Category Archives: Reviews

The Old Dark House Review

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It’s time for a bit of a blast from the past since I actually saw this one quite a while ago. It’s a pretty interesting story about a group who ends up at a strange house where there is something a little off about everyone. It may not stand out a whole lot next to some other haunted house movies but with something constantly happening it will certainly keep you entertained. The moral is that sometimes it is better to stay outside in the car instead of wandering into a haunted house.

The film starts with Philip and Margaret bickering a whole lot after they had gotten lost on the road. They can’t figure out a way to get where they were going and then the car gets stuck in the mud. With a heavy rainstorm ongoing their only option is to head inside of a mysterious house for shelter. Well, they are granted entrance by Horace but he is bickering with his sister Rebecca constantly so it’s like going from the frying pan into the fire. Rebecca is very into the supernatural, Horace seems to treat everything like a bit of a morbid joke and then they have a butler who cannot speak but seems to be rather creepy the whole time. Did I mention that there seems to be someone upstairs?

That’s not even accounting for the fact that two more strangers wander in later on. More crazy people or just here to throw a little romance into the adventure? After all, Roger is basically a third wheel to the main couple. Yeah the film actually does squeeze in some romance amidst all of the horror and the large cast so like I said this film is really chock full of story and different plots going on.

The writing is pretty solid. Everyone speaks in a very distinguished way and the film does get that eerie feeling across rather well. It does live up to the hype of being a haunted house but less so for the house itself and just the inhabitants. That’s probably scarier anyway since not everyone is scared of ghosts but strange people who could be mass murderers? Yeah that’s pretty scary.

As the main character Philip can be more on the annoying side at times. I do think he was a bit much in how he was in a bad attitude during the drive. He gets along with Margaret better once they are inside at least though and isn’t as afraid of everyone as some of the other characters. He’s willing to go up and get the lamp at least even though it’s…upstairs!! So there’s that.

Margaret is a character who makes it a point to say that she doesn’t scare easily at first but then spends most of the film getting scared a lot and panicking so it wasn’t a good look for her. She at least had a better attitude than Philip initially but loses a lot of points for this. She also tends to run off on her own and get into trouble which is a really bad idea here. You need to always stick together when you’re in a strange place like this.

Morgan’s by far the worst character though. A pretty terrible antagonist who is basically a wild animal just trying to go after Margaret the whole time. Whenever he’s on screen tends to be the most annoying part. The guy’s fairly strong and usually handles whoever goes up against him but I prefer the more subtle kind of horror in these films. Having someone like this doesn’t add anything to the table.

Philip’s friend Roger is fun. His romance plot definitely comes across as really rushed given the circumstances but I like the fact that he’s at least having fun with all of this. While everyone else is panicking and getting scared he’s just laughing and having a good ole time. Nobody’s about to scare him. It feels like he’s always subtly mocking everybody.

Gladys is a fun character. There is no rebound going on here at least as the guy she came into the house with is just a friend. For once the film has no twists about this and that he secretly likes her or anything. They’re just good pals and he takes care of her. So Saul’s a pretty decent guy. The only part he’s upset about is the fact that Roger has no money and doesn’t seem like a very serious guy. Very valid reasons to be a little skeptical at least but ultimately he accepts this.

As for the house inhabitants, they’re all rather flawed of course. Horace is a fun guy but he is really just sitting back and allowing all of this craziness to unfold. He’s not even brave enough to go upstairs which says a lot about his character. The guy may seem like he’s having a fun time but is always scared out of his wits. At least Rebecca is taking charge the whole time but you never know when she will go on one of her crazy tirades. It makes for some pretty entertaining scenes though. Margaret really needed to stand up for herself more though.

Then we have the most random character at the end, good ole Saul. So the climax is hilarious in some ways even if it’s trying to be serious. So some old man shows up claiming that he’s completely harmless but grabs a giant knife. So he talks for a while and then one of the heroes lets his guard down and gets knocked out. Come on how are you going to get beat up by an old man who doesn’t train or exercise or anything?

Yeah really bad look but the whole climax is so sudden and random that it is pretty funny though. The film actually has a lot more action than you would expect from all of the Morgan fights as well as the climax fight with Saul. It’s really just wild stuff that you have to see to believe because it’s such a massive departure from the actual premise of the movie. Anti-shoutout to the two heroines hiding in a closet the whole time though. When it’s life or death like this I feel like everyone needs to try and help out. After all of the guys lose then the girl will die shortly afterwards so there’s no benefit in hiding. Either you all win or you all lose.

Overall, This was a pretty fun film. It’s got some fun unintentional humor and the writing is fun. The ending is also so nonchalant after everything that went on. Definitely a product of its time but one that has a decent amount of replay value so yeah I’d end up recommending it. It’s also something you can really impress people with since I’m sure the average moviegoer has probably never even heard of this film. It’s not exactly an iconic movie after all.

Overall 7/10

Mario Golf Review

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Golf is one of those sports that I was never really into. Whether it’s watching the real thing on TV or playing a video game I could just never get into it. I don’t know there’s just something about the sport that’s a bit too slow paced for me. The best Golf video game I’ve ever played was the Mario Golf for Gamecube and even that one wasn’t great. It’s still better than this one though which tries reasonably hard but just doesn’t have much to it. After hitting the ball around a bit you are definitely ready to move onto something else.

There isn’t really any story in this one unfortunately. I liked that the GBA game had a full story but this is back to just trying out every stage and maybe winning a tournament here and there. I played on all of the locations and there is some variety but it’s not nearly as significant as you would expect. Not to bring the Gamecube game into this again but that one had deserts, ice worlds, bowser, etc. The stages all really popped out and I think that’s part of why I enjoyed the game more than usual. I remember pouring hours and hours into it trying to unlock the new worlds and each one was so difficult to unlock. Eventually when I finally got the worlds it would feel like such a massive accomplishment. Like I pulled off the impossible, you know?

