Asphalt 9: Legends Review

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It’s time to take a look at a racing game that I didn’t even know existed until I came across a random Reddit post a while back. I really enjoyed Asphalt on the 3DS to the point where I consider it to be the definitive portable racing game and one of the better ones overall. This one is a big console version and it’s free so it would be interesting to see how it fares. Well, it’s a lot of fun and there’s a ton of content yet it just doesn’t feel quite as good as the 3DS version.

When you jump into the game you have a lot of options on what you would like to do first. The main mode is Career which is where you’ll go through hundreds of levels in order to prove that you are the best. The levels are all bite sized at around a minute or less. Your goal is typically to get 1st place but sometimes you need to pull off a drift or be in the air for a while. By the point where I stopped these missions were all very easy but I’m sure they would get tougher over time. Due to how many levels there are here you could easily be busy for a very, very long time. The longer the better though so that works out quite well.

Then you have the online battles where you race other drivers. The more you win the more you rise up through the different ranks. I managed to get Silver Rank in my first 2 online seasons so I’d count that as a total win. These battles are fun but be prepared to lose quite a bit since your car matters a lot here. As a freemium player I just had the most basic cars imaginable while some of these guys online had sweet rides at their disposal. It’s still a good change of pace from playing the offline modes all the time.

Then there are tons of achievements which you’ll unlock naturally as you play the game. Most of them keep on going as well so lets say one achievement was for winning 10 races, you’ll get another 15. There are a ton of missions like this so you’ll likely be clearing one almost every race. They get you A Points which can be used for Coins or vice versa. Then you use points to upgrade your cars. In order to get new cars you need to unlock blueprints which you get by winning races. There are a ton of cars so you’ll be unlocking them for a long time.

Each car has an individual energy meter so you can only use them a certain amount of times before they have to rest. You can use an item to reset the timer but once you run out of those you’d have to buy them. This is one game where money helps you out a lot. You can buy the best of the best stuff here right off the bat. If you do that they you will have a very tangible benefit over the other players. At least the game is doable without paying though. That’s really the important part for me since I like being able to at least make it to the end without paying a dime. So long as I can do that then everything else will quickly fall into place.

There are a lot of songs here. The game spared no expense in buying actual lyrical songs to listen to during the stages. That was impressive and they fit pretty well with the speed of the races. The graphics also look really good. They’re on par with something you may have spent 60 bucks to play. The Free to Play market is in a really good state at this point since companies are producing rather expensive games like this one and not charging. Yes, it’s because they charge end users for optional things, but at least it’s not mandatory.

If the game has a problem it’s that there is too much to do. More content isn’t bad, but the menus are structured in a way where it is always very overwhelming. I’ve noticed that this does tend to happen to some mobile games. You really need a main menu that you can maneuver through easily and that’s not something that this game has. It may seem rather minor but it gets to be a big deal after a while when you are just trying to find your garage or the next race. It’s all very busy.

As for the gameplay, it’s definitely pretty solid. Asphalt 3D is still better, but this one doesn’t add too many gimmicks. You can boost and you can spin to knock out other racers. Beyond that it is basically a normal racing game and that’s what you would expect from Asphalt. It’s a simple experience next to NFS or Mario Kart, but it excels at this. 9 just doesn’t feel as simple as the rest of the series which may be the price for being free. It’s worth it of course even if I ultimately did not stick with it.

Overall, Asphalt 9 is a very good game. It’s practically endless with how many races there are to do. If you really like racing then I can see you sticking with this game for a very long time. There won’t really be a reason for you to put it down. With no story mode here you’ll be playing purely for the gameplay. I’ve got too many games on the backlog to stay with any one title for too long, but there is a good amount of quality here. Asphalt’s developers didn’t phone this one in and I could see it staying active for a very long time. I would caution you not to spend any money on it until you are sure that you will be playing the game for a long time though.

Overall 7/10

My Little Pony: Legends of Magic Volume 2 Review

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It’s time to venture back into the world of My Little Pony! Legends of Magic is a spinoff series about the old timers and other magic threats. This one is a prequel about Stygian and how he gathered Equestria’s mightiest defenders. It’s a fun volume and while you may miss the Mane 6, these guys aren’t so bad. They may not have as much charisma but they are all pretty strong and it’s like looking at an ancient version of the ponies. It also helps tie in an element from the Equestria Girl film.

