Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey Review

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It’s time for a film that actually gets pretty wholesome. I don’t think many people will be familiar with Nestor, the film even addresses this at the start. Well, he has a solid story that even draws a lot of comparisons to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The movie is fairly short as with most Rankin/Bass productions but still covers a good amount of ground here.

The movie starts off by showing us how Nestor has it rough because of his long ears. He is always tripping as a result and has to be reminded on how to use his ears by his Mom every days. Unfortunately she passes away after saving him from the elements and now Nestor is all on his own. He will have to learn how to grow up as he deals with some shady folks and then some wholesome ones. An angel tells him to hang in there because he still has a purpose that will be coming along soon.

The story actually gets to tie Nestor into the real meaning of Christmas as he turns out to be the legendary donkey that gets Mary over to the stable for the birth of Jesus Christ. Definitely a powerful way to conclude this and it really shows how far Nestor has come. He was in the right place at the right time although I suppose I was hoping he would have more of an individual moment of toughness. Sort of show that he has mastered his ears and use them to fight off a tornado or something in the desert.

He definitely had to endure past a lot of corrupt folks in the meantime although one of the owners actually got a last second redemption arc. Then eventually this led to Nestor being a legend within the Santa community as well. So the special goes over well and has solid pacing but I would have liked to have added a few more scenes Maybe one day we’ll get a Rudolph vs Nestor movie or something.

The animation is the classic stop motion style so it’s not really my style but it’s okay enough. You know I tend to gravitate more to a flashy hand drawn style but that’s just me. The stop motion still gets the job done when it counts. This time the soundtrack isn’t quite as grand as some of their other productions though. So it needs to really get by on the strong writing which is still good enough to keep it in the green.

There are a lot of cameos from other big Rankin/Bass characters at the end though like Santa and Rudolph. It was good to see the whole gang although it would have been even nicer if they could have gotten some lines. I suppose it might have been hard to get voice actors for such a quick scene but it would have been fun and really helped to cement the shared universe. In the end I suppose one of the MVPs here would have to be the guy telling the story from the beginning. It seems like even more people wouldn’t know about Nestor in universe without this guy spreading the word. It would have been sad for him to have been forgotten after all of this.

Overall, Nestor is one of those Christmas specials that never got all that much attention next to the others but you owe it to yourself to check this one out. It is a quality adventure and it’s not like it takes a big time commitment either. I would have liked his Mom to have survived though as that was a little sad. Maybe have her show up at the stable and explain that it was a Christmas miracle. Could have worked pretty well I think. On the whole this is definitely a happy special though and it was great to see it have that Christian influence in there. That’s always going to get the film some extra credit for remembering the true meaning of Christmas. The stop motion animation may give you pause for a little while there, but push through it and you’ll be rewarded with a good story.

Overall 6/10

Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate Review

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It’s time for an Arkham game that quite a lot of people never really got to experience. I can say after playing through it that it is a worthy addition to the franchise. The ending does start to drag on a little bit though which is what just barely keeps it from getting an 8. It could have used some quality of life updates to the travel but otherwise does a good job of feeling like a miny version of the main Arkham games.

The game starts off with Batman chasing Catwoman but ends up getting some unexpected help from a private military force. They lock Catwoman up in Blackgate but then a big riot happens and all of the prisoners escape. The place is ruled by three factions led by the Penguin, Joker, and Black Mask. Catwoman agrees to help Batman gather intel as long as he can break her out and have her transferred to a safer jail afterwards. He agrees and now begins his tough mission of taking down all of the villains.

I enjoyed getting to see some different opponents here. This game has boss fights with Catwoman and the Bronze Tiger for example. Bronze Tiger is probably my favorite boss fight in the game because it is straight up hand to hand combat the whole time. It’s really smooth and makes good use of the quick time events. That was a lot of fun and really tests your timing. The Catwoman boss fight continues this but the timing is even tighter so that ended up being an incredibly difficult boss fight. She actually defeated me multiple times before I was able to win.

The gameplay is similar to the main Arkham games, just in more of a 2D setting. You have your combos and the parry option for all of the serious attacks. Then as you play through the game you get various gadgets that help you get through the different areas. The main difference compared to the main games is that this one’s actually a Metroidvania. Trust me I was surprised about that as well. You will be going back and forth among the different areas and that is where the game can be a bit weaker.

