Gender: Male
Status: Single
Age: 30
Sign: Gemini
City: EUGENE
State: OREGON
Country: US
Signup Date: 2/10/2005
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Wednesday, September 23, 2009
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Current mood:  satisfied
It seems like a shame that my shortest list of 2008 was anime, even with events such as Anime Night and Moe Monday, though both of them fell by the wayside. The burn rate for busting through Last Exile and the single stop re-watching of Elfen Lied would suggest a little more enthusiasm. Alas, that wouldn't really be the case. As I out collect my watching schedule, at least I got to share some of these with my friends. _______________________________________________________________________ Appleseed 2 - 6/10 - Still a technically impressive undertaking, and a much better animated one this time around, the new versions of Appleseed almost seem like they're such a huge investment to create physically, that they're forced to stick to an incredibly cookie cutter style plot line. The detail is still incredible, but with the type of lighting and shading they use it really doesn't feel as worthwhile on a blu-ray disc as the other CG films I've tended to collect. Fruits Basket - 8/10 - Simple, a tad stereotypical, and absolutely adorable. I'm glad I nabbed it a few years back, though it was a shame to let it sit for so long even though I was completely enamored with the first DVD. It plays out almost like a more cuddly version of Ranma, but the relationships seem to be spread out a little more smoothly. It's always a shame when a series doesn't really 'end' but I also know how long this comic series has been going on for, so I'm glad they didn't hack in a resolution anyway. Someday I may look into reading it. When I have a LOT of time...  Genshiken 2 - 10/10 - It's hard for this series not to remain fantastic to us. I'm glad we got our hands on the fansubs since there has been no sign of official release since Kujibiki came out. The story and the particular instances are still carried over from the comic and the translation to 'life' is as amusingly iconicity fitting as ever. Truly a show for us dorks. Girl Who Leapt Through Time - 8/10 - As bizarre as the concept is and as equally strange in how they address it, this turned out to be a fantastic drama. We caught it in Seattle during PAX and my companions may have been a little unusual for me to enjoy this type of film (Mike titled it "The Girl Who's Hormones Flung Her Through Time"), but it still made enough of an impression that it was worth adding to the collection when it came to DVD. Last Exile - 8/10 - This series was excellent, it really was! The trouble I have is getting to be more and more common as I recognize so many familiar characters or plot pieces. There are recognizable chapters from Escaflowne and a touch of Captain Harlock to build character, but overall, this was a fantastic world with an incredible epic odyssey.  Macross Frontier - 9/10 - I have always loved Macross, so I may be a bit biased, but Frontier did a fantastic job of carrying on that universe and paying homage to so many of its predecessors (they spent an episode shooting the 'movie' version of the events from Macross Zero). Featuring not one but two J-Pop idols was a scary concept but actually worked remarkably well, and the range of music they slipped in kept it from getting repetitive or grating. After a certain point Chris and I started referring to it as Moe-cross, which, if you know what that means, is definitely accurate, but even with that acknowledgment Chris, the least moe-tolerant of anyone we know, continued to enjoy the show all the way through. Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruha - 10/10 - All we knew going in was that this show was produced by a company we kind of liked and that it seemed to be a bit of a fad (we'd seen the dance on the internet for a while). What we got was a remarkably clever and well written bit of (science) fiction with such an incredibly diverse cast of 'normal' characters. I think the entire group was hooked when we were settled in to watch one type of show as it began, but were completely caught off guard by the time the class rep did her thing. I'm now intent on seeing the manga through, at least. Speed Grapher - 7/10 - The concept of a super powered photo journalist and an escapee from effectively an S&M club was a pretty fantastic setup, and much of the payoff with the crazy villains and clever one-ups-manship that followed was well worth the price of admission. It was just unfortunate that the quality of animation took a dive at certain points (maybe that's just something artists/animators take personally?) and it was a shame that a number of really nice plot hooks were left to die by the wayside because otherwise Speed Grapher was a really awesome little action series with an absolutely awesome opening theme song. They Are My Noble Masters - 8/10 - A fantastic example of one of those random titles I dig up without actually digging too deep into it, I caught the first 30 seconds while I was testing to see if the file quality was solid and was immediately impressed/amused. I soon found out that this was actually based on an adult video game of the same name, but was a 'clean' version fit for TV, but that wasn't enough to dissuade the rest of the group. Many of the clichés are obvious and the resolution is deliberately ambiguous, but this was probably the most successful show we ever had for Anime Night. Great laughs abound! Tsukiyome Moon Phase - 7/10 - Whenever I hear the title "Chibi Vampire" this is the show that comes to mind, but that's just because I haven't read the other one yet. "Neko Mimi Mode" is the thematically appropriate title for Tsukiyome and it's Goth/Loli vampire protagonist. Much of the plot and the lore were actually really strong, but the connecting bridges and the lead in to the 'final showdown' were kind of disjointed, suggesting it may have been animated ahead of the original plot or manga. It's definitely a cute show, though, and very fitting for both goth/loli and vampire fans.  Wolf & Spice - 9/10 - The theme song for this one was what caught me. Just listening to it (as well as paying attention to the lyrics) gives the sense of an incredible and melancholy journey, which is thematically appropriate. When a wandering merchant strikes a deal with a god to end up as his traveling companion and their adventures tend to be in the realm of finance and business you know you've found something unique. I would love to support this show if it ever comes out in the states, but I'm not sure how likely that is. What I'd like more is to get my hands on the short novels it was based on. Those sound awesome!
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Sunday, June 14, 2009
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Current mood:  tired
The movies I saw this year were a little more varied than the games I played, due to both visiting family and having another summer pretty much full of blockbuster titles. Many of the big names warranted multiple showings, particularly when we got our hands on a juicy Blu-Ray or two.
007: Quantum of Solace - 7/10 - It was a little strange going into a James Bond film and having them refer to a previous film since the last time I saw them do that it was Sean Connery shagging the Bond girls, but overall Quantum was an exciting ride, even if they are still keeping it a bit of a gritty ride without all the cool toys and boss battles. 21 - 7/10 - Always fun to see true stories make such entertaining crime drama, the movie adaptation had a pretty good cast of believably smart, and at the same time stupid, characters. They paint a pretty fun picture of Vegas. 10,000 BC - 6/10 - Epic was definitely the word they must have thrown around a lot during production, and it certainly had a blockbuster kind of feel to it, but both the part of me that enjoys a good "fable" and that cares at all for history kind of cringed at most of what I was asked to swallow. I think I just would have been happier with either subtitles or even a better Egypt... American Gangster - 8/10 - True crime is always a little between amazing and disturbing. I now know a little bit more about American history, glamorized as it was, and it was a nice intense drama on it's own. Annie - 8/10 - As a bit of nostalgia I picked up the old 1982 Annie on DVD. I remember watching it on VHS many, many times as a kid, so it was easy to go back to typically out of character song and dance numbers with fond memories. I'd still say it makes an adorable family film. I'll keep it for my kids. Batman: Gotham Knight - 5/10 - I liked what they were trying to do with an Animatrix style approach to the lore of the Dark Knight universe, but I think I had higher hopes after having seen both Animatrix and much of the Batman Animated Series. Alas, in the animated realm of the fantastic, both the animation and the stories seemed kind of bland. Burn After Reading - 6/10 - I'm kind of torn on Burn After Reading because I WANT to like it as a rather black comedy, in particular the roles and fates of Brad Pitt and John Malkovich, but personal experience with both government work and certain character types tried to also make me hate the movie. I can give it credit for being 'just a movie' in the end, so I guess it was alright after all. Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - 7/10 - I still have fond memories of these books and though the movies are visually impressive and overall "fantastic" it really just feels like the keyword for Hollywood films in this ilk is "epic," making it feel like its trying too hard to be the next Lord of the Rings. Fun, and definitely family, but I think I've got more than enough of those. CJ7 - 9/10 - A much more family appeal type of film than his previous outings, this still comes through as a Stephen Chow film with animated acting and I guess you would call it slapstick conversation. It was overall enjoyable and, being a distinctly non Hollywood production, managed some very non Hollywood moments.  Cloverfield - 8/10 - Getting most people past the motion sickness was the biggest hurdle for this film, but I ended up being really fond of it as both a piece of film fiction and as a character drama. Being stuck with them through the entire film, I really enjoyed the roles, and even the stupidity, of the main cast of characters. I also might have a thing for the unconventional type of ending that they gave the film. Dark City - 10/10 - Cheating again on a movie I've seen a number of times previously, we had to have a gathering to watch the Blu-Ray edition when Henry picked it up and I have to say Dark City still stands up as a fantastic thriller and sci-fi film. There's nothing about it that I don't enjoy. The Dark Knight - 10/10 - I will agree to all the praise I've heard lauded on this film since we caught it opening night in the theater. Through and through a fantastic film, a great crime drama, and some phenomenal characterization by the current and late cast, it was great to see a Batman film so sturdy it could stand to not even be titled "Batman." The Day The Earth Stood Still - 6/10 - It's always hard for me to go back and see a classic, even though I really want to. It was absolutely worthwhile to look back and see this bit of film history, learning a lot about the era, the evolution of technique, and even the inside information on classic pop culture, but in the presentation always comes off as feeling sarcastic in its portrayal. Perhaps I'm too used to satire of the golden age, making it hard to take it seriously. The Day The Earth Stood Still - 7/10 - Ironically, having seen the '51 edition hurt my impression of this update. It began really well in the kind of modern day re-imagining that I've been enjoying with things like the Ultimates story lines, and the appearance of Gort was as awe inspiring as his role was originally meant to be, but somewhere along the line things branched a little too far. True, the message had to be updated slightly, but the approach and final resolution seemed a little more cheesed than I had hoped for. Dead Space: Downfall - 3/10 - I'm really starting to get irritated by this new style of 'animated feature' that they are trying to market. It gives me the sour taste of cheap Hanna-Barbera productions under the guise of being marketed to 'mature audiences.' Story is fine (even if I did later find it didn't really help the game very much), but the animation and scene setup were low end at best and the actual script just hurt my feelings. Seeing this ALMOST made me not play the game (for fear that it was anything like it), but I'm glad I got over that worry because I utterly enjoyed Dead Space as a video game. It just sucked pretty hard as a prequel feature. Death Race 2000 - 5/10 - The 70's had an odd type of action movie, mostly involving sped up car chases, so I guess this would be a natural kind of exciting feature that probably would have been on my long Summer list, had that been something I did at the time (or even been alive to do so). But it's hard to go back a lot of the time, it really is. On the plus side there were a lot of gratuitous breasts thrown around and Sylvester Stallone's car had to have made a fantastic Hot Wheels. Death Race - 6/10 - Only marginally better than the original because for every step it took forward to update an old idea, it took two back to make it a horrible movie. Our boss had a special kind of fondness for the original Death Race 2000, though, so this ended up being a company outing. I guess I saw it for free? That's a plus. Eagle Eye - 6/10 - I'll have to agree with my brother that overall this film was just too predictable. It started off with a reasonable setup and even had some cool concept stuff worked in, but presentation and drama were so color by numbers that it just felt like a rerun. WOPR'd beat the crap out of Aria any day of the week. Elizabeth - 7/10 - History and film. I give credit to an awesome representation of 15th century England and beautifully cast and costumed film, I guess I can't say it was hugely exciting for me to see. Enchanted - 8/10 - Playing with the fourth wall always entertains me, so mixing animation and reality in a weird bit of dimension hopping family film was enough to once again help me get over musical numbers. Fido - 8/10 - Some of that satire I may have mentioned earlier, I love zombies on their own, but a retro perspective was icing on the cake. It's always amusing to think how something like this could have been made for anyone other than me and my friends. Forbidden Kingdom - 8/10 - I had to go along for a Jacki Chan/Jet Li combo movie and even with the addition of the 'white ninja' was rewarded with a pretty awesome epic fantasy. It treats itself like a legend well enough to play off being one. The Fountain - 9/10 - So, this one's tricky since I'm still a little bit baffled by how much I actually liked the story and how hard it was to see it with certain people who explicitly hate 'artsy' stuff, but I have to admit I was overall impressed with it's presentation, loved it's juggling of time and space as it told basically the same story three different times, and just appreciating the end(s).  Get Smart - 9/10 - Though I vaguely remember the original series from Nick at Night, I have a stronger characterization of Maxwell Smart from Inspector Gadget exposure and was willing to add this one to my list of Summer movies even before it became a company outing. I was rewarded with the best comedy I saw this year! Hancock - 7/10 - Though I can't claim it was a "bad" film, Hancock was kind of a disappointment to (most of) our group. We were sold on and really enjoyed the early scenarios of a literally 'gritty' superhuman thrown into the world and really just kind of being a selfish prick. Unfortunately that's not what the movie was really about, so we got kind of a decent fable out of it and then left the theater continuing to laugh about that guy's head and the other guy's ass. Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay - 6/10 - It's hard to recreate the magic that an unexpected gem like their White Castle experience created, but Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was at least a good bit of comedy and a fun buddy film with more than its fair share of unexpected bush. It would have been more amusing to have seen them spend more of the movie actually IN Guantanamo Bay, but I think they wanted to make a stoner movie more than they had any inclination to make what might seem too deep of a political statement. Hellboy 2 - 10/10 - I do enjoy Hellboy stories, and though I did like the first movie, I had to admit its presentation was a little lack luster. Guillermo del Toro seems to have earned a lot of clout (and a lot more budget) with Pan's Labyrinth letting Hellboy 2 shine through as the otherworldly epic the comics seem to tread with an almost casual ease. I really hope the seeds they planted in this film grow into a sequel once he finishes with his Hobbit films... Horton Hears a Who - 8/10 - Though I say I'll eventually get around to almost every animated feature, it was a short YouTube clip of Katie that made me stop and check out Horton over Christmas break. A really amusing adaptation of a Seuss story, and a technically inspiring piece of CG, I'll give it a thumbs up. Hot Rod - 9/10 - There are a lot of times that I have trouble calling something I'd seen a good "movie" but can still say I enjoyed the hell out of myself. As an unexpected surprise that Mike just kind of threw on for us while we were visiting, Hot Rod would have been the funniest comedy of the year for me if I hadn't ranked Get Smart as a better overall movie. Incredible Hulk - 8/10 - I don't know anybody who outright disliked the previous Hulk movie, but I think I'm among the minority that really actually liked it, so it felt like a little bit of a step backwards to 're-imagine' it so soon, but as an action film and a summer blockbuster, it certainly delivered. I have to appreciate that they took stronger cues from the TV series when setting up a Bruce Banner on the run, and I REALLY liked that they gave him someone to SMASH this time around. I guess I just liked the 'feel' of the last one a little better (also, hotter Betty Ross). Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls - 8/10 - It was nice to see Indiana back in action, and a really clever bit of work to kind of reverse positions since the Last Crusade, though similar to the strange evolution of the Star Wars franchise, it kind of felt like George Lucas Might have been pushing strange CG visionary buttons on this one. Iron Man - 10/10 - Unexpectedly good for a super hero movie, I guess there's some bit of movie making magic Hollywood is tapping into with the 'millionaire in a suite' type. Robert Downey Jr almost played the role of an alcoholic womanizer a little too well, and I have to give a lot of character credit to Gwyneth Paltrow as his assistant. Definitely worth the Blu-Ray. Jumper - 4/10 - Eh, as an experiment in cross platform promotion it was entertaining to see what they were trying to do with this film, and Samuel L. Jackson can make up for a lot of other poor features, but overall this was a kind of a lazy teen angst film trying to duplicate how awesome the opening of X-Men II was. Juno - 8/10 - Normally I wouldn't get around to seeing a movie like this without having a girlfriend, but I got a lot of pressure from some of my friends (all of which were in relationships) on top of my overall 'fondness' for Ellen Page so I finally caved and got around to watching it on my own (well, with Will, so close enough) and really enjoyed it. I like offbeat, and I love good characters, and I think this odd little film did them both really well. The Kingdom - 9/10 - It's hard to have a movie without the Hollywood feel, but it's really nice to see a good 'police story' that's treated correctly both technically and culturally that managed to keep a lot of the 'action thriller' pieces at bay. King of Kong - 8/10 - An amusing and educational piece on the initial growing popularity of my own love and profession, I got into the film and then a bit of the debate and backlash that came out of it. It may be a skewed perspective, but for a movie it's hard not to take the viewpoint of the director anyway, so it was still really enjoyable.  Kung-Fu Panda - 10/10 - I love animation, but even so, this was a surprise hit for me and my friends. Most of us are only so-so on Jack Black and his humor, but in a good role with good direction, he comes through as a fantastic voice to breathe life into the cartoon equivalent of a fanboy. The action was pretty top notch, the writing was hilarious, and the graphic detail was more than enough to encourage me to nab the blu-ray. Midnight Meat Train - 8/10 - We sat down to watch it as we do almost any horror/slasher flick, looking forward to some laughs and some good gore effects. The resulting movie was much more solid and tense than expected. I really had to appreciate the 'twist.' Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - 6/10 - It took a little while to return to this franchise, and I guess that kind of shows since this felt kind of out of sequence, as if it were trying to force itself into the same old/new generation action heroes that Indiana Jones had done earlier in the year. It really didn't re-capture the feel of the others as much as I had hoped. National Treasure 2 - 7/10 - The first National Treasure was a really fun adventure through American History that did a great job of re-capturing the feel of the old Indiana Jones movies. That's kind of a hard feat to duplicate, though. The first one stretched the imagination of history, but touched on so many bases that it left this second one with a lot less maneuvering room. It was still fun but came off feeling a little more forced. New Avengers - 5/10 - My faith in the American OVA is being kind of crushed by these productions. They're produced at feature length with probably a little more genuine fighting than can actually make it onto TV, but the budget of production and the fact that it feels like its still being aimed to appease children is starting to offend me. New Avengers in particular seemed like it could have been a cool concept to explore, but it would have been much better explored in a comic book form. Likely better written and able to explore deeper drama and trauma before it was time for the next action sequence. No Country for Old Men- 8/10 - As much as I have to admit it was a good solid movie with fantastic characters, it ended up feeling a little too true to life for me to really enjoy it. Many of the characters were flawed to the point of distaste for me, which is an unfortunate disposition on my part because I'd have to say the whole thing was perfectly, believably human. The Page Turner - 5/10 - Now this was kind of a pretty French drama, and I guess I can get over some of the stretches in circumstances that led the movie along, but the overall message of the film seems to be that women are evil, vindictive, psychopaths. Now, I don't know if that's really true or not, but it certainly makes it hard for me to enjoy a movie when I hate the players. Punisher: War Zone - 7/10 - Closer to the real recipe for a Punisher film, we were still missing a lot of Frank's detached determination that makes him such a fantastic comic book character. The film also spent way too much time with Jigsaw and his puny mob doing random amounts of nothing remotely clever for a supposed underworld mastermind. Still, it had some fantastic Punisher moments that reminded us of why we like the guy enough to see the movie after the previous disappointments. Rambo - 8/10 - Extremely reminiscent of the original Rambo role where the out of place man was trying to lead a simple life, I thought this was a great bit of cultural drama about good intention crashing itself against harsh reality. The 'action' was also some of the best portrayed violence I've seen on screen in a long time, fairly accurate to the truth behind caliber. My only disappointment was in the representation of a raiding camp and the hostages they took. I'm no expert, but that sounded a lot more 'tasteful for the audience' than what I've ever heard.  Speed Racer - 9/10 - Another incredible surprise, and a fantastic jump start on the Summer action thrill ride that kept us going until Tropic Thunder rolled around. The cartoon may not have been a favorite going in (I was more enamored with the space based series), but it was incredible how they managed to keep throwbacks to the action, and even the budgeted effects, of the original TV series exciting and artistically appealing. The cinematic 'flair' of the Matrix definitely comes through, with the color and action blown out just as far. I've made the joke that the movie is like epilepsy on a disc (which really shouldn't be as funny as it is true), but it's absolutely a good disc to own in blu-ray! Spiderwick Chronicles - 7/10 - As kind of a sucker for a good fairy tale I was a little interested in this movie even before I set out on my quest to compare movie and licensee games, so I was glad for an excuse to sit down and enjoy this one. The story (or perhaps just the transition) felt a bit forced and it was definitely a little weird having a single child actor play both roles of a set of twins, but overall it was pretty enjoyable. It FELT like lore, so it was pretty cool to see them refer to their own guide for the rules of engagement. End result is that the movie was better than the game, though. The Spirit - 5/10 - I was more excited for this on principle than I guess I should have been. I'd never actually known much about The Spirit other than it had been created by Ed Asner long, long ago, but the adds were sharp, the direction seemed solid and the style was a perfect fit. Unfortunately the lore (or at least the modern interpretation) fell short, and more than a little hoaky. Sometimes it's just hard to look back at the origins of certain themes or tropes, but some re-imaginings have done pretty well, too. The Spirit was a visual treat, but was kind of a 'movie' let down... Stardust - 8/10 - I might have mentioned my penchant for fairy tales, so when I heard of this one I was extremely excited to catch it! Unfortunately I seemed to be alone in that regard as it hit theaters and left, since, if left to my own devices, I usually spend my solo time with video games. I was all over it when it hit DVD, and though I'm still kind of disappointed with the DVD presentation (and features) the movie itself was spellbinding! I thought so at the time, and having read the book since am more convinced, but some of the little plot 'nods' that they fed the audience weakened the film overall, but I liked it overall, and, since having read the book, I have to say I really like 'climactic ending' that they added for the film. In no ways does it really hurt the one from the book, and it feels more 'cinematically' conclusive. Starship Troopers - 7/10 - It had been a while since I'd seen Starship Troopers, and watching it in Blu-Ray could definitely be called a new experience. As such a ridiculously over the top action movie it fits right in with Chris's collection of 80's action and comedy flics. A good group of Space Marines will probably always be the only thing better to see in a movie than co-ed showers. Sunshine - 6/10 - Danny Boyle's work strikes me as very strangely spread. Though, I have enjoyed what I've seen of it so far, so when he went to make a sci-fi space film about what I figured had to be a suicide mission, I was pretty interested. The result was a nice little piece of psycho thriller in space with a bit of Alien setting, a touch of 2001 awe, and just a bit of Even Horizon crazy. I was a little disappointed by some of the extra fiction in science fiction, but, oh well, that seems to always happen to keep the movie going audience entertained. Sweeny Todd - 6/10 - Being unfamiliar with Sweeny Todd, this was my introduction to the musical which was really well performed as a film and beautifully art directed as a mood/period piece. Being that I'm not too terribly fond of musicals in the first place, I contented myself just fine with the fact that this one was about vengeance and murder. There Will Be Blood - 5/10 - There wasn't nearly as much blood as I had been expecting with such a title, but as a character piece highlighting eccentricity, greed, and more than a touch of the crazy, There Will Be Blood was a fantastic examination of one exceptionally over the top oil tycoon. I just wish it had had more of a plot I'd cared about. Tropic Thunder - 7/10 - I guess it shows a little bit about my demographic that Tropic Thunder rates higher for me than the likes of Sweeny Todd and There Will Be Blood, but at Tropic Thunder I walked into knowing I'd get a stupid character comedy, and I most certainly got exactly what I wanted. Ben Stiller is still a hit or miss kind of guy for me to watch, but putting himself on equal footing with the film's other comedy troops I really enjoyed his role. Nobody really seemed to out class anybody else, there was a distinct place for each level of insanity and it was juggled beautifully. Tom Cruise was also surprisingly inspiring in his spot, too. Twilight - 5/10 - Having never read the books, I didn't really know what I was getting into when I joined a large (and fairly excited) group outing to see the Twilight premiere. I actually thought the movie was about some weird kind of back woods albino incest before the car scene and I realized there were super powers at play. Maybe I just don't have enough familiarity with the source material, but the whole thing felt like some tween girls' wish fulfillment RPG, sorta like World of Darkness and Rainbows... It wasn't necessarily THAT bad compared to your average teen movie, but I can't say I was drawn in even as much as something like the Harry Potters. Two Brothers - 6/10 - This was a short and very artistic film that I rented with my mom on a whim. It was a pretty strong character piece about one brother really wanting to do something with his life and his younger sibling doing everything he can to be part of that. It was a cute story, but really just something stumbled upon. Vantage Point - 8/10 - I really enjoy clever storytelling, so a two hour movie about roughly 15 minutes from some half dozen perspectives was absolutely excellent! I felt a little ripped off that the final chapter kind of gave up the formula, but I guess we were running out of guys to follow that could really have filled in any more gaps. Walk Hard - 8/10 - The music for this faux documentary was surprisingly good considering everything, including the titular ballad was basically a joke. That sold me even beyond the kind of corny life affirming drama that worked really well as a comedy. Not necessarily my favorite comedy of the year, but I would still recommend it to almost anyone.  Wall-e - 10/10 - Pixar bought my faith a long time ago proving that whether they make a movie about superheroes or automobiles they're making a movie of as strong a caliber as their tech demo. The animated tale of a robot immediately had me interested, and to be sure it was funny and amusing, but the first half of the movie, almost completely pantomime, told through subtle animation and well placed music, was truly a thing of art and beauty. Then, there's that bit at the end, of absolute passion that makes me tear up every time I watch. That, ladies and gentlemen, is no "cartoon." That's art. X-Files: I Want to Believe - 6/10 - Though the movie was alright, it wasn't really much of an X-Files in the expected sense. It was more of a classic sense, since it was basically a regular episode but taken from farther down the line. It's a slice of the life our familiar characters have moved on to that mentions, but never really touches on the final unsolved mysteries of the old series, the real driving passions that at least I thought I remembered from these characters. It seemed like less "belief" and more "concession."
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Saturday, June 13, 2009
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Current mood:  busy
Another year, another 43 games. I started writing this recap around Christmas, hoping to be a little earlier with it than I was last year, but obviously failed that goal by a long shot. I can only claim that live and work got in the way until about March, after that, it's pure laziness (and research that goes into making NEXT year's list). Anyway, it was another good year for me and my hobby. I'm definitely satisfied with my choice of leisure time activity!
Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations (DS) - 10/10 - The Phoenix Wright games were one of the main sales points that finally got me to buy a Nintendo DS. It remains money well spent as Trials & Tribulations seems to wrap up the Phoenix Wright trilogy with drama and humor that just don't make their way into many games recently. This one managed some awesome (sometimes heart breaking) twists and the introduction of cyber lawyer Godot, who made a fantastic addition to the cast!
 Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice (DS) - 11/10 - I was already pretty happy with the Phoenix Wright series, but this sudden turnabout placing a new young lawyer into the lead to be baffled by strange mysteries unfolding around him was beyond incredible! The roles were switched off nicely, the drama came right back for a good run, and the seemingly discontinuous story arcs were so incredibly well crafted that I was blown away by the end of the game! Apollo Justice left me with the best feeling a game has managed to all year!
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS) - 10/10 - Having missed out on the previous Advance Wars, I wasn't in a hurry to pick this one up, but I got talked into it for a series of multi-player games during our Friday Game Nights. When I actually sat down to the story mode I was richly rewarded by a pretty well crafted war epic strung together by incredible battle sequences that taxed my mind and my fingers. This was an incredibly rewarding strategy game that actually dragged me back to play ALL of the side quests on top of the main story arc. Great fun!
Alien Syndrome (Wii) - 4/10 - Sometimes Friday Game Night also serves to remind
us of how NOT to put together a multi-player game. I understand Alien Syndrome was a port up from the PSP, but I have to wonder if it really had as much appeal there, either. It made pretty horrible use of Wii controls, in some parts actually punishing you for trying to use the pointer instead of the D-pad, and was really just a single character story with 3 clones running around ala Gauntlet. There were a few things it tried to do well, but overall was just lacking.
Alone in the Dark (360) - 6/10 - This is a difficult sell... I guess the Zero Punctuation review might be enough, since it's basically true that there were a lot of GREAT ideas and mechanics made for this game that were just executed in such a horrific fashion as to make the game almost unplayable. I keep telling my industry cohorts that this is an awesome game that they should never play. Really, the best thing would be to see someone else (who's already suffered its wrath) play through it (or at least certain chapters). A lot can be learned from other people's mistakes.
Army of Two (360) - 7/10 - I don't think I ever would have picked this game up for myself, but Chris and I enjoy our co-op action (though typically it involves more zombies or terrorists) so I sat down to give it a go with him. Now as much as I shake my head in shame of some of the writing and concepts that are being marketed to me and my audience, I can't say the frat level of immaturity is unheard of based on some of the news articles I see about some of my peers and the armed forces, so story notwithstanding, I enjoyed the co-op experience enough to run through the game a couple of times with Chris, definitely making it worth his money at least.
