Dragon Ball Z Cooler’s Revenge Review

Posted on December 4, 2014 by dreager1

It’s been a while since I went back to watch one of the old DBZ films. What better time than Christmas season right? This has always been one of my favorite DBZ films and it’s certainly the best one that didn’t feature Vegeta. It’s pretty short, but it makes for a pretty great film to check out.

The plot takes place after the battle against Frieza. Goku and friends decide to go on a camping trip to have some fun. It’s a chance to get away from it all and relax. After all, they may not get a chance with the Androids coming along to fight soon right? Things are going smoothly until Cooler and his minions arrive. The Z fighters are going to have to fight extra hard if they want to win this round!

This film is under 50 minutes so things have to happen very quickly. Cooler and his minions attack within the first 15 minutes and the fights really start heating up once Cooler joins the fray to fight Goku. Let’s face it…we’re all here to watch these two titans face off. It’s like watching a Justice League film. It’s great to see the other fighters get involved, but you can’t beat a scene with Superman fighting the powerhouse of the month. Titanic clashes like those are not easily forgotten.

The fight does not disappoint as Goku and Cooler wreck the area pretty badly during their fight. Cooler ends up punching Goku so hard that the water all leaves the ocean for a few minutes. That’s certainly impressive and it’s the type of physical feat that reminds me why DBZ is a cut above the comic franchises. They also get to display their speed during this endeavor and then we are treated to a classic beam fight at the end. The fight really had everything that we could have wanted from DBZ as it even included the “This isn’t even my final form” routine.

The animation is pretty solid since Toei always knew what they were doing with DBZ. It naturally won’t look as polished as some of the latter films, (The first Broly film is the only one that was at a total theatrical level compared to the rest) but the animation is certainly above average. You can really feel the blows and the energy attacks look great. I still miss this classic animation from the 90’s. It was solid in just about every aspect of the word.

The soundtrack isn’t so great, but it’s tough to count it as a negative for the film per say since it changes depending on where you saw it. I recently saw it in the DVD (Movie Pack) version and the music is mostly uninspired. We don’t get the techno/rock themes that you’ve probably heard on Youtube and it just can’t keep up with the fights. They’re the kind of themes that make you think you were watching a silent film afterwards. They aren’t bad, but they just aren’t memorable. Of course, it could be that I’ve just heard them so many times while watching DBZ that they fail to register sometimes. Upon closer inspection, they do work sometimes…just not for the fights.

Cooler makes for a pretty great villain. He’s definitely likable and it’s hard to say whether he is…cooler than Frieza or not. They’re both pretty similar in various aspects although Cooler definitely has the better design thanks to his final form. Cooler’s ambitions are clear and he does want to beat Goku in a fair fight instead of just destroying the planet from space. His power is considerable and he wants to bring honor back to his family’s name. As far as the film villains go, he could be second or third. (Broly is naturally number 1)

Cooler’s minions are not very memorable. They strike a lot of poses like the Ginyu Squad, but they simply aren’t very charismatic. They’re seriously outmatched against Goku and even Piccolo can easily subdue them. I do like the concept of a Ki sword, but that’s definitely not enough to turn them into serious threats.

Piccolo is the only ally of Goku who makes himself useful here. Gohan unfortunately tends to get in the way and Krillin doesn’t even try to fight back. Piccolo definitely earns his keep though as he takes out several of the villains. This clears the way for Goku to deal with Cooler. Piccolo definitely looked good here and his fans would be proud.

Goku also looks even better than usual here. This was back during the Arc 1 days so he’s still a super nice guy who cares about the animals. I don’t think we ever see him get worried about the animals safety after this, but I suppose that it simply isn’t brought up. The movie did a swell job of punching the average film in the face by having an anti animal violence scene. That’s just one of the many things that makes this film a pretty big cut above the rest. You don’t really see that kind of thing typically. A bird gets injured and Goku quickly heals him before going off to fight against Cooler. Now that’s what a call a hero! He even gives Cooler a chance to back off before things got serious.

The one thing that is a bit of a stretch is the fact that everyone mistook Cooler for Frieza. They seriously do not look that similar at all. I can understand Goku mistaking him to an extent….or I can at least conceive the idea. I do not believe that Piccolo would ever make that mistake though. I guess they really wanted to cement how similar the two villains were, but that was just too hard to swallow.

Overall, Cooler’s Revenge is still one of the elite DBZ films. It’s only real negative is in how short it is, but that means that the film is mostly just one large action scene. We actually don’t have any annoying Roshi scenes to bog the film down either. This is basically a perfect film and it’s a model for how films should strive to be today. Goku’s Super Saiyan form never ceases to impress me and he looks virtually unstoppable while he is in it. After seeing his strength and speed I don’t see how anyone could say that Superman can defeat him. It’s hard not to bring that topic up whenever I talk about Goku. Either way, I definitely recommend checking this film out since it’s so great. It’s an easy 9 star film and it’s not even the best DBZ film! Stay tuned because I’ll be reviewing another DBZ title in the near future.

Overall 9/10

Blue Exorcist Review

Posted on December 4, 2014 by dreager1

Blue Exorcist is a pretty short show and I can’t say that it ever became supremely popular, but it’s definitely a title that I was aware of for some time. The publicity that it did get was pretty good and the posters always looked fun. What can beat a fire swordsman as you main character? The premise itself definitely had a lot of potential and I love this kind of action show. Blue Exorcist isn’t an all star title and it can’t really claim to be the best at anything, but it’s a pretty fun ride from start to finish.

The plot involved a kid by the name of Rin Okumura. He is the son of Satan, but his life’s mission is to destroy all of the demons since Satan murdered his foster Dad and a lot of the monks. To do this, Rin must become a high ranked Exorcist so it’s time to get down on his studies. Meanwhile, he meets up with a bunch of other people who want to become Exorcists in one form or another. Their teacher is very shady though as he is a high ranking demon himself and nobody really seems to mind. It’s not as if the humans can really do anything about it, but it is rather odd. Will Rin be able to accomplish his goal or is he doomed? Well, if you’re familiar with Shonen titles like Naruto, (I wanna be Hokage) One Piece, (I want to be the Pirate King) or the other Journey manga, you’ll realize that the odds of this happening in 26 episodes are slim. Still, we gotta hope that Rin can make it to the end or at least get Satan to repent of his evil ways.

It’s easy to compare Rin to Kirito in many ways. They both use a blue color scheme during their battles (Animation wise anyway) and they’re both sword fighters. They actually managed to snag Kirito’s voice actor for Rin (Or vice versa) which was pretty cool. (He’s still the best voice actor in the business and it was a great time for viewers since Blue Exorcist, Sword Art Online, and Attack on Titan were airing at the same time) Kirito is typically a lot more humble and quiet while Rin certainly does not fall into those traits, but they still feel pretty similar personality wise. In a fight, I think Kirito would probably have the significant edge, but it’s possible that Rin ends up surpassing him in the manga. I would almost say that it’s likely, but the pacing for power ups can be slow.

Back on topic, Rin is a very good main character. He’s certainly a lot better than you may expect from the posters. He’s not afraid to get into a fight to stick up for his brother, Yukio, and he doesn’t back down from a fight. He just says what’s on his mind instead of thinking about it and his intentions are always good. He’s probably the most reasonable character in the whole series even if he’s quick to leap into any situation. Rin’s basically the kind of guy that you would want to be friends with. He’ll always stick up for you and help with any tricky situation. He’s just a good guy through and through.

Yukio is one of the main characters in the show and he had the potential to be a very good character. Unfortunately, his character development goes in a circle instead of occurring on a straight path. A running theme is that he is jealous of Rin’s personality and abilities. Other times, Yukio just admires those traits. While Rin can use his demonic abilities to fight, Yukio is stuck using bullets so it can be tough for him. You can certainly sympathize with Yukio’s plight at times, but he makes it difficult at other points. I think he crossed the line when he attacked Rin in one of the last episodes and then tried to destroy his demon cat. Yukio basically betrayed everyone at the end and I definitely didn’t agree with his reasoning. Part of the problem is also that Yukio is very gullible. It should be noted that many of Yukio’s worst moments occur in filler. So, he can be a good character at times, but he is usually too antagonistic to be likable.

Ryuji is the rival, but he is just too weak to be taken seriously. It doesn’t help that Rin is already hardcore enough to be the main character and the rival. Ryuji turns against Rin so many times that it’s scary. He sticks up for him at some points, but he is pretty unfair to Rin at several points. I was glad to see Rin show him up when Ryuji made his debut. Ryuji has his verses that he recites against the demons, but it is usually ineffective. I have to say that he isn’t a good character, but he beats some of the other supporting characters, which is pretty scary.

Shiemi is the main heroine. Unfortunately, she can’t really fight. She has a grass familiar with her who makes grass and vines appear to block other opponents. It is pretty useful, but this means that Shiemi is completely defenseless without it. She always wants to help out, but she ultimately ends up getting in the way a lot. She has company since the other characters besides Rin are pretty weak as well. Ultimately, she just isn’t as interesting as she could be. Her character was just not very developed and she was a little too desperate to make friends right til the very end.

Izumo is probably the toughest character from Rin’s main friends. She isn’t much of a fighter on her own, but she can summon a pair of cats/dogs who help her out in the tough times that she gets involved in. Naturally, they are helpless against all of the decent villIns, but at least she won’t have to ne afraid of the minions. She got a decent amount of character development and she managed not to betray Rin unlike some pf his other friends. I liked her more than the other supporting characters, which may not be saying much, but it’s a start.

Konekomaru is easily the worst friend of Rin’s. He was the first in line to betray Rin and he tries to turn everyone against him. Rin is the son of Satan after all and Satan destroyed a lot of people close to Konekomaru. It is pretty tragic and he should keep his beef against Satan, but Rin had been helping out for the whole series. I just can’t consider this guy to be a true friend and it was pretty tough to bounce back from that. Evidently, too tough for Konekomaru.

