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Pizza Delivery Boy Review

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This is a game that I’ve been playing for a very long time. I have to give the game a lot of credit for being a very long title. I bought the game for 3-4 bucks back during my Wii spending spree. It sat on the backburner for a while and I’d play some levels here and there. Finally, I buckled down and got the last few levels out of the way. The game is better in doses and you will get a little tired of it by the end, but you will also have a nice feeling of satisfaction. It’s leagues better than some of the other Wii titles that I’ve played in the past, but there are still some things keeping it from being better.

The game starts off with a bang as two great pizza chefs become rich. Unfortunately, the fame goes to their head and they become mean so the town decides to teach them a lesson. They rip apart their cookbooks and spread the recipes across 3-5 different cities. The pizza boys become broke and are forced to sell off their many stores until only one is left. They decide to hire a Pizza Delivery Boy so that they can regain a connection to the neighborhood. You develop bonds with the civilians as you deliver the pizzas and gradually you earn enough money to start buying the shops back. You must continue to do this until you are a pizza monopoly once more and you can prove that you are the greatest delivery boy of them all. It won’t be easy, but few things are!

The “cutscenes” are really just stills with dialogue slapped onto them, but I am still glad they are there. Having an actual plot gives the game some depth. You get a cutscene every time you level up your reputation or move to another town. The Chef will also make a comment or two every time you finish a daily task. The graphics are fairly good. The main character’s smirk is always pretty intense. In game, the graphics are good enough for you to tell what is going on at all times. The town is rather simplistic, but it still looks better than you might have guessed from a low budget Wii game.

Unfortunately, the soundtrack is not quite as good as the visuals. There are only 2-3 actual themes and they all get rather irritating by the end. They’re just a little too loud and in your face the whole time. I’d like something a little more subtle and relaxing. On the other hand, I’d like a nice fast paced theme when making a pizza pie for the 500th time. It can get a little tedious so a change in music could end up making a world of difference if you ask me.

There is no replay value in the game so don’t look forward to that. Once you unlock the final level, the game even tells you to watch out because you cannot go back. After you beat the game, you will never be able to make another pizza pie or head out to play another mission. You can only replay the Pizza Boy of the Year tournament match and that’s it. So, make the most of the game while you can because after you beat it, there is not turning back. That’s why it all depends on the main gameplay so lets launch into that right now.

The game runs on a daily system. Day 1 is always delivery day. You have to decorate the pizza pies with toppings and then drive around as you deliver them. Actually making the pies is very easy and you will always finish with a lot of time to spare. The game is lenient with where you put the toppings so you will always get some kind of credit for it. A perfect placing is worth more so you should try to be as close as possible. Cooking the pizzas is easily my least favorite part of the game. It’s too easy and even when the controls are working it is not all that engaging. Maybe doing it a few times wouldn’t be so bad, but it gets old very quickly.

The second half of day 1 is riding around in your scooter as you deliver the pies. This part is a lot more fun and the controls actually aren’t half bad. You will gain new abilities as you play through the game like doing a wheelie or bunny hopping. This makes travelling a lot easier and more convenient and you can feel the progress the whole time. You will get better vehicles until you finally get your own Pizza Car. The car is probably a little too fast for its own good, but it does feel like a nice achievement when you pull it off.

Day 2 is about fulfilling a task for the citizens. This can range from delivering newspapers to wowing critics with blind pizza assembling. Day 2 is infinitely more fun than Day 1 as you just launch into the task and you also earn money, reputation, and pages from the cook book. It’s as if Day 1 is filler and then Day 2 is when the plot kicks in. I’d say that this is the best way to think about it at any rate. Since you need money to unlock the next towns, you’ll always be looking forward to Day 2. If the whole game was day 2, then this title would surely be a 7. Unfortunately, the repetition of day 1 is the problem here. This game wouldn’t have taken nearly as long as it did if the game was more enjoyable. Lets face it, that’s how you can tell a good game from an underwhelming one. It’s the very definition of a 6 for me as a 6 is a good game that has one or two things keeping it back from being a normal fun title. A 6 has the potential to be a 7, but just doesn’t live up to it.

Overall, The Pizza Delivery Boy definitely appears to have had a higher budget than some of the other Wii games that I’ve played, but the extreme amounts of repetition and recycled cutscene animations expose it. The developers seem to have taken as many shortcuts as they could and I wonder how many people actually played this game through to its entirety. Each town has 24 days within it since there are 12 tasks and every other day is a delivery day. I had to do the full 24 days for the first two towns and was able to unlock the final town after the first 18 of Town 3. That’s still a lot of levels and a whole lot of pizza. You’ll be making up to 7 orders by the end of each town and you’ll just be tired of making it. I never get tired of eating pizza, but making it is evidently a different story. I recommend this game to you if you’ve ever been curious about a pizza delivery boy game. That being said, it’s best to play this along with another game and then take turns every day or so. It’ll keep the repetition from getting to you. Otherwise, you may as well play a game that’s a lot more enjoyable like Sonic Colors.

Overall 6/10

Silver Streak Review

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It’s time for another Gene Wilder film. This one sees him witness a murder while on a train and now he must try to get away with his life. This will be no easy task since everyone wants him dead now. George also has a tough time remembering how villains love to attack from behind, which gets him into a few sticky situations. He’ll need all of his skills and experience if he wants to get out of this in one piece. It’s a pretty fun film for the most part and the only thing that drags it down a little is the heavy handed romance plot which suffers from poor writing and being generally unrealistic. There just isn’t much to it and the whole time you’re just wondering why the subplot was included. The film would have been even better without it.

As mentioned earlier, George was just minding his own business at first. He wanted a train ride so he could have time to think and relax. Unfortunately, he quickly meets a bad influence who tells him that train rides are only good for finding rebound characters. It turns out that he was right as George quickly dashes back to his room in triumph. The joy is short lived as a dead body crashes past his room and then George is thrown off the train by a bunch of brutes. George must get back on the train and save Hilly or it is all over. Can he really catch a train though? Even if he does…what hope does he have against trained professionals?

