Mighty No. 9 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to take a look at the controversial Mega Man homage game. This is also game number 2 from the Christmas batch. It’s definitely a very solid game when we look at pure gameplay, but it could definitely use some work in other aspects. The main culprit here is the level design as some just don’t make a whole lot of sense and are pretty unfair. The game has a habit of not telling you anything either, but I’ll take some very slight blame on that since I guess I could have experimented with the controls a little more. Given that the price crashed so quickly though, it is definitely worth purchasing.

The game follows Beck, The Mighty number 9, one of the last robots who is currently not corrupted. His fellow Mighty numbers have also started running amok and are causing terror in the streets. Doctor Sanda and Doctor White instruct Beck to save the day by defeating the robots and clensing them of the violent bug. It’ll be tough, but Beck is the strongest robot ever created so he should have the edge here. Who is controlling these robots though? Doctor Blackwell is a suspect since he has had many iffy crime dealings in the past, but he is currently in prison. With only one other actual character in the game, that means that we have 2 suspects. Well, lets start taking back the city!

Beck’s a decent lead although it’s hard to say what his personality is. He seems kind of sassy during some brief points, but for most of the game he is basically Mega Man when it comes to personality. He doesn’t like fighting and he’s super heroic to the point where you have to wonder if he’s faking it. He’s a good guy, but there just wasn’t much to him and you would barely even guess that he doesn’t like fighting if Call didn’t mention it a few times. Call is basically the Roll of this game. She gets one level to herself, which is cool since you get to fight as her, but she is given a terrible moveset. Her blasters deal next to 0 damage and she can’t power slide so you have to crawl the old fashioned way. Her level was also one of the very bad ones when it comes to design. She was a good main heroine though and I am glad that she isn’t reluctant to fighting.

All 3 of the doctors are fairly bland. Blackwell is easily the best of the three. He was framed and arrested so maybe the guy isn’t all that bad, but Doctor White certainly doesn’t like him. The game seems to be setting White up to be the villain of a sequel, which would certainly be interesting. White is even hiding the fact that he is related to Blackwell by changing his last name. Blackwell doesn’t like robots, which seems to be how the game is leaning him towards the dark side, but he doesn’t seem like a bad guy yet. The sinister design is probably an indication that he will do something drastic at some point, but he’s certainly no Wily yet. Sanda is the comic relief guy who constantly panics and stutters throughout the whole game. He definitely won’t be turning evil, but I wouldn’t want to see too much more of him. He doesn’t really serve any purpose in the story and is just there to be there.

The Mighty Numbers are fairly decent. They all have different personalities and none of them appear to be all that bad. They’re like the classic robot masters, but the game did a good job of not making them too identical. There is an obvious Proto Man homage, but we definitely did need a rival in the game. All good franchises develop one at some point. He was easily the best one in the game of course. Trinity was also pretty cool though and she is easily one of the stronger bots. I’d expect her to play a major role in the sequel unless they nerf her for some reason. Now that would be a shame.

As I got the PS4 version, it came with the free Ray expansion pack. I’ll definitely play that at some point, but for now that’ll go on the backburner. The character definitely looks cool though and I expect that he’d be a really good antagonist or rival figure. When I play that mode, I’ll upload an update post so that I can discuss it properly. I need to do the same with Shovel Knight at some point although this game certainly feels a little quicker so it would be higher on the list.

Lets talk about the gameplay. The positives are that they worked with the classic Mega Man style and improved it in some ways. Being able to air dodge is a lot of fun. It can be a little sensitive, but nothing too crazy. You may only slip and die a handful of times. I also like how strong the normal Mega Buster is. You’ll rarely want to use anything else, although the missile is certainly a very handy backup weapon. One thing you should know is that pressing on the PS4 touchscreen will let you use a health pack that you may have obtained during the level. If you see a blue icon under your health bar, then that’s what it means. You’ll lose them when you lose a life so use them before you die. I didn’t know about this until I was at the final boss. If I had only known earlier, I could have beaten the game way sooner and the final boss wouldn’t have been so difficult. The game never really mentioned anything about it though and I wasn’t going to surf the tips section until I found something. Again, I won’t blame the game too much, but this was a fairly important detail. You can also do back jumps while shooting by hitting the R2 button and that’s also very useful for the final boss. It only has niche uses though so you won’t be using it all that much.

