Gaslight (1944) Review

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Time for the next adaption of Gaslight. I was certainly not all that impressed with the first one and this title is only marginally better. Many of the same negatives from the first film reappear in this one. I’ll give this title credit for having what’s effectively a 30-40 minute prologue added in before we see the first scene of the original film readapted here. It adds some more context but also backfires. More on that later on.

Paula’s aunt was murdered one day which frightened everyone and so Paula was sent away for a while. We cut to the present where she has met up with a guy named Gregory and intends to marry him. It’s all going well until he says that he wants to move to London, the exact area where the aunt was murdered. Paula has done her best to get over this incident for many years and so she figures that she is ready to handle this. Unfortunately things begin to get misplaced and Gregory is always attacking her now that they are married. Will she be able to escape or will she fall for every trick over and over again?

So here’s why the whole extended origin fails here. We actually see how Paula’s life was quite happy and how she met Gregory. Right from the jump she should have said no to moving to the London squares…but fine she says that she’s over it so we can roll with that. Here’s where things get dicey. When she finds the letter with a mysterious name on it, Gregory snaps at her and immediately starts yelling and acting like the main villain. We’re still in the prologue here so the old film hasn’t started yet.

Right away Paula needed to have called him out here. She can’t just take that and let a bad precedence start. Then in the next scene we have Gregory casually mentioning that Paula tends to be a very forgetful person. Paula just accepts this for some reason when she should have quickly said no. The gaslighting here is so obvious and tactless that you’ll be shaking your head the whole time. It all happens so fast and since we’re actually seeing it this time, you have a hard time believing any of it. It just doesn’t make any kind of sense.

Paula isn’t nearly as broken as the first character by this point but it’s like her personality does a 180 as she was so confident and self assured but suddenly becomes extremely timid. It’s disappointing because she could have done so well and is instead faltering immediately. The rest of the movie gets worse and worse for her as Gregory just keeps on manipulating and humiliating her in front of everyone. If only she had signed the documents saying that she keeps all of the money because then she could have dashed out or something.

Regardless it would have been nice if she had gone outside more to talk to people and figure out what is going on. She’s rich to an extent and should easily be able to think of some things that can help. Hire some detectives or do something pro active to find out about the letter and why Gregory has changed so suddenly. She should have helped hire the maids and if anything she should have fired Nancy once she sensed how much antagonism was there.

One of the biggest problems with the film is that Paula’s barely a character. She just stands there and takes everything that Gregory throws at her. You wish she would do anything but instead she always ends up disappointing you. Finally there’s one area where she is worse than in the previous version. It’s near the end of the film when Brian is around to help her but everyone dashes off as Gregory shows up. In the first film she seems to actually think that it might have been a dream and starts to crack. In this one it seems like she panics at the thought of Gregory being against her and so she quickly tried to throw the other maid under the bus. I thought that was an extremely petty moment and it definitely made her look bad. That’s the kind of mistake that you can’t afford to make.

Of course Gregory’s a pretty awful villain too. The guy isn’t exactly subtle with all the noise he makes when trying to find the jewels. I wouldn’t even say that he’s a very smart villain because the whole plan revolves around Paula being easily manipulated and not able to do anything for herself. If Paula had talked to the nice next door neighbor or anyone then this could have all been avoided. Any scene with Gregory in it tends to be annoying for sure.

Nancy is also not a very nice maid. You’d think she would respect Paula as the head mistress more but unfortunately she is quickly able to sense the heroine’s weakness and pounces. The other maid was nice enough though and at least tried to look out for Paula. Then you have Brian who is doing his best to solve this case as soon as possible. The guy is dedicated and I’ll give him points for making a real effort here. In the end the guy took a very long time but he still helped save the day. The result is really what counts here.

The suspense for disbelief is just too much though. I like my main characters to be confident and self assured. Even if you are going to be a wallflower then I expect you to trust your own judgment and step up when the going gets tough. If Paula had gotten tough even once then that would have helped the film a great deal. The extended run time gives her more character but it almost doesn’t matter since it doesn’t change her actions later on. She still falls into all of the same holes so that whole intro may as well have not even happened at all.

