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My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure Stats and Records
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My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure Review
When I saw this as one of the games on sale at GameStop I knew I had to grab it! While I may not have kept up with the latest My Little Pony series….pretty much at all since the movie I still knew this would be a very wholesome adventure which is perfect for Christmas. It’s a very short game though and you can tell that there wasn’t a whole lot of content put into this one. It’s absolutely not worth paying full price for but when the going rate is around 15-20 you have to snag it.
The game involves a pony mysteriously defacing a lot of posters all around the festival. The Ponies are just trying to have a good time here with all kinds of events going on like fashion shows and aerial tricks but this is putting a damper on things. Sunny has to stop this pony but when the evidence begins to point to her friends she has to wonder if she really should solve this mystery. Her friends should have no cause to spoil such a grand day for her right? The time is ticking as the case gets more and more serious.
On a fundamental level the game is very sound. It doesn’t try to do a whole lot but what it does do is very smooth. I would say this game is aimed at a very young crowd, even more so than the Mario and Sonic games at least from a difficulty perspective. There is no way to lose or take damage in this game. There are a few events like herding animals and running but they are given to you with very generous timers to make sure you can clear them. Even obtaining the Platinum trophy is something that you can do very quickly. You should get it within 15 minutes of completing the game since you just have to complete one post story race.
It’s good for there to be some games for the kids. I think this one does the job well but the only sore spot is the length. Short games are nothing new of course but it just feels like they did the bare minimum for this one because they figured most people wouldn’t be playing it. You’ve got a really big hub world here but most of it is just empty. There isn’t really anything to do outside of the story. So as a result by the time you’ve completed the story there aren’t other side missions to finish.
The story itself is fun though with full voice acting and solid cinematics. The graphics here are absolutely top tier with the CG looking just like the real character models. They do have that CG gimmick where the eyes appear a bit distorted so the characters almost look scary at times but all in all I thought it was rather sharp. The graphics continue to look good during the game as well. I’d say some of this can also be attributed to the art direction which was really on point. The soundtrack is a lot more bland though to the point where large chunks of the game are completely quiet. It’s a little eery since you think of music when thinking about MLP ordinarily.
So the silence is almost deafening. We do get a song for the end credits though so that was neat but the game should have embraced this a bit more. I appreciated having a real villain here but I’d say for the sequel they can take it a little farther while still keeping the game as kid friendly. Friendship is Magic had a lot of big villains after all and you could also have the characters have some disagreements if you don’t want to go the full villain angle. This will help extend the game and if you can get the sequel to more like 6 hours then you’ll really have more bang for your buck.
There’s a case to be made that the longer the game went on, the more the cracks would show. That’s certainly possible so it is a risk but at the same time you have to throw the players a little bone. When they can complete the game in an instant like this it just overshadows all of the work that went into the animation and gameplay here. It doesn’t matter how smooth it all is if there’s just nothing to do after a while. Give us a bunch of extra minigames and story content and you’d have yourself a winner. As a result there’s not a ton to talk about here though.
Overall, My Little Pony is always a fun franchise and it’s nice that it got this game. It just would have been nice if the devs challenged themselves to add some more content here. If this was sort of a trial game to see how things would work then I’d say it succeeds. The gameplay is really on point and it succeeds in all technical aspects but I can’t imagine buying this one on day 1. I would say the company should still want to maximize sales and for this game to do well you really need to put a little more effort into it. If a sequel were to show this then I’d definitely be glad to pick it up. Until then I’d only recommend this game if you see it’s still on sale or the price has been permanently lowered. Then it’s a good amount of fun.
Overall 6/10
My Little Pony: Generations Review
Generations seems like a title that just works well for crossovers. It makes sense because it really signifies how different eras are coming together. Unfortunately this one isn’t very good and is the weakest MLP comic that I’ve read. It’s not bad but it shortchanges you on the actual crossover aspect which is a shame. The highlight of the comic is when Twilight admits that Starlight Glimmer is still more powerful than she is and that was a nice throwback to how Starlight is supposed to have the most powerful magic in the verse outside of maybe Tyrek. There isn’t a lot of action here though so it’s more about the adventure the whole time.
Grackle and Dyre are bored eating popcorn and hanging out at the Witch cave one day when they decide to attack the Ponies. They want to impress their family by doing this so they quickly send 3 evil “Ponies” over to make a mess of things. It’s good timing for them as Starlight Glimmer and the school are completely overrun by the students so they’ll take anybody. Starlight welcomes these 3 in as teachers but things start to get a little iffy when she notices that they are teaching ponies the wrong things. Their curriculum is basically anti friendship but Starlight isn’t sure how to fire them without making the ponies feel bad. Something’s not right and if the heroes don’t find the answer soon then they will be doomed!