Here all of the stages seem to already be unlocked so that reward is gone. Now granted, maybe that’s just the Switch Online setting everything up or there is a secret that I missed. Don’t take this as definitive, but it seemed like everything was there except for the characters which you could unlock individually. I appreciated that since unlocking characters is always fun. In a dream world every game would be like Super Smash Bros Ultimate where you had to unlock everyone one by one. The Challenger Approaching screen is one of my fondest memories…but lets get back on topic.

There’s just not a whole lot to do here beyond playing Golf. That probably sounds rather obvious but what it means is that if you don’t find the Golf gameplay exciting then there is really nothing left for you and that’s exactly what happened to me. There also aren’t some quality of life updates that the next games had like scoping out the whole field and having different arrows telling you the exact point on the meter you needed to aim for. I’m pretty good at timing if I do say so myself so that would have been reasonably easy but it just didn’t work out this time. So I was really just guessing and hitting the ball all over the place.

As you can probably guess, I didn’t win any of the levels. My score on average was a +2 and for sure you can bet that I didn’t get an Birdy’s. The opponents did not hold back and really just went out of their way to bury me the whole time. No problem, I can take it but unlike most games where I can easily picture myself winning, I can tell that this one would take a lot of practice and time. Not exactly part of my plan so I’ll just have to hold the L on this one.

Naturally I will give the game props for the graphics. The game looks very sharp as you would expect and the level designs are good. Perhaps not as varied as they could be but they all stick out. I also liked seeing some new characters in the mix like Plum. It’s a shame that she never caught on and got to appear more. The soundtrack isn’t quite as memorable as Tennis or Kart but there are some good tunes here to keep you busy while you’re playing the levels. I really have no problems on the technical side. If the gameplay was better then automatically I would find this to be a very high quality game. It’s just that gameplay will always outclass all of the other aspects of a game.

The only attribute that can come close is a great story. Like an amazing story with bad gameplay can possibly get a pass because I’m so invested that I’ll endure whatever is thrown at me. I feel like that’s the only exception though. The graphics can be the best in the world but if the gameplay is no good then that’s just game over. Again it all comes down to having fun and so if you’re not having fun with the game then something went wrong.

Overall, Mario Golf should be fun for people who really enjoy the sport but if you’re on the fence or just aren’t very impressed by it then it’s really not going to do a whole lot for you. You’ll end up wanting to skip to the next title. At the end of the day some games just don’t click and for me this was one of those occasions. I get that a good amount of effort was put into the title but at the end of the day I just didn’t find it very fun and that will always hurt a whole lot. A game is made to be really fun after all so if you can’t pull that off then it’s truly game over. So I’d say if you have the Switch Online, check out any of the other Mario sport games instead.

Overall 5/10

Mario Kart 64 Review

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It’s time to check out a very retro Nintendo title but one that certainly made a whole lot of waves back in the day. Who could have guessed that this would end up being one of the most iconic video game series of all time right? It’s definitely a game that has aged really well. It may be a little more basic than some of the other Mario Karts as this is a series which has continued to get better and better but there’s no denying that it is still very solid in every area.

There are 4 tournaments to conquer in this game and each one has 4 levels to it. Not only do the stages get tougher as you go through the game but this also makes it feel as if the A.I. scales up with them since they master the turns while you will have some trouble with them. I was breezing through the first two tournaments but saw a big jump in the third tournament. Finally in the last one I actually took home the bronze instead of the gold which was real interesting. It’s kind of fun to be playing a Mario Kart game that’s really tricky like this.

In part this is due to some rubber banding though. I can’t prove it but it did seem like the computer’s would get way faster when I was ahead of them. Most of it is just me not mastering the turns though. It could be really hard to get used to the drifting here after playing Double Dash for so long. The more I play, the more I would get the timing down though, it’s really just about that repetition. I had fun switching up the characters a lot too although I couldn’t tell if they played differently or not here. I’d need to pay more attention to that.

The graphics are definitely pretty solid here. Interestingly it’s much less blocky than Mario Tennis so you can already see Mario transitioning into his more modern design here. Same with the rest of the characters so either this came out after Mario Tennis or it had a bigger budget. I’m not really sure which one is the case here but regardless the colors are on point and all of the characters look really good so big props all around.

The soundtrack is also timeless and you should recognize quite a few of the tunes since they tend to return in future titles. Mario certainly does a great job with variety and the soundtrack really helps to make the stages stand out even more. The composer did a superb job all the way through. So on every technical element the game succeeds and of course the gameplay is really smooth too. On 150CC I’d even say you move at a pretty impressive speed that is comparable to the newer games. It’s really just not able to compete with the sequels in terms of overall content which makes a lot of sense considering how long ago this one came out.

There isn’t a whole lot to say about the game beyond this since there isn’t a story mode so the gameplay is really the full package. There is endless replay value due to the multiplayer and this is high quality racing. You would likely not be able to find a better racing game on the N64 and the fundamentals are good enough where you can seamlessly play this in 2023. That’s how you know that Nintendo really spared no expense for this one.

At the end of the day you want to play a game that is fun and this one is really fun all the way around. The levels are short enough where they all really fly by and so that helps make it easier to replay the levels over and over again as needed. Even if you’re playing the game by yourself you’ll have a lot of fun although I’d say it’s barely even debatable that you will have the superior experience when playing with friends. That is the point of pretty much any sports game after all right?

Overall, Mario Kart 64 is definitely a pretty fun game. It’s certainly a racer that you won’t be forgetting any time soon. The amount of content may not be a ton next to the newer titles but it still has a lot to do. Of course there’s also the obvious perk of the multiplayer which is mainly why people play the series anyway. You can have a blast just racing over and over as you enjoy the fun competitive nature of the game. One wrong crash can take you from first to last in a heartbeat. If you happen to fall into a very unlucky area you may find that it takes almost 30 seconds to get back to the track which is pretty much fatal in this kind of game. So learn the stages well and you will really be all set for action here!

