Tag Archives: Review

The Mystery of Atlantis Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for another really retro NES title. This one actually didn’t get translated but it’s a platformer so it’s not like there is really a lot of dialogue anyway. It’s a pretty fun title, they did a good job of emulating that classic Mario style. At the end of the day the fact that it isn’t sequential does hold it back a little and I prefer always having a straight forward level vs the puzzles but it lands way more wins than you would expect.

So I can’t really say much about the story but you play as a guy who looks like Indiana Jones and you’re wandering your way through a maze of 100 levels. Each level will have you running and jumping over obstacles. The only weapon at your disposal is the pocket grenades. The cool thing about them though is that they damage anyone on screen. So if you throw it and miss, the enemy will still take damage in most cases. Some enemies take 3 hits to take down but most go down in one hit or two. It can be tough to angle the weapon just right so this helps to alleviate that pressure a little bit.

There is a really fast timer that is going on the whole time so you need to keep that in mind though. If you forget about it for even a moment then you might be in trouble here. The time is just as deadly as any enemy you will face and in some levels I barely had any time left at all. When you jump, the momentum will keep you going the whole time so it is hard to change directions in mid air. This means one fall can set you back a whole lot or even when you bump into any of the walls. You need perfect control of your character in order to make it through these levels and it takes a whole lot of skills.

This game can be deceptively hard in that way. Then you also have the fact that levels have more than one exit. So this can launch you far into the future or it can even send you back at times. Imagine picking the wrong door and having to go through a level again? That would be rough and a lot of the levels are so relentless that one mistake will cause you to be completely defeated. There are also several “dark” levels where you can’t see anything. These levels were incredibly difficult for me to navigate. The trick in the end was to keep blowing up your grenades which causes the level to appear for a split second.

Of course this doesn’t make it easy in the end either though. You still have to time your jumps perfectly so one wrong step and you will end up falling to your doom. This is definitely a game for platforming vets. So why is this game good when it’s so difficult? Well, it feels difficult in a way that is generally fair the whole time. Additionally the levels being colorful and fast paced helps out a lot as well. You will never be just totally stuck waiting for something to happen.

So the graphics are above average for a NES game which is good and the music wasn’t bad. It’s no Mario though but it was good enough. The game feels very well balanced. It is not without faults of course but easily stands above most of its peers. If you are looking for a fun time then you should definitely play this while you have the Switch Online. Of course it would probably not be as fun without the rewind feature but that’s just how a lot of these classic games go. Each level is around 1-2 minutes so even with 100 levels it goes by quickly. I would even say some levels are under a minute because I knocked them all out in around 90 minutes. Of course, skipping levels helps quite a bit with this.

Overall, The Mystery of Atlantis is a good game. It gets a little too clever for its own good by the end with some of the gimmicks but it was certainly creative. I would say it pushed the NES hardware pretty far. Especially with 100 levels. Yes, they have a lot of levels that are pretty similar and reuse assets but this is still really impressive. I’ve played several games that basically just had one level after all so it’s not particularly easy or anything like that.

Overall 6/10

The Call Review

Posted on by
Reply

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

It’s time for a film involving the 911 operations and how they really have to go through a lot. We hear about a ton of different crimes going on and the whole film is about being in the middle of a tragedy and how the operators ultimately won’t be able to stop everyone. It doesn’t make for the most enjoyable film that’s for sure.

The movie introduces us to Jordan who is one of the best in the business for 911 operators. She’s been at this for a while and knows how to very quickly enter in all of the combinations and do what she has to. Unfortunately she makes a big mistake in one case which causes the victim to be murdered so she transfers out of active duty and into a teaching role. She is pulled back in though when there is a big kidnapping case and Jordan is the only one with the skills to handle the call. Will she be able to save the victim this time or is it game over for her?

I’d say the main issue with this film is that it’s one of those movies that relies a whole lot on shock value. They want to really show just how bad the villain is so we have to watch large parts of his crimes in full detail. The scenes go on for a very long time and it’s all pretty tragic. A film that is more confident in its writing and overall abilities would leave more to the imagination and just hit us with the need to know bits. Instead this film goes all in on this to its own detriment. It doesn’t end up being a film that you would really want to watch at all as you’re ready to turn it off after the opening minutes.

Even the crimes we get over the intercom tend to mainly be rather grisly to remind people how tough the job is. For sure being a 911 operator is not something that would be for everyone. It’s incredibly difficult and high stress. For those reasons it is probably a good idea to have a film on it to remind people of that but this film just lacked any kind of subtlety which put it in a rough position right from the jump. I would say the film really shouldn’t have shown the first crime or at least made more parts of it be off screen. It’s just a real mean spirited intro.

Then for the main part of the film you at least figure Jordan will be taking the villain down before he can do much but he gets away with way too much. When we get to his base it seems like this guy has been in the business for a while which is extra grim dark and the girl was injured a whole lot before Jordan is able to get there. When the villain gets away with this much it just ends up making the end of the film feel like a very hollow victory instead of the full success that it should have been. It’s like something got lost midway through the film rather than it being a big success.

Jordan does her best as the main character and while she did make a huge mistake, it is something that could happen to anyone. She has seemingly had a spotless career up to this point and has handled many calls. Jordan also knew when it was time to leave active duty and did this in a way where she wouldn’t put anyone in danger by freezing up. Ultimately even by the end she was willing to put herself in a lot of danger to help the victim so I can appreciate that.

The ending of the film is going for that classic revenge kind of feel and I do think it’s one of the problems with shock value type films. You basically make the villains so evil and over the top that you can then give license to the heroes to do something equally cruel back to them. It gives the audience vindication and everything. I can see the satisfaction there but honestly the best kind of ending is just shooting the villain and keeping it moving. A quick death and you send a message to the rest of the crooks. It may not be as satisfying in the moment but it helps to prevent the film just getting more and more violent the whole time.