The OG Ponies don’t show up until around issue 4 to help out. Most of this story is really about the evil ponies causing a mess of the school and really messing with the friendship students. At least this might help Starlight realize that even the current teachers weren’t doing great if the students could be led astray so easily. You’d expect them not to buy into the fake lessons but they do so right away. The Mane 6 not ending this threat in an instant because they are all busy is a reasonable way to keep the story going.
So this all sounds rather decent, why is it not getting a super high score? Well the main issue are Grackle and Dyre. They’re easily some of the worst villains in all of MLP. I dare say they are the worst but in case I’m missing someone I figure I’ll just say one of the worst. Every scene with them in it is dreadful. They’re super lazy and not even remotely a threat so they aren’t interesting. I think you could properly have some humans in an MLP adventure but you have to do something to really justify their existence. Just having them hang out and complain the whole time gets repetitive very quickly. They finally jump into the action themselves near the end but even then they don’t do a whole lot. They just hold the story back.
The evil ponies are okay I suppose. Violet Shiver, Shadow Storm, and Black Belle are the 3 evil ponies but they start to have second thoughts about the mission. After all the ponies are so nice to them and all. It may feel a bit odd to see them change their tune so quickly but you could say it’s because the spellcasters weren’t that strong so they didn’t properly create “Evil” ponies and just made Mean” ponies instead. As a result they strayed from the path. Focusing on just one of them would have probably been a lot more effective than having all 3 of them if you ask me.
There just aren’t a lot of interesting things occurring here. The plot itself isn’t super engaging since it focuses a bit too much on the students and the Mane 6 are missing out. I always like seeing Starlight but she isn’t really able to get involved much here either since she’s busy as principal. It’s just a very odd decision to have the story structured in this way. But you would immediately make the comic many times better if you just cut the two witches out of this. Remove them from the comic and substitute with any other villain and this would be an improvement.
The artwork is decent. At times there can be a lot of text that takes over the screen like when the two witches are talking but when it’s just the Ponies it works well enough. I wouldn’t say it looks nearly as good as the main series though. That one definitely got a much higher budget and of course the writing is also a lot more impressive there. On a technical level the comic isn’t bad though, it just doesn’t really pop out at you. There is something surreal about seeing the old Ponies together with the modern ones though.
Overall, My Little Pony: Generations isn’t quite able to match the hype of the concept. Its biggest issue at the end of the day is just that it can be a bit boring at times and that should never be happening in any kind of crossover. It should have been really great with all of the ponies getting together and teaming up but the originals don’t do much at all. They help with a cure for the evil energies and flowers that the villains plant but that’s about it and you could have easily done that without them. That’s a big reason on why they don’t stand out. It’s because they are very nearly filler in their own crossover and that’s always a bad thing. A crossover should maximize the talents of all characters involved. Still if you like the franchise a lot then it’s still worth checking out but you will likely be disappointed based on the premise.
Overall 5/10
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Volume 19 Review
The next My Little Pony volume is here now so it’s time for more fun stories. As I suspected last time when Applejack didn’t get a story, she gets one right away here so the balance is really on point. It’s another fun assortment of stories that all flow by very quickly. As always the series succeeds giving you a happy feeling about the whole thing after you finish the story and succeeds in what it has set out to do.
Apple Bloom is one of those ponies who is confident that she isn’t scared of anything but this is put to the test when she is trapped in a web by some kind of jumbo spider. This also happens to Applejack but Bloom is just small enough where she should be able to escape. Unfortunately the only way to do this is to relax and not be so tense so you slide off of the webs. Bloom is too scared and won’t admit that she is scared so Applejack decides to to tell her a story from back in the day. She’ll need to tell the story quickly though.
It’s a good issue and Applejack is good at getting ponies to face their fears. Her honest approach is the right match for this problem. Her story of being scared of the water is also intense and it’s easy to see how that could have happened since her falling into a well was really traumatic. Big Mac got to look good here as he looked out for Applejack just like how she looked out for Apple Bloom. What goes around comes around and it’s just a nice dynamic. Scaring off the spider at the end may have been a bit cheesy but on the whole I was satisfied with how things turned out. The moral was good.
Another story focuses on the next generation as the changeling student really wants to do well on the final exam. Twilight Sparkle wanted to make things easy on her students so she said that they could do whatever they wanted as long as their project showed off what they learned about friendship. Most of the students figured they would do something easy like just talking for a few minutes while showing off a rock or something but she wants to do something more drastic. She’ll use her transformation skills to appear as over 300 characters in the span of 10 minutes to relive the history of Equestria. It’s an ambitious project, too ambitious you might say. It’s just not possible to pull off that many transformations in such a short period of time.