One area where the gameplay failed is switching between weapons. Why wouldn’t they leave it simple like in the Mega Man games by just hitting L1 and R1 to instantly switch? Instead, that allows you to cycle through and then you have to activate the switch with triangle. It’s too many steps and will likely cause you to get hit once or twice during a boss fight. I also have to take a shot at the level designs. Purple spikes KO you instantly, but some levels have a Mario Maker esque moment where you’ll fall down and just bump into them. There’s no way to know that they’re there so you’ll always lose a life the first time that you encounter this. As the game is pretty short, there aren’t too many of these moments, but the ones that are there will certainly get on your nerves. Some segments have various jumps around the purple spikes and one death can send you pretty far back. Some of the checkpoints simply weren’t placed well.

The graphics are definitely pretty sharp and this is how retro inspired games should look if you ask me. It has the retro side scroller feel to it, but you can still see the updated graphics through the character designs and level layouts. Everything looks pretty smooth and modern, especially the aerial boosts. The game definitely looks quite good and that also helps get you into the game. The actual plot may have been somewhat underwhelming and the graphics never looked good for the cutscenes for some reason, but the actual gameplay visuals were always on point. The soundtrack is also pretty solid. Some of the themes are rather generic, but they are generic futuristic themes, which is still a win for me. The themes go very well with the moderate to fast paced gameplay. There were no “bad” themes in the game, which is always good as well.

There is a good amount of replay value to be found here. Getting that Platinum Trophy will take a very long time since the trophies are very hard. Can you imagine beating the whole game in 30 minutes or completing it on hard without any continues? Those two in particular sound crazy and there are a slew of others that will be just as hard. It would take dozens upon dozens of hours to do this unless there is some kind of save stalling technique that I’m not aware of. It’s certainly possible I suppose, but it would still take quite a while. Getting all S ranks on the normal levels will also be tricky and then you’ve got challenges and online leaderboards to worry about. It’s quite a lot of content so that’s a good thing considering that over 70000 people backed the game and that it got way more money than it ever needed. The controversies surrounding the game were certainly interesting to follow along back in the day.

Overall, Mighty No. 9 is a solid game. The level designs and the plot help to keep it from getting an 8 though. The main story won’t last you all that long either so if you’re not a big fan of the bonus content, then this game wouldn’t really be worth the 30 dollars for you. It currently goes for 10-15 though so that’s a very reasonable price if you ask me. This will also help alleviate the wait til the next Mega Man or Mega Man X game since it seems like it’ll be a very long time before Capcom gives us another one. I don’t get how a company can drop the ball so hard on one of their franchises, but that’s Cashcom for you. So, I definitely recommend this game and it was about what I expected, if not a little better. This is controversial, but I think it’s even better than Shovel Knight so that would make it my top indie game. It’s a little murky as to whether or not it counts anymore I suppose, but given that it was from kickstarter, I think we can still call it that. We’ll see if Shantae can take the crown though. The gameplay is pretty sharp and the plot is much better, but Mighty No 9 does have some advantages like the soundtrack and the graphics. Only time will tell and that review shouldn’t be too far off either!

Overall 7/10

Super Mario Adventures Review

Posted on by
10


It’s time for a look at an old Mario comic series that came out a long time ago. I finally got to read the trade paperback and it was definitely fun. I can safely say that it was better than the Super Mario-Kun manga and it was a fun take on the mythos. There were some creative liberties like Peach’s new personality, but it was actually quite the improvement and it would be really cool if Peach could stay like that in the games. Bowser was a little worse than usual though so that helped to balance things out.

Mario and Luigi are called in to inspect a plumbing situation. They have to get it done before the day is over or it’ll spoil Peach’s party. Unfortunately, Bowser takes this opportunity to attack and says that if Peach doesn’t marry him, he’ll turn all of the Toads into statues. Peach doesn’t surrender to threats though and storms Bowser’s castle. Meanwhile, Mario has been turned to stone and stays that way for 3 days. Are Mario and Luigi too late to save Peach? More important, will Peach be able to save them from Bowser in time?

As mentioned earlier, Peach’s change is the most radical by far. She seems to be styled after Zelda from the TV show this time as she is eager for a fight and also very clever. She actually outshines both Mario and Luigi here as she escapes from Bowser on her own, defeats his underlings, and then escapes the castle. Mario was placed in the same situation later on and he was unable to break free. It just goes to show why Peach is the princess here and while she may have ultimately gotten captured by the end, she stole the show in the end. Peach was easily the best character.