It goes without saying that the film is super violent and has a lot of dark tones so that’s another reason you wouldn’t recommend this title to just anyone. It’s also one of those films where anyone who stands up to the main villain isn’t going to do so well. For example we have someone who tries to call the cops and get attacked but from then on doesn’t look very good at all. You knew he was doomed from the start though and I don’t get how he lowered his guard. A second guy at the gas station even had a weapon and a drop on the main villain but then he lowers his guard to open the door?

Lets just keep this simple, if you see someone had kidnapped a girl you already know he’s deranged. So you don’t need to be looking around wondering what to do. You gotta keep him in front of you and either finish him off or hold him til the cops arrive. Opening the door to try and get the girl out isn’t going to help at all. 9 times out of 10 she is likely going to be in no physical position to help and if anything you just made it tougher because he can grab her as a hostage or something. You have to win the 1 on 1 fight first and then worry about all of that.

Overall, The Call is a pretty terrible movie all around. It’s super cliche’d and predictable the whole time. At most the only unpredictable part is how far the film takes things because I thought it would have at least some basic restraint. Definitely one you will want to skip at all times. There are no real positives to be said about this journey. This kind of plot at least regarding the kidnapping has been done way better in numerous films. This one is just relying too much on that classic kind of shock value that you would expect from a B movie. The whole thing has that forced dark tone about it. I’d definitely wait for a remake someday to iron out all the flaws and make this into a much better film. They can do it….I’m sure they can. It’s hard to get much worse after all.

Overall 1/10

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a film about how crime does pay sometimes. You’ve definitely got an interesting premise here and the film has a lot of fun with itself. It’s never taken too seriously which works out pretty well for the tone. If it was too serious then the ending would definitely be real messy to put it mildly. As it sands, it makes for a fun story.

The adventure starts with Clitterhouse robbing more places. This guy may be a very well respected doctor but it’s just not enough for him. He wants to really understand criminals on a deeper level and so he measures his own heartrate and takes blood before and after each crime. Clitterhouse gets even more greedy though and decides to join an entire gang. He quickly takes down Jo and the big Rocks gang. He impresses them so much that they let him join and they even start to respect him as the leader. Their actual leader Rocks doesn’t take too kindly to this but at the end of the day what can he really do about it? Well…he’s a crook so there is a whole lot he can do about it. Clitterhouse better watch himself.

Clitterhouse’s best strength is how good he is at talking. He can always spin things in a way where it sounds most agreeable and the other characters really don’t know how to handle him. He is always a few steps ahead and that really puts him in the catbird seat here. He boldly walks up to the police to chat even while he has a bunch of diamonds. His assistant is constantly shocked at just how bold the guy can be. In a way you could also say it’s all a big bluff as half the time he isn’t really intending to do some of these things and then he just has to keep his cool. Like leaving the bag by the desk in the police station and things like that. At the very least I don’t think that was intentional.

Cliterhouse is a professional though so it takes a whole lot to really get to him. He was certainly nervous near the end but ultimately didn’t really show it and still got the best of rocks. I’d say he was most terrified at the court trial and not really for his own life. This guy was definitely a real character that’s for sure. At the end of the day he stole a lot and is definitely a criminal though. Even if it was all to write a book, I would argue that doesn’t really excuse all of the theft. So I was rooting for the cops here even if they did seem doomed the whole time. They were always one step behind.

It did make for a fun scene when they were all yelling at each other though. That was definitely some pretty good stuff. Meanwhile Rocks made for a decent main villain. He’s definitely not the smartest guy around and yet he does have some good plans on occasion. For example he did a good job of tracking down where Clitterhouse lived and getting the drop on him. Even the doctor did not expect that to happen so that was a big W on the villain’s part. Rocks may have been outshined by Clitterhouse for a while there but he was the leader beforehand so I was glad that the film didn’t suddenly make him inept or anything like that. That would have been a real stretch.

Butch was a real loyal member of the gang. He seems to mean well as far as the villains are concerned and he helped out quite a bit. You don’t forget it when a character shows up when it counts. From all of the villains he was the most likable one. Jo meanwhile is a solid villain but does not always play things very smart. Running over to Clitterhouse’s place without a plan was really not a good idea. She almost just made things worse for all of them. You always gotta have a plan when you have ties to the local mob.

As you can expect with an old title like this, the writing is definitely solid. The script is always real good and that helps turn what would otherwise be a very quiet and down to Earth movie into one that is super entertaining the whole time around. It’s hard to picture them being able to effectively remake this film nowadays as a result. You’d probably either see them trying to throw in a lot of explosions (Which in fairness could be cool) or the humor wouldn’t work as well. This kind of story all comes down to the execution after all. I’d also say it is a perfect example of how the comedy genre can step in and really provide a good assist from time to time. If you take the humor away from the film and make it super serious, it could still work but I don’t think it would be nearly as engaging. Also like I mentioned the ending would probably be far less satisfying.

Overall, this was a pretty fun film. These retro titles always have a whole lot of charm to them. The witty dialogue works real well so the humor is very effective while being low key the whole time. The pacing is good and the character cast is small so they each get a good amount of screen time and development. I don’t really have any issues with this film. It was a solid all around experience without any real downsides. If you like a solid film involving a bunch of mind games then this will definitely be a title that you do not want to miss out on.

Overall 7/10

Super Dragon Ball Heroes Review

Posted on by
Reply


Dragon Ball Heroes is one of those titles that was really around for a long while. I admired how long it lasted because initially it seemed like this would just be a quick mini series and then it kept on going for years. Heroes became a big part of the Dragon Ball franchise as well. It was all super impressive. The animation may not have always been top tier but I can say that the concepts were always as good as it got. This is a title that will definitely be missed.

