Tag Archives: Sequel

Escape Plan 2: Hades Review

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

All right it’s time for the next big thriller adventure with Ray and his security setup. I thought the first film was definitely a bit iffy on the premise of Ray getting captured so this one makes a lot more sense in that regard. The story actually thinks of a good reason to get Ray in there. For the most part it’s really just a redo of the first film in a lot of ways. The lower budget does allow them to make the prison a bit more sci-fi this time though which is nice.

The main character here is really Shu this time. He works for Ray and is really good at his job. He doesn’t get fired like another guy who messed up by trusting his computers too much. Unfortunately Shu gets roped into some family drama and is attacked by a bunch of thugs which leads him to being trapped inside of Hades. Hades is one of the most secure prisons of all time and appears to be run by the same villains as in the first film. This naturally puts Ray in a very dicey spot because now he has to find a way to get in there and save Shu. The only way…might be to let himself get captured. Never my favorite plan but if you have to do it, at least this is a slightly more reasonable approach.

That said, I still don’t like the plan for a variety of reasons. The biggest one is that the most likely outcome of this is that Ray will be murdered. When you enter a space like this that is run by villains who all want to murder Ray, there is no other real outcome here. He is going to be absolutely dominated right out of the gate. The whole film’s premise really only sticks if the villains keep Ray alive out of their misplaced pride in how he can never escape. This naturally never works but in a more realistic film, they would just murder him as soon as he’s in there. Especially since one of his workers is already there so they may team up.

Still, Ray handles himself as well as possible. He’s already looking a bit older in this one (Although not nearly as old as in the third film) but he can still fight when needed. He gets a quick action scene with his partner DeRosa early on which was really solid. DeRosa is a new character here who really comes in handy. He’s been in the game for a very long time and has evidently helped Ray in the past. He’s another tough guy who beats up everyone in his way. These films have no shortages of these kinds of characters. He’s not quite up to par with the guy from the first film but he will suffice. I always enjoyed seeing the meanwhile scenes away from the jail with DeRosa doing his thing.

As for Shu though, he’s a solid main character. He puts up with a lot of torture and beatings at the jail in order to find his way out but also to help his cousin. Shu is a strong fighter and does well in the prison’s underground tournament bracket. If the fights were the only thing he would have to deal with then I think he would have gotten out just fine. Of course, you can’t expect anything to be all that fair down here. The warden certainly doesn’t appreciate this guy and Shu has a massive target on his back since his cousin was already the main person in harm’s way before. Even just helping him doesn’t do wonders for Shu’s social cred.

Again you do have to suspend some disbelief throughout the film for how the heroes learn about the exits and such. They memorize guard walking patterns, steal objects, etc. It all relies on their making some friends here and all of the guards being inept enough not to notice them taking things. I also question how exact the patterns would really be for any company. What about people cutting out early to smoke, staying a bit late, walking a different route, etc. The fact that everyone does things the same way all the time is super unrealistic to me because I feel like that basically never happens in any job. Whether it be public or private, people tend to have a lot of variance in what they do.

You could say that the jail warden just made sure people would stick to the script every time but that would make him not look so good. If anything a jail is the exact place where you would want extra variance the whole time. You want to throw the opponent off your trail and everything. So I’m skeptical but I always am for films like this one. The important thing is that you’re kept entertained though and the film did pull that off. So it’s still positive overall.

I take some points away for the general grit and violence of the film though. It’s nothing terrible or anything like that but still enough to be noticeable. it’s pretty much inevitable for any of these films where the heroes are stuck in a prison because the whole point is to show off how cruel and tough the warden is. It’s harder to show that without adding a bunch of scenes where the warden is dominating right?

Overall, Escape Plan 2 is a decent movie. I won’t call it great or anything though. It definitely does feel like it’s just copying the first film to a large extent. I really enjoyed the martial art fight scenes but the general atmosphere of the jail wasn’t great. Naturally the characters are getting beaten up and effectively tortured the whole time without any real way out. It’s definitely a real dark place to be in and the more you think about it, the rougher it would get. If you’re looking for a random action film to pass some of the time by though, you can’t really go wrong with this one.

Overall 6/10

The Invisible Man’s Revenge Review

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It’s time for another Invisible Man film. This one definitely switches things up a little bit but the films usually do that anyway. They tend to either switch main characters or take place in a completely new timeline. Either way this one is a good bit of fun although I would also say that it is very campy. Everyone tends to make the worst decisions possible and you either find that funny and endearing or you’ll just get annoyed the whole time.

The film starts off with Robert murdering a bunch of people and heading to the rich Herrick estate. See, he was originally supposed to split the riches 3 ways with that couple but they left him for dead and ran off. Well he’s caught up to them now but the guy isn’t very smart so they poison his food/drink and knock him out. Their big mistake is they decide not to finish him off. Instead they destroy the contract and figure they will just tell everyone that he is crazy. That’s certainly one way to handle the situation but is it the best way? They may wish that they had finished this guy off because soon Robert would become…The Invisible Man.

Yeah there are a ton of bad decisions here so lets go through them. This was the first big mistake. Why would Jasper and Irene let Robert live after all of this? They have to know that he will try to murder them now since they effectively stole all of his money. He’s going from being a rich person to almost being on the streets? Cmon now there’s absolutely no way he would let that stand and I don’t think anybody would. Naturally it does come back to bite them.