My main problem there is that it isn’t always easy to get from world to world and the map layouts can be a little confusing. The use layers instead of stretching the map out so you will have multiple doors on the map and it’s hard to tell which one goes where. I ended up going to the wrong place several times as a result. In the climax you have to go back to every world again which got old pretty fast. So I could have done without a lot of the backtracking there.

The game isn’t too long but just long enough where the travelling adds up. Should take you around 5-6 hours to complete the game. There is a decent amount of replay value with all of the collectibles and multiple endings though. You have to beat the game at minimum 3 times in order to get all of the endings and the Platinum. I like the fact that each path gives you new cutscenes which adds some incentive to playing the game over again. Perhaps someday I’ll go after the other routes. It’s not super high on my list but I ended up with a D for the trophy list so I would like to get that up to a C average at least.

The graphics are pretty solid. I really liked the artstyle for the cutscenes. It was very artistic and stood out as a result. Batman always looked really intimidating the way they set him up as well. The levels look solid and everything is easy to keep track of. There isn’t much of a soundtrack but the voice acting is very good. So all in all there is really a lot to enjoy here. Mix in the great gameplay and you’ve got a solid title.

It would be nice if you could have unlocked more costumes and such to wear during the game. The way they are spread out, you won’t be unlocking any until the very end though. The way you play the game will vary a lot from player to player since it’s very non-linear though so maybe some ill pull that off. Since you often need power ups to enter new areas, I’m thinking that will definitely be limited though.

If you do really enjoy Metroidvania titles then that will probably bump the game up for you though. It’s not a genre that I can see returning to Batman anytime soon after all so you will want to enjoy it now. The combat itself is extremely easy outside of boss fights though. This is a game where you can generally ignore stealth and just run into the enemies every time. Everyone goes down in a few hits and that’s why the bosses will take you by surprise since they are really difficult. I want to say that nearly every boss beat me at least once. Not exactly a flex, but it shows how tough the game could be.

Overall, I would recommend checking this game out. If you want to play it on the PS3, keep in mind that their shop is still open but you have to have a pre filled card or PS credit first since you can’t reload on the older console. It was cool to find this out since I thought the shop was completely shut down. So that’s a little tip if there are any other PS3 games you want to play. I’m not sure when I’ll be playing another PS3 game in the future so for now this was a fun nostalgia visit. I’m basically caught up with Batman games now as well so hopefully we get a new one soon.

Overall 7/10

Stolen Review

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It’s time to dive into a stealth game that I didn’t even know existed. Stealth can be hit or miss for me, it all depends on the execution. I suppose you could say that is true of anything but stealth is a particularly volatile area. I am glad to say that this one ended up being pretty good. The beginning of the game gave me a lot of issues but once I mastered the mechanics, then I was really ready for action. The game is over very quickly but you will have had a good time.

The game follows a spy/secret operative named Anya and unfortunately she is blackmailed by another evil spy. She must now help a corrupt politician in his pursuit for power, but only until she can manage to get the upper hand. This guy must not be allowed to rise to power, even if it means bringing back the old mayor who was not particularly good either. Sometimes the status quo is better than the change but will she really be able to pull this off? It’ll be her toughest mission yet.

For most of the game, the objective is to find different data items and avoid detection. If you are detected, you need to find a place to hide or quickly down the attackers. Of course if you do knock someone out, they will sound the alarm as soon as they wake up. You have a number of gadgets that can help like stun guns and such but usually hand to hand is your best bet. There is also a heavy emphasis on platforming here so you should be prepared to be jumping across areas and running quickly.

There’s a rooftop chase that is rather tricky because one wrong move will take you down. Fortunately the game has a good amount of checkpoints which is absolutely crucial for a stealth title like this. Whenever you die, you don’t feel too bad as a result. I certainly died in this one quite a lot but I would always be more prepared for the next run. The gameplay can be a little clunky at times so you do have to be ready for a few deaths that shouldn’t have happened. Trust me, it’s annoying but that’s just how it goes sometimes.

My biggest advice here is to always choke the enemies out. If you knock them out then they wake up in around 30 seconds but choking them out will down them for around 3 minutes. That is an absolutely massive difference when you’re running around. You can choke someone out by sneaking up from behind or from throwing 3 punches which stuns the opponent. The game becomes much easier once you start doing this.