The series has several arcs so lets jump into them. One thing you should know is that each episode was generally shorter than half of a standard episode. This means that even though there are 56 episode, the actual length is considerably less than that. It does mean that you can easily watch the whole series in a short amount of time though. It’s very easily bingeable which is always nice to hear. Definitely a title that knew when to go hard even if it had to switch the animation style in the end.

The first arc starts off with a bang as tons of powerful fighters are trapped on Prison Planet. They must all duke it out for the dragon balls and Fu is the mastermind behind all of this. He has to be defeated but his skills are considerable so this will take some real work. The big selling point of this arc was really about Goku from Super finally fighting his GT counterpart. Technically speaking this is Xeno Goku and not GT but fans tend to use the terms interchangeably since in most ways Xeno Goku is unchanged from GT. He just tends to be a bit more powerful. We also get to meet the legendary Cumber in this arc. A Super Saiyan of legend whose power even surpasses that of Broly’s. Can the heroes defeat him?

Oh yeah these early episodes were super intense. While the animation budget wasn’t always the strongest, it was just great to be getting some more Dragon Ball action at long last. I’ve long considered Super Saiyan 4 to be stronger than Super Saiyan god mode but it should be a good fight with Blue. Now that Super Goku has Ultra Instinct, I do think that would go above Saiyan 4 though. The fight is very fast but considering we’ll probably never get this fight in one of the main shows I have to really take what I can get here.

Cumber actually gets a solid amount of screentime for the first arc as he fights it out with everyone. I should say right now that the power scaling in the series is absolutely crazy. You should not expect any kind of consistency or anything like that. So just enjoy the battles and the story. That’s really the main point of this series either way since the plot itself is rarely going for anything all that deep. It’s just fun to see all of the characters mixing it up. Cumber is definitely one of the best new characters to show up in this series and he has immediately become a new staple in the Dragon Ball universe. Hopefully he will get his time to appear in something else soon.

So Prison Planet made for a great first arc without a doubt. This was good stuff. After that we have the longest arc in the series with Hearts taking center stage. He wants to destroy Zeno and all of the gods and to that end he is powering something up and attacking the strongest warriors of every universe. He has allied himself with powerful allies like Cumber and Zamasu. Goku is forced to step back into the ring when even Jiren and Hit are having some trouble but is he ready to take on such formidable fighters?

Hearts is another all star villain right here. The guy has really cool abilities with his cubes and the fact that he can fight so well against Goku and friends is impressive. Most other fighters would have been obliterated just by being in Goku’s presence but that’s not the case for Hearts. No, Hearts is ready for all the action and he has a very cool demeanor. When you mix a great personality and move set into one then that is always going to be an absolutely awesome character.

I also really liked his teammate Lagss. She was able to take down Ultra Instinct Goku in one hit which is crazy. Yes, power levels don’t really matter here but that was still pretty fun. I also liked the grand scale of this arc. You get used to seeing the Xeno characters everywhere but fighters like Jiren and Hit still feel like guest stars. The animation also got a massive boost during the Hearts vs Goku fight. I remember being shocked at just how good it looked. Yeah that was super impressive without a doubt.

By the end of the arc it’s still a bit unclear on exactly how Hearts figured he would beat Zeno with all of this but personally I think Hearts could win already. I don’t stack Zeno all that high, neither do I rank the gods as being out of his league either. While the show itself would likely disagree with me, Goku and friends have long since surpassed the gods. The days of their being the strongest at the top of the food chain are long over.

After that we have a random one episode special where the heroes fight off the demon army. It’s pretty good stuff and I was glad the show got to at least cover this big battle. It may not be the same as covering the whole arc but hey it’s a start. In general the show has to cut out a ton of details and even fights due to the short length time but that makes sense. It’s already tough as it is to adapt the biggest moments after all so just consider this to fully be promotional material. If you want all the details then you will have to read the manga which goes into a lot more depth.

In the next arc Fu finally makes his big move. He has a group of fighters including the mysterious Dr W who are here to destroy Goku and friends. They’re gonna need to pull out all of the stops in order to defeat these guys. It’s a pretty solid arc right from the jump. Dr W is someone you will probably be able to guess right away because there aren’t too many characters with that letter but either way he is a lot of fun. This villain is an absolute menace and his new design is awesome. His fight with the Xeno fighters is pretty good. Meanwhile Fu getting to fight is also a lot of fun and Cumber also returns.

Fu is the big villain you think of when talking about Dragon Ball Heroes because of how much time he spends in the background of every arc talking tough. You know that he will be a top tier fighter and yet you don’t know just how strong. It’s all a mystery until he actually takes center stage and the wait is absolutely worth it. He gets a whole lot of props here and it takes the strongest in the verse to really go after him.

There’s a lot of nonstop action throughout so you really can’t go wrong here. The fights just keep on going as they get grander and grander. The arc is actually interrupted by another special midway about a kid playing the actual arcade game. That was a pretty fun special but you were definitely ready to go back to the arc after that. This is absolutely the kind of Dragon Ball adventures you are always looking forward to. They put in the best of what makes Dragon Ball so exciting.

After that, the next arc kicks things off on a mysterious set of circumstances. Goku wakes up in a strange area where everyone is fighting and Hearts decides to team up with him. Goku has to try and figure out what’s happening and in the meantime he is still injured from the previous arc so he has to fight in a very careful way. There is good strategy here and the backgrounds are great. I liked the locations and everything. Also, Fu ends up making his grand return here so we get a lot of big battles at the end as well. This is what I always love about Dragon Ball Heroes. just wait an episode or two and you are guaranteed to be witnessing big things.