Shura joins the squad during the latter part of the anime. Technically, this may be slightly before the halfway mark, but she certainly feels like she was introduced late since everyone else was already established. Her introduction involves an intriguing plot twist and she looks good since she goes up against a powerful foe in the form of Amaimon. This is a Gamechanger. I already mentioned that none of the supporting characters could really do anything against the stronger demons. Well, that was until Shura came along. She is debatably stronger than Rin or at least a match for him. I would likely choose Rin in a no holds barred fight, but it would be a close fight. Shura works for the government, but she is still a pretty good character. She is openly rebellious to the corrupt figures although it can be frustrating to see her just accept their decisions. She talks tough, but she will rarely oppose the government openly. She is also used for fanservice at times, which isn’t cool. She is still a step up from the others though.

There is also a quiet kid with sock puppets and you have to wonder what was going on with him. He never really talks and he makes sure to disappear when the fighting starts. Maybe he is just a random classmate? That could be the case, but the anime gives him a lot of foreshadowing. He gets some ominous lines at the end and you get the feeling that he knows more than he is letting on. It is just one of the plot lines that goes nowhere. I don’t mind all that much since I dislike the character so far, but I’m sure that his true personality would have been a little more interesting.

Shiro is the man who raised Rin and Yukio. He was a very powerful Exorcist and he seemed like he had a bright future. It was literally bright since he was engulfed in blue flames, but that is not what he had in mind. He was a pretty good character. Shiro certainly wasn’t great, but he was fairly likable. He protected the heroes for quite a long time and he made the heroic choices when necessary. If only more of the old Shonen mentors could be like him instead if Jiraiya.

The Paladin is one of the characters who never got to really get any closure on his development. We don’t really know much about him other than the fact that he’s a very strong warrior. He took Rin down without a whole lot of effort and he basically just does whatever the government wants. He has a cool design and I actually like his character for the most part. He didn’t look good in the filler though so overall he would only be about average. He’s still someone to keep an eye out for since he is one of the few humans to be very powerful.

Mephisto Pheles is a character who is hard to understand. If this is intentional, then the anime did a good job. On the considerable chance that it was accidental, then it is not very impressive. Mephisto switches from hero to villain several times as the show goes on. We learn that he helped to save Rin a while back yet he repeatedly tries to destroy him. (I suppose that we can say that he knew Rin wouldn’t die, but this would be dicey to say the least) Does Mephisto want to destroy the human world or Hell? He doesn’t even attempt to stop one of the villains from his plan to destroy Hell so I guess he doesn’t feel any loyalty to his fellow demons. On the other hand, he keeps causing trouble for the human world so maybe he wants to rule it. His goals are not very clear cut so it is entirely possible that he just likes to cause chaos so that he can see what happens next. All villains should have some kind of understood goal by the end in my opinion. (There are probably some exceptions) He also has a good time operating as a hero though so maybe Mephisto flips a coin to decide how he will act on that day. It is heavily implied that he is much stronger than any of the heroes so he could probably end any resistance made by the Exorcists in an instant.

Amaimon doesn’t appear a whole lot, but he makes each appearance count. He gets a cliffhanger for his first appearance and his big three episodes each revolve around big fights with Rin. He is one of the strongest Demons since he is one of the 4(?) Kings. He is a hand to hand fighter, which works out great for us since those fights always tend to be fun. He seems like he just wants to enjoy the human world’s unique features (Like the food) as he finds some solid fights. There aren’t many fighters who really get him intrigued, but he likes to mess with Rin so that keeps him entertained for a while. While Amaimon adds a lot to the show thanks to his fight scenes, I don’t really care for his personality. He doesn’t have a lot of development as a villain and the voice probably prevents me from taking him seriously.

Igor is one of the characters who shows up and he also shifts from being a villain to a hero to a villain as the series goes on. He works for Mephisto Pheles so that makes sense. I definitely consider him to be a villain since he did attempt to murder Rin, but I would also call Mephisto Pheles a villain as well. I don’t trust guys who keep changing sides all of the time. Igor has a rather emotional subplot towards the end of the series, but he mostly tries to stay pretty detached. He has a grudge against demons due to a certain incident, which definitely changed how he acted. He’s a very interesting character and it’s always enjoyable to see him on screen.

The animation is pretty sharp. It doesn’t use any fancy animation techniques and there aren’t many scenes that will get a lot of buzz for this area, but you can instantly tell that this is a relatively new anime. I was sold on the animation right from the first episode and it really does the blue flames justice. This is the kind of show that could have been hurt by bad or average animation so it’s good that it was able to pull through. The fight scenes can look really great when they occur. They are fairly rare, but we get two big fights with Amaimon and a short sparring match with Shura. Rin and Yukio have a bit of a tussle, but I can’t really call it a fight. Anytime Rin enters his demon mode, you can be sure that something cool will happen. One fight that didn’t involve Rin, but was still cool was when Yukio fought Igor early on in the series. That was definitely pretty fun and the normal danger scenes can still be very entertaining. You’ll never find yourself bored in any of the canon episodes so I can safely say that the director did a great job with the pacing.

The openings are pretty good although the first one is significantly better than the second. I like the main theme a lot and there’s another one that’s pretty good for the battles. My favorite theme may actually be the one that seems to be inspired from the 90’s Xmen show. It’s hard to describe it, but it occasionally plays for a fight scene or for an emotional moment. One time where I remember it popping up is when Rin first meets the giant cat. On the whole, the soundtrack is pretty average, but having 2-3 really good songs is enough to give the whole soundtrack a much needed boost. It certainly won’t wreck any scenes like One Piece. (The big offender that always comes to mind when I think of battle music that takes away from a fight) If you think about it, having 2 terrific themes can make any soundtrack good since they will be popping up quite a lot as the show goes on.

The show didn’t have a whole lot of room for filler so I guess the writers felt that they needed to really remind us how dangerous it can be. The episode sees our heroes head to the beach to fight a Kraken type of opponent and it is a pretty terrible episode. It features a filler character who can’t fight, but he wants to avenge his Dad. His Dad was seemingly destroyed by the beast. Along the way we have a lot of not funny situations that will just make you dislike the kid even more. The ending is clever in a way, but the episode was already sunk by that point. The episode itself would definitely be counted as a negative for me. One bad episode (Within reason) may not affect a show like Naruto (Which can afford about 20-40 bad episodes) but for a 26 episode like Blue Exorcist, you’re probably not going to forget it anytime soon.

The show started to fall off the rails in the final episodes (Enough so that it’s noticeable, but the episodes weren’t downright cringeworthy so that it would really hurt the score) so I shall quickly talk about why it didn’t work. The set up is that a guy who claims to be Rin and Yukio’s uncle appears and he tells Yukio about how he can turn Rin into a normal human. (This is already impossible since he was born from a demon…but let’s keep going!) The casualties will only number a few trillion as he wants to destroy every demon in existence. (Will Rin really be spared?…..) Yukio quickly agrees, even if it means destroying Rin’s friend and hurting the familiars who have been helping the heroes the entire series. Yukio even turns against Rin during one critical juncture. Alas, Rin also gets kidnapped in a pretty sad moment where he couldn’t land a single hit on the Paladin. Then, the Paladin admits that he’s just a pawn of the government and he watches as they start to drain the power away from Rin. Rin has a healing factor, but it’s being exploited to gather the power needed to open the portal enough for the bomb to go through. I’ll stop there so you can watch to see how it goes, but the whole thing is pretty sad.

One character gets a power up out of this, but it’s hardly a good one. This also means that we don’t have a real final fight since the filler writers couldn’t think of a good one. One of the subplots in this arc was also not very good. The writers try to make Satan a sympathetic hero who is simply misunderstood. Remember all of the people that he murdered? He didn’t mean too…he was just trying to find the right vessel to allow him to stay in the human world. ~~He did taunt them as he burned them to death, but maybe we misheard him.~~ He gets like an episode or two just to show how much of a hero he is. He only wants peace and he believes in love at first sight. The problem is that most Earthly bodies begin to catch fire once he goes into them. Luckily, this is where Rin comes along! Any development that Satan has is quickly thrown out the window as he reverts to his villainous ways in the final seconds. Let’s face it, making Satan a likable hero is just not possible. Nobody can take that seriously and the only believable way to make a demon like that good is to help one from birth. (Like in Beelzebub) The writers were really grasping at straws here. As bad as that was, the whole Yukio subplot is what really drove this arc into the ground.

One reason why there is not a lot of hope for the heroes in the series is because the humans are simply outmatched by the demons. Rin, (Who is a demon anyway) Shura, Yukio, and the Paladin are the only capable fighters for the good side. Mephisto Pheles can potentially defeat all of them and he also has Amaimon and many other powerful demons to help him. Not to mention that most of the strong fighters in the demon world haven’t even bothered to appear yet. The heroes have a barrier to stop high level demons from appearing in the human world, but Mephisto likes to invite them for the lolz. (Villain move or simply a test for the heroes?) Normal demons can take down most of the humans and a simple cat was able to take on the Police squads. It seems like the demons are toying with the humans or they just don’t care about invading the human world. The filler episodes strongly point to the latter being the case. Most of the demons just want to either live in peace or just stay on their planet. The vocal minority are the ones who try to destroy the humans. Once again, it just makes the humans look bad since they tend to start a lot of the conflicts. It reminds me of how D.A.T.S. ran things for a little while.

Overall, Blue Exorcist is just a really fun show. Some episodes can be a little lighter on the action than we are used to, but the characters quickly become interesting enough to hold their own episodes without that element. The show does have some moments of fanservice here and there and the final episodes really cripple Yukio’s character development. Quite a few plot lines go unanswered as the show ends and you’re left waiting for a sequel. We also do get cheated out of the final boss fight, which wasn’t cool. I basically just threw in all of the negatives at the beginning of the paragraph so it may sound pretty negative, but they are still overpowered by the positives. The solid action and the great characters coupled with its fast moving plot still make Blue Exorcist a winner. It’s a very interesting series where you just enjoy seeing their day to day missions. ~~After all, they’ll never actually destroy Satan right?~~ I definitely recommend this title if you just want to watch something action packed and easy to get into. At 26 episodes, you’ll be finished with this title in a breeze and then you can compare it to Sword Art Online like me! Also, you should prepare yourself because the series ends with a cliffhanger that will likely never be resolved.