You will still run into issues as their attacks deal a ton of damage. Also be sure not to use your health packs unless you really need them. Sometimes it is better to just die and respawn with your health packs than to clear the level while using them. You don’t automatically get new ones later on after all and you may wish that you had them for the final boss. The final boss is a pretty fun one though as it actually uses the stealth mechanics right up to the end. Now there is a game that never lost sight of its objective.

The graphics are pretty good here. It has that retro PS2 style that has just aged extremely well. The soundtrack was also rather good although it took me a while to even realize that the lyric was saying “stolen” the whole time so it may not be the clearest lyrics that I’ve heard in a while. The technicals were on point the whole time. I do think Anya could have been a cooler main character though. She’s meant to be a fairly tough fighter who has a lot of confidence like Lara Croft would, but Anya falters too much and also ends up letting her partner get away with too many subtle cracks at her. A better main character would really have been able to bounce back with the banter the whole time and that would have been a more fun dynamic.

I also think that if they leaned more into being an action game it would be a good idea because I was looking forward to fighting with the rival but that never really gets to happen. Not directly at least and so the climax feels a little underwhelming compared to what it could have been like. The game saw its vision through to the end so I can’t say that was a mistake but I would have liked a big boss battle. I give the game credit for letting you fight back when you are spotted in the stealth levels though instead of just automatically losing. Now that would have been annoying.

The game is fairly short and there’s no real replay value so that is one thing to keep in mind when it comes to the value. You will probably complete this game in around 5-6 hours I would guess. It will really wrap up before you even know it. The game only has 4 levels after all, but granted they are fairly long. The difficulty is also what makes the game longer than it would have been otherwise.

Overall, This was a pretty good game. I had fun with it and while it won’t go down as a great title, it satisfies the requirement of being entertaining. The story was good and the level designs were fun. The game could be rather dark at times but that’s really because of my TV and not totally the game’s fault. The soundtrack is solid and the writing is good. If you can find this game, I would recommend checking it out as you can really get it for cheap. Maybe one day they will do a remake.

Overall 7/10

Hades II Review

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Hades was an amazing game that absolutely got me even more hyped for the sequel than I already was. ISee, remember the trailer for the second game coming out during one of the Nintendo Directs and it completely overshadowed all of the other games. That was when I immediately had to order the first game and when it arrived, it turned out to be as good as everyone had always said. So this way I was ready for the sequel which regrettably was not for the PS5 as of yet but the Switch 2 would work out well enough. This game does not leave you lacking for anything.

The game follows a girl named Melinoe who has been trained from young to take down Chronos and to save her family. All of the characters in the underworld from the first game have been enslaved and are in no position to help out. Fortunately the gods are still able to offer some assistance including a few new faces. Although they have their hands busy with Typhon so Melinoe will have to save them as well. She’s certainly going to be busy but with her training, she can win the day!

There are a lot of similarities to the first game of course. The gameplay is an overhead style title where you have to defeat waves and waves of opponents who go after you. You will gain different abilities as you clear each room. If you die, you can get some permanent power ups and try again. This is a rogue title so you are expected to lose multiple times and each run will allow you to get stronger. So don’t give up and just keep on pressing forward.

While the first game was more about getting in close for melee attacks, this one takes a more long ranged approach as most of Melinoe’s attacks are about keeping the enemy at range. I ultimately decided to use her scepter the most. You will have many weapons to choose from but this one suited my playstyle the best. You have your normal attack, power move, and cast. You know you have a good build when they all suit some kind of a purpose.

It may be tempting to throw the first few games on purpose in order to get stronger but I’d advise against it. Sure it’s a good strategy but it just doesn’t feel fun. Give it your best even if it means taking some heavy losses. They are all learning experiences after all and you will quickly become better at the game. One of the big strengths to this title is that basically every action helps you grow in some way. Whether it is fishing or digging up flowers, they can all be traded in for more upgrades. I made sure not to skip a single thing even though I wasn’t aiming for 100% here. You just don’t know what you will miss if you decide to be lazy.

The graphics are really good as always. The illustrations are always really solid and the different effects within the gameplay all look great. The game feels like a 2025 title and I mean that in the best possible way. Meanwhile the soundtrack is great as well. A lot of really good metal tunes and you can always feel like you are fighting for the fates of multiple planets.