Next up we have the next big tournament arc with the evil time goddess Aeos. Her time abilities are definitely more offensive oriented to the point where she is even able to go up against Ultra Instinct Goku. That made for a super awesome fight and we got one animated scene where Goku was pulling off some Sonic the Hedgehog moves. That was definitely not something I had been expecting. Aeos also generally looks super hype the whole time. She’s another standout villain to be sure.

Most of the kais tend to look rather awful and get defeated by everybody so it was about time that we had a real powerhouse here even if the catch was that she was super evil. That’s just how it goes sometimes after all and it was a valid reason for why she had been training so hard. Villains always have to stay at the top of their game in order to beat the heroes when the chips are down. It was also fun seeing dark Bardock in action during the arc. The guy definitely got a real significant power boost here considering who he was going up against. Those Dragon Ball Heroes zenkai boosts really hit hard. The arc had fun involving a lot of fighters and more of the supporting cast than usual so that was definitely cool. Of course at the end of the day I’m here for the big fighters so it’s not like I need the supporting cast or anything like that.

Finally we reach the last arc of the series. Ozotto has shown up and he intends on absorbing everyone in the universe. His powers are absolutely incredible and even Goku/Vegeta may not be able to win. They’re forced to call in the whole gang. The arc is shorter than most of the others but still hits hard. The tragic thing here is that the animation changed to CG just when the soundtrack went to the highest that it’s ever been. The graphics are basically like the arcade game cutscenes as opposed to the traditional style that was always a lot of fun. If you have to go CG then this is a pretty good style to go with since it looks just like the video games but I really prefer traditional animation.

The setup and everything was so good otherwise too. Ah well, even with the limitations this is till a lot of fun. You feel the hype as Ozotto slowly begins to take everyone down. Not only can he absorb people but he can make clones that retain their own abilities. It’s a real broken kind of power the more that you think of it. One wrong move and it’s all over. He’s probably not the final boss I would have chosen but the fact that he is so out there can also work well enough on its own. He’s fairly unassuming in that way. I’m not a big fan of the guy but he’s okay. It would just be nice if he had cooler moments to really show off.

And that really wraps up the Dragon Ball Heroes experience. Let me tell you, it was really a sweet ride all the way through. As long as you really enjoy the DBZ characters and setting then you’ll really get a kick out of this. Dragon Ball is such a massive franchise that you would expect more stories like this constantly but it often feels like you have to wait a long time for the next adventure. Hopefully this inspires them to keep on churning out more top tier products in the future. If they can pull that off then we will really be in business here. It probably won’t be as crazy as Heroes was in terms of being such a big crossover of characters but those are rare anyway. Heroes is like a celebration of the franchise as a whole so now it’ll take a break for smaller adventures and then one day hopefully we should be able to get another big one like this.

Overall, Super Dragon Ball Heroes is a great show. This is what DBZ sounds like to anyone who doesn’t watch the show. It’s basically all action with minimal plot and everyone is always getting beat up. The power levels are impossible to decipher and instead you are operating on pure hype. Let me tell you, there is never anything wrong with pure hype. It’s the foundational basis for what makes anime cool after all. Now that the series is done, you can binge it as a quick movie trilogy or something like that. It’s definitely worth the watch and it’s a shame that this has not been dubbed yet. It would absolutely sell a whole lot so it feels like the company is allergic to money. Dragon Ball Daima is almost here so hopefully that title is able to keep up with this one’s legacy.

Overall 8/10

Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to look at good ole Sonic Dash. I never actually played the original but I did try out the Sonic Forces title a while back which was a lot of fun. It was time to check out good ole Sonic Boom and as you can probably guess it wasn’t given quite as much attention as the others. It feels really barebones next to Forces although I can’t quite compare it to the original yet. Considering that the game has been out since 2018, it’s just surprising how few characters and stages there are. You’re really just playing the same stage over and over again except for one different one that showed up for the Shadow tie in. There’s just not a lot to this game.

It’s an endless runner type of game so the basic gameplay is really similar. You have to run as fast as you can all the way to the end of the stage. You can jump over obstacles and slide under others. When you have enough energy meter, you can turn on auto run for around 5-10 seconds to bust through everything and get more points. Then the level never ends so eventually you can intentionally destroy yourself to end the stage. After you’ve done that, you keep your points and rings which can be used to level up your characters. You can also get a handful of red rings to eventually unlock new characters but those take a while to get. You can only get up to 10 red rings in a day and it takes 120 to unlock any characters.

It makes sense why they would want to make this a slow process though because there aren’t many characters like I said before. There are less than 10 around which is definitely not ideal. You can unlock Shadow through his event at least and he actually has his own attack. All the other characters just slide while he can actually shoot his chaos spear to destroy enemies in front of him. That’s pretty cool at least.

Still, it feels like there should be more content here. I would like to see at least a basic plot, something to keep you progressing through the game. Maybe a lot of costumes or something like that if you couldn’t afford too many characters. Although since it’s just a character model running, I wonder how hard it really is to add more. It doesn’t feel like that should be very difficult at all. Maybe there isn’t much incentive to improve the game since Sonic Boom is basically dead but at the same time they are still doing a Shadow tie in for the movie so it’s not like the game is dead.

One of the biggest weaknesses for the game is also the fact that an advertisement plays after each level that you complete. For me this is always a dealbreaker because I just don’t want to be seeing advertisements like that. It doesn’t really make any sense. It should always be an optional thing like if you decide to earn extra rings or something like that. I’ve always liked the model of using advertisements for bonus power ups and things like that but not as a mandatory part of the game. That to me is when the game starts to feel super greedy.