Overall, Gaslight is a film that I have to give a full thumbs down too. The character cast isn’t quite interesting enough to counter all of the suspense for disbelief you have to go through. The old lady seemed nice enough but in the end she barely got to appear at all so I’m not even sure what the point of her character was. This adaption certainly added a whole lot of elements but since they didn’t change anything, they may as well have kept it the same. The movie beats the original but as I said earlier, it doesn’t do enough to make this a good movie. It’s still one that I would give a thumbs down to in the end. You’ll want to avoid this one for sure.

Overall 3/10

Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix Review

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This is one of the only Mario games I had never managed to get my hands on before now. It’s certainly well known but usually hard to obtain. Well, I can say that it was worth the wait. The story itself is a lot shorter than I would have hoped but you can tell that there was a good budget behind this game. The effects and graphics are just way too solid to overlook and of course the soundtrack is a blast. If you want to play a solid rhythm game then you can’t go wrong with this one.

The story starts with Toad asking Mario for help because someone has stolen the legendary music orbs. Waluigi, Wario, Blooper, and more villains have united to take these away. Now the whole world is being forced to dance because of how the music magic has gotten free. Can Mario out dance everyone who gets in his way or is this possibly game over for the entire Mushroom Kingdom? Luigi and Peach are not here to back him up this time so Mario is really on his own this time.

There are 4 worlds here which each have 4 levels and then the final world that has 2 levels. Each world ends with a big boss at the end which is always fun and of course you have music tracks from across the Mario franchise. Some of the songs are hard to recognize from their original versions but they’re definitely catchy and work well with the fast paced levels. I played the game without a dance mat so then it’s all about timing as you push your control stick in the right direction at the right time. It’s all about having perfect timing and that sounds good to me as timing is what I’m all about. It works out rather well although the game is also quite easy. I picked the most challenging difficulty level and even then the villains could never get more than a D rank. That’s just how it goes I suppose so you’ll still want to give it your all just to prove to yourself that you can achieve the best.

Without the dance mat the toughest part is when you have to click both directions at once. Of course on the mat you can have one foot in two place at once but that’s not possible with a control stick. You have to quickly hit both sides as quickly as possible but you never get the perfect scores that way. As a result maybe it’s for the best that the A.I. wasn’t too good or that could have started to get a bit tricky. Playing this game reminds me of how the Kingdom Hearts melody game could end up being fun.

Where Nintendo went the extra mile here is by adding all kinds of visual elements and extra minions to the levels. They incorporate Goombas, Boo, Bullet Bills, Koopa, and all sorts of enemies into the mix. They affect how you have to use your control stick and it makes for a fun variety in the levels. Then you have the boss levels where you see both of the characters dancing the whole time. Mario is certainly confident in his skills and its well earned considering how well he does here.

I’ll also give the game props for having a real story mode. It certainly would have been tempting to have just side stepped that entirely but that’s not what happens here. The game takes itself seriously and there are cutscenes as we face off against everyone. Even Bowser steps in at one point which is always hype. The whole story is rather crazy from the jump with how the music magic works but you can just roll with it the whole time.

The graphics are also very nostalgic with how this reminds me of the Mario Party 4 game. The character models have aged well and so have the stage designs. This feels like one of the better depictions of the Mushroom Kingdom. You really get a feel for how daily life would be like in this place. On every technical level the game went above and beyond. The only thing that would hold this title back is the super short length and even with that you’ll have had fun during the journey.

Plus there is a multiplayer mode so that’ll help with the replay value. You could end up playing through the game for quite a long time as long as you have someone to play it with. That’ll really test your skills although I hope that there is a way to speed the levels up further than you could in story mode or it’s possible that both you and your opponent will be absolutely dominating the matches the whole time. I’m sure there is some kind of tiebreaker and you guys won’t get perfect scores all the time so that helps out a bit but speeding things along would certainly help to make it all a bit more exciting.

