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RWBY: Arrowfell Review

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Felt like I had to wait years for this game to come out! I was waiting a long time ever since they announced that WayForward would be helping out with this game. They’ve churned out a lot of all star titles over the years and then ArcSystems was also in on it? This was shaping up to be a game of the year contender and the definitive RWBY game at last. Unfortunately it feels like they ran out of development time early on as this feels a whole lot like a cash-in title. That was too bad but at the end of the day it was still a pretty good game. Not amazing in the way that I was hoping for but you’ll have a fun time here.

The story takes place in Volume 7 shortly after the heroes got their professional licenses but before the election since Jacque Schnee isn’t on the council yet. So it’s a rather tight timeline that we’ve got here. A lot of Grimm have been appearing lately including a new group by the name of BRIR so something is amiss. Ironwood asks Team RWBY to investigate what is going on along with the AceOps. The whole world is depending on them so the heroes have to be up to the task.

This is a fairly short game as I completed it in under 4 hours and I obtained the Platinum trophy around an hour or 2 after that. So there is very little replay value here. 100% completing the game in 6 hours and not having any kind of post game to complete is a bit rough on that front. You don’t want to be spending too much money on this one but fortunately it launched at $30 and I suspect that it will be a lot cheaper very quickly. That may feel like shots fired but it just feels like the price would dip quickly. That said it is still RWBY so I would advise you to get this game immediately.

One of the issues with the story here is it feels like Rooster Teeth told the devs they couldn’t do much of anything because the game takes place too recently and they didn’t want to mess with continuity. That’s why it would have been best to make the game not canon so you could just go all out with the plot. As a result it’s not always the most grand of stories. I liked the new villains introduced here in Team BRIR and the final boss is fairly solid in his own right as well. Only issue is that there is a bit of a mystery on who the villain is so any original character made up for the game is deeply suspicious. It makes things just a tad too easy if you ask me. I would have skipped the mystery angle from the jump.

The script also reads like it was created from someone who didn’t actually watch the show. The characters tend to be out of character and it just doesn’t make sense. I’ve never seen Weiss be so upset at Penny constantly. She seems to be really antagonistic to the robot right from the jump for no real reason. It’s a bit bizarre to be honest. Now this may all be sounding a bit dicey but we’re here for the gameplay right? That part is fairly good. It reminds me of the old Cartoon Network web games from back in the day. You can run, jump, attack, and use your semblance. You can also switch between the 4 girls at any time and you need to as each one has an ability needed to get past an obstacle.

It’s like a budget version of Shantae. The hit stun is pretty large so try not to fight any opponents by a ledge or you are definitely falling down. There’s no EXP in the game so you should try and skip all of the enemies that you can. The only benefit to fighting them at all is that they drop coins which is useful for buying items but getting money is quick either way so not much to worry about there. You can buy skill points and heart upgrades that way though. Make sure you buy them all as you’ll need them for the platinum. All of the levels have chests with skill points. You may have to walk a few steps out of your way to get them but I recommend doing this because then the Platinum is even quicker after you beat the game.

The graphics are pretty solid. The character models for the characters are surprisingly low quality but the actual level designs and everything are fun. I wish we could have gotten full voice acting instead of the old text boxes for most cutscenes but one treat is that we do get real fully animated cutscenes in each chapter. Now that was cool and it made you feel like the game did get a big budget somewhere in there that just dwindled over time. Those cutscenes were one of the highlights in the game. Then you also have to consider that the soundtrack here is pretty cool. I liked the new lyrical song that popped up during the first level. It’s really catchy and a lot of fun. There are a few other lyrical songs that weren’t really my thing but I did applaud the effort. It was still impressive to get these in there. So I give the soundtrack a thumbs up because of these songs and it makes up for the repetitive minion theme that plays for each ambush.

I said to skip the villains but that isn’t possible during ambushes of which there are a few in every level. These are points where you have to beat everyone before you can go forward. A bit tedious no doubt but they go down quick. The problem is that you’ll have probably maxed your character out after the first few levels so your attack doesn’t get any higher while the minion health bars just keep increasing. It makes things a little longer even if they are easy to dispatch. I did lose a life once on one of the last bosses though so it’s not a total cake walk. For the most part you can just spam the attack button and beat them before they can drain your health though.

Ruby has the best semblance here as she can go through enemies so I would spam that as I blasted through the levels. I ended up using her the most by far. Blake’s copies are handy though since you can attack in 3 spots at once. Weiss has the worst attack unfortunately but she is good for reaching high places. Yang is strong but her attack is too short ranged so it’s usually better to use Ruby.