Also, you have to keep in mind that you are playing tons of levels here so the advertisements add up very quickly. A game cannot succeed like that so this doomed it really quickly. To even try and get me tempted back into the game you would need to cut those out and add some actual content. Not every mobile game needs to be completely endless of course but you still need to have enough content to keep me busy for a while. I seems like I would already be out of content for this one very quickly unless they artificially ramp up the grind factor later on.
‘
I will say the most tempting part of the game is the fact that almost nobody plays anymore though. I was near the top of the rankings for the Shadow event despite barely playing at all so that was pretty cool. It’s the one big incentive about playing dead games and this only works when they don’t just add a bunch of bots to inflate the numbers. Fortunately that wasn’t the case this time. If they did that then you would never get to reach the top.

At least I can say that the graphics are really good. All of the character models are very sharp and look like their Boom counterparts. It would have been nice to have seen characters who weren’t in the show though so they could have had new designs. I suppose that was beyond this title though. The soundtrack is also good, just very limited due to the lack of stages. On a technical level I would say the game did what it needed to. The core gameplay is also really good. Granted, I tend to really enjoy endless runner titles so that’s no real surprise.

Overall, Sonic Dash 2 is just severely lacking when it comes to overall content. The fact that Miraculous Ladybug at launch had more content than this one did 6 years in is absolutely crazy. Sonic can and should have more content than what was represented here. It’s like they really weren’t trying at all and that’s unfortunate. So I would say to give this one a shot. I’d recommend the Sonic Forces dash game way more than this one. It puts in so much more effort.

Overall 5/10

Cobra Triangle Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for one of those old school NES titles. It’s been a little while since I played one of these so that was definitely nostalgic. You have to grant the titles some slack because they’re ancient of course but the NES has delivered some good ones over the years. This one just tries a little too hard to be the next big thing and ultimately doesn’t pull it off. I appreciate the effort though.

Basically there are around 5-6 different gameplay styles in this one. All of them involve you piloting a boat. The main gameplay style is that of a race. You have to drive through the course and make it to the end within a certain amount of time. During the race, other boats will be trying to blast you away so you need to take them down. As long as you drive fast you should be able to win this one. It’s easily the easiest kind of gameplay style in the title. Ironically it is also the final stage where I was stuck at. There are some jumps that are introduced later on and if you don’t have enough speed you will lose. The problem? You need upgrades to get to that level of speed so if you made it to that part of the level without any, then you’re sunk.

Another gameplay style is about defusing bombs. You have to grab a bomb and then push it over to your side of the field like a soccer game. The other boats will try to steal the bomb back and bring it to their side. So you have to really try zigzagging a lot to keep them off your trail. It’s not easy but you’ve definitely got this. As long as you shake a whole lot while driving they usually won’t be able to steal the bomb.

You’ve also got the boss fights which is the toughest ones if you ask me. Each boss has different patterns and touching them at all will cost you serious damage. It’s extremely hard to maneuver the boat without crashing at least a little bit and then usually the vulnerable part of the boss is very small. So you really have to adjust for absolutely everything which doesn’t really leave a whole lot of time to yourself to get things right. This took a whole lot of tries to get right.

Along the way you will also have to dodge more and more traps as the game goes on like whirlpools that spawn out of nowhere and a ton of glaciers that appear from underneath the sea. They really went all out like I said before but sometimes you can just overdo it and this is one of those cases. They should have taken it a little easier on all of this and that would have made things a lot better.

The graphics are pretty good for its time. There is a lot of color here and it is absolutely in better shape than I have seen for other titles. The soundtrack is pretty much nonexistent but the themes that were there weren’t bad. Nothing to write home about. There are 25 levels in the game so that adds up to a reasonable amount of value here. It’s not a game that you would just complete overnight or anything like that after all. Well..I guess if you’re really good at it then you probably could. Technically each level is only about 1-2 minutes long, you can just expect to die a whole lot of times before you get to the end. Particularly if you intend to try and beat the game without rewinding. Me personally? I don’t recommend doing that but if you really love the game then it is definitely a way to make it last longer.

While I prefer to be able to just zoom my way through the levels and pit my speed against some opponents, I know some people like to be able to experience a lot of obstacles and having to get through them. So for those cases, this will probably work out pretty well. It’s certainly different compared to most other racing games, I can tell you that much.

Overall, Cobra Triangle isn’t really a game that I would play again. The main problem is ultimately that it’s just not too fun and of course that is a huge problem to have here. Without the rewinds you’d be dying hundreds of times to the most random RNG-esque obstacles. There is always a whole lot of dodging so you rarely get to actually just drive and have a good time. You want to strike the right balance with a game like this and unfortunately Cobra was not up to the task.

Overall 5/10

Run Silent, Run Deep Review

Posted on by
Reply


This is a film about how obsession over revenge actually can work out pretty well. In a way the film’s overall message is quite a bit different than you’d expect since you’d figure that the mission would really fail to show that this wasn’t the way to go. It’s a pretty solid movie all in all with strong writing to keep you engaged.

The movie starts with Jim being celebrated by the crew and looking forward to many adventures as their captain. Unfortunately the celebration has barely concluded when he is told by exec that his ship is being given over to a guy named Richardson. Richardson’s own ship had been sunk about a year ago in the Bungo Straits where the Japanese have been successfully dominating every match. The U.S. has clear orders to avoid that area now but Richardson doesn’t care. He’s going to avenge his crew whatever it takes. Jim is certainly not pleased with how the lives of his crew are now being risked, but what can he do about it?

This film is fairly old school so everyone goes by the book and tries not to rock the boat much. That can be a bit annoying as Jim sees Richardson breaking the rules left and right but doesn’t really do anything about it. He sees the chain of command as not being something to jump over. So for example, when he notices Richardson going for the Bungo Straits, Jim will confront him about it privately. When the men on the ship ask about this, he just tells them to mind their business and keep it moving.