Overall, Dance Dance Revolution has always been a fun genre for games. I don’t participate in them too much myself nowadays but it was a good way to burn some calories and get a good workout. Throwing in the Mario characters was brilliant and I almost feel like they should bring that back in the present. I think it could absolutely sell super well if it was marketed right. I’m not sure if the Switch has any compatible dance mat at the moment but if not that’s something that could be changed really quickly. Playing through this game is like digging up a lost piece of your childhood. If you like the Mario games and grew up with the Gamecube era then this is a title that you’ll want to get. It’s a title that has aged too well to pass up. There’s not much to it but the game’s a lot of fun and you’re always reminded that Nintendo made that their top priority when making games and it definitely shows here.

Overall 7/10

Spy Hunter Stats and Records

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Stats time!

Total Objectives 59/65

Stage Stats Clear Time and Objectives Completed

Level 1 4m 4s 7/7
Level 2 5m 15s 4/4
Level 3 3m 41s 4/4
Level 4 5m 24s 4/4
Level 5 3m 37s 4/4
Level 6 5m 25s 4/4
Level 7 5m 7s 5/7
Level 8 5m 3d 4/4
Level 9 5m 10s 5/5
Level 10 4m 13s 4/4
Level 11 5m 30s 6/6
Level 12 3m 58s 4/4
Level 13 3m 37s 2/4
Level 14 8m 25s 2/4

SpyHunter Review

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SpyHunter is a game that always looked pretty interesting. When I saw it, I figured this would be something kind of like Pursuit Force. Well, it plays out a little differently from that one. See, this game never lets you leave the car and you’ve got to perform the objectives while driving to the end of the level. It’s a different take on the usual kind of car game. It’s a decent enough title and yet it trips itself up with the need to force you to grab every collectible. I thought that was a pretty bad idea personally.

The game starts with a villain organization talking about how they are going to take out the world. They have their weapons at the ready and the only one who can stop them is the mysterious agent you are playing as. Unfortunately that’s effectively where the story ends. The rest of the game has you tackling a bunch of missions that have some text for context but that’s pretty much it. If you were looking for a big story here then you have come to the wrong place. The gameplay will have to be enough.

So how does the game play out? Well, it’s a 3D driving title where you are given 5-7 missions to complete. One of those is the primary mission so you have to complete that in order to beat the level and then you have a ton of secondary missions to try and complete. They’ll range from things like “Avoid civilian casualties” to “Blow up 8 trucks”. As you’re driving in the level you will usually see the objectives flagged in little circles. The color of the circle will help to remind you if you’re to blow up the object or stop it with an EMP. If you really forget you can also pause the screen which will quickly show you all of the missions.

The term “secondary” may make you think that these are optional but most of them are not. The game has 14 levels and each one is protected by a points requirement. Each mission gives you a point per mission so you have to complete a lot of them. The game as a whole has around 65 possible points and you need 57 to unlock the last level. If you discount the 4 objectives in that level, that means you need 57 out of 61 possible points prior to the final level so you can’t allow for many mistakes. This means you will be replaying each level a whole bunch of times.

That part’s what is really unfortunate about SpyHunter. You should not have to go back and play old levels like this. I always feel that doing something like that should be absolutely optional. Otherwise it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me to call it secondary. Just bake it all into the level at that point and at least you now what you’re getting yourself into. I also didn’t like the fact that you have to re-clear the other missions. For example, let’s say you beat 5/7 of the level’s missions on the first try. You’d assume that you could just go in and complete the other 2 right? Unfortunately that’s not the case in this one. You have to actually go in and complete all of the other missions again in order for this to count. It makes the process a little extra tedious so I recommend just trying to complete all of the missions right away and restarting until you do. Otherwise you’ll have to go back anyway and at least this way you will be super familiar with the level.

It’s certainly possible that the developers only did this to buy time because otherwise the game would have been incredibly short. Each level is only 3-5 minutes long so you can easily complete the whole game in about an hour if you didn’t have to go back and replay them each time. As a result there is not a ton of replay value on the single player side since you’ll have had to 100% complete almost every level. There is a multiplayer mode though and since the gameplay itself is solid, I could see that being a lot of fun. Multiplayer is always a good way to keep the player around for a while.