Overall 7/10

Sword Art Online Review

Posted on November 28, 2014 by dreager1

Sword Art Online is one of those Mega titles that we shall never forget. For better or worse, it’s basically ingrained in society at this point. I started the franchise out with the anime before checking out the novels and then the manga. This actually doesn’t bode well for the manga since the designs are pretty different and I consider the anime to have the true ones. That being said, I like to think that I wouldn’t have been crazy about the art either way. It’s a decent take on the show, but I think it could have been better.

In case you are not familiar with the plot, I shall quickly explain it. Sword Art Online takes place in the future and virtual games are all the rage now. One in particular is called Sword Art Online and it is the first big MMORPG. Everyone is hyped and resident computer whiz Kirito decides to buy it. Suddenly, the players become trapped in the game and they can’t get out unless they complete the title. 2 years later, the story begins as Kirito must try to become the best. Can he really do it as a solo player or will he end up joining Asuna’s (Main heroine) group? Only time will tell!

The actual plot always sounds great no matter how many times I write or hear about it. You simply can’t beat a good sci-fi plot like this or not very easily. Being stuck inside of a video game is a concept that appeals to me in part because it sounds like it would be a fun experience in real life. (To an extent of course) I think that it might be a missed opportunity for the series that they quickly skipped the first two years, but we still get a lot of cool moments so it still works.

The main problem with the series is that the art isn’t very good. The characters just don’t look like themselves and it’s like they’re half chibi. If you’re going to make the characters tiny you’ve got to go all the way or leave them in their normal size. It can also be hard to follow some of the fight scenes although the art gets better as the series progresses in that respect. It’s still pretty below average though. It’s hard to say if I would have liked it more if I had read the manga before the anime or not, but it’ll just be one of life’s mysteries. Either way, I doubt that I would have called it anything above average.

The characters are pretty in character since a lot of the dialogue is almost word for word from the novels/anime. Kirito is still as hardcore and intense as ever. Aside from his unnecessary and disheartening one night stand, Kirito has proven that he has what it takes to be the main character. He doesn’t back down from a challenge and he’s pretty confident in his abilities. That’s why the art always gets me. He just does not look tough! He looks like a kid and his serious scenes just don’t come off as cool as they should this way. It’s not the character’s fault, but the art.

Asuna also makes for a good heroine. She’s probably in the top 3 highest leveled players in the game and her speed is certainly good. She is lacking in attack power as seen in the boss fight, but she always gives it 110%. The one night stand also hurts her character development, but luckily that’s pretty much the last that we’ll see of that. Klein is one of Kirito’s old pals (AKA, they met in the game for like 5 minutes) and he’s actually pretty decent. He’s a nice guy and he actually doesn’t hold it against Kirito that Kirito left to be a solo player. Klein ended up reaching a decently high level himself so it makes you wonder how things would have been if Kirito had stayed with the party. He’d probably be a little lower leveled, but Klein’s group would be higher leveled than they were. Ultimately, Kirito made the right decision, but who doesn’t like hypothetical situations.

The main villain naturally gets to appear since he locks them in the game, but don’t worry…he has plans for them! He’s a pretty good fighter even if he cheats sometimes, but he does fight with just his talent in the end so we know that he’s for real. He’s decently cool and easy to root for. They try to play him off as a sympathetic villain by the end, but it still doesn’t work considering how high the casualties were. You can’t really forget that, but he is still a pretty neat villain. His plan was also intriguing, but I think that the final boss would probably be too much for the heroes.

The speed at which this manga goes is very quick, which can be a good or bad thing. You really breeze through the arc since there are only two volumes and they have a whole lot to adapt. Some scenes are simply breezed over while others are long enough to essentially match their alternate (Novel/Anime) versions. The pacing works for this series although I wouldn’t have minded stretching it out to 3 volumes and extending some of the fights. You can never go wrong with longer fights since they just add to the overall epicness of the series.

In the end, there are to real negatives to this story aside from the one night stand. There’s also a dicey moment that doesn’t make a lot of sense where Asuna falls out of a portal and Kirito essentially panics. That was pretty sad, but at least it’s an extremely brief scene thanks to the pacing. Those two faults are there, but that’s not a whole lot so you may wonder why it didn’t crack the classic 7 rating. Well, the art keeps it from that. Art is more important in comics/manga than in any other medium except for maybe TV shows. (It’s just not typically an issue there) Bad art can overpower good writing just like bad gameplay can override graphics in a video game. That being said, it’s still a good manga, it just could have been even better.

Overall, it’s ironic that this version gets a higher score than the anime even though the anime does a much better job with arc 1. Ah well, it is still a pretty fun premise to play around with and the art may have taken away some of the enjoyment that I could have gotten from it, but there was still enough to go around. Kirito makes for a good main character and there are several fight scenes here. Since this is basically two volumes merged into one, it’s also a pretty nicely sized volume that should last you long enough to really be worth the value. I recommend it to anyone that wants to see a classic fantasy RPG or for anyone who wants to see a cool main character.

Overall 6/10

Charlie’s Angels Review

Posted on November 28, 2014 by dreager1

Well, it’s been a little over 2 years since I last saw this film, which brings it up to 2-3 times that I’ve seen it so far. It’s a pretty neat concept and I’ve heard that the show was pretty good, but the film has a lot of flaws that are barely hidden beneath the surface. It had a lot of potential thanks to some of the techniques that they used, which will remind you of the good ole films, but it’s simply not enough.

Charlie’s Angels is actually one of those films that can make you really worried for a Wonder Woman or Ms. Marvel film. Let’s just say that if one of those films was like this one, it would make audiences around the world shudder. A 30% on Rotten Tomatoes would likely shock me as it could be even lower. This one is spared that because of when it came out. I can guarantee that if this film came out now it would make waves…and not the good kind!

The plot involved a multi billionare (Probably) named Charlie. He hires three women to work for him as they stop crimes that no ordinary police force ever could. Their missions are dangerous, but these women are even deadlier! Natalie, Dylan, and Alex are the three main characters and they’re all pretty different, but are about equal in overall fighting technique. (Very, Very arguable) Well, they finish another mission when they find out that a computer whiz has been kidnapped. He has created a tech that can figure out a person’s voice print pretty quickly. It’s like tapping a phone, but it works on the actual voice. The Angels must find him and stop this from getting into the wrong hands.

Now, I just have to point something out about the premise that is pretty interesting. The climax involves Charlie making a phone call and the villain stalling him to try and figure out his location through the voice prints. It’s like a GPS and using some satellites he can track him down. That’s cool….until you remember that we can actually tap phones nowadays and you can track a person’s real location without inventing some made up technology about the voice prints. So, why is the voice print even necessary? Your guess is as good as mine…….the only way out of this logic hole would be if phone tracers had not been invented yet, but I’m pretty sure that they have been.

Okay, let’s quickly digress into some of the positives for the film. It has a very Dragon Ball Evoloution feel to it, which works pretty well. We get a lot of slow motion, interesting action shots, and facial expressions that would make film creators proud. It’s hard to describe how it feels like “That” kind of film, but watch any classic video game or manga inspired film like the one I just mentioned or the original Street Fighter and you’ll get my jist.

The soundtrack is also very intense. I can’t confirm that the lyrics for all of the songs are okay since some of the songs can be sketchy, but others were great. We got some really fast paced rock/battle themes that were all over the place and it made the scenes a whole lot more fun. It’s the kind of soundtrack that would never win you an Oscar, but that’s actually a good thing in this case. Oscar films can actually have some good tunes as well, but never anything quite like this. For every good song, there is still a bad song as well to highlight the fact that this film still uses a lot of not very subtle fanservice in between (and during) fight scenes. Ah well, I’ll take what I can get I suppose!

Dylan is my least favorite member of the Angels so I’ll start with her. She’s a decent fighter like the others, but she comes off as more of a tom boy. That doesn’t stop her from using her charm to seduce the characters that she can, but it ultimately results in a pretty embarrassing moment for her. Let’s just say that you should never start hanging out with a suspect so casually unless you want to get burned. Even without that scene she was likely my least favorite, but it certainly didn’t help her case.

Natalie is more laid back, but she still needs romance in her life so she quickly brings in a bar tender that she met and they instantly made it past the bounds of friendship. That was quick and then she went off to continue fighting and saving the world. Again, I find it hard to like her at all since she needs to have more hobbies aside from romance. She danced for a while, but it was pretty bad and again..it didn’t help her case.

Alex is the final member and she already has a stable romance going so she’s already set from the get go. Again, it’s hard to like the Angels because they don’t seem to have much of a personality beyond the romance. It’s quite sad. They are also willing to do just about anything to complete their mission so you almost start to feel bad for their boyfriends. (Almost! They’re not exactly innocent either) She can fight as well, which is good since you would be doomed otherwise against the villains.

Bosley is another one of the main characters and he looks pretty bad. One of his first scenes has him give the girls a long speech about love and how they can make it stronger while they’re basically mocking him and then he proceeds to get tricked by one of the main villains. (Naturally, the villain was female) He has enough strength of mind to tell her that he was going to keep it professional, but he still looked really terrible by letting her in the house from the start. You don’t do that when you have a billion dollar program inside and the person outside the door is a suspect.

There’s not much to say about Charlie. He’s rich and he’s old, but he barely gets to appear. At least he reminds the Angels that he’s watching over them before sending them on extremely dangerous missions. One of the main villains is known as the Thin Man and he’s pretty awesome…at first. We find out that he has something for hair and he gets a little too emotionally involved in that aspect. You just knew that the film would find some way to wreck his character. He started out as a really serious villain as he took on the three main characters. By the end, he was reduced to getting clobbered in a one on one fight and basically running for the hills. No worries…he’ll be back!

It may not sound that bad from all of that, but there is one ultimate reason why it was doomed right from the get go. The fanservice! This could probably hold its own against just about anything else in this area. You’ll get a scene that fits this description in almost every scene in the film. Whether the heroes are seducing someone to distract him or just striking unnecessary poses, it’s just sad. Every male character is presented to be someone who’s heads over heels for them. The guys just care about their outer appearance and none of them are morally ethical. It’s pretty sad to see guys depicted like this. It’s actually common place to an extent, but certainly not to this level. Even in James Bon….well, it’s basically at the same level. It’s just more fanservice than actually going further while it’s the opposite in James Bond.