Overall, Ruby Arrowfell is one of those games that should have been a whole lot better. Put in the right elements and this would easily be a 9 star game. It didn’t go that route but I would still say to check it out. It’s a pretty fun game that probably would have been a really massive hit back in the GBA era. Now it just feels more standard. The gameplay is good and the big cutscenes help to carry the game. They keep things from getting bad for this one but unfortunately it looks like we’ll have to wait a while longer to get a definitive RWBY game. I know that it will eventually happen though.

Overall 7/10

Overwatch 2 Review

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I got around to playing this one a bit but ultimately it’s not really going to stand out all that much among the big shooter games. The main issue is that there are too many mechanics and abilities which take away from being able to just jump in there and have some fun. It’s certainly no Fortnite as a result and I dare say that you would have a much better time in Fortnite as well. There are better free to play games to check out is the main message here.

They did an odd job of promoting this game though as if you didn’t know any better you’d think this was still the first Overwatch. There aren’t a lot of screens showing that this is the 2nd one or anything like that and the game doesn’t seem to be very different from the original except for the fact that it’s free now. Definitely the minimum amount of effort went into this one but of course if you haven’t played the original before then it’ll still be fresh at least. So I suppose that’s a consolation at least. This is a team game so get ready to have to team up with a lot of people and hope for the best. If there is a 1 on 1 mode, I hadn’t unlocked it yet although granted I never made it to a really high level.

So what separates this from the other games is that as soon as you step on the field you are given the objective of taking over a square or defending it. The other team has the other objective and then you fight it out. Expect to die a whole lot and any time you respawn you get to switch characters. That’s a nice touch at least although in general I prefer to have one life and when you die that’s it. It would make the game a lot more strategic since you can’t just run in guns blazing.

There are so many attack options as well that the game is naturally not as balanced as some of the others. Just from playing all of the characters once I could tell that much. This is not the kind of game where you can pick up any character and just have fun. Of course that also means if there’s a character you like but a teammate got him first then you’re out of luck. I liked one shadow ninja type character but for the most part the roster is very unimpressive. I couldn’t say that there were many that stood out for me.

The graphics are really decent though. The level designs are on point and you’ll have a good time running around. The energy effects are good too. The soundtrack is more on the nonexistent side though but typically shooters aren’t known for having great soundtracks anyway. They tend to be more silent so you can focus on what’s going on. I suppose there is replay value here to jump back into as many matches as you want but I don’t see this game really lasting all that long.

Additionally they want you to put in a phone number just to play the game which seems a bit drastic. I’ve never really heard of that for a game like this. I guess it’s to deter bots and multiple accounts maybe but if no other game is bothering with this then clearly the devs here are doing something wrong. You just don’t need to be that thorough and I feel like it’ll box a lot of people out of the game right out of the gate.

At the end of the day what hurts this one a lot is that it adds a lot of bells and whistles to the base shooting gameplay but does so in a way that weakens the core aspect of the game. You never get to actually run and shoot at the opponents because everyone is too busy activating their super powers. Being forced to attack or defend an area also means that you can’t have fun running around the map and planning an offensive. It forces everyone to bunch up at the same spots where it then becomes a mindless battle of shooting all your abilities at once.

It may work as a minigame or you eventually push people together to end the match but doing so from the start just isn’t a fun decision from a design standpoint. I want to be able to have fun and play the game my way, not be forced to run in like this. It’s not really my cup of tea. Maybe down the road they’ll make the gameplay smoother and change the objectives a little more but if the game is doing well then that’s unlikely. The original Overwatch may not be as big as it used to be but it still makes a ton of money so they’re probably satisfied with the system that they have.

Overall, Overwatch 2 may be more fun if you really drill down and learn all of the mechanics and such but I can’t say that I was very impressed at all. You have a lot of options and all but the game just isn’t very fun and part of the issue is that you can’t take two steps without being blasted. You can’t move fast enough to dodge much either so it just becomes a full on fire fight the whole time and without the strategy that makes it a lot of fun. I highly advise sticking to Fortnite instead which provides a much more entertaining shooting game that beats this one around the board in all areas.

Overall 5/10

My Little Pony: Generations Review

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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

Sonic Frontiers Review

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It’s been a long while since I went on an all day gaming binge but it was time to do so for Sonic Frontiers and ended up beating over half the game in one shot. It lives up to the hype of being one of the longer games as it took a little under 17 hours to clear. The hierarchy of the Sonic games have changed as this one actually surpasses the world renown Sonic Forces and takes its spot as the 4th best Sonic game of all time. Only Adventure 2, 06, and Shadow the Hedgehog are ahead of Frontiers. This game is really quite excellent and Sega did good in taking their time with this one to make sure that it would be perfect.

