them.

So the appeal feels like it would be rather narrow. Also like I mentioned, the ending is really underwhelming. I feel like it’s going for a full cycle kind of ending but even if it makes thematic sense, it’s just not very satisfying. I would have either liked a big victory for Kyoko as she finally cuts loose or more of an epilogue showing what she is doing now. Otherwise the ending just feels a bit weak because it’s going to take place over a long time frame that doesn’t really end up affecting the Earth for a while. Maybe I just needed a bit more of a classic horror fake out or something.

The artwork has that classic Ito feel to it. While some background characters can start to look really similar, the abstract nature of the art helps to make it very scary. The art also goes really hard for the big zoom ins when you have a villain with a scary face or some other shocking visual like that. The style works perfectly for horror like this and will definitely keep you at the edge of your seat.

Overall, Sensor is definitely an interesting manga. It’s one of those very eerie titles where everything is just a bit off. I don’t think it’s Ito’s most effective or engaging one as the plot isn’t super interesting but it will still have you doing some thinking. I also think whenever you can get the reader to be slightly unnerved, it means the horror is succeeding. The volume also manages to do it with minimal shock value. It’s still not necessarily my thing and I wouldn’t rank it too high, I would sooner re read it than some of the others. It would also make for a pretty fun movie. So if you like horror, then you should definitely check it out.

Overall 5/10

Fatal Fury Special Review

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Fatal Fury is one of those video game series that has done pretty well for itself. It has tons of games and remakes over the years and yet it has always struggled to reach the same heights as Street Fighter and Tekken. It’s tough for any fighting series to match those two though. Street Fighter has decades of legacy among the core fans and Tekken has its legendary story. Fury is sort of stuck in the middle of that and has to share a lot of screentime with King of Fighters. Still, this is a pretty fun game to check out on the Nintendo Switch Online. A true retro title that keeps you on your toes.

I jumped right into Arcade Mode and naturally picked Terry Bogard as my character. That guy is a whole lot of fun to play and he’s also a good all around fighter. So I couldn’t really ask for much more than that. The arcade mode is quite a bit longer than the average one. Usually you have around 8 fights in this mode but this game went closer to 15. Not bad eh? It really makes you work for this and you fight all kinds of secret bosses.

It was a good decision because it does make you feel like you are playing the special version here. The gameplay is very smooth and you will have fun mixing up your combos. The game does a good job of not letting it feel like the villains know all of your moves ahead of time. You can actually “trick” them with a mixup every once in a while which was definitely a good thing. It helps make the whole thing feel more realistic.

Naturally the graphics are fun with the retro sprite look. It will feel like you were playing the game right at the arcade. The soundtrack is also very old school and fast paced to match the action. There are a good amount of levels for the game considering how old it is. There isn’t an abundance of content here so the value is really going to be in the multiplayer. That’s true for most fighting games to be honest. I’d say the ones with a robust story mode are outnumbered by the multiplayer ones, certainly back in these days that was even more true.

So compared to newer games in the series this one won’t be able to compete but if you look at it in a vacuum, this is a good game. It’s very basic but delivers what you are looking for in a fighting game. The characters all have distinct movesets and the combat is executed well. The gameplay is smooth and the game doesn’t seem overly unbalanced. I’m sure it probably would be in the hands of an expert but for the most part on a casual level it feels like the devs did a really good job here.

At this point I own most of the Fatal Fury games. I’m certainly not caught up but I’m always glad to play a fun fighter like this one. The Switch Online has been a great way to play through a lot of retro games so I look forward to seeing which ones come up next. There is certainly still room for quite a lot more titles in the future especially if they keep on adding more consoles.

You probably won’t need rewind a whole lot for this one compared to some of the other old games but of course it can never really hurt. Some of the secret bosses at the end can really hit like a tank and the game’s sped is just fast enough where it can be difficult to react to their attacks at times. You have to absolutely bring your A game at all times and also have to be careful not throwing out too many big hits. They deal a lot of damage but naturally leave you open for quite a while as well.