An example of this is the traditional planning scene where the heroes explain what the security is like. The camera quickly zooms in on their mouth so we can have some really awkward visuals to distract us from what they’re actually saying. It’s pretty cringe worthy. It’s what drives this film down to Sucker Punch levels. Of course, Sucker Punch didn’t suffer from fanservice, but that’s another story. It’s a sad coincidence that those two films are down at the 1’s because they both could have been very good. What happened? The film just needed a different director and writer and then maybe it could have stood a chance.

After all, the fight scenes are pretty good when they happen. At one point, the three Angels team up to fight someone and he actually holds his own against the three of them for a while. It’s fun to watch, but it definitely doesn’t make the main characters look impressive. How can the three of them be having such a tough time when it’s so early in the film? Obviously, the writers forgot that you’re supposed to make the characters very likable and strong before you give them a villain that they can’t defeat.

The two main villains are pretty bad as well. One of them has a gun, but she’s still strong enough to give one of the Angels a tough time in hand to hand combat. If someone who seems like she doesn’t have that much time to train can give them a good fight….just how tough are the Angels? It definitely makes you wonder. The guy is very weak, but he knows that the main characters are always using their charms so he just uses that to his advantage. A surprisingly cunning strategy, but it never would have worked on a halfway decent character. Never!

Overall, Charlie’s Angels isn’t any better than I remember it. The film still puts too much emphasis on the heroes’ bodies and not enough on their character. Every other scene will have you looking away or wincing because you know that the film is just getting started. The soundtrack is pretty good and the actual plot is so retro that it still works despite the logical errors. It’s simply not enough to overlook this and it won’t help the feminist position. Let’s face it, we’d never have a film where three guys are constantly being used for fanservice throughout the film. It wouldn’t happen. Instead of checking out this film, watch the original Mortal Kombat to see how the film could have/should have/would have gone if the writers had realized sooner what they had done. There was simply tooooooo much fanservice here and I can’t stress enough just how sad it was. I highly recommend skipping it, no matter what type of film you’re looking for.

Overall 1/10

Digimon All Star Rumble Review

Posted on November 20, 2014 by dreager1

After all these years, Digimon has finally gotten itself another fighting game. I had a lot of fun back in the day playing Rumble Arena 2 and I just barely missed out on the original one. This is essentially the Rumble Arena 3 that we’ve been waiting for all these years and it’s definitely worth it. The game didn’t get a whole lot of publicity before it came out so hopefully the sales are still strong since this could be the start of a new series!

The game actually has a small plot. It’s not much of a story, but it certainly beats not having one. Essentially, a tournament is starting and a lot of Digimon want to enter it to win. They don’t know exactly why they want to enter…it’s almost like it’s destiny! They follow their primal instincts and quickly get ready for the fight of their life, but is there something more to this tournament? Then you pick the fighter that you want to play as and you’re set. I naturally played the game with Agumon the first time around, but I’ll beat it with everyone at some point for that shiny Platinum trophy!

The roster is pretty small considering that it’s a PS3 game. I think they definitely could have doubled or tripled the character selection, but with a limited budget I suppose that it would have been difficult. What would have helped is if they let some of the Mega Level Digimon be playable from the Get Go. I have unlocked all of the characters except for 3 starters and I do not have access to nearly any of the alternate Mega Digimon. Those will likely pop up along the way in the Story Mode paths. Counting all of those figures, the roster looks a lot better.

The gameplay is like Rumble Arena, but it’s in 3D. I suppose that you can picture Naruto Ninja Storm as an example. It’s a 3D playing field and you have your standard attacks, power attacks, and your projectiles. You can mix and match to make various combos and the goal is typically to defeat your opponent. (Although other modes feature games like capturing the flag so vary up the action) Once your meter is charged you can transform into an immensely powerful Mega Digimon. Once you’re in that form, you’re basically ready to rock and roll!

There are also items of course and they can really change the course of a battle. One of the items makes a twister form around the player. Another one lets you turn the opponent into a ball of living slime and the best item in the game allows you to instantly Digivolve. You cannot begin to compare that to any of the other items because it is so great. A thunderbolt is probably the second best item as it does some serious damage and it also stuns the opponent. It’s like a double effect for the price of one!

Surprisingly, the game actually goes up to 4 players. I don’t know many people who actually have 4 remotes, but it’s great that we are actually given the option. It’s certainly something to consider and I do have 3 remotes over here so at least I can go almost all the way. Every fighting game gets more and more fun as you increase the amount of players. It’s just common video game logic! Things get more chaotic and it will definitely test your mastery over the game.

The computer A.I. is decent, but it’s not great. You should be able to crush the hard difficulty level with ease after a handful of battles. Ah well, that’s not so bad since we have multiplayer mode and the computer is not downright easy either. I’m sure that a case can be made for it being just right.

The graphics are very bright and it works pretty well for the game. It may not be the most stylish game, but you would never mistake it for a last gen title. All of the character models are sharp and they really stand out no matter which stage you are on. I’m satisfied with the amount of stages as well as there are around 10-12 of them. Some of them even have gimmicks like a fog that will damage your fighter if you go near it.

The soundtrack is pretty nonexistent. I suppose that it would have been pretty tough to have had a pretty memorable one alongside everything else, but it certainly would not have hurt. There aren’t any real battle themes either, which is odd considering that it is a fighting game. How awesome would it have been to have had the Digimon theme song for the first few seasons included during the battles? That would have definitely been a lot of fun!

Surprisingly, there is no online capabilities in this game. I’m fine with that since it’s not the kind of game where I would play online a whole lot, (Madden and Smash Bros are really where I have fun online. Other than that, I typically stay local) but it’s still pretty surprising. Maybe they just didn’t think that enough people would be playing it right away to warrant a purchase of a few servers to run it on.

Some of the trophies are a bit of a grind, but none of them are really that hard. Waiting for the 50 hours to show up on your PS3 may be the toughest part or collecting the Digi cards, but it’s only a matter of time. The toughest trophy to get skill wise is probably beating the game with every character, but I’m sure that you’re up to the task. I only need 13 trophies left so that should be a breeze.

Overall, Digimon All Star Rumble is a solid addition to the Digimon franchise. The campaign mode is very short, but the multiplayer mode makes up for it. This gives it infinite replay value and that’s more than enough for you to be content. While the character roster may be pretty limited we do get fan favorites like Agumon and Guilmon. Old timers may be disappointed that some of the Season 1 stars were cut out, but maybe they’ll make the sequel. I’m sure that they would since a sequel would likely fill out the rest of the spots for the main characters from season 1 and season 3. No guarantees on season 2 of course, but those guys likely wouldn’t be missed quite as much. This is definitely a title worth obtaining if you want some solid action!

Overall 8/10

Law of Ueki Review

Posted on October 24, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for one of the manga elites! The Law of Ueki is pretty underrated in the manga community and you’ve likely never heard of it. That’s too bad since it can definitely hold its own against big titles like Naruto and One Piece. For some reason, it just never really hit it big and it’ll forever be more of an obscure title. Why is the Law of Ueki so good? Well, it has a perfect blend of action and hype. The ending is pretty rushed, but it almost fits the pace of this title.

The plot follows a kid who’s named…..waiiiiiit for it…..Ueki! He has a talent..he can turn garbage into trees. The running joke is that this ability never becomes useful and it’s probably one of the worst abilities ever. Luckily for him..this can all change. There is a tournament being held with 100 fighters. Each fighter represents a candidate to be the next King. The fighter’s prize is that they may learn a new “talent.” They can write down whatever ability they want on the paper and it shall be theirs. Each student starts out with around 10 talents if I recall correctly. Injuring a non combatant will result in the character losing a talent. Lose all of them…and let’s just say that your life will effectively be ruined. Ueki just needs to win the tournament to get the best super power ever, but he’s really just doing it for the guy he’s representing. He’s also going to need to make sure to do his best since the villains can be ruthless.

Much like MAR, The Law of Ueki is really just one really long tournament. The action is nonstop and that’s what I like to see from any title. This series pulls off most of the Shonen tropes that you would expect and does a nice job with them. One mild weakness for the series is that you could call some parts a little generic. Ueki is what you would expect from the lead and we even have the change in villains twist that you may have expected. I wouldn’t say that this is a big weakness though since everything is repetitive to an extent. As long as the scenes are enjoyable, then the Law of Ueki is still winning.

The art in the series may not be spectacular, but it’s definitely very good. The style reminds me of One Piece and it really captures the battle scenes. It’s always easy to follow what’s happening and many different series have trouble with that. There are a bunch of fight scenes to be found so that is a pretty big positive for the series. I’d say that the artwork is above average and it helps the manga feel even more exciting than it would have without it.

Tier wise, this series is likely a lot stronger than you may have expected. The top fighters can easily hold their own against fighters from Naruto and One Piece. I’m still going to say that it would be a stretch for them to go up against Bleach or Reborn! fighters, but that’s not bad. Ueki vs Beet is a good comparison to make here. It is like Sailor Moon though in the sense that the top tiers are drastically stronger than the average fighter. Ueki and the two big villains are really in a league of their own. They have super speed, flight, super strength, and much more. Fighting those guys will tire most other fighters out. Another reason why I love having strong fighters appear is that we are treated to some great fight scenes!

Ueki is our lead and he’s a pretty good main character. One can definitely see why he’d be called generic though. He’s very similar to Luffy and I think the author must be familiar with the series. I got a One Piece vibe several times while reading the series. I like Ueki, but I wouldn’t call him an amazing character like Train Heartnet or Ichigo. He’s a hero and I tend to agree with all of his calls. He believes in the power of friendship and he always sticks by his team. Beyond that, he doesn’t get any memorable lines and he doesn’t really stick out. You’ll mostly enjoy him for his fight scenes. He does get all of the best ones after all.

Mori is the main heroine and she makes sure to get involved in the tournament. Unfortunately, she has one of the worst powers of all time. She can make her opponents fall in love with glasses. That’s pretty terrible when you think about it and her fight was really just one big parody. I think that the author could have given her something that was a little more decent since that hurt her appearances in the series. She never really gets to help out in the fights, which can be sad for her fans. She’s a decent character, but she just doesn’t stand out.