Overall 7/10

Operation Christmas Drop Review

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It’s time for an emotional Christmas story that would do Hallmark proud. It’s a fun movie all around and the pacing is on point so you’re always having a good time. The plot is fairly straight forward and you can see a lot of the story beats coming but the execution is on point. The movie never tries to do too much and mainly focuses on one key plot instead of trying to jam in a ton of them. Less is more in this instance and so that ends up working pretty well.

The film starts with Erica being tasked with her most difficult mission yet. She has to prove why the army should close an air force base so that the funds can be reallocated. Of course this means a lot of people would be losing their jobs which is rough. Additionally the biggest loss would be the Christmas Drop program where the Air Force flies supplies, gifts, and a lot of much needed convenience items to people in the nearby islands who could really use some essentials. They aren’t very well off and so this is one way to help boost morale while helping a lot of people in very real ways. All in all, this is a PR nightmare for Erica as she is basically the bad guy here. She keeps deflecting by saying that she is just following orders but maybe it is time to make a stand. Maybe it is time…to save Christmas!

You would think optically Erica’s boss would like to keep the base to show how benevolent she is but of course in politics you always have a thousand voices yelling at you to different things so at this point and time the pressure is simply higher on the other side. Sometimes that’s really all it boils down to. Erica is certainly ready to submit her report and bury the place at first as well until she gradually sees how it helps out. I have no doubt that some money is likely spent on the program even with all of the donations but the fact that the base went out of its way to try and make this a good deal for everyone does speak volumes. It shows that they are really trying hard to be responsible at all phases of the project.

Andrew is the main guy sticking up for the program and he does a terrific job. He always has the right answers on hand and isn’t intimidated by Erica’s boss. He makes the pitch to her directly as well and you can tell that the guy has put a lot of effort into this program. Even with the romance aside I’d say his pitch would have been fairly convincing to any reporter looking in on the situation. That’s because by every objective metric this is a really good idea. For the cynical onlookers at least it’s good PR, for the people hoping to make a difference in the world this gives them an avenue to do it, and for all of the islanders it obviously helps them out a whole lot since they are in a tough spot.

It’s always good to see the army doing good and using all of their equipment for something like this is great. So yeah Andrew steals the show as the main character here. Meanwhile Erica is solid as well. Obviously she does have to go through a bit of a character arc to end up as the selfless lead she was destined to be but it’s a character arc that is definitely handled well. When it comes time to make a stand, she picks the right side and helps the team out on their mission.

As for the romance in this film, there’s no rebounding going on so I appreciate that. Often times there is a poor ex running around or a character was already with someone and breaks up after making it to the main plot. In this case that doesn’t happen. The romance is still on the weaker side since it’s all moving a little too fast though. Given the stakes here you’d think romance would be the last thing on either of their minds. Andrew has a mission to save after all and letting your feelings interfere with that would be a grave mistake.

It is definitely a bit odd to see a Christmas film taking place by the beach like this but it certainly helps the film stand out. That is also the normal setting for plenty of people so that’s a nice way to see their perspective. Of course if given the choice I would always want a Christmas that’s sub zero temperature with plenty of snow but at the end of the day you should be able to have a good time no matter how hot or cold it is. It’s more about enjoying the day and the festivities than what’s going on outside right? This does mean there aren’t any big montage of holiday foods this time around though but that’s fine.

The writing is on point so even the antagonists aren’t written to be super crazy or anything like that. Everyone has reasons for doing what they are doing and the film does give the main antagonist a good amount of presence. Whenever she walks in you know the characters are going to be stressed. You also can’t blame her for being upset since from her point of view this all does look pretty bad. Imagine walking into the army base to see the person you hired in the middle of a party instead of researching? Bosses tend to have tricky timing like that sometimes.

Overall, Operation Christmas Drop is a pretty good film. It has a good story with a solid moral and ultimately just spreads good vibes the whole time. It’s the kind of movie where you feel good after having watched it and you can’t say that for just any film. Mix in a lot of fun visuals, songs, and a good cast and you have a winner here. Being fun is one of the main positives I would say for the film and that’s really all that you need. It kept the plot fairly basic and the character cast rather small. It has a very specific focus with the story and doesn’t deviate from that. I had a good time watching it and so I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Overall 7/10

Winback: Covert Operations Review

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All right now this is what I would call a gem in the rough! It’s a game I’d never heard of before and without the Nintendo Switch Online I probably never would have gotten to play it because of how obscure it is. I’d just not have ever thought to look it up. Well, this game is a blast and I absolutely recommend checking it out if you have the Switch Online bundle because this game does not hold anything back.

The story starts with the top notch agents all being placed on a mission. They are being dropped onto an island to stop some terrorists that have taken over to try and use a powerful weapon to bring the world to its knees. This mission is one where failure is not an option so the heroes can’t leave until they’ve guaranteed success. Unfortunately it does not start out well as the copter is shot down and everyone gets split up. You now have to find your comrades while taking on the villains but will you really be able to pull this off?

First up, the game’s story is very impressive. There isn’t really any voice acting here but we still get text boxes and technical limitations did not slow the writer down. You have a lot going on here, a fairly big character cast and also a serious body count. Nobody feels safe and that makes sense because you are behind enemy lines at this point. Make the wrong call and that’s game over. All of the characters understand the stakes and act appropriately. There is always a villain to be stopped and they will follow their mission to the end.

The epic soundtrack helps to balance this out. It reminded me a lot of Oni for the PS2 with the sci-fi vibes here. The costumes are really solid and the villain entrances are memorable when they show up with their accompanying music. One of the first bosses in particular impressed me as he had a very detailed design and must have had some kind of interesting backstory but the main character doesn’t have time for that. He just launches right into the battle and I definitely had to respect that. That’s exactly the kind of energy I would expect to see here. It’s just a fight to the death and it’s not personal as both sides are fighting for a cause that they believe in and would give their life for.