The comic starts off with Stygian doing more studying as always. He runs across 3 Serpents who ask him to bring them to the town so they can play for the people. Stygian refuses because these girls are super shady and does some chores for an old pony. When he gets back to town he sees that these Serpents have already made it into the village and cursed everyone with their singing. Stygian barely escapes and decides that in order to stop these guys he will need the strongest Ponies around. Will Stygian be able to find these guys and stop the villains in time to save the day? Only time will tell.

There are 6 issues here and essentially each issue is about recruiting a different Pony and getting one step closer to being able to return to his village. The first member he recruits is Rockhoof. Rockhoof is the power member of the team and he’s so strong that he can create a path to divert the river in no time at all. From there he can take on Bears and do all kinds of things. At first his super power appears to be raw strength but the more you read the comics the more it seems like determination is his special skill. That ultimately makes more sense since he isn’t able to even block a bunch of bunnies from entering the room in a later comic. I’d argue that he is still the most powerful of the group though. He’s a nice guy and it’s good to have someone on the team who is always ready to stand up for Stygian.

Another member of the group is the speedster Flash. He was dealing with some dragons and so at first he didn’t have time to deal with this impending danger. Fortunately the gang was ready to take it out with the dragons and that all ended up going well. Flash is very confident and he’s a good foil to Rockhoof. I dare say that he was necessary in order to make the group a true threat to the villains. Mistmane probably had the most embarrassing adventure since she was kidnapped by her own plants. Ultimately they may have listened to her, but if the others hadn’t shown up when they did I fear that she would have been truly doomed. I just don’t think she would have been able to stand up to the others for very long otherwise.

Meadowbrook had to deal with a lot of violent animals thanks to some poison in the plants. She’s a nice enough pony even if she isn’t a fighter. Her medical expertise could certainly come in handy during a fight. Then we have Somnambula who was dealing with Zombies. She’s the Pinkie Pie of the group due to how cheerful and unpredictable she can be and yet she manages to do so without being completely over the top the way that Pinkie usually is. It is a welcome change to be sure. Somnambula is actually charismatic and while she does enjoy poking fun at the others more than actually helping out, it’s not as if we ever considered her to be a hero.

Finally we have Star Swirl who is as self absorbed as ever. His only goal is to stop the menace threatening Equestria and it’s something that he believes only ponies with power can accomplish. As a result he brushed Stygian to the side the whole time. While he isn’t as exaggeratedly mean as in the TV show, you can see how the seeds are already planted with his character arc. He may be powerful, but the guy isn’t particularly likable. Too bad Starlight wasn’t around yet to show him what true power really is.

These are a fun batch of issues leading up to a satisfying climax. Each issue gave us a nice little threat and then the actual climax delivered with the big confrontation with the Serpents. (I think they were known as the Sirens in the issue, but they look like Serpents) I’d be down for a battle between the Pillars and the Mane 6 at some point. That would definitely be a blast. The writing is solid here and the pacing is good. Each issue feels like it is over in a blast as a result so you are always ready for more adventures. The artwork is quite solid and looks like it came right out of the show. The character designs are on point and the comic excels with the technical aspects.

Overall, Legends of Magic is a very good volume. It gives us more character development on Stygian and it is easy to see how he became the Pony of Shadows. There’s not a lot of gratitude here considering that he saved not just a town, but multiple towns by the end of this mini series. People really didn’t give him much of a chance just because he didn’t have powers. At least this helped the other ponies to learn later on that it’s not the powers that make the Pony but the other way around. I’ve got quite a few more MLP comics on the way so you can expect more reviews in the near future.

Overall 7/10

One Piece: Stampede Review

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Time to look at the latest One Piece film. This one was definitely getting a lot of hype before it came out because it was bringing together a ton of One Piece characters. Pretty much every big pirate who is currently alive in the series is returning for this film. Naturally since the film is under 2 hours you can’t expect all 60+ of these guys to get a big role, but the movie does a good job of at least allowing them all to get their special attacks in. Then you’ve got the second wave of characters who are big enough to get their own fights. It’s definitely an amazing One Piece experience for fans and anyone who enjoys a good action film is sure to have a blast as well.