So Robert meets up with a guy named Herbert who is nice enough to take care of him. The guy’s poor but does his best. Robert then meets up with Dr. Peter who has an experimental invisibility serum. He gives it to Robert who uses this to blackmail Jasper and Irene some more. Okay fine, he’s got the upper hand once again. He should probably have them mail out a check to him already so he doesn’t have to keep this facade up for too long but then he gets distracted. He wants to marry Jasper’s daughter Julie who is already engaged to Mark. Jasper says he will only agree to this if Robert becomes visible again.

You see the issue right? If Robert becomes visible again, then they’ll either murder him or call in the cops. He is absolutely doomed but he unironically believes Jasper and tries to get visible again. What kind of sucker is this? Cmonnnnnnn that’s never going to work. Dr. Peter isn’t quick on the uptake though and doesn’t want Robert to become visible again. Things don’t go well for the doctor…..maybe don’t talk back to the psychotic murderer without a plan of some kind?

Then good ole Herbert decides to blackmail Robert as well and gets supremely lucky that he isn’t bumped off right away. Why do people keep on trying to poke the beast? That’s just not a good idea at all and it’s just going to land you 6 feet under. All of these characters underestimate just how dangerous a foe can be when he can turn invisible at will. I mean it’s not like pressing a button but the fact that Robert can do this at all is super dangerous.

Ah well so Robert ultimately goes through with this but turning visible is dangerous in itself and then he needs them to bump off a dog that was turned invisible and then visible again. As long as it exists, his secret is in jeopardy. Unfortunately for Robert, the dog is too powerful and ultimately his greed costs him everything. It’s just amazing how many bad decisions happened here. Robert should have easily won once he became invisible and Jasper/Irene should have taken him out as soon as they drugged him.

Both sides had several chances for success. It’s why you really need to keep your eyes on the prize because if you get distracted then it’s all over. Robert got distracted by romance which is something you can’t mess with while Jasper had no real excuse. That is why you want to look at this as a comedy of sorts. Some parts actually are fairly light hearted. I don’t think it was ever intended to be a horror or anything like that. The creators probably didn’t picture it turning out quite as campy as I view it nowadays but this works as a feel good film for that reason.

Even with a body count and a murderer on the loose, the film just ends up being rather fun. They also manage to squeeze in the iconic Invisible Man laugh which was great. It would seem that the serum always causes the villain to go into hysterics at some point which is definitely always nice to see. It just would not be the Invisible Man without all of that. He may not have gotten very far with his revenge in the end but that was the focus of the plot so the title is still on point.

Overall, The Invisible Man’s Revenge is a pretty fun film. It’s the kind of film that you have to laugh along with though because if you take it too seriously then you’ll be shaking your head the whole time. This is not a film to be taken very seriously at all. Just grin along with the Invisible Man and you will be fine. I’d recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the concept and the best part is that you don’t need to watch any of the other films to understand what is happening here. You can just jump right in and you will be all set for action as a true stand alone. Then if you like this one, you can jump into the others which range from being serious to being 100% comedies that take themselves even less seriously than this one.

Overall 7/10

Godzilla Library Collection Volume 2 Review

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It’s time for a big Godzilla comic collection. Let me tell you something, this one brings a whole lot of issues. I would expect nothing less since it is a whole library collection though. It brings the full 12 issue Kingdom of Monsters series. In this one, the world is attacked by Kaiju and quickly begins to fold. We have several plots ongoing in this one. There’s a soldier who befriends a child whose parents were eaten by Kaiju. He vows to get her to safety. Then you have the President of the USA who is worried about his poll numbers and doesn’t know how this situation should play out. Of course there are a lot of different Kaiju attacking the planet as well. Godzilla may end up saving the planet or perhaps he is just going to murder everyone. At the moment it sure feels like it could go either way for a bunch of the characters.

Right off the bat you can tell that this series is having a bit of fun with everything. Almost every character is sarcastic and there is a lot of witty banter going on. Every character has something to say and they aren’t about to wait until the right time to say it. They’re just going to go and say their piece. Right away you can see how you are rooting for the Kaiju to end humanity. There’s no reason for the humans’ continued existence. It would be better to be reset through history and perhaps some day humanity will deserve the planet again.

I should let you know right now that there is a cliffhanger here so the series doesn’t end as completely as you might expect. It’s a pretty hype way to end the comic though so I was on board with that. Throughout the comic you see how everything is being completely destroyed and you might be wondering how the humans will rebuild and come back from this. Well, now you’ve got something to wonder about for afterwards. I’m guessing for the writers it was less interesting to think about the fallout and recovery so they wanted to keep every reader focused on the battles.

I get it, that is the most fun part. Also, it’s not like there’s a whole lot of humanity left by the end of the comic. So many people die left and right on every Kaiju battlefield. There’s no shortage of casualties to be found. The best of the subplots was probably with the soldier. This is where we see just how villainous all of the desperate people are. Now that food and water are scarce, they’ve all devolved into picking fights and trying to murder any other human they come across. Fortunately the soldier is strong and he does a terrific job of protecting the kid the whole time. He deserves a ton of credit for that since it’s not an easy task by any means. When you are surrounded by monsters and evil humans at every turn, it would be real tempting to run off on your own to survive.

Instead the soldier takes the hero call and helps her out. Along the way he even figures out how to pilot Mecha Godzilla and holds his own really well in a big Kaiju fight that starts. So that was a pretty fun subplot and I always looked forward to seeing it. I really liked the President stuff as well but those scenes were a lot more rare. In general the dialogue should have you laughing a lot at just how petty all of the characters are. They’re all rather unlikable to be sure to the point where the comics almost feel like a parody after a while but it’s a parody that works really well. As long as you are funny then you are good.