There are a ton of twists and turns to be found in this story as well so get ready for a lot of epic moments like that. The game is also fairly long with over 30 levels, some levels are quite long at that. So definitely a lot of amazingness all around. It also ends up being a bit extra long because the game is very difficult. Far from being a walk in the park, this game has a lot of absolutely brutal sections mixed in. You will be jumped by tons of enemies from all sides and have to try and fend them off. Taking a stray hit can take over half of your health bar. You have to always be taking cover and keeping track of your surroundings.

The controls are very basic. You point and shoot, plus you can hide behind objects. That’s basically it. You can use lock on which is extremely handy but just watch out because sometimes it takes an extra second to find an enemy and by then you’ll have been shot. That’s really where the game is at its most tricky. It’s trying to encourage you to use manual shooting which is without a doubt superior, but it can be really hard to move so quickly. So for me I stuck with auto and just did a lot of extra hiding.

Even with that though, there are so many rooms on the island and they are all filled with enemies. New enemies spawn when you enter a room and then back track so you can really never lower your guard. Some enemies will run up to you and just stab you which is usually a game over. Each level has check points but the check points remember your health so ironically this can actually be a bad thing. Like you survive the first section with one piece of health left so now you are doomed to always start that way until you completely finish off the level.

Yeah I died time and time again in this title. It’s got to be one of the harder games that I’ve played and this is often the case with shooters. It is definitely not my best genre and if I had to play it straight like back at the arcade I don’t see how I would have stood a chance. It’s just so unforgiving because you can finish the first 20 enemies perfectly but then the 21st gets you. That’s really all that it takes to tip the scales which is the crazy part. With the awesome music and story you’ll definitely power through but with a lesser game you’d probably end up being frustrated.

That’s why it’s good to have developers that really give a title their all though. Every piece of this game is great. From the smooth controls to the solid story, no corners were cut here. Even the length went above and beyond since most games for the console were considerably shorter. Nobody would have bat an eye if it was 15 levels instead of 31 but the game still brought in a ton of content and made sure that the replay value was really on point!

Overall, This is definitely a game that I would recommend checking out. It’s just great all around and way better than I ever could have guessed. It has that retro vibe to it which you just don’t see anymore nowadays. The characters are solid and the gameplay is excellent. It’s hard to beat a good 3D shooter after all. The game is incredibly hard though so props to whoever managed to beat it back in the day. The checkpoints help but we’re still talking long sections in which you can’t save or anything like that. Yeah this probably kept people up at nights trying to conquer it.

Overall 8/10

Mario Tennis Review

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It’s time to take a look as a really retro Nintendo title. Who doesn’t remember the classic Mario Tennis title right? Mario Power Tennis is still one of my all time favorite sport games even counting the non Mario ones and so I have a lot of nostalgia for these. The original Mario Tennis isn’t operating at quite the same level as Mario Power Tennis but it’s still a really solid one all things considered. It’s fairly basic and doesn’t have a lot of the annoying gimmicks that newer games tend to add.

The opening cutscene is also a blast as we get to see some real story mixed in there. Outside of that there isn’t a central story though. There are 3 tournament cups to conquer and when you complete each of them you get an ending cutscene for the character you play as. The cutscene is the same for all 3 so you could always just beat the first cup with everyone if you want to see all of their endings. Each cup gradually gets longer and tougher as you play through them so you will want to keep that in mind as well.

It’s actually not a walk in the park to defeat the final cup. The computers really step up their game and can be hard to predict. They really know how to answer the shots and the low/lob hits aren’t as refined as they were in the Gamecube days so you just have to try and outplay your opponent. Some rallies can take quite a while as a result but in the end it always feels good when you manage to pull off the win. I found it easiest to always aim for the corners, trying to “trick” the computer by shooting it at them and hoping they would move doesn’t tend to work. Ironically they do that to me a whole lot but what can you do….

The graphics are really solid here. I really enjoy all of the character models. Aside from being super nostalgic, they’ve just aged really well thanks to the artstyle. It’s why going for a bright, cartoony look like this tends to work well because it’s pretty ageless. Whether it’s 2002, 2022, or 2042 it will always look really good. The stages are on point and you can tell a lot of effort was put into this. The soundtrack is also good with a lot of energetic tunes to listen to as you blast your way through the stages.

There are also other modes outside of the tournaments like playing special minigames. There aren’t a lot of them but you have the classic rings and also playing a long volley against piranha plants. I don’t imagine you will spend a whole lot of time here but more content is always good. The character roster is at a decent size too so you should find a character who fits your playstyle rather easily. They all play pretty much the same anyway though so it’s more about style points.

As for the difficulty level, you’ll get used to it the more that you play. I really only got back into the basics of the game and wasn’t exactly an expert at actually mastering the controls like that. Like I never got the low shot to work so either the A.I. was just that perfect or I wasn’t using it in the right circumstances. Also it would be really hard to return shots when I was too close to the net so I have to work on that. In the end your reaction times often won’t be enough so you have to just pick a direction and run there. If the ball is hit on the other side? Well you tried, that’s the best that you could do at that point.

Personally as one game tip, I would recommend constantly holding down A and B. This lets you do a smash when the ball is high up but a pretty solid hit even if it’s a normal shot. This seemed to be the only shot that would pretty much always work when you were up close. So double tap A when you are far away but hold down both when you are close. Do this and you should be winning more matches. Of course the main thing is to have fun though. That’s why this game is so solid, it’s just really enjoyable to go through. It captures the game of tennis without being too overly technical or worried about the small stuff. It’s why I tend to love Mario sport games like this sometimes even more than the regular ones.