George isn’t really my kind of main character. He has his funny moments as always since the actor is quite good at playing this type of character. The reason I can’t like George is because he’s simply too easy and he can also be rather slow on the uptake. George also isn’t much of a fighter so he ends up getting knocked around whenever he doesn’t have a gun. It is still priceless to see him panic at everything though. His constant yelling is what makes his character enjoyable most of the time. Unfortunately, Hilly doesn’t end up being a good heroine. Unlike George, she isn’t even charismatic and funny to make up for it. She really messes up every opportunity possible and a lot of the time she has no real reason to make the decisions that she does. For example, she had George alone with her quite a few times and still decided to keep him in the dark. Even once the villains throw him off the train and start to get violent, she tries to trick George into thinking that he was imagining everything. That was never going to work and if she thought that the villains were going to leave him alone, then she was just being very naive. Throw in the fact that she is constantly flirting and seems to be very “free” in the worst meaning of the word and you have a very underwhelming character.

Luckily, we had Grover as the fan favorite character. He doesn’t show up until we’re well through the film so unfortunately his role is rather small. No matter, he still made the film a whole lot more fun and I can see why people would like him and Wilder as a good combo. Their characters worked well together. Grover’s appearance meant that Gene finally had some muscle backing him up and he would have certainly been doomed otherwise. Grover even got the happiest ending out of all the characters so his hard work paid off.

Roger is the main villain and he’s all right. He’s basically your average villain so there’s nothing unique about him, but he does a good job in the role. He keeps the heroes on their guard at all times and does have a lot of confidence. Even once he is outnumbered and at gunpoint, he tries to make a deal with George. Only plot hax is enough to save him at that point. He may have even been a little better than I would have expected. One of his minions, Reace, was also all right. He’s definitely an intimidating villain since he is rather huge and one good hit would be enough to defeat George. Luckily, fights between mere mortals will always come down to who has the better aim and George is a crackshot with a harpoon.

Finally, I have to mention that the main Police agent in the film is pretty bad. Bob is undercover so he uses that as an excuse to get drunk and flirt a lot before actually getting serious, but it’s a little too late by that point. He’s a very unlikable character and not even a very competent one at that. He opens a door without even looking even though he knows that gangsters are on the train. Seriously, they even knocked to give him a bit of a warning, but it was no use. Common sense couldn’t save Bob so what chance did George and friends have?

This film would have been an easy 7, but the main thing holding it back is the romance. As mentioned earlier, the plot isn’t written well. It just implies that George and Hilly are both people who will start a relationship with just anybody and are constantly on the rebound. The plot is given way too much screen time and you have whole minutes of nothing happening because they are too busy with each other. It slows the film down and that’s something that the film didn’t need since it is already so long. Parts of the film do drag towards the middle and this doesn’t help matters. Honestly, getting off the train 2-3 times was rather embarrassing. Actually jumping off was probably the worst mistake that George made. The heroes had the win in the bag at that point, but didn’t have the courage to follow through.

The milking the cow scene is also pretty gross, but I’ve always thought so. It’s just hard to watch and looks so painful for the cow. That’s why you should always bring something with you while watching a movie, like a snack or a water or something. That way you can quickly look away and grab that as you wait for the scene to end. Honestly, the cow scene is almost worse than the normal romance because of how iffy it is. Back to positives, the action scenes are pretty solid. Action isn’t exactly one of the genres so don’t expect long fight scenes or anything like that, but the fact that George can’t really fight makes his action scenes entertaining.

Overall, Silver Streak is a good film. I highly recommend the TV version since it cut out what felt like dozens of swear words throughout. The air bubbles make for a pretty funny experience. The romance holds it back and the cow scene was unnecessary, but the rest of the film is strong enough to make up for that. If you’re a Gene Wilder fan then you already know what to expect. If not, just come in looking for a fun retro comedy film and it should not disappoint. It’s not quite as strong as his Willy Wonka film, but it is still solid. Gene is definitely rising up as one of the better actors for me. He’s certainly charismatic and the fact that he always plays the same character type works for me. If you’ve got a good thing going, why switch it right? Get ready for some serious plot hax, but….since when has a gun film not had some of that?

Overall 6/10

The Monolith Monsters Review

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It’s time for a really old monster film, but a fairly unique one. What if you could make a Monster film without a monster? In a sense, the film uses the term monster not as its literal definition of a monster, but as something large and scary. While I can understand how not having an actual monster can be a deterrent, I actually found the film to be pretty fun. For the most part, it handled everything well and didn’t make any typical movie mistakes. It’s a solid film that has withstood the test of time.

Dave is shocked to find out that one of his pals has been turned to stone. The only suspect is a rock that the guy has been researching. Arthur, an expert on all things, believes that the rock is actually part of a meteor. The heroes find out that these rocks grow with water and continue to get larger and larger. Since soil has water in it and the area keeps getting hit by large thunderstorms, the crystals are growing very quickly. They will cover the whole country if something isn’t done. Still…what can the humans do?

Dave’s a pretty decent main character for the most part. He’s very no nonsense and is always trying to think up a plan. He was a little short with the weather guy, but he doesn’t panic too much at least. The film depicts him as the average joe and is pretty successful at it. Dave is pretty generic and you could interchange him with any other lead and you wouldn’t know the difference. It’s not necessarily a bad thing though as he is basically just the classic 1950’s lead that usually turns out to be a solid character. Arthur is probably the best character in the film as he always knows what is going on and gives a lot of good advice. Dave would have been stumped without him. Martin was a decent newspaper man. He spend a little more time whining than doing anything else, but when it was crunch time he came through. I don’t see how he could get bored writing a newspaper though. There’s always something to write about even if nothing is happening. Cathy is the main heroine of this tale and she’s all right. Cathy doesn’t get much of a role beyond worrying about the kid who was infected by the crystals, but that also means that she didn’t really make any mistakes either.

