Digimon Marathon: Runaway Locomon... So long as its not Let it Go, you can start up a Barbershop Quartet for all I care

Remember those last few seconds of Such Sweet Sorrow? Yeah, that's the connection to this. Turns out they do get to keep their Digimon with no repercussions of them returning to the In training phase at all. But, if they're back, it means there's a new problem to deal with, and sure enough, this is no exception. Time to hit the railroad running, we've got a train to catch: Runaway Locomon.

Digimon Marathon: Battle of Adventurers... "Can't we have a break?"

So depression and the idea of lost was a common trend in Digimon Tamers, all building up to the D-Reaper. But Tamers also had two films linked to it, so you can guarantee that the themes will be there as well. Let's start with the first one: Battle of Adventurers.

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Tamers: Dark reboots before they were cool

It's not often you see the same team do a darker reimagining of their own idea. "You thought Adventure and Zero Two was to cheerful, well, time we hit you in the feels". It's a brand new world, new Digi Destined and the kid friendly version of hacking. Time for the Tamers to take the lead.

Digimon Marathon: Revenge of Diaboromon. You can never keep a good devil down

One thing of note about a lot of the Digimon movies, is that they aren't full movies length wise. So as a slightly longer episode, how does the sequel to Our War Game fair? Time to review Digimon: Revenge of Diaboromon.

(No cover as I can't find one that I can confirm to be the cover)

Digimon Marathon: Digimon the Movie: Look at how far we've come

Oh Fox, you truly know no limits when it comes to what you'll do for a quick buck... even when I'm certain it would have given you more money not to do what you did to these films. No that's not a typo, there are three movies spliced into one here... and it shows. Digimon fans hate this movie, and with valid reasons. But lets take a look at this blatant cash grab. Digimon the Movie...

Might I add, this is a crap promo poster. I thought we were past the days of bad box art...

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Adventures 02: "Why can't we send in the competent ones?"

Ah Zero Two. One of the most debatable seasons of the series out there. Both praised and hated by many. But as with Adventure, how well does it hold up now? Four new Digi-destined, new Digivolution (mechanics?) and more, Time to review Digimon Adventure 02.

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Adventure: Happy Birthday my two blogs, for your present: time to delve into the Digital World

Two days early? Yes, but still... Happy one year anniversary!!! This Wednesday will mark the launch of Blaster's Projects (pop quiz, who still remembers the original name of the site?) and one day later, the launch of Blaster's Reviews. Cue the dancers:

... Note to self, work on better theme integration...

So yes, almost one year on, I thought it would be fitting to have some sort of celebration, and what better way then to review something I talked about early in the sites life and a clear contrast to what my first review was: Digimon. Ah Digimon, the tabu of my Primary School. Everyone knew about it, but you either hated it as a Pokemon clone, or never looked at it due to several reasons (me being one of that second). I remember watching a few episodes randomly, Australian TV at the time wasn't known for its speedy and consistent arrivals. It wasn't until several years later where I'd sit down to watch them properly, thanks in part to vague memories and a friend of mine randomly mentioning it (good luck conducting the band for Violet by the way). As I mentioned last year, I prefer the Digimon Anime over the Pokemon one nowadays, but I think its about time to go into detail. From today, up until near the end of March, three posts a day, will be nothing but Digimon. I also want to stress that, aside from the last review due to lack of localization to my knowledge, I'll be covering the English Dubs as I can analyze them in greater detail. Time to delve into the past that was late 90's-early 2000's children's television and the generally accepted rival to Pokemon and how it has survived almost 16 years later (in two weeks, it'll have been 16 years since the original run). Time to start the Digimon Marathon, up first: Digimon Adventure.

Super Mario Galaxy & Super Mario Galaxy 2: From a castle, to an island, to space?

 He wasn't kidding when he said "Once in a lifetime"...

Mario Jumpman Mario. Appearing (in some form) in over 265 games at time of writing (including ports, remakes, compilations, but not virtual console and cameos), its hard to imagine a console generation without a Mario game, as Colonel Roy Campbell also spoke of: he's an icon that barely anyone in this world wouldn't recognize. 17 on that list were for the Wii, but there are two that people still talk about, still praise. Super Mario Galaxy and its direct sequel: Super Mario Galaxy 2. Regarded as two of the best games for the Nintendo Wii by many, but for me, its time to analyze, to critique them. This is my review of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Opinion Piece: The many faces of satire

This is something I probably should have done long before now, back when I was reviewing Kickassia, Suburban Knights and To Boldly Flee. For those who have read them, you'll know that I praised the films (overall) as great comedies, but that could be my enjoyment of satire. But at face value, there may be a lingering belief, does this mean that I enjoy movies like the Movie movies, and to that I say no. But why? Why is there a difference between To Boldly Flee and something like Disaster Movie?