Assassin's Creed (360) - 8/10 - Now here was a good title with an incredible amount of ambition and almost as incredible an amount of success to go with it. The story and presentation were engaging, if a little oddly paced between repetitive missions, but the overall feel and play of the game were extraordinary! Taking control of your character in Assassin's Creed FELT solid and responsive, largely due to the incredible work they did in crafting a world where everything is interactive. I can definitely see the complaints where gameplay was repetitive or that side missions were all identical, but that really didn't stop me from just enjoying PLAYING around. Granted, most of the time I was just messing around it involved some kind of murder, but we'll pretend my guy was the 'good guy' in those scenarios.
Boom Blox (Wii) - 8/10 - I'm kind of cheating to list this one, since it really isn't a game I "beat," (I'm not really sure if that's possible) but I got a decent amount of exposure to it in the right type of party environment to enjoy a game along with people who don't necessarily enjoy 'games' in the same fashion. In that regard, I'd have to say it's a huge success. It's managing to do what the best of Wii games do and making what the player EXPECTS to happen do something. Maybe not perfectly, but pretty damn close within the rules of the 'game' presented to you.
 Braid (XBLA) - 9/10 - Now HERE was an unexpected experience. I'd heard good things from people when the game first dropped, and took their word, but was in no hurry to get around to a platform game at the moment. It was only when someone sat me down to the demo and I got a full taste of the ambiance the game gives off that I couldn't wait any longer to give it a proper go. The strange mechanics of manipulating time are awesomely executed, yes, but it really is the surreal feeling the bits of story and the calming, sometimes misleading, music give you that made this an experience beyond just being a game. I almost felt ripped off by the ending, even after doing the stars quests, but thinking about it, the game was never really about the ending for me.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) - 8/10 - It's funny for me to say I'm not much of an FPS fan considering the list of games I knocked off this year, but I tend to at least favor FPS with some kind of hook or catch like L4D's zombie hordes or BioShock's steam punk world. With that in mind, I've never actually played a "Call of Duty" before, and I don't like jumping into a series in the middle, so this one was likely to pass me by. Then, all of a sudden, there was a bit of a retro media whirlwind around the name as I caught it in a few "games as art" threads around the same time that Zero Punctuation did a review. Curiosity piqued, I borrowed it and gave it a go and was overall really impressed with how they handled a lot of the subject matter. Sure some of it was still kind of dumbed down to make it still playable as a game, but it still treated modern warfare and current event scenarios pretty seriously. As always, online multiplayer lost my interest, but whenever they get around to "Cod4:MW2" I'll definitely give that campaign a fair shot.
Castle Crashers (XBLA) - 9/10 - I really enjoyed the style and humor of Alien Hominid, so I was more than willing to give Castle Crashers a fair shot, and it was easy enough to get some co-op going with 3 to 4 player action locally (then online with a touch more difficulty). Conceptually I was sold on the game already, but they won me over as soon as I realized how much of the book of Guardian Heroes they'd borrowed to make this title. The core gameplay and leveling system are exactly like one of my favorite Action/RPGs even down to the air juggling combos (in fact, I think they may have broken it and made it a little more fun by accident!), so this was an easy sell after all. I've played through the entire game about 10 times in various stages with different groups, and though I've only "completed" it about half of that, I definitely consider it time well spent and enjoyment had!
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) - 7/10 - Considering the massive collection of Castlevania games I was building up on handheld systems, I thought it was about time to finally start going through them. Harmony was my first start in the double packed GBA cart with Aria and my first impression of a return to Symphony of the Night which served me well and then managed to fool me when they played on those expectations. Good solid fun with a story as minimalist as SotN, so I have nothing to complain about when this was only half of the package I paid for!
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) - 8/10 - Still in line and a few steps farther than Harmony of Dissonance, Aria actually strung the adventure together with a bit of well developed lore that spreads through multiple games. The soul power system was also nice and deep, which allows for a kind of custom experience as players pick their favorite abilities. I'm looking forward to moving on to Dawn of Sorrow when it's finally Castlevania time for me again.
Children of Mana (DS) - 7/10 - It's always kind of a challenge to make a decently long multi-player game where you might not always have the same players available. I guess the adventurer's hub system kind of makes sense, but the static village you set out from tends to make the games progress feel a little less epic. Less like you're moving forward and more like you keep just taking small outings in a series of different directions. This was a bit of a disappointing feeling from a "Mana" game, but as a Friday Game Night event, we powered through and definitely got our money's worth out of a 4 player DS title.
Civilization: Revolution (360) - 9/10 - This was a surprise. After I went to visit Maria and Josh in Seattle and watched him play a little bit I thought it might be fun to give it a shot, so I got my hands on the office copy and ended up glued to this sucker for a few weeks straight! I had to keep trying a different strategy or civilization or take on the Achievement challenge of getting a city to produce 200 Culture! Every night after work I would sit down to a new campaign and burn through about 4 hours building my empire up from a tribe to the world tyrant they asked for when they tried to kidnap my historic figures! I finally broke myself away and put it back on the shelf before I got sucked into fully challenging the Deity modes, which is probably for the best considering how close victories were coming by the time I was on the second highest difficulty and they were starting to keep me up well past midnight. I may yet return to this Revolution and fill out my conquest.
Dead Space (360) - 9/10 - Now this was NOT a surprise, but I sure as hell enjoyed it! I'd heard a number of good things about the game, and as a fan of survival horror AND science fiction was more than ready to give it a shot when I had the chance. I broke one of my own rules by letting my expectations go up a bit before starting, but am glad that they were never disappointed! The controls were solid, the weapons clever and unique, the enemies were fairly well balanced and utilized, and I just had a blast slicing my way from ship to ship to colony and back again! I still need to give this game another run through on it's hardest difficulty for the full 1000 points, and to give myself that tense challenge when the enemies are more prepared than I am once again. I'll see if I can't rope Zac into checking this sucker out.
Dokapon Kingdom (Wii) - 9/10 - I desperately want to give this game a personal 10 just for the amount of enjoyment/tension it brings to our group on Friday Game Night, but there are enough little bugs and balance issues that I have to admit that's hard to do. Occasional issues aside each of the four party members has driven their characters in a different direction as we fight our way through the money grubbing, cheating bastard world of enemies, encounters, and team killing. There's a reason it's labeled as the "Friendship killing game." We've tested that and found it to be VERY good at what it promises!
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (GameCube) - 8/10 - A LONG time in the works, my Friday Night group finally put this one to bed with actually a bit less effort than I was afraid we'd need based on the experience Chris and I had a few years back. It was still the toughest thing to assemble 4 fully charged Gameboy SP's for a solid evening of Chronicling, but the efforts were pretty well rewarded and the team play seemed to overrule the competitive touches at least within our group. I was thrilled to finally make it to the end of this game and honestly hear (at least the US version of) one of my favorite songs in the ending theme. That was probably more rewarding than any other game experience this year.
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (DS) - 7/10 - Moving on from the GameCube Crystal Chronicles, our Friday group picked up and punched straight through the DS version: Ring of Fates. The co-op experience was overall good and we separated our roles pretty well from the beginning, but when it became clear that multi-player mode was pretty much skipping the game's entire story and going straight from action stage to action stage we were all fairly disappointed. We still beat the entire thing and took our best guesses at what had just happened, then as far as I know, I'm the only one that was playing the single player mode through on my own time, so I ended up seeing the story through on my own a month or so later. At that point I was kind of impressed with what a charming story they had managed to stitch together, but I still wish I'd been allowed to see it the first time I played.
Gears of War 2 (360) - 7/10 - It's hard to refuse the appeal and polish of a massive title like this, and I always enjoy burning through a good action game with Chris, but what actually got me to shell out for GoW on release day was the 5 player horde mode that kept us glued to the network for about two weeks before he and I finally settled down and burned through the campaign properly. I've since given a few runs at the actual "multi-player" modes and come back with the same old "meh" impressions I always get when faced with the Versus community, but as a co-operative experience, I'd definitely have to rank GoW2 above Halo. The story has about as much ham (and a lot more beef), but the actual teamwork involved in both the campaign and the excellent Horde mode really solidified it for me and my regular crew.
Grand Theft Auto IV (360) - 7/10 - I've tried a few GTAs before, but they were never really my thing, so I wasn't planning on picking up IV when it came out. Release day came and my friends who HAD pre ordered it nabbed it and I sat down to watch Chris go about his usually amusing GTA shenanigans. They were whole-heartedly amusing, but the game as a whole seemed pretty much like I'd seen with the previous incarnations and only really interested me from the sidelines. Then he got invited to a multi-player match and the fun really began. I watched him and a few others go at it for about 10 minutes before I had to take a little drive to Wal-Mart and nab myself a copy to join in the fun. We quickly worked our way through trying each of the online games, but it turned out we started to have the most fun just booting up the multi-player lobby and starting to dick around in free mode. This pretty much proved why this game would never succeed as an MMO as a group of anywhere between 4 and 9 of us would go on our own rampages creating our own mini games with the physics, the AI, and the wide arsenal of vehicles at our disposal. I tended to fly air support for the street side rampage as Joel went drifting down the highway at full speed while Chris timed is shots and lobbed grenades at the cars chasing them, but little was more entertaining than actually driving one of the cars we used when doing rocket skeet shooting off of stunt ramps. The amount of teamwork we put into the stupidest multi-player mini games made the full purchase of what I otherwise enjoyed as an average, often frustrating, and rather repetitive single player game perfectly worthwhile.
Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix (360) - 5/10 - I can admit now that this was a research experiment for me as I was starting work on my first movie based title and I have to say I learned quite a bit about the challenges of meeting player expectations while being constrained to a narrative. I have to give the game a lot of credit for it's rendition of the wizard academy, and based on the feedback I got from everyone else I know who played it the game was a huge success for just letting the player be IN the school. Wandering the halls, meeting the students, messing around with magic, and even attending classes was the kind of free-form wizard's life experience the Harry Potter fan base seemed to want, and Order of the Phoenix delivered! Unfortunately (for me at least), that's about the extent of it. I spent quite a bit of time wandering the halls completing side quests and nabbing collectibles trying to get to the next stage of the game only to find out that the next 'stage' was the ending. The school is really built as a nice sandbox, but it wasn't THAT large or varied enough for me to feel like I got a full game out of it by the time I'd finished. But then again, it taught me a lot about what people seem to want/expect from a movie.
Jak II (PS2) - 5/10 - It may have been a long time since I played Jak and Daxter in the first place, but I think I had fonder memories of it than this one would lead me to believe. Now, mechanically, I have to admit what they created was pretty cool in crafting a fantasy city that the player could wander/drive recklessly from district to district passing (through) a crowd of pedestrian traffic. Very GTA. However, when it became clear that most of this city filler was fluff to make the environment feel larger than the game, I started to get tired of missions that arbitrarily sent me from one side of the city to the other. Between those and the 'racing' missions, I started to get really tired of their shiny new vehicle mechanics. The levels (when I found them) were entertaining, but the story and feel of the game seem to have lost something for having gone industrial punk. I guess I'll have to get around to part 3, but part 2 has lowered my hopes for the series and definitely convinced me that I don't need to try Combat Racing which focused solely on the vehicles.
Jumper (360) - 2/10 - Jumper was also a lesson in movie based titles, but a horrible, horrible one to have learned. The concept seemed solid enough as it explored a tangential story of a side character as opposed to trying to recreate a movie through forced mini games, but that side story was so painful, and the cheap gameplay stitching it together was so rough that the whole thing just felt like a cash in cop-out. I suppose this was fairly indicative of the publisher behind it, Brash Entertainment. They screamed eXtreme and hyped such an edgy business model that I couldn't help but fear any project they were behind as being the next level of processed, canned, and rushed to market shovel ware. I can't say I'm disappointed that they went out of business only a few months after I played (read: suffered through) this game.
Kung Fu Panda (360) - 4/10 - Another movie title experiment, Kung-Fu Panda was definitely better than Jumper, but not quite as clever and unique as Harry Potter, as it fell back on the classic 'brawler' school of design where you give the player an attack button or two and throw punching bags at them for ten minutes or so before changing backgrounds on them. The art for the game was really well polished (at least on the 360 version) and it was actually a reasonable length, but the overall design and mechanics felt fairly cookie cutter. I may not have the experience to realize that that's exactly what makes a great "kid's game," but I'm pretty sure I'd like to give kids a little more experience than this.
 Left 4 Dead (360) - 11/10 - I was a little disappointed by the lack of narrative at first, but I've also long since realized that that kind of presentation is not what I'm going to really enjoy about a multi-player game. What we DID get instead was a 4 person fight for survival the likes of which most of our crew has never seen! First time through I thought it was odd to hear our in game characters call out the names of the special infected that we weren't yet familiar with, but at my 50th, I'm actually kind of glad to know these characters are treated as veterans of this scenario, despite how we might have played them in the meantime. We've taken VS mode for a few spins and I have to agree with Chris that playing against the random XBox Live crowd really kind of ruins the experience. If we have 3-4 people, we throw ourselves against the Expert rocks evening after evening. If we can break 6, its time to go head to head and let the random teams sort it out. I've definitely seen my money's worth out of this one!  Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (GameCube) - 10/10 - Many Friday nights and a lot of battery life later we finally put this beautiful little challenge to bed. Definitely different from a standard Zelda experience, Four Swords almost requires a full cast of four players at least MARGINALLY willing to work together and proceeds in a linear stage progression. Having individual characters fall into pits or explore houses by venturing from the television to their own tiny GBA screen or read signs and have conversations privately really encouraged as much communication as cooperation as we proceeded. I strongly recommend playing the game if you ever find a way to do so with three friends and four Gameboy Advances, but as time goes on the chances of these perfect conditions ever aligning grows slimmer and slimmer. Perhaps the DS wireless capabilities can try to push similar projects forth.