Of course, we all know why we’re really here. We’re here for Godzilla! Godzilla and all of the big Kaiju fights that naturally appear when you have this many Kaiju running around. The fights are definitely as good as you would expect. I had a lot of fun with them and you definitely see how Godzilla is known as the strongest here. He has a tough time with some of the Kaiju, usually because they land a cheap shot or gang up on him. One on one though? Always bet on the King of the Monsters without a doubt.

One thing that keeps the series from going further up though is that it doesn’t really do anything you haven’t seen before. The comic is a take on what would happen to the real world if Kaiju suddenly appeared and started terrorizing everyone. I get it, everyone wants to take a crack at that because the initial confrontation is always a lot of fun. People like seeing the origin but after a while I would argue that it is time to try a few different directions. While I didn’t care much for the pirate or Greek stories about Godzilla time travelling, it was a different direction. Lets have a story where Godzilla warps to the future and has to deal with a more advanced army. Maybe a story where he is stranded on an island filled with tons of monsters and has to get out. May sound a bit like Godzilla in Hell but you could do some things to differentiate it without a doubt.

I guess some credit I should give it here though is some of the human reactions. A lot of times in a story like this you typically have all of the humans panicking about these crazy giant monsters running around and all that. I get it but I think in real life you’ll have a lot of people who think its a hoax, others who think the Kaiju is friendly, and others who go about life as normal. This comic did a good job of getting a bunch of varied reactions from everyone. Even if some of these were used for comedic purposes, I actually think it was pretty realistic and more likely how people would react. Nowadays people are jaded enough where the craziest things ever could be happening and you’ll still have some people memeing and having fun. It’s just how it is.

Overall, Godzilla Library Collection Volume 2 is a lot of fun. I’m always up for more Godzilla comics and right now there are technically still a ton of issues I have not read from a bunch of different titles. At least now I can scratch this one off the list. It was not really doing much out of the ordinary so I don’t think it will rise up as one of the top ones but it was still good. For the next Godzilla comic I will hope for slightly stronger art and maybe a more unique plot. How have we not had some kind of big Kaiju tournament yet? That would be a lot of fun and is an example of a classic scenario that you could do well with.

Overall 7/10

Mashle: Magic and Muscles – The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc Review

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It’s time for the return of Mashle. The first season was definitely great with a solid balance of action and comedy. This one follows it up pretty well with more of the same. We finally meet the big villains in this batch so you know that things are getting real. No problem though, the story still makes time for the humor and everything so the balance isn’t lost. In a lot of ways Mashle feels like a retro Shonen Jump title that could have stood in there with the classics like Naruto. It embraces the common Jump scenarios while also having a lot of fun with them.

After the events of the last season, everyone now knows that Mash has no magical abilities. This means that there are a lot of people who resent him and think he should not be allowed to take the Divine Visionary test. An appeal is made to the principal but fortunately Mash is allowed to stay on. The one catch is that the stakes have now been raised. If Mash doesn’t become the Divine Visionary then he will be murdered. There will be no escape for the guy. It’s a pretty tough situation to be in but then again, this only matters if he loses and Mash is confident in himself. We begin the next round of the tournament but of course the villains are also waiting around the corner.

The 12 episodes really go by very quickly here. It feels like the season ended as soon as it had began but I suppose that just talks to the quality of the show. As always Mash is a fun main character. I would say he is even better in this season because he has more tough dialogue with the villains. At one point he declares himself to be the strongest and in general he doesn’t shy away from any fight. It’s great to be strong but it’s even better to know that you’re strong and so I really liked the confidence there.

Innocent Zero is a pretty great villain right from the jump. The guy has big plans, big connections, and he is generally in control the whole time. That’s the kind of thing that you look for in a villain without a doubt. He also has the power to back his tough talk up as he is probably the strongest fighter in the series right now. His time abilities are super intense and then he gets another power up during the season. I was also glad to see him defend Mash during the early court hearing. It may not be for the right reasons but I’ll still take it. Innocent Zero is also a rare villain who may specialize in long distance attacks but can still hold his own against anyone in close quarters. Now that’s a perfect balance.

While we meet all of the visionaries, most of them haven’t had a chance to do anything yet. Ryoh leaves a great impression because he actually seems reasonable and defends Mash the whole time. Why would you possibly want to murder the kid who is you best hope against the villains? They’re all so brainwashed about the whole magic society part that they even go against their own best interests. Now that is a bad look if I’ve ever seen one. So some of the visionaries definitely get docked a bunch of point for this either for being against Mash or just being on the fence about this.

Wahlberg looks good in the fight but I still have to take points away for how he handled the Mash situation. Put it this way, he’s the principal and yet he is letting this whole debate go on. He should have rushed in there real quick and shut the whole thing down. All he has to say is that Mash will continue to be a student here and ask them what they want to do about that. He could likely beat most of them although if it’s a team battle it would probably be tricky. I just think he should have flexed his power a little more and actually tried to make a difference. Otherwise he’s really not using his position to his advantage. The guy’s way too passive which is my problem with him.

Orter is the biggest prosecutor in terms of trying to get Mash murdered. He wants that guy to be absolutely executed right away but fortunately there aren’t any other members who are quite as deranged as he is. This guy actively hires other villains to go and get Mash. You’re looking forward to someone taking him down at some point. Fortunately Rayne is one of the characters who is actually trying to defend Mash and he does a pretty good job of that. His abilities are really good and while I’m a bit surprised that he didn’t crush Margarette harder, I’d say it’s implied that Rayne is still stronger. He’s a divine visionary for a reason after all.