Overall, I would definitely recommend checking this game out. It’s really a part of history at this point and is just solid all around the board. The graphics are good, the soundtrack is a lot of fun, and there is a whole lot of content here. The amount of replay value is incredible and it has to be one of the best values on the Switch Online. Ultimately the only thing holding it back is that the sequels are simply better and that’s really not something it can help right? All it could do is be the best game it could be and it succeeded at that.

Overall 7/10

Suika Game Review

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It’s time to delve into the world of fruits with this title. Thanks to Nintendo Switch Online providing the full game for free temporarily I got to have some fun with this one. That said, I can’t picture ever buying it because the game is just too limited. There are certainly some titles where the gameplay is so addicting that you can keep playing it over and over anyway but this is definitely not one of them. It just feels like more of a watered down version of Tetris.

Basically the idea is that you have to match fruits together to create larger fruits. Like two Strawberries may create a grape and then two grapes create an orange. You keep going until you get the biggest fruit possible. What this means is you need to plan things carefully to have the fruits next to each other because if your jar gets filled up then you will lose the match. There is RNG in terms of what fruit will be selected next but that goes hand in hand with the genre. All in all it’s pretty simple to pick up and play. You can work out your strategy as you go and try to improve your record each time. You are also able to really go at your own pace which is always nice.

That said, it still runs into the issue I mentioned earlier which is that there just isn’t a whole lot to do. It’s still just the one level so the background never changes and there are only a few different fruits, maybe 10 at max? So you very quickly realize that you’re performing the same actions again and again which destroys the mystique of it all. For a title like Pac Man you really enjoy getting your high score up and I’d say in part that’s due to how fast paced the whole thing is. You’re constantly using your reaction times and everything to stay one step ahead. This game is a lot slower and so you have more time to think about what you’re doing but it’s also less hectic. When you lose, well you feel like you did a good job but you aren’t rushing to go back.

This game need something to really stoke your competitive fire. Something that makes you want to give it one more shot to prove to the world that you have the skills. More cosmetic unlockables or something would be good. Like unlocking more things based on your high score, cumulative high score, and general level ups. This would be fairly easy to implement but would add a whole new dimension to the game. Yes, this would have absolutely helped a whole lot and I think we would be looking at a completely different game in the long run.

As it stands, there just isn’t enough here to keep your attention. The music’s okay and the game visually looks really solid but it feels like a free game you spend a few minutes on and then that’s it. If it grabs you then potentially you’re all set but in this day and age there are too many powerful competitors all trying for your attention. There just isn’t any time for this title and so it ends up falling by the wayside.

Overall, I had a good time with this game for a few minutes but it’s quite telling that I only played 3 full rounds. There isn’t enough variety to keep you engaged and due to the slower speed of the game, you know that you’ve lost well before you actually do. So at that point you are going through the motions just to end the round so that your score can be saved but that isn’t the most exciting thing to do. You feel bad about it if anything because you’d like to just get knocked out and move on. I would even say as a rule of thumb if your game over is imminent, the game should put you out of your mercy quickly so that you can move on. Maybe in a way that’s what really holds this title back but of course it is hard to say for sure. It needs more content and that’s still the bottom line here.

Overall 5/10

O. Henry’s Full House Review

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It’s time for an anthology film and you know that those can sometimes get a little dicey. Well, this one ends up being solid as most of the stories are pretty good. There is one particularly weak story that does almost lower this one by a star because it can really drag but the positive ones outweighed the weakest link. Ultimately this would be one of the better anthologies that I have seen.

So lets jump into each story. The first one is about a guy who wants to be arrested. He likes to be kept in a jail cell during the colder months of the year because then he is guaranteed 3 square meals and a warm place to sleep. The jails were pretty well kept back in those days and so it was like a free hotel service. The trick is he needs something that will keep him in jail for exactly 3 months so it can’t be anything too mild or anything too brutal. It would also be nice not to get beaten up or shot so he has to be careful on what kinds of crimes he dishes out. Unfortunately nobody seems to want to arrest him. What can he do now?

It does feel like this should still be a very easy mission to complete though. I mean there are so many ways to get arrested even if you’re just looking for non-violent means. The main guy tries some mild stuff like theft, dining and dashing, etc. but it just isn’t working. At that point the guy needed to adjust his gameplan a bit. Maybe try dining and dashing a second time since it usually works you know what I mean? It does lead to a funny gag at the end though so it worked out. This was a pretty fun story with a good amount of humor and solid pacing.

Then in the next story we jump to a murder case that has been unsolved…until now. See one of the cops recognizes the pen left at the scene of the crime. It belongs to a guy he used to know who was always a petty crook but evidently he has gone beyond that now. Thing is, he owes this crook $1000 and doesn’t feel right arresting him before paying the money back. So now he has to earn the money before the guy skips town but how do you raise 1000 that quickly? It’s a good story but I do have some rather massive issues with it.

First off, this villain’s a murderer. I don’t care if the cop owes him a million dollars, you have to bring him in so that he doesn’t murder anyone else. He is clearly unhinged after all so why hold back? You can pay him back while he’s in jail as long as he isn’t executed. So the whole premise to me didn’t make a lot of sense. It’s a very weak excuse to potentially let someone stay on the loose causing a bunch of trouble. The main character lost a lot of my respect at that point.

It’s still a very fun story though which is why it stays at a high level. The pacing is good and the writing is very solid. In general outside of one story involving a kid, the writing is always good which is what makes the anthology work. It balances the humor and solid elements well. The cop just comes across as the biggest pushover I’ve seen in a while. He literally lets the villain punch him in the stomach and doesn’t do anything about it. You can’t let people be putting hands on you like that. Trust me, it never ends well.