There is a ton of replay value here as I already noted. You will have to complete the game many times in order to get the base ending and even from there you still have to max out your relationship status with each character in order to get their respective endings. Throw in how many characters there are and naturally that is a big hurdle. This is a game that will be taking you at least 50 hours minimum. If you aim to just do the main story, well that will still be a rather solid length too.

A tip I would leave here is to focus more on dodging than attacking. As you play through the game you will get a lot of abilities that deal passive damage and you need to be able to survive long enough to take advantage of that. Master the enemy movements and you will be fine. There are also two new mechanics in this game. The first are your moon abilities which essentially work as a final smash. Always try to get the energy blast ones but it is RNG. So if you get a weaker one, no problem. They are all still good to an extent.

There are also the new omega abilities which took me a little while to get used to. Essentially think of them as super attacks which take up some meter but reward you heavily with strong attacks. I was spamming the power special towards the end game because I upgraded a weapon to focus around that ability. When you’re choosing abilities from the gods, really try to style them all around a similar focus. So for example don’t just pick all the ones that sound cool if they are just being redundant.

Only experience and repetition will help you get used to them all. Likewise you have a card deck which you equip to get certain boosts. You can’t equip them all though so that’s where you have to make some tough calls. There are also a bunch of challenges and fire runs which is a massive partn of the game that I didn’t even get around to trying out. That naturally throws in a ton of extra replay value for you as well. It’s a way to spice up the normal story runs and you get great rewards out of them too. This game is just so loaded with content that there are even a bunch of stuff that I haven’t mentioned yet.

Overall, Hades II is a real blast. I love this survivor style of rogue game. I’m still not completely sold on Rogue titles in general but ones with lots of progression like this game always tend to go over well. I want to feel stronger as I’m going through the game and as of yet, no other game has been able to master it quite as well as the Hades series. They are really built different. It’s hard to picture them going back to do a third one, but you can bet that I will be there day 1 if they do. I highly recommend picking this one up as quickly as possible.

Overall 9/10

Journey Back To Christmas Review

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It’s time for a classic Hallmark Christmas movie! They always tend to do good work with these titles and I’m happy to say that this one is no exception. It even involves time travel which is absolutely a massive W. I always like to see that in any film since it adds some interesting concepts. Now the romance may not have been particularly strong in this one but the rest of the adventure is still solid overall.

The movie starts by introducing us to Hanna who has had a rough time of things since her husband was sent off to the war and is presumed to have been killed in action. Hanna has watched everyone go to these wars and feels like she has not really been able to contribute as much. She does get to save a dog who got lost in the cold though and does her best to help keep a kid stay cheerful even when he’s in a rough condition. Well, a time travelling comet shows up and brings her decades in the future to 2016. Now Hanna sees that her actions did lead the way to a whole lot of good changes. Is she stranded in the future?

Hanna’s a fun lead but I do have to say that she was a little slow on the uptake when it came to realizing that she had time traveled. Usually you get one or two freebies from me but after that you need to lock in. She was still running through stores and wondering where her house was after there should have been enough time to see that things were different. Even if she figured time travel was impossible, then she needs to consider that this is some kind of government experiment or aliens are around.

In any of those events, it would be in her best interest to act normally and play her moves carefully. Ah well, at least she was still a nice person and did her best to help the others with their own issues. She brought a good amount of cheer to the neighborhood and showed everyone what an old fashioned Christmas was like. We didn’t get the usual amount of Hallmark baking moments in this Christmas movie but we did get some caroling.

The main guy here is Jake and he’s not the most professional guy here. I did like the fact that he didn’t want to arrest Hanna straightaway the way the rest of the police wanted him to. He pointed out that she wasn’t dangerous and they could figure this out. Nothing wrong with that but where he faltered is when he actually fell for Hanna. You really can’t be getting involved with the suspects and it also meant that there was no way to root for him to get along with Sarah afterwards. It would make the whole thing a true rebound.

Jake tried to tell everyone that he was just being polite and that’s how the film should have played it out. Instead you have the jealous childhood friend doing her best to get Hanna out of the picture and it ends up making her look really petty which make the ship even harder to root for. That’s why the only good romance here was between Hanna and her husband since that one had a lot of development and you wanted the happy ending. The other plot didn’t really need to be included to be honest.

