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Hellboy Review

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It’s definitely been a long while since I’ve seen his one. The original Hellboy film was definitely a fun one and it’s the kind of random superhero film that you don’t see too much of. It kind of just throws you into a pretty big universe of characters and demons running around without trying to smooth it over with the general audience. You either like what they are going for right away or you don’t. There isn’t a whole lot of in between there and that works for me.

The film starts off during World War II with the Nazis trying to open some kind of portal to summon demons. The heroes stop them but find that a small demon has already gone through. He seems harmless enough and so they take him in. The demon is dubbed Hellboy and many years later, has become one of the best fighters in the BPRD. He is essentially immortal or at least has a long life as well as natural super strength and defenses. It’s good to have him on the side of the heroes although there are skeptics that think he should not be there. Some just don’t trust demons.

Well, that is where John comes in. He’s been transferred to help out at this unit as well as be Hellboy’s sidekick. Hellboy isn’t thrilled about this and gets even more upset when Tom appears to begin getting a crush on Liz, the girl that Hellboy likes. Now we have a bit of a rivalry when there isn’t time for one. The Nazi who fell into the portal has been revived along with his main two associates. They intend to continue their plans and Hellboy may be the only person on the planet who can stop them. Is he up to the task?

Now the subplot with Hellboy being upset at John is probably meant in part to be a bit irrational but I actually found myself being on his side. John did see to be trying to make a play while Liz was distracted by her never ending grief and so it was good that Hellboy was there to (literally) throw a rock into those plans. Ultimately it did mean he was away from the base when the villains arrived, but I’m not confident that he would have arrived in time anyway.

Hellboy is a solid lead, someone who is always ready for danger. He definitely doesn’t fear any kind of a threat of challenge and has a lot of confidence in his abilities. Perhaps his confidence does actually outweigh his abilities at times but I will always take that over being underconfident. Hellboy is one of those old school fighters who does a lot of solid posturing while winning the fight. He even has a giant gun that is useless 99% of the time but he still brings it to every mission to fire off a few shots.

Liz is a character who is rather tragic because her flame abilities are incredibly powerful but she has next to no mastery over them. They can go off at any point and often destroy tons of civilians when these outbursts happen. I give the film props for not shying away from that. There’s no quick mention about how everyone evacuated at the last second. No, she’s brought whole buildings down and lots of people have died which is why she is worried now. Definitely very valid.

In a way it does feel like the agency could have handled the situation a lot better instead of just leaving her to her own devices. Ah well, I look forward to seeing her in a more confident state in the sequel. We also have Abe helping the others as the resident mental specialist of the group. Unfortunately he really can’t fight very well so any action scene inevitably leads to him getting absolutely crushed. He was really not prepared for these fighters. Seems like a nice enough guy but you could basically write him out of the film.

As for John, he’s okay. The guy isn’t the most helpful but he does try his best. I do think he was fishy around Liz but other than that he is a decent member to the group. He doesn’t act completely shocked about every little twist which I’m glad about since some humans really overplay their hand in these films. Even if you never knew that demons existed for example, as an FBI agent you should be able to bluff pretty well.

The villains were surprisingly solid here. Kroenen is an experienced assassin who fights with a short blade at all times. He takes out quite a number of fighters in this film and what makes him scary is how he essentially cannot die. He is functionally immortal and will just keep on getting back up over and over again. A super soldier who does not tire, yes that is a fantastic premise for a villain.

Then we have the Sammael creature which also has a hard time dying. It gives Hellboy a really tough fight here. Technically Hellboy tends to always be the underdog in these fights but his endurance keeps him alive long enough to mount a comeback. I liked the design for the creature. Rasputin is a little more on the generic side. Nothing particularly wrong with him but he really has a hard time standing out. He also didn’t plan things out well in the end to put it mildly. The girl who was helping him never really got a role either.

That leads us to the best character in the film, Tom. Tom is one of those guys who just can’t stand demons. There are no exceptions for him and of course that means he doesn’t like Hellboy either. He takes a lot of shots at the demon and makes his voice known. Although this does result in Tom having to run away with his tail between his legs on multiple occasions. He can talk as tough as he wants after all but at the end of the day he is still just a human. He ends up burying the hatchet with Hellboy later on though.

The effects for the film have aged well and I also enjoyed the fights. They could be rather lengthy at times and the pacing is always quick. The film has the characters dealing a lot of damage to each other but never goes too far or feels particularly graphic. For the most part it’s your standard action film kind of action right here.

Overall, Hellboy is a fun film. It’s the kind of movie that ends before you really know it. It has no concrete weaknesses and keeps on moving forward with a very balanced approach. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a fun action film and the universe around it is fun enough where you may even be tempted to pick up a few of the comics. The romance can be a bit on the weaker side as there isn’t much time to develop it, but we’ll see how the sequel handles that. It’ll be difficult for the next villains to pass this group.

Overall 7/10

Hades Review

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Hades is one of those games that was super well known so I’ve been meaning to get it for a little while. I’m not always the biggest fan of rogue type games but I do love survival titles against endless hordes. Additionally, I feel like I have gotten a lot softer towards the genre as of late because all of the rogue titles end up being really good. The overall quality for a title like this will come down to how quick you can pick up a new run or not. If you’re losing hours and hours of work then I’m not going to be too thrilled, but this game masters the edge of how long it should be.