In some ways Kaldo likely seems to be the most impressive. He did really well when testing Mash to see just how good he was. The guy was holding his own with speed and apparently he was even holding back? Yeah that’s not an opponent to take lightly and his sword looks really cool. I definitely look forward to seeing more of him. Of course Mash’s usual friends are still around as well. Lemon actually has her big moment where she makes a big speech and defends Mash’s honor. Finn still does his best and he has a good durability moment where he stays conscious long enough for Mash to show up and save the day.

Lance and Dot take a more active role in helping out as they fight a bit. Dot doesn’t look super impressive but what else is new right? Lance does well at least and even manages to defeat an opponent while reverted to the body of a child. Now that’s a pretty good feat and definitely nothing that Dot could have matched. I still like Lance a lot as a rival even if Mash already left him in the dust big time. He’s never going to catch him at this rate.

For the villains, there were 4 main ones in this season. First up is Margarette who gets a lot of hype early on. In the first encounter with Mash, Mash actually does a big seismic toss throw to take Margarette down for the count but it doesn’t work. When you see Margarette get up without any injuries, that’s the exact moment where you realize that this is no ordinary opponent. It’s a fantastic way to generate some hype right out of the gate. The hype doesn’t stop from there and it’s a really good fight for the two episodes. I may not love Margarette as a character but you can’t deny this level of power.

Carpaccio is more of the twisted villain type. He likes inflicting pain and his ability is perfect for it since he automatically reflects all pain. Super handy, after all who wouldn’t want to be effectively invincible right? His match against Mash is definitely fun and you have to say that it’s probably the worst matchup for the guy. Mash is probably the only character who is crazy strong enough to take the damage each time and then return blows even harder. That would really be pretty much impossible for the rest of the character. I wonder if murdering Carpaccio would just get reversed before he dies or if that’s a way around the power. Either way it would be really risky to try that.

In general the villains have some rather broken abilities here. Sitter Baby is another one of them. He can turn his opponents into babies which dramatically reduces their stats. it’s a real intense power to be sure and all the guy needs to do is quickly smash his opponent or always have a partner. Either way I’d say the heroes basically got lucky here. It easily could have gone sideways very quickly for them here.

Finally you have Cell War who is a really fun villain. His ability itself isn’t quite as broken as the others but he makes up for this with very impressive physical abilities. You feel like anyone other than Mash would have a super hard time trying to block all of the rapid blows. This guy can shoot tons of spikes at you and also use them to make other kinds of weapons. It’s really an endless barrage that just keeps on coming. I thought he was a very impressive villain even if he couldn’t ultimately keep up. Few can keep up with Mash.

As always the soundtrack is super good for Mashle. I think this is one of those things that really helps the anime to keep on elevating things. It’s really cool to know you are always going to have a great track accompanying a great scene. It’s the way to go. The opening also gets real catchy this time and is a big step up over the season 1 theme song which never really caught on for me. The animation is also really solid here. They have fun with the chibi gags which hold up really well and then for the fights there is a whole lot to enjoy. The fights move quickly and have a lot of action to them. The movement is on point and it never slows down.

The technical elements do not betray the series by any means. So now you’ve got great characters, a great story, and the whole thing is completed with the solid humor all throughout the show. I’m definitely hyped for the next season to keep up this momentum. A lot of the upcoming villains already look cool from the brief look we got at them. Also due in part to how the show still lets us have a lot of slice of life moments and comedic scenes, you’re already use to all of the characters. So you want to see them continue to show up and really get some more fights in there. I really enjoyed the climax in the manga and so I bet it’s going to be extremely awesome in the anime as well.

I mentioned that the show goes very quickly and part of that is due to the really fast pacing. There’s always a fight going on or some kind of gag. You aren’t given much time to catch your breath with the fast paced nature of the show. It makes a lot of sense with how chaotic the school is in general. I do think this is a show where bad animation could have hurt it a lot since you do want the spectacle to show off what Mash can do since that is part of the fun. If he didn’t look impressive then it hurts the entire gimmick/concept.

Also, as strong as Mash is, he isn’t quite the strongest in the verse. So that’s another difference from One Punch Man, there are actually enemies who can take this guy down. Mash is given quite a bit of trouble in his fights in this season and can’t do anything against Innocent Zero. So no worries, there is still a lot of danger in this one. There is a bit of plot armor in regards to why the villains don’t just crush everybody right now though. It would have been a simple enough task and then there would have been nobody around to fight them off later on. Zero definitely fumbled the bag right there.

Overall, Mashle continues to ride all of the momentum from the first season to great effect here. It goes even farther than the first season did and I expect we will see similar success with the next season. At first glance you may figure this is just some kind of One Punch knock-off but I can assure you that it definitely has its own identity. As long as you like good action and humor then you should have a really good time here. Mash choking someone with a creampuff is probably the best gag in the series but in general the series is super funny and the jokes tend to really land. It’s a great all around title that does not really have any weaknesses. I’s all positive here.

Overall 8/10

Bass: Time of Reunion Review

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It’s time for a oneshot about the best character in all of media. Bass has returned and he’s ready to really dominate as always. Many people forget this but Bass is the strongest character of all time. Who can possibly challenge the guy? Well, in this chapter some tough fighters like Megaman try but they are definitely found lacking. It’s nothing to be ashamed about though, it was…inevitable.