As always with the Hallmark films, this one has good pacing and quality writing. It’s why you can overlook a lot of things because you’re just having a lot of fun here. Even the main antagonist is fun as she keeps trying to encourage the cops to take Hanna away. She’s just being petty for no real good reason and acts like a real life grinch. Her husband tries to mind his business while he enjoys his dinner but it’s clear that she takes the flavor out of it. Some of these supporting characters don’t have much to do like the kid who finally learns to put the phone down but it’s to make the town feel very large so it’s probably worth it.

It’s also fortunate for Hanna that she wasn’t warped 100 years into the future. There are still a few people from her era who are still alive like Tobias who helps to add a lot of credibility to her claim. He was the kid that she helped from a while back so it’s also another way for her to see what a difference she made in so many lives. Without him, I like to think that the perfume would have still helped a lot because it was a discontinued model but I think it still wouldn’t have been quite as convincing.

So in the end my only negative would essentially be that Hanna was a bit too oblivious to all the context around her. It’s a small issue though and one you can look over. I wouldn’t have minded a proper confrontation with the one lady who was trying to stir up trouble as well but it would only work if you gave Hanna a different personality. She just wasn’t the combative type here. Maybe if you scrapped the backup romance plot, that would have left more time for a full character arc like that.

Overall, This won’t go down as one of the all time Hallmark titles but I had a good bit of fun with it. They could have done more with the time travel but the film was fairly short and I suppose they didn’t want to complicate things too much. If you like the formula then you should check this one out. It’s a reminder that every action has consequences even if you don’t get to see them in your lifetime. Hanna did a lot of good even if she would have never know it if not for the time travel. The ending itself is also very wholesome when she goes back to the past so I can appreciate that. A perfect film for Christmas season.

Overall 7/10

Christmas Comes to Pac-Land Review

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Pac-Man is one of the original video game heroes. He was the kind of character who would go up against crazy odds and would still come out on top. Now there is a character that you really can’t underestimate. In this special he ends up going up against a threat that even he can’t handle and so he will have to try a more diplomatic approach. It’s a pretty fun special all around.

The special starts with Santa crash landing into Pac-Land. A place where humans don’t exist and the only people there are round Pac type creatures. It’s all a little strange but fortunately a nice man named Pac-Man and his family show up. They vow to help him complete his trip around the world but to do this they will need to reclaim all the presents that have been scattered. The ghosts are running around as well and so Pac-Man will have to be careful not to get chomped.

What will probably surprise folks with this one is how powerful the ghosts are. Usually you’re probably expecting them to be on the run from Pac-Man the whole time right? Well, that’s not the case in this one as they actually defeat Pac-Man. He takes them out in the first run after a long fight but then they dominate him afterwards. You even feel bad for the guy since he is thoroughly chomped and barely makes it back home. It was almost like he got mugged.

Then at the end they’re all taunting him and laughing it up as they have the edge. Pac basically has to beg in order to not get chomped again and they let him off easy. It really showed what a dangerous world this is. There are emergency pac pellet phone lines all around but the problem is that they are unlocked so the ghosts can grab them as well. The town has a police officer but it’s unknown just how powerful he is.

So basically living in Pac Land is incredibly dangerous. I assume the ghosts have an honor code so they wouldn’t go after the Pac Kid but the rest of the family would be in danger. They can even attack the place where Pac lives. This is low key one of the scarier places to be since the villains have so much power. I give Pac-Man a lot of credit for remaining really strong and courageous in spite of those odds. A lot of other characters would have faltered well before that. This is a man who doesn’t break easily.

Then we have the animation which is pretty strong. It’s got a solid traditional style here where you can really feel the passion behind the characters. I like how the character designs came out and it’s all very smooth. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side though. There aren’t any tunes that are really going to stand out to you. In general this is the kind of special that feels like just another episode so I wouldn’t expect anything really fancy out of this one.

In a way that is what helps the special be so good though. Everything is treated as just being standard fare. This special isn’t concerned with breaking down the concepts to you or anything like that. No, instead it is just jumping to the story. If you have not seen the cartoon before then you might have some questions about how the world works but you can figure those out in your own time. The adventure will go on with or without you.

I wish we could get a Pac-Man game set within this continuity at some point. It’s basically like the World games setting so I would accept a new game in that series as well. The most important thing is to get a story based game with Pac-Man involved and just have a fun story there. There are so many things you can do with the series and yet it has remained dormant for a while.