The game starts with Sonic’s plane crashing and when he comes to, Tails and Amy are both gone. Sonic is alone on a mysterious island except for a mysterious little girl named Sage. Sonic hears a voice cryptically tell him that to save his friends he will have to destroy a bunch of giant titans and tear down some towers to remove the dimensions between worlds. Only once that has been done will they be okay. Sonic’s a bit skeptical but there aren’t any other leads so he gets to work on this. The game’s main formula here is you will obtain enough keys and memory pieces to talk to your friend for the world and then obtain all 7 Chaos Emeralds. After doing this you move on to another world. There are 5 worlds in the game but one of them is fairly empty so think of it like 4 main worlds.

At about 17 hours you can say each world is roughly 4 hours long and the mini world is 1. It’s a really good balance and right off the bat I can say that the game has a whole lot of replay value you can have fun with. There are a lot of bonus conversations you can have with each of your friends after getting the right amount of hearts needed to complete the world. Additionally there are a lot of the cyberspace levels that you won’t even have played by the time the game is over. So you will be here for a good amount of time and getting the Platinum may even take you around 25-30 hours. I’m definitely aiming for that next now that I have this game completed and look forward to going after it. Maybe if I’m lucky they’ll do some really good DLC for this game with more story events or something.

For the gameplay it’s a bit of a departure from the usual Sonic experience as it’s an open world title where you run around and do a lot of platforming beyond the usual stages. The actual stages are only a very small part of the game after all so you won’t be there a whole lot. If you’re a fan of the usual Sonic structure then I can see you missing it a bit but the open world concept was done very well. You really feel Sonic’s speed as you run around and I just found that to be really ideal. As you level up the speed you feel better and better. My speed was only around level 20 when I beat the game so I’m curious what level 99 speed would look like. That has to feel incredible!

So for my money, Sonic Forces/Adventure 2 Battle probably had the gameplay layout the best in that you just pick a stage and get right in there. Adventure 2’s stages covered a lot of different terrain and could be long as well. You don’t really need the open world and just jumping in is a blast. Still if open world is the future then I’m still all in with it. I do like open worlds quite a bit and with fast travel activated it’s even better. World 3 is the only one that can be a bit annoying with the layout though. There’s a robot that lets you fly but it’s so short that it’s basically pointless and you immediately start sinking when you use it. I question the point of it being in there.

While the gameplay may take a little getting used to as I wouldn’t say it’s quite as sharp as some of the others, put in a few hours and you’ll be maneuvering Sonic like a pro. The best addition to the series is allowing Sonic to leave a light trail before him as if this was Tron. You can move in a circle to hit enemies or activate artifacts. In general Sonic’s attacks were all really great here and you got to use his speed in creative ways. You can also upgrade all of your stats by talking to elders and rescuing little creatures. The sound effects for the creatures may be ripped straight from Legend of Zelda but I like to think of it as a homage to Breath of Wild doing the open world first while Sonic did it best. One advantage Sonic Frontiers has over other open world games is how fast Sonic moves. Most other characters can’t quite move like this.

If I have a nitpick about the game, it’s that every cutscene opens in a smaller screen because they keep a border around it to show you the option to skip the cutscene. I feel like they could have it appear for an instant and then hide or only appear when you try to press X. Why have it always appear? It’s not like I want to skip the cutscenes most times. On the 1st run I’m not skipping any so I thought that was a bit odd. Can’t say I remember any other game doing that.

Part of why this game got a lot of hype was because it was finally going to be another plot driven game. Aside from Sonic Forces we haven’t had one like that in an extremely long time. If this is the return to the Adventure days then that would be great. There are a ton of great references to the past adventures as well including Infinite. It really helps make the continuity feel strong and it also underscores this as the final Sonic game. The characters are all really mature here and each character has their own character arc. Amy, Knuckles, and Tails all make big decisions here that should have big repercussions for the future games.

The soundtrack is also incredible. There are so many great vocal themes here. Each boss has their own unique song which is rare as most games will keep to the same boss theme. They all sound incredible and it also makes this game really feel like the most ambitious Sonic game out there. This is truly end of the world type stuff and these bosses are some of the biggest that Sonic has dealt with. The graphics are top tier as well so you’re really looking at a lot of great work put into this game.

It would have been great to have seen more characters thrown into the mix and parts of the plot can be a bit vague at times, particularly Sage’s origin and more about the digital world but it does add to the mystery and intrigue of the story. Sonic also stands out in particular with how great he looks here. He endures a whole lot of pain to help his friends and is always carrying himself in a very mature way. While I may miss the voice direction he had in previous games, I do understand the logic of making him a lot more serious for this one. He feels older like the rest of the characters which works really well.