Jim’s doing his best to make sure the ship doesn’t devolve into chaos and that nothing crazy happens but I would say it happens at a rather huge cost. I don’t think keeping the men in the dark is the right answer. Jim’s almost compensating too hard to really show that he’s not going to try and take the ship back by force. It takes Richardson being really sick for Jim to really do anything.

Like I said in the intro though, Richardson’s plan actually works out fairly well. Yes, the heroes do take some big shots and have casualties. They almost could have all been destroyed but at the end of the day they stopped the Japanese threat that was sinking many shots. Richardson’s crew was able to pull off the bow shot when it counted despite this usually being a last resort technique. So you could say that Jim really trained them well.

I still think Jim should have been straight with the crew though. As for Richardson, he was also hiding things a whole lot. The fact that he refused to fight the first Japanese sub and let them get away just so he could go through with his mission was also pretty rough. Ultimately it works out pretty well but you never know if that one sub you avoided could go on to murder a bunch of people. It’s a high stakes bet with other people’s lives.

Ultimately Richardson’s story ends in a way you would expect because otherwise with the amount of rules he broke, things probably wouldn’t go great there. Results aren’t often enough to make up for the fact that you’ve broken orders, particularly in the army and the navy where these things are put as a premium. If you break them then the whole system starts to fall apart after all.

So there’s a good amount of tension here and the film does go into great detail about what a submarine fight is like. We see how you have to maneuver each torpedo and set the coordinates before firing. The precise angle to lower the ship while firing to do the bow shot, etc. Fans of submarine processes will get a particular kick out of it. It’s perhaps a bit more detail than I really needed but I wouldn’t say it ever drags the film on too long or anything like that.

The writing is always really good as you would expect for an old time film like this. The characters all talk like professionals and the dialogue exchanges are always really good. While we only have two main characters, there are still a number of sailors who get dialogue and show up from time to time. They help to move the plot around even without being individually important to what’s going on. It helps to make the submarine feel alive with the world building.

I also like that the Japanese aren’t just sitting around waiting to get blown up. We see them trying mental warfare tactics midway through the film where they deliver a message in English to taunt the main characters with how many ships have been sunk and also calling out their names to show that they know a lot. They have been doing well in the Bungo Straits after all so it makes sense that they wouldn’t just be taken out so easily.

If there is any plot armor or convenience here, it’s that I have a tough time believing so many people survived the initial explosion in the first scene. When Richardson’s ship is blown up, we see a number of people on rafts hanging on. We can assume a lot of them died later on from shock and injury since Richardson keeps referring to his crew as dead and it sounds like all of them didn’t make it except for him. Still doesn’t really answer how they survived an exploding ship in the water though, that just seems incredibly unlikely especially while the enemy ships were still around and this was in the middle of the Bungo Strait.

Overall, Run Silent, Run Deep is a pretty good movie. The story itself is fairly straight forward and as the movie is pretty short. The pacing is on point though and it keeps your attention the whole way. Being on a ship/submarine can make for a pretty good background. There isn’t a lot of scenery but it also helps to keep the tension up since there is really no escape. When an enemy ship shows up you generally have to fight and if you lose then you lose your life. So the stakes are definitely pretty high there unless you are half sub and can just run away but then the whole crew gives you heat for that. It’s all about the army politics and that’s always fun.

Overall 7/10

Madden NFL 25 Review

Posted on by
Reply


Madden has returned and their decision to already use the 25 title early definitely came back to get them. It was only a matter of time until 2025 showed up after all but either way I can say this is another top tier title. Madden 25 hits hard and continues to bring in the kind of content that we’re used to. Not much has changed so if you liked the last game a lot then I expect the same will be true of this one as well. It’s the kind of sports experience that you won’t soon forget.

There are a lot of modes here as always. You can jump into the practice sessions, franchise mode, etc. You can play Football in pretty much any kind of conditions that you want to. Additionally you can choose to play the full games, play as one particular position, or even be the coach. For me, I decided to go with a standard franchise while playing all offensive snaps. Switching from the full game to all offense was definitely one of the best upgrades that they did a few years back. It’s hard to go back from that.

Each game is rather quick as a result. On average I would say a game would take anywhere between 20-25 minutes, sometimes even a bit shorter. It would vary based on how much time the opponent drives would take or how quickly mine finished. I went with standard difficulty and did a full season. I played all the way through to the super bowl but I ended up losing that round. Their team was just way too powerful in the end and I got smoked. It was a fun ride though and I do like how the opponents actually get tougher once you reach the playoffs. It is really realistic with how only the best teams should be showing up there.

The gameplay is really smooth but can be a bit hard to describe unless you’re really into Football. What I’ll say is that it’s a very in depth simulation of all the different players and how the plays go. You control whoever has the ball at the time. When you’re throwing the ball you can aim high or low and where you move the control stick will also alter the course. When you’re running the ball you can try to avoid the other players or barrel right through them. Your odds of breaking away for a huge run there is much smaller than throwing the ball but it definitely can happen.

The graphics are pretty solid as usual. It’s got a good amount of detail considering how many things are happening on screen at once. There is no lag or any of that either which is impressive. The game really does run well and while it has become more simulation over arcade style over the years, the gameplay is still really fast paced and fun. You really need solid reaction times here to pass to the open receiver before you get sacked sometimes. One thing to remember is that the amount of players on both sides is the same so there will always be someone who is open enough to make the play or you can scramble up for some yards.