First off, its the references. With To Boldly Flee, yes its satirizing many different movies like Star Wars, Star Trek, Terminator, Men in Black ect, the same as the Movie movies. But at the core, they're still satirizing themselves. Jesu Otaku being electrocuted and becoming Edward from Cowboy Bebop as a example. With something like Meet the Spartans, there's no smart self satire, just crude satire of anything thats popular and, in particular, current. In To Boldly Flee, every reference has something to do with either the genre or the characters, whereas with the Movie movies, the humor is aimed at anyone who has watched the mocked films, often resorting to "jokes" that to many people, aren't funny as it is just a reference. There were ridiculous amounts of "jokes" I've seen in some of those Movie movies that got nothing out of me other then "really?". Now granted, there have been cases where the films got a laugh out of me, like the road marker signs showing which path leads to safety, and the other leads to death. That was funny for me as it mocks one of tropes in Horror films. With the Movie movies, it comes off as a mockery of the original source, even if the source movie was still being worked on at the start of the production, with To Boldly Flee, the only obvious, at least for me, reference that wasn't anything to do with the producers and actors was the mockery of S.O.P.A, and that was because it was an issue during the production for them as Internet Critics. Every other reference is, at least to me, more of a homage to the source material. Yes it makes it look comedic, but in a more controlled way then the Movie movies. The use of Mario Kart's Blue shell as a example: its absolutely stupid to see it in To Boldly Flee, but it still has the weight of the shell in the games. The dread on their faces, the way the shell moves, the way it behaves is very similar to the way it works in the Mario Kart series. If you've ever had the shell float over you when you were in the lead, about to win, you know the feeling of dread when you see it, the feeling when you process "there goes my victory".

A big problem I personally have with the Movie movies is the budget, or lack there of, in the production. You can tell these movies were made as cheep as possible, and to me its insulting. But I hear you asking "But these movies were also done cheep, why are you praising them and hating the Movie movies?" And the reason why is because the Chanel Awesome anniversary movies were never at a cinema. I can't walk into a store or my local DVD rental shop and borrow them. The movie movies are. I remember first herd of the Movie movies when I saw the Epic Movie poster at one of the nearby cinema's here, same as Disaster Movie. So to see that these films were put into cinemas is a genuine insult for me. For the anniversary films, I can forgive the cheep budget, and they make do with what they can, producing some great films with what they had. The Movie movies scream "We did this so that we can make more profit". It looks intentionally cheep which is why I find it disgraceful. I give the Bayformers films a lot of hate, but at least they look like they deserve to be shown in cinemas... whether they do or not is subject to opinion. This is going to sound like another contradiction, so feel free to raise any Objections. But while I haven't seen the film yet, I also don't have that problem with Spaceballs because it adds to the comedy factor. To see the Millennium Falcon as a glorified RV, I think its hilarious, Darth Vader's costume being massively over sized and on someone as pathetic looking as Lord Dark Helmet (think, feel free to tell me I'm wrong if I am) I find hysterical.

So why am I defending Spaceballs and not the Movie movies? Because Spaceballs is, in concept, similar to Young Frankenstein. Both films take aspects of their source material and add comedic aspects to it. What if the blind made accidents? What if the denial of characters like Igor was to such a extent, they had no idea about parts of their bodies? It adds a comedic edge to the original source material. That's what people like about Young Frankenstein, Airplanes, Spaceballs, what I like about the Anniversary films and what the Movie movies lack. Its also one of the reasons why projects like Video Games Highschool took off and why spoof animations like Batman eating a Hotdog keep getting views to this day. Anyway, that's it for now, tomorrow: The Pikmin shorts

Pikmin Shorts: A day in the life of something smaller then an ant

There are a lot of franchises made by Nintendo that don't get a lot of the spotlight. F-Zero, Kid Icarus, Metroid, and one of the more recent franchises: Pikmin (though not as bad as some of the above). Three games have been made for the series... and at time of writing I have not played any of them. I'm curious about the series and I intend to play the newest one, Pikmin 3. Recently however, three short films have been posted to the WiiU and 3DS eshops. So, for the last post before the start of the marathon, time to take a look at the life of the Pikmin.