Overall, I could go on but this is one game you really need to experience. It’s top tier in all aspects and is almost certainly game of the year. It’s unlikely that any other game will even come remotely close to topping it because this is what we’ve been waiting for. The greatest video game series of all time has returned with an all star adventure. If Sega keeps this up then Sonic is about to quickly become even more of a household name like back in the days and there will be no looking back. I’m definitely eager to follow along on this adventure but hopefully the next game doesn’t take so many years to come out this time.

Overall 9/10

The Ghost Ship Review

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Imagine being stuck on a ghost ship? Definitely wouldn’t be a very fun time I can tell you that. Now this one isn’t actually haunted by ghosts but it does have a rather tough captain who is ready to take charge. It’s a relatively low key thriller for the most pat as people are bumped off one by one and the lead has to wonder how to handle this. If he plays it wrong then they are all going to be in big trouble.

The movie starts with Tom getting selected to go to the boat for his tour. He’s excited to do his part and captain Will seems like a reasonable guy. They get along really well but for some reason people on the boat almost seem to fear Will. As the days goes on Tom starts to see some of Will’s faults like how he believes that he literally owns the crew as well as their lives. Nothing is ever Will’s fault and he also cracks under pressure during an operation but later has an excuse ready. The problem is that Tom is a bit slow to piece this all together but when the bodies start piling up..Tom is on the short list to be next.

Why is Tom going to be a potential victim here? Well that’s because he actually calls Will out on this and does so directly which is a risky move. You have to give Tom credit for trying to do this through the legal channels as he also arranges for a court hearing and everything. Unfortunately he doesn’t take into account that everyone would be on the Captain’s side as they have served him for years. Sure they know that he is a tough guy but being some kind of criminal mass murderer? That’s a bit too much of a stretch for them.

While it may be disappointing that they didn’t stick up for him you can understand why. At this point in time they don’t have much reason to think that Will is evil like that. As the film goes on they do start to appear rather intentionally dense though. It’s only at the very end that some people start to be reasonable but by then Tom is already in lethal danger. A theme in the movie is about how humans will always let you down in the end because people look out for themselves. Tom doesn’t believe this while Will is confident in it so that’s the underlying battle here beneath their literal fight.

It makes for a good ideological battle. It’s also tough for Tom because he’s on Will’s territory. Tom has no true allies here (There is a radio operator that he’s friends with at least but doesn’t want to get involved) while Will’s got everyone here. Tom’s door suddenly has its lock broken later on for example and nobody’s in a rush to fix it. They simply aren’t going to fix it is another way to put that. Will also has a gun while Tom does not so that’s another thing to take into consideration.

The most tragic part for Tom here is that at one point he was going to run away. He was just going to dash out of there and head home but he got knocked out during a street brawl and was taken to the ship. The craziest thing is that it was pure coincidence and not some kind of trap by Will. Will was even hoping that Tom would be gone so that was a big shake of bad news for both of them but of course it gave Will a chance to try and take him out. At the end of the day I did like Tom, he was a good main character. While he may have put himself in a lot of danger with how he handled some parts of his plan, he was resourceful. He even came up with an alarm to wake him up if someone entered the room.

Meanwhile Will makes for a solid villain. We even get some scenes of him and his friends which is interesting as the film develops him a bit beyond just being your average psychopath. Of course he is still a psycho but we see how he can act normal in public and why nobody would really suspect him of anything. He covers his tracks really well and only bumps people off once in a while if they get on his nerves. Whether Tom had arrived or not, I do think it was inevitable that Will was going to keep going off the deep end though. It was just a matter of time.

There is also Finn who can’t speak but monologues a whole lot during the film. He seems rather shady the whole time and ends up getting a role near the end. His role was important but at the same time it was rather small so you almost could have cut him out of the film and it wouldn’t have changed a whole lot. It gives you another plot to think about though so in that sense the film went out of its way to have more moving pieces on the board at once.

At the end of the day what makes this film work is the solid writing. It maintains a tense atmosphere the whole time and you always know that danger is on the horizon but it takes its time. You never know when someone will be bumped off or there will just be threats. Tom is used as a go between for some of the more sinister orders as well so the crew really don’t suspect much but ideally if they heard about some of the way Will found them expendable then they would look for a transfer right away. You do not want to stay on that boat!

Overall, The Ghost Ship is a solid movie. I’d recommend checking it out. It may seem like a rather low key title that you haven’t heard of before but it works out rather well. It reminds you to always watch your back and if something seems suspicious then it probably is. I still haven’t been on a boat for any longer period of time than a basic cruise but one day it’d be fun to do a week’s trip there and see what life on the great blue is really like. You know that I’d be checking out the 24/7 pizza bar all the time!