Ueki’s main group of friends doesn’t really get any better with Kobayashi. Technically, he’s Ueki’s mentor, but he’d still be considered as one of the main characters. He doesn’t get a whole lot of screen time though since he is banished from the planet for breaking one of the rules. The only way to get him back is to win the tournament, which gives Ueki some motivation. I suppose that he’s not a bad character, but I don’t find him to be very likable. He’s meant to make the reader laugh and I didn’t find him to be very funny so that plan didn’t work. He’s basically just a side plot for most of the series.

Sano is easily the best friend that Ueki has, but it’s still not saying a whole lot. He can turn towels into iron/steel, which isn’t bad. It’s not the greatest ability out there, but that means that he’ll always have a solid weapon to hit people with. He’s the strategist of the group and he’s typically the first person to figure out what an enemy’s ability is. He comes in handy quite a few times, but he can’t help all that much against the big opponents since he physically cannot keep up with them. He’s no Sanosuke, but Sano is always ready to help out.

Rinko joins the team pretty early on after a brief stunt as one of the villains. She can throw explosive beads at her opponents. It’s not a great power, but when you look at her allies…you start to appreciate it. Her slap is pretty iconic by the end since the artist makes her hand look huge and it’s almost always a one hit KO attack. At least she’s getting a lot of action! I wasn’t a big fan of her either though and she didn’t really add a whole lot to the group. She just pretty unmemorable as well, which adds to the amount of characters that were fairly generic.

Hideyoshi is largely inspired by Usopp, but I really don’t like him. He can make sounds come from other directions with his drawings, but man…that’s a pretty awful power. He cannot fight at all and he’s mostly used for comic relief. It’s hard to really root for this kind of character because he can only win with severe plot hax. I think the series could have been even better if Hideyoshi had not been introduced. I still like most of the villains in the Law of Ueki, but I have to say that most of the heroes can use some work. Ueki mostly has to carry the team on his own and he’s already not the greatest main character. (Although the others make him look like the next Vegeta!) (In terms of epicness of course)

Tenko is the Celestial Beast who helps Ueki develop his abilities. His training is highly risky though and if Ueki were to fail…he would die. Tenko is still a nice guy though so he lets Ueki train when needed. I guess I didn’t mind Tenko by the end. As a whole, I find Tenko to be a little unnecessary and he should have gone in to help Ueki instead of “trusting” him at one point. I disagreed with his decision and it was hard to forget about that. He is better than most animal mascots though and I dare say that I like him more than Mokona and Cerberus. It’s a close call of course.

Hanon is the final villain of the series and he’s very powerful. He can absorb other fighters to gain their abilities, which comes in handy. Initially, he was tough, but he was probably not a huge threat. That changed once he met up with the previous main villain. Suddenly, Hanon become a big contender and his powers almost have no limits. His speed and power are off the charts and he can fly as well. Hanon makes for a great villain as his abilities are perfect. The fight scenes with him are naturally great and they feel very climatic. It’s rare that I like all (2) of the big villains in the manga series, but Law of Ueki managed to pull it off. Most impressive!

Robert is the main villain for a good chunk of the series. He’s pretty great and it was our first glimpse of DBZ action. He starts out as a pretty sinister villain, but he starts to warm up to the others as the series goes on. I quickly became a fan of his, but my timing was a little off since he quickly stopped appearing due to a tragic meal. I was rooting for him there, but it was a good way to hype up the next villain. I would have preferred a climatic fight first with a clear resolution, but The Law of Ueki just moves too quickly for that. Robert is not someone that you will forget and he had the privilege of staying in the top tier from start to finish.

“God” is the host of the tournament and he doesn’t do anything until we reach the end of the series. He seems like a pretty nice guy and he’s really relaxed about the whole situation. He does have to step in when his rules start to be abused by the competitors, but what if he has grown rusty over the years? His fight is pretty intense although a lot of it is off screen. It’s implied that he actually could have won against most of the villains, but Hanon is very debatable. “God” was having a very tough time when he went up against Hanon’s right hand man although he was holding back so that he wouldn’t hurt him. At full power, he could possibly give Hanon a good fight although I’m confident that he would lose. He’s a pretty good character, but he suffers from a severe lack of screen time.

Li Ho was actually one of my favorite characters in the series. Unfortunately, he got the shaft towards the end since it was fairly rushed. He never got to have the ultimate fight with Ueki that I had been waiting for. He’s an immense threat without the use of his abilities and that’s a big part of why he’s likable. He has super powers, but he chooses not to use them so that he can perfect his martial art skills. This makes him strong enough to take on the main villain and he did fight Ueki on more than one occasion. He does take his honor a little too far though as he should have activated his powers by the end. I mean, imagine if Goku decided not to turn into a Super Saiyan 3 and the series ended without him transforming. All of the foreshadowing ends up going to waste. Ah well, Li Ho is definitely a solid character and I dare say that he’s even better than Rock Lee. (Both of them are hand to hand fighters in a supernatural world, but Li Ho looks a little more impressive)

Barrow is another big opponent in the series. As expected, he has a really formidable ability up his sleeve. He has the normal celestial weapons like the Pick and the Cannonball attack, but his secret ability is what really makes them deadly. He can bring back past images of himself to fight as well. So, if he attacked you from a certain part of the field 15 minutes ago, he can bring that “him” back to launch the attack. He’s not changing the past, but merely bringing it back once again. The only drawback is that the past him is still real so then he can become a target. He can spam his time manipulation to launch some devastating combos. It’s very tough to overcome this kind of opponent and it definitely depends on what the location is. Again, I definitely enjoyed this villain. He didn’t have much of a personality beyond wanting to win, but he was pretty reasonable and I never found myself rooting against him. He did help to activate Ueki’s rage mode though.

We have another big villain in the form of Marilyn. I’ll admit that her power was a little too good since I don’t really see how she could have lost her battle. We can make the same case for some of the other villains, but Marilyn really stood out in this regard. She can make 1 second stretch out into 10 seconds for her. This means that she is moving 10X faster than everyone else and that’s a massive advantage. There are so many ways to win that way and only a few opportunities to stop such a strategy. I was highly skeptical of Ueki’s win against her because it didn’t make a lot of sense. It’s one of the risks of making your villains so powerful without giving the hero a power up. If you are physically superior to Marilyn already, then you should be fine, but nobody in the series (At the time anyway) was good enough to pull this off. Even someone like Goku would have a tough time if he wasn’t expecting the hit. Marilyn’s backstory can come off as a little cheesy, but she was a solid villain overall.

Since this is a tournament title, there are naturally many more fighters involved. I just managed to grab most of the main characters and the iconic villains. There is a small part of the series that happens before the tournament and we get some breaks, but it’s mostly all about the tournament. The series also kicks into overdrive towards the end in terms of pacing. It goes a little too quickly as we get rushed results with Li Ho, Robert, and arguably Hanon. Hanon’s right hand man also starts to get some development that ends up going to waste and the host of the event’s fight had to end a little quicker than it might have been. That being said, the series doesn’t drag on because of this and I can’t say that it had any bad volumes. Just about every installment gave us an exciting fight and advanced us through the tournament.

The climax in the Law of Ueki can hold its own against any climax. Whether it be from Bleach or DBZ, the Law of Ueki’s still manages to shine through. It may not beat their arcs, (Nothing will beat the end of the Aizen Invasion) but it’s enjoyable enough that you won’t miss them while reading it. The end fights hit all of the right notes and it basically sums up why the series was fun in the first place. It has a lot of great fights and exciting villains. Some parts may be generic, but the action and art keep it real. I also like when a series decides to go all out for the ending. Let’s just say that the power levels skyrocket in the final volume and Ueki/Hanon get to shoot through a few tiers in their big fight.

The Law of Ueki also manages to take the high road as it avoids fanservice. I don’t recall any of that being in it and if there was any, it was extremely brief. There is also virtually no romance in this title so it’s really a complete action story. There are basically no negatives that I have with it. Some of the characters may not be great, but I can’t remember any truly awful ones (Like Roshi or Oolong) either so that’s a pretty big win.

Overall, The Law of Ueki is an incredible manga that I highly recommend. It’s fairly short compared to the average Jump (Or Shonen in general) series, but it contains a ton of fights within. The series got a sequel series a while back, which I’ll be checking out soon so you can expect a review for that title at some point. I can only imagine the plot hax that will be involved to make the fights even considering how skilled Ueki is. I doubt they can stop Hanon, but they can try. Between Hanon, Robert, and the others, it’s very tough to match the Law of Ueki’s high caliber villains. You should definitely enjoy this title if you are into action. Think of it was a grounded DBZ in terms of tone and finesse. Now we just need Ueki to get popular enough for people to compare him to Luffy some more!

Overall 9/10

Transformers Classified The Complete Mission Review

Posted on October 11, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time to review the Transformers trilogy that came out a while back. These three books all take place in the film continuity, which can make longtime fans groan. Not to worry, you wouldn’t even notice if not for a few key references. None of the characters are quite as bad as the movie counterparts and the writing is certainly a lot better. This feels like a real Transformers adventure and it was a pretty fun ride from start to finish.

The first book is mostly the set up as we meet the Autobots and get to see them take down a few Decepticons. After that, we shift to Kevin’s point of view. He can’t get any homework done at his friend’s place due to a party that is going on so he heads off. He meets up with an Autobot named Gears who is currently looking for a special location to protect it from Decepticons. It ends up being hidden under a real government base so Kevin agrees to tag along so that he can finally get in on some action. Things get tricky when a Decepticon named Reverb tricks Ratchet into believing that he’s an Autobot and that they have to destroy Gears. This will definitely test the bonds of friendship between Autobots and Kevin will have to move quickly if he wants to survive this!

The second book gives Duane a bigger focus as he realizes that he needs to get closer to the heroes. He plans for his minions to steal some super tanks that a company has developed so he leads the heroes on a wild goose chase onto the next special facility. It actually turns out to be pretty useful and he works on earning Kevin’s trust while Reverb and the Decepticons attack the tanks and the Autobots. Can the heroes save the tanks or will they have to go back and make sure the Kevin and the scientists are okay. Meanwhile…when are they going to find Douglas?