Megaman 9 (XBLA) - 8/10 - I don't remember if the original NES Megaman games were THIS hard, but playing through 9 really made me feel like I've been letting myself grow soft and complacent with current games that are a thousand times more forgiving than this little son of a bitch. Perhaps it was a necessity of the days when I couldn't afford games or was privileged enough to be allowed to rent one that I would beat my brain and fingers against it for hours on end to master it enough to see it through, but this 9th Megaman put me up against the Ninja Gaiden breaking point before I managed to finally Whomp Wily at about 3 am. I'm almost a little ashamed that, among my cohorts in a video game studio, I seem to be the only one who saw this game all the way through. Perhaps it was the nostalgia that helped push me to the end, but I know my reflexes aren't the sharpest at the studio, so its kind of sad that I'm alone at the far end of Megaman 9.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (PS2) - 8/10 - When MGS4 entered the house it was time to take a step back and refresh myself on it's chronological predecessor. It had been about years since I'd last played MGS2 so diving back in as Raiden actually took quite a bit of getting used to, but once I was back in practice with my tranq gun, sneaking around and robbing soldiers of their precious identities, I managed to have a blast with this well aged masterpiece. It remains my least favorite of the series, but that doesn't make it any less of an awesome game, and a more than required bit of back story before I took my next step...
 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) - 9/10 - This is without a doubt graphically the most beautiful game I've ever played. The entire world, all it's inhabitants, and the tiny details around them are all so meticulously crafted that you can spend hours just poking at the boundaries of the game and finding interesting tidbits and pieces of hand crafted art that are just there in case you happen to want to find them. The game plays as 'solid' (and then some) as any of the previous ones, answers many mysteries (some beyond satisfaction, and some with a touch of wtf), and presents you with even more options to adapt your own style than I even thought were possible, but on its own would probably be very confusing to anyone who isn't necessarily a Metal Gear enthusiast. In tying up so many loose ends, very little of the game actually starts anywhere except in the middle. And my one lingering regret is in line with something David Hayter, Solid Snake's voice actor, said about the ending... in similar respect for Snake as a character, I think it would have been better without that epilogue.
N+ (XBLA) - 8/10 - I missed this on the internet, but was talked into 'trying it out' when Zac wanted to get some co-op achievements. The amount of sheer pain, frustration, and fun that followed for the next few hours is really difficult to describe! As a tiny ninja you basically can run and jump. That seems standard enough, but the fiendish levels kept our life expectancy below 10 seconds. It was definitely worth picking up for myself after the co-op trials, but I don't think I'll ever beat all 50 levels...
Ossu Tatake Ouendan 2 (DS) - 10/10 - Much like it's predecessor, Ouendan 2 has a charm that's deeper than it's catchy music (which admittedly isn't quite as catchy as the first one) and takes a few hints from some of the adjustments made by the US version Elite Beat Agents to improve the simple fun of picking up and playing for a song or two. For a single player rhythm game experience, this is still the best series I've ever played, and the all new songs and imaginative scenarios are just as amusing and readable as their US counterparts. I really want more of these!
Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village (DS) - 9/10 - A simple concept that really spread like wildfire among my peers, I was happy to share the experience of Professor Layton, and am anxiously waiting for the follow ups! Though it was fantastic for my 'moment of zen' at the end of the day, I kind of regret that I would sit down to some of these brain teasers right before bed when my attention would start to grow weary and some of the obvious solutions ended up escaping me. The downloadable puzzles were also a fantastic addition, and remind me that I'm long overdue to check if there have been any more recently...
Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (360) - 7/10 - Having missed the first game, I jumped on this title a little late, but when Chris picked it up and it had a solid co-op campaign it was worth every second of terrorist hunting even if the story was a little oddly disjointed by the multi-player aspect. Since I never picked it up myself I can't speak for it personally, but I've watched the Terrorist Hunts continue for months ever since.
Rock Band (360) - 7/10 - A hard game to claim that I've 'beaten' but definitely one I've put an incredible amount of hours into, even though I was the member of someone else's band. I made it to the Hall of Fame, but managed to never earn a bus along the way (I was out of town that week). Now that I own my own instruments it would be completely worthwhile to go back and pick up both of these Rock Bands.
Rock Band 2 (360) - 7/10 - It was a natural progression to move from the first Rock Band to this one as the band got better and sought out new venues. The ability to bring over all the tracks from the first game is also one of the best uses of a hard drive I've ever seen a console game use. We clocked a lot of time on the first Rock Band but are already well past that hour mark on its sequel. I wonder how long we can keep on rocking?
Silent Hill: Origins (PSP) - 9/10 - It was a little strange getting used to playing a "survival horror" game on a handheld system, but after I got used to crawling into bed a little earlier, plugging in the headphones and killing the light the experience was just as nerve wrackingly intense as I'd hoped it possibly could be! The breakable weapons kind of felt a little bit weird when I tried to save them for when I 'really' needed them and would end up packing the inventory of an entire Wal-Mart through the later stages, but the combat felt intimidating and the frightful sneaking atmosphere were spot on what I wanted from a Silent Hill game.
Silent Hill: Homecoming (360) - 6/10 - Then there was the 'next generation' of horror and my impressions from Origins ended up going to waste. I got some unique insight on Homecoming from talking to one of the designers from Backbone and I can certainly understand the pressure to base the game more on the movie which was more widely commercialized than any of the previous games, but when they started to part from the surreal and ghostly horror of the mind or one's own personal demons and lean more heavily on the current fad of American 'horror' movies that basically relies on torture and violence there was little saving my hope for this one. Graphically the game is beautiful (in it's own way) and even mechanically its pretty solid (though still glaringly flawed for a "horror" game that doesn't let you run away), but thematically I'm disappointed, and I hope Konami of Japan takes its title back...
Sonic Rush (DS) - 7/10 - After having played through the Sonic Adventures (and a little of the 3D ones beyond) it was really fun to pick up a Sonic game that went back to its roots of fast paced 2D zipping through maze like stages and fight giant pseudo-3D bosses with good old platforming logic and timing. The story was pretty weak, though, and I approved of the concept but ultimately not the execution of re-using the same stages while playing as Blaze the Cat. I could definitely recommend it to anybody who still enjoys classic gameplay, I just felt a little let down by the "other half" of the game.
Spiderwick Chronicles (360) - 5/10 - Another movie title I ended up playing kind of as research, it actually wasn't too bad of game in its own rights, but there were a few glaring design flaws that irritated the crap out of me as I tried to play through. Switching between the characters was kind of cool to use their individual abilities, but the fact that you had to WALK back to the house from the outskirts of the world to do so when you brought the wrong one in the first place was incredibly painful. I also spent a good amount of time trying out all the toys they gave me and poking around every corner of the world I could come to, so at the end of the game, when I ended up with 97 of the 100 ball bearings I would have needed for an achievement and realized there were none left in the ENTIRE world because I'd used a few to try out the slingshot, I think I was understandably miffed. For a young player, though, the exploring and collecting quests were decently put together (and encouraged you to check your notes often) and the action was reasonably well paced. I didn't hate it as much as I was just disappointed personally.
Super Smash Bros.: Brawl (Wii) - 9/10 - I've enjoyed the previous Smash Bros. games enormously, and this one fit right in with their level of excitement, but my disappointment here came from the fact that I didn't have enough people to really play against on the Wii. I'd moved away from my old hard-core opponents and even the Game Night group was only so-so interested since half of them had never really played the previous ones. (though that might be worth revisiting now that only two of us are still highly skilled and we'd gladly kill each other...) The inclusion of the full campaign mode was absolutely astounding, though! Between the incredible scenarios they dreamed up (with loads of cameo characters and Pokemon) all the rendered movies were beautifully done and the whole thing was both a joy and a challenge to undertake! I can't recommend the game highly enough, even if it's just to play THAT mode (and the drop in co-op option in it is fantastic!).
Uncharted (PS3) - 7/10 - Uncharted was undeniably charming and a really solid gaming experience from start to finish. It was also hyped as a flagship title and a masterpiece of modern hard/software for the PS3 and that's where it disappoints. Overall it ends up being much like Heavenly Sword: a great little experience, and definitely pretty, but ultimately as by the book as a game can get and far more restrictive than the marvelously rendered backgrounds want you to believe. Inconsistent ledges, invisible walls, and enemies with better accuracy than your own targeting system will allow kept taking me out of the 'moment' of Uncharted, and that really hurt because enjoying the thrill ride that Drake is on is the biggest selling point. It's a crazy Indiana Jones adventure from start to finish, and even after respawning the quips they added for contextual amusement are fairly fresh and funny, but its still rough around the edges, and nothing ruins a good ride like grinding your elbow against the wall.
Worms (XBLA) - 8/10 - I used to love Worms I don't even know how many years ago, but hadn't considered playing one for a long while until I watched Chris give it a crack on XBLA and start sheep bombing the other teams with his "Snake" themed worms (Solid, Liquid, Solidus, and Naked). Just seeing enough explosions pretty much convinced me that I had to give it a go, so while he was otherwise occupied I picked up the controller and bum rushed the game. What a fun bit of strategy mayhem it was! I definitely consider this game a nice bit of added incentive to pick up a portable memory unit with which it comes packed. (Having a portable profile has been extremely useful for me as well)
Zack & Wiki (Wii) - 9/10 - What a wonderfully unexpected gem this was! I'd heard good things from different sources, but all of it very low key until I gave it a try myself and joined the chorus praising Capcom's little treasure. Being something of a cross between Monkey Island and WarioWare it's as much of a joy to figure out as it is to play. The Wii motion controls are used in precise controlled settings that let their otherwise frowned upon inaccuracy shine! The characters are pretty charming for a puzzle game and the references to Treasure Island are remarkably enticing (though distinctly anime-ized). It never sold terribly well, and dropped to a $20 title relatively early, but if you can find it, Zack & Wiki is more than worth that investment!
 | Currently playing:
Infamous
Release date: 2009-05-26 |
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Friday, September 26, 2008
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Current mood:  anxious
I'm hoping this will also remind me to come back and post pictures/stories about ANY of my recent trips, but with a milestone coming on Tuesday, we'll see how well I own up to that!
Short version is that I really must get my hands on this game! I was a little too strapped to get the Dreamcast version back when, but I'm thinking it'll hold up just fine on the Wii! Whee!
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Tuesday, August 05, 2008
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Current mood:  rushed
As always, it started when Kotaku posted something about this duck:
Will sent it to me and it resulted with:
Me: Pah!
Will: Now you can cook eggs right.
Me: If you remember how to set it!
Me: I'd be happier if they released those B&B unit figures that Snake collected for Sunny.
Will: Heh heh heh
Will: You know, of all the things that were ridiculous in MGS4, I found that acronym to be the worst.
Will: Mostly because, when we were younger, my brother and I used B&B as a written shorthand designation for Beavis & Butthead.
Will: So, in a few parts, the game played very differently for me.
Me: B&B usually is supposed to mean bed and breakfast. And honestly, get them out of that armor and I have no problem with that acronym either.
Will: That, at least, is a little less specific
Will: It's a bit worse when references to an elite combat force simply sounds like a couple of teenage retards.
Me: Well, to be fair, one of them was running around screaming "Rage! Rage!" as if she'd pulled her shirt up over her head.
Will: XD
Will: I can actually imagine her, in that modulated voice, screaming "I am the great Cornholiooooo!" as she's flying away.
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Monday, August 04, 2008
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Current mood: tired
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
Discussing the schedule of our anime watching and the hurdles we come across: Zac - Moe Monday is the highlight of my week, it's not going away :o
Me - We'll finish Moon Phase next time.
Me - Then we only get two of them before I leave for Italy for two weeks, so we'd better do something short.
Me - I'ma stab one of you if I have to leave in the middle of a series.
Zac - Oh god dammit
Me - SEE?!? See what you DID!!!
Zac - I keep forgetting about that shit
Zac - Cancel it!
Me - My brother is a better stabber than I am.
Zac - You have a dang knife!
Me - He GAVE it to me!
Zac - Oh
Zac - Well
Zac - You had better go to Italy then
Me - Yeah. Totally. Also, I needed a reason to post this video Kotaku pointed me to, mainly for myself:
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Sunday, April 06, 2008
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Current mood:  triumphant
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
So, yeah, it took me a while to finally get this thing wrapped up. I guess I should try harder to get my reviews started during Christmas break, but we’ll see how well that goes while I’m trying to squeeze in my last minute movies and finish off ongoing games and anime series before December 31st. (I was SO close to wrapping up Phoenix Wright...). Either way, this is still my personal catalogue, so it really doesn’t matter other than that I finally logged it! Yay 2007!
Afro Samurai - 9/10 - Everything it promised to be! Samuel L. Jackson starring in an incredibly over the top blacksploitation anime! I really hope they are making a longer series of this.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Season 2 - 10/10 - Still not anime, but still top notch excellence, the further adventures prove to be even more enthralling as the series takes a very different turn from most Nick toons.
Azumanga Daioh - 8/10 - Basically a series of miniature skits (based on a strip comic of the same name) featuring an all schoolgirl crew, this one managed to be hilarious and touching at the same time without really veering into the typical echi style the premise would suggest. I should really read those comics.
Bleach (Soul Society Arc) - 6/10 - I liked how this show started and where it looked like it might be going through the first dozen or so episodes as it had pretty cool characters and nice short arcs that only lasted 2 or 3 episodes each. Right about the point I decided I’d watch one more arc and call it quits they pulled a doozy on me and started the REAL first story arc that lasted until episode sixty something. I saw it through, hoping it would turn up the awesome, but I can’t say I was entirely well rewarded. Nifty, but I’m done.
 Full Metal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa - 9/10 - This was an awesome movie, and a fantastic finale to a series that already rated really high in my book. They wanted it to stand alone for people who hadn’t seen the series, but its really hard to recommend it if you haven’t had a chance to enjoy the show. On the flip side, it may tie up some loose ends, but this is far more than just an ’extended episode’ like the Cowboy Bebop movie could be considered. I could only wish that every series had a send off like this!
Full Metal Panic: 2nd Raid OVA - 9/10 - A short, one shot, incredibly funny OVA just as a little salute to a series that grew on us and to give a little more screen time to everyone’s favorite captain, this was a great show! I really hope they package it with the Second Raid box set.
Gatekeepers - 7/10 - This show started off with more gusto than the length of the series could maintain. It was pretty cool concept wise and was kind of a fun ride, but I can’t help but think it would have been better at about half the length. One of the big selling points was knowing about the OVAs that take place a generation or so down the line. I’m looking forward to checking those out shortly.