The game follows the son of Hades as he wants to know more about himself. He is not allowed to leave the underworld and Hades sees to this personally. What secrets lie beyond the borders of death? Our hero is determined to find this out and along the way he may even learn the truth of what happened to his mother. The gods of Olympus pledge their support and offer different powers along the way but what ulterior motives do they have There are a lot of mysteries to uncover here but when you’re immortal without much else to do…time is always on your side.

Immediately one of the most impressive things about Hades is the sheer volume of content. These rogue games can sometimes be annoying because you will question why you are putting in all of this effort. The Justice League mobile game for example was fun and I stuck with it for around 3 months but after a point there was no real content left. For Hades that isn’t a problem. There are easily 50+ hours worth of content here between maxing out all of the god bonds to complete their subplots, getting the true ending, maxing out your database files, unlocking all weapons, etc.

I completed the game 10 times to unlock the base ending and I can tell that I’ve only scratched the surface here. I only managed to max one character by the end of this and beast the game with only 1 weapon. I don’t see myself going for the platinum anytime soon just because of how long it would take to do that but I do like how all of the trophies are reasonable ones. The game isn’t asking you to do anything crazy. Really you’re just asked to play the game a whole lot and try out every mechanic. Even if you don’t plan to go for it all, I do advise trying out each weapon to see which one ends up being your favorite.

Of course, all this content would mean nothing if the gameplay was poor. So fortunately it is excellent. Your movement is very crisp and all of the weapons are good ones to have. The game has an overhead view and then you use your 3 powers to get past the enemies and make it to the end. Each playthrough has 4 areas and around 50-60 rooms total. At first it will probably take around an hour to clear the game, then near the end each run will be more like 20 minutes. I’ve heard people can do it even quicker but even with a maxed out mirror I couldn’t get under 20 minutes so they must be insanely good at it.

The game really values repetition as you learn all of the enemy movements and attack patterns. Focus on learning those since it is crucial that you dodge a lot. You want to deal a lot of damage of course but your health can go down deceptively quick. At the end of each room you get to choose a power up. Some help your attack power directly while others will help speed or other aspects of your character. Choose your ability carefully and then you will be fine. Even if you do lose, the game is so much fun that you won’t mind.

By the time I won 10 runs, I had already lost 27. So I can assure you that it is a process. Now I have enough passive abilities where I can confidently win with the spear on every run but so far I am still having trouble winning with any other weapon. For hat I suppose I just have to keep on grinding and eventually I can win there too.

Also I give the game a thumbs up for all the voice acting. Yeah, you’d expect voice acting for a PS5 game but there are just so many lines here that it still ends up being impressive. Each main character has over 100 lines of dialogue as you go through their normal routines as well as bond dialogue. I am probably even underplaying it for a bunch of them. This is clearly a game where the developers wanted to give you a complete product without worrying about dlc.

Meanwhile the graphics are really good. Even with all of the action on screen the game didn’t lag once. The individual animations are all clear as well so you know what is happening throughout. Now there are times where you might have multiple abilities that can be hard to distinguish in the moment but that is the price of being overpowered. I consider it to be a good balance. The soundtrack is also super good. There were quite a few great tunes in here that really fit the atmosphere of the game.

I don’t have any real issues with the game. I felt like everything was accounted for here and all of the gameplay elements were polished. It deserved all of the game of the year attention it was getting and then some. I’ve heard that the sequel’s gameplay is even better which sounds really impressive. I definitely look forward to seeing how good that one is.

Overall, Hades is an extremely satisfying game. It has enough difficulty to give even the most seasoned of gamers a difficult time, while also having a lot of difficulty options to allow for newer gamers to have a good time as well. That is why it is a very inviting experience since I can easily recommend it to anyone. The game’s very intuitive and there are no shortage of helpful references included within. Everyone will have their own style of how to approach the game. When starting out I recommend finding out your preferred way to play rather than going online to copy a winning strategy. Trust me, it will feel more satisfying that way.

Overall 9/10

Slam Dunk: The Movie Review

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It’s time to look at the original Slam Dunk movie. Right away you may have been thinking about the recent one that came out but we’re going all the way to the 90s with this one. It’s a very short film as was the case for most movies that had an ongoing show at the time. It’s basically the length of an episode but that means things can go pretty quickly. Can Sakuragi defeat Oda and his team of powerful fighters?

The film starts off by explaining that the next team Sakuragi will be playing is led by Oda, the guy who is dating the girl that Sakuragi once liked. So that makes this an extra personal battle, particularly since Oda knows Sakuragi’s past as a delinquent and does not respect him on the court. Sakuragi will show that he has changed a lot since then and has no intentions of being defeated here. He will win and then go onto Nationals!

Right away what I liked here is that Sakuragi wasn’t petty or jealous. He was actually happy for the girl who got with Oda and it’s not like he had a crisis of who he is actually in love with now. He left the past in the past and that is absolutely the right way to go. I was definitely proud of him there. Oda was really the one instigating a whole lot and trying to pick a fight but Sakuragi would always control himself when it counted.