Book 3 concludes the trilogy and I wish that I could say how it ended on a bang, but I really did prefer book 2. Duane places all of his cards on the table as he attacks with his tanks. The Autobots naturally counter, but a scientist decides to destroy all of the Transformers as he launches a satellite that will emit a code that will wipe them all out. Kevin and Gears decide that the satellite is the true priority and Reverb wants to live as well so a race against the clock starts. Meanwhile, we have insect worms that have invaded Earth and they are also attacking Douglas on the other planet. (Which actually gets a decent amount of screentime here as a subplot) One way or another…it all ends here!

Optimus Prime may not get a huge role in this trilogy, but it still may be a little bigger than you may have expected. He is guaranteed to get a fight in each of the three books and that’s always pretty fun. He takes down his the first Decepticon rather easily in book one and he also crushes the worms in the final book of the trilogy. (During the re match anyway) The only fight where Prime is on the losing side is when he faces off against Reverb and it’s mostly due to the fact that none of the Autobots or Decepticons are very athletic or quick, but I shall talk about that more in a bit. This is a pretty accurate depiction of Prime and he’s awarded the respect that he really deserves at this point. He seems to be a little more eager to convert Decepticons into Autobots here than usual, but he does ultimately want the war to be over. He can just be a little too naive in this when a single blast can change the course of a battle. He risks his spark with this decision more than once.

Gears is the main Autobot in this trilogy since he’s always hanging out with Kevin. His personality is pretty similar to Bulkhead’s or the green robot in Rescue Bots. He doesn’t really understand all of the Earth customs and such yet, but he still tries to help Kevin through his many hardships. Gears can be pretty cheesy though and he’s not the greatest fighter. He can definitely fight if he has too, but his leg is almost always injured. He beats Ratchet and Bumble Bee, but he’s not going to stand out after the trilogy ends.

Bumblebee looks pretty bad here. He doesn’t fall into any character holes, but the author must think that he’s the weakest Autobot of all time. Bumblebee doesn’t get to win any fights here and he is constantly crushed by random Decepticons. He always “talks” tough, but Bumblebee is the first one to hit the ground. He’ll charge at the villain, but they always seem to be quicker and stronger than him. It’s true that Bumblebee isn’t the toughest Autobot around, but he’s still a tough warrior and he gets the job done. I at least expect Bumblebee to put up a decent fight. That never happens here and Bumblebee’s role is very small, which doesn’t help either.

The only Autobot who may appear less than Bumblebee is Ratchet. Ratchet doesn’t look very good either since he can be worse than Prime when it comes to falling for Decepticon traps. The odds of Reverb actually being a hero are slim to none and he was very suspicious the entire time. Ratchet should have been prepared for such a course of action and he rarely helps during fight scenes. He has a cool buzzsaw, but you have to actually land attacks with it to make a difference. He gets to take down some of the worms and a Decepticon somewhere down the line, but he could have been a lot better. We need more fighters and less medics for the heroes!

Typically, I don’t like Ironhide, but he was actually pretty good here. He is always bragging or putting up a tough front. That can get old fast, but it’s good to see that at least one Autobot is always ready to fight. Considering how many Decepticons are around, The heroes definitely need more Ironhides. Despite his claims, Ironhide still isn’t that much tougher than the others. He has a lot of weapons, but he still struggles to beat a human tank and he is also quickly shut down by Reverb. He’s not a bad character, but he’s going to have to get stronger if he really wants to earn a rep. I am glad that he didn’t fall for Douglas’ tricks though.

Reverb is the main Decepticon and he’s really the only one to actually get a role here. He’s not ultimately powerful, but he can give Gears’ a good fight. He certainly knows how to get back on his feet though since he appears in all three books. He gets an energy shield, which immediately makes him stronger than the rest of the Autobots. It’s a little sad for the heroes, but it certainly gives Reverb bragging rights. He’s pretty generic, but as far as villains go, Reverb was all right. I should remember his name for a while now and he doesn’t let the humans boss him around.

Kevin is basically what you may expect from your average main character. The book does a good job of keeping him away from the romance angle and he just wants to have a good time. He does come with a tragic backstory though since his parents were taken out by Decepticons. Things get even worse for him after the first book as his brother is also taken away. Kevin manages to be pretty likable when he’s on screen although he can be a little wishy washy sometimes. He talks back to government officials as well as Autobots and Decepticons. Nothing can faze him and it’s pretty intense. He blew up at his friend in book 1 rather quickly though, which may make you doubt whether he makes for a good friend or not. All things considered, he’s a lot better than he could have been.

Duane is the main human villain of the trilogy. It’s not really a spoiler to say this because we find out pretty early on that he’s the main villain. He is rich and he just wants his Dad’s big inventions to fail so that he can prove to his father just how good he is. He’s willing to destroy just about anyone to further these ambitions and he’s very good at controlling technology. He can definitely be a handful for the heroes, but he definitely has the skills to prove why he can be useful to both sides. I think his character development in book 3 is very rushed though since an accident forces him to do a complete 180 on his plans. I don’t know…the whole thing happened without a lot of foreshadowing. It’s just hard to picture him changing so drastically because of the one event. I think the series may have been planned to be longer than 3 books or the author just lost track of time there. Still, Duane may be the best human villain that we’ve seen in Transformers since the Hunter in the original show.

Douglas is Kevin’s brother and he’s a pretty noble character. The author tries to portray him as the ultimate hero. He’s a tough commander, but he still makes time to joke around and become buddies with all of his subordinates. His will to survive never wavers and he’s firmly planted on the side of justice. He can be a little too strict at times though and Douglas tends to be very slow on the uptake. The author really tries to force you to like him, but that’s more or less okay since he’s a solid character. (Of course…that’s the point of the plan…) I wouldn’t have minded a book about his journeys on the planet.

Simon Clay is another villain whose character development goes through a radical change between books 1 and 2. You can even argue that it started towards the end of book 1. He was a capable villain at first and then he is completely used for comic relief in the final two books. He’s terrified of the Decepticons and he’s even scared of a kid. (He doesn’t know that his boss is a kid of course, but it’s still pretty embarrassing) He’s always running away or stuttering when Reverb is around and it’s pretty sad. I liked him a lot in book 1 and after that you can only like him in a comic relief way. I actually don’t mind that form of him, but you simply cannot try to be both serious and comic relief. You have to choose one or the other or you will fail at both. That’s what happens to Clay.

Let’s address the power levels of the Transformers. This is the movie continuity so it explains why they’re so weak, but it can be a little sad to fans who only watch the shows. The government’s tech is already almost up to par with the Transformers’ and it’s heavily implied that it is superior. The 1 on 1 battle between Ironhide and a tank ends with the Autobot’s victory, but Duane was holding back so throw away any suspicions that the heroes may have gotten. The scientist was also able to create a ray that could destroy all of the Autobots, but the heroes admit that it may not have worked anyway. Basically, a simple missile can deal critical damage to a Transformer and the government also has liquid metal that can instantly KO them. The Transformers are in a very dangerous pickle here.

What can also be a little annoying is that all of the Transformers seem to be more or less equal power wise. A good shot from a blade or a gun can KO just about anyone. The Autobots typically win because they attack first or land the opening blow, but the Decepticons really seem to have an even chance if they would only land a blow. I think there should be more of a gap between someone like Prime as opposed to the average Autobot.

One of the great positives about the trilogy is the fact that the books just go very quickly. They are a little on the short side (Around 130-160 pages a book and the print is fairly large) but I’m not really referring to length. The plot is very engaging and the dialogue between the characters is interesting enough to just keep you reading. The very first scene in the trilogy can start off a little too quickly since you’re just picking up the book, but it’s clear sailings from there. I typically finished off large portions of the trilogy in a single batch because of how fun they were. (Maximum Ride still holds the record in that regard as I would read a complete book in one sitting. I read a whole Transformers book in one batch as well, but Maximum Ride is about three times bigger)

Overall, This is a pretty great trilogy. We get some nice fight scenes and the human characters are actually pretty interesting. My only warning is that you should not expect the Transformers to operate under many tiers as mentioned earlier. There isn’t much that separates someone like Optimus Prime from someone like Ratchet. They’re more or less equal when it comes down to a fight, which makes things dicey against Reverb. The second book is actually the highlight of the trilogy, but the third still does have some fun action with Douglas and his party as they try to survive on the blue planet. Drama, Suspense, Action…this trilogy has it all!

Overall 8/10

Batman Assault on Arkham Review

Posted on October 10, 2014 by dreager1

Batman gets another film to add to his impressive roster with this installment. It’s always good to see the Dark Knight in action and his scenes are easily the best part of the film. Of course, that ends up putting the film in a tough spot since it is really about the villains so Batman’s role is smaller than usual. This is a decision that ends up backfiring!

Amanda Waller knocks out a group of dangerous criminals and forces them to form the Suicide Squad. Refusal to comply with her orders will result in their immediate termination by a bomb that has been implanted inside of them. Their task is to retrieve the Riddler’s staff so now they have to break into Arkham Asylum. The members include King Shark, Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Black Spider and Killer Frost. Of course, the mission won’t go very smoothly since Batman is always ready to defend his city and the Asylum does have some dangerous criminals like the Joker inside of it. Will these villains really follow their orders or will they go rogue?

Well, the film mostly plays out how you would expect based off of the plot and you may remember the Task Force from the Justice League show. Unfortunately, these guys definitely cannot hold their own film and you’ll find yourself waiting for Batman to show up. The episode in the Justice League show worked in its own way, although it’s one of the most inaccurate episodes to date. There are definitely a lot of plot hax to help the villains go along here as well since they aren’t strong enough to survive otherwise. Before going into the character selection, let’s address some of the negatives.

One of them is that the film has quite a lot of fanservice and fake romance that is pretty bad for the film. It happens quite a few times where the villains will strip down to trick the guards or to do a one night stand. These scenes are really unnecessary and they destroy any chance that the film had of being a solid installment to the DC universe. The film was just trying to show how evil the villains were and how they operate so differently from the heroes, but it just makes you dislike the cast more.

