The Bell Rings in the Holy Night Review

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It’s time for a very short story but with only 20 pages it manages to properly develop two different romances. I would highly recommend this to any aspiring writers out there and naturally it’s a blast to read through as well. You won’t look at other romance titles in the same way after this one and you almost wish they could have made a whole series out of this.

The story starts on Christmas Eve with Ken preparing to assassinate a big crime lord on orders from his boss. He definitely doesn’t really want to do this but at the same time he feels trapped. He is basically out of money and feels like he’s never proven himself as a man. Ken hasn’t even been able to give his girlfriend Meg an engagement ring yet. Well, she’s not okay with this idea at all. Ken is a minor so he figures he would only go to jail for 5 years and then they could be together but Meg fears that he will have lost a part of himself. Fortunately an older man named Joe shows up and warns Ken not to go through with it.

See, Joe was in the same position 40 years ago and he actually succeeded in murdering his crime lord. What happened is this ended up making it so that he went to jail for far longer than 5 years. He was on the run for a long time even after that and couldn’t bear to show himself to his girlfriend. They had agreed to meet in front of the chapel on Christmas Eve but it took him 40 years to actually make it. He figured that the girl had forgotten all about him by now but it turns out that she had waited all the way until her dying day. Her grand daughter still goes there every year to pass on the message.

So Joe realizes that he really made a mess and wants to make sure that Ken doesn’t make the same mistake. Ken takes this message to heart and ultimately doesn’t sacrifice himself. It’s a really emotional scene and a reminder to never take the shortcuts in life. It’s the kind of message that hits hard because Ken was only a few minutes away from making a decision that would have ruined his life forevermore. That’s a tough pill to swallow.

Meg gets a lot of credit here too for telling Ken that this was a bad idea from the start. She knew that the easy money wasn’t going to make them happy and that turned out to be correct. While we don’t see much of Alice, I appreciated how loyal she was. She didn’t run around looking for a rebound or anything like that. There’s noting more romantic than hanging in there no matter what. They can have eternity in the future even if it didn’t work out in the present.

That’s the true spirit of romance, to never waver and remain together until the end. Even if things don’t work out the way you hoped like one person dies tragically young, you just keep on going with the memories and then make it to the end. I have high hopes that Ken and Meg will last as well since their devotion already appears to be very strong.

The art is really strong. You can see how similar it is to the Saint Seiya series and can imagine how good the fights would be. The artstyle is very expressive which works well for a story like this. Additionally the characters are all really likable. This is just a complete story and the pacing is also on point. It’s really impressive how much ground was covered in a mere 20 pages. It’s a reminder that you can really do a lot and can execute on an excellent story with even a limited page count.

Overall, I would recommend checking this story out. It’s a really good title for Christmas and is how you want to write a steady romance without needing to build it up for 50 volumes. You could believe in the bond here through the characters’ actions. Maybe one day they will make a short animated special of it or something like that. I’d definitely check it out and of course there are enough plot elements to make this into a movie if you really wanted to do that. You’d probably just expand on Joe’s story and we see how everything plays out in real time.

Overall 8/10

The Great Escape Review

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It was about time that I finally played the video game for this one. I can safely say that is wasn’t one of the more impressive games though. It is a good example of a stealth game that feels like a stealth game in all the worst ways. You can’t let enemies make contact with you or you get crushed and there are no checkpoints within the level. That is absolutely crazy! This game desperately needed some powerful quality of life updates to even begin to turn things around.

The game roughly follow the adventure of the movie but starts out a bit sooner. We actually get to play through the adventures of the different soldiers before they all landed in the base so that was different. There are 18 levels in the game and around 15 of them are pure stealth missions, with two driving ones and one shooter mission. I can tell you now that those 3 levels were the best ones in the game. I will give the game credit for having a full story and everything though.

The gameplay is fully in 3D and the main objective in most of the levels are to go through areas undetected and grab different objects. The levels will keep updating the objectives as you go through them and then by the end you will have cleared the level. If you are spotted, there is a slight chance you can hide long enough for the enemy to forget about you but it’s really unlikely. The game is not forgiving in the slightest and if you are spotted then you are most likely dead.

With the exception of a few levels where you have a gun, you have no way of actually defeating the enemy soldiers. Meanwhile if you stop for too long then they can just arrest you which is an instant death. They can also shoot you from long range. There are a lot of ways to die here basically and you have to factor in that some of the stealth missions are timed so you have to move quickly. Should I mention again that there are no checkpoints in these missions?