 GunBuster - 9/10 - Its not fair to list this as something I saw just this year since I was technically introduced to it back in 1989 or so as the first cartoon I ever watched with subtitles, and also the first one whose subtitles got in the way of the boobies (also the first one with boobies). It would take me about 10 years to finally see all six episodes of this one, and despite first impressions (or perhaps because of them) as well as its over the top nature, I was really endeared to this show about space, life, and devotion. I’ve never seen anything else that even came close to the touching drama of lost time they captured in this short series. That, plus the giant robot kicked some killer ass!
Happy Lesson - 7/10 - A silly show whose premise could not be ignored, Will and I had to see the comedy that erupted from a harem show based on having a harem anime with five teachers/adoptive mothers (one of which even seems to be younger than the main character). We were right, it was ridiculous. Now we’ve got to check out the Advanced and Final Lessons!
His and Her Circumstances - 7/10 - Having spent the year slowly reading through the Kare Kano comic as well, I felt intrigued to get back to this show that I’d let fall by the wayside so long ago. Now having read the comic, I see how Gainax was pretty much the perfect pick to animate the show, with extended pauses and a lot of single focus shots that obscured everything except the character in question, it was really about the individuals, and for the most part, the story was really cute. Unfortunately they ran out of season and ran out of comic before hitting the 26th episode, so we’re kind of left hanging right before they get to the school play. Which is a shame, because I really liked that play.
 Jubei-chan 2 - 10/10 - The first Jubei-chan was unexpectedly funny, so we kind of entered this series with some expectations, but those were quickly blown out of the water as the ridiculous gags were blown out of the water by some incredible action sequences tied together (or torn apart) by some really intense drama. This show really, REALLY ended up taking the cake last year!
Kanon - 7/10 - As an opening number to what would become Moe Monday, a few of us started sitting down to the "cute" shows, starting with ones that are based on dating sims (eroge or otherwise). Kanon was a good short place to start, 13 episodes of adorable that we busted through in two sittings (almost more than Will could take), it was a good starter to get used to Kyoto Animation’s shows, all of which we’ve been interested in. It felt a little bit scattered, probably because it was trying to cover all the story arcs instead of focusing on one or two of them, and ended up a little rushed and disjointed. I can see why they went back and remade the series only a few years later with 26 episodes. We’ll compare notes on that one shortly.
Koi Kaze - 8/10 - This ends up being a hard one to peg, dealing with strong but incredibly awkward drama. Overall I wish it were paced a little bit better, or that we got to see a little more of the resolution, but in the end it was one of those really good shows that I can’t really recommend to anyone.
Mahoromatic - 8/10 - A series I’d had tucked away for far too long, we only busted it out after I picked up the first volume of the manga which ended up spurring Will into buying all 7 volumes. He may be ahead of us in the story, but that didn’t stop the first season of Maho from being as exciting and endearing as I’d hoped. Some of the action sequences also really show their ’post-FLCL Gainax-ness,’ if that is any kind of description... Oh well, now that I own the box set, I’m sure we’ll get to check the rest sometime soon.
Nanaka 6/17 - 7/10 - As a weird concept that I’d actually misinterpreted, Nanaka was on the verge of being one of those shows I couldn’t stand to watch because I hate certain kinds of behaviors. It took a little while to get into the groove of the scenario, but Nanaka ended up being pretty cute. Definitely a proper fit for Moe Monday.
Origin: Spirits of the Past - 7/10 - Right out of left field, I never saw this one coming! The story has a bit of the old fashioned cheese to it, but overall crafts a pretty cool world. The animation and music were pretty awesome as well, I just wish we could get past that ultimate weapon...
Paprika - 8/10 - I’m a little unfairly fond of Satoshi Kon’s stuff, already owning all his other movies and having also finally gotten around to Paranoia Agent, so it goes without saying that I liked this flic. He has this fondness for a ’twist’ to be revealed in his work and by this point I guess he knows it because his red herring was so glaringly obvious that the truth was completely invisible until it popped out. Now THAT I didn’t see coming. Paprika somewhat resembles the structure of Paranoia Agent, so you kind of know what you’re in for, but it also has the coolest animated fat guy I think I’ve ever seen.
 Paranoia Agent - 9/10 - Satoshi Kon’s 13 episode series (as opposed to his normal format of movies) was a really cool, if exceptionally different experience. Almost every episode has a different main character and so many of those episodes are spend building a specific lore that its the fiction itself that becomes the focus for progression rather than any of the characters or the story. That was a really weird end, but it was a totally worthwhile watch.
Portrait de Cossette - 7/10 - The term "gothic lolita" can absolutely fit in the tag line for this strange kind of ghost story. We only get a little of the story in the three episodes, but this is what we’ve learned to expect from OVAs. What’s there is stylized and cool, but unfortunately not very fulfilling at the end.
 RahXephon - 8/10 - Chris and I started this at the beginning of the year about the same time as Bleach. Right about the time that my interest in Bleach started waning (and the aspect of at least a hundred more episodes stopped being appealing) RahXephon started really pouring on the kind of intrigue that I enjoy in a series. Unfortunately, it seems Chris felt exactly the opposite, getting bored with RahXephon, but more interested in Bleach, even with the problems that plague a serialized show, so poor RahXephon fell by the wayside until I wrapped it up myself, much later. I can see where a friend of mine got the idea of referring to it as "what Evangelion should have been," but I have to disagree. I can see similar concepts, but this was a much more ’artistic’ show about passions and prejudice where I still favor Eva for its focus on neurosis and miscommunication. Overall, RahXephon was excellent, and I’m glad I got to finally see it. I just wish it hadn’t taken so long, or that I hadn’t had a preface like that when going in.
Robot Chicken: Season 2 - 9/10 - Not much I can really claim about this show that I haven’t before. Maybe its just the cheap animation, or perhaps its because it tends to be fantastic animation, stuck onto familiar toys set in vulgar sketch comedy, but there’s a special charm here that just can’t be translated.
Slayers Return - 9/10 - It had been a while since I saw any Slayers, and I forgot that I guess I never had seen any of the movies beyond the first one, so this was a pleasant surprise. I’d forgotten how good Slayers was at taking a fantasy concept and making it both epic and comedic at the same time. This is definitely a worthy follow-up to the first movie, and since it isn’t trying as hard to show off that its actually a movie this time around, I think it actually does it one better.
Slayers Great - 8/10 - Following right on the heels of Slayers Returns, we popped in another one shot flic for Anime Night and were treated to the same kind of unexpected comedic gold I’ve remembered to appreciate. The great golem battle was fairly priceless. Seeing both of these movies was enough to convince me it was finally time to order the Slayers Try DVD set so I could finally finish watching that anime.
South Park: Season 9 - I loves me some South Park, and I was thrilled to get my hands on two more seasons worth of shows that were on the air after I’d stopped watching TV. Granted I caught a couple of them through the internet when pop culture demanded that I catch up, but its always great fun to bring these things home and enjoy them with the crew. They may be headline appropriate at the time they air, but their story is still sound, and the references still ripe even this far after the fact.
South Park: Season 10 - What did I JUST tell you?
Tales From Earthsea - 4/10- The Studio Ghibli film directed by the son of Miyazaki unfortunately didn’t seem to be able to live up to either name. This was an unfortunate attempt to derive a formula from previous Ghibli movies and apply it to a fantasy setting that already had its own set of rules in place that ends up giving us a disjointed kind of peak into something that could have been cool if it had been properly pushed in one direction or the other. Overall, it was just kind of a big let down.
Tekkon Kinkreet - 6/10 - I suppose there were some decent merits to it, but all I can really say is that this must be what happens when you let an American direct an anime feature. Perhaps the director had a stranger ideal of what "anime should be" than I’m used to, or maybe the story was just a weird adaptation from the beginning, but this is one of those times I can actually agree with Will that it felt a little to much like it was TRYING to be artsy.
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Monday, March 31, 2008
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Current mood: quiet
Looks like I’m getting kind of slow with this sort of thing. I guess it doesn’t help that I’ve been skipping this personal responsibility to go out and enjoy more movies, games, and anime. Sorry! :-P
Anyway, this is the grand total of the movies I managed to see during 2007. Lots of CG, lots of super heroes. Sounds about right!
7 Brides for 7 Brothers - 6/10 - I don’t know what made me look back and check out an old musical like this, but it caught my eye at the library and the title had been stuck in my head for a little while, so I checked it out. I did enjoy it, I really did, but its so hard to look back at old films that are shot completely on stage, and musicals have always thrown me off just a bit. Some of the songs in this one were a pretty good kick, but in the end, I’m left with no other impression than to leave this movie as a "classic" and whatever that may mean to you.
28 Weeks Later - 8/10 - As a follow up to 28 Days Later, Weeks definitely wasn’t as strong of a ’movie,’ but it did have a better budget, and more intense threats from the non human forces. 28 Days was a better movie for focusing on how the people dealt the outbreak and each other, and if 28 Weeks had kept the same level of drama and intensity as its opening, pre title chase sequence it would have far out shined its predecessor. Unfortunately it ended up focussing more on the main event and introducing the horror movie "kids" that people just want to strangle.
30 Days of Night - 8/10 - There were some parts that didn’t sit quite right with me, and it never really did try to fix the glaring plot hole in the original book (for which I think I’m grateful), but overall 30 Days was a pretty good adaptation of a ’survival horror’ story. Of course the original source was fairly short, so they had to fluff it up a bit and add a few extra characters to pay attention to, but they were mostly forgivable.
 300 - 10/10 - I may have made myself clear in an earlier post, but I really enjoyed the hell out of this movie. Three times now. I’ve since read the graphic novel and it was also really good, if even shorter than 30 Days of Night’s original source, but what they beefed it up with in focus, choreography, and intense action was absolutely stunning! I shouldn’t really have to describe this one, I’m sure you’ve seen it.
Barnyard - 7/10 - I have to admit that I have a bit of a offset scale when it comes to animated films, particularly CG ones, so its no surprise I probably enjoyed this one more than I should have for being such a simple, silly cartoon.
Beowulf - 7/10 - On the flip side of CG movies there are more exciting ones like Beowulf that end up being more of a let down. It probably has a lot more to do with a critical eye for computer detail, but its hard to really get into a film like this when they’re hanging around in that Uncanny Valley. Overall a pretty good film, but its hard to shake the feeling that something is wrong.
Blood Diamonds - 8/10 - I got much more enjoyment than I’d expected out of a Lenoardo DiCaprio film here. Not really an uplifting film, it covers the exploitation of people and resources in West Africa and crossing of cultural paths under different forms of selfishness.
Casino Royal, 007 - 7/10 - This Bond film started out pretty nice and exciting, but unfortunately, couldn’t hold me as well as some of the previous ones had. I understand it was an earlier, grittier James Bond, and I really enjoyed the exploits of him as an actual secret agent being able to read people and access supposedly unknown information, but as cool as those spy activities are, I enjoy my 007 films for Goldeneye satellites, diamond faced mid-bosses, and stealth boats. After Casino Royal’s first awesome chase sequence, it just wasn’t as cool to watch anymore.
Children of Heaven - 8/10 - Sometimes its the simplest concepts that make the most touching movies, and it seems I miss a lot of them with my social groups’ focus on the heavier action or more animated features. This is an Iranian film about a poor little boy who loses his sister’s shoes, and they have to find a way to share his pair between them so that they can both attend school without letting their parents know what they’re doing. The tour of true, simple drama that follows was more genuine and rewarding than anything I’d expected, and probably more than almost any other film I saw this year.
 Children of Men - 9/10 - I’d been looking forward to this once since catching a glimpse of it at 2006’s ComiCon preview. The director’s name (Alfonso Cuaron) only caught me because I’d recalled enjoying his Harry Potter movie he most out of the ones I’d seen, but I was really enamored with it when I saw the extended single shot preview they showed that took a really exceptionally intense action scene and played the whole thing out in a single 3 minute long, ridiculously well choreographed camera shot. The story is a simple one about hope, bordering on the sci-fi side by being set in a future that’s falling apart, but the fashion in which its told and the gripping scene making at play really drew me to it.
Commando - 7/10 - Sometimes its hard to go back, and sometimes its hard to resist going back anyway. With a DVD anniversary release, Chris picked up the old Arnold "Commando" and we gathered the boys for an evening of 80’s action movie at its finest. Without hitting the sci-fi level, this is probably the most over the top explosion filled extravaganza he’s ever been in. Classic fun to watch.
Crank - 8/10 - As a drastic comparison to a classic over the top film like Commando, Crank is a more modern and probably more appropriately titled "extreme" film about keeping an adrenaline rush pumping for the entire 90 minute length of the movie. Honestly, it does it pretty well. There are obvious clichés at work here, but overall, the movie admits its all about the presentation, and it really does that well.
Curious George - 8/10 - Again with my enjoyment of simple pleasures, this was a really nice movie to watch. Its hard to recommend kids movies among my own crew of friends, but I can still enjoy them when they aren’t deliberately campy, and this would be one I’d gladly share with any "E for Everyone" audience.
Deja Vu - 7/10 - The movie and the mystery were pretty good, but its unfortunately one of those ones that’s both rather transparent and fairly full of wholes from the start. The sci-fi edge of being able to ’see through time’ is a pretty cool angle, though, and I have to give Denzel credit for playing it off as incredulous rather than just as a plot device. Enjoyable, but not as awesome as it was meant to be.
The Descent - 7/10 - As a deliberately intense horror/suspense film, this came off really well, and incredibly good at making the viewer feel as claustrophobic as the actors. The drama was also pretty well done, but in unfortunately true tradition of the genre, ended up a little extra campy. I’d hoped for a little more personal resolution, but, unfortunately, that’s not in the nature of the film.
Doctor Strange - 6/10 - I’m having trouble deciding if I like or hate the idea of American produced OVA’s. In concept its awesome to break the chains of televised animated works which are geared pretty universally to kids, but when they don’t really bring up the level in any aspect of writing or animation, I start to wonder if its even worth it. Maybe I just haven’t been paying attention and televised cartoons are even more simplified and cheaper produced than they were before, but if this is the level that a non theatrical feature can reach, then I guess I have no reason left to hope. Doctor Strange himself was all right, really, but just not as satisfying as I had even lowered my expectations to reach from a modern animated feature.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - 8/10 - Being the sequel to a not quite phenomenal super hero movie, this second Fantastic Four movie seemed to know where it fell in the order of things. Not trying to take itself as seriously as Spider-Man, but not ready to go down the campy route of Batman, the introduction of the Silver Surfer actually came across really well without involving the giant man in a purple suit. This was pretty good fun, honestly.