She’s not too nice about this either but fortunately the rest of the students and Twilight Sparkle get her back in line. It’s a fun story but I always prefer for the Mane 6 to be the main characters instead of supporting. It just feels more exciting that way. If you need variety then this is probably the smoothest way to do it though. Of course the occasional story about the villains is definitely another way to do it too.
Then we have a story about Pinkie Pie and her sister Maud. Basically it is time for a huge party and this should be easy since that’s Pinkie Pie’s thing but she is stuck baking a cake for another party. So Maud has to help another pony set up the party in her stead but this is well outside of her comfort zone. Can she really pull this off or is she merely setting herself up for failure? This is a story about doing the right thing even when it’s hard and it’s a solid story.
Maud tries her best right from the start and really does a great job with the preparation. She even has a little sugar to boost up her stats and liveliness which is really going the extra mile here. It’s easy to be proud of her here and what she has accomplished. There aren’t a ton of characters who would have been able to pull this off. At the end of the day Pinkie Pie did her best to help out as well and even out ran the train which was impressive. Maud is good as a change of pace pony as I don’t think she would be able to hold her own stories too often as her humor style may quickly become too one note but stepping in like this it works out pretty well.
Finally we also have the two part adventure with the big race. Rainbow Dash is ready to test her mettle as this is the toughest race in all of Equestria but then some guy shows up who is being really passive aggressive to Big Mac. It turns out that Big Mac used to be an expert racer but he was too good. His old friend got jealous and ran off so Big Mac decided never to race again. As you can probably guess I blame the friend 100% for this. He is the one who wanted Big Mac to race and then got heavily salted once Big Mac was winning? Yeah I should just call him the “Friend” for now since that’s not how a real friend acts.
So the story is divided into the flashback of the original race and the current one as the contestants all get set. There is also a subplot about a group of thieves who are on the run from some dragons and have accidentally put the stolen item in Rainbow Dash’s car. The subplot felt a little random and dare I say unnecessary but I still enjoyed the race. There’s a lot of action to enjoy here and who doesn’t like a good competition right? It’s always great to see Rainbow Dash taking charge and just getting out there. With her speed this should be beyond easy after all but to keep things fair she seems to be holding back. The competition episodes in the show tended to be some of the stronger ones as well so I wasn’t surprised that it was really good in the comic as well.
The art is pretty solid here as you would expect. The colors are nice and vibrant and there is a large cast here but they all stand out. It’s been pretty consistent throughout the series which is always nice to see and it makes reading the comics nice and easy. Mix that in with the good writing and you’ve got a solid foundation for the series. It’s easy to see how it’s lasted 19 volumes.
Overall, This was another good MLP volume. We got a nice assortment of stories here and I wouldn’t say any of them were weak. The racing one was probably the best although I was hoping that Rainbow Dash could pull out the victory. The way I see it she earned it for sticking up for Big Mac and setting the stage. At least she was a good sport about the whole thing though and didn’t let it drag her down. If you’re a fan of the series or just want some wholesome comics then this is a good collection to pick up.
Overall 7/10
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Volume 18 Review
Do you know what time it is? It’s My Little Pony time! It’s been a while since I read the last volume but this is the kind of series that is easy to just dive into and have fun. The stories here are standalones as we are in between the big arcs so that helps as well. Some stories may be stronger than others but at the end of the day it’s a fairly balanced mix and you will have a good time here. It’s easy to see why the series has so many fans because it’s just enjoyable to read through. So lets dive into the stories.
The best one in the collection has Pinkie Pie decide to test her friends’ teamwork skills. Basically she has constructed a really large tower and the heroes have to cosplay as action heroes and try to climb it. They all try to climb the tower individually at first but it’s not working out so well so they may have to actually team up for once. Can they put their pride aside in order to do this? Well that may make things sound dramatic as they often team up so it’s technically not a big deal. I do think they were hoping they could win without help though, I just got that idea at least from how they tried on their own first.
It’s solid because I always like seeing the Mane 6 have to try and overcome some challenges. This one may have been created by Pinkie Pie but the challenges were very real so it wasn’t like this was a walk in the park. Most impressive of Pinkie Pie I must say even if she was being a little petty at the end. I think the heroes deserved a real prize for their hard fought win. Ah well, they had fun and that’s what counts I suppose.
Then we have a story with Mayor Mare. It’s time to throw her a surprise party but unfortunately it isn’t easy to catch her unaware. So the heroes have Apple Bloom try to pull this off which almost gets tragic as Bloom says that she looks up to Mayor Mare and everything to distract her all day. The Mayor was really happy about this so she’d be absolutely crushed that it was all an act. Fortunately the comic doesn’t go down the tragic angle and things end well with the nice party.
It would have been a little upsetting if things had gone badly for Mayor Mare so I’m glad that it all worked out. The story’s more on the low key side as the subplot is Twilight Sparkle trying to get a good act to go on stage but they all keep getting shot down. Her stage partner was really a harsh critic but fortunately Sunlight Shimmer was here to help. She was always one of the best characters so it was nice to see her even if the appearance was completely random and out of the blue. Sometimes that’s the best way to be a guest star though right?