The film starts by taking us back to the famous Blackbeard prison breakout from a while back. It turns out that there was one pirate who was far too powerful for Blackbeard to let him join. This guy’s name is Bullet and he once served aboard the Pirate King’s crew. Well, now he is back in a big pirate festival. Festa has organized this thing in order to bring together the Marines, Pirates, and Revolutionaries so they can all be destroyed in one fell swoop. He doesn’t really care who wins so long as everyone gets crushed in the end. Strawhat Luffy and friends have arrived here as well even though they figure it’s probably a trap. That’s because the prize is a treasure from the Pirate King and nobody can resist such a tempting offer. Can Luffy protect his crew and secure the prize before Bullet destroys them all? It’ll be a hard battle for sure.

Right away you have to acknowledge that Bullet is going to be an incredibly powerful villain. He has to be in order to take on pretty much the whole cast of One Piece. The film does not disappoint with his abilities. The guy is pretty much on the level of the 4 empires with how easily he is able to dispatch his opponents. The best fight in the film for me is definitely when he takes on “The worst Generation” (Which is basically a bunch of the hype characters) and defeats them all with ease. They can barely land any decent shots on him which shows just how unbelievable he is. Bullet’s speed and power are off the charts to the point where it’s like seeing All Might bump off the League of Villain lackeys back in season 1. Luffy and the gang are completely outmatched.

Bullet’s also just a fun villain. His goal is to be the strongest and stop the Buster Call. A Buster Call is when the army sends in their admirals and a fleet of ships to sink an island. To date nobody has ever really been able to stop a buster call on their own. Sure, a bunch of characters escaped in Marineford but that wasn’t technically a buster call and they did manage to stop the main threats the government wanted to end. For Bullet to defeat such a thing would be very impressive. He also likes a good fight and seems to have a reasonable honor code. He’s defeating his opponents at the top of their game and doesn’t use any cheap tricks.

Festa is the only other important new character and he’s a fun enough villain. The guy definitely holds onto his grudges and really wants to wreck havoc on the world. It’s for a surprisingly petty reason though. The guy has a great seat but you do have to wonder how nobody noticed him the whole time. I guess he’s so weak that the heroes don’t need to bother prioritizing him. They’d probably just finish him off afterwards which works well enough.

The animation is definitely top notch. It’s all very smooth and vibrant which is great. The fight I mentioned from earlier is very impressive and like something out of DBZ. There are also a bunch of other fights throughout that have great cuts as well like Zoro vs Fujitora and pretty much any scene with Sabo. It’s all very consistent for the duration of the film. We also get some CGI which looks good enough. I think CG is at the point where it should always look good so long as you splash it in a lot of colors. That’s where CGI is at its best. It may not be enough to make giant things exciting, but it tries its best. As for the soundtrack you’ll recognize some tunes from the show. The main new theme was Bullet’s theme and it’s the best piece of music in the whole film. Whenever it appears you know that things are going to get tricky for the heroes. It’s just great all around.

This film also completely avoids the occasional fanservice issue that the series has at times and even Brook doesn’t have time to do anything iffy. The film managed to avoid having any real issues and that’s the first step to being a great film. The next step is to actually have great moments and this move has them in spades. There are a ton of homages and nice little scenes for fans. All of the characters get quick moments where they look good and they all get a ton of hype. That being said, keeping up everyone’s hype does come at a bit of a price.

Pretty much every fight in the film is a tie. That’s something that tends to happen when you bring in a bunch of old characters who still have a lot of fans and Stampede wasn’t able to get around it. Unlike some titles like DBZ where there are big power gaps between everyone, a lot of characters in One Piece are still very close. There are characters from the opening arcs who can hold their own against the current villains. That’s because the characters get stronger very gradually and the old characters keep training as well. The matches are still hype, but this does dampen the excitement for them a little since you know that the battles can’t end. This happens over and over as everyone gets a skirmish and then backs down. Unless you’re fighting Bullet then your battle won’t end.

This film is trying to be Marineford 2.0 with how every character is around and that arc also had the same issue at times. Naturally nobody can die this time around, but all things considered the film did do a good job of keeping that same energy throughout. Once the action starts near the beginning of the film is really never dies down. That’s always important for a big movie like this one since it helps for replay value. Stampede definitely has a lot of that at its disposal.