After that is a bit of a weaker story. Basically a girl is heartbroken and literally falls to the ground. She ends up catching pneumonia from staying out in the snow for too long and now her health is a matter of life and death. She should have recovered sooner but part of her doesn’t want to get better as life is meaningless without her man. So her sister and a kind neighbor try to help her out but she has this delusion about her life being tied to that of a tree outside. Once the final leaf falls, she will take her last breath. It’s an old tree that will soon be destroyed though so what can the heroes do?

The girl who is sick ends up being rather annoying here. Obviously it’s much easier said than done to tell her to buck up and handle this in stride but she really doesn’t help them out at all. I think this is a good place to quickly remind you all that nobody is so important that losing them means your life has no purpose. You have to always continue on living and while I would not recommend rebounding, find some solo activities to enjoy. Ultimately the neighbor comes through when it counts here. I do think he was taken for granted the whole time as he was really doing his best to help out through and through. He may not be a great artist but he was clearly someone who cared about them. So I was glad that the ending addressed that and it was the best ending out of any of the specials. (Although most of the stories did have really satisfying conclusions)

Now we enter the worst story of the bunch. Basically two guys who are down on their luck decide to kidnap a kid and hold him for ransom. They succeed but what they don’t realize is that this kid is really tough and he starts to literally beat them up. The town also has a no returns policy so if they want to bring the kid back then they are going to have to pay $250 which is rough when they don’t have much money. Can they survive this experience?

While most of the stories do have some comedic undertones they were great at balancing them with the serious moments. That’s not the case with this story as its fully comical and completely unrealistic. It goes a bit too far here with such a small kid beating up the two adults the whole time. The kid is supremely annoying and the same goes for the adults who are losing this battle. The whole plot doesn’t make sense but instead of that being in a cool abstract way like the Twilight Zone, it just comes across as really annoying.

The story ends up dragging on quite a bit as a result so I dunno I think they could have done a whole lot better with this one. If you make the story too serious it would be a bit too dark of course but somewhere in the middle would have made sense. Like have the two adults still be nice people so they can’t do much about the kid but then have the kid still be a lot of work. You could absolutely make this work and it was the only time I felt the writing was not up to par.

Finally we have the famous Christmas gift exchange story. It doesn’t compete with the Mickey Mouse version but that’s how it goes. Basically a recent couple is getting ready for Christmas but they are really poor. They tend to imagine having fancy foods and items but in reality they never get to have anything all that fancy. Well, each of them decides that they want to get something big for once so the guy gets his girl a fancy hair set while she gets him a really good watch strap. Unfortunately things take a rough turn with what they each had to sacrifice in order to make this work.

It’s a pretty tragic story all around. I mean the underlining message is that they didn’t really need any of that stuff and can still be happy but it’s still a shame to see what they have lost. It won’t be easy to get the watch back and while the girl’s hair will grow back, it’ll take time. It’s why secret presents and such can be fun but you do have to be careful about the whole thing. Keep your partner happy but don’t sacrifice something so precious that it’ll end up working out more like a guilt trip. Surprises can be double edged swords in that regard but all in all it was definitely a quality story through and through.

Overall, This was a pretty good anthology. Most of the stories worked out well which is exactly what you want to see in a collection like this. The writing tended to be good and the stories were on point. I’d definitely recommend checking this one out and I expect you will have a good time with it. The stories may be fairly basic but that’s why the execution is always important. They are handled well and so you are absolutely entertained.

Overall 7/10

The Holiday Review

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You might as well call this the rebound movie because that is constantly what is going on here. The characters jump from one person to the next with limitless speed. It’s completely uncanny and ultimately takes away from any message of true love that the film is trying to express. It ends up getting too dramatic and so ultimately none of the characters really make a lot of sense here. I cringed a lot more during this movie than any other recent title.

The movie starts off by introducing us to two characters who have both experienced a lot of heartache recently. First is Amanda who is super rich and owns her own film trailers company where she excels. Unfortunately her boyfriend cheated on her and so she breaks up with him and now has nobody to spend Christmas with. She decides to enroll in this super sketchy program where you swap houses with someone and flies all the way to England to get started on her vacation. Now she can be away from all of the usual neighborhoods which could remind her of her ex but she just can’t be alone anymore. So when some guy shows up at her new house she is ready for a quick one night stand.

Meanwhile Iris is having guy trouble of her own as she is in an unrequited love with one of the guys at work. He’s engaged to another woman and has lots of affairs but she is satisfied with just receiving his attention sometimes. He knows that she likes him and continues to exploit this fact by telling her that he needs her and letting her get some action now and again. It’s a very unhealthy dynamic though so Iris ends up swapping houses with Amanda. Now she can finally enjoy being rich for a little while but the colleague continues to call her because he needs some help on his projects. Can she learn to block his number in time?

In a lot of these adventures I really don’t get why the characters don’t just block the number. Seriously it’s not that hard and then you don’t have to worry about seeing any of those messages or calls ever again. In particular from the two characters I also can’t really sympathize with Iris all that much. She’s just too much of a pushover. Unrequited love is one thing. Sure that can be rough but at the same time it’s not this huge mess she’s making it out to be. When you’re in love with someone then you’re happy as long as they are. A crush is when you’re sad that your girl/guy got snagged before you could make your move. True love is much deeper than that and so as long as the girl he is with is a good person then that’s it.

So her jealousy the whole time isn’t great. You either move on or just really enjoy the moments you have with the guy. You do not continue being a homewrecker or just pouting the whole time. Then when you find out that the guy actually knows the whole situation and keeps weaponizing it, that is when Iris should have gotten out of there. How does she even love the guy when he’s this toxic? Yeah her plot just didn’t win me over in the slightest and it really hurts her as a character.

There’s a scene near the end that hurts her a lot too. So she’s ready to rebound with the nice music guy when her ex shows up again. Iris is ready to throw all of that away immediately to get back together with him and the only thing that stops her is that he’s still engaged. Meaning?? She would have gone back together with him if he had claimed that he called it off. It’s a horrible look and is why I can’t root for any of the romances in this film because this kind of thing keeps on happening.