In what may have been the weakest story of the bunch we follow the Wonderbolts as they’re getting ready for another big sky show. Unfortunately one of their members gets injured and won’t be able to perform. There’s one filly who really wants to be a member but is an Earthpony who can’t fly. That’s a bit of a non starter for an aerial group of ponies but you can admire the heart and passion of this I suppose. We get a story about how their used to be an Earthpony who pulled this off with a flying machine like a super old fashioned airplane. It’s nice and heartwarming so I’m glad the Earthpony got to be in the show a bit but ultimately I just don’t think that’ll work.
It’s one of those sad cases where the dream is just about unachievable. Sure you can include the pony in a show or two to make his day but it sort of take away from the point of the group. Nobody is going there to watch a pony operate a vehicle, they want cool flying stunts and that won’t be possible if you can’t already fly naturally. I’d say that was the real crux of the issue.
Then we have a story where one pony needs a dog sitter but none of the Mane 6 want to help. It’s rare to see them all trying to get out of the way instead of helping out but this dog is a really big Cerberus so he won’t be the easiest to handle. Rarity had no excuse even compared to the others so she gets the job and initially it is quite hard for her. Ultimately she is able to push through though and after some encouragement from her younger sister learns about patience and dealing with bigger animals.
It’s a solid story with a good message at the end. I do think Rarity could have handled the whole situation better right from the jump though. The dog wasn’t even mean or anything. Sometimes in these kinds of stories you’d have the dog being a real handful the whole time but I didn’t really get that vibe from him. He wanted to play a lot sure, but then just play with him. Who doesn’t want to play fetch with a huge dog! At least now Rarity will be ready for the future.
Twilight gets her own story next as it’s time to put on her detective hat. I remember Rarity being the real detective of the group to be honest but Twilight has apparently solved tons of cases of her own so this is right up her alley. See there’s a big turtle competition coming up soon but one of them has vanished. Now the whole town has lost the will to fight and the only one who seems happy about this is the owner who always comes in 2nd place. Hmmm, this is a little suspicious isn’t it?
You can probably tell where this is going from the jump but it’s still a solid story. I do think that the kidnapper gets off extremely easy though. I would have liked some kind of penalty here. Of course you shouldn’t go to jail for something like that in Ponyville but some community service never hurt anybody. If they threw that in there I think it would have helped the ending. Still, I like a good mystery so this was a fun adventure all around.
So those were the stories. They all feel like they could have been real episodes although you’d probably need to merge two stories each time since they go by fairly quick. You could pad them out but that is always tricky. The writing is good enough where they could pull it off though. The artwork here is solid and always looks like the TV show as well. It makes for easy reading as you’ll just barrel through these volumes. The generation may be ending as the new one comes in but at least through the comics there are still tons of adventures that I haven’t read yet.
Overall, If you like the My Little Pony series then you will definitely like this comic. It’s a solid collection of stories about the group and so what more could you ask for right? Each pony gets something to do here although I guess Applejack would be the one with the smallest role as she didn’t star in any of them. I’m sure that’ll change in the next volume since this one had 5 issues and not 6 so she still has a lot of time. I’m getting closer to volume 20 now!
Overall 7/10
My Little Pony: Spirit of the Forest Review
It’s sure been a while since I read my last My Little Pony adventure so it’s good to be back in the mix. This is a fairly low stakes adventure starring the Cutie Mark Crusaders but it hit all the right beats that made the series big in the first place. It has good writing with likable characters and a satisfying conclusion to the adventure. The issues go by very quickly and you’ll have a good time reading the stories so you really can’t go wrong here. Just like the trio would low key have some of the more enjoyable adventures in the show, that ends up being the case here as well.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders are having a good time as usual when they notice that there has been a big increase in the amount of junk, trash, and litter that has accumulated in the forest. They start cleaning it up but every day it appears again so they have a stake out. Well, it turns out that this is all caused by Filthy Rich’s workers as they are doing a big project in the forest which is cutting down a ton of trees. The trio try talking him out of it but Filthy Rich explains that his hands are tied because he needs money and the Ponies need goods so it all works out. Even the Mane 6 say they are powerless against the world of big business so the Cutie Mark Crusaders have an idea. They will create a ghost Scooby Doo style and scare everyone off of the property. If they can succeed then the forest will be saved. The means may be less than legal but these are desperate times.
If you really think about it, the trio are basically playing the role of your average Scooby Doo villain which is a nice change of pace. I’ll give them props for trying to change things the legal way first but they just couldn’t make a strong enough case to make that work out. It doesn’t help that even popular opinion is against them as people like the forest but they prefer having their furniture and other perks of the trees being cut down. Even the Mane 6 felt a little halfhearted with their assistance.