Mario and Luigi were also cool of course. They do panic a bit and let their guard down around the enemies, but they come through when it counts. Mario got a big punch in on Bowser and took down quite a few enemies. Luigi boldly used a disguise to get into Bowser’s lair and even talked back to Peach as he wanted to keep the dress. Mario and Luigi also get to sing at the beginning of the comic so we know that they’re talented. The comic has a lot of fun with them, but it never goes too over the top to make them unlikable or anything like that. I still can’t get over the fact that Peach is stronger than Mario in this version though.

As for Bowser, he is the one sad part of the comic. His whole goal is to marry Peach falls for all of her tricks. He’s not much of a fighter in this comic and needs his underlings around him 24/7. I can understand why Bowser isn’t portrayed as a super serious villain, but they could have at least given him a little dignity. As it stands, he is just a poor villain and I actually preferred all of his henchmen. The piranha plants and Boos actually did the best as they kept biting the heroes. Yoshi was also pretty neat even if he didn’t get to do a whole lot. He was quite large in this version and that made him a powerful ally to have.

There was also one human character who tagged along at some points. He’s always looking to make a few bucks and actually tricked the Mario bros so you can’t say that he isn’t clever. His role was pretty small, but he made an impact and at least he had a fun personality. Fun was actually one of his titles when people would stop to greet him. I don’t know how he got here, but you can definitely tell that the guy is here to stay.

Aside from the main story, there was also a quick epilogue tale with Wario. Apparently Mario used to bully him a lot without realizing it. After 20 years, Wario decided to have his revenge by inviting Mario over while preparing a lot of traps. The problem is that Mario is simply too good so he overcomes all of the traps and then blasts Wario with a water gun anyway. You have to wonder how innocent Mario is in the middle of all this. It was a fun little comic, but you can’t help but feel bad for Wario the whole time. He didn’t ask for this! He should have just looked on the bright side and enjoyed the activities with Mario. You have to see the cup half full after all.

The art is a lot of fun to read. It may not be super detailed, but the colors are some of the brightest that I’ve seen. Every page really pops out at you and the backgrounds all look great. The trade paperback was rather tall and that’s a good thing since it allowed you to easily see all of the panels on the page. It made for quick reading and considering that it was 12 chapters long plus an epilogue bonus comic, the individual comics would have been insanely short. As it stands, this was a good length for a collection although I wouldn’t shell out too much money for it. The art is part of what makes it enjoyable and the definitive Mario reading experience. (Although the chapter book was also a lot of fun)

Overall, Super Mario Adventures was a fun comic. It’s too bad that the series couldn’t have lasted a bit longer. It’s the kind of title that could have easily kept on going and going since there is always another story to tell. The Mario franchise has a lot of characters so it’s not as if they would have run out. The 12 issues are basically just one arc so with a mere 5 arcs, it could have reached 60 issues. Ah well, Nintendo typically doesn’t do a whole lot of comics or other similar products so I’ll just be happy that they did this one. Since Link also got some comics, we just need some for Metroid next. There is less of a big universe to work around, but still enough for a bunch of comics. If you enjoy the Mario games, then I definitely recommend this. Even if you don’t, it’s just a fun all around comic that can appeal to everyone. Who doesn’t like a nice fantasy adventure?

Overall 7/10

Pete’s Dragon Review

Posted on by
3


It’s time for a film that really fell under the radar. It’s the kind of film that you knew was coming out soon, but would still end up missing it. I always forget that this film existed because nothing about it really stands out. It’s an okay film, but there are definitely some issues with it. They mainly all come back to the main character, which is expected. We have another kid lead and I just don’t think that he can hold his own film very well. The cast isn’t very good as a whole anyway though so I suppose that Pete doesn’t stand out in that regard.

Pete was raised in the forest after his parents were taken out during a car crash. He was raised by a dragon, but luckily still remembered enough of his humanity to still be able to speak in English. This setup worked for a while, but one day a park ranger noticed the kid and quickly brought him to the hospital. She sort of adopted him and naturally didn’t believe in the dragon. Pete wants to head back to the forest, but he’ll need to hurry since Elliot is really weak and the villagers want to nab him for bragging rights. It’s a race against time and Pete isn’t the fastest kid on the block.

Pete is actually worse than the kid from Jungle Book. Pete’s very annoying and takes way too long to make a move. He helps out Elliot, but after waiting for many hours and letting the dragon get stressed out. It’s also annoying that he is so young because it means that every conversation with him is a little grating. If he was older, then the dialogue would have been a lot more engaging. I think I’m just about done with jungle kid character types. They’ve been done to death already.