Overall 7/10

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Volume 19 Review

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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

Count Yorga, Vampire Review

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Now this is an awful film so prepare yourself. Dracula already set the bar extremely low with all of those installments but somehow Yorga is even worse. The film’s extremely annoying with characters not making the right moves and it goes for being gritty for no reason. They definitely want to show that Yorga is as demented as possible but he’s the Count so we already knew that.

The movie starts with the main characters doing a seance so that Donna can see her mother again but unfortunately the whole thing doesn’t go well. It just gives Count Yorga a chance to mind control Donna a bit. He scurries off but later on Erica and Paul end up driving the guy home which is a big mistake. Now the Count has them in his sites and things get tricky from there. Will the count be taking everyone down or can Dr. Hayes be brought in to stop this?

So where to even start with this one? We’ve got the usual blood sucking everywhere but that is really the least of our worries at this point. Where the film really surpasses its limits here is it decides to also give the Count a sidekick. This guy is basically desperate to have a lady of his own and so he ends up attacking one of Yorga’s mind controlled victims. This is the scene that absolutely should have been cut out of the film. It’s off screen but he basically has his way with her.

It’s purely here for grit and shock value because it has nothing to do with anything. This guy has no business being in the film in general. We’re here for the vampire, not the right hand man who is messing around here. The film was basically doomed to be a 0 from this point although that was rarely in doubt.

Yorga is also shown to be one of the more perverted villains as the guy has fun commanding the victims to mess around with each other while he watches. You wouldn’t see this kind of behavior from Dracula who at least kept some dignity most of the time. This guy also can’t handle himself in a straight fight. Half the time he has the mind controlled zombie vampires go in to fight for him. Near the end Yorga is confronted so he immediately runs off.

Then he has the element of surprise along with his supposedly superior vampire physical abilities and yet he gets rocked. The guy has no defense to the stake but he also doesn’t have the speed to dodge or the strength to mess with the aim? He just looks so weak by the end that it takes away from his tough talk the whole film.

I’ll just give him one thing, I liked his banter with Dr. Hayes. It’s the only good part of the film as they both subtly threaten each other. Hayes hints that he knows Yorga is a vampire while Yorga advises him to leave while he still can. I like these threatening conversations like this. It keeps things interesting and you keep wondering which character will back down first.

That is the only good part of the film though as the rest goes back to the film just being awful again. Why do the heroes decide to attack only once it’s night time? I suppose they still thought there was hope to save some of the captives but they really took forever and should have attacked at the crack of dawn when they had to leave early. That would have definitely been their best play here and it would have taken Yorga by surprise. Once it was night time the deck was stacked against them.

Another issue with the film is that none of the characters are particularly likable. Donna doing that seance didn’t help matters and everyone was rather rude about it the whole time. Just don’t participate in it at that point. Paul and Erica were messing around too much in the van and didn’t keep their guards up.

The only good character here was Hayes and unfortunately things don’t go very well for him there. He definitely should have prepared himself a bit more but at least he did last for most of the film so I’ll give him some props there. It’s not like he had a whole lot of help in the film anyway.

Michael was the only other one to fight and unfortunately he lets his guard down a lot too and was too slow to help in the end. We do get the classic jump scare at the end of the movie though. It may not be the most impressive one but it gets the job done. You’d expect nothing less here.

It’s hard to make a vampire film that’s all that good but you could absolutely do one that’s way better than this. Make the Count someone who needs to drink blood to survive so you keep his cocky attitude and have him take everyone out but he just destroys them instead of keeping them alive to play with. Remove his right hand man and make the main characters a little more likable. Have them be more focused on trying to figure out what the Count’s deal is and cut out the half hearted romances squeezed in for no reason. Then without all of the shock value scenes perhaps this could actually be a decent movie…perhaps.

Overall, Count Yorga is a huge miss. It’ll end up sinking the vampire genre to new lows for you so I’d advise you to just skip this one entirely. There’s no reason to check it out at all so instead watch a Dracula film if you have to but of course I would advise just completely not watching a vampire film as it is. It’s just very rare that they end up being good anyway so why bother right? I doubt anyone will remember Yorga in a few years though. The guy is already over the hill.

Overall 0/10

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem Review

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This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

The big Alien vs Predator sequel has made it but unfortunately this would have to go down as the weakest film in the series. It goes way too far in just how gruesome and edgy it wants to be. This time you have kids and actual babies being taken out as well. Ultimately there isn’t a whole lot to like in this one and not even the crossover element is enough to get this one to win.