Overall, Fatal Fury Special is a really good game. It’s one of those titles that reminds you of the fundamentals the whole time. You can’t just close your eyes and start spamming specials. Instead you have to slowly close the gap and win. Also I couldn’t figure out how to use most of the special attacks even if I wanted to do them. So I did a lot of sweeps and throws which is a fun and balanced way to play anyway. I would definitely recommend checking this game out.

Overall 7/10

Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind Review

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Uncle Bubsy has returned! It’s always fun to play another title in the franchise, even if this one does end up feeling a little more dated than the last few. The game doesn’t have the best gimmicks and is a reminder of why sometimes the platformers should really play it straight. When you start to get into all of these gimmicks, it distracts from what could have been a better game. Ah well, that’s just how it goes sometimes though.

The general format here is that of a 2D platformer. You are trying to get to the yarn ball at the end of the level but along the way you will have to dodge several obstacles and take on enemies. Bubsy himself is very fragile so a single hit will take out his life. Yes, there are no rings to protect you or a bigger form to absorb one hit. If you get hit at all then it’s curtains and it is very difficult not to get hit here. I’m afraid that puts you in a rough spot because there are a ton of obstacles here.

The game does not hold back in terms of difficulty. This is the kind of game where you really have to concentrate at all times because if your concentration slips at any moment, then it is curtains for you. There will be no coming back from all of that. Of course that is where the rewind feature comes in handy. Without that, it would be incredibly difficult to defeat this game. You would certainly have to be going slow which is what the developers intended. My problem is that this goes against the genre.

Now this might just be me, but I like to be zooming through levels. I don’t want to have to be going really slow and watching out for things at all times. I want to be having fun going through the levels. This is hardly the only game to do that though so it’s really just a debate between me and the genre itself. If you can get past that, then the game is fundamentally sound. I can’t really give any big negatives against it.

The graphics are also pretty solid and that’s in large part because they have a really fun artstyle here. It’s the kind of artstyle that will continue to look really good even 20 years from now. So Bubsy did good there and the soundtrack is decent although I will say it is a lot more forgettable. I couldn’t recall any of the tunes for you right here but during the gameplay they certainly sounded good enough.

There isn’t a lot of replay value because the game itself is fairly short. Not like there is an extended postgame here or anything like that. Of course that is fairly par for the course when it comes to platformers. Ultimately it’s a game that I would recommend checking out but only because it’s on the Switch Online. If you had to buy it, then I’d say to make sure you could get it for around $10-$15. Purely because you won’t be playing it for very long and you want to make sure not to overdo it.

One of the ways I’d improve this game aside from removing the maze like structure would be to fix the jumping. The mechanics here are way too floaty and it makes things difficult for you when it comes to momentum. The jumps are harder than they should be and naturally that just results in more deaths. Seeing as how platforming is all about jumping and crisp movements, this ends up hurting the game as a whole and should be a top priority to tighten up. I would also say you should be able to endure at least one hit and adding more checkpoints would be a nice addition as well.

Overall, Bubsy is a good game but definitely not a great one. There are too many obstacles to have to run around and the mazes can get rather old. The bosses are also a bit glitchy with one of them just dying and nothing happened so I had to restart the battle. If they had stuck to pure platforming then this would have probably worked but the back tracking and dying to every obstacle really takes its toll here. I will still be hyped for a more modern adventure though because you can see the potential here. It’s just a little dated in multiple ways.

Overall 6/10

Audrey Rose Review

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This is one of those films that can only happen if all of the characters are as passive as possible. They are continually not standing up to the situation and so the things deteriorate. The film tends to be on the annoying side as several characters act really crazy but nobody really does anything about it. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Bill had completely crashed out in the courtroom because to an extent it would have been justified.

The film starts off by introducing us to Bill and Janice who live a normal life with their daughter Ivy. Unfortunately a weird man has been stalking them for a while now and they quickly realize that he is mainly stalking their daughter Ivy. One day Janice is in a car crash so this man named Hoover takes the chance to meet with Ivy and then has dinner with the parents. He explains that he thinks Ivy is the reincarnated soul of his own daughter who died in a tragic car accident and so he intends to keep on meeting with Ivy. Bill says this is crazy but the cops can’t help since nobody has been hurt yet. Unfortunately Janice thinks that Hoover may be right and so Bill will not have to find a way to stop Hoover while also watching out for his own wife.