It’s this level of precision that makes the game fun. Can you spot the whole in the defense before you get clobbered? Then you also have a lot of fakeouts and other things to consider as well. One wrong move and you may end up throwing an interception and really getting clobbered. This was also the first game where they implemented the new kickoff rules that the real NFL will be using so that was cool. I guess you can say that’s at least one new thing they implemented. It definitely makes getting good field position super easy on each drive. Just run straight up and for sure you will get some good yards.

I do wish they would be more generous on the trophies though. Only getting 1 trophy after a whole season of games is really rough. It seems like they really want you to be a completionist all the way through which is crazy. Even if I wanted to earn those trophies legitimately, it would take a super long amount of time. We’re talking numerous seasons so this would end up being like a long RPG. That’s hopefully something they can fix one day since even the trophies they just import over and over every year.

There’s not a whole lot more to say about this one. Basically it is still the most complete experience for any Football game. It is an incredible experience and a lot of fun. I don’t see people getting much out of it if they’re not into the NFL but if you are into it then this is absolutely great. The presentations before the big games and all the little details really help to make the dream work. If they ever release a Madden on Switch I would have a blast with the online since I have that package but in the meantime I’m just in it for the offline experience here.

Overall, Madden NFL 25 is definitely an elite title. The franchise really has not lost a step at all. I’ll definitely be here day 1 for all of the adventures. This was the first Madden game that I got to buy day 1 and I could really feel the hype. With multiplayer it naturally has endless replay value but even on your own there is a lot to have fun with. Obtaining all of the trophies will take an incredible amount of time due to how the game is set up so you have to consider that as well. While it would be fun to see them fix more of the glitches and add some new content in, I never really run into the glitches so it’s not a big deal to me personally. I’d probably have to play for a significantly longer amount of time to really notice that.

Overall 9/10

Electric Dreams Review

Posted on by
Reply


Electric Dreams is one of those films that is trying really hard to balance out the comedy and romance perfectly. The problem though is it usually can’t get this just right and leans more on the comedy angle. That’s not necessarily a problem but the romance ends up being very poorly written and even some of the jokes don’t make too much sense. The film is trying very hard but I don’t think the humor has aged particularly well and at times you’re almost wondering what the main conflict of the movie even is. It feels like there wasn’t as much tension/drama as you would expect and it’s not like there is an end of the world threat going on. It just feels a bit aimless.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Miles who is an architect and he helps by planning out different ideas. He is not very tech savvy though and is super behind the times so it’s time to finally buy a computer. He gets one and almost immediately blasts it with some champagne. This causes the computer to turn into a sentient A.I. named Edgar. Edgar can do just about anything and has some really nice musical skills. This attracts a musician named Madeline who falls for Miles and he is rather enjoying the attention so he decides to lie to her about this. Edgar is upset because he likes Madeline and it’s his music so he decides to start causing some havoc. Meanwhile there is already a guy in the band known as Bill who is with Madeline. Which of the 3 guys will be able to claim her?

The first thing you have to realize here is that none of the characters are even remotely likable. Miles is the kind of guy who is mild mannered among the cast except with Madeline where he will yell at her at the drop of a hat. He’s definitely rather rude at times and lying to her about the music the whole time is pretty rough. Yes, he tries to come clean once or twice initially and Madeline doesn’t believe him but what you have to remember is that she’s not very smart at all. Miles continues to lie more and more about basically everything and that’s not a good look for him either. Miles is just not the guy you would really want to hang around. He feels way too sorry for himself and is the kind of guy who would get corrupted by a super computer immediately. The fact that Edgar is dominating him the whole time is crazy.

Miles is also too desperate for Madeline the whole time. Even after going backstage and seeing Bill having his fun with her, Miles is excited for the date coming up? Shouldn’t he talk to Madeline or confront Bill? Bill’s the most random inclusion in the film to be honest because there is really no point for this guy to be here. He’s only here to complicate matters and probably has less than 5 minutes of screentime. His appearance also makes Madeline look bad as a result.

Madeline should have set boundaries and cleared everything up right in that first scene instead of letting Miles be obviously awkward about the whole thing. Madeline is also one of the least intelligent heroines I’ve seen in a while as she misinterprets everything and has no clue what is going on. Yeah you could say that’s part of the comedy to which I would say it’s not very well written comedy. Madeline doesn’t seem particularly loyal or trustworthy with how quickly she gets into relationships. Also, her reaction of grinning when Miles wrecked her big concert (Thanks to Edgar) was completely bizarre.

Imagine someone making a lot of noise during your big performance and you’re just grinning. The alternate answer is that she didn’t hear what was happening, but everyone in the audience could and the conductor could, so is her hearing bad? The issues continue to mount over and over again. So as you can probably guess I wasn’t exactly rooting for the relationship to work out here. Seems like it’ll be really toxic and not be a good long term plan.

Finally you have Edgar who is super whiny the whole time. He wants to know about love and he wants Madeline to be with him but the guy is a program. Why is he so desperate here? He practically starts crying after a while. He has a good time messing with Miles but at the end of the day is unable to finish him off. So much for computer power. At least by the end of the film he figures out a way to expand his reach so instead of just annoying a few characters, now he can annoy the entire planet. That’s definitely one way to make your mark on the world.

It feels like you could have come up with a much more compelling storyline here if you really wanted to. It doesn’t even have to be the usual thriller kind of story where the machines take over. Just have it be a more intense rival that doesn’t whine so much. Give Madeline more agency, cut out Bill, and also make Miles more likable. Basically you just need to switch a whole lot of elements about the film and then this could be a good one. At its core you could say it’s a writing issue. The writing in the movie just isn’t good.