Fifth Element (Blu-Ray) - 10/10 - Some classics just don’t get old. The Blu-Ray edition let us get a better look at some of the details that were probably better left covered, but overall, this is a great film to enjoy with vibrant visuals, and superior surround sound. No objection here!
Ghost Rider - 8/10 - Never having been a huge fan of Ghost Rider, I wasn’t exactly jumping with anticipation to see this super hero movie, however the Nick Cage presentation, and the overall enjoyable fairly split personality hero seemed to make up for the under budget treatment of Blackheart as a kind of emo kid gone wrong.
Golden Compass - 7/10 - I admit I missed my chance to read the books before heading off to catch this one in the theater, but if the sequels end up getting made, I may yet get around to them. I can see the appeal of the story, but sometimes it feels a little strange to be pressed with the ’new literary classics’ that are being presented. Between this and Eragon, I start to get the feeling there’s a bit of a hurry to capitalize on a title before its had time to fade from popular grace. It was all right, but nothing as fantastic as they were trying to make it. Its hard to re-capture the same kind of epic that the Lord of the Rings movies did, or that the Narnia Chronicles are starting to without the same kind of vision that’s been simmering for so long.
Hard Boiled - 7/10 - Backing up a bit, I finally got to see Hard Boiled when the PS3 version of Stranglehold came with the film on a Blu-Ray disc. As over the top as we’ve come to expect from John Woo, I do have to admit that I really enjoy crime dramas that allow themselves to break out into gun-fu.
Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix - 8/10 - This movie is a bit of a mixed blessing as the story for Harry Potter finally comes to a point where we can have an epic scale battle between two full powered wizards on the big screen with a few million dollars in special effects backing them up, but also to the point where the story of the series is taking a stronger bit of emotional/teen drama and political intrigue that is forced to be cut from a feature film to make room for the extended action sequences. I still enjoyed it, and I’m still going to get suckered into the rest of them, but I’m still convinced the movie franchise reached its apex at 3. I don’t have high hopes for the next film’s presentation, but am curious to see exactly what they’ll do with the division of that last one.
 Hot Fuzz - 10/10 - There are times when you sit down for a silly comedy movie and end up being completely surprised by an exceptional film that happens to be pretty funny. These guys had won me over by pulling that off on Shaun of the Dead, so they had my money for Hot Fuzz already, but imagine my surprise when they still managed to hold onto the same magic. They admit to making the movie cliché, in fact, the throw jokes about it into the film itself, but they still weave their funny story together so well, that the entire presentation comes off really, really well. Its hard to think of a movie that I actually ENJOYED watching as much as this one in the past year.
I Am Legend - 9/10 - I have to admit, I’ve never read the original graphic novel, but I’ll probably have to get around to it at some point now. Without that context, though, I have to admit that this movie came across really well, not just as a slapped from paper to screen adaptation. It can be really, REALLY hard to have an entire movie with basically just one actor, but I Am Legend, and probably mostly Will Smith, pulled it off really well.
Iron Man - 8/10 - Still with the US produced OVA issue, there are problems with animation quality and the level of story telling that manages to get "produced" into these films. Overall, though, Iron Man has so far been the most enjoyable of them. It might have something to do with deliberately making the man himself CG , or the fact that his armored facade hides sub par animation when he’s delivering dialogue, but as far as any of these recent features go, Iron Man holds up the strongest yet.
Journey to Lasta - 7/10 - Granted I had a little pressure to see this one because my cousin produced it, but as a culture clashing story about a group of Ethiopian friends who are just struggling to come together in America and form a band. Its rather heartwarming, and obviously features good music, but obviously falls under the indy film category, for whatever you take that to mean.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend - 7/10 - Super heroes are obviously a fan favorite around here, particularly when we get to some of the fun "behind the scenes" peeks at those lives, so a movie about just a normal guy who happens to date a super heroine was a pretty entertaining match for us. Overall it could have been better as an actual movie, but just as a comedy, it was a pretty good success (its just a shame most of the best gags were shown in the trailers).
Next - 8/10 - Another kind of strangely fantastic roll for Nick Cage this year, Next was a better story than I’d expected, but also a bit of a movie let down. With a little bit of the entertaining edge of Groundhog’s Day, showing us where different takes might have led our main character, it seems to detract from the actual drama of a film when the main character is effectively untouchable, or, rather, can just try it again. Though it was a really cool shot seeing somebody unload a clip trying to shoot him, it kind of hammered home that most of the drama and tension of the film was completely avoidable.
Ong-Bak - 6/10 - Obviously Muay Thai is awesome, so there’s no dispute about watching a great fighting movie, just like enjoying great kung fu, but as Ong-Bak its later successor Tom Yum Goong (we saw it as The Protector) prove there’s a reason most of these films can’t be taken seriously. The language barrier is something I totally appreciate them including as a part of both films where different cultures clash and just cannot understand the problems one way or the other, but the awkward subtitling in both of these films, perhaps just because the dialogue was so strange, really detracts from most sense of flow. Fun to watch, but almost better done just by enjoying the highlights.
Open Season - 9/10 - Again, with how much I enjoy animated features, I couldn’t resist catching this one. Open Season, however, turned out to be a genuine surprise with how good it ended up being. Perhaps its one of the pieces of the golden formula for a comedy to make it a "buddy movie" sending two unlikely allies on a strange adventure, and perhaps it has a lot to do with how outlandish and incredibly stylized you can make a primary villain, but this movie had some of that classic comedy magic, and managed to be a fun show to watch between all its well designed characters.
Over the Hedge - 8/10 - So many CG films this year! Its a shame to see this one fall on the list simply based on the competition, since it really was a pretty warm movie with a great cast of both characters and voice actors, but sometimes its hard to stand right next to the knockout title. This movie really was great, even though it was a far cry from its comic origins.
 Pan’s Labyrinth - 10/10 - I kind of had a hard time selling the concept of this one to a lot of people, but I managed to catch it at the artsy theater and then dragged/conned almost everybody else I could think of into seeing it long before it started winning Oscars. Guillermo del Toro has had my attention for his work on some of the darker, more intriguing works of fantasy that have hit the screen, so I’ve been paying attention to his movies as they come along, however Pan’s Labyrinth was a genuine surprise with its incredible quality, authenticness, and just plain imagination. I really hope everyone has had a chance to see this one by now.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End - 9/10 - The follow up and finish off to the Pirates trilogy, At World’s End follows the formula set by the previous titles engaging in a swashbuckling, sea-faring adventure without equal. As a movie and a comedy it plays off better than its immediate predecessor, but still has trouble keeping up the same intriguing level as the original. My greatest disappointment with the film was its dismissal of the Kraken and replacement with its dependency on Calypso. Ah well, it was still a fun ride while it lasted.
Ratatouille - 10/10 - So Pixar has this strange way of picking odd subjects for movies, from the movie about cars to this one about cooking, these are concepts that I wouldn’t necessarily be interested in watching a movie about. I keep forgetting along the way though, that this is Pixar, and that they’re damn good about making not necessarily movies, but characters. They brought the silly cast of this film to such life and made the whole experience so immerse that the pieces fall into place, and as simple, or cliché, or even preachy as their films can be they are true joy to watch. I have to admit I’m getting more and more excited about Wall-E as it approaches.
Reign Over Me - 8/10 - So, I came across this movie title simply because of the bit of news that it incorporated Shadow of the Colossus, one of my favorite games both of yester year and probably all time. I was further intrigued by its use of Adam Sandler as a serious actor. After my experience watching Punch Drunk Love, a film I cannot say that I enjoyed, but that I thought was phenomenal, probably for the same reason, I’d learned to pay attention to certain comedians making the jump to actual drama. Adam Sandler has done the best I’ve seen so far, particularly with his portrayal of neurosis. Its hard to imagine what losing your entire family in a catastrophe like 9/11 might do to a man, but this was a pretty good, if emotionally painful, glimpse.
Resident Evil: Extinction - 6/10 - Yeah, these have kind of gone downhill. I think I enjoyed this one quite a bit because I knew how far off the path it had branched by the time Apocalypse had ended, but that doesn’t mean that it was really much more than an action/zombie slugfest. They’ve deliberately set themselves up for a sequel again, and honestly, I like how they’ve managed to do so and solidly progress an overall narrative between the three films so far, but I think I’d appreciate it more if the narrative was actually any good.
See No Evil - 7/10 - It was horror movie night and Will had once upon a time coughed up this title including WWF Smackdown star Glen Jacobs as something he’d kind of like to see. As campy and cliché as any title of its ilk is supposed to be, this was a great reminder of how a great slasher film is supposed to be! With one mean dude as impressive as Glen Jacobs stalking your crew, this really captures the "monster movie" aspect on top of the psycho horror.
 Serenity - 10/10 - Some five odd years later and I FINALLY get to see the rest of Firefly over Christmas break with a few friends and my previously unappreciated DVD collection. So with that lovely series finally put to bed, it was time to break out the feature film on Henry’s HD-DVD player! I shouldn’t have to explain this one to anybody. Really, you should have seen Firefly by now, and Serenity as its follow up.
Shrek 3 - 8/10 - The rule of 3 is a powerful force to try and deny, and though Shrek puts up a good fight, it is forced to be brought down to a much campier factor in its third installment. Part of the problem with later Shreks that I have is that the first one was such a great movie and ended so well, that its really a tough act to follow. Its much harder to make a compelling drama when the hero is already married, has a good home, and plenty of friends. We’re obviously progressing quite a bit in the family drama sector since this one was about Shrek dealing with the idea of being a father, a far cry from the buddy comedy of setting out on an adventure to save a princess/his home.
Simpsons: Movie - 7/10 - Honestly, this is exactly what I’d imagined it would be, one big, extended, really well animated episode of the Simpsons. It didn’t have to do anything more epic than the show already had (which, honestly would be kind of tough) and it didn’t need to progress the story of the TV show (also really tricky to do), so it was exactly what it was: The Simpsons.
Smokin’ Aces - 8/10 - I hadn’t expected to be pulled into this one, and really didn’t know much about it going in, which is part of why I think I enjoyed it so much. A bit of a strange crime drama with a good amount of comedy as 10 hitmen all go after the same hit from every possible different angle a lot of strange heads collide.
Spider-Man 3 - 7/10 - Yeah, we knew this was going to happen, too. After the X-Men III slip, I wasn’t holding my breath. Even with Sam Raimi, the rule of 3 seems to win as the movie tries to hard to up the ante and introduce even more villains and more excitement than before! The end result is a little too scattered to really enjoy and ends up leaving the Sandman as the most intriguing character in the movie who, unfortunately, gets the least time on screen. I’m very, very afraid that Spider-Man has just taken the same turn that the original Batman films suffered. We KNOW there will be a Spider-Man 4, but it may be the last thing that anybody sees.
Superman: Doomsday - 9/10 - This was much better as far as animated features go State-side. It really helps that the old Batman Animated series and newer Justice League have tried to set a decent standard for animated DC characters that things like this can fit right in to and move on without the strange adjustment period. The standard of its TV animation also makes it a nice transition when a feature like this gets a little more serious and can slap together an encounter such as having Superman and Doomsday beat the ever living snot out of each other. This is the kind of thing we’re a long way off from being able to see in the movies.
TMNT - 8/10 - I’m not actually sure if this had any kind of tie in with the newer TV series, but knowing enough of Turtle lore from the old cartoon and the original movies, this was a pretty decent one shot to jump in and enjoy. CG probably is the best format to enjoy TMNT, since it doesn’t rely on awkward puppets that make the ninja part seem slow, or simplified hand drawn animation which often makes the humans look more mutated than the turtles. The pacing and action were overall excellent, and the story fell right in with the odd theme that already is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Transformers - 9/10 - I honestly think VGCats has the best break down of the Transformers movie I could imagine. Its a rather decent success as a mindless summer blockbuster extravaganza, and obviously a huge dive in the story/interest level of a movie that’s supposed to center around a war between giant robots, but I guess we’ll just have to see what direction it goes in when they inevitably produce a sequel. With a product placable vehicle like this, there’s no way there won’t be more! I’m excited to go see them, but will just have to be content with my collector’s pride in the old, campy collection of the 80’s cartoon in DVD box sets.
Young Frankenstien - 7/10 - A classic Mel Brooks that I snagged on DVD last year and was reminded that this movie is older than I am by no small margin. I have fond memories of this film, and they mostly hold up, though obviously the pacing doesn’t hold up as well over time. The inclusion of a director’s commentary by Mel Brooks himself was one of the main reasons I picked it up, and though it was a great listen, it was actually fairly sad listening to him reminisce about a movie from over 30 years ago and talk about many of his friends and actors who’ve passed away since then.
Zodiac - 7/10 - I miss out on a lot when I watch movies based on sensational true events that I don’t really know about, so I have a hard time pegging how to like something like Zodiac. I have trouble with characters and rational, but then, who am I to argue with how real people, crazy or not, think, and its hard to be picky about the flow of a movie taking place over so many years with an event that really didn’t have any kind of ’Hollywood ending." I’d like to say I liked it, but I think I’d have liked it more if it weren’t real.
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Monday, February 18, 2008
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Current mood: adventurous
A little overdue, but hey, I think everyone knows I live on Armando-time. Its been a good year for games! Work managed to kick my ass through most of the Summer as we were finishing off Godzilla, but being single for the year also really cleared out my schedule. I've even got a designated "game night" with Zac, Ian, and (sometimes) Forest! Great for mutli-player games! I also managed to get a few board games in, so I'll slip those in with the Video Games for 2007.
 BioShock (X360) - 10/10 - I'm only ever so fond of shooters, mainly because I'm only ever so good at them, and I can only take so much shoot the "invading aliens" or "Nazi-bastards" before moving on to more interesting things. BioShock was a rare case where there was more than just kind of an interesting plot to keep me moving forward thorugh waves of similar baddies, there was actually an underlying ambiance and more than a fair share of history to be heard that was well spaced to cover the long gaps of quiet from your silent protagonist type. I'll agree with everything that Zero Punctuation said, even down to the fact that through the perfectly reasonable complaints, the game was a marvelous experience and one of the best bits of immersion I had this year. I even played it all the way through twice, and that is a RARE accomplishment for me these days.