There are some logical questions with the film’s plot though. For starters, how exactly are the people turned to stone? They mention that the rocks drain a certain material out of people, which is what causes this, but that still leaves some questions. As we saw from an old lady, her arm was turned to stone from contact with the rock. The little girl’s contact led her to be almost completely petrified and the guy from the start was totally affected. Are we meant to believe that he was completely touched by the rocks? Because when we saw the guy, he was totally by himself and in a position that wouldn’t be natural to have stopped in unless it happened instantly like a flash freeze. I don’t think the film knew what was going on with this part.

The film does use a lot of stock footage for the Monoliths falling over so prepare yourself for that. They just keep on falling and falling with nobody to stop them. It’s hard to take it seriously as a threat and the final solution of dumping a lot of salt and water on them seems sketchy at best, but when dealing with such a random threat, you have to think outside the box. It is lucky that their governor was so reasonable though since Dave took matters into his own hand. Things could have certainly gotten very ugly for his future prospects.

This isn’t really a mistake by the film so much as a scene that was very interpretable. When the girl was first attacked by the Monoliths, I thought that they were going to mind control her so they could make some demands. The film opted to go a different way and so the Monoliths never got sentient, but the way the girl was glaring at everyone seemed to be like the film may have thought about going another way at first. I suppose it may have been my imagination though.

The film does make one mistake and that’s the fact that a dog dies due to the crystals spreading. The film didn’t have enough of a budget to make the dog look realistic which sounds good to me, but it’s still a moment of pointless animal violence. The film didn’t need that and it was a rather low blow. It’s like every film wants to force a scene like that inside of it and there’s no reason to. The shock value isn’t worth it!

Overall, The Monolith Monsters was a fun enough film. The classic 50’s writing ensured that all of the characters were pretty intense and that the dialogue was engaging from start to finish. The pacing was pretty good and the film should be able to grab your attention. Maybe not as a monster film, but just as a well written movie. Some of the townsfolk could be a little unreasonable and one guy being frantic to run off as soon as possible when his wife was still waiting to be un-petrified came across as a little unsympathetic. With all of these characters panicking left and right, it’s good that we had the police chief. He kept on trying to get in Dave’s way until he eventually just lost out. I appreciated the effort though. If you’re looking for a different kind of monster film, then check this out out. Even if you just want a fun slice of life film with a little tension, this could be the right film for you.

Overall 7/10

Pac-Man Pinball Advance Review

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I rarely give negative reviews to video games because I tend to enjoy them all, but this is certainly one of those exceptions. Pac-Man Pinball forgets the essence of what makes a Pinball game good. You want to try and beat your high scores and watch yourself improve. Even the legendary Pac-Man game wouldn’t be quite as good if you couldn’t save your scores. Add in the fact that this game seems to have a pretty small budget and little quality testing…and you certainly do not have a winner on your side. Pac-Man couldn’t save the game and if he couldn’t…who could!?

There are only two stages to choose from in this game. Each stage has a night and a day form. You then go around collecting pellets, but even when you do, more of them just pop up. It’s hard to know exactly what you are supposed to be doing. Maybe you have to light up the full Pac board instead of focusing on the Pellets or you have to enter the mysterious house. Either way, good luck with that since the controls are so bad and the house is only open for a very short amount of time. The controls just aren’t as smooth as Mario pinball and sending the ball where you want it to go is a surprisingly difficult task.

One ability that just makes the game more complicated is that you can shake the screen. It definitely has an effect on the ball, but it’s hard to say which direction it brings the ball or if it is even handy. There didn’t seem to be much of a point to the shaking gimmick. Maybe the developers were hoping that it would distract the players from the rest of the game. If so…I have to say that it was a rather clever move…or just a desperate one.

The graphics aren’t all that bad. The highlight of the game is the opening cutscene. I don’t even know if there is an ending, but if so, getting there is nigh impossible. I don’t plan to spend 20 hours mastering the gameplay and since it is partially luck based as well, it just wouldn’t feel worth it. The stages are clear and easy to see and all of the character designs appear to be on point. The game looks as good as you would hope and at least it means that you are in for a visually pleasing experience. As for the soundtrack, it is pretty nonexistent. You’d hop that the game could have grabbed a nifty Pac-Man theme or something, but it feels like free domain themes that won’t grab your attention for any more than a few seconds. It’s just how it is.

I barely even need to talk about the replay value because there is none. There is nothing to do in the game besides playing those 2 levels over and over again despite not having any incentive to do so because there is no high score. It really feels like this game was abandoned when it was very early in development. It’s just not complete and must have just been prepared to earn a few extra bucks. Certainly not a very nice gesture on their part and I’m glad that I only paid a few bucks for it.

Overall, This is one of the lowest scored games that I’ve reviewed. It’s just hard to get much worse than this and I’d say that you can make an argument for a 2. I’m just giving it a 3 because at the very least, the gameplay is fairly entertaining. It’s Pinball and I do enjoy Pinball, but it’s just so low effort that it is sad. You would have more fun playing Pinball on the computer, after all, that’s what I did for many hours back when I was a kid. The sound effects were a lot more hype and trying to beat my record was always a whole lot of fun. If you’re looking for a fun game to pass the time by, you can do a lot better. There is no reason to buy this game so I highly recommend staying away. Curiosity is not a good enough reason to buy this game although I suppose you may feel obligated to do so anyway if you’re a huge Pac-Man fan. If so, take the plunge, but prepare yourself. If anyone actually does beat the game (If there even is an end point to reach) let me know what the ending’s like. Surely it will be a great reward for those of you who stuck with the game for so long without any actual payoff.

Overall 3/10

Pokemon Go Review

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It’s time to finally review the big app sensation of the last few months. I played it quite a lot and got all the way to Level 32. The game’s starting to die down now with the cold weather stopping many players so now felt like a good time to review it. I’ll still be sticking with it but my pace has slowed quite a bit so if anything, I’ll just add updates whenever I reach a new level. I can certainly say that it has lived up to the hype although I’ll admit that it was a rough road at first with all of the bugs. The game isn’t 100% smooth yet, but we are getting there and the game continues to add updates. As this is an App game, the review likely won’t be all that long, but still longer than most similar titles.