Miles is the guy she’s supposed to end up with but he’s not much better. For starters I think he is a bit too much of a flirt. I half forgot that he was even dating someone because when he meets Iris he’s being super friendly, gives long awkward stares, kisses her on the cheek twice later on, etc. So then his girlfriend cheats on him so he feels bad and goes to Iris for the rebound…..only to then go back to the ex real quick when she asks him over. Ultimately he says no this time and goes back to Iris but again why is he tempted at such a late date? It implies that she could have won him over depending on how she handled this. Real bad look for Miles.

Men and Women reading this blog, always remember to know your worth. If you’re someone’s second choice then that isn’t the person you want to be with. The other wise words of wisdom I’m going to impart is to be careful if someone is too easy as well. Because the way you obtain someone is often the way you lose them. So if someone you like offers you a one night stand right away…know that the offer may be extended to others as well. So yeah when it comes to advice in the ways of love, I’m your guy. I’m something of a romantic expert myself after all….

Yeah back to the movie though, we’re cutting back to Amanda’s plot now. Her plot is also one that’s hard to be sympathetic with. I will say that she handled the Ex way better than Iris though. He cheated so she punched him in the face and kicked him out. Boom that was it for him. No second thoughts, no half hearted apologies, etc. He was gone and out of the movie. Where Amanda’s plot goes wrong is it takes a few seconds upon meeting some complete stranger for her to go all the way with him. Are you kidding me? If that’s similar to how fast she went with the first guy then it’s not too surprising that he ended up being a cheater. The entire point of dating is to find out the true character of a person after all. So you don’t get to learn about that if you’re skipping that whole phase.

Of course, knowing someone isn’t super easy and there are tons of ins and outs to romance that take years of experience and other parts that just require faith. This guy named Graham has a lot of secrets of his own which he doesn’t share and that does make him look bad by the end. Ultimately this plot was just annoying with Amanda and Graham both appearing to have no morals the whole time. I wouldn’t trust either one with my groceries let alone in a relationship! They just seem way too desperate.

The only real quality character here is Arthur. He’s a fairly old guy who is having health issues but still has a fairly positive attitude. He’s a fierce guy too who doesn’t let anyone push him around. He injected some humor into the film and had some of the best moments. The film could actually be inspiring and emotional when it wanted to be rather than being super dramatic all of the time. So this was definitely when the film was at its best. If it could have skipped the romance and just focused on making friends and learning how to enjoy yourself then that would have been a much better film.

The fact that the main characters cannot function by themselves without constantly being in a relationship is in itself a red flag. You should be able to be fairly self sufficient as needed because if not then you’re probably going to be a very clingy partner. You should always have your own interests as well so if you guy/gal needs to be on a business trip or working late you have something to do beyond blasting their phone with endless texts and things like that. None of these characters really seemed all that happy on their own so they aren’t in that perfect spot yet.

Overall, The Holiday is one of those films where you don’t really buy into the characters having a happy ending. They’re all too quick to rebound so it’s hard to see how they could possibly trust each other. There’s just too much baggage and so the relationships probably won’t last. The film could have really worked on making the characters more likable all around if you ask me. The writing isn’t the best and while the film is long, it stuffs itself with so many plots that it doesn’t really matter. It’s just used to create more and more problems for the heroes with made them more and more irredeemable. There are some fairly high quality songs thrown into the mix at least though.

Overall 3/10

Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto Review

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It’s time for an anime that is fairly bonkers and definitely in a good way. This show takes the idea of the perfect student and dials it up to 11. Sakamoto can do no wrong and he makes for a very solid main character. You will probably find yourself identifying with his character and basically going “That’s me for real” the whole time. That’s how moving he is. Yeah the show definitely goes by pretty quickly as a result and each episode has something crazy going on.

For the most part each episode is fairly stand alone but there is a true continuity the whole way through. Past events will be referenced and some episodes do continue. The basic premise though is that there is a student named Sakamoto who is basically perfect. Everyone loves this guy, he aces every kind of class and challenge that gets put in his path. The guy is super agile, powerful, and knowledgeable. Yet the guy has a good amount of humility and will always help others out. The school can use someone like Sakamoto because there are a lot of bullies here and so without him the place would fall into anarchy. Can he make the school a better place or does he have a secret flaw?

The opening song is pretty catchy for the series. It really grabs you and stays fairly memorable. The show itself has a pretty good ost as well with some nice variety in there. I’m not saying it’s the next Naruto of course but yeah this is high quality stuff all the way. The animation is also solid although it’s not a stand out. For a show like this that’s part comedy I imagine they didn’t break the bank in terms of the animation quality. So it looks pretty good but it’s not the top of the line stuff. You wouldn’t likely see it in any best animated moments kind of thread.

Where the show excels is with the humor and writing which is bound to get a few laughs out of you. The situations can just be so out there and absurd that you can’t help but grin a little. You always know that Sakamoto will get some characters out of trouble and it’s just about seeing how he will do it. Sometimes he will do it himself like pretending to be possessed and other times he will manipulate the students into doing the right thing. That’s why Sakamoto is a secret mastermind, he’s always a few steps ahead of the competition.

He has to be up there as one of the best characters in the series and that would probably be true for most people. Even if you don’t tend to like the perfect character trope, Sakamoto is very aware of this and so the show has a lot of fun with it. As a result this portrayal works really well. Sakamoto just makes the world a better place and I only have one negative for his character which is that sometimes he goes too far in sandbagging. Like there’s one episode where he gets blackmailed into buying some sketchy DVDs and another where he ends up being the servant of one of the bullies.