The movie shows us a lot of parallels between the two as Sakuragi is serious about Basketball and does what he needs to in order to improve. Meanwhile Oda is someone who gets rattled a lot easier and is not in control of his emotions. At one point he even hits his girlfriend and it’s meant to show how he’s just really stressed but it was a step too far. The relationship remains intact after that and she forgives him pretty quickly but it was definitely too late for me to like Oda as a character. You just can’t act like that and expect me to stay on your side at all.

He’s a decently good player but it’s also not like he is an all star or anything. Gori and Rukawa are definitely already better at this point in time. It’s why Shohoku didn’t have much of a problem taking them out. The game wasn’t as close as the scoreboard made it look if you ask me. I would have liked to have seen more of the game but I suspect it would have been difficult to actually show the game being this close without heavily nerfing the other characters.

Keep in mind that at this point in time it’s not as if Sakuragi is some kind of a super player. He’s still a newbie learning the ropes and yet he is still holding his own with Oda for a bit. The actual parts of the game we do see are definitely a lot of fun as always. Slam Dunk has an incredible ost and it’s a shame that it is so hard to find the tracks online. The ones that you do find tend to have a whole lot of sound effects layered within the video so it isn’t the smoothest watch either. I’ll take what I can get though.

The animation looks pretty solid. It’s not really a step up from the show but if you like the main episodes then you will like this one as well. It’s very smooth and they do a good job of keeping the action very high paced at all times. You can feel the tension as the game continues to go underway and they keep it up for the full episode length.

Due to the short length, it does mean that there isn’t really room for any of the other players. You get the general sense that they’re on the court of course but yeah don’t expect any big moments for those guys. This is Sakuragi and Oda’s show all the way through and for the first movie I suppose that works well enough. You’ll be sucked in enough to where you won’t really mind. The movie definitely holds your attention.

Overall, The first Slam Dunk movie was definitely quite a lot of fun. It’s a very simple film but gets to the point of why you’re watching a Basketball film to begin with. I definitely had no issues with it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good time. The pacing is on point and it’s so short that it’s not exactly a huge investment of your time either. I can see other films beating it down the line but they’re definitely off to a good start with this one. It also fully succeeds in making Oda a really unlikable character so odds are that it might hurt him for when you watch the main show.

Overall 7/10

Super Bomberman R 2 Review

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It’s been quite a long while since I played the first Bomberman R. I can’t say this one was too high on my list but I ended up with a gift card to Best Buy thanks to the McDonalds monopoly event. So at that point this game was basically free and so that meant it was really time to have a little fun with this. The gam decided to add quite a bit of gimmicks and minigames to the usual Bomberman formula. I wouldn’t say they landed too well. It’s a decent game but this prevents it from being pretty good. The only thing that will help the game to stand on its own would be to get a lot of value out of the multiplayer mode.

The story starts with the Bomberman brothers being called into action once more as a dark force is taking over multiple planets. It quickly threatens to destroy life as we know it. Fortunately there are nice life forms made out of energy that want to help and can power up multiple objects and landmarks to help out the heroes. With these creatures, victory should be close at hand. But is there something that the main characters have not yet accounted for?

The story gets surprisingly dark by the end. For 90% of the story it’s all sunshine and comic relief as everyone is messing around but the dark truth behind the situation is what really ends up hitting hard. I would say that the heroes even make the wrong call here. They continue to go down a path that will lead to more deaths in order to save a bunch of people in the end. Sure, it makes sense if you’re purely looking at this in terms of the greatest good achieved, but sacrificing everyone along the way just feels like a really rough thing to do. I feel like most protagonists would end up trying to save the day on their own in order to spare everyone else.

As with the last game, Bomberman’s brothers are all on the very annoying side though. They really feel like they are just here to hold him back in a big way. Without them, Bomberman would be taking center stage and fighting without distraction. The game tries a bit too hard to make them all very quirky and likable. They end up being quirky but purely in an annoying way.

Now for the gameplay, it’s pretty standard Bomberman stuff. You walk around the levels and blow stuff up. Eventually you get to the end of the area which leads to a boss battle or to another area. There are 3 main worlds which each have 15 areas and then a fourth world which is basically a boss rush. The actual platforming is fairly fun. It feels like the retro days of Bomberman and works out well.

I also liked the castle boss levels where you have to run through a level as you try to grab a key to steal the crown. Along the way you have to dodge bombs from your allies as well as the enemies. It ends up being pretty easy as the AI isn’t very good but the concept was definitely very solid. So these two gameplay styles are very good but where things go sideways is when you get to the defense levels. In those levels, you have to defend a crown from a bunch of enemies who want to grab it. The problem is you really have to rely on the enemies making mistakes because otherwise this mode is heavily skewed to the attacker. You have control over how the level is set up so that’s where you really need to put most of your effort. I would always aim to funnel the enemies through one path by putting a lot of cannons.