Then the only other part of the film that could have been improved was Bullet’s final form. When he started to transform I admit that it was a little disappointing. That’s because he went from being an awesome DBZ villain to suddenly being a skyscraper who can barely move. Naturally this is where the CGI starts to come into play. No matter how neat a design the giant form might be, it’s just not going to be able to make for really fun fights the way that his first round was. When one fighter can’t fight back then it’s no longer a real fight. Since Bullet’s giant form can’t do much it just barely counts as an actual match. Bullet does manage to bring back his human form near the end of the film for a quick fight as well though so we did get a true climax.

Luffy is definitely at his best here. He may not look too good against Bullet for a while, but not being strong enough to win isn’t a bad thing in itself. The important thing is that he was trying to win right from the start and was quick to try and help Usopp. Helping his crew out has always been Luffy’s main objective and it’s good to see that hold true here. The rest of the gang aside from Brook look good as well. Zoro and Sanji definitely contribute the most, but Franky and Nami are also very useful. Then for the other pirates it was nice to see Sabo since it’s always rare to see his adult form. It’s a little surprising how calmly Luffy and Sabo exchanged a casual greeting here and then just didn’t talk again. I guess it wasn’t really the time or place to really have a long dialogue but a team up would have been good.

Stampede did a good job of choosing the all star team at the end. Hancock is one of Luffy’s most dependable allies at this point while Law is practically a strawhat now. Smoker may not always be able to compete against some of these guys but his ability is really neat and he has been improving quite a lot. The fact that he can still give these guys a fun for their money is pretty good. Mihawk also shows up to flex real quick and the heroes are lucky that he didn’t stick around since the guy still appears to be way out of their league. He’s definitely Emperor level or at least that’s the way he appears to me.

Overall, Stampede is definitely a great film. I like this new trend of the fight starting early on and then continuing for basically the entire film. Dragon Ball Broly did that to great success and now the same is true for Stampede. I definitely preferred it to Gold and Strong World. I haven’t seen the rest so I can’t comment on that, but that would put this as the best One Piece film right now. There are really no serious complaints I had with it and the movie definitely has a ton of replay value. Naturally as a fan you will get extra enjoyment out of it since it’s a reunion type film, but I dare say that casuals who haven’t seen the series before will enjoy it as well. There’s something here for everyone.

Overall 8/10

Ghostface (Loomis) vs Daisy

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This is a tribute to the first Scream film. Ghostface is definitely one of those villains who only wins because his opponents aren’t great at fighting back or he gets a cheap shot in. Daisy is an experienced driver and as a result she is always ready for a fight. She won’t run out the door or up the stairs. Daisy would take the fight straight to Ghostface and would knock him out for the count pretty quickly. Ghostface just wouldn’t know what hit him and she would be earning the win rather easily. Daisy wins.

Black Clover Gaiden: Quartet Knights

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Looks like Black Clover’s finally got a solid spinoff to expand the franchise. I played the video game that this manga is based off of and it was definitely a lot of fun. The manga looks to be adapting the material pretty well and I’ll have a review for the series up when I’ve finished it.

Overall 8/10

Superman vs Turles

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Suggested by iKnowledge Superman is a very impressive fighter. I personally still consider him to be the strongest comic book character of all time. He’s got everything you could want in a hero after all. Superman’s incredibly fast, strong, and also intelligent. It’ll be difficult for any fighter to beat him, but Turles does anyway. Turles surpasses Superman in all stats and was even able to give Goku a good fight back in the day. He’ll pound away at Superman with punishing blows. Turles wins.

Bullseye vs Ayane

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Suggested by iKnowledge This is a pretty tricky fight since both Bullseye and Ayane are capable hand to hand fighters. I would ultimately give Ayane the edge in that arena, but Bullseye’s mastery of every weapon will give him the edge. His skeleton is enhanced so it’ll be more difficult for Ayane to put him down and all he needs is potentially one good hit to knock her off her rhythm. It’s a fight that could go either way, but I believe he would win more often than not. Bullseye wins.

Vexen vs Korra

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Suggested by iKnowledge Vexen is a solid fighter and his shield makes for an ideal defense. It’ll be tough for Korra to actually land a lot of damage until she either breaks the shield or starts hitting around it. Still, this is something that is definitely very doable for her. She is a quick fighter and in her Avatar state her offensive abilities are nothing to sneeze at either. Vexen’s abilities are perfect for prolonging this fight, but I don’t see him being able to take the offensive at any point. Korra wins.