The special starts off with Searchman and the army trying to take down Bass but they are quickly routed. Surprisingly he spares their lives. They then go over to Lan and Chaud to ask for their help. Basically Dr. Cossack is dying and he wants a chance to say his final goodbyes to Bass. They all figure Bass won’t come quietly so they’ll have to try and defeat him. Lan agrees to help since he’s ready for a fight and Chaud’s not one to be left out. Do they really have a chance though or is this a suicide mission? One wrong move and they may end up being confined to oblivion!

Trying to mess with Bass definitely doesn’t sound like a good idea under any circumstances. Serenade makes a quick appearance and also confirms that this may be ill advised. For starters, trying to kidnap Bass to make him meet up with Cossack seems a little iffy right? That’s not a great reason to kidnap someone in general. It’s certainly not as if the planet is at stake or anything like that. So that’s the first problem here. Then of course there is also the matter of his power. Serenade crushes Megaman and Protoman while admitting that Bass is even fiercer. Still, they are eager to try.

It was fun to see Serenade for sure. Then in terms of the actual fight, the art is top tier as always. It’s great to see Bass taking everyone on again like in the good ole days. People forget but Bass was the original powerhouse. He speed blitzes Megaman and Protoman while dealing massive damage the whole time. It’s great to see that he has not lost a step. Even with Hubstyle and Double Souls combined, it’s clear that Megaman wasn’t quite strong enough to be of any real danger to Bass. Bass wasn’t afraid of anything the whole time, nor should he have been. He doesn’t even have to resort to Beast Out or his own Hubstyle at this point. He’s just at a completely different level.

One thing you will notice is that Bass is quite a bit nicer here. He seems to have mellowed out a whole lot since the events of the manga to the point where he actually spares people at times and doesn’t mind talking things out. The old Bass would never have humored the heroes the way that he did here. He’s definitely had a whole lot of character development over the years. So it all works out okay here but I do agree with Serenade that Megaman and Protoman were in the wrong the whole time. So if Bass had wanted to murder them then he would have been fully in his rights to do so. You can’t just go trying to take someone down like this.

I wouldn’t say that the oneshot opens the door to future sequels I’m afraid. So don’t get your hopes up for that but even just getting another look into the world was fun. Megaman NT Warrior is still my favorite manga of all time and everything is exactly as it was. The art still looks super intense and the writing is on point. It just goes to show that there are still a ton of different stories you could do within the series. There is a lot of ground left to uncover. It may be tough to come up with enemies who can be a real threat at this point but then you could do some prequels or something. Lets just get more Megaman content around.

Overall, This is a really fun one shot. I’m also impressed at how long it was. It’s almost like a full volume with around 100 pages at the ready. The author really knows how to craft a good story. Outside of the battles the humor was also pretty fun. I liked the banter between Lan and Chaud. They definitely haven’t missed a beat there. The series always had top tier action but would take a break for some comedy every once in a while. It’s a good mix I would say. You should definitely check this out. It’ll really be very nostalgic as well.

Overall 8/10

The King of Fighters XIII: Global Match Review

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King of Fighters XIII definitely surpassed my expectations here. The instant it had a real story mode and not just throwing cutscenes into arcade mode, I knew it was quite literally built different. This was a game that was putting the story first and I was all here for it. There are even branching paths so you can see different versions of the story and more added context as you play through the game. I ended up getting 60% of the cinematics on my first run.

The story concludes the big saga of the villains trying to revive Orochi and using their cosmic powers to get in everyone’s way. Ash gets a big role in here as he stole Iori’s powers last time and is working on getting Kyo’s now. If the old lead isn’t careful then he is going to be taken down. It’s a really good premise to get you pumped up and I greatly enjoyed the intro. We got to see all of the old leads like K and Kyo and then it ends with the lead being attacked. This game just has the most focus on story by a longshot and it was an excellent idea. I always feel like this is the perfect way to really get you focused up for what is about to happen.

The story definitely doesn’t disappoint. We get a lot of fun illustrations the whole time as the plot moves forward and a ton of dialogue. I didn’t even see all of the paths as I mentioned before so they added a ton of content here. It almost felt like a visual novel at times here. I should also mention that there is another King of Fighters tournament going on here of course. That’s always got to be a factor here of course. Why would there not be a tournament?

It should come as no surprise that the gameplay is great as always. The graphics look really sharp here once again and the movement speed is really good. I felt like the bosses were also designed better so you got to actually play against them. It wasn’t a matter of abusing loopholes or cheesing the opponent out. Instead you were actually fighting them mano a mano the whole time and that was a much better idea. So I was really glad to see that, it’s definitely the way to go.

You feel more of a sense of triumph when you win as opposed to just exhaustion and wondering if the boss is still more skilled than you are. Here, the boss is still rather difficult but it’s nothing crazy. The boss is way aggressive and like a real player will leave openings for you to attack with. I will say that the second to last boss had such long animation cycles though. When he grabbed you, you could basically close your eyes and rest a bit because then he keeps on punching you in the stomach and taking forever to get on with it. He’s a very dramatic fighter to be sure. I feel like it would probably be funny to see anyone using those combos in a competitive tournament assuming that the character has these moves when you play as him.

In terms of the paths in the game, usually you will have a choice for example to see what’s happening at the tournament or what Ash is doing meanwhile. Typically I went with the Ash plot since I figured it would be more intense but you’ll probably want to try them all. When I googled how to get the true ending, there seemed to be quite a few requirements to even get the chance so good luck. Definitely not a pushover by any means but that adds to the ever expansive replay value of the game.