The first world was really rocky but then I got the hang of it. Still, the tower defense levels just aren’t particularly fun. You are trying to survive them as opposed to just having a bunch of fun the whole time. it feels like this was rather forced and shouldn’t have been in the Bomberman adventure. Tower defense can be handled well but this game clearly didn’t have the chops to pull it off.

Meanwhile the graphics are pretty solid. There isn’t a ton of animation here but the art style works really well. Additionally the soundtrack isn’t bad. It’s mainly forgettable but then you have a really intense credits song that hits you with a whole wave of emotions. I was absolutely not expecting that at all. It really showed that you can’t underestimate the series at all. Bomberman was ready to take on any AAA title in that regard. It was real catchy and I will definitely listen to it again.

There isn’t much replay value n the single player experience. Most of the content is built around the online portion of the game. Likewise most of the trophies are online based so if you want to get the Platinum trophy then you will be out of luck there. Of course if you have PS+, then you get a lot more content right out of the gate. The character roster is also fairly large so that gives you some variety in gameplay since they all have unique skill. It’s one of those areas where it felt like the game put in quite a bit of effort. The developers feel pretty random in that regard as some thing are polished and other areas are not.

Overall, Bomberman R2 is a good game but the developers should have had more confidence in the actual bomb gameplay. If the whole game was a mix of the platforming and boss levels, then this would have been an absolute success. Instead, the game tried doing a whole lot of other things and they didn’t work out. We also have plenty of puzzles which appear during the game and for some of those I don’t know how you were supposed to solve it. I would just put bombs everywhere until I got an opening. I know that wasn’t the way the puzzle was meant to be defeated though. That’s the problem there. Hopefully a third game returns to the basics.

Overall 6/10

Bendy and the Dark Revival Review

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It’s time for the next Bendy adventure. I actually beat this one a little while ago so this review has definitely been waiting. Bendy is one of those titles that is always intense and so it’s a good October type of game. It’s fairly short so you won’t be playing it for too long but there is a decent amount of replay value in trying to Platinum the title. You do not want to miss out on this one if you have not played it yet.

The game starts out by introducing us to the new main character. She was working the late shift when she notices just how abandoned the place is. The only one left is the janitor and he tends to act rather suspiciously. Unfortunately the two of them seem to be locked in the workplace now and monsters are appearing everywhere. Is she even still in the real world? There are a lot of questions to answer and no obvious clues in sight. The only rule here is to never let your guard down.

That’s why the heroine does come across as being rather naive or just unintelligent for a good chunk of the adventure. The way she acts just doesn’t make sense at times like listening to a guy who is obviously evil and falling for the most basic of traps. It’s one of those games where you’re basically pleading with the main character not to talk into the 10th trap in a row but there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. In general there always tends to be a lot of backseat driving in a horror title for any medium but I dare say this one was more extensive than usual. You’re just really wondering why she isn’t coming to terms with what is going on.

The gameplay is initially more of an inspection game. You walk around and click on things that are suspicious. As the game goes on you get a weapon and that’s when the core gameplay really changes. Now you’re bashing all of the enemies that come your way with a few exceptions that are immune to your weapon. There is actually a super weapon that can beat them but I never came across it in the playthrough. For the most part I think I did a pretty good job of getting almost all the collectibles but I still missed a few.

You want to use the vending machine as much as possible and constantly hit enemies with the shock pipe since both things help you accumulate trophies. The more stuff you do upfront, the less grinding you will have to do in the post game after all. Same with knocking out enemies from behind, if you get into one of the areas where they respawn forever, I would recommend taking advantage of that.

I would need to go back and get them for the Platinum but that requires beating the game at least 3 times so I would definitely want to space that out quite a bit. There is a form of quick travel in the game that you unlock at the very end but unfortunately it is one of the clunkiest ones that I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to find various sewers and each one takes you back to another location but there is no map and this gets confusing very quickly. I appreciate the attempt but it is something that the next game could improve upon.

The gameplay is smooth outside of that though. Also if you think the action takes you out of the experience, you can play on a higher difficulty where I hear attacking is not nearly as good of an option. Stealth is the name of the game there and that will probably feel a whole lot more like vintage Bendy. I personally like the combat as it turns the whole thing into a full action title but to each their own.

The graphics are really good and you can clearly tell the difference between this one and the last installment. The developers made the most out of the new tech and it also helps with the scares because of how realistic everything looks. There isn’t as much of a soundtrack but of course that’s by design. I would have liked some hard rock tunes of course but it works well enough with what they’re doing.

While the game length isn’t super long, there is enough here where you don’t feel bad about the purchase. You’ve got a pretty good amount of content to go through as it is. Meanwhile like I mentioned earlier there is a good amount of replay value with getting the trophies. The story is also compelling so this is definitely a perfect example of a game that is worth the money and will provide you with a fun experience. You really can’t go wrong here.

Overall, This is definitely a really fun game and one that I would recommend. Longtime Bendy fans will get even more out of it as I didn’t notice some of the guest stars or easter eggs that popped up. It has more combat than the first adventure so you really get to have fun taking out the enemies and progressing through the adventure. It has a good amount of difficulty as well so you won’t just be closing your eyes and progressing through the levels. You’re going to have to work for your victories here and I look forward to seeing what happens in the next story. There is certainly a lot more Bendy to experience!