You can’t say that the CMC don’t try hard here. Ultimately they are able to get pretty far in their tricks and only run into trouble when the Mane 6 get involved. So this was another part I enjoyed a lot because it’s like we got to see an episode from a different POV. Off screen Filthy Rich asked them for help in stopping the monster and of course they said yes. It makes sense that they would help and as good as the CMC are, the Mane 6 are naturally more experienced. Their winning the fight made complete sense and it was a satisfying conclusion.
Another check in the comic’s favor is that the problem was rather nuanced without making Filthy Rich extremely evil as the average cartoon would do it. For example, he is certainly the antagonist but he’s not laughing as he breaks down trees or acts disrespectful to the ponies the whole time. No, he treats them as mature ponies and explains his position. It’s not even an awful position because he explains that he did get permission from the village, signed the right papers, and got to work on giving everyone what they wanted. Yes, the Forest would be removed but he didn’t just start chopping, he had a complete plan first which everyone signed off on. He didn’t cut any corners or break the rules in any way.
In fact when the heroes mentioned the litter to him, he had it solved that very day. He went up to the workers and told them to stop which worked. I enjoyed Filthy Rich here as a result. He just seemed way more reasonable than your average rich villain would be in this circumstance. That only becomes even more true in the climax when more characters including his daughter Diamond Tiara talk to him. Ultimately he sacrifices a little wealth in order to make everyone happy and that was a big move on his part. Definitely a fun character to have around.
Diamond Tiara also looked good here. She has come a long way from being the bully like back in the old seasons where she would just show up to mess with the heroes. Now she is actually helping out and trying to make a difference in her community. Bravo to her I say, that’s definitely not easy. I would even say she ended up outshining the main trio here. It may be a bold take but she was able to make a difference without skulking in the night or using any dirty tricks. Of course she has a connection that the main 3 did not since she is related to Filthy Rich but she merely used all of the tools at her disposal in order to save the day. That’s all you can do at the end of the day righgt?
The main trio were fun as always though. They’re always very lively and have a lot of great plans. The plans may not always work out but they don’t give up and that’s the most important thing. Hopefully they get some more adventures in the future as well and having another battle with the Mane 6 could definitely be fun as well. The Mane 6 may have won this time but who’s to say it would go the same way in the next round?
The art here is really solid and colorful which also makes blasting through the comic easy. It’s easy to see what is happening at all times and the character models are on point. On a technical level there is definitely no issues with the comic and I already mentioned how good the writing is. It’s a story aimed younger but written so that grown ups can enjoy it as well with how rational everyone is and it really works out well.
Overall, I would recommend checking this comic out. It’s a lot of fun and has something for everyone. If you want a fun adventure with good characters then you have come to the right place. It sets a high bar for the rest of the My Little Pony comics that’s for sure. I’ll have a review for another one up fairly soon but I can unfortunately say that it doesn’t quite match up to this one. The bar really was set too high this time and that’s just the risk of being super solid.
Overall 7/10
My Little Pony: A New Generation Review
It’s time for the next generation of My Little Pony. Friendship is Magic certainly took the world by storm with how big it got and had a huge cast by the end of it. Leaving an old continuity for a new one is always a tricky thing. Technically they may exist here or they may not, it’s hard to say. I’ll assume they do and that the toys are based on their legends so they can hopefully appear in the show at some point. The movie does a good job of just creating a satisfying experience without having to rely on the old cast though which is impressive.
The movie starts out with a fake-out moment of the Mane 6 banding together for a big battle. That seemed like it was about to get really hype but it turns out that this was just the main characters playing with toys. Sunny has always believed that every Pony should be friends but her friends remind her that all ponies are against each other. The Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi are all enemies now and that can never be changed. We jump forward many years and see that Sunny has not given up her dreams of unity. She crashes parties and does her best to always barge in and remind people of this.
Well, one day a Unicorn named Izzy shows up and Sunny helps her escape from the vengeful village ponies. It turns out that the Unicorns have lost their powers and the same is true of the Pegasi. Each group thinks the other did this and so there might be a grand conspiracy here. The heroes will have to find the lost crystals to form the crown of power that will give everyone their powers back. It’s the only chance left for the ponies to finally come together. Can Sunny and Izzy pull this off before Sheriff Hitch captures them?
A New Generation really flows by so the movie did a good job on the pacing. It’s really a very low key adventure but one that will keep your attention throughout. Don’t expect big fight scenes or a whole lot of danger. For around 90% of the film it’s not like anybody’s lives are in danger and even in the climax you just have a main villain who is a comic relief character so there’s no danger there either. This is just an adventure to find the crystals and reunite the world. For such a movie you need to have quality characters and writing, both things that this title has.