The story picks up where the last one left off which is that there was an alien growing inside of the Predator. It ends up hatching and causes a ton of damage before crashing back to Earth. One Predator decides to go down and take the Predalien out but it won’t be easy. A lot of aliens have quickly started to grow on Earth so the infestation is back to being just as strong as it was before. Any progress that could have been made for the humans is effectively gone now. The humans in this area need to try and escape as soon as possible.

Lets get the violence out of the way here first. A big part of why this film is no good is just how extreme the violence is all the time. It sets the tone early when the kid and his father get brutally murdered by the aliens and it just keeps on going from there. Going after the babies at the hospital was just crazy and I could also deal without all of the chestbursters everywhere. Those are always the worst part of the Aliens. Just give us the full sized Xenomorphs and stick to those. I guarantee it would make for a better film all the way around.

The film is also infamously dark as you’ve probably heard. Everything is in the shadows so it feels like the film isn’t particularly confident in its special effects. Just give us the full fights. The Predalien has a cool design and the fight with the Predator is cool while it’s in the special green vision but otherwise the fights aren’t impressive because of this. So that’s part of the big hook of the film in theory and the movie doesn’t take advantage of it. So much for this being a big crossover.

Then we’ve got the humans and none of them are really any good. Ricky is the main guy here and he likes Jesse but she is already dating the school bully. That should be enough for Ricky to just acknowledge that it’s over and move on but he doesn’t go down that route. He throws a joke at the bullies which leads to him being beat up and then he’s still willing to rebound with Jesse after this.

The romance is really bad the whole time and the characters aren’t likable. Why was Jesse with this guy in the first place? It seems like this wasn’t the first time the bullies have messed with Ricky so he didn’t play that very well at all. His older brother Dallas at least seems reasonable as he tries to handle things peacefully and helps find the keys. He also handles the whole alien infestation calmly which is more than can be said for some of the characters.

One of them decides to just believe the government which is never really a good idea. I do like the government here. They’re definitely really sinister and shady as you’d expect but they make for a fun antagonist. Any scene with the government has them in a very darkly lit room acting suspicious even when they are supposedly trying to help out. I imagine they don’t seem as suspicious on the phone but I was glad that at least one person took notice.

The film does have a reasonable twist ending which is good to set up the next film even if it’s not as impactful as you’d expect. To me it implies that the humans are aware of other alien races and might be ready to make a deal or a move with one of them. That would have been really interesting to change things up as opposed to the usual aliens vs predators direct line up. Maybe even have the two forces team up? Would be tough since the Xenomorphs are usually mindless though.

Too bad the government didn’t appear more. I think that could have helped the film quite a bit. They were way more interesting than the main characters after all and at least they had some kind of a plan. Lets just say they make the climax a little more explosive. If you had good main characters then this wouldn’t be necessary but we didn’t have great characters. The writing isn’t good and there’s no memorable soundtrack so at the end of the day there isn’t much to the film beyond that.

I also think the Xenomorphs look a bit weak here. By this point it’s apparent that a single Predator can take them down by the dozens which is a little extreme. Outdoors perhaps the Predator has the edge but half the time he’s beating them in confined spaces and indoors as well where they should have the edge. I want to see the Aliens holding their own even when there are no cheap shots involved. How can this be a real rivalry otherwise? The Xenomorphs have a lot of physical strength so that should be enough to tip the scales.

Overall, Aliens vs Predator 2 is just a bad movie. The camera work isn’t great, the whole concept of the battle between the two series takes a back seat and there’s barely a plot. Half the time we’ll just be introduced to new characters so they could be murdered as normal. The cast is small enough where they literally are bringing in characters just to have them destroyed. What this tells me is that the film’s story wasn’t long enough to actually stretch into a full length movie without this and so the writers should have gone back to the drawing board.

Overall 0/10

One Piece Film: Red Review

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“The hierarchy of the One Piece franchise is about to change” Well this film definitely pulled it off. Eventually every great franchise has its definitive movie. That one installment that you feel will never be surpassed. Some do this multiple times like Dragon Ball Z (Original Broly movie, Resurrection F, Dragon Ball Super: Broly) but most will at least do it once. Justice League Crisis on Two Earths, Bleach: Hell Verse, Avengers Infinity War, Spider-Man 3, the original Mortal Kombat, Transformers G1 the movie, etc. Well this has finally happened with One Piece as it’s hard to see this one going down. Film: Red delivers on every front from action to music and it gets a massive bump in the theatrical experience. It’s a film that you have to see as soon as possible and it’s relatively new audience friendly so you can jump in and have a blast.