Overall 7/10

Satellite in the Sky Review

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It’s time for a sci-fi film that is a whole lot more low key than you may have suspected. As a result it can struggle to hold your attention at times even though it is fairly well written. The characters aren’t bad or anything but at the same time you do feel like some of the turnarounds are a bit too quick. Mainly the dynamic with the main heroine and the main character but I’ll get into that in a minute. So if you’re up for a low key film about space, then this could be the one for you.

The film starts off with Britain announcing their great Stardust spaceship. It is such a modern design that it will be able to travel in space indefinitely. Captain Michael and his crew are ready but Kim the reporter has a lot of choice words about this. She thinks exploring space is an absolute waste and keeps talking about how the rockets and science are too dangerous. It’s a fool’s game and all that. Now she’s welcome to her opinion but it goes a bit far when she sneaks aboard as a stowaway. That could have thrown everything off with weight limits and all.

Additionally, she is still quick to be flirting with Michael and the two of them hit it off. The tough talk feels like a weak front and the banter while fun, also feels fake. How would this be working out when Kim is insulting everything Michael stands for? They fight a whole lot but I guess all the insults just bounce off. The romance doesn’t make any sense and I don’t know why we needed it when there are two other romance plots going on here with the other passengers on the plane. The film certainly was not lacking in drama.

The biggest drama here is actually that the U.S. steps in to announce that they’ve covertly hijacked the mission to test a bomb. It was a quiet takeover since the U.S. funded the research and it was definitely a good power move. The main characters didn’t like it but ultimately fell into line rather quickly. They knew that otherwise there would be no space trip and they had been prepping for a long time for this mission.

Likewise, as the audience we were waiting a long time for this because it’s not until about halfway through the film that the characters even leave the Earth. I like a good setup as much as the next guy but I was expecting quicker pacing than that. The film is taking itself extremely seriously and I dare say that was a mistake. It might sound counterintuitive, but for a sci-fi film I’m going to be most interested in any issues that occur in outer space.

I think you could have cut some of the general scenes on Earth like one guy fighting with his girlfriend because she had to go to work and couldn’t make their date. He completely overreacted there by the way since he essentially admitted he would have done the same thing if his job suddenly called him in. So why should he be so upset at her for that? He barely even apologies a instead he calls her about a ring and that’s their big reconciliation scene but he needed to be more upfront on owning up to the fact that he made a mistake.

What probably makes the film feel a bit off is how there is no real antagonist here. Yeah you could say the government as a whole would fit that bill but it’s not really played out that way. Yeah the scientists are annoyed about having to work on a bomb but it’s not as if they think the government is suddenly evil. You don’t have the classic saboteur with a gun or anything like that. So the main conflict is when the characters have to find a way to safely jettison the bomb without everyone blowing up. Ultimately it is the power of science that is able to solve this issue. It’s fitting enough but not super exciting.

The film just abruptly ends when they solve the issue. I’m always up for a quick finisher but it does underscore that the characters weren’t really interesting enough to see how their stories ended. I would have liked to see if there was any blowback to the USA doing secret stuff in Britain’s experiment or if that would have just continued to be expertly covered up.

So this film will have its main appeal if you go into it expecting a slice of life. Travelling into space may not exactly be routine but it’s sort of treated that way. Everyone involved in the voyage is a professional aside from the reporter and so they’re rather relaxed about the whole journey. Kim makes sure to try and stress them out but rarely ends up succeeding. I can’t emphasize enough that if you’re looking for an exciting film you will need to look elsewhere. However, if you are looking for a calm experience then this will be up your alley.

Overall, This film ends up falling right in the middle for me. It’s not funny or thrilling enough for it to have any replay value and so I wouldn’t really be recommending it to anyone. On the other hand it doesn’t really make any mistakes and the writing is good on its own. So that’s why it ends up just being one of those films that will be forgotten in short order. Not making any mistakes is a solid start but you also have to have some individual strengths as a film to really make people want to watch it. If you’re going to do a very serious film about what it’s like to travel in space, then you have to punch up the writing a bit with extremely likable characters. Kim actually could have been that character if you just shredded the romance subplot. Have her try to sabotage the mission or just constantly making fun of everyone and then you have a solid antagonist right there.

Overall 5/10

Paradise Canyon Review

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It’s time for the last of the John Wayne films in this marathon. This one has a bit of a larger cast than usual thanks to everyone from the medicine show. It’s a pretty fun way to end things and John has a fun time trolling everyone as per usual. He is always ready for a fight and is the smartest guy around. I’d also say the film is going for even more of a comedic spin than some of the other installments

The film starts off with John being tasked with a mission to stop all the counterfeit money being produced in a nearby town. He dashes over and a medicine show will be a good cover so he helps out a group that was on the run from the sheriff. This group is not the most professional so it could be risky but John knows he will have to take some risks here. After all the villains are led by Curly Joe, one of the most dangerous outlaws out there!