You are given some Pokeballs to start the game with. You catch Pokemon and every time you do this you get 100 stardust and 3 candies for that Pokemon. You can use stardust to power up your Pokemon and you can use the candy to evolve them into stronger forms. You can transfer duplicates that you don’t want to the Professor. As you level up in the game, you’ll get more items like Great and Ultra Balls as well as access to stronger levels for your Pokemon. The end goal for players is usually one of two options. The first is to simply complete the Pokedex. That’s my end goal although it is certainly a very tough one. I don’t count Regional Exclusives, but even so you have to get lucky to catch some of the rare ones like Snorlax and Lapras. The other goal is to get to Level 40, which is quite the achievement as well since the EXP needed for each level grows tremendously as you go through the game. I’m at Level 32 and I believe that means that I am just barely over half way or maybe not even there yet.

The game itself is very simple. You’ll understand how to play it in a matter of minutes. What made it a sensation is the fact that you find Pokemon out in the wild and you can activate the camera so you can see the real world at the same time. I never use that feature because the battery drain is already quite high without considering that. It’s fun because it loosely tracks the distance that you walk and it’s a way to keep you active and about. You may walk more while playing the game because you want to catch Pokemon and get some more EXP. It’s a game that you can’t play quite as well indoors as outdoors.

If the game had been handled smoothly, I think it still could have been a big sensation right now. Unfortunately, the game has a tendency of shutting off, heating up your phone, glitching your gym battles and locking you out, and a whole plethora of issues. I’m not even going to go into them because you’re probably well aware of them thanks to the internet and how popular the title was. The only bug that really bothers me now is the Gym one. Whenever I try to take over a Gym, I’m blocked out because of a random glitch. It’s gotten to the point where I haven’t taken over a gym in a very long time. That’s tough on coin earning since it’s the only way to earn coins. I have a survey app which has helped quite a lot with that, but it’s still not a very fun issue to have.

I don’t want this review to give off a negative vibe though. As you can tell, I’ve played the game for a very long time. It’s a highly addictive title much like Mario or Pac Man and it’s a game that can last you for well over a year. They may raise the level cap when they add in future generations which could be fun or frustrating depending on how you look at it. That’s not til the summer though and I have my doubts on whether I’ll be playing that far into the future, but you never know. I don’t plan to delete the app even when I’m playing rarely so I can always go back and look at it. Ultimately, it is an app and those are great for passing the time. The game will likely be even smoother and more polished by that point.

The graphics for the game look pretty good. Considering that it’s a mobile title, everything is clear. The soundtrack is limited as it only has one or two actual themes. The main theme isn’t very good, but the other one is all right. I’d love the ability to add in your own musical tracks, but I play on mute 99% of the time so I suppose it wouldn’t actually make a huge difference to me in the end.

Overall, Pokemon Go was a sensation and I’m glad to have been apart of it. It’s definitely the kind of thing that you’ll have fun telling people about many years down the road. This is the company’s second project of this kind so I wonder if they’ll ever do another franchise. I doubt it would get quite as much traction since nothing is quite as big as Pokemon when it comes to catching them all, but it is a very successful formula. At Level 32 with 137/150 Pokemon caught, I’d definitely say that I’ve come far. If you haven’t played the game yet, then I recommend giving it a whirl. It’s not the same as when it first came out of course, but there are still a lot of lures around to attract Pokemon with and it’s better to start now than later. More players is always a good thing for the game since it means that the gyms will stay active and you’ll have actual competition. Just remember that Team Valor is the way to go!

Overall 9/10

World of Final Fantasy Review

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I finally finished up the Postscript in World of Final Fantasy and completed all of the Interventions in the end as well. I didn’t get to complete all of the townsfolk quests although I did almost all of them and I’m fairly close to completing the Colosseum as well. All I can say about that is that it feels good. World of Final Fantasy was a game where you really felt like going out there and completing it all. It was an excellent game and continues to keep the reputation of the Final Fantasy franchise high. I only really have one complaint with the game and I’ll mention it below. Beyond that, the game was just about perfect.

Lann and Reynn are two siblings who run a coffee shop. Life was pretty quiet and normal for them until a mysterious god walks in and asks for a coffee with a lot of sugar. The strange thing is that she entered the shop while it was still closed and had apparently been there for quite a while. She tells Lann and Reynn that they have lost their memories. The two heroes quickly realize that they have never actually seen anyone in their town and don’t have any memories either. The lady tells them that to regain their memories and find their parents, they will have to explore the world of Grymoire and capture a lot of Mirages. (Monsters) The two heroes do just that as they explore this huge world which crams together all of the past Final Fantasy universes.

Naturally, it’s not all fun and games. There is an evil group of monsters who wish to destroy the universe. They stop the heroes at every corner and there final plan will be difficult to stop. Lanna and Reynn have to beef up their attack strength by grabbing more Mirages, but they will also need the help of their friends if they want to win this round. Teamwork is the name of the game and who can stop these two siblings in that department?

At first I actually thought that this was going to be a fairly short Final Fantasy game. There are 21 chapters and each chapter felt rather short. However, this was not the case as you need to factor time in to grind up the heroes and power up your monsters. Not to mention that after the 21 chapters is a Final Chapter which is quite difficult. There are also many Intervention quests which act as epilogues for all of the characters and there are even some Main Story quests in there as well. That results in a bunch of cutscenes and the game spared no expense as we even get full anime cutscenes at several points in the game. I ended up completing the game in 35 hours, which is a pretty good length. That’s slightly longer than Ocarina of Time and White Knight Chronicles, but not as long as Skyward Sword or the Kingdom Heart games.

There is also a lot of bonus content to do. I don’t think it will take you all the way up to 100 hours, but probably to at least 50 and maybe even more than that. If you want to get the Platinum in this game, you’re going to have to master all of the Mirage Boards and find all of the Treasure Chests in the game. That is bound to take a while. The leveling up part doesn’t sound all that bad to me, but finding chests when minions are constantly attacking you will be quite the trick. I got over half of the trophies so I’m pretty satisfied. I’d like to go and complete the final two town quests and the rest of the Colosseum battles at some point, but that’s probably where I will stop. At some point, it would be fun to have the bragging rights for getting the Platinum here though. I imagine that it will be very rare.