Ever since Flashpoint, (You can argue that we started getting there with Superman vs the Elite I suppose) DC has decided to ramp up the violence and to make the stories a little darker to fit the New 52 vibe. Even the stand alone titles like Son of Batman and Assault on Arkham are noticeably affected by this although a case can be made for Arkham that the fans would not expect anything less. Some scenes are fairly realistic like a person’s nose shattering when Batman punches it. Sure, that would likely happen, but do we really need to see it? It’s a small effect, but we get more drastic moments like heads blowing up and many expendables getting taken out. The whole atmosphere is just dark and it’s hard to enjoy the film when it acts like a common slasher. You’d think that you were watching Bleach or Resident Evil with how many people are taken out so quickly. Also, most of the scenes involve noncombatants, which can make it worse. I wouldn’t say that this film is as violent as Dark Knight Returns Part 2 or maybe Flashpoint, but it definitely ranks up there with some of the other recent titles and probably surpasses them.

Batman is naturally the best character here. He takes out random muggers while still being aware of the bigger picture. He arrives onto the scene pretty quickly once he finds out what’s going on and he proceeds to do a number on the villains. He’s outnumbered, but he really executes his moves with precision and skill. I can’t say that I had any problems with Batman’s portrayal here and it was really spot on. His only wavering moments may be when he has some trouble with Harley Quinn, but he still tends to pull a win out fairly quickly so I won’t take away any points there. This is why Batman’s still one of the best comic book characters out there.

Harley Quinn is in her recent version of the character and that happens to be the one that I really don’t like. The New 52 may have handled most of the characters pretty well, but Quinn was not one of them. She acts pretty crazy for most of the film, but it’s likely just an act as she proceeds to mess with anyone who gets in her way. She’s still pretty good with a gun and she now has some hand to hand techniques. Her constant flirting will immediately turn you off from her character though and even her start is way too randomly violent for you to start rooting for her.

Deadshot is essentially the leader of the Suicide Squad. He has a lot of experience and he has connections within Gotham. Everyone respects him as a natural leader and he basically gets what he wants. That being said, he has a kid as we can see from a picture that comes out a few times and he still indulges in a one night stand. That makes it hard to sympathize with him and you quickly lose respect for his character. He may be the leader, but he’s not even the strongest member there. I guess you can say that he’s like an evil Captain Kirk. He’s a natural leader, but he takes on his less desirable qualities as well.

Captain Boomerang doesn’t have much of an impact here compared to the other villains. He’s been through the Suicide Squad gig before and he doesn’t have a lot to lose. Unfortunately, he’s just another villain who is influenced by romance and he’s constantly getting outshined by Deadshot. Again, he doesn’t really have any likable qualities and he’s so weak that he really shouldn’t have survived the adventure. He’s really out of place here.

Black Spider claims to be a hero for the people as he destroys his opponents, but he doesn’t really pull this off. The Punisher still has his moral code that he doesn’t destroy innocents, but Black Spider takes out anyone who’s in his way. I like the name and he’s technically the best member here, but it’s a little hard to take him seriously. He threatens to take out the villains at one point, but then he just backs off for the rest of the film…the rest of the film…the rest of the film. You get the point. He proves that he is easily the best fighter of the group when he engages Batman and he’s someone who could probably hold his own film as the main villain, but we’ve already seen that moral in Superman vs The Elite so let’s not go there.

King Shark is sort of like Killer Shark only he’s DC’s villain. He has some mild super strength and his skin is hard enough to block bullets. It’s a little iffy there though since the bullets do seem to leave marks and bruises. He quickly becomes infatuated with Killer Frost, which ultimately leads to his demise as a character. He’s your average “Strong, but not smart” character and that’s the end of his development. He’s just there to get pummeled by good ole Batman!

Killer Frost is one of the more unlikable villains as she just plays King Shark off with her wiles while also choosing to dispose of cops in a romantic way when it’s completely not necessary. She’s the kind of character that I really don’t like as a villain. She never actually does well when the going gets tough and she’s the strongest villain here, but you really wouldn’t know it from watching the film. She puts her abilities to waste and you’d think that she could just freeze the bomb inside of her like any decent ice themed villain….

The Joker is back because you can’t really have a Batman film without him. It’s not one of his better designs, but we can deal with it. He’s shown to be a better hand to hand fighter than usual, but he is dealing with Deadshot. He actually forces Batman to retreat at one point due to some circumstances and his role gets to be decently large by the end. I’m still not a fan here though and he doesn’t look as intelligent as usual. He falls for the no bullets trick when he should have just fired and he definitely should have been destroyed by the guard that he met, but he has plot shielding with him.

We get a pair of guest stars in the forms of Poison Ivy and Bane, but they will likely not be pleasing appearances for their fans. Bane is purely mindless here as he just runs and destroys things. (Gone are the days when he was a master strategist, but he has been in Arkham for a while) Poison Ivy just seduces everyone that she can and she’s randomly taken down by some cops. At least Gotham PD (Or their special crimes unit anyway) can win once in a while.

The animation is pretty solid as we’ve come to expect for DC. The only moment that didn’t look very smooth was the opening where Batman arrives and then stands as still as a statue. His character model just felt a little odd there, but everything clicked into place as soon as the fights began. Batman has certainly gone through a lot of design changes over the years and this one is more similar to the late 80s or early 90s where he was very tall. It’s a good look and it helps during his fights against the villain powerhouses.

The soundtrack is pretty interesting and it’s a step up from what you can usually expect in these titles. There is a lot of electronic music to be found and I’m all for including more of that in the future films. It helps to make the fight scenes more exciting and a good soundtrack can really take you a long way.

In the end, this film just wasn’t one of DC’s better ones and I would actually say that it was a pretty weak title. The amount of fanservice in it was just way too excessive and they try to match that in violence as well. The whole montage for the villains at the beginning is basically just a time for you to wonder how the victim will die or be injured this time. Essentially, it’s a Batman story without Batman playing the center role and it doesn’t work. People end up buying Batman films and toys so much because they want to see Batman. Naturally, that’s why his name is on the title, but it’s only going to hurt future sales when fans realize that his role is so small.

Keep in mind though that the villains take the center stage isn’t a genre that I’m crazy about. It can be pulled off like in Ocean’s Eleven, but more often than not it will just end up like the Catwoman film. It’s why I’m not thrilled about getting a Suicide Squad or Sinister Six live action film. I did like TASM2 so in theory if can work if it’s still in that universe, but that may not even be the case anymore. (Also, if it was more like TASM1 in tone then it gets dicey again) Seeing the villains beat people who are even more evil is just not that appealing to me since they’re all just criminals in the end and that’s what this film is really about. (Although there are no worse criminals here except for the Joker)

The cherry on top depending on how you view the last scene is Batman’s threat to Waller. This scene can be pretty controversial depending on how you interpret Batman’s threat. Is he pulling another Batman Begins on us? I certainly hope not and I’m really trying to believe that he was just uttering an empty threat, but it’s just not very Batman like. So, I really think that it’s the former and that’s pretty unnecessary. Just don’t have Batman appear in the ending and then it’s fine, but throwing Batman in there brings up these questions. At least the Flash writer for DC comics can have some more fun with that since he’s already taken a shot at Batman Begins’ controversial decision in the comics…

Overall, I’d advise to skip Batman Assault on Arkham. If you’re a big fan of the games then you may still want to pick it up, but you’d be better off sticking with Batman Sub Zero or Mask of the Phantasm if you want a stand alone Batman film. This one just doesn’t feature the Dark Knight in it a whole lot and none of the Suicide Squad members are really that likable. There are also a lot of convenient plot moments here due to the circumstances and an easy two to pick out are the scenes where the Police Man didn’t shoot the Joker because he was busy looking at the grenade and the guy who was distracted by Harley Quinn instead of quickly taking down the group of villains. There are many more and it’s just a something that you can’t really avoid in this kind of film, but it can still be annoying since you’ll probably be rooting for the cops. (The non corrupt ones anyway) I have much higher hopes for the next Justice League film though and it should crush this one. Check out the trailer and you’ll be ready for the next adventure. At the very least, this one did inflate Batman’s dvd count and now I’ll be waiting for his next one.

Overall 4/10

Mega Man Rock of Ages Review

Posted on August 12, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for another batch of Mega Man comics! Mega Man has been a consistently good comic series just like Sonic The Hedgehog and that doesn’t change with this volume. It is a little light on the action, which can be a little sad, but we do get some foreshadowing at things to come. To be honest, we probably got a little too much foreshadowing, but it’ll be nice if it all happens at some point.

The first two parter is about the origin of Proto Man. Dr Light built him after the government wanted to see some progress on their funding. Unfortunately, Dr Light got a little too excited about the concept and he became friends with Proto Man. His coworker…Dr Wily, quickly showed Dr Light the error of his ways. Unfortunately, Proto Man short circuited during the demonstration. Fixing him would be tricky and he may have lost some of his personality. Dr Light doesn’t help matters by complaining to one of his friends that he wishes he could take out part of Proto Man’s rebellious streak. Proto Man streaks off and Dr Light quickly claims that he was kidding. (A little too late for that…) Now, Proto Man has to come to terms with the fact that he is dying. It’s pretty emotional.

The next issue is about Roll and her friends as they head to the Beach. Their vacation is quickly interrupted when they notice that a ship is sinking. They quickly call in Oil Man and Splash Woman. Now, they have to try to save everyone before it is too late. Unfortunately, Tempo is one of the robots on the scene and she isn’t very good at this kind of thing. If only Mega Man was around!

The final comic features a lot of time travel. Mega Man gets thrown into the future and he continues to accelerate during the years. We get scenes from Mega Man and Bass, Mega Man 7, Mega Man 5, and so on. He has to find a way to stop going further into the future if he wants to even stand a chance at living through this. It’s a fun comic full of homages, but it can be a little dicey for fans who just want to see what’s going to happen next. It’ll really take years to adapt all of this, which is a little sad, but I can only hope that these events will occur soon.

So, this was a pretty solid volume. I will admit that I did have two main problems with it. The first is the startling absence of Mega Man. He doesn’t really get to appear until the final comic. I’m all for the side characters getting their own plots, but we really need Mega Man to get a larger role. He deserves it and I have to say that he’s more interesting than the others. Even Proto Man lacks the raw ability that Mega Man has at his disposal. Mega Man basically steals the show once again when he re appears.