One thing that will probably annoy you right from the start is how John is protecting Doc and his travelling band of scammers. Yes, it will help him get into town and keep a low profile but these guys are actually con artists. Doc apparently gets dunk so regularly that his daughter isn’t even surprised anymore. He’s apparently promised her dozens and dozens of times that he would stop and yet instead he still gets disorderly and skips out on the bill.

Yes, the characters are played for comic relief but they’re still crooks. Doc should have found another way to get into town. Even to the end Doc never ends up being a good character but he is a fun antagonist if you view him that way. He even goes out of his way to antagonize the cops once he is right outside of the state lines. Definitely not something you would respect out of a more reputable character. The pair of thieves who work as his assistants are hardly any better either.

As for Linda, she’s mainly here for the inevitable romance plot. There’s not much development there, it’s just around to tick off a few boxes. As for Curly Joe, he’s fun enough. He stands out more than some of the other western villains. The guy knows that bribery is the only chance he’s really got against John once the hero gets serious. Ultimately it’s all for naught for him but the guy was doing well with his criminal enterprise for a long while so he did still know what he was doing.

John is a fun main character even if he had to compromise on his morals for a while there in order to get things working. At the end of the day he still saved everybody and really showed the villains who was boss. Curly may not have made the best sales pitch but it was still good to see John shut him down right away and even delivered some more good one liners.

As always, one of the things that really helps make these films so much fun are all of the one liners. You can expect witty dialogue across the board throughout the films. This one is no exception as everyone is rather overconfident and of course the script is good. I definitely miss these kinds of old school films for that reason. The songs can use a little work and temporarily slow down the pacing during the show but I guess the film anted to squeeze at least one show in.

The overall soundtrack is definitely iconic to me after I’ve seen so many of these though. Then the fight scenes also aged well with the good hand to hand fights as well as a little gun action. John is always able to come out on top. The pacing is good which goes without saying since the film is under an hour long. It’s not particularly hard to move at a fast pace when that’s your runtime after all. Technically the last maybe 15-20 minutes are all for the long climax so the film has its priorities straight.

Overall, Paradise Canyon is a pretty good film. The title itself doesn’t feel like it has much to do with the film at all but I suppose they just wanted a catchy title that is easy to remember. It definitely works in that respect. There isn’t a lot for me to say to really make this stand out from the others so I would just say that if you enjoy John Wayne films then you’ll like this one as well. This movie has it all, the classic frame up job, John taking on numerous enemies, long horse chase scenes, etc. They manage to squeeze all of this into under an hour as well. Now if you don’t like the old western setting or want to see something a bit more unique, then that’s the only reason to skip this one.

Overall 7/10

Pokemon Legends: Z-A Review

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It’s time for the latest big Pokemon adventure. I was definitely hyped to get this one as soon as they announced it. At this point Pokemon is just one of those games that you have to get right away. It may not always have the life or death stakes that you will see from other big games but the pure gameplay and quality of life features are always on point. This game is incredibly smooth and while you may run into the occasional issue, I can recommend it without any reservations. It’s really just a lot of fun all the way through.

The game starts off with the main character getting off the train into a new town. His luggage is stolen but a girl helps him get it back and asks if he wants to join her team. She helps keep the city safe while working at a struggling hotel. The manager, AZ is a guy who is said to be 3000 years old and is rather mysterious. Still, this means the main character has a place to live and immediately has 3 friends so it’s a pretty good deal. He agrees to help and gradually rises up the ranks. Still, there is something mysterious about the tower in the middle of the city. Terry may be uncovering a mystery that leads to disaster!

Now to be clear, around 90% of the game is just happy slice of life adventures. If you’re looking for a super epic game, this isn’t really it. Although the climax does end up being pretty intense so I have to give it some credit there. The game also has a good amount of callbacks to the original XY games and the continuity is pretty strong. I wasn’t expecting much in that area so it was a pretty nice bonus. Also while the game isn’t particularly difficult, the climax did raise the level for the opponents quite a bit. I ended the game around level 80 and that felt right for an adventure like this.

The main campaign took me around 20 hours and there is a short post game that would probably add a few more. You’ve got a good amount of content for your dollar here. Completing the Pokedex and all of the challenges will probably take a little time as well although probably not a ton. The game keeps the recent addition to the games where every member of the party gets EXP at the same time which helps a lot. You can also earn screws to permanently increase the exp boost and other passive effects.

I ended up getting enough screws for most of the passive effects. There are also about 140 side missions, I beat maybe 20 of those. They’re mostly all really fast and easy so you can have fun going through those. The most important thing here is that the game is just a lot of fun to play. It’s why you can even go out of your way to play the bonus content because it’s very easy to access. I didn’t come close to 100% or anything like that but I certainly had more fun exploring and doing bonus content than in other games. It just ended up feeling natural.

Now when it comes to the gameplay, this is a full real time adventure. So when you call the Pokemon out, you can have it use any of the 4 moves. There is no PP or energy meter this time so you can spam the attacks after the cooldown is over. This is fun but it does mean that the game is way less strategic than usual. Just spam your attacks until you win. Potions and revives are dirt cheap so you can keep on healing your Pokemon until you win. It’s why you should rarely lose here. The only time you may lose is if you let your guard down and let the Pokemon attack you directly. You have a health bar of your own but you can’t see the progress of it so sometimes you will die when you thought you had more health.