I really think there might be something to the whole “Great Graphics can make a Great Game” argument. Naturally it’s not that simple and I wouldn’t be talking about just the graphics. However, couple that with a great soundtrack and solid writing and then you’ve got a masterpiece. See, an old PS1 game could have a plot that is just as good and a dynamite soundtrack as well, but without the graphics, it could get hurt a little. (Final Fantasy VII comes to mind, but that game had a whole array of issues with it so graphics was the least of its worries) On the other hand, a game can have a fairly boring plot, a nonexistent soundtrack, and unimpressive writing like Knack, but you can still be decently engaged thanks to the good graphics. So, I do think that graphics play a bit of a role and I do find that newer games draw my attention a lot more than old ones. There’s just something very high tech and awesome about new games. That doesn’t take anything away from World of Final Fantasy though. I’m just happy to add it to my collection of other modern games that are awesome. Cyber Sleuth, Pokken, Super Smash Bros for Wii U, Dengeki, etc. They feel crisp and solid through and through.

I mentioned that there was one area where the game could have been a little better. Are you ready for this? Well, I think that Cloud and the others should have turned into their Jiant (Yes, it’s spelled that way) forms at least once. Sure, it isn’t really them and they’re just using the bodies of this parallel dimension where they are all clones, but it would have been awesome. The game could have saved up one of its anime cutscenes for the final battle and we could have seen Cloud fight the leader of the Bahamut army. Obviously this isn’t a negative that will impact the score in any way, but you have to admit that this would have been awesome and was a bit of an oversight. We needed to see big Cloud wreck everybody!

Beyond that, navigating through the Mirages could have been a little easier. It’d be nice to mess with their Mirage Boards without having to add them to the party. That’s minor though and since the loading times are very quick, it’s not much of an issue. The game is also clear on what to do next aside from the Postscript. To save you some time, I’ll just say that you need to capture the 3 elemental spirits from the Colosseum before it’ll let you complete the game. The map will never tell you this and the game never really explains how to catch Mirages all that well. It tells you about how you have to wait for a circle to appear of course, but I assumed that it was like Pokemon. I figured that weakening them would do the trick, but apparently not. Each Mirage has a different catch requirement and I believe you can use a skill to find out each time or you can just go to Reddit and they’ll help you out. Those guys are always willing to lend a hand and they have a large spreadsheet for just that purpose. I think World of Final Fantasy should have gone the Pokemon route when catching Mirages as it’d be a little simpler.

The most convenient ability at the end of the game is certainly the power to travel wherever you want whenever you want to do so. You won’t have to walk around too much aside from when you’re clearing dungeons or catching Mirages. It saves you do much time and it’s a great feature. You can really customize your party roster and everyone’s abilities quite nicely which is another good addition to the series. The whole concept of stacking monsters on top of each other is a new one and I like it. It adds a lot of strategy to the gameplay so you have to really think about who you want to use in battle. I recommend training the small Behemoth dog right from the start of the game. He’ll end up becoming your best monster once you get his XL form. Seriously, I wouldn’t have beaten the final boss without him. He can take down half of the final boss’ health in one shot thanks to his Revenge attack which gets stronger as he gets weaker. Just use the Last Hit technique so he goes to 1 HP and then prepare to one shot any boss that stands in your way. It’s awesome. The final boss used a cheesy technique that reflected the attack in the end, but the damage was done and I got my narrow win. I shudder to think about how tough that boss would have been otherwise. It’s worth mentioning that the game probably has one of the best troll endings. If you don’t decide to play the Postscript, then you’ll be in for quite the experience.

Both of the main leads are pretty good characters. Reynn does spend a lot of time insulting Lann throughout, but he takes it pretty well and it’s all in good fun. It’s just the dynamic that they have. She’s the calm and reasonable character for the most part, but she doesn’t like to be messed with and will enter full combat mode at that point. She actually taught Lann how to fight and defend himself so that shows how she was always a fighter. Lann isn’t very smart and all of the characters mock him as a result, but his heart’s always in the right place. He’s a lot more enthusiastic about saving the day and helping everyone out even if it means going out of his way. He’s also willing to make the ultimate sacrifice when necessary even if he jumps to that conclusion a little too quickly. I’d say that he was the best character from the new ones introduced in this game.

Tama is the animal mascot of the game and she is a fairly strange being who works for Enna Kros. She has the power to stop time and get the heroes to safety and can exploit a lot of game mechanics through her reality warping. She even has the power to create new timelines and mess with the past. The power never goes to her head though and she has a fun gimmick where she will use the word “the” in between words for no reason. It’s a gimmick that could have gotten old if it was misused, but I thought that the game did an admirable job. I actually liked Tama quite a bit and the execution was sound.

Enna Kros is a good high above being, but like most cosmic entities, she never really does much. Her reasoning is that Lann and Reynn are the heroes of the story so they have to do everything on their own, but she should really step in when the going gets tough. That is…unless she doesn’t have the large amounts of power that she wants us to thinks she possesses. It raises a lot of interesting questions. She was fun though and adding extra sugar to the coffee gives her some extra personality.

As for the villains, Brendires is the main one. He is a dark overlord who wants to take over the world. We don’t see a whole lot of him beyond that, but he works well as a villain and has a great design. He’s certainly very powerful since he took down Cloud and Lightning, but I’m calling plot hax on that. Even with a weakened vessel that houses his soul, Cloud should have been able to take him down. Brendires never gave up and had a lot of determination for a villain. He’s easily one of the cooler Final Fantasy end bosses. His two main minions were a little more on the bland side. The winged fighter got some hype for a while, but never did much about it. I do like the fact that she was the only one to get up after being knocked out the first time though. That’s considering that her vessel was supposedly putting up a large fight. The other villain reminded me of Fang from Street Fighter V. His constant rhyming was a gimmick that didn’t work and I couldn’t take him very seriously.