The characters certainly won’t beat the Mane 6 but they put in a good effort. First you have Sunny who is a solid main character. She’s very earnest and talks tough to anyone who opposes her. Her confidence may surpass her actual skills at times but I always say you have to talk a game so even if she can’t back it up, I appreciate the effort. With the whole village against Sunny her whole life, she did a good job of not bending to them either.
Then you have Izzy who is more on the ditzy side and doesn’t really understand any kind of phrase that isn’t super literal. That’s not my favorite character trait so some of her scenes don’t land but she’s a nice enough pony and is always around to help defend Sunny. The two of them have a lot of good banter which is important since even though the film ends with having a Mane 5, most of the film is really these two as a tag team.
Hitch is the Sheriff who is after the main characters and he is actually good at his job. For a while there I was expecting him to be outsmarted and wrecked at every turn but surprisingly he gives the main heroines a run for their money which is good. If Friendship is Magic had one weakness, it’s that there were no real solid male heroes. Hitch already beats all of the ones before him. Yeah Hitch is ultimately on the wrong side for most of the film but he’s a lot more reasonable than the other villains and actually thinks he is doing the right thing. He comes around quickly enough when they point this out to him.
Then you have Pipp who joins up with the crew later on. Her role isn’t as big as the others but she helps out quite a bit and will certainly be the Rarity of the group. Pipp likes to be trendy and on top of things which is important for a princess in her position. She may not be thrilled with the plan and destroying the status quo but she helps out. Finally you have Zipp who is the rebel of the group. Zipp’s got a lot of courage and just does whatever she wants when she wants.
She doesn’t get to show off her confidence as much as I would have liked since she appears rather deep into the film but I’d expect big things of her going forward. That’s it for the main heroes but quick shoutout to the Queen for staying strong under pressure. She doesn’t sell out the two princesses even after being captures. She handles herself with dignity as befitting a royal. There’s a bit of a missed opportunity with her not being Rarity though. After seeing the trailer I was 100% certain that this character was Rarity. It was certainly a twist seeing that this was not the case.
Now for the two villains, we’ve got Phyllis and Sprout. Phyllis is the instigator who keeps on pushing Sprout to get more and more villainous until she starts thinking that things have gone too far. That’s always an annoying trait for a villain though because it’s hard to feel sympathetic when they’ve already gone so far. It’s not like anyone’s died here or anything but it still feels really quick for her to change sides.
As for Sprout, I couldn’t take him seriously. The film goes out of its way to make him a complete comic relief character to the point where even when he gets a giant robot the guy is messing up. You can’t have someone be the main comic relief and then try to spin it like he’s an intimidating villain. That just doesn’t work. I also felt like his descent into madness was way too quick as well. This is really the film’s biggest weakness, the villains. Both villains just aren’t all that good and the plots are taken to the extreme.
For example Sprout gets his own villain song but instead of being rather great like the last MLP film, this one is too on the nose. You have the villains singing about how they’re irrational and confused the whole time. Why would they be singing a song where the lyrics are bashing them the entire time? It’s like the film wanted to make crystal clear that these are the villains but it was already obvious so they definitely went too far on this one.
The songs are okay otherwise but still below the average MLP song. The rap song was rather underwhelming as well so the best ones would be the first song and the one near the middle. The song in the credits are good too. There are enough songs where you are sure to find ones that you like but I don’t recall the last MLP film having any bad songs so this one definitely loses out in that respect.
As for the graphics, I’d say that the CGI looks good. It’s certainly not nearly as colorful or as energetic as the FIM TV show, but it works well enough I suppose. I don’t think CGI will ever get to the point where it will be the preferred choice but as long as it’s not low budget it will do the job. We don’t get to test how it would look in a fight scene either since there aren’t any of those this time.
As a side note, if Friendship is Magic did take place in this film then the Mane 6 officially did a bad job of restoring the peace. Letting everything get shattered like this does not speak well for the whole friendship setup that they left the world with. Now the question you’re wondering is how do the Main 5 stand up to the Mane 6? Well, lets break it down with each character and their rival.
Twilight Sparkle beats Sunny. I’d say that one’s pretty clear as while I like Sunny quite a bit, Twilight’s proven herself much more. Any good trait Sunny has, Sparkle has as well.
Pipp beats Rarity. This one’s not too hard, while Rarity was a very fun pony, I do think Pipp’s already a much more balanced Pony. She likes being trendy but puts her friends first and isn’t too obsessive the way Rarity was.
Rainbow Dash beats Zipp. Zipp didn’t get much to do yet and it’ll be difficult to surpass Dash who has had such great moments over the years. I would argue that Dash is much braver as well.