You have the endless vs fights, getting all story mode paths, and of course getting the Platinum trophy in the game. By the time you’re done with that I’m sure you will have spent a ton of time on the game. Additionally, here are a lot of characters to play around with so you’ll want to test them all out and see which character you are best with. I’m actually starting to like the grappler characters in this game. It feels so satisfying when you land a command grab out of nowhere and it deals a ton of damage. A super throw is what won me the final match after all. I was about to lose otherwise.

Overall, King of Fighters XIII is a great game. I dare say that it is easily the best of the early games although calling it an early game is probably misleading. I think XV is probably still the best overall but I’d need to think about it. Either way the latest 3 games are the top 3 overall which is cool because it shows that the series is in its peak right now. They need to bring us some more games but bring back this expansive kind of story mode. It really does help the series go to the next level and doesn’t feel like it should be a giant ask. If there’s any King of Fighters game that you should get, this may even be my first recommendation because of the story.

Overall 8/10

King of Fighters 2002/2003 Review

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King of Fighters has had many games over the years. There are very few who can say that they have played all of them. Even for me thanks to the elusive 99 I won’t be able to say that but I will have basically played through the whole series so that feels like a rather massive W if you ask me. These two games are pretty fun and continue the game on a rather high note.

First up the 2002 game doesn’t really have a story. So for that game you’re really playing through the arcade mode to have a general sense of the controls and you get to beat up a revived Rugal again which is always intense. Definitely not a boss that you want to mess with. In 2003 you’re mainly playing with Ash as you try to get more power and then get wrapped up into another big villain conspiracy. Looks like the Orochi factions aren’t quite done yet but Ash can hold his own.

At this point King of Fighters has so many different factions and it’s always fun to see all of them being active a the same time. That’s not something that you usually see so that’s pretty different compared to other fighting game titles. You have the Orochi revivers, the NEST remnants, Ash basically counts since he’s trying to absorb more power, Rugal’s kids, etc. The game would really be able to do a whole lot as an RPG with this many characters to play around with.

The gameplay is pretty classic as you would expect. There are different mechanics that get added and removed as the games go on but the classic core of the gameplay is still the same. Use your attacks and special moves to take your opponents down. The arcade mode will take you down the path to taking down the main villains. After playing so many of them in a row, I do think it’s impressive how consistent the games are. They all tend to generally follow the same patterns and schedules.

It’s mainly the story that changes and of course some specifics in the actual gameplay like I mentioned. I wonder if the hardcore fans could immediately tell you which game it is based on the win screens after a match. That would be a fun test for some of the more intense fans. I naturally wouldn’t be able to clear that quite yet but I do think I would be able to put up a decent fight since they’re all really fresh in my mind.

The graphics are good as always. I definitely have no problem with them. I do miss Terry’s old design with the cap but since he gave it to a girl at the end of one of the games, it makes sense that he no longer has it. It was so iconic though. I forget if he ever gets it back in the newer games but hopefully he does. He still has it in all of the spinoffs after all. The soundtrack is also good. I felt like we got some more memorable tracks this time around although it might be difficult to find them. I suppose I’d just have to listen to the full soundtrack to pick it out.

As always there is no limit to the replay value here. Just keep on playing with a friend and you could do that all day. If you’re only playing by yourself then that might not be quite as fun but that’s always been the case historically. So it’s not unique to King of Fighters or anything like that. These games were made to be enjoyed by everyone and that way you can also learn how to fight the right way. In a lot of ways fighting the computer teaches you the wrong things since you are focused on exploiting the AI and your moves may not be optimal. Like overusing the jump kick to sweep kick combo may work on the computers but if you keep on doing that against a real opponent then you’re going to be countered real hard.

As always get ready for some real crazy final bosses. These aren’t the craziest to be sure but you’ll likely still die a few times an need the bonus. It’s still very impressive that the bosses are always this tough though. It’s like a point of pride for the series and it is definitely well earned. That kind of difficulty doesn’t just appear on its own. The developers had to work really hard on that one.

Overall, These two games were fun as expected. They had some fun tunes and the gameplay was good as always. You really get to test your limits in these games as well as your reaction times. You’re not going to go down very easily that’s for sure. I’ll be having more King of Fighters reviews up pretty soon so get ready for that. It is definitely a really fun franchise and if the developers were willing to go just a bit harder with it on the next big title, it could really start to make waves on the fighting game scene. Give us a story like Street Fighter V or what Tekken always has. The characters in KoF and their backstories are definitely detailed and expansive enough to support this.

Overall 7/10

Mega Man World 3 Review

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It’s time for another Mega Man adventure! This time around we actually have a full volume’s worth of chapters to tackle Mega Man World 3 so the pacing is a whole lot better. This is much more in line with what an adaption of a video game ought to be. Each robot master and his stage get a decent amount of screen time before Mega Man dispatches them. This is why he is the Blue Bomber, the hero of legend. He will continue to fight and win for as long as humanity needs him.

The story starts with Mega Man visiting a beach while on vacation and looking forward to having a good time. He seems surprisingly lazy as he isn’t thrilled to help Roll out with the preparations but reluctantly he does his part. The festivities are short lived though when it turns out that wily is causing chaos to unfold on the planet. He has a bunch of evil robot masters and together they are doing a bunch of evil things. The only way to stop them will be for Mega Man to destroy each and every robot master. Does he have what it takes to vanquish these foes though or is it all over?