Naturally, all of the old Final Fantasy game characters showed up as well. They were all in character so there’s no need to say much about them. Lightning and Cloud are still the coolest two members. We got a tease about Sephiroth showing up and that could be a DLC quest at some point. It would definitely be neat to see him show up and thanks to owning the Day 1 Edition, we do have his Champion Medal. It’s a fun tribute to his ultimate attack from the original game.

Overall, World of Final Fantasy is a great game. I’d probably put it under both of the Final Fantasy XIII games, but it destroys VII and defeats X-2. It goes without saying that it beats the original as well and I haven’t completed any other main titles at the moment. The characters are good and the plot is engaging. You’ll be breezing through the game because it’s hard to take yourself away from it. It also has a great opening cutscene that is similar to a Kingdom Hearts intro. Even the little dance by everyone at the end is fairly intriguing since you’ll rarely get to see Cloud outshine everyone on the dance floor. If you haven’t picked up the game yet because you’re worried about the Chibi style or just dread playing long games, I’d recommend getting it anyway. It’s fine if you don’t play the post script since the normal ending is actually quite great since it’s so unexpected.

Overall 9/10

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Review

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It’s time to review a quick one shot that was recently scanned. The story takes place towards the beginning of the Cyber Sleuth game and you can think of it as a promo for the game. It’s a fun little adventure. I always wish that these one shots could at least go on for a full volume, but I suppose that one shots have to exist or the term wouldn’t mean much. Whether you know the plot from the game or not, it’s pretty accessible to new readers since they explain enough to keep you in the loop.

A detective agency exists to help people with cyber related crimes. The world is very high tech so this takes place in the future or in the present time of another world which is more advanced than ours. Kyoko is the leader of this 2 man group and her subordinate is known as the Cyber Sleuth. He lost his physical body thanks to an accident involving the mysterious creature known as an Eater. He now lives as a half digital being that can exist in both planes of existence. He uses these unique abilities to help people as he tries to find a way to become normal again. In this chapter, some people show up to ask for help since their accounts have been stolen. The main character heads to the internet to stop the gang that is responsible. It’s a fairly direct story since he just has to beat them up and then the case is cleared.

A running gag in the game to an extent is the fact that the main character always shows up too late to save the people and they end up being eaten by the Eaters. That continues in this chapter as the gang members are simply eaten and no trace of them is left. So much for those guys eh? We got a nice little fight scene and the main character looked tough so that’s always a plus. This was during his rookie days so he is fairly inexperienced, but does a decent enough job. His personality seemed very different from the games though as he would interrupt Kyoko and was more assertive than usual. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but he would have to step up a bit as a main character if it were a longer series. Being assertive is great, but then you have to be consistent and this main character would be getting worried in the next panel.

The art is all right. It looks like it has the potential to be very good with some nice, crisp cuts, but other moments don’t work quite as well as the art can get a little cluttered. I think it’s just a case of trying to do a little too much because of time constraints. It probably wouldn’t be an issue for a longer series as the artist would get used to the characters and you would see it get smoother over time. You can still tell what is happening the whole time and that’s certainly the important thing.

Overall, There’s not much more to say about it. The chapter is only around 30 pages or so and it’s a good story. There’s some action and foreshadowing, not to mention that they leave you with a decent cliffhanger so you can go play the game yourself. I completed it a while back and highly recommend it. It’s certainly one of the best Digimon game and that’s considering that the competition is rather stiff. Most Digimon games end up being rather awesome. If you’re a Digimon fan then you should definitely check this out. I can’t say that you’ll get much out of it if you’re not already familiar with Digimon though. Maybe you could just enjoy it as a quick action story I suppose, but there’s only so much you can do in 30 pages. It’s good to see more Digimon manga being scanned. It shows that there is always hope for obscure one shots and other titles that are missing to the wind. On the video game side, I’m ready for Cyber Sleuth 2 although I know that probably won’t happen. The new Digimon World game will definitely be fun though.

Overall 7/10

Rayman Arena Review

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It’s finally happened. I’ve finally gotten around to playing one of the Rayman games! Honestly speaking, I can’t say that he’s probably going to become one of the more likable main characters. I just can’t get behind this guy in the same way as the hardcore platformer leads like Sonic, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Mario, and Roy(?). That being said, I do like fighting games and I really like 4 player ones. That was a huge advantage that the Gamecube always had over the other consoles. It’s the one thing that the Playstation consoles have lacked. If they ever got this feature for most of their games, it would be Game Over for the competition. This game is great when playing with friends and just good if you’re by yourself. You need to have others around to make the most of this adventure.

There are two main forms of gameplay here, Racing and Fighting. Each of these two options have two more options so lets get right to it. The normal way of fighting is a time limit is set to around 2 minutes and you have to blast each other. The player who scores the most points takes the win. You can use your normal blaster to take away life points from the other player or you can use the power ups which are scattered across the stage. I highly recommend going for these super weapons since they are incredibly overpowered. Grabbing the Green Multi Rifle basically guarantees a full 5 life wipeout for the opponent. There is no way to escape once you have been hit which is why the next 4 shots are confirmed. You can also grab bombs, (Which are terrible) self guided missiles, (Also terrible. They should have grabbed a page from Star Fox Assault’s playbook) and Barriers. (Which are awesome) There are a few more weapons, but those are the main ones. A nice defensive option is a magnet, which lets you steal the opponent’s weapon. Use these tactics to win the fight! You can jump and hide to cheese out the opponent if necessary. It may not always feel fun, but if it works then it’s time to use it.

The other form of combat has both opponents try to grab as many objects as possible. Both players get a freeze gun to start the match and shiny objects are placed around the field. They switch positions each time someone grabs one. The matches are all right I suppose, but these are definitely very luck based and once you have a large lead, you can just stand in place and wait out the clock. I definitely prefer the standard combat. The main racing game has you try to dash to the goal. There are many obstacles around the stages and you have a purple energy blast which you can use to activate traps and grab aerial rings to give yourself a boost. Activating traps may not sound like it’s in your best interests, but you can really trip up an opponent that way. This was definitely the toughest mode as the A.I. is quite good. Just remember to pace yourself and look for the shortcuts. They will certainly come in handy.