Izzy beats Pinkie Pie. Well that’s a rather easy pick. Pinkie Pie was my least favorite member of the Mane 6 at times and her crazy antics weren’t always entertaining. The same is true for Izzy but she doesn’t let herself get as wild as Pinkie.
So that leaves us with two members of the Mane 6 left with Applejack and Fluttershy vs Hitch from the new generation. Fluttershy doesn’t really have a counterpart so I would say this is Applejack vs Hitch. It’s a tough one but Applejack ends up winning this contest. Both Hitch and her are tough ponies but Applejack had her fun rivalry with Rainbow Dash and I also don’t see her threatening to withhold her friendship the way Hitch did.
Final Score: Friendship is Magic 3: New Generation: 2. FIM wins this in the main character battles but it’s close enough where it’ll be fun to see how the new generation continues. If they get a 6th member this could reasonably be 3 on 3 at any time. Now I don’t think New Generation will ever beat Friendship is Magic since it’ll be difficult to replicate the danger and fight scenes that the old series had but hopefully it’s close because that’ll mean that this show did a good job.
Overall, My Little Pony: A New Generation is a fun film. The dialogue is on point and the writing is good for everyone aside from the villains. It’s not a very long movie and it’s one that will feel even shorter because something is always happening. Each landmark gives you some kind of fun adventure and each Pony gets to use their skills to succeed. I was pleasantly surprised with Hitch looking good as well since I thought the film was going to make him look really incompetent. By the end we’ve got our Main 5 now and we’ll see if this ends up being the definitive MLP generation by the end.
Overall 7/10
My Little Pony: Pinkie Pie’s Party Review
It’s time to look at one of the games I got for my Birthday. This one was definitely a very short one though. The gameplay is actually solid with fun visuals and such, but the whole experience will only last you around 30 minutes. No matter how high budget the game is it’s hard to do much with 30 minutes. I’d like to see the developers give this one another shot with a bigger budget.
The plot of the game is pretty straightforward. Pinkie Pie’s birthday is coming up so the other ponies have decided to get her a lot of gifts and such. Unfortunately they’ve lost them all so now Pinkie Pie has to ironically track them all down herself. Can she save her own birthday and prove that finding the gifts can be just as fulfilling as receiving them all? Then we can really just settle down and enjoy all the nice snacks.
I figured that getting a birthday game on my birthday was pretty fitting. This is a game I’ve known about for a long while, but I wouldn’t exactly go out of my way to grab it. It’s not exactly known as a AAA title so right from the jump you know not to get your expectations too high. It was a bit of a blind buy as I didn’t know exactly what to expect. The gameplay mainly has you walk around from area to area as you tap on any presents of puzzle pieces you come across on your journey. Once you have obtained them all then the game ends. Most of the items are just lying around. Once you’ve found those then you have to talk to the other Ponies and they will give you a present upon clearing one of their mini games.
The minigames are all very short and you shouldn’t have a problem completing them. Some are titles where you can’t lose and others try to at least make things a little more challenging for you. They aren’t quite as inspired as the Mario Party minigames though and you probably won’t be tempted to try them a second time. It’s not like there are any high scores to try and improve so the replay value just simply isn’t there. There are a number of things you can do instead but if you really like the games you can replay any of them at any time. The Hub world is fairly short which is good because the map only helps you out for one gift at a time so you’ll be running back and forth a lot.
The graphics are surprisingly good all things considered. The character designs are on point and the backgrounds are sharp. This is probably the most impressive element of the game and I’m actually a little surprised that such effort was included. It doesn’t feel like the rest of the game was taken as seriously. The soundtrack is also incredibly limited which doesn’t help matters either. At least it is a game that is nice to look at which is good. If the game could have even just thrown in an extra hour or two of gameplay then that could have really changed things.
Overall, as mentioned, the game is around 30 minutes long. There is no replay value as you had to collect everything to trigger the ending so that hurts a bit. The actual gameplay is fun, but with such a length there’s no way I could give it a positive score. The best I could do was give it a middle of the road number. If you see the game down the block for a few bucks then you may as well get it. For 15 or up it is really not worth it. You could buy some food combos that would last longer than this game. Even long time fans of the series will likely feel underwhelmed. I think the only way this one works is if you’re buying it for a very young kid who is an MLP fan, but even then I would make the case that there are better games that can be purchased.
Overall 5/10
My Little Pony: Pinkie Pie’s Party Stats and Records
There are no stats in this game!
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Volume 12 Review
It’s time for another My Little Pony comic adventure. Slowly but surely I’m getting close to reading all of the volumes. This one actually has a few stories that span several issues which is cool. I always like when the series goes for complete story arcs rather than one shot issues. With the extra page space there is just so much more you can do to flesh out the adventures and make sure everyone gets a role. It means there are less chances for other characters to get a chance to shine, but it is worth it.