Occasionally your Pokemon will attack a wall by mistake or something like that but otherwise I didn’t really encounter many glitches. At times if there are too many Pokemon, the game can’t load them all so they teleport out of nowhere but these instances are few and far between. While the game may not be the most strategic, I still had a lot of fun battling. That’s a good thing since you will have to defeat well over 200-300 opponents over the course of the story. Many fights are over in less than a minute though so I have to underscore how quick they are.

Meanwhile the graphics are pretty solid. The game looks good even if it’s not quite at 2025 level. It looks like a game you may have played on the PS3 at some point. Nintendo isn’t worried about graphics though, they’re here to hit you with intense gameplay and they succeed on that front. The soundtrack is also way better than you may have expected. The songs have a lot of pop to them and there is a large amount of variety. Various bosses have their own theme which is really nice since lately you are stuck with just a general boss theme.

As you play through the game, you will have more and more areas where you can engage in a little platforming. It’s pretty fun and a good way to get more items. The world has an abundance of rare candies and screws to trade for more power ups. They even seem to be unlimited but I could be wrong about that. Either way the game is set up so that it’s very easy to level up. This allows you to switch up your party if you want to. For the most part I didn’t do much switching as I get attached to my main fighters but it wouldn’t set you back much if you did. Of course I recommend saving your rare candies as long as possible since each one is a guaranteed level up so you get the best bang for your buck if you wait until near the end in order to snag it.

Overall, This was a great game. I do get the concerns about the company phoning in the effort to an extent. It’s clear that this wasn’t a super high budget game and the lack of voice acting is still disturbing. That being said, it’s a lot of fun to play and at the end of the day that is the most important part for any video game. It never felt like the story was dragging on for me and there was no point where I just wanted to put it down. I could easily keep on marathoning it for a long time and I have to give the company a lot of credit there. The gameplay itself is really tight and that makes up for having a smaller world/cheaping out on different areas. I’ll still be eagerly awaiting the next Pokemon game as soon as it comes out!

Overall 8/10

Sensor Review

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It’s time for one of Ito’s horror titles. This one definitely brings on the scares but I would say it is significantly less scary than any of his anthologies. It’s just missing that crazy atmosphere those had, but it could be because as a serialized story there is just less chance to be as weird. Also it is scarier than some of the short stories so maybe it was more luck of the draw than anything else. Either way it’s interesting but does have a very weak ending.

The story starts with a girl named Kyoko who happens across a village where everyone seems a bit off. They insist on her sticking around to see the stars with them as they explain how they have cosmic awareness. There was a prophet who used to live there and when he died, his remains were in the volcano and occasionally his golden hair shoots out. The whole thing seems a bit hard to believe but they all die during an eruption while Kyoko is protected by the golden hair. It all merges with her and she now understands the truth of the universe. The problem is that various cults are now after her and she must spend the rest of her life on the run.

This brings us to a reporter named Wataru who becomes interested in the case. Unfortunately the more that he digs into it, the more he becomes tangled within this affair. Why has Kyoko not aged in 60 years? Do these cults actually have super powers or are they just crazy? Wataru’s world is about to go upside down from normal events to something that does more than just border alongside the supernatural. If he’s not careful, this will be the end of his short lived career.

The story works on a mostly episodic perspective until the end. Of course with this being one volume it does move pretty fast during the climax. The story also maintains the mystery angle all the way to the end so for the cosmic stuff you just have to roll with it. Kyoko has vague powers regarding seeing the future and being able to read people’s minds but she is unfortunately not able to see her own future and can’t read the minds of the characters who really matter. By the end it’s hard to say how much is still her and how much is the cosmic awareness within her actually trying to get out.

It makes for an interesting storyline but it does come at her expense. We never got to know her for very long so it’s hard to really say what her real personality was. She is a good character though and stays strong no matter how many trials she goes through. In a way it would be an interesting predicament to suddenly have all knowledge but to the point where it is crippling so you have to actively turn your cosmic mind off and on at times.

Meanwhile for Wataru, he’s completely out of his depth the whole time. He’s not bad but a little slow on the ball. It feels like he spends the whole series confused. For a while there it makes sense but once he’s seen enough things, I think he’s just got to roll with it. It should be obvious right away why people can’t see him in the past and for the stalker girl who was after him, he needed a more aggressive approach once she was working with a whole evil organization. Now there’s not much he could have done about all of that, but that’s why he needed a more aggressive front.

The stalker girl was probably the most interesting antagonist though. In some ways I would say she is the scariest because she’s a total psycho and with her magic powers, no cop can stop her. So Wataru has to truly live in fear whenever she shows up. Her eventual goal of merging with him would also be super scary. The cult leader gets some intense visuals but the reason he’s less scary is probably because his goals involve the cosmos and you can tell that he is absolutely over his head. In a sense that makes the terror be a bit less because he can’t accomplish his goal, compared to the girl who could crush Wataru.