Janice is easily the most annoying character here because of how quick she was to believe Hoover. He starts talking crazy for a few minutes and she immediately thinks that he may be on to something. We learn that Ivy has had crazy episodes on her birthday for a long time now and this would track with the date that Hoover’s daughter died but that’s still a rather big stretch to go through here. Janice immediately ignores how weird it was to have Hoover following her for so long and even invites him up to her apartment to help Ivy through one of the episodes.

Hoover is able to help Ivy each time but this feels like an awful big chance considering his intentions. Also just letting a crazy guy into your house is basically asking for trouble. Then even after Hoover kidnaps Ivy to go to his place, Janice is quick to side with him here. She completely betrays Bill in court and does seem willing to let Hoover keep the kid. She really closed off any chance for her and Bill to come to terms here. They were just way too far apart and she gave up her kid too quickly.

Janice is panicking for most of the film so she doesn’t always make a lot of sense but she made all of the mistakes possible. I’d also say that Ivy looks pretty bad here since she is soundly defeated by the spirit of the other girl. She seems to have no mental defenses here as she crawls into fire and burns herself at several points just because the other girl forced her to. Can Ivy not fight on her own? I get that in these possession type of films that always tends to be the case but it can be annoying. In this film the opponent is another girl who was around the same age. This should not be as hard as usual.

As for Hoover, well the guy seems nutty from the start. He drank the Kool-Aid real fast and then didn’t choose the best way to make an impression on the family. In this film the whole reincarnation thing appears to be true so then he should have found a better way to break the news. The way he did it would make anyone think he was insane. Honestly the best way to get close would be to own a nearby business or become a teacher but that isn’t as easy as it looks. So in that case, rent a nearby room and try to be a good neighbor. Or just meet up with the family and talk rather than stalking. It would have been hard to have made a worst first impression.

As for Bill, he definitely doesn’t plan to be very agreeable right from the start of the film but I don’t blame him. This is his daughter we’re talking about and Hoover effectively wants to take her away or be a second parent. No way he could let that fly. Hoover also continually refers to Ivy as Janice’s daughter as well as his and leaves Bill out of this. Unfortunately Bill isn’t very strong and easily loses to Hoover in every confrontation.

It was not a good look there and it was also crazy that Bill forgot his own apartment has a back entrance that is unlocked. I know it was a tense moment but how do you forget that? I was definitely rooting for Bill in the court case. Yeah a lot of weird stuff was going on and perhaps Bill could have handled some things better but on the whole he was doing what he could. He was prioritizing his daughter which is the only choice that makes sense in this situation.

The film doesn’t even have a satisfying ending so that definitely ensured that this was not going to be a very positive film. You’ve got a mostly annoying cast of characters with a kid who has absolutely no idea what was going on and then you couldn’t even stick the landing. This is definitely not a film that will stand the test of time as I would say it hasn’t even aged well up to this point. It’s not particularly scary either, just more on the annoying side.

Overall, This is a film that I would recommend skipping. On the whole I’ve never been all into possession films and this one is no exception. Not even the courtroom scene could save it, although I was glad that it was there. It was nice to see the rest of the world a bit although I would have liked to have seen what the jury made of all this. I like to think that they all thought Hoover was super crazy but Janice turning sides would have definitely hurt the situation quite a bit. It would have all been more interesting than the main plot. A good ending could have at least helped things out but ultimately there was to be no saving grace for this film.

Overall 3/10

And Soon The Darkness Review

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It’s time for a film that really reminds you to follow common sense and to be careful when travelling in a strange land. There are all kinds of things that can go wrong when you’re in unfamiliar territory after all and that becomes apparent very quickly. Unfortunately the film is going to rather extreme methods to point this out and the film quickly ends up going for the low hanging fruit here. Certainly one relying on cheap tension to keep you at the edge of your seat and so that’s not going to be a winning strategy.