The graphics aren’t bad. I liked what we got in the opening cutscene but at the same time there isn’t a lot else to base it off of. The levels have very distinct designs and I like the various effects for the blasters and explosions so all in all I would give that area a thumbs up. The soundtrack is much more forgettable though. You’ll quickly forget any tune that you heard during the game without a doubt. I can’t say I expected any really good tunes but it definitely would have been a pretty nice bonus. Maybe next time I suppose.

As you play through the game you will unlock more weapons for your car. It’s important to note though that these weapons only work for levels after which you’ve unlocked them which I found a bit odd. For example, when you get the triple missiles, you can’t use them for the first level and you are automatically downgraded there. Usually part of the fun with upgrades is going back and winning with extreme ease now. This seems like one of those times where the game just had a big miss again.

The best weapon in the game is definitely the missile though. Whether you’ve got 1 or 3, it is the best way to have the upper hand against the villains. Relying on your gatling gun is not as good because it takes so many hits to defeat the opposing cars. The only time it is worth it is if there are a lot of civilians around and you want to make sure you don’t hit the. The missiles deal a lot of damage and have large explosions so it is tough not to hit someone when using that kind of weaponry.

Overall, SpyHunter is a good game but is heavily held back by all of the sub missions here. Just let me focus on driving and going through the levels. If the game did that then it absolutely would have been so much better. The concept of a driving game where you are blasting with your weapons and everything is quite sound. I guess the developers didn’t have enough confidence in its overall premise though. If you don’t mind the collectathon type elements here then you should pick this game up. It’s fairly cheap and the gameplay itself is polished very well.

Overall 6/10

Super Mario: Goddess of the Demon Empire Review

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The title is a bit misleading I’d say. Daisy never comes close to being the goddess here but the title sounds epic I suppose. This oneshot is a quick adaption of the Mario movie and it’s pretty fun. It’s odd to see Luigi as the brave one of the group but perhaps it makes sense since Daisy is the main heroine here instead of Princess Peach. All in all, it probably won’t change your mind on the film if you’re not a big fan but it’s a decent story here. You’ll finish it very quickly without a doubt and while it may not feel a whole lot like the game versions, it’s a decent AU.

The story starts with Daisy calling Mario and Luigi over to fix her pipes. Unfortunately a pair of hooligans take the chance to kidnap her. They jump into a pipe and take her to meet King Koopa. See, Daisy is the daughter of the lady who stole a fragment of the meteor which split the human and dinosaur realms apart. If Koopa can grab a hold of that and put it inside an artifact, he can re-merge the two planets back together. He is confident that his army and weapons would then be enough to take over the world with ease. Mario and Luigi are humanity’s last hope now. Can they really defeat Koopa though?

While the story is short, there’s a lot going on here. The details are usually left out so you have to try and figure things out on your own. For example, why did the planets split into two dimensions when the meteor struck? You’d have thought that everything would have simply blown up so that didn’t make a lot of sense but it was interesting. Then with the key, it is apparently too potent for the villains to hold for a while as it burns two of them but why can all of the heroes hold onto it? We can try to say that it’s about good intentions or something but that’s pure speculation. I don’t know how Bowser had this contraption set up to re merge the worlds either.

Then with how easy it was for Bowser’s minions to go to the human world, why does he needs to merge the worlds anyway? I get that he wants to rule the world but it seems like he already rules the other world so in that case couldn’t he just rule both worlds? It would probably be easy to rule the humans with the advanced tech that he has at his disposal or it seems like that would be the case at least. So the manga will definitely give you a lot of questions but I suppose this isn’t all very important.

At the end of the day, the characters are fun and the writing is good enough so it makes for a decent oneshot. I think Bowser has the worst design though. Not only do they just keep calling him Koopa the whole time but he just looks like a guy with warts. There’s no real attempt to make this guy look like Bowser and it’s just sad. The design does not age well at all. At least Mario and Luigi have the general builds at the ready even if their caps are gone. As mentioned before, Luigi is the brave one this time. He was eager to jump into the pipe to save Daisy and didn’t hesitate during each part in the chase. Mario was the one who was unsure and needed to be dragged along.