Elliot is a decent dragon, but he’s really weak as I mentioned before. He has some mild fire breath, which is used in one scene. Unfortunately, he doesn’t use it quite enough and Pete is always there to yell at Elliot to stop. Pete was a little unreasonable, but at least he helped to save the hunters. If Elliot had not been captured, that would have helped his case a great deal. Grace was one of the main supporting characters and I guess she was okay. At least she believed in the grand father’s tales in the end. I guess her character was just a little on the empty side though. She was supportive and around to help Pete, but you never got much of a read on her. The film just didn’t have much time to develop her personality. Likewise, Jack is played off as a villain for a little while before the roles completely switch and we find out that he is the hero. It’s just hard to see that though since he doesn’t seem to be a great boss and even when he helps out at the end, it’s rather half hearted.

Gavin is the main villain of the film. At first he was easily the best character in the film, but he went downhill fast. He got a little too obsessive with capturing the dragon and also became very unreasonable at the same time. Even once he was put in his place and saved during the bridge showdown, he still wanted to hunt the dragon. This is my main issue with the ending. Elliot is essentially forced to move away and fly with the dragons instead of living with Pete and the others. The reasoning for this is that the humans are just too tough and cannot be reasoned with. It’s essentially a defeat and that’s not a great ending. It could have been a lot worse though. At first, the film hints that Elliot will have to move far away and they’ll never see him again. Instead, he just moved up to the top mountain so they can still visit him from time to time. It’s an improvement, but certainly not the optimal ending if you ask me.

Natalie was a nice enough character. She helped Pete realize that humans aren’t all bad. It was tough for them to become friends though since the humans kept doing mean things to Elliot and then not caring enough to offer up a pretense. Natalie would have to try and defend them, but it wouldn’t work too well. She helped Pete save him in the end though so that was a good move. It’s just too bad that the rest of the village was so unrelenting, it made the whole place seem pretty mean spirited.

Well, that’s the cast in a nutshell. Certainly not the strongest bunch that I’ve ever seen. Aside from the lackluster cast, the film itself just wasn’t very good. Some of the scenes don’t even make that much sense as the kid lived in the forest for many years, but none of the rangers ever saw him. The dragon makes a lot of noise, but they evidently never noticed him either or the cave where the characters would hide. Grace even said multiple times that she knows the forest like the back of her hand and has been everywhere. Pete calmly takes them to the base and while it is a quick walk, Grace somehow never noticed it. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Beyond that, the writing is only okay. The film tries too hard to be cute and happy, but doesn’t offer up any real depth. The film doesn’t really drag on, but it’s just not all that fun either. Between the somber ending and the scenes of the humans picking on Elliot, it’s just not much of a feel good film. You’re better off checking out just about any of the other big animated movies like Finding Dory or Zootopia. It’s not a bad film, but Pete’s Dragon also doesn’t do many positive things either.

Overall, Pete’s Dragon is fairly bland. It follows a very obvious plot and ends without any sudden twists or turns. You can correctly guess everything that is about to happen. This may not bother you and it can still be an enjoyable experience, but it could have just been so much better. This trend of having main characters who are still kids is something that has definitely got to go. If there aren’t any other options available, check this film out. Otherwise, just go re watch Frozen. That film has emotional characters and a solid soundtrack so you will certainly not get bored. Now, if we get a sequel that takes place 10 years later and involves evil dragons showing up to claim revenge, I can get behind that. A little action would have gone a long way for this film.

Overall 5/10

Mole Man (Escaflowne) vs Bass

Posted on by
Reply


cropped-cropped-bass01v5tw231.jpg
Maulwurf01
With this post, the blog has finally reached 16000 posts! It’s quite the milestone and I could think of no more fitting way than to have the Mole Man show up. He was always a very sad character and I never really understood what the point of his character was. He certainly never became likable in the slightest so having him face Bass was fun. The Mole Man can’t really fight so he stood no chance against someone as insanely powerful as Bass! Bass wins.

Marvel Contest of Champions Stats and Records

Posted on by
Reply

Stats time!