Like I said, this time each of the bosses gets something to do so I definitely appreciated that. Mega Man actually has to contend with each of their special abilities and figure out how to counter them. In quite a few of the boss battles they even show him using the weapon that is super effective against the boss. Works like a guidebook to an extent and the series even gives tips about some sections within the manga itself. So that’s some really nice attention to detail and it’s the little stuff like that which makes you feel like the writer was really paying attention to the game. He knows exactly what was going on with the levels and was given enough of a page count to do it justice.

It also has an extra impact since I just played through the game and I recognized all of the areas that were referenced here. The manga feels like an extended boss rush of sorts you could say as the main focus here at all times is for Mega Man to thoroughly crush everyone in his way. He really doesn’t get a break as he will beat one boss, then the next one shows up, then an army of minions appears, etc. It’s a good thing that as a robot he doesn’t get tired because otherwise he would really be in rough shape there. It’s not easy being the Blue Bomber but someone’s go to do it.

The art looks pretty solid here. Perhaps not out of this world or anything like that but it certainly does the job and leaves you satisfied. The action scenes are al on point and the artist draws the characters well. Everyone is immediately recognizable and the pages are very easy to read. It’s part of why you will be blasting through the series because the quality is so good.

Mega Man is the kind of franchise that was made to have a bunch of manga titles. It’s a simple plot that is still always an interesting one. The storylines for each of the games always guarantee that you will be getting a lot of action as well. So it’s really a win/win no matter how you slice it. What I would like to see down the road is Proto Man or Bass showing up though. Even if they weren’t in the game, at least give them a cameo in the manga or something right? That would be awesome. The secret boss for this game was Punk and he get a solid appearance. I’ve always liked his EXE counterpart and I can safely say that the classic one is good too. He really gave Mega Man a tough time.

Overall, Mega Man World 3 is definitely a fun Mega Man story. I wouldn’t say it stands out per say as you will probably mix it up with other Mega Man stories eventually but it still does execute every scene rather well. So even if it is by the numbers, there are no real negatives that I had with it. I could easily recommend the title to any fan of a good action title or if you just wanted a quick read. It’s an entertaining story after all with themes that anyone can appreciate. Sometimes you have to stand up and save the world even when it’s hard. If it was even longer then we could have really dove into some scenes outside of the battles but the author really had the priorities straight here. Most importantly, the manga is just fun to read and that’s always an automatic W.

Overall 7/10

The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training Review

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It’s time for the return of the Bad News Bears! Unfortunately they have lost all of their skills from the last film so in a way you could almost treat this as a pseudo remake/reboot instead. As you’d probably expect, the most entertaining characters tend to be the adults while the kids can be more on the annoying side. There is definitely a lot of in fighting among the kids as they all get in each other’s way. They are not a well oiled machine.

The movie starts with a lot of Bad News for the Bears. Their coach is gone along with their top tier pitcher and also their best overall player. They’re going to be travelling to Texas to take on one of the best teams out there but as they are now they would be absolutely crushed. So they have to do something about this but what is there to do? Well, first thing’s first, they are going to need a coach. Kelly has a plan on this and meets up with his father Mike hoping that he can help. The two have a very strained relationship as Mike left the family and it’s been years since they met up. Mike agrees to help out but is Kelly actually okay with this?

In a lot of ways Kelly is probably the most annoying character here. I say that because he asked Mike for help and Mike agreed to do it. That should have been the end of it but then you have Kelly still throwing fits and not being sure if this is what he really wants. Mike decided to be the bigger guy and help out, Kelly should be grateful about this. You don’t have to be best friends or anything like that but I would at least expect some basic common courtesies and respect. Instead Kelly is just super ungrateful during the entire film. At the end he has his big emotional moment where he admits that he would have went looking for Mike even without the baseball experience and I have my doubts on that. So it undercuts the emotional vale of the moment just a bit.

We do get a lot of Baseball so that’s good at least. It’s a little rough to see the main team doing so poorly though. They get absolutely smoked at first which doesn’t make much sense. Yes, without their star pitcher they will give up more runs but they can’t even hit the ball anymore. That’s just plain embarrassing. Maybe the team isn’t quite as into Baseball as they try to get us to believe. They’re just in it for the fame and fortune.

It would also be nice if they could actually get along for 20 minutes without always trying to fight each other right away. There are so many moments in the film where the characters are on the bus and just start fighting each other. It always has to be broken up and you are reminded that the players are not very professional at the moment.

I felt bad for their fake coach who they manipulated in order to leave town though. The poor guy wasn’t actually invited to go along and was probably stressed the whole time. After all it would be easy for any parent to run into him and then what can he say? The guy was not particularly smart which is part of why he was easy to fool but by the same token that means it would be easy for him to spill the beans as well.

The film can also go into some rather generic territories. For example there is one kid who talks really tough throughout the movie. He’s the new pitcher and one of the best in the business. Well, of course it turns out that he can’t play. In fact he can’t even pitch a slow ball. He is possibly the worst player there at first and that’s rough. So that was definitely a bit much, I’d have preferred that the tough talking kid be someone who can actually hold his own. In a way that would have been a good twist.

Now I will say that the climax is pretty solid though. The idea that the kids’ match would be grounded so the adults could play does feel like something that could happen. I wouldn’t be shocked at least since the average fan wouldn’t care about the kids game too much. Sure there would be a lot of outrage and a public apology later on but in the moment? Yeah that could happen but I was glad that everyone united to stick up for the kids. It was a good climax and solid way to end things.