Now what about saving? Well, fortunately you can save 4 times per level. So you want to be really careful where you save. Even if you load an older save, you don’t replenish saves so that gets real tricky. In a way it’s like access points but the limited amount of saves is rough. By the way, 4 saves is if you play easy mode. If you go to normal mode then that drops to 3 which is even crazier. I can say without a doubt that this is one of the tougher games that I’ve played in a minute. It was really intense.

The problem is that it’s just not in a fun way. You have to replay large portions of the game over and over again. The compass doesn’t make a whole lot of sense so it’s hard to tell where the nearest soldier is. Then you also have to factor in that the controls are rather clunky. It’s really hard to aim with the gun and the auto aim isn’t reliable. If you get too close then you will try to punch an opponent instead of shooting them.

The enemies also seem to regenerate mid battle. Now I can’t prove this…but it seems to be the case. I would be taking down so many of them and more would appear. This may just be to show how you’re not supposed to beat the villains with force but it was still annoying. Just let me get in a car and drive around for more levels then. Those were a lot of fun.

The graphics are decent though. Sometimes it could be a little hard to see but that is more due to my TV than the game itself. The game looks good when it needs to. The soundtrack is surprisingly decent though. There are more tunes than I would have expected and they can be rather catchy. It helps to make up for the fact that there aren’t many stages in the game so they have to keep on reusing them. If anything that’s just a bit funny though. I always appreciated the rare daylight levels since the night ones were brutal though.

There’s not a ton of replay value here but if you beat the game then you get to play it again on great escape mode which adds a timer to each of the levels. Very fun right? Well, in the end if this game was more fun than it would have been higher. My main issue is just that it’s not super enjoyable. There are too many annoying segments of the game with the whole stealth approach. If they could just tone that down a bit then I think we would be in good shape but as it stands that wasn’t in the cards.

If this was more of a proper shooter then it would have been good or of course if there were more save points and such. I also think there should always be a way to fight a bit even in a stealth game. I imagine that a lot of people may disagree with that though. As a silver lining, I did feel a sense of accomplishment when I completed the game because this one was seriously no walk in the park. I felt like I had to earn it every step of the way.

Overall, This is a game that I wouldn’t recommend too highly. You can find better titles to play on the IOS App Store tbh. That being said, if you like stealth games then I suppose it is worth checking this one out. It’s not like it’s terrible or anything, it just isn’t my genre. Titles like Carmen Sandiego and Stolen handled this a lot better. For a stealth game like this where you are expected to die a lot, you need consistent save states. That’s really the crucial aspect here if you want the game to succeed. If you get away from that then it is game over.

Overall 5/10

The Great Escape

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It’s time for a pretty intense World War II film where a bunch of captives have to find a way to escape their prison. Naturally this won’t be easy but fortunately they all have a track record of success. It’s a pretty good movie that covers a lot of ground so the long length never gets in the way. You do have to suspend a little disbelief for how much freedom the characters are given but for the most part it’s rather grounded.

The Allied Forces have been doing a whole lot of damage to the Nazi’s during WW II and aside from the offensive battles, even the captives have been causing trouble by constantly escaping and forcing soldiers to be sent after them. Well, now the enemy has built a super prison meant to hold all of the escape artists in one place. In theory, this is the end of their escape attempts and now the Allies will be on the back foot. What if they were all to escape though? That is the plan for the heroes, it’s time to have all 250 escape their imprisonment.

This is a full ensemble film so there are quite a lot of soldiers here. The main one I’d argue is Virgil. He sets the stage right away by walking in with a leather jacket and a full baseball set. How did security let him keep it? Well they wouldn’t dare take it from this guy! He walks around like he’s in charge at all times and has the toughest spirit to crack. He has made countless escape attempts and while he is always captured eventually, it does waste the enemy’s time which is the whole point. Throughout the film he keeps making his own attempts while the others work on an ambitious tunnel.

Although Virgil is a solo act, he does help the others when the chips are down. He’s a very likable main character and I would say a big reason for that is how confident he is. That’s the kind of character you want to be leading the escape attempts. It’s also important to put your best foot forward because this is a war and people are going to die. Virgil is a character who can accept that as he moves forward.

Unfortunately not all of the soldiers are able to keep this up as one of them does give up midway to end it all. Definitely a very somber moment midway and one of those sobering scenes where the characters are reminded of the stakes here. They may be treated decently in the camp, but their allies are being murdered while they are in here and so that’s why they must continue to fight. They don’t always agree on the route to go but when the enemies close in, they are sure to back each other up.