That said, while it is funny to see Pac-Man being crushed by the ghosts, I do think he should generally look stronger. He’s a pretty experienced fighter by this point so he should be more than a match for the ghosts. We can assume in this world that they have a bit of a rival type relationship though as death isn’t permanent for the ghosts and they don’t murder the Pacs even when they could. If you look at it through that lens, then this isn’t quite as scary as it would have initially appeared. Maybe the world is actually a whole lot more wholesome than anyone could have initially guessed.

Overall, This is a pretty fun special. Ultimately it’s not like there is a whole lot to it though. It’s just about 30 minutes of fun as you watch Pac-Man try to save Christmas. It succeeds on the most critical aspect of a special like this, which is that it’s a lot of fun. You’ll have a blast rooting for Pac-Man to win the day. The writing is on point and the pacing is pretty good too. So while it may not have gotten an extended budget or anything like that, it definitely gets the job done here. I would recommend checking this one out whenever you can.

Overall 7/10

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Review

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Metroid Prime fans have been waiting a very long time for this game. We got the first trailer back in 2017 after all and even then it ended up taking another 8 years to come out. After all that waiting you would certainly be expecting an absolutely top tier experience. Well, ultimately I thought it was pretty good but I suppose it would be a bit underwhelming considering all the time that has gone by. It’s a good game but an ordinary one at the same time. You’ll be able to blast through the content and so in the end I would recommend it but definitely keep your expectations at the baseline.

The story starts with a big battle between the Federation and Sylux’s goons. Samus is able to easily overpower him but then gets stranded on a planet along with a few other soldiers. Samus will have to find several teleporter keys as well as a mythical fruit in order to get off this place. Unfortunately it is loaded with powerful monsters everywhere and Sylux is still on the loose. This may finally be a job that Samus cannot complete on her own. Will she be able to trust these other soldiers to help her out or will she be forced to tackle all of the responsibility on her own?

The game puts a lot of stock into Samus being the chosen one, a hero beyond all measure. Honestly I wouldn’t even say that’s a bad thing. She is clearly a cut above the rest and as the various games have shown she is able to incorporate a ton of different dna and special abilities without side effects. In essence she is the ultimate battle soldier and this game does a good job of showing how powerful she is. This can be a double edged sword though. For example, Sylux is never portrayed as being a real threat to her.

Likewise for the rest of the villains. This is clearly an easier battle for her than the last 3 Prime games and the only reason the situation is tough is because getting off the planet will require more than super strength. Her allies help out quite a bit and so that ties the whole adventure together. It just makes this an uphill battle for the villains since they are the ones on the back foot the whole time. They are never even close to making a play.

That being said, I still like Sylux. He gets some good dialogue at the end and has a good design. His boss fights are also fun except the final boss which gets a bit rough. This ties into the gameplay itself. You have to use both joysticks to aim which makes it hard to also shoot. I had to hold the controller in a bit of a weird way in order to land all 3 and it didn’t really feel natural. I think there should have only been one control stick to move and then the rest goes as normal. It felt like they had to nerf the lock on feature here in order to make the final boss more of a challenge.

To be clear, they definitely succeeded. It was a really tough final boss and one that absolutely kept me at the edge of my seat. I died several times there before I was finally able to win. Ironically the first phase is the toughest one while the next two go by very quickly and easily. In general the game is easier than the first 3 Primes but not insultingly so. I would say the difficulty is reasonable enough so long time fans will have a good time.

The main gameplay is still the classic first person style where you can shoot your energy blasts or missiles at the opponents until they go down. You will unlock different elemental attacks as you go forward and will get other kinds of power ups. It’s all pretty familiar if you have played the previous titles. In a lot of ways this one is trying hard to be a total formula game without trying to go beyond that. Fortunately the gameplay is fun enough where you won’t mid the repetition too much but there are some areas where the game isa bit dated.

The biggest example is not having any fast travel. There is a lot of backtracking here and it feels completely unnecessary. You should be able to cover larger chunks of ground without taking so long. Then you also have the green crystal grind at the end. I made sure to hit all the green crystals I could as I went through the game but wouldn’t go out of my way for others either. So then at the end I would do the main grind. It won’t take you longer than 2 hours or so but it just feels like a pointless grind. Why even include it?

The Prime games always have a bit of a collectathon at the end so it felt like this game was just adding one to continue the trend instead of actually getting real hyped for it. Not the best way to go. The desert definitely could have been handled better and the bike would have been more fun if it was faster. It goes by slow enough where that just adds to the tedious nature of it. A rare mistake from Nintendo. So the game had its issues like this but on the whole it was fun.