The movie starts by introducing us to Jane and Cathy who are biking across France. They don’t really speak much French but this seemed like a fun way to spend the holidays. Unfortunately Cathy wants to take a break in the middle of nowhere and the two were already off the beaten path. Jane points out what a terrible idea this is as it will be dark out pretty soon but Cathy doesn’t care and goes back to sleep. Jane is forced to go on without her and sure enough, Cathy vanishes and is presumed dead. Jane doesn’t want to give up on her but night is approaching soon and a mysterious guy keeps on following her. This feels like trouble.

I am going to blame Cathy for a lot of this right from the start because she was being completely unreasonable. You can’t just decide to go to sleep when the place is already dangerous. That doesn’t make any sense and she resists all of Jane’s efforts to make her get up. So when Jane eventually leaves I could not blame her because staying there would have just resulted in both of them being dead. Yeah leaving your friend is always rough but it’s not like Jane could physically force her to get up. That would be an even fight at best and then you have to drive both of them with the bikes.

Cathy also didn’t seem to have much of a sense for danger with how she was encouraging the weird stalker throughout the opening. You probably want to be keeping your distance at that point instead of thinking about how cool he looked. So yeah she played every part of this as badly as possible and definitely made Jane’s life a whole lot harder.

As for Jane, she was a good friend the whole time. She went out of her way to try and help Cathy by taking a lot of risks and doubling back to find her. Jane would have been all the way to safety immediately if she hadn’t had to go back. Jane also studied so she knows at least a little bit of French which helps out. It may not be enough to speak the language but she can tell when a translator is lying about what is going on at least. Ultimately she was much sharper about her surroundings and wouldn’t make anything easy for the villain.

As for the mysterious guy, Paul, well he definitely does a terrible job of trying to look normal. He tends to be very quiet for large parts of the film and when he speaks it is always to say something that just makes him look more suspicious. I can’t forget how he asked Jane if she wanted to search deep in the woods with him during their first real conversation. That’s something only a possible serial killer would say right? Throughout the film we learn about how he’s lying to her on several occasions and in the past another woman was murdered around this spot.

The film very much enjoys its misdirects and twists but does so in a very low effort way. Basically it makes people act very suspiciously and in ways that do not make sense in order to help trick the audience. So it’s basically cheating by that point and will have you shaking your head. There is a very small cast here so you’ll probably see through it pretty quickly but it doesn’t help make the experience any better.

Meanwhile of course the film would immediately not be satisfied with just murdering the heroes and so the threat is very quickly escalated into being more than that. So now as the audience you have to hope that even if Jean dies, at least it’s quick because the motive for the villain is going to be rough. It’s what I would call cheap tension here. The film isn’t confident that it can actually make you nervous on the basis of the writing or characters so it has to add on extra elements.

The villain gets away with a bit too much here and I definitely wouldn’t have minded missing out on the details. Even the climax of the film has to go on with this rather than just having a quick fight. Yeah this movie was definitely doomed and it’s a very dreary affair. There aren’t many lighthearted moments ere at all and the film’s pacing isn’t always great. They don’t translate any of the dialogue in order to help you experience how lost the main heroine is. I understand the goal here narratively but it also means there are just more scenes that are effectively gibberish.

The film will also probably hit harder for people who have ever been tempted to do something like this. Biking across the country as a way to explore the unknown does not interest me in the slightest. It’s not something I would ever want to do and even if it was guaranteed to be safe, it’s just not my cup of tea.

Overall, This is one of those films that definitely feels rather mean spirited. It’s definitely collecting all the things that can go wrong if you wander into the wrong area but you don’t really need a whole film about that. A simple disappearance or getting lost in an unknown territory could make for a good suspense film. Once you add in the threats of being assaulted by creeps and other elements like that, then it just feels like one of those cheap thrillers you might come across on TV. It’s not a film that is seriously trying to impress you with a good message or anything like that. I would definitely say to avoid this one as much as possible.

Overall 1/10