That’s a really important part of being in this war after all. There is no time for disagreements when it is time to act and it’s something I always appreciate about these films. The film gets to let us see all the characters bonding and so it makes the ending even more impactful as characters start going down. Personally I would have enjoyed a happier ending but I guess that’s just how these things gotta go sometimes.

At least none of the characters should have any regrets. They did accomplish their mission of taking up a lot of time and resources at least. One character worked especially hard in digging the tunnel even though he was strongly claustrophobic. He pushed on for his country even though it pretty much broke him by the end. On a lighter note, I did enjoy the marathon of escape attempts early on in the film. They were weaker ones like hiding in the trees and such but they were still fun. The film knew how to turn on the humor when needed.

As mentioned, there are times where you have to suspend your disbelief though. The guards seem to just completely vanish at times and even with timing the drilling carefully to the sound of digging or singing, it’s hard to picture that going unnoticed. There are a ton of prisoners running around after all so you’d expect the guards to be doing extra checks and just running in on them from time to time. This whole jail is around because these guys are big time escape artists so you figure that would make the enemy soldiers be on extra high alert right? At least I would have guessed that.

You also have guards letting themselves be stolen from and blackmailed. At times this goes into the more comedic elements of the film but on the whole the film is serious so I’d still treat those scenes seriously right? This is fairly common for any heist/escape type film though. On the whole I would still say it was written well as the characters immediately start to scope the place out when they arrive. They clearly put in a lot of work and so it is still more believable than the average escape film. Also the film takes place over a very long time frame so it’s not like they built a tunnel in a day or two.

Overall, The Great Escape is a pretty solid film and I’d recommend checking it out. Ensemble films like this can be really fun when the film is long enough to really show them all off. Each character got a lot to do and the cast was so big that you might even forget that a few of them are around every now and again. You can assume there were some decent liberties taken here as things don’t always line up with how smooth the attempts are going, but you just have to roll with that to an extent. The writing was on point.

A Very Brady Christmas Review

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It’s time for the return of the Brady Bunch. I saw the show a lot when I was growing up and it was pretty fun. I wouldn’t say it could compete with the older old time shows like Twilight Zone or the Odd Couple but it was good wholesome fun. The film brings them all back to give you more of the same but I have to say that a lot of the characters really don’t look good. As a result you will have a hard time rooting for some of them in their sub plots.

The film starts with Mr and Mrs Brady enjoying their retired life. At this point the house belongs to just the two of them as their families have fully grown up. It’s peaceful this way and they each plan a big Christmas trip but ultimately decide to invite all the kids over for one last adventure. The kids get ready to arrive but what the parents don’t know is that they are all dealing with some issues. Looks like the parents are going to have to play the role of the guardian one last time here.

Like I said, the problem here is that a lot of the kids don’t look particularly good. Lets look through their problems for a minute here. The first guy is feeling embarrassed because his girlfriend makes more money than him and is actually his boss at the job. This is one of those issues that I will never be able to sympathize with. If your girlfriend makes more money than you, that’s great. You two can put that in a nice 401K and in the meantime can live a much more luxurious life than before. It takes a real sensitive ego to be upset about that. So as a result he decided not to propose to er for a very long time until she was finally forced to consider doing it herself. Definitely the most petty out of all the issues.

The next kid’s problem is that her husband got fired right before the holidays. So he’s still feeling rather sore about that and has a hard time containing this. He grumbles about the situation rather loudly even when he’s already at the Christmas party with his wife and daughter. It’s the most serious problem since losing your job is a big deal but I just wish he would have taken it a little better. Maybe not make such a big scene and all that. Ultimately his ego is a problem like the first kid’s and so Mr. Brady has to effectively trick him into getting a new job. She probably could have chosen a guy with a little more courage.

I’ll say now that Mr and Mrs. Brady were definitely the standout characters here since they were having to clean up all these messes while still having a fun party. It may make them reconsider doing this next year though. Their housekeeper also had some drama of her own as her boyfriend left her for a younger woman. This subplot was handled rather poorly as she quickly accepts him upon his return. He likely got dumped by the younger girl he was after, why would you just let him return so easily? Definitely a bad look.