Level 6
Gold 8635
Silver 125

Characters
Groot 322
Juggernaut 158
Wolverine 141
Vision 139
Spider-Man 135
Captain America 135
Vision (Classic) 115
Colossus 104
Black Panther 104
Scarlet Witch 103

Marvel Contest of Champions Review

Posted on by
2


Just looking at that cover should remind you just how changed Marvel is from the good ole days. We have a lot of heroes trying to replace the classic ones and most of the old ones have had drastic makeovers. No worries though, this game manages to include an enormous amount of characters so the classics are still here as well. With new characters constantly being added to the game, I don’t see Contest of Champions ending anytime soon. It’s simply too expansive at this point and I’m glad to see it doing well. The amount of content can be intimidating, but it also shows that you can do quite a lot even when under the free to play format. Someone should have told Super Mario Run about that.

There’s actually a plot this time. The Collector is having another game and has decided to pit the Marvel heroes against you. You are the chosen one and your opponent is Kang. Both of you collect Marvel heroes and duke it out until there is only one fighter still standing. The plot will probably have some wrinkles along the way though because there are dozens and dozens of levels. I only played about 10% of Act 1, which was already fairly long. Since they keep on adding new chapters and acts for special events, I can easily see this reaching an RPG’s length by the end. The story isn’t all that engaging so you’ll be playing it for the gameplay. Console games are still my priority though, which is why I didn’t play the game for too long. I played it enough to see what it was all about and then it was time to delete the app.

The gameplay is fairly straight forward. Tap the screen for standard attacks. Swipe forward to dash or back to dodge. You can also use charge attacks and special moves. Each battle will play out in pretty much the same way and the various special abilities will all blend together after a while. This is still a game with a reasonably small budget so you can’t go in expecting Marvel vs Capcom. Still, the graphics are very impressive considering. All of the character models are on point and it’s pretty surreal to see Marvel’s large array of characters all show up. The soundtrack is rather bland, but decent.

One issue is that the gameplay can get a little repetitive. I suppose that can be said about most mobile games, but other titles like 1010 and Pokemon Go are super fun anyway. You may be doing the same thing hundreds of times over, but it never gets old. Contest of Champions will get old after a while so you shouldn’t play it for too long at a time. If you play it seriously for collecting all of the heroes though, then this may not be a factor. I also have to give the game some props for not making the pay to win element too prevalent. You can still play for a while each day before hitting your limit and that’s a good thing. Madden Mobile got annoying for how quickly you hit the daily limit along with Pokemon Shuffle.

The main menu is a little cluttered and complicated, but at least it shows that there is a lot to do here. There are all kinds of modes to explore and crystals to earn. It just never stops and you can be lost in the menus for a good 20 minutes before deciding what to do. The replay value here is endless and that’s what we’ve come to expect from these apps. With this one gone, it’s going to be back to Pokemon Go for me. That’s really the only long term app game that I need. These other titles are good, but ultimately can’t compete.

Overall, Marvel’s Contest of Champions is a fun enough game. The graphics are sound and assembling your team of heroes can be addicting. Eventually you’ll either start to get frustrated by obtaining duplicate heroes even though you only have 5 or 6, or you will be completely into the game by then and just hooked on all of the future updates. If you’re a big mobile player, then I recommend adding it to your roster. If not, then this one can probably be passed. It’s good, but you could always just buy Marvel vs Capcom instead for the superior fighter. I know that DC also got a very similar fighting game on the app store, but I don’t plan on trying it out anytime soon.

Overall 7/10

Mercury Meltdown Revolution Stats and Records

Posted on by
Reply

Stats time!

Stage Stats. Ooze collected, Secrets Obtained, Clear Time

World 1-1 100% 0/1 55s
World 1-2 100% 0/2 35s
World 1-3 100% 1/1 45s
World 1-4 100% 0/1 40s
World 1-5 31% 0/1 50s
World 1-6 100% 0/1 40s
World 1-7 100% 0/1 40s
World 1-8 100% 2/2 40s
World 1-9 93% 0/3 50s
World 1-10 100% 0/4 45s
World 1-11 100% 1/1 55s
World 1-12 100% 0/3 45s
World 1-13 100% 0/3 35s
World 1-14 100% 0/1 35s
World 1-15 100% 0/2 35s
World 1-16 100% 2/2 1m 25s