The alternate racing style is a one on one fight. You have to get ahead of your opponent by 6 seconds in order to win. This results in a lot of incredibly short 1 lap fights in one player mode, but I don’t see how it’ll work in multiplayer mode when you’re facing someone of similar skill. Maybe you just lose if you’re behind when a certain amount of laps end or something like that. Both players get freeze guns once again so you can try to freeze your opponent at a tricky spot so they lose a lot of time I suppose.

Graphically, the game holds up pretty well. The character designs have that solid Gamecube feel about them. They have depth and everything looks pretty sharp. The color scheme is a bit dark if you ask me, but it’s solid otherwise. The soundtrack is very forgettable though and it doesn’t help that the game doesn’t really have any cutscenes. World of Final Fantasy puts this game to shame in that aspect among others. It doesn’t hold the game back, but having some more up beat tunes would certainly make the game a lot more fun.

There isn’t a whole lot of replay value to be found here. There are 4 tournaments for each event and you can play each event in two difficulties. That makes 32 tournaments or 96 actual matches since each tournament has 3 rounds. You can beat each tournament in around 10 minutes and possible less depending on the event. It’s not a terribly long game, but there’s not much point to beating the hard mode versions aside from a few extra shirts for the characters. It wasn’t enough of an incentive for me honestly and that’s the only post game content available.

Of course, there is one form of replay value that does save the game. I’m talking about multiplayer mode of course. The fact that it is compatible with 4 players opens up a lot of doors that had been slammed. The game would still get a solid 7 if it was just single player, but it would be lacking quite a bit in content. Fighting games get around this through the multiplayer and that’s exactly what Rayman does. This kind of gameplay would work really well with 4 players. It has less depth than others, but the core gameplay is solid. The racing works really well and I can only imagine how chaotic it gets with 4 people around. Likewise for the shooting events. That ultimately helps bump it up an extra star as it’s a game I can definitely see myself picking around Christmas time for everyone to have fun with.

Overall, Rayman Arena is definitely a solid game. Adding in both racing and fighting was definitely a good idea as it adds some variety and also adds more content to the title. A little more of a story would have been appreciated though. It would possibly help me like Rayman more as a character and it would make Story Mode more interesting. Just look at Pokken, they were able to squeeze in a nice story during the normal campaign. Trust me when I say that it makes quite the difference. Of course, Pokken was just a complete masterpiece in every sense of the word so that’s another story. Rayman’s great, but Pokken is amazing. It’s scary how large the jumps are between scores. Look at Super Smash Bros, Pokken isn’t even in the same league because Smash is the ultimate game. It’s like the saying goes, there’s always something better. I digress. I definitely recommend picking Rayman Arena up if you want a new fighting game to play or just something fun and chaotic for a session with friends and family. This game won’t let you down and it’s very easy to simply plug and play. The controls are intuitive.

Overall 8/10

Young Frankenstein Review

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It’s always sad when you’re so close to being a good film, but then crash and burn towards the second half. Young Frankenstein had a promising start, but as with many comedy films, it simply couldn’t think of enough good material and had to resort to iffy moments in the end. It does succeed as a parody and will get you a good amount of laughs so comedy fans may enjoy this film anyway. At any rate, it certainly does destroy the normal Frankenstein films, but that’s not much of a feat.

Frankenstein is a professor who is given a tough time because people always question him about the original Frankenstein. Frankenstein has even gone as far as to switch the pronounciation of his name to Frankensteen and always denounces the possibility of creating a monster. He even stabs himself accidentally when trying to get the point across. Unfortunately, he cannot escape his destiny. He gets ownership of the castle and once he gets there…strange things start to happen. An assistant by the name of Igor arrives with the house and a lady named Inga. Frankenstein doesn’t want to create a monster, but his genes start to take control of him and force him to go along with it. He begins to revel in his new role as a crazed scientist, but this isn’t what he wanted….right?

The film was definitely fun at first. The whole scene with him in the classroom was brilliant. He kept the students in line and while they really made it tough on him, Frankenstein never cracked. He even took the stab pretty well considering that it looked rather painful. You’ll feel bad for his volunteer though since that guy wasn’t prepared for the insanity that would ensue. The first parts of the castle were also fun as Frankenstein very sarcastically takes in the strange surroundings. He’s very skeptcal and isn’t afraid to mention it. At first he reacts to all the crazy stuff like Igor’s broken hand constantly switching sides, but gets used to it at the end. He adapts and adapts until he goes full crazy and tries to reenact the experiment.

The film really does recover just about everything that was in the first film. Naturally, some parts are greatly improved like the little girl scene. Instead of being drowned, she is simply thrown through a window back into her bed. It’s the kind of change that could have really helped the old Frankenstein films. We even get the blind guy burning the monster again. There are a lot of good homages and the film is at its best when it’s making fun of the old films and having Frankenstein panic at everything. Unfortunately, things go downhill when we get away from this.

The biggest offender is really the fact that the film constantly brings up the fact that Frankenstein’s upgrades also affected him in more personal ways. You’ll see a lot of jokes about that, but one joke goes a little too far as he chases one of the heroines. She trips and is unable to escape him. She does end up falling in love with him after the experience, but the fact remains that she didn’t really have a choice the first time. It’s meant as a joke, but one that was in rather poor taste. Aside from that, the “romance” between the main two characters is just as bad. During the whole film, Inga is constantly flirting with Frankenstein and purposely taking his comments the wrong way. She finally breaks his will by the end and then we get more sad plot twists. It’s a cruel end for Frankenstein as well since he basically loses his mind. The romance parts are definitely the weakest bits for the film and the scenes just aren’t funny.

It goes without saying that I’m not a fan of the Monster. He really only cares about running around and destroying things and finding a partner. That doesn’t make for a great villain or for a misunderstood guy. Inga is not any better as romance is the only thing on her mind. She’s portrayed as being incredibly unintelligent. It’s part of the parody aspect of course, but it doesn’t work too well at all.