The movie starts out with a bunch of people yelling for help and they’re sad because the world is going to the pits and nobody is there to help them. The world is in the great pirate era after all so villains are everywhere and the government is so completely corrupt that you can’t really count on them to help you out either. Well, one girl has a dream…a dream of world peace! Her name is Uta and this is her story. In the present she has invited all of her fans to an island so that they can see her sing in person. Throughout her career she has only sung virtually through the cameras so this is a big deal. Just about everyone has come to watch her songs and 70% of the entire planet will either be watching her on TV or on the island. She almost literally has the world at her grasp and now she can try to achieve her dream. Is the dream really possible though?

Luffy is glad to see her because they used to be childhood friends until she mysteriously vanished one day. There’s a lot of questions about where she went and why she vanished but there isn’t much time to ask her at the concert. Things take a turn though when she announces that the concert will never end and she’s not letting anyone off the island. Is it even possible to have a never ending concert and how will this bring about world peace? All Luffy knows is that he needs to stop Uta but it won’t be easy as she has grown tremendously powerful over to the years to the point where there are few on this planet who can challenge her. He will have to go full force because if he can’t defeat her then he will never become King of the Pirates!

Right off the bat I can say that the movie absolutely delivers on the big songs here. One of the things the movie was getting a lot of hype for was how many songs it was going to have. Instead of calling it part musical I’d call the film part concert. Even as the battles are going you will usually have some kind of song going. It really helps to pump up the scene. One of the villainous songs sounds like something out of Lost Song and then you’ve got a ton of really peppy songs like in Sword Art Online. Hearing these in the full Imax settings was excellent. My ears were still ringing long after the film had ended and I was back home. I don’t think I’ve heard a movie with such loud decibels before but it’s perfect for a concert film.

You really felt like you were in one and that’s why the theater experience is a good boost to the film so I recommend seeing it in that setting at least once. The songs will hold up even after that though and I look forward to finding them online to listen to. Meanwhile the animation is also the best that it’s been in the series. It’s not surprising as One Piece’s animation grew quite noticeably better during Wano. And if that’s how good the show looks you can only imagine how good the movie would appear. They didn’t hold anything back here and every scene really shines. The colors are bright and there is a ton of movement in the fights.

Everyone looks powerful here and it also helps to really show just how powerful Uta is with her being able to block so many hits. In general I also liked the way her powers worked. Yes it seems incredibly broken but why shouldn’t there be a Devil Fruit that is this good? Eventually someone needs to have the best fruit out there and why not have hers be the best one? Because I think it’s fair to say that no other fruit can compare. It does have its own weaknesses of course but in most scenarios you figure that she will be able to defeat her opponents without a problem. The power levels in the film were all handled really well so I don’t have any issues on that front. I did find it a little funny that some randoms would actually challenge Luffy though. He’s one of the emperors now, would they actually try to challenge Kaido or Shanks? I feel like Luffy doesn’t get a lot of respect right now, maybe he just looks too young?

People who start their One Piece experience with this film may find Luffy to appear a bit on the weaker side but he is holding back for almost the whole film so he doesn’t really get to cut loose. That’s probably one difference compared to the previous films which is that Luffy doesn’t get a lot of action. It helps the movie avoid the usual power level concerns though. Keep in mind that Luffy is already Top 10 in the verse by this film so if he was having trouble with anyone then that would be hard to really make sense of. This way that isn’t really messed with.

Luffy also looks great in general here. He handles things very maturely and also does his best to respect Uta’s wishes even if they disagree on things. When she starts talking about how she doesn’t like pirates and how he should stop being one, he just walks away instead of trying to talk her out of it. He’s just not planning on having an argument and is ready to walk away. Perhaps confronting her would be best but they’re both super determined characters so he probably realized that it wouldn’t amount to anything. He also just doesn’t want to fight her since they’re still friends.

Luffy will fight his friends if he has to like when he took Usopp down but for the most part ever since then he tries to handle things peacefully like when Sanji would try and attack him. So it’s a solid character moment here and Luffy ended up fighting when the time was right. His best film appearance is likely still in Stampede but overall he has looked great in quite a few of the movie and this one would be near the top as well.

Uta also looks great here and is an excellent film original character. Film original characters usually have had a negative rep over the years although recently it hasn’t been much of an issue. That’s because they tend to be rather annoying and hold the cast back but that isn’t the case here as Uta is close to being the main character and a lot of the film is about her dream. We get flashbacks scattered throughout the movie on her childhood and what led her down this path. It’s all really emotional stuff and her plan is actually a very interesting one.