Back to the kids, the one’s problem was that he dropped out of school a while back to become a race car driver. This was a super reckless move and so he doesn’t want to tell his parents until he is already winning races. Well, I think it’s a bad decision but it’s his life and he’s not grumbling about it so I much preferred him to the other two. This guy understood the consequences of his actions.

The next kid’s problem is that she was in the middle of a failing marriage. They are quickly falling apart because she feels like she does a lot of things without any appreciation and he is rather oblivious. The fact that it got this far was pretty rough. Yes, the party has them squash their differences but I don’t think it can ever be the same after their relationship was strained that hard. The husband in particular looked bad here since he left things get to this point and somehow didn’t notice all the extra work he was causing her. That’s a bit baffling.

Then we have one kid where his wife chose to visit her family instead of his for Christmas so that takes some of the fun out of it. What fun can you really have at a party without your wife? Technically it might be the smallest problem after all but you can still feel a little bad for him. In a way at least they had the healthiest dynamic here which is nice to see.

The final kid’s problem is more that she is still treated as the youngest. She is seated with the kids at the party instead of the grownups and doesn’t know how to say no. She shows up at the party when she already had plans with the other teens at the dorm. Meeting with your family is probably a better idea anyway but it would be nice to have presented this as her actively making a decision as opposed to just not knowing what to do.

You can see the problem here which is that there are so many problems that a lot of the kids just don’t look good by the end of this. There’s quite a lot of drama and not enough laughs to really take it over the edge. It’s a decent gathering and the build up to the reunion is fun but I do think it could have been more explosive. It’s still a good film but one without much replay value. I actually think it might have been better without all the kids. Make it just about Mr. and Mrs. Brady as they prepare their Christmas gifts and crazy shenanigans ensue. That is a winning formula.

Overall, A Very Brady Christmas will deliver an extra punch for folks who grew up watching the original show. It’ll definitely end up being nostalgic but that’s mostly what the film has going for it. Remove the Brady names and it’s a film about a lot of problem solving that doesn’t get quite as emotional as it could have been. I will say that the climax at least did its best to increase the stakes right at the end. We got to see a true hero in action and that is the kind of explosive plot that I’m talking about. If we got that for more of the movie then this would be an even higher one. Still, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a Christmas title to set up the season.

Overall 6/10

The Gathering Review

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It’s time for a film about a man who has to come to terms with his own mortality. It makes for a fun premise, after all what would you do if you knew you only had a short amount of time to live? This should make you really ponder what you believe happens after death. For a Christian, this may be rather exciting news as you know you’ll be going to Heaven and this is just speeding up the journey. If you think you’re going to hell or some kind of a void, well then this is going to be a bit stressful. So to me that means the film isn’t going to feel as somber as it might to other viewers but the movie is still good overall.

The movie starts with the doctor telling Adam that he has up to 3 months left to live. Adam is fairly well off but it has come at a great expense. He no longer stays in contact with any of his family members. In fact, he’s on rather bad terms with just about all of them. So this is his chance to reconcile with them before the end but it will be difficult to find them all and travel to them since they are scattered across the planet. His wife Kate finds out about the plan and suggests they host a Christmas party themselves and will invite all of the kids. It’s a long shot, but maybe they will all come home.

One of the big choices in the film that Adam has to make is if he will tell the kids about his impending demise or not. He decides not to because he feels like then he won’t be able to authentically connect with them all since that would almost be like guilt tripping. You can probably debate that one quite a bit, but ultimately I do think he was probably right there. I don’t think he needs to mention that he will die as they’ll find out before long and this way they will all get to have an enjoyable Christmas with no extra worries.

A good chunk of the film is about setting up all of the characters. We see that most of the characters have really gotten their own lives and it’s not so easy to attend a party right away. Some of the characters hold grudges while others don’t. It is fun to see all of the characters finally meet up later on and they get to act like a real family, even if it was only a brief adventure.

That said, the film does take itself so extremely serious that I don’t think it made the most of this situation. I would have appreciated some more witty banter or a little injection of humor. If anything that would have helped make the family feel much more like a close knit unit instead of a bunch of strangers who came together for the holidays. In a sense the film tries a bit too hard to go for the ultra realism. I could picture this being an actual family gathering as everyone exchanges pleasantries but only in a very formal family. They needed to loosen up a bit.

I thought the film did a good job of sticking the landing though. We didn’t have the big scene where he tells everyone and they all cry and have very emotional moments with each other. Adam stuck to his plan even if it was found out by some of them and saw them all off with a smile. He can’t undo all the decisions he made in the last 20 years but he did what he could to end off on a high note. At the end of the day that’s all you really can do.