World 2-1 100% 2/2 55s
World 2-2 100% 4/4 1m
World 2-3 100% 0/1 1m 15s
World 2-4 50% 0/2 1m 5s
World 2-5 100% 0/1 1m 25s
World 2-6 43% 1/1 1m 10s
World 2-7 81% 1/2 35s
World 2-8 87% 1/2 50s
World 2-9 43% 0/2 45s
World 2-10 100% 2/4 35s
World 2-11 100% 0/1 45s
World 2-12 56% 0/1 1m 10s
World 2-13 100% 0/3 50s
World 2-14 18% 1/1 1m 5s
World 2-15 100% 0/2 1m 10s
World 2-16 100% 0/2 45s

World 3-1 100% 0/2 45s
World 3-2 100% 0/2 1m 25s
World 3-3 81% 0/2 50s
World 3-4 81% 6/6 1m 5s
World 3-5 93% 1/2 45s
World 3-6 75% 0/1 1m 35s
World 3-7 18% 0/2 1m 25s
World 3-8 81% 0/1 50s
World 3-9 87% 0/3 1m 15s
World 3-10 87% 3/6 1m 5s
World 3-11 43% 2/4 50s
World 3-12 100% 1/3 50s
World 3-13 37% 1/4 1m
World 3-14 68% 0/2 40s
World 3-15 56% 2/5 1m 45s
World 3-16 43% 2/6 1m 45s

World 4-1 87% 0/2 40s
World 4-2 56% 0/1 55s
World 4-3 –
World 4-4 6% 2/2 50s
World 4-5 12% 2/3 1m 15s
World 4-6 37% 1/1 1m
World 4-7 18% 0/2 1m
World 4-8 31% 0/2 1m 40s
World 4-9 56% 1/5 1m 40s
World 4-10 56% 1/1 40s
World 4-11 81% 2/3 55s
World 4-12 56% 1/3 1m 35s
World 4-13 87% 2/2 1m 40s
World 4-14 56% 1/4 2m 20s
World 4-15 75% 0/5 1m 20s
World 4-16 75% 0/4 1m 25s

World 5-1 33% 0/2 2m 10s
World 5-2 25% 2/4 1m 10s
World 5-3 31% 0/2 1m 25s
World 5-4 25% 1/2 1m 5s
World 5-5 93% 3/7 1m 15s
World 5-6 18% 0/4 1m
World 5-7 18% 0/2 1m
World 5-8 –
World 5-9 25% 0/4 2m 20s
World 5-10 31% 0/1 1m 25s
World 5-11 83% 1/3 40s
World 5-12 70% 0/5 1/10
World 5-13 100% 0/1 2m 15s
World 5-14 18% 1/2 2m 40s
World 5-15 75% 1/4 1m 15s
World 5-16 –

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Stats and Records

Posted on by
Reply

Stats time!

Stage Stats: Secrets Found

Level 1 1/3
Level 2 0/4
Level 3 1/3
Level 4 1/2
Level 5 0/3
Level 6 0/2
Level 7 1/3
Level 8 1/4
Level 9 2/2
Level 10 0/2
Level 11 1/5
Level 12 0/2
Level 13 0/4
Level 14 2/5
Level 15 2/6
Level 16 –

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Review

Posted on by
6


The Star Wars marathon continues! The last game was exceptionally good and set the bar quite high. Unfortunately, this one is not able to quite reach the same level when it comes to the pure gameplay, but the exciting story and multiplayer turn the tables. There are some obvious problems with the gameplay that hold it back just a bit, but it overcomes those odds. While it could be more polished, the rough gameplay actually helps to make the multiplayer mode more interesting. Just press some buttons and hope for the best!

The game covers the events of the third movie. Anakin and Obi Wan continue to do their best to stop the Sith forces and all of the other villains who are around. The main problem is that the head of the Republic is also evil so the heroes have to watch out for threats from both sides and one of their ranks allows the pull of the Dark side to sway him. This game covers the birth of Darth Vader!

I have to say that playing this game again reminded me why Episode III is still the most epic and exciting Star Wars film to date. It may not be the best, but it does make sense why it would be the coolest. This was back in the days where there were many Jedi warriors and lightsaber battles were commonplace. The film had a bunch of awesome fight scenes within and the game adapts them all and then some. It’s something that all of the movies since have lacked and I’m hoping that Episode VIII gives us a bunch of hype battles. I could definitely get behind that and I’m expecting great things from it.

This game starts off rather slow, but quickly picks up once Anakin joins the dark side. Suddenly you’re fighting other Jedi warriors instead of mindless droids. This makes for more enjoyable battles and also an engaging plot. The banter between the characters is brilliant during the fights and you’ll actually like some of the characters more than you did in the film. One warrior who showed up and confidently took on Anakin is safely one of the cooler Jedi warriors. It was a quick moment, but one that separated her from the common masses who were all dying in an instant.