Ultimately the movie is just a bit more aimless than the first film. The first Bad News Bears had a very solid plot with an interesting angle and we got a good film out of that. This one is trying to copy a lot of the same plot elements which don’t work quite as well the second time around. Some of the plots are new like Kelly and Mike but that one wasn’t executed super well. I felt like a lot of the reasons that Kelly was made at him made no real sense. It was forced drama to extend the film and you didn’t really need that. Give us more scenes of Mike training the team so they can be a solid unit instead. That would have been better.

Overall, Bad News Bears 2 is an okay movie but probably not one I would really want to rewatch. It’s not bad but it does come across as rather pointless at times. You feel like there just has to be more to this film than what you’re seeing but then that doesn’t change as the film ends. There were some good ideas in concept but they just weren’t executed. The film is also a little restricted since most of the characters are kids and they don’t tend to be nearly as interesting. You just need to really enjoy the kids having their little banters and skirmishes. Otherwise this will definitely not be keeping up and I would recommend you watch most other mainstream Baseball films instead.

Overall 5/10

Bendy: Fade to Black Review

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It’s time for a spooky adventure in the Bendy verse. I don’t read very many books nowadays so it’s always fun once I get to jump in again. This is a solid one that is rather low key for a while but then the climax feels like the Bendy games. While parts of the writing may have felt a bit off to me, I was definitely engaged with what was going on. The ending is really worth going through the whole book as it takes the adventure in a bold direction that I was certainly not expecting.

The story starts by introducing us to Rose who is excited to finally be working. She has a job at a local media company where she will be helping out on the Bendy show. Her job is more of a background one as she gets papers ready, delivers coffee, etc. Still, it’s a pretty good way to start an eventual climb into stardom so she is definitely ready for all of this. Unfortunately what she doesn’t realize is that Joey Drew is a rather suspicious fellow. He can seem nice one moment and then completely deranged the next. This may be quirky at first but the problem is that he is legitimately dangerous. If she doesn’t watch her step then it will be all over for her.

Of course if you’ve played the games before then you already know that Bendy has become an evil monster. Well, that may not be exactly accurate but you should play the game to really see the lore as there are a lot of good twists and turns. For simplicity’s sake though I’m going to be calling the main monster Bendy. Bendy destroys all who oppose him and in the game we see how Joey rambles a lot and really went down the wild side. He would do anything to protect his creations and make his show the best in the world. So this is like a prequel where we still see him in the early stages of this. He has his ink machine and is creating monsters.

One thing I liked about Joey here is that he’s unapologetically evil. He’s not saddened by how his creations are doing more harm than good. He’s not talking about regrets or anything like that. Joey just spends the whole book laughing about how great he is and what a success the whole thing is. He has no sense of loyalty and this was always part of the plan. He would destroy everyone in his way because that’s what he does. It’s just refreshing to have a complete villain like this and he has some of the best dialogue in the book.

Unfortunately Rose is unable to be his perfect contrast here. As the lead I don’t think she was able to hold her own or be nearly as interesting. For starters her dialogue makes her sound like a little kid the whole time. I do think this mainly falls on the writer but it’s easy to forget that she’s close to being an adult. Part of her character is about being really optimistic but there are many ways to do that without making her sound like a kid you know? That’s where my problem with her is. She has her big moments where she tries to talk tough to Joey and the others but for the most part she freezes under pressure and just ends up taking the L.

I give her props for doing her best in a rather tough environment but I would have liked a tougher main character. She is considerably better than her little brother though. That kid fell for every trap from Bendy and it didn’t make any sense. He was super annoying the whole time and the whole book would have been way better if he could have at least seen through one trick or two. He was consistently holding everyone back the whole time. I know that he’s a kid but even so, Rose actually warned him in advance about Bendy and the kid still let himself be bossed around.

Her parents didn’t look great here either. Her father has a lot of PTSD from the war so he’s really out of commission the whole time. Her mother tries her best to keep everything secure but seems to have very little sympathy for what Rose was going through. The heroine has done her best for years but one slip up where she lets out a yell and everyone’s upset? They should be upset at her brother for scaring her when they’re all in a tense situation. There are a few supporting characters around as well like the boss of the big media company. He’s a lot of fun. You can bet that Joey won’t be talking to him any kind of way because that guy’s just too good. The secretary also seemed nice enough.

Her friend at the job was nice enough even if he did panic though. Trying to dismantle the ink machine to keep it around was a super bad idea. There’s a random rich kid who shows up at the watch party and it was a bad moment for Rose as she was basically getting mind controlled with ease in there. She had to be rescued which was not a good look at all. You need to be able to get out of a situation like that on your own or you’re really not ready for the big times. I felt bad for one guy who was turned into an ink creature and has to keep on dying. The Bendy-verse definitely gets real dark at times. It was still naive of them to think that Joey would care though.

In the video games it is all about running from the creatures and hiding where you can. This finally becomes a big thing by the end of the book which is my favorite part. There’s a lot of tension here and an actual body count as well. The book really goes hard here and that climax could really be adapted as a full game at some point. Then of course we have the big ending as I mentioned which is really intense. It also makes sense I would say since someone really didn’t have a chance of returning. No power of friendship is going to work here, logically Bendy already had the situation covered.

Overall, The book has a very slow pace for a little while there. You do need to enjoy the mystery and the slow build up because the action doesn’t kick in until the final chapters. That said, I thought the payoff was worth the build up. It did a good job of bringing everything together so I was definitely satisfied here and am ready for more Bendy books. If you’re in the mood for a book with some spooky events scattered within then this is the title for you.

Overall 7/10