Mario does get his battle with Bowser where he looks brave enough though. Using explosive mushrooms to take the guy down was clever and an interesting interpretation of the fire flower. Seeing Bowser get blown to bits is also surprisingly intense. Granted, Bowser is made of sludge here so that helps but even so, you see Mario just blasting away limbs which is intense. Apparently Bowser has high speed regeneration here which is interesting though. Then of course you have his gun which can send people back to their past selves which seems like an incredibly handy tool. It’s a 1 hit KO if you hit someone because you just keep the ray on and it keeps going until the person is no longer alive.

The art is okay even if I don’t like the designs. It can be a little hard to follow once in a while because of how the manga seems to skip ahead though. It doesn’t want to waste any time and as a oneshot I can definitely understand why that’s the case. At only around 30 pages you’ll be able to read through the story very quickly. The ending leaves room for a sequel although I can’t imagine any scenario where we ever get back to this continuity. There are just too many solid games to adapt and other styles to go with.

Overall, This story is okay. It’s certainly poor as an adaption of the Mario games but if you take it as a stand alone story then it works better. There isn’t anything that the manga does particularly well enough for it to be noteworthy though and that’s what keeps me from calling this one pretty good. It’s not bad but I just don’t see you ever going back to re read it. It’s an adventure that you read once for the novelty and then it’s gone. At best I can say that I do think it was going for a TMNT vibe in a lot of ways. It just doesn’t manage to capture that same level of charm and Bowser is a really weak antagonist here. I usually like the guy but not so much in this adventure. If you really want to relive the Mario movie experience then you should jump in and check this one out. It does have a little more action than the movie version which is always a nice plus.

Overall 6/10

Celeste Cuckoo vs Itachi

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Suggested by iKnowledge Itachi is up against the last member of the Cuckoos and this is a match he will still win. At the end of the day Itachi has the advantage in all major categories. When you have the edge in both speed and strength, it is very rare that you will lose the fight. I don’t really think Celeste has any way to turn the tides here and that is what will be her undoing. Defeating an Uchiha as skilled as Itachi is extremely difficult. Itachi wins.

Esme Cuckoo vs Itachi

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Suggested by iKnowledge Esme Cuckoo is the next fighter to get in Itachi’s way but I don’t see her doing any better here. Itachi has the Amaterasu flame which can burn anything into oblivion. While she has some protection thanks to her Phoenix abilities, she won’t be able to withstand these flames for very long. Ultimately Itachi is also a lot faster so there is truly no escape. Itachi wins.

Mindee Cuckoo vs Itachi

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Suggested by iKnowledge Mindee is a strong fighter but she’s not ready for Itachi’s powerful Susannoo. With this technique he can deliver incredible damage with a single blow. The attacks are hard to dodge and his defense will then block any attack that she throws his way. In effect, Itachi will have the ultimate weapon for both offense and defense which will stop Mindee from doing much of anything. I don’t see her making a comeback here. Itachi wins.

Sophie Cuckoo vs Itachi

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Suggested by iKnowledge Sophie’s abilities are solid but she doesn’t have enough true combat experience to take the win here. Itachi can immediately fire off one of his large fireball jutsus and while she tries to block that then he can zoom in and land the winning combo attacks. Sophie won’t have any time to regroup and her telepathy just won’t be helping at all in this battle. Itachi wins.

Phoebe Cuckoo vs Itachi

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Suggested by iKnowledge It’s time for Itachi’s gauntlet against the Stepford Cuckoos to begin. Each of them are fairly powerful as they have Emma Frost’s abilities and even obtained some techniques from the Phoenix Force as well. That’s certainly nothing to sneeze at but it’s not going to be enough to stop Itachi. Itachi’s visual jutsus are far too advanced and his speed is absolutely insane. He would be able to always be one step ahead of Phoebe and good luck trying to read his mind. Itachi wins.