Make no mistake, she is a villain here and has gone off the deep end, but I do appreciate films where the villain is following their own sense of justice. It’s much easier to follow a villain who is at least trying to do the right thing and has strong ideals than one who is just evil for no good reason. (There’s a place for those villains too of course) Uta can handle herself in a fight and also really thought things through here. She had a strong plan that was nearly unbreakable so you really can’t ask for much more than that. It’s fair to say that she was the greatest threat to the planet in terms of sheer numbers and I’m not sure any future One Piece villain will top that.

At the end of the day Uta was by herself for many years aside from the old guy at the kingdom and she never lost hope. She just kept fighting until she got to her own answer on how to achieve world peace. It wasn’t the right answer perhaps but at least it was one. Now the film got a lot of hype for Shanks showing up but of course you shouldn’t expect him to do a lot here. It’s a fairly small role for him but it’s still nice to see the guy. He does leave an impact in his few scenes and you can tell that he is powerful. I have my doubts on if he could really take on Luffy right now but either way he is in the upper ranks.

I did disagree with Shanks’ decision to leave Uta though. You can watch the film to see how that all plays out but at the end of the day I think he needed to trust Uta to choose her own future a bit more. He may have thought himself to be doing something noble but I did not agree with it. It was not the right thing to do imo. It’s also nice to see his crew even if they don’t look as impressive as the Strawhats. Personally I think Luffy’s crew is easily the most powerful in the series by this point.

They get their own subplot on finding out a way to try and stop Uta but for the most part they aren’t as big a focus. You get to see them get some action and all though so everyone uses their special abilities. Zoro continues to prove why he is Luffy’s strongest fighter during this as several characters even react when he does his ultimate attack. Even Yasopp was impressed and that guy has seen Shanks fight up close and personal. Zoro was also the first one to react when Luffy’s crew was attacked and I appreciate that. You have to defend them right away. I give Bartolomeo similar credit because he was the first one to step in and try to help Luffy when he was nearly captured while a lot of other characters just froze.

There are a lot of guest stars here so be on the lookout for them. Some like Katakuri should have gotten a bit more to do if you ask me though. You almost wondered what the point of Katakuri was here since he didn’t end up adding much to the fight. It was still nice to see him though. Oven and Brulee were some of the more random ones initially but it did help to make the film feel a bit more ambitious. Having the canon characters show up to fight will do that to a movie.

The film does ultimately resort to a giant CGI monster as the final boss though so that still seems to be a curse in the anime movie industry. Why can’t we end with a humanoid battle? So many of them love the giant monster at the end and it’s just not as exciting. The movie’s top notch animation makes the most of it but having Uta as the final boss herself would have been a lot of fun. I’d say that would have absolutely been the best way to go here.

This movie has a ton of replay value either way. The pacing is really fast, I remember being surprised when the film goes to the present and we see that Luffy and the gang are already at the concert. No time is spent on them travelling there or an opening montage to set up. They’re just ready right from the jump and we get into the singing. It probably happens within the opening 10 minutes and things just keep escalating from there. The film doesn’t take many breaks either. We get some lore and flashbacks but always very briefly until we jump to the next big scene. The film is just really high energy and that fits in with the series always being a colorful adventure.

Fans of the government/navy who have lasted this long will probably be fine but if you’re someone who was on the fence about if they were good guys or not will want to step back here. They look so evil that it’s almost funny. They basically figure at one point that they should sacrifice millions of people to take one character down and you can probably guess who. At that point it’s not even cracking a few eggs to make an omelet. You’re destroying the whole farm for one. They just have no justification at this point and seem to just be trying to murder people for no reason. Kizaru was ready to destroy people without a second thought and the pirates have to stop them. Yeah the government definitely appear to be the true enemies here which is why anyone working for them feels complicit after a while. Just look at how they serve the Celestial Dragons who are still as evil and petty as they come.

Overall, One Piece Film: Red is excellent and one of the top anime films. I’m confident that it will be remembered as a big game changer for a long time to come. The writing is just excellent and set up a really great rivalry/friendship with Uta and Luffy from the jump. They have a better dynamic than most of the Strawhats to be honest. I can see why she was an instant fan favorite in the franchise. They should really drop Brook off the crew and replace him with someone cool like Uta. I wasn’t a fan of the way the film ended which is the only sour spot there but it’s not a horrible ending or anything like that. (After all, that would have kept this from being the best One Piece film) It’s just not how I would have done things, I would have gone with a slightly different ending because all you need to change is one thing. The scene after the credits is pretty fun though as one character gets re-energized. If you haven’t seen the film yet then it’s definitely time to change that.

Overall 9/10

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Volume 18 Review

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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