With Frankenstein also falling off the deep end, the only good character here is Igor. You have to wonder whether he is as out of the loop as he suggests. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the actual mastermind behind the scenes. He gave Frankenstein the wrong brain because he “accidentally” broke the real one and then he would move large distances in impossibly quick times. The film hinted that he may have had a twin in the castle as well since it would be the only logical explanation at times. If that is the case, it only goes to reinforce the idea that he is a lot smarter and craftier than he seems. The pieces simply start to add up once you begin connecting the dots. Igor was definitely fun to have around.

Overall, Young Frankenstein wasn’t a good film. It’s a shame because as I mentioned earlier, the first half was fairly great. The humor was well done and Frankenstein’s reactions to everything were real highlights. Other scenes like getting stuck in the revolving door were also handled well although making sure that Igna also got stuck felt rather mean spirited of Frankenstein. Unfortunately, the film started to get a little too obsessed with romance by the end and getting the monster in on the action was really not a good move at all. Frankenstein’s descent into madness made absolutely no sense, but I suppose that was part of the point. I preferred him as a skeptic though since he kept on calling everyone out and just being a lot of fun. The actor certainly did a really good job for what it’s worth. The film just let him down this time. If you want a funnier parody, check out the horror/comedy I reviewed a while back where Sherlock Holmes and a lot of other famous detectives must team up to solve a murder mystery before they are all bumped off.

Overall 2/10

DC Superhero Girls: Wonder Woman at Super Hero High Review

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It’s time for another book review. I haven’t read a whole lot of books lately so it’s always fun to go back and finally read through one. The DC Superhero Girls lineup always seemed pretty interesting. The comic I read on Free Comic Book Day was fun and it seems like a nice piece of the franchise that people of all ages can enjoy. The book is also fun although Wonder Woman herself can be a little annoying. I look forward to seeing how the sequel fares.

Wonder Woman is finally joining Super Hero High and she looks forward to meeting everyone. She hasn’t really left the Amazons…in forever. Unfortunately, this means that she takes everything literally so expressions and jokes always tend to go over her head and result in awkward situations. No matter, that is not enough to deter Wonder Woman and she aims to help her school win the big Olympic Style event against the rival team…the Bad Boys!

I like the style of numerous short chapters as opposed to a few long ones. Maximum Ride did this as well and it makes you feel like you’re constantly accomplishing as opposed to once in a while. I believe the same is true of video games as well. You can finish the actual novel in a decent amount of time. It’s not short, but it’s not very long either. You can say that the size is just right. Books are interesting though in the sense that the first half of the book can usually all go to set up and development. You’d think that there wouldn’t be much room for the plot then, but it all evens out somehow. Either way, this book didn’t need to worry about a plot all that much as the main focus was on introducing Wonder Woman to the rest of the class.

As I mentioned earlier, this is the only real annoying part. Wonder Woman’s naivety is a little too extreme if you ask me. Do the Amazons not have any figures of speech? Her mother went to the school and clearly knew how to socialize so I’d expect Wonder Woman to have picked up on some of that. Even just a small bit would do. Wonder Woman means well and she’s a good hero, but I think that the story would have worked just as well even if she had known how to deal with everyone. They could have just emphasized how nice she is and the plot lines would have still worked. She still wouldn’t accuse the others all that much and would have rolled with all the tricks and media coverage just to be considerate. So, that’s why I think she could have been a better written character.

Of course, she makes some good friends during her stay at the school. Poison Ivy, Katana, and Harley Quinn seem to be her main friends. Quinn’s an interesting case though as she is still quick to humiliate everyone around her including Wonder Woman. Her rationale appears to be that it’s okay since she does it to everyone and they are still students so some mischief is fine. For the most part, I’d say that she keeps it to reasonable limits…except for when she threw all of Wonder Woman’s stuff away. That was a bit much, but she’s a fun character otherwise. Poison Ivy’s all right. She’s the very timid character of the bunch so she’s not my favorite character, but is fine overall. Katana’s one of the more likable characters as she is always eager for a fight and also tells it like it is. When she suspects that someone is trying to sabotage WW’s costume designs, she speaks up about it, which is more than most of the cast is willing to do. She’s a good friend to have and she will ensure that Wonder Woman isn’t subtlety bullied by the others.

Lois Lane has a fairly large role here as well as she helps Wonder Woman find out who is sending her the mean letters. Ultimately, she doesn’t find out a whole lot, but it’s hard to do much when you only have some letters to go off of. I thought that the book did a decent job of constantly misdirecting you as to who the culprit was. There were only a few people that it ever could have been anyway, but from those it was hard to pick one with total confidence. Steve Trevor shows up, but his role is pretty sad the whole time and the plot could have definitely been cut out. He just had no purpose in the story and the whole time you’re just wondering if the book is simply going through the motions.

Superman had a cool cameo though as he decided to root for the main team even though the media was probably hoping that he’d be impartial. Still, how could Superman root for a team like the Bad Boys right? It’s just not his style. It’s also cool how he’s still an adult while most of the other characters are teenagers. It’s an interesting AU in that sense as you never know where everyone stacks up when it comes to age. There are a lot of different stories that you can tell about the heroes being at school so this series can certainly go on for a while. It’ll just need to be careful not to be repetitive, but that shouldn’t be all that difficult of a task.

Overall, This was a fun start to the Super Hero High adventures. The cliffhanger has Supergirl joining the school so it’ll be fun to see her become one of the gang. In a sense, she’ll be Wonder Woman, but potentially a more likable version. I’m also waiting for some of the villains to show up and cause some mayhem in future volumes. The rival school already got school’d by Wonder Woman so we’ll need new threats if we want to take them seriously. I’d recommend checking this out if you’re looking for a fun little Superhero story. Even if you’re not usually a superhero reader, you can swap out the names and it’d just be a fun school story. There’s really not much to dislike here and my only real complaint is Wonder Woman. It’d be cool if Superman appears more in the sequel, but it’s not necessary…it’ll just give the story an extra bump up.

Overall 7/10