First up we’ve got a long story arc with Discord. Things haven’t been going well for him as of late because he just can’t help but act rather rudely to everyone around him. Fluttershy puts up with it, but the rest of the Mane 6 do not. He decides to seal himself away and transforms into a being known as Accord. He just wants to bring stability to the rest of the world. At first this seems pretty good, but he starts to get a little too drastic when he begins mind controlling innocent ponies. The Mane 6 realize that they are going to have to stop him, but what if that means Discord will return? This’ll be one of their toughest cases yet and they may need to ask for help from the superstar Starlight Glimmer!
It’s been so long since Starlight Glimmer got to have a starring role so you can bet that I was super thrilled to see her return. As always she ended up being the power hitter here and the only one who was resistant to the mind controlling abilities of Accord. She’s often overlooked during the series, but when a crisis is at hand there is nobody more dependable than her. I think her presence is part of what legitimizes this as a real threat. We also get to see almost the entire rest of the main cast from the series which is pretty neat. It always makes for a good premise when you have someone slowly corrupting everyone in the town through magic. It’s like the Phalanx arc in X-Men.
By this point I can see why everyone would be tired of Discord in Ponyville. He seems to make a whole lot of mistakes which come back to bite everyone, but at least this time it wasn’t intentional. He doesn’t seem to have any control over Accord although it is basically him so I won’t cut the guy too much slack. It was also interesting to see the Elements of Harmony actually fail this time. Those objects usually work so it was a pretty startling moment. Accord was one of the most serious threats that Equestria ever faced and I hope everyone gave Starlight a proper thanks at the end. The whole volume would be worth checking out even if this was the only story in it, it’s just really epic!
A one shot comic after this has Discord at the helm once more. It is Celestia’s birthday and he is unsure what kind of gift to get her. As the princess she already has pretty much anything money can buy. That’s when Discord realizes what he should do. He transforms her into a normal pony so she can hang out in Ponyville and enjoy things without everyone being on guard. At first Celestia is reluctant, but gradually she realizes that this is a lot of fun. It’s not a big end of the world plot like the last arc, but it’s a pretty cool one shot. There does seem to be a possible plot hole here though as she acts like she had never gone to Ponyville before, but in another issue we find out that she goes into Ponyville undercover once a year for this exact reason. So…..that doesn’t hold up when you think about it. I guess you could assume that she just doesn’t want Discord to know this so she is overacting which is reasonable and it’s not like this is a big plot hole either way. It’s just a nice wholesome comic and it always does sound fun to pretend to be someone else for a day.
Then the rest of the stories here involves another story arc. One night Twilight and Spike are heading back home when they notice that the door is open. A villain is inside stealing some books and while Twilight attempts to stop him, the masked thief is too powerful. He knocks them aside and escapes. Twilight calls the rest of the team in and we discover that the villain has been going around Equestria and stealing a bunch of books only to erase the information within. The heroes have to catch him before he does the same to the rest of the realm, but how can they hope to defeat a mage who is this powerful? It’s definitely going to take everyone on this mission.
It’s a pretty solid group of issues. I’m always up for a new villain and the fact that he has powers is pretty cool. That being said I do think that he gets off rather lightly here. The guy damaged a bunch of irreparable books and they basically just told him to stop doing that. I know at the end of the day the heroes are rarely going to beat up on bad guys here since friendship is what solves issues, but this guy was a total crook. His origin story for why he was doing this was pretty shaky and at the end of the day it was really just an excuse to go wild on the town.
I also think the Mane 6 didn’t treat this too seriously for a while. Twilight should have put up a much better fight against the guy at the beginning and when she called in the Mane 6 they should have been investigating rather than turning the whole thing into a slumber party. I dare say that Applejack and Rainbow Dash took this situation the most seriously compared to the others at least. It was nice to see the group split up into pairs to dig up some dirt on the villain. It felt like how things would have played out in a two part episode. So while the ponies should have cracked down on this guy sooner, it was still a really solid adventure to end off with. Hopefully the villain will return someday and we did get an interesting cliffhanger of sorts so I wonder if that plot will be resumed.
The art tends to shift from arc to arc, but it’s definitely pretty solid. The only iffy one is the Celestia issue as that artist always draws everyone like little kids. Celestia should not look to be the same height as Twilight and pals. It has a nice cartoony look to it though so the colors are still on point. The series has always been very expressive and easy to read which the issue still captures. You’ll have no problem reading through these issues and just having a good ole time.
Overall, Friendship is Magic continues to be a solid series volume after volume. There’s really nothing bad to be said about it and the pacing is on point. This volume in particular has two different arcs making it one of the strongest volumes that I’ve read. In particular you’ll definitely want to read the story with Accord as it is played pretty seriously. I still think it would be a good idea for the show to come back and adapt these stories at some point. There are just so many good ones to choose from!
Overall 7/10
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