Bomberman (NDS) - 8/10 - This is a formula I'll have a hard time ever getting tired of, blow the crap out of everything in your path until your friends show up, then go head to hed in 8 player action (which can be broadcast from a single DS to 7 other people who don't have to own the game!). The classic overhead view, before trying to 3D-ize it is my personal favorite since it makes the stages and your own strategy actually ledgable, and perhaps because it has a little bit of that old school sprite feeling. Its getting hard to find this little gem, but it was totally worth it.
Eternal Darkness (GC) - 8/10 - For a title that fit into the 'survival horror' genre, I was expecting a little more challenge out of Eternal Darkness. What I got in its place was one of the best told narratives and the greatest concievable form of mind fuck that could ever come from a game! I would love nothing more than for the rumors of an eventual sequel to be true, this game would be blessed with a little more building on its experimentation and a little better balance to the powers it gives you. My first game was versus Xel'toth, I may actually have to go back and run through this again with the other Elders.
Final Fantasy (GBA) - 7/10 - Sometimes its hard to go back, and sometimes its just all too easy. I had picked up Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls a little while back just because I thought the idea of having the game portable would be kind of cool. I've had FF: Origins since it was first released, but admit I never did get around to playing part II. So, for kicks and a warm up, I booted up the old part I (with SNES style upgraded graphics) and gave a whirl to the game that lasted me weeks way back in the day. About 10 hours later (at about 30 minutes a day) I had laid a pretty heavy smack down on Chaos and wondered how any of that was even possible so long befoe all the RPG training I've undergone in the roughly 20 years since I first tried that. It was kind of fun to go back, but I can definitely see the improvements that have taken place over the generations.
Final Fantasy II (GBA) - 4/10 - Moving on to finally play a classic I had missed, I had to really appriciate the huge leaps they'd taken in storytelling between parts I and II, but from what I could tell any kind of game balancing that had originally existed had gone flying straight out the window. The leveling system was nigh impossible to understand and the ridiculous power levels that monsters roughly adjacent to eachother had was just... well... I can't say unfair, but I will call it unwarranted. What I will remember forever is the third dungeon I was wandering where my team was pretty well prepared for the forces there in and managed to work their way down at a decent pace, slowly getting stronger until they were no longer real trouble. Then I hit the boss who could deal more than half my characters' total HP in damage with a single hit, but who was so well armored that my hits were literally doing 0 to him. I buffed up a bit by increasing my defense and suddenly passed his magical threshold where his hits started doing 0 to my party as well. Trading useless blows for a few rounds one of my guys happened to land a critical hit and deal 6 points of damage. Seriously? I needed critical hits to kill this guy? I couldn't run. Boss fights don't let you, and if I had, its not like I could raise my "levels" in this system. Spells were nigh useless, still only doing 20-30 points, and I only had enough MP to cast off maybe 3 of them. So I sat there, holding A button and let the battle rage on while I started reading comics. About a half hour or so later the boss finally went down and my party rejoiced like it had been any other walk in the park. I learned a lot about game design and balance that day. A lot.
Gitaroo Man Lives (PSP) - 9/10 - Nifty rhythm games took a little while to catch on over here, so a lot of people missed Gitaroo Man the first time around when it was on PS2. I was pretty excited when I heard it would be getting a PSP remake even though I'd already snagged my own PS2 copy a while back because I knew this would open up its audience a bit more. Portable games with quick play nature like this were the ideal thing to have on the little hand held multi-media device, and the fact that it had never really taxed the PS2 hardware terribly in the first place meant the transition was pretty smoothe. I'm proud to own this game. Twice!
 God Hand (PS2) - 9/10 - I have to admit that God Hand has faults. There's no way I can avoid it when they're fairly obvious and its what prevents most people from playing more than a quick trial of the game. HOWEVER, if you're patient enough to get past the character centric controls (driving your character around like a tank) and you are willing to overlook the generic level designs (brown building 3 had to be my favorite, though "tent" was a close runner up), the gameplay is rock fucking solid and the characters come through with an incredibly over the top super action style! This is a beat em up game that makes no apologies about what you're doing and fits its genre with golden flair! (or was it rainbow?) From the scaling difficulty, to the custom combos, to the midget power rangers, God Hand delivered one of the most unforgiving, entertaining, and memorable experiences of the year. It was the FIRST game I beat in 2007 and it still stands out as one of the absolute best.
God of War (PS2) - 8/10 - When the sequel finally arrived on my doorstep, I figured I should probably get around to playing the original God of War. Lauded as a moasterpiece for the Sony library, I could understand the excitement once I sunk my teeth in. Much like God Hand, God of War is an incredibly viserally satisfying play that knows what it is and hammers that gruesome fact home as hard and as often as it can. Beyond anything I've ever seen Chris make Snake do in Metal Gear, Kratos himself is a DICK! Sympathy is non-existant, but thats half the fun! Its the kind of violence the activists should be worried about where the man who can does it, does it gladly, and doesn't care who or what gets in his way. Its a revelry in brutal nastiness that really is just one hell of a ride. The game was meant to just kick ass, and it did it so thoroughly that when I slapped the actual God of War with that final blow, I hit him so hard it crashed my PS2. In the first second of the ending cut scene, the poor little black box had finally had enough of the abuse and finally just clammed up, freezing on me and forcing me to reset and beat him again (this time with the PS2 resting gently on the table, laid flat to make sure it was comfortable while I abused it some more).
God of War II (PS2) -9/10 God of War II got all the polish the first one felt like it had just managed to miss. The controls felt tighter, the levels flowed better, and the animations carved out the feel of the merciless, all powerful bastard that Kratos remains. He's taken to a level of raw power and just plain dickery that is usually reserved for the descriptions of Solar Exalted (most of my readers will get that). There's not much more to say here since this is pretty much just the next stage, with the new upgrades beyond the first game. I'm really curious to see what they plan to do with this on a PS3.
Half-Life 2 (PC) - 8/10 - I was late to the game with this one. I got it as a gift shortly after it came out, but at the time Shalashaska was still my primary PC and was utterly incapable of handling it (plus I didn't really want to burn out the old man), so it ended up getting a lot of shelf life. Over the summer, though, with the arrival of my first new PC in 7 years, I figured a good test for the new system would be to bust out the game I hadn't gotten to and give it a go. I was in for a bit of a treat. My issues with the game all stem from it being a PC game, thus the kind of experience that seems determined to take me out of the mindset for enjoying a good game, but I was having fun none the less, enjoying the awesome physics, the super weapons and the tricky enemies that thought they were smarter than my bullets. Really it was a great follow up to the original Half-Life, but unfortunately it never really met up with my expectations. I was looking forward to the points where things would go off the wall out of this world, but sadly it maintained its kind of dark and creep 'conquered earth' atmsphere until the end without delivering another awesome final gonad boss or creepy floating alien things. Its kind of like it had forgotten how far into science fiction this story had already taken us.
Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (X360) - 9/10 - It took me a while to get to this, in fact, I only got around to playing it when I borrowed the Orange Box from Zac for the 360. Here was a little more of the experience I was really looking forward to when I started HL2, so I was much happier with their form of direction and narrative. They kept actual characters around Gordon instead of the genrics, so it really felt like there was more than just 'shooting stages' between one objective and the next. Its funny, for you being the main star, Alex sure has a lot more lines. I have to give them a lot of credit for managing to make what effectively amounts to a main character into a secondary character without it breaking the game.
Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (X360) - 9/10 - Pushing even a little bit farther than Episode 1, this one welcomed back the absolute alien freaks that I'd been missing. I'm getting a little wierded out by all the crazy Black Mesa people they keep introducing us to, but overall its still progressing nicely. I'm actually looking forward to an episode 3, and will willingly pay money for it when they finally release it.
Halo 3 (X360) - 8/10 - I admit that I really did have fun playing this with all my friends. It was over a little too quickly, but it was definitely worth the long evenings spent, and all the extra work "borrowing" a 360 every night entailed. 4-player online co-op was a fantastic selling point. The level of polish the game managed was also incredible for something that can be pushed, prodded, and probed by legions of online gamers simultaniously. Where I get let down, once again, is where I usually find myself wanting when playing games developed in the US: I'm playing the world's most renowned badass, who's kicking butt and blowing shit up across the war zone just because "no one else can." Its a fairly standard FPS convention, I know, but when you've crafted a full universe as they have, and written novels about this epic saga that you are supposed to be playing, I really wish there were a bit more to the story or the characters beyond "get from here to here and shoot everything in between." Halo was solid. Halo was a fun multi-player experience with my friends. But overall, Halo was an average game that just kind of looked pretty.
Heavenly Sword (PS3) - 7/10 - Now THIS was a crazy action game. The best synopsis is that you're playing a female God of War, and that is effectively true. Almost a solidly button mashing beat em up that gave you all your awesome powers pretty much up front and let you cut loose for the rest of the game, Heavenly Sword definitely delivered on styyyyyyyyyle. Cliche as much of it was, the story actually did move, and the characters did interact and develope. They promise a sequel, and I'm definitely willing to check it out. However, if they don't fix the problems this game had by that point, I'll have to revoke any faith I put in their creative ability. There are a lot of good ideas and cool mechanics that went into this game, but along with them came some fairly annoying control schemes and poorly executed 'innovations.' I like the concept of their 'after touch' aiming for projectiles, but holy crap were those controls worthless. Thank goodness they weren't actually scoring you for those most of the time. The combos and variant styles were also really nice, but every peon stood up to way too much damage, and if you ever had anything greater than the lowest level grunt, they spent so much time blocking that it was a wonder they even spawned new enemies instead of just randomly creating rocks to get in your way. Overall the game was fairly good and it was definitely pretty, but in the end its a long way from convincing me that I need a PS3 for anything.
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (X360) - 6/10 - Much of Heavenlly Sword can be copy and pasted here. I really applaud what they were trying to do with story and style, and I was particularly fond of the look they went with where your main characters are even fairly ugly, unlikeable guys, but if it weren't for the entertaining co-op mode Chris and I played through, this game would have fallen well below mediocre. Again there were some cool concepts, but the execution of the whole package was just a bit too lackluster.
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (GBA) - 10/10 - Sometimes its hard to go back to a classic, but it seems that this wasn't one of those times. I happened to pick this one up as part of the buy two get one free deal Toys R Us was running around Christmas when I needed another $20 title, and I fiugred it was totally worth having this game as a portable version. I was right. I just did a blast through of it in about 3 short sittings, which came nowhere near the completionist 4 hour, single life run through I pulled off as a teenager, but it was still pretty awesome to get back into a classic. After Twilight Princess earlier this year, its always great to have that reminder of how awesome they can make these game, even if the formula is familiar.
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii) - 10/10 - I gave a much better write up to this one when I took my vacation to Hyrule, so there's not much left to say. Yeah, it had a few hiccups, which I guess happens with a 1st gen game on a new console, but everything else satisfied beyond expectation, so it manages a 'perfect experience' ranking in my book.
Link's Crossbow Training (Wii) - 8/10 - As a simple mini-game pack in with the WiiZapper, Link's Crossbow Training was a lot more game than I had expected. Yeah, all it is is a targeting game, but that's obviously the case for Ghost Squad and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, yet Link's managed to have a range of modes beyond just target practice or flying by on rails. Giving you control of direction, or even movement during a few stages was a welcome surprise, and though its obviously no epic Zelda tail like the other two titles I played this year, it was definitely fun, and definitely worth the price of admission.
 LocoRoco (PSP) - 10/10 - I caught an add for this long before it came out that was so cute and charming, I couldn't resist checking it out. Thankfully I also have a friend with access to the Sony Store, so first party titles like this can be nabbed cheap! It was worth every penny I spent, and then some! The really nifty game design involed in not really controlling the little LocoRoco, but actually controlling the world itself to move him around was almost as incredible as the amazingly endearing soundtrack that I had to pick up once I'd finished the game. Its almost a shame this is a Sony title because it would have been so inredibly perfect on the Wii or even the DS (using the Twisted pack). I'll have to get around to trying out the pseudo-sequel on the PSN sometime. Oh, and this game is a dangerous item to show to almost any girl, as they tend to confiscate the PSP thereafter.
Lost in Blue (DS) - 8/10 - A survival challenge beyond almost anything else I think I've ever gotten to try, Lost in Blue managed to be rather cute on top of being incredibly challenging. I'd almost look at it kind of like a Harvest Moon survival adventure, as a lot of the daily things necessities typically overlooked in games are all addressed as gameplay elements that you have to plan carefully around before you can go galavanting off on your own adventures. I'd like to give the sequel a try, but hearing that it doesn't really have anything to do with the first one (which is good, otherwise it would really suck for those two kids) I'm pretty sure I can put it off for a little while.
Mario Kart DS (DS) - 8/10 - When I first got my DS and was wandering ComicCon, I noticed a number of these games flying through the Wi-Fi air, and since they were 'download and play' games that I didn't need to own the actual card for, I hopped in and got my ass handed to me. Basically, it was a good ol' Mario Kart adventure as I'd remembered! Particularly with the use of the classic tracks pulled from many of the previous incarnations, this was almost a nostalgiac experience reminding me why I'm willing to forgive my distaste for racing games on rare occassions.
Mario and Luigi: Super Star Saga (GBA) - 9/10 - I knew this was a new kind of RPG Mario game, but the actual game that I was introduced to turned out to be such a great kind of platform/action mix to the RPG formula I'm so fond of that I really have to give high regard to this game and now MUST get my hands on the Partners in Time DS game, as well. Not incredibly difficult, but by no means easy, and not overly cute, but definitely with a soft (and tongue in cheek) style, I have no other term to describe the Super Star Saga than "Just Right."
Mario and Sonic at the Olympics (Wii) - 7/10 - Ah, games of mini-games: not necessarily my first pick. However, with the regular game night I'd started attending with Zac, Ian, and Forest its kind of fun to pull out new 4-player games and give them the group run through. There is a definite problem with multi-player centric games that force you to play single player to unlock extra content for the multiplayer mode, but forgiving that glaring issue that seems to pop up in so many party games, and perhaps the question of how Mario even has a chance at competing against Sonic in the 100 meter dash, this is actually a rather solid selection of outbursts of fun! Maybe I will give more of the single player version a run through to make sure I have as much unlocked as possible if I ever have guests to play it at my house.