The collectibles are pretty easy to find with how well the map is labeled. Additionally, the power ups do help to make you feel a lot stronger. The puzzles are much better than in previous games and so for the most part it did feel like Nintendo thought this one through. Just one or wo quick fixes would have done a lot to make the game reach the next stage.

The graphics are definitely real solid. Metroid has never looked sharper and that is something I can say with 0 reservations. I did appreciate that we got more voice acting here. The side characters were all rather weak though. I much preferred the aliens and metahumans from Prime 3. I don’t know why you would go back to normal humans. Still, we got more of a plot than I was expecting even if it would vanish for large portions of time.

The soundtrack is also solid although it doesn’t match the previous games. For example you won’t be hearing anything that launches you out of your seat the way the Dark Samus theme did in the second game. That one is just hard to beat. So it was good all around but like in other areas, Prime 4 was unable to pass the third game here.

Overall, Metroid Prime 4 is a pretty good game. I had a good time with it. The title is fairly short as you will definitely manage to beat it in under 10 hours. Getting all of the collectibles and such will likely take this to around 15 hours or so but even then it won’t be extending things a whole lot. There isn’t a ton of replay value here unless you really like the story. For that reason you may want to wait for a bit of a discount. I’m always glad to see Samus though so hopefully this time the wait for Prime 5 is a lot shorter.

Overall 7/10

The Bionic Commando Review

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Whenever you make a video game where your main character doesn’t have the ability to jump, it should raise some red flags. How do you actually plan your game around that? Surely it can’t be easy and that’s why I would usually recommend not even taking the risk. Well, this game decided to do it anyway and unfortunately it did not go very well. The game goes too far in being as non-linear as possible to the point where you have no idea where to go after a while.

The game starts out with the world’s greatest agent being taken out of the picture. So the world’s second best agent is forced to get in on the action. He has to find the first guy and save him as well as stopping the villains from taking over the world. It will be difficult but this guy has a whole lot of training up his sleeve so it’s nothing that he hasn’t seen before.

The gameplay is your standard 2D platformer at first glance. You can move and jump as well as firing your blaster at folks. As I mentioned before, there is no jumping though. Instead you have an extendable claw that you can use to grab onto walls and mount your comeback. You will have to time the claw throws very carefully because your momentum only lasts for a quick instance. Once it is gone, then you are back to normal and often times you will be in a worse position than when you started.

Each level has a computer room that you must access before you can complete the level. This is a place where you can swap out your current equipment as well as learn some information about the villains and their movements. So this still sounds straight forward right? Well, where the wheels come off is you have to move through the hub world to the last level but you have multiple paths to get there. There are around 19 levels and the numbers are on them but it can be difficult to follow them in order.

You have to endure extra battles based on the enemies who are patrolling those areas. That’s not the only problem, you then have to factor in that you need the right items equipped for different levels to get through. You have up to 3 walkie talkies for example and no clear indicator on which one you need to use in order to proceed. You also have obstacles that can only be broken by specific guns. So there’s a lot of things to consider and none of them are all that fun. I would say that’s the main problem here.

I want to just get to the levels already. The combat is fairly decent and I enjoyed the boss battles. The shine starts to leave as you have to complete those same levels and bosses over and over again though. They keep on respawning and it just feels like that goes against the whole point of the adventure. This should be a fast paced battle to save your friends, not an ever lasting war against foes who refuse to go down. It just doesn’t add up.

The graphics aren’t bad. I do appreciate that we have actual cutscenes of sorts here as well. There is a real story and so this game put in the effort, it was just unfortunately overwhelmed by the fact that the gameplay mechanics were no good. Unfortunately I don’t believe there are a whole lot of ways to get around that. This game was not able to accomplish such a feat after all and that’s why I didn’t really want to rush back to it. The way I see it, this game just failed on a basic level in terms of being really fun to play.

The game’s length is fairly good for such an old game so I can give it some credit in terms of lasting value at least. The soundtrack was okay too so it had some fundamentals here. I think this would make for a good film and I would definitely play a remake of it someday. In the meantime though, this is going to be remembered as one of the weaker Game Boy games. The title just got a little bit too clever for its own good and so the whole thing backfired.