The other would be the fact that there isn’t a whole lot of action in this volume. There is no actual villain for the first three comics and the final issue with Mega Man is the only exception. That one definitely had some pretty solid action scenes, but they all get interrupted before the fights can really get going. That’s a little disappointing right? I want a full fight where we really get to see how Mega Man stacks up!

Mega Man’s role may have been small, but it was definitely a good one. He essentially stole the show and showed why he is a natural born leader. It can be a little sketchy to see Mega Man lose his cool so quickly in the time travel story since he was supposed to have already gone through that character development, but maybe he’s just going to end up being the next Sonic. I’m cool with that, as long as Mega Man continues to rack up those wins. He is really the only hope for the heroes at the moment since the rest of them aren’t very powerful.

Proto Man is really in his human persona for most of the collection, but he’s a pretty good character. I don’t blame him for leaving during the first misunderstanding, but he shouldn’t have left the second time. He’s a hero through and through. Proto Man kept trying to help everyone even when he was dying from the effort. He’ll be a good partner for Mega Man down the line, but that likely won’t happen for a while. His ending is definitely hinting at the reverse.

Tempo was easily the worst character in the batch. She’s pretty worried the whole time and she really lacks confidence. She’s still a robot master though so she needs to act as one. It’s not like she couldn’t survive a fall from a super large height. These robots are super durable after all and she mostly spent the whole time embarrassing Roll. She has no role in the comics so far so I’m hoping that she’ll develop into a good character. I’m hoping….

Roll gets her own comic and it’s good to see her get a big role. I do wish that it had been a combat role since I’m sure that she can quickly be modified to fight. Still, this was good enough I suppose and she got to prove that she’s great at rescue operations. Dr Light tried to stop her, but nobody can really stop a robot master when they get serious. If Roll had not been around, things definitely would have gotten dicey.

Splash Woman and Oil Man are really just guest stars in the rescue comic. They have some pretty good team work and their abilities do go together pretty well. They don’t seem to be very powerful, but things could change. In the future comic, we see that Splash Woman is fighting Mega Man since the hero seems to have been framed. Of course, Mega Man is holding back so that he doesn’t hurt her.

Dr Light is a main character I suppose, but he’s pretty unlikable for the most part. He doesn’t want Roll to live up to her full potential and it’s really his fault that Proto Man is gone. We also find out that he (possibly) installed the engine wrong, which is why Proto Man is dying. He’s technically a nice guy, but he’s way too oblivious at some points and there’s no reason to really become a fan of his. He’s just too distant and protecting of the heroes..even though they already surpassed him.

Bass is the main reason why the final comic is epic. He has finally arrived! It’ll be quite a while before he gets a role in the main series at this point so I’ll take what I can get. He has a quick fight with Mega Man and then he proceeds to talk tough the whole time. He doesn’t back down from anyone and that’s what I always liked about Bass. I’m not sure if I’d say that it’s my favorite interpretation of the character, (Giga Mix portrayed him better) but it’s not bad. Hopefully Bass gets some big roles in the future.

The art is pretty solid as always. Everything is very clear even if it’s a little on the bland side. The artist may need to add some effects to spice up the battle scenes. They’re just a little too clear…even for me. Of course, that is what makes them so easy to read so it’s a mixed bag. Either way, the art is definitely very good.

Overall, This is another good batch of Mega Man comics. It may have been the weakest entry in the series, but it can only go up from here. You can definitely draw a lot of similarities from the Mega Man comic series to the Sonic one. Both of them are very up beat and the personalities of Sonic and Mega Man are starting to get a little similar. This is the kind of comic that’s easy to pick up and read at any time. The plot is pretty light after all as there are no plot twists or big cliff hangers. I do expect the next batch to have a lot more action though since I don’t want the series to start losing steam. I have heard that the crossover with Sonic is pretty awesome though so I can’t wait to read it! Bass is on the cover of that one so I’m confident that he will get a roll. I definitely recommend this collection and the story is fun enough that you can get past the lack of action.

Overall 6/10

Bujingai The Forsaken City Review

Posted on July 24, 2014 by dreager1

The PS2 has had several hidden gems over the past few years including Eve of Extinction and Oni. This was my next blind purchase as the description on Amazon was pretty intense and it looked like a must buy. I believe that the game is a little short, which can hurt the experience, but the levels that we do get are pretty great thanks to the solid gameplay. This is definitely another all star by the PS2!

The plot is nice and simple. Lau was having fun surfing through the cosmos when he finally decided to go back to Earth. His old pal has turned to the dark side so Lau has to put him down once and for all. Luckily, his sensei is around to help as well as a sorceress by the name of Yohfa. Together, these heroes can surely defeat this one villain right? Well, the mastermind has hundreds of demons by his side so it’s a whole planet of inhabitants against Lau….time to fight!

“You have to fight!” is basically what the game is about. The levels are fairly linear and there will usually be a few locked doors barring you from continuing. To unlock the doors, you must defeat a few enemies or grab some kind of key. The platforming part of the game is decent as you can air jump, which is fun to look at. (But not practical since it’s slower than walking) Of course, the main chunk if the fighting part!

Picture Dynasty Warriors and you’ll have a grasp on the main part of the gameplay. You have two ways to attack and from those two buttons you can chain many combos. I typically went for the classic 20+ combo since it breaks through most shields, but there was one exception so watch out for that boss! Aside from your attacks, you also have magical abilities which range from fireballs to light arrows to amplifying your physical strength. I typically went for the fireballs and the physical power up, but all of the abilities are fairly useful. Once you have your magic ready, you’re ready to face off against anyone!

When you clash with a boss, your magic crystals come into play. Essentially, both of you begin to duke it out with your blades and you can continue to duel like this until one of you runs out of crystals or you can jump to the side and strike at the boss from behind. The latter method seems to be full proof against humanoids, but the first method is great as well and you just need to watch out for the times where it doesn’t work. It’s safe to say that most of the bosses are humanoid, but there are a few creatures as well. Those are a lot tougher to fight because their moves aren’t quite as predictable or easily dodged. The varied enemies help keep the bosses fun. They would have been enjoyable either way, but each of them use a different style so it gives the game a better all around feeling.

Lau is the main character of this story and it’s hard to get a read on his character. As with Link and many of the other legendary heroes, he’s not much of a talker. He is a hero and he tends to do the right thing, but he just doesn’t have a whole lot of personality. He’s also pretty cheerful at the end considering that he had to take down his ole friend..permanently. He’ll never be the next Mario or Sonic, but Lau has potential and a sequel or anime adaption could flesh out his character. After all, a character who dances his way from deep space to Earth can’t be all that bad right?

Rei is the main villain and his goals are pretty ambitious. A dark event turned him against humanity and he now leads an army of demons. His skills are definitely real since we actually get to see him slice a moon in half with a single shot. If nothing else, that’s a very serious feat. He makes for a decent villain, but his backstory takes away any threatening aura that he may have had. The dancing makes it a little hard to take him seriously as well. His red blades make for good weapons during the boss fights. Rei’s only a decent villain, but it could be worse.

Yohfa is Lau’s main partner and she helps him out on the journey by opening portrals for him. Her cutscenes are typically odd since her mouth never moves while she’s talking. It must be fun to have telepathy. She’s not a bad character, but she never really added anything to the story. She’s really just there to help out the main character.

The same could be said for Lau’s old master. He’s not really a character when you think about it as he’s just the sensei. He likely got a name, but I quickly forgot it. One cool scene that he did get was when the master speedblitzed Lau. He quickly assured our hero that he had surpassed the master, but the scene really made you question that statement.

The soundtrack is pretty fun and it fits in well with the rest of the game. The boss themes can range from really fast paced to more dramatic in tone and both of them work pretty well. The game definitely did really well in that category and I find that the beat em up type of games typically don’t tend to have great soundtracks so that was good for this title.

Graphically, the game is all right. I can’t say that there is anything spectacular about it, but they can look good at times. The big cutscenes try to have a more live action esque feeling to them while the regular ones are standard. What can be a little…interesting about the regular ones is that the characters like to dance and slash away at thin air. The final cutscene before the final boss is actually pretty fun because the characters keep on jumping and skipping instead of actually fighting. It’s an interesting effect, but I have to wonder if it was intentional or not. It’s just a little odd. Back to the big cutscenes, it worked most of the time. The scene were pretty impressive given the style and one could possibly say that it looked a little like Final Fantasy. The actual gameplay graphics may not have been excellent, but overall it can hold its own.

The overall setting of the game also helped to make the game enjoyable. The levels can have diverse designs as you fight near Lava, in Snow Mountains, and more. The main place is The Forsaken City and it’s a pretty fun place to fight in. I love fighting in city areas and I don’t believe that will ever change. It’s a whole lot of fun to fight an enemy and then jump onto a few buildings before challenging the next one.

In terms of replay value, the game is fairly low. There are 8 levels and I ended up beating the game in around 4 hours. You could beat it in a much shorter time if you don’t get lost in the maze level or spend too much time wandering around in circles. There are 40 medals to obtain throughout the game and a lot of magic spells as well. I assume that they carry on throughout your next playthrough, but there is also a stage select, which should allow you to find them all. There aren’t any multiplayer modes though and this was before the PS3 Trophy days. If you enjoy the game, it’s going to need to be for the Story Mode. It’s a brief, but epic experience!

I would say that I have one main negative with the game. It’s too bad that it’s short of course and the characters could have been more interesting, but I’m talking about the levels. Sometimes, it can be very hard to know where to go and the map is too small to really help you. The Snow level was very long since you had to keep reentering rooms until you figured out the puzzle. This was my least favorite one and it took me about an hour. So, that one level took up a quarter of my whole play time. I believe that they could have smoothed it out a little more. The 7th level had a tricky jump segment that was maybe a little overdone, but it is a good way to challenge gamers so I’ll leave that one as an ambiguous element. You could make the argument that it was a negative or a decent positive.

Overall, Bujingai is a pretty fun game. It has all of the fun beat em up traits that you would expect while adding a bit of the anime element to it. The characters were very powerful and the gameplay is very fast. The fighting system was pretty deep and the magic aided the regular combat to make it all flow together. The game is short so be aware that it will only entertain you for a few hours before you’ll have completed it. That being said, it is definitely worth it for this low price and you can experience one of the PS2’s hidden treasures. Any action fan should definitely enjoy it!

Overall 8/10

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