The game didn’t adapt the cool scene where Palpatine took down the 3 warriors though. I had to quickly watch that scene myself and saw a cool video explaining why the Jedi masters lost so quickly. It was simple, they lacked the speed needed to defeat Palpatine. Apparently that is his strongest skill and he can strike so fast that he barely appears at all. Mace was only able to hold his own because he used a forbidden technique that granted him the power of the Dark as well so it was definitely an interesting watch. Needless to say, despite the video hinting otherwise, I’d still take Anakin over them even at his current level.

There are 16 levels like in the other Star Wars game. In addition, there are 4-5 bonus levels and you can unlock Darth Vader for multiplayer mode. That will be your main source of replay value since fighting friends never gets old, but you can also go back to the levels and grab the secrets. Each level has secret health and Force power ups which permanently increase the size of each. I found a bunch of them by breaking things so I imagine that’s how you find them all. The campaign is only around 3 hours long, but couple it with these other factors and I’d say that the game has a fair length. It’s just a lot easier than the last game so it goes by a lot quicker.

The gameplay is purely about hand to hand combat. It may be more accurate to call it Lightsaber combat. You have standard slashes and power moves. There are also your Force abilities of course, which allow you to lift opponents, stun them, and even push them away. I didn’t properly learn how to use the force until the final 2 levels so I recommend trying to learn it a little sooner. Boss fights in this game are quite difficult as they will block or parry just about anything that you throw at them. Ironically, the final boss is easily the weakest one in the game as he refuses to block just about anything. For the others, I recommend whacking them a few times and then going off to heal. (Yes, you can heal yourself in this game) Then rinse and repeat until the job is done. You can usually run fast enough to get this strategy to work. Alternately, you can master the rock, paper, scissors gameplay, but it didn’t make much sense the whole time so I just reverted to classic button mashing. It’s never failed me before so I have always trusted this legendary technique. Your character will gain experience after each level and you can use it to improve your force abilities (Like healing. I highly recommend focusing on that one) and physical abilities. By the end of the game, your character will be close to being maxed out.

The graphics look quite good. The lightsabers really stand out the whole time and they did a good job with the blasts getting deflected off of the swords. It’s aged pretty well and I can definitely see why this game would be thought of as an older Force Unleashed. There are a lot of similarities to be found here and I look forward to trying that game out at some point. The soundtrack is just as good. It has all of the classic Star Wars themes that you may wish for and the battle themes are all intense. It’s definitely a rock solid game on a technical level.

Overall, Episode III may have gotten off to a rough start initially, but it really grows on you. I was sure that it would only be getting a 7 at first, but the plot really picked up and the gameplay is definitely a lot more fun when you’re fighting actual sword fighters. There is a lot less variety when it comes to the gameplay compared to the other title, but how can you not like a classic 3D sword-fighter styled gameplay? It never gets old and none of the levels are painfully long so that also helps a great deal. It’s the kind of gameplay where I also wouldn’t have pictured a multiplayer mode so it’s really cool that it was featured. The cast could be longer, but I guess we’ll save that for an official Star Wars fighting game. The series certainly has enough characters for it by now. I definitely recommend checking out this title. My Star Wars marathon will likely go on a brief break here since I’ll be getting some new games for Christmas, but it’ll be back at some point.

Overall 8/10

Finding Dory Review

Posted on by
1


Are you ready? It’s time to take a look at the Finding Nemo sequel. I saw the original quite a few times over the years and even purchased the game recently. It’s definitely a fun series. Finding Dory takes itself a little more seriously at times and makes Dory’s past a little sadder than is used to be. It’s a pretty solid film that actually has a great ending so don’t listen to the doubters. Everyone told me what a bad ending the film had so I was expecting something really sad or tragic, but it was actually solid. Ah well, maybe people weren’t ready for a happy ending this time.

Dory wakes up one morning and realizes that she has parents. She sort of knew this deep down, but now she realizes that she has to go find them. They’re over by the aquarium/sea world park that Dory used to be at. It’ll be quite the journey, but it’s worth it to find her folks. She gets Nemo and Marlin to help her out with this. Getting across the planet would be tough for most fish…but Marlin knows a guy. The three of them set out and prepare for a big adventure, but little do they know that the team will be splitting right away.