Aside from the general horror, the volume also goes into some gross horror which tends to always be a thing with this author. There’s one story about a bunch of suicidal bugs who want people to smash them and then they regenerate to do it all again. Definitely some tough visuals to look at but I will give the author some credit. It’s such a specifically spooky concept that I don’t think anyone else would have come up with that.

Some of the stories in the anthology could go a bit too far in different areas as well while this one feels more on the same side. You can tell Ito isn’t afraid to tackle any topic and the volume is still dark but at least people are mainly dying in normal ways this time. They aren’t drowning in oil or anything like that. It would be a bit tough to recommend this volume without knowing a lot about someone’s threshold for all kinds of horror though. Then for people who are huge horror buffs, some of this might be a little too subtle with the slow burn approach to really get them.

So the appeal feels like it would be rather narrow. Also like I mentioned, the ending is really underwhelming. I feel like it’s going for a full cycle kind of ending but even if it makes thematic sense, it’s just not very satisfying. I would have either liked a big victory for Kyoko as she finally cuts loose or more of an epilogue showing what she is doing now. Otherwise the ending just feels a bit weak because it’s going to take place over a long time frame that doesn’t really end up affecting the Earth for a while. Maybe I just needed a bit more of a classic horror fake out or something.

The artwork has that classic Ito feel to it. While some background characters can start to look really similar, the abstract nature of the art helps to make it very scary. The art also goes really hard for the big zoom ins when you have a villain with a scary face or some other shocking visual like that. The style works perfectly for horror like this and will definitely keep you at the edge of your seat.

Overall, Sensor is definitely an interesting manga. It’s one of those very eerie titles where everything is just a bit off. I don’t think it’s Ito’s most effective or engaging one as the plot isn’t super interesting but it will still have you doing some thinking. I also think whenever you can get the reader to be slightly unnerved, it means the horror is succeeding. The volume also manages to do it with minimal shock value. It’s still not necessarily my thing and I wouldn’t rank it too high, I would sooner re read it than some of the others. It would also make for a pretty fun movie. So if you like horror, then you should definitely check it out.

Overall 5/10

Fatal Fury Special Review

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Fatal Fury is one of those video game series that has done pretty well for itself. It has tons of games and remakes over the years and yet it has always struggled to reach the same heights as Street Fighter and Tekken. It’s tough for any fighting series to match those two though. Street Fighter has decades of legacy among the core fans and Tekken has its legendary story. Fury is sort of stuck in the middle of that and has to share a lot of screentime with King of Fighters. Still, this is a pretty fun game to check out on the Nintendo Switch Online. A true retro title that keeps you on your toes.

I jumped right into Arcade Mode and naturally picked Terry Bogard as my character. That guy is a whole lot of fun to play and he’s also a good all around fighter. So I couldn’t really ask for much more than that. The arcade mode is quite a bit longer than the average one. Usually you have around 8 fights in this mode but this game went closer to 15. Not bad eh? It really makes you work for this and you fight all kinds of secret bosses.

It was a good decision because it does make you feel like you are playing the special version here. The gameplay is very smooth and you will have fun mixing up your combos. The game does a good job of not letting it feel like the villains know all of your moves ahead of time. You can actually “trick” them with a mixup every once in a while which was definitely a good thing. It helps make the whole thing feel more realistic.

Naturally the graphics are fun with the retro sprite look. It will feel like you were playing the game right at the arcade. The soundtrack is also very old school and fast paced to match the action. There are a good amount of levels for the game considering how old it is. There isn’t an abundance of content here so the value is really going to be in the multiplayer. That’s true for most fighting games to be honest. I’d say the ones with a robust story mode are outnumbered by the multiplayer ones, certainly back in these days that was even more true.

So compared to newer games in the series this one won’t be able to compete but if you look at it in a vacuum, this is a good game. It’s very basic but delivers what you are looking for in a fighting game. The characters all have distinct movesets and the combat is executed well. The gameplay is smooth and the game doesn’t seem overly unbalanced. I’m sure it probably would be in the hands of an expert but for the most part on a casual level it feels like the devs did a really good job here.

At this point I own most of the Fatal Fury games. I’m certainly not caught up but I’m always glad to play a fun fighter like this one. The Switch Online has been a great way to play through a lot of retro games so I look forward to seeing which ones come up next. There is certainly still room for quite a lot more titles in the future especially if they keep on adding more consoles.

You probably won’t need rewind a whole lot for this one compared to some of the other old games but of course it can never really hurt. Some of the secret bosses at the end can really hit like a tank and the game’s sped is just fast enough where it can be difficult to react to their attacks at times. You have to absolutely bring your A game at all times and also have to be careful not throwing out too many big hits. They deal a lot of damage but naturally leave you open for quite a while as well.

Overall, Fatal Fury Special is a really good game. It’s one of those titles that reminds you of the fundamentals the whole time. You can’t just close your eyes and start spamming specials. Instead you have to slowly close the gap and win. Also I couldn’t figure out how to use most of the special attacks even if I wanted to do them. So I did a lot of sweeps and throws which is a fun and balanced way to play anyway. I would definitely recommend checking this game out.

Overall 7/10