Yes, at no point is he in any serious danger and you know he’s just playing along for fun but it’s still not the best look for the guy. Personally if you ask me, I’d just like to see him stand up for himself there and show them up even if it’s in a subtle way. I’d say he tends to be more passive aggressive in how he handles these moments by being a bit too useful and that’s the gag in those moments but eh…that’s the only time I’m not super impressed with him. His positive moments heavily outweigh the negative ones though which is why he’s still a great character. He’s always got a plan and does his best to stay on top.

His friend Kubota is more of a sad character who gets picked on and isn’t strong enough to fight back. That’s a tough predicament to be in for sure so you do feel bad about that. His role in the show is a lot smaller than I would have guessed though as he doesn’t do much after the initial episodes. He has a running gag about his hair changing a lot but that’s about it. Honestly you forget him as soon as he leaves the screen so we didn’t need more screentime anyway.

Atsushi is one of the main bullies in the show and he gets a big role. Unfortunately he does tend to be one of the more annoying character and takes way more Ls than Ws. This guy gets shown up early and turns over a new leaf but he has very weak willpower which means that he backslides very often. You may think that you can count on him after a point but unfortunately that just isn’t the case. He looks really bad in the climax of the series where he completely loses his mind and the main problem is that it’s due to him being tricked. Now granted he would have looked bad no matter what his excuse was but getting tricked makes it sting extra hard.

The guy just didn’t get consistently better and falling backwards like that is a quick way for me to lose respect for the character. At least the same thing didn’t happen to his two friends but they couldn’t stop him anyway so it didn’t help much. Then you have Sera who likes being the center of attention but of course he can’t compete with Sakamoto. That leads to a lot of jealousy and petty moments for the guy. Unlike Atsushi though, he actually has a consistent character arc and ends up becoming a better person after he is humbled the first time. He has a very unfortunate reoccurring gag about stripping though which does hurt his character. It’s more sad than funny most of the time and you feel bad for him because initially he had such great aspirations for himself. Now he is doomed to just be the comic relief.

Aina is a fun character even if she doesn’t have time to do too much. Basically she likes Sakamoto and aims to seduce him but she finds that it’s not so easy because the guy is always extremely focused. He overpowers all of her techniques and she also has to deal with a lot of people meddling in her affairs. The fight over the Ouija board was a really entertaining moment though and one of the better parts in the series. Talk about high takes, you really had to be careful what answer Aina forced on the group. If the series were longer I imagine she would have had more full episodes but the series is pretty short and mainly each character had to get their moment to shine so there wasn’t much time for general chats.

Megumi is more of a timid character in comparison. While Aina directly goes to Sakamoto to try and get him, Megumi is content to hide and try to take pictures of him in secret. You have to give her points for effort there but ultimately as a character she’s not great. I just tend to prefer the bolder characters and so she’s not going to stack up like that. Even a minor character like Kakuta leaves more of an impact because the gag of him trying to get Sakamoto to be one second late to penalize him is a fun one. The guy just is never able to pull this off.

Shigemi is one of the worst characters here. Her gag is that even though she is the mother of Sakamoto’s friend, she falls for him. His natural charms are simply too powerful and while we all know and understand the gag, it doesn’t make her any less annoying. You’re still shaking your head when she shows up. She only gets one full episode to herself but yeah it’s a bit rough. I think the gag was overplayed right out of the gate.

Maruyama was a more entertaining character and that’s considering the fact that he ended up being more annoying at times because of how that was the episode where Sakamoto was working for him the whole time which was hard to watch. Still, the gag of being scared because of how talented Sakamoto was at least worked a lot better as a gag and could hold up its own episode there. The episode being solid is always the important part. Like i wasn’t a big fan of any of the kids but their episode about not crossing the line was still fun. It showed that Sakamoto would make time even to hang out with some kids.

Then we have Hayabusa who is another great character that you could rank near the top. He may be the head honcho of the bullies but he seems like a standup guy. He has a solid honor code and lets his people do whatever they want. He seems to just want to have a good time and for nobody to get seriously hurt. He even sticks up for Sakamoto when the going gets tough. This guy is the real deal and definitely someone that you want on your side. His episode where he tries to survive a fancy restaurant experience was also a very noble one.

Trust me that’s a rough spot because a lot of that fancy food doesn’t even taste good. He did it all to support his father which was really nice of him. Now at the end of the day you should stick up for yourself and make sure not to get yourself into a jam like that but his heart was in the right place. He did want to make things better all around so it’s hard to fault him for that.

Finally we have Fukase who is the big villain here. The head honcho, the big cheese. He does a good job of ending the season off with a bang. Now this is one plot where I wasn’t crazy about the resolution though because I was just expecting more. The gag itself is funny to an extent but the fast redemption arc just didn’t feel earned. This guy caused a whole lot of trouble after all and while it’s great that he will be a better person now, I wanted more of a true fight. This guy felt like he could be on Sakamoto’s level with all of the tough talk so I just needed to see that in action.

In the end he was more of a strategic fighter which is cool too but seeing someone give Sakamoto a run for his money would have been fun. Maybe next time I suppose. The ending itself was still pretty fun as an emotional climax and a solid name drop. I was thinking it would have been cool to have seen Sakamoto join a new school or something. My theory was that he was like an alien or something sent to make the school a better place. I found out about a darker theory after finishing the show which makes a lot of sense though in which case you can see why they went with this ending.

Overall, This was a really fun show. It’s a full on comedy title that really makes use of the absurd humor style. It can sometimes be tough for a show to get going right away with the humor but this one pulled it off. It was important to start fast too considering that it’s not like this one has 50 episodes to burn. A lot of comedy titles need a second genre to work as well but this one just went all in and it turned out well. I’d say the replay value is fairly strong as well since there are so many gags per episode. Throw in a solid main character and a pretty decent cast overall and you’re set. Outside of the episode with the Mom chasing Sakamoto, all of the other episodes were pretty solid as well. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a good time. Even if you’re not typically a comedy fan, I’d say to give this one a chance because it’s very accessible.

Overall 7/10