Marlin was surprisingly a great character here. Maybe he always was and I just forgot about it. His “I know a guy” line was easily the best one in the film thanks to the great delivery (Pause and slow build up) and the way that he looked to the side while saying it. Marlin’s a little more confident than he used to be and since he did rescue Nemo from crazy circumstances, he has a right to be. He also comes through in the clutch when it matters and shows that he is a team player. I can’t say the same for Nemo though. Nemo’s very annoying in this film as he constantly takes shots at Marlin and acts like a know it all. Any scene with Nemo is one where I had to wince a little inside. It feels like Nemo hasn’t improved at all since the fist film and if anything…he’s gotten worse.

Dory is a nice character as always. Her origin was especially tragic this time as he memory got a lot worse. It was mostly just used as comedy in the first film while it’s very serious and dramatic this time. I would have preferred if it wasn’t so serious, but Dory gets through her trials with determination and persistence. She comes up with a plan in the end and has her big moment. Dory may not be as likable as Marlin, but she’s a good character. Dory’s just not my kind of protagonist and I don’t think she can hold her own film, but the subplots had enough screen time where it wasn’t too much of an issue. I still think that this film should have been about finding Nemo’s Mom, but maybe that’ll be for the third film in the trilogy.

Hank is one of the new characters for the film and he is definitely great. Hank is one of the standouts here as he plays the tough James Bond esque role. He has a lot of experience and has seen things over the years. He just wants to give up and head to the land of peace, but Dory is in his way. He agrees to help her in exchange for a pass that will get him there, but it’s a tougher ordeal than he would have thought since Dory keeps forgetting the plan. He had a lot of the witty banter and great lines in the film. It’s safe to say that he made the film a lot better.

Dory also had other friends who appeared like Destiny and other aquatic animals who wanted to pitch in. They were a little too quirky, but weren’t bad characters in the end. They’re nice pals to have around and it was good for Dory that they showed up. Still, they could have been a little more interesting. The main cast from the first film are the ones who really had to hold the film on their own with the exception of Hank since he was a really good new character.

One thing that subtlety holds Finding Dory back is the character roster. Even the best characters are only pretty good. There are no downright great characters. The closest two are Marlin and Hank. The problem is that Hank’s character was already used in Zootopia, but handled better. Marlin’s character type hasn’t been done all that often, but while he is fun, he isn’t a show stealer. Aside from those two characters, the rest of the cast struggle to be passable. Some of the characters are just really annoying like the two seals and the bird. The bird should have been cool, but did the film have to give him the worst design possible? I actually had a problem with quite a few of the designs. Even baby Dory looked a little off as the eyes were so big that it looked physically painful.

The animation was good overall though so I don’t want to take shots at it. It’s the character designs that are to blame here. I can’t say that the animation is much better than Finding Nemo’s though and considering how old that film is…it’s certainly worth noting. Unfortunately, there isn’t really a soundtrack to be found here. You won’t remember any of the tunes afterwards, which is a little regrettable. On a technical level, the film is all right. It gets the job done, but nothing more to that.

Finally, another problem is that you’re just never invested in the film. It goes through the motions and you follow along, but that’s about it. The story isn’t boring or anything….but it’s just not that exciting either. This last bit of the review may sound rather negative, but it’s just because the film could have been so much more. As it is, it’s a good film that is good for a quick watch, but you probably won’t want to be re watching it anytime soon.

To end this review on a high note, lets go back to the ending. After everyone told me how bad it was, I expected the parents to either be A. really mean or patronizing once they were found or B. Dead. If either of those scenarios had happened, this could have dropped to a 5. Luckily, the ending was really good. I’m guessing people thought that it was too happy and perfect or something like that, but I could definitely get into it. I also ended up liking Dory’s parents. Their roles were naturally very small, but they were likable and I’m sure that a third film could find a good role for them.

Overall, Finding Dory was a good sequel. It’s not quite as good as the original Finding Nemo if you ask me, but the film goes along at a brisk pace and doesn’t get boring. The writing is certainly on point and I actually really liked the ending. It was a highlight. While this film won’t move you the same way that Inside Out, Zootopia, Frozen, and other big animated films as of late have, it is still a good movie. I’d recommend checking it out if you haven’t already. You don’t really need to watch Finding Nemo to enjoy this film since they recap it through dialogue anyway, but you should check out the first film as well. It’s a classic at this point.

Overall 6/10