It’s why it is important to always live your best life at all times even when nobody is watching or when you think you have a lot of time left. You never know when it’s all going to end and so that is a good message on the film’s part. I did think the writing was good and the pacing wasn’t bad. This film just doesn’t have a ton of replay value though because of how dry it is. I wouldn’t be watching this one a second time but I could recommend it to someone who wants a very down to Earth film.

The different trials that go on here revolve around pride over a job, political differences with someone avoiding the draft, etc. None of them are Earth shattering and it adds to the grounded atmosphere. There are also quite a lot of characters here so the film would have been in trouble if it was trying to solve all of the issues in a single film. Instead it solves the parts that can be mended emotionally and for the rest you trust that the characters are on the right path now. It also helps that each character already has their own life going on so it’s not like anyone is in pure desperation mode. They’ve all become rather independent over the years which is at least a silver lining for them.

Overall, The Gathering is a film that lives up to the title. The whole thing is about the gathering and getting all of the characters to meet up. They put aside their petty differences and get along in time for Christmas. It was good to see the characters reconciling. It doesn’t mean that they’re all going to become best friends all of a sudden but life’s too large for small differences and pride to get in the way. So it was nice that the characters were able to succeed there.

Overall 6/10

A Christmas Story Review

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It’s time for another wholesome Christmas story and this is another one that I was really not familiar with. It has a very nice animation style that is retro but still looks really good. The story also shows just how fast Santa is and why it would be hard to catch such a guy. When you think about it, he would need to be fast to visit every child on Christmas. The movie does not disappoint with his depiction of speed.

The story starts with Christmas rapidly approaching but unfortunately Timmy forgot to mail his letter to Santa. The parents hadn’t noticed either and so it wound up under the table. Gumdrop realizes this and lets his pal Goober know that they have to save Timmy’s Christmas. The problem is that it’s already Christmas Eve and so there are only a few hours left until Santa is supposed to arrive. If the two animals don’t hurry, Timmy will be doomed.

Now you do have to allot a certain level of blame over to Timmy and his parents here. They should have been more prepared considering that it’s Christmas. I suppose the parents especially since in this world we know that Santa Claus is real which changes things up quite a bit. You would assume that the parents definitely know what is going on here since mysterious presents appear each year. At the end of the day though, Timmy needed to be ready and make sure that everything was on point. It’s his gifts after all.

Now you do have to wonder if Santa would have managed to turn up with the gifts anyway. It all depends on just how powerful he is in this version. Based on how he succeeded at the end, I’m betting that he probably would have known about the letter anyway. You can interpret the scene to mean that he saw the letter while the animals were resting too so in that case then you’d give the heroes some more credit.

Gumdrop gets most of the credit here for being the instigator. He was the one running around and making sure that everyone searched for the letter. If he didn’t notice and force the issue then Goober was going to be sleeping through the whole thing. Goober is still the most enjoyable character though. I like how relaxed he is the whole time. Goober is the kind of character who doesn’t really get stressed on his own and just looks at the positive side of things.

Also once Goober was in on the mission, he definitely made a difference. He has the size and speed to cover a whole lot of ground. The special also had a good amount of teamwork as we saw all of the various animals from the neighborhood chipping in to try and get Santa’s attention. Ultimately numbers alone just aren’t going to be enough to catch up to someone like Santa. His sheer speed and skill are just too good.

When it comes to the animation, it’s really solid like I mentioned before. It’s very traditional and the kind of hand drawn style that really ages well. The colors are striking and the expressions can look rather funny which adds to the humor. It makes for a special that thrives beyond its years on the visual side. There isn’t as much to say on the soundtrack side so it loses on that front.

A good story doesn’t need a whole bunch of extra details and this one really focused on that as a strength. Santa is well known enough where it’s not like he needed a bunch of screen time after all and you still felt his presence the whole time. It would be interesting to learn more about the world and how Santa affects it but in a way the mystery is the fun part. With a special like this, you’re seeing the proof of concept and can fill in the blanks on your own.

Overall, A Christmas Story is a pretty fun film. It has a good amount of humor and the whole thing is very frantic. The pacing is always fast and it’s just a nice story. You’re given a solid premise about getting a letter to Santa and then it’s really on the animation to sell this. It definitely works out and I would recommend watching this one if you’re looking for something fun for Christmas.

Overall 7/10

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