Overall, Electric Dreams is not a particularly good film. It’s a comedic film that is trying too hard and doesn’t end up being very funny. It felt like the movie didn’t exactly know what its end game was for a while there. I’m not saying you had to have some kind of a big and ambitious plot the whole time but the movie absolutely could have done something to stand out more here. The best thing I can say for it is that it does make using the computer really fun the whole time. I liked the graphics and how everything was voice activated. When Edgar turned on a Pac Man simulation to beat up Miles that was also pretty fun. We should have had more of this, direct man vs machine. You may be thinking that it should be easy to just smash the CPU but Miles makes that look like an absolutely impossible challenge the whole time.

Overall 4/10

Blue Giant Review

Posted on by
Reply


First up I have to say that the movie poster is incredibly impressive. This looks really sharp all the way through. I just read through the manga recently so it’s pretty fun to be going through the adventure again in an animated format. Naturally the task of taking on such a big manga series in one film is a pretty intense one so there would have to be some cuts. This is inevitable in pretty much any adaption and I can say that the film does a good job. While I tend to prefer the manga version in nearly every change/divergence, I do think the movie had the much stronger ending. It’s an ending I had been expecting to occur in the manga as some kind of twist but then it just never showed up. So the movie gets some serious props there.

The film starts off with introducing us to a boy named Dai who declares that he will be the best Jazz musician in the world. Jazz is something that he takes incredibly serious. Dai considers it to be the most intense kind of music and so he bets his life on this. He leaves home with some pocket money courtesy of his older brother and heads off to Tokyo. He must now find a way to play Jazz and earn some money because he can’t freeload off his friend Tamada forever. Dai meets an expert pianist named Yukinori who has some sweet skills but is not always the friendliest guy around. They still need a drummer though which is where Tamada comes in but of course the guy is a total rookie. Does he have what it takes to help them out?

So the movie is skipping everything before the Tokyo adventure although we get some moments as flashbacks. I think this makes sense since Tokyo is the heart of the journey. As for what the big change at the end of the movie is, I can’t say that so you’ll need to watch it for yourself. What I can say is that you will be listening to a whole lot of Jazz here which is definitely the point. In the manga there are a lot of speed lines but you can’t really picture it in the same way. Now we know the author’s intent. I thought they did a good job but of course I don’t know much about Jazz. To me it sounded really good though and it can definitely be a calming piece.

If I had any slight nitpick it would be that Dai doesn’t sound quite as loud as I was expecting. In the manga there is a big emphasis each time he plays on how loud his style of Jazz is and it absolutely blows everyone away. In the movie it’s just not super loud like that but maybe I would need to hear a normal jazz song with standard volume to really see. As a casual, I was entertained by all of the music which is the point though. Even in universe Dai wants to be able to play for everyone, including people who have no idea what Jazz even is after all so that makes sense.

Dai is a fun main character. I would say in the movie they make it more of a shared lead compared to the manga though. Tamada and Yukinori really go blow for blow with Dai in terms of screen time. Dai can almost seem a bit colder in this version as he is quick to let everyone be by themselves to work out their problems. It’s a far cry from the average main character who always wants to cheer everyone up. Dai has absolute confidence though which is important for the position. For example a tone point he explains how whenever he plays, he plays believing that he is the best in the world and that’s how every athlete has to be. He leads by example in that way.

As for Yukinori, I would say he is toned down to be less of a jerk in this version. So he still has his edge but he isn’t seen nearly as crazy. He’s still the best character I would say. He’s always a lot of fun and his skills are definitely the real deal. It makes sense since he has been playing for over 10 years by this point. His skills should be that much better than everyone else’s. He goes through a lot in the movie but never gives up on his piano.

Then we have Tamada who definitely has the toughest time here during the concerts. He has to try and learn really fast the whole time. Perhaps a bit too fast relative to the other two characters but at least they do show that he is still making a lot of mistakes. He is improving but isn’t going to be an overnight sensation which makes sense. The guy was really nice to let Dai stay over for so long too so he’s easy to root for. He’s a very down to Earth character who really enjoys music and gets really engaged with whatever he is doing.

The supporting characters generally don’t have as much time to do things. The movie is around 2 hours which is definitely impressive but that also just shows you how much ground there is to cover here. The characters have to play through a bunch of shows after all and are always on the move. The lady who let them play at her bar was definitely solid though. I liked the owner of the number one jazz spot in the world because he hasn’t fully succumbed to being old. He decides to give Yukinori a chance which was definitely cool.

The main characters get to meet a whole lot of helpful people and it’s nice to see just how pleasant everyone is. You don’t have a bunch of random bullies running around or anything like that. All of the people here just want Jazz to continue growing and so they are doing their best to support the up and coming musicians. It does feel like succeeding on Jazz will be a tremendously hard job and one that will not work out for most but you hope Dai will be able to pull it off. Being on your own is absolutely a lot tougher than when you’re in a band after all.

The animation style isn’t my favorite though. There is a lot of CG for the musical scenes and while they use a lot of trippy effects to make things more exciting, there is also a lot of recycled footage in those. It’s certainly artistic and I think the approach in general is clever to keep people interested for those who are not super into music. I just think a more standard style would have worked a little better. Either way the soundtrack is certainly good and so is the writing. It’s a fairly low key kind of film but one that keeps your attention all the way through.

Overall, Blue Giant is a pretty good movie. It’s one of those titles that can easily appeal to just about anyone. It’s pretty inoffensive and is just about a group of characters trying to do well and move up in the world. It’s definitely an emotional film as well without trying to overplay that card. Not every film needs to be a smash hit or the next sensation after all. It may sound like a back handed complement but sometimes you just want a fairly simple film that will give you a good time. It never drags on or anything and while there is a plot, it’s really all just a vehicle to be listening to really nice music. So all in all, it’s a quality title and I hope it gets a sequel at some point. I’m definitely up for hearing some more jazz.

Overall 7/10