Overall, The Bionic Commando is not a game that I would recommend. It’s not like it’s bad or anything like that but to me it wasn’t that much fun and that’s the biggest thing you need in a game. Actually, I guess I could call it bad in that case as anything under a 5 can earn that title. If you ask me this game should have either kept in the ability to jump or it should have made the levels linear. Either option would have made this better but the whole guessing game doesn’t really work in a game like this. I wanted to be right there in the action, not left to guess on what was going on. Props to folks who figured out how to complete this game back in the day. If you have the Switch Online, I’d recommend playing Kirby instead.

Overall 4/10

The Angel of Pennsylvania Avenue

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It’s time for a wholesome story about a few kids deciding to see the President. It reminds you that this isn’t an easy task and yet it can be accomplished if you have a lot of resilience and are resourceful. This makes for an uplifting film even if it is all handled rather seriously. There aren’t a lot of overt laughs to be had here but the film doesn’t falter and the pacing is pretty good. I wasn’t aware of the events that the film was based off of either.

The movie takes place during the Great Depression and jobs are scarce. Everyone was looking forward to a good Christmas but the father announces that he will have to travel across states for a job opportunity. His wife is pregnant and they already have 3 kids so money is absolutely becoming an issue now. He tells them to stay strong and it’ll all work out but unfortunately that is easier said than done. He is framed for assaulting someone while trying to get the job and is taken to jail. Unfortunately this may end up being a death sentence if the victim dies and so the oldest kid decides that she will visit the president to put a stop to this. Her younger siblings want to come as well and naturally once the three of them vanish, the Mom has to go after them as well.

Now this is one of those things that probably couldn’t happen in the current day. There are way more safeguards in place and travelling across states is incredibly tricky. They would really need more money and I also don’t think the bluffs they used in this film would actually work. People are going to have their guards up if they see kids running around all by themselves and for good reason. So the kids would likely be stopped pretty early on in their journey.

As it is, they got quite a lot of help in this one like with another kid helping them hide while in the train and the conductors trusting their word when the kids say that their mom is already on the train. The kids get big props for making it this far although it would have probably been a bit easier for the oldest kid if she was on her own. The younger ones were a lot quicker to give up and also generally be disheartened at times. It makes sense since they are so young but it’s why they should have really stayed home. Their stubbornness could have really back fired.

Meanwhile the Mom did her best considering that she was still pregnant. She had to essentially go on an adventure of her own and in the days before cell phone and technology, this was a real shot in the dark. She had to hope that the kids were still on track for their destination and there are plenty of ways that they could have missed each other. That whole trip would have been super stressful.

The movie does show that there were quite a lot of helpful people every step of the way. Whether it was nice people helping through hitchhiking or just providing direction, everyone helped out a bit. There were one or two bad apples in there like the drunk driver so the world wouldn’t feel overly perfect but it was definitely filled with many more positives than negatives which is always reassuring. So on the whole the movie is sounding pretty promising so why do I not have it super high?

Well at times the movie just feels like it’s not making a whole lot of traction. I don’t think the pacing was great at it could take a while for plot progression at times. I also think that since the main characters were the kids, that limited the film’s potential at times. The kids did their best but it’s not like they’re going to have a lot of witty banter. The younger kids would be giving up like I mentioned before but even the eldest wasn’t always good at staying in control. She was baited into a fight rather easily which isn’t bad. There are good times to get into a fight for sure and this could even be one of them but then she needs to own it. She acted confused on why her mother was upset when it should have been pretty clear even from her perspective.

I also think this is an example of a film that’s a bit dry. Without any big humor scenes or explosive climaxes, there isn’t a whole lot to keep you at the edge of your seat. I think it would have been nice to have had more meanwhile scenes with the father in jail. Maybe showing him try to plead his case or coming up with a plan. I imagine it might have been difficult to do too much here considering the movie was based on a true chain of events but it would have been interesting because I think his plot would have been fun. He was a good guy just trying to look out for his family and then things went sideways. He’d be really desperate at that point so there is a lot you could do there.

Overall, This was a good movie. Even though it is light hearted, the serious nature of the film does prevent it from having too much replay value. The pacing isn’t very fast and like I mentioned before there aren’t a lot of laughs. You will enjoy the good quality of the movie but I feel like there won’t be a whole lot of reason to watch it again beyond that. So this is one of those titles where you are in it for the initial enjoyment and that will have to be enough. If this sounds like it is up your alley then you should check it out.