Mario Party 8 (Wii) - 7/10 - Another game night 4-player mini-game blast, Ian got to school the rest of us after having had plenty of practice with his own two boys, though not nearly as much as Zac on his extensive exprience with the previous Mario Party titles. Definitely an entertaining, if slightly unbalanced, experience, but most assuredly meant as a 'party game,' so bring a friend.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance (X360) - 7/10 - Following up on the heels of the X-Men Legends game, Ultimate Alliance gives 4 players the chance to nab many of their OTHER favorite characters from the Marvel Universe and take them for an ass whuppin' spin. Sadly a little lacking on real story meat for being a comic game, it was still a great beat 'em up brawler with a lot of extensive customization available, so just for kicks it was a pretty fun multi-player experience.
Mass Effect (X360) - 8/10 - All the official bluster aside, this was a pretty fun game that was really held back by some major problems. I enjoyed playing it, yes, but it definitely wasn't the ultimate Game of the Year so many people were trying to convince me it was going to be, and I don't really have that same urge so many other people seem to be unable to avoid of playing through it again, now that the level cap has been lifted. Yes, it was cool that they let you pick your missions and play through at your own pace, but its too bad the 70 side missions between your 4 story missions were cheaply tossed together rehash trash. Yes, the dialogue tree was also pretty cool, but its also a shame that other than buffering a new sentence in, 85% of the conversations were still exactly the same no matter how you tried to play them out. Yes, it was a graphically powerful game with some incredible scale and effects, but it really hurt my little artist's mind that scenes would cut so quickly that the stream loading maps wouldn't make it in time and I was watching flat color shaded action sequences, I kept getting pysically STUCK in invisible corners, and even the crew members they were trying to help me be "intimate with" wer actually just plain fugly. It was kinda fun, but I'm done.
 Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA) - 10/10 - That whole thing I said about going back to a classic? Well, sometimes they can actually do something so incredible with an old concept that it really redefines my opinion of a series. Its hard not to have fond memories of the original Metroid for anyone of the original NES generation, and the idea of 'remaking' our classics can be a scary prospect, but what they've managed to do here was pull the incredibly refined gameplay that they'd managed to squeeze into Super Metroid and apply it to the original adventure for a powerful, streamlined action game without compare. What an unexpected surprise Zero Mission turned out to be. From the goosebumps the opening theme gave me, to the first "OH SHIT!" moment of the new worm mid-boss, to the recreated final battle with Mother Brain herself, this was a great, GREAT game to have played! I have to recommend it to any action gamer on top of fans of the original.
Metroid: Fusion (GBA) - 8/10 - The long awaited "part 4" of the original Metroid storyline, Fusion tried its hand at a slightly more narrative path and managed to do alright amid its kind of strange sci-fi setup, even though it chose to introduce an incredible threat to the galaxy known as "X." It did pretty well, stretching a better feel of progression among the action stages that you would revisit as disasters occurred around the space station, and introducing some new and rather interesting power up mechanics. It was definitely a solid game, but perhaps I was expecting more after having such a great experience with Zero Mission which had been released later.
Metroid: Pinball (DS) - 7/10 - I admit it: I bought this game for the Rumble Pack. Peripherals aside, I have to give this a lot of credit for being an exceptional Pinball game (if that really is credit-worthy?). You know the rules for pinball, obviously, but they also toss out enemies on the field as well as power ups, jumping stages, and the occassional shooting mode. Overall, this was a lot of fun. Definitely worth the price of picking up the peripheral.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GC) - 8/10 - More than 5 years after having finally played the original Metroid Prime, a game that made me reevaluate my opinion console shooters, and with the promise of Corruption on the horizon, I finally sat down to Echoes which had been patiently wating on my shelf for the past three. They refined a lot of the control, and the challenge from the first Prime game, but I felt there was a bit too much sacrificed in the way of player progression as the powers and abilities you earned in Echoes just never felt as awesome as the core powers in Prime (maybe I just prefered the fire and ice beams over the light and dark guns). It was a very cool, and very solid action game, my only regret is the amount of backtracking they asked me to do, racing from one end of the world to another and back for new power ups was a rather extreme detour.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) - 10/10 - Ok, so, somewhere between consoles the formula for Prime switched gears quite a bit. While the GC ones had a little more stratetic flair with your choice of weapons, variant beasts, and branching world paths, Corruption had a stronger focus on blasting through things in your path with the new involvement of your own gunship, the sequential weapon upgrades, and a much more action oriented incorporation of your grappling beam. This was a great action fest of fun that was helped immensly by the ability to travel between worlds and waypoints with the use of your own space ship, which was no longer just a stationary base at the beginning of the game for reloading missles. Typically I have objections to look controls based on the Wii-Pointer at the center of the screen, but with all the action involved in Corruption, there wasn't really any room to complain until I had an itch, at which point Samus would start performing a Hagar Spin.
Phoenix Wright: Justice For All (DS) - 9/10 - Yes, I'm still calling it Phoenix Wright even though I know they've adjusted them to now be the "Ace Attorney" series, but thats what they're going to be for me until Apollo Justice finally takes over, so you can just suck it. Justice for All was an awesome follow up to the original Phoenix Wright, furthering your play mechanics with the use of Profiles as evidence, and introducing the Psyche-Lock which became a cool kind of mini-cross examination during the investigation phase of the game. Otherwise, not much new other than some great episodes furthering an already exceptional storyline with incredible characters! I'm such a ridiculous fan of this series. Capcom has won me over so well, that I'm going to have to give the Harvey Birdman attempt at this formula a shot before too long, as well!
Portal (X360) - 10/10 - A shooter game without guns? What beautiful madness is this! As a pure concept turned training stage with a little bit of actual game tagged on at the end, Portal was a phenominal experience! It would definitely be listed as one of my Games of the Year if it wasn't already covered by everyone else and their sister. Portal may have had a distinct effect, or vice versa, on how the HL2 Episodes have been helping the game feel more like an experience rather than just a run and gun shooting alley with the use of a secondary character guiding, commenting on, and even berating the silent protagonist. GLaDOS was probably as much of a highlight to this game as the incredible Portal Gun itself was. I can't wait to see more from Aperture Science! Oh, and congratulations to the DigiPen team that MADE this thing in the first place! Woot! DP!
Puzzle Quest (DS) - 8/10 - Now I do enjoy puzzle games, but I have a hard time justifying playing them for very long because I never feel like I'm accomplishing very much, that is until these guys turned it into a full on RPG element, gave me a story, allies, and upgradable inventory on top of a leveling mechanic as I gained experience from my puzzle battles. Puzzle Quest's ridiculously addictive puzzle game was only enforced by the desire to progress and move the whole thing through completion which addicted me to such a simple color matching game more than any raw appeal could ever have hoped! I've since bought a copy for my dad, so lets see how he handles the basic idea.
Resident Evil 4 (Wii) - 10/10 - It was a little difficult for me to consider how I was going to justify playing a third version of RE4 for probably the 8th or so time after the GC and PS2 run throughs I'd done previously, much less buying my own second copy of the game (after the GC one), but once I got my hands on it I was absolutely sold. RE4 has been convered, I shouldn't have to justify it as a game, but the Wii Controls on it are absolutely perfect! Its hard to imagine having played this game with analog sticks previously now that I know what truly awesome controls are. I now have to swear by these controls and hope that any decent action/targetging game in the future will think long and hard about using absolutely ANYTHING else.
Rub Rabbits (DS) - 8/10 - Style. I've mentioned it, but its STYLE that sells me mini-games. Music also helps, which the Rub Rabbits, sequel to Feel the Magic XX/XY delivers on top of some crazy mini-games and an interestingly customizable quest to win the heart of a girl whose face you've never seen. This game accompanied me and my DS for a good long while as I busted my ass to get through Normal Mode and Hard Mode to reach Hell Mode, and then spent a lot of time swearing my way through Hell to reach Heaven Mode! Absolutely worth it! Probably one of the best replay rewards I've ever earned!
Star Fox: Assault (GC) - 8/10 - The second GC Star Fox game, Assault actually put you back in the cockpit of your Arwing for some incredible space bound aerobatic dogfight action and incredible zooming railer stage runs akin to the fun I remember having with the N64 version. Nothing is terribly unexpected compared to that experience, though how quickly you can switch vehicles or roaming on foot on the fly was really handy and made it a lot of fun to explore many of the hidden corners in the battle stages you were defending.
Super Mario Bros, New (DS) - 8/10 - Traveling with my DS I like to keep at least one action game and one RPG on hand on top of whatever else I might be playing, so the New Super Mario Bros was a perfect addtion to the quick stage action fix I needed whenever I had a few minutes to pull out the DS and bust through some Bowser platforming. I don't know what to add here. For anyone whose played any of the original Mario games, this one fits like a glove, and you know what you're diving into. For anyone who hasn't, well, there's no learning curve, so off you go to have fun!
Super Mario Sunshine (GC) - 9/10 - Staring in the face of the oncoming Galaxy, it was finally time to bust out the copy of Sunshine that had been sitting on my shelf for a few years now. Yes, I can totally see where people got off complaining about the cameras, and how the controls weren't nearly as fulfilling as Mario 64, but come ON! If there hadn't been a previous 3D Mario game, then Sunshine would have definitely been a landmark title for solid action platforming and incredible control. Its an ironically good game that managed to be so far outshined by its own name that it had trouble living up. Still a lot of fun, though, so I'm really glad I played it before moving on to...
 Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 11/10 - Ok, holy crap! This is really proof that the best Wii controls are the simplest, as Mario's standard actions are pulled back to the minimum he had access to in 64, and camera controls are actually all but removed completely, letting the player focus on literally playing! The worlds I got to explore were exciting and action packed for the little amount of time I spent there as much of the game made me feel like I was racing past such incredible content without slowling down to check it out most of the time. The pace was incredible, though the diffculty seemed to be a little lower than I had expected, that was actually forgivable after the intense quest for 120 Stars that led me through so many great stages to unlock the 'full ending' was finally over because even at that point I couldn't stop playing! Staring a new game, I've been working at a much easier pace (between other games now), but its still just as fun, and one of those games that makes playing through again completely worthwhile! Thank you, Mario!
Warioware Twisted (GBA) - 9/10 - The place where I'm willing to forgive mini-games is in the style that these mini-mini-games (micro-games, as it were) are executed in amusing, self referential, and ridiculously silly manner. Now a sequel to a game of micro-games wouldn't be much for me either, except for the method in which Twisted incorporates a motion sensitive rumble pack into GBA cartridge. The actual amount of control and balance these games have is suprisingly superior to most of the balancing, motion based games I've seen thrown on the technically superior Wii. This is honestly an amazing little (actually kind of bulky) game, that is really worth trying out.
And for good measure, I got around to these board games, but they're unfortunate enough not to have enough context for full descriptions. Poor things - Arkham Horror
- Settlers of Catan
- House on the Hill
- Carcassone
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Sunday, December 30, 2007
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Current mood:  grateful
This was an issue I had back during Thanksgiving that I thought was probably too late to rant about by the time I did a Christmas blog, but it seems the time is never really going to pass. So...
Once again, during my time off, I got sick. Initially it just felt like I had a little sun burn under my shoulder blade: itchy, but tender if scratched or rubbed. I didn't think much of it until I noticed a few bumps that looked like bug bites in that area after about four or five days of irritation. I asked Will what he thought (and I'm sure I owe him like, I dunno, some donuts or something after walking into his room and taking off my shirt, but I trust him to be objective) and his response was that it looked like hives. He pointed out what I didn't even notice: aside from the few bumps in the tender area under my shoulder blade, there was a much larger cluster of bumps right in the middle of my spine JUST beyond what I could actually twist around and see in a mirror.
I'd already assumed it might be some kind of allergic reaction, so I ran through the standard list of if I'd come into contact with any strange soaps, detergents, fabrics, foods, or even strange wild life, but there was literally nothing tha fell ouside of normal for weeks. I let it go at either bad food or an actual bug bite allergy over the weekend, but as one or two new bumps were appearing every day I finally conceded to see the doctor on Monday morning.
The answer: shingles. Not a word I was happy to hear, particularly because I didn't know the exact definition, it sounded much worse than I felt. My doctor, in fact, commented that it was a bit strange that I was only complaining about irritation instead of the stabbing pains most people seem to have (I wouldn't really figure out what that was like until three or four days later). Between him and Wikipedia I learned a lot about the resurgance of Chicken Pox that day, including the fact that medicated treatment doesn't actually do much to reduce, contain, or speed the recovery of shingles, but it CAN reduce the chances of developement of "postherpetic neuralgia," which would basically translate to suffering those 'stabbing pains' for the REST OF MY LIFE. I decided to take the medicine. By about the time the stabbing pains actually DID hit me on Thursday and Friday, I had enough of a reminder to follow the prescription through. I can suddenly appreciate the unpleasant sensation of a virus that is literally bursting out of your nerves.
The little pox clusters were limited to that spot on my spine, the chunk under my shoulder blade, and one last patch that would form under my pectoral muscle. So, other than my 'uncomfortable' expressions, the only indication I was ill was the fact I was sitting up straight. Most of you should know how I like to slouch and recline. I relaxed and slept extra hours and took a few half sick days toward the end as I was feeling run down (like any good virus will do to you), but otherwise, true to the nature of the beast, after about two weeks it was pretty much done. The tender spots took their time healing, but stopped really bothering me right on cue about the time the meds ran out and I figured it would all fade out after time. Seems that not 100% true.
Its been about a month now and I can still take a look in the mirror and recognize the prolem areas by a whole bunch of tiny little scars. This is perhaps the smallest and most inconsequential after effect one could have to a potentially deadly virus, but it really makes me appreciate my good fortune and decent medical coverage. I've known enough people who got something like chicken pox late enough in life that it really did a number on them inside and out, who have a thousand tiny scars because their skin just doesn't heal as cleanly as it would have as a child. I even have an old friend that had a much wider outbreak of shingles, I found out just recently, but never developed physical symptoms and was misdiagnosed. He's actually suffering from postherpetic neuralgia and will be on medication for the rest of his life just to function daily without constant pain.
Its just kind of a strange reminder of how frail a human body can be, and how much it can be taken for granted that pretty much everyone is already infected with a pox. Its such a common thing, but I really have to feel thankful that in my case everything proceded textbook smooth. Its just the little things. I have to remember to stop and appreciate the little things that go well.
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