Wednesday 21 October 2015

Steven Universes: Time for that follow up I promised

Back in July I did a mini marathon of Opening Impressions, tackling some of the pioneers of a new form of Children's TV show, and Log Horizon. Those being Adventure Time, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. As stated prior, my opening impressions take the first 5 episodes, give or take as it depends on the franchise and how many episodes I have to work with at the time, and Steven Universe's first five episodes... sucked, they were awful. Well, both Falsely Profound and Keybug55 are big fans of Steven Universe and both wanted me to keep going with the show, they kept telling me that it gets better. Well, I caved and kept going, so this is my follow up review on Steven Universe. Now while I will say that a lot of my points from the Opening Impression do carry over, I will provide updates when needed. A link to the original post can be found here: http://blasterreviews.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/opening-impressions-steven-universe-ill.html for those curious.

Wednesday 14 October 2015

Equestria Girls: Friendship Games: Saturday Morning sport turned into a movie?

I have had people try to say I'm a brony because of how much coverage I give the series. And while I maintain that I still come back to this series because I get requests, my counter argument includes all the Transformers coverage, Digimon Marathon and May 2015, also known as the Marvel Movie Marathon. Now giving Hasbro the lion's share of coverage, yes I am guilty of that (however that does mean you have to really convince me to consider looking at the Jem movie, seeing as the only other I.P of Hasbro's I have any knowledge of is G.I Joe thanks to those live action movies). So while I listen to Transformers Prime's soundtrack as I can't make a Transformers joke without pushing the source material for this one, sadly, let's tackle High School Musi... I mean Equestria Girls: Friendship Games...

Wednesday 7 October 2015

Megatron's Origins and Autocracy: Because you can't have one without the other

Throughout all of the generations I've seen of Transformers, is it sad to say that I only recall a single dedicated origin story for Megatron? Not to mention, how many Transformers fans who read this can tell me, without looking up a wiki who Orion Pax is? Yeah, you'd think that the two main characters of the series would get dedicated origin stories often, if at all. Well, we have 12 comics that give dedicated origin stories for the two, along with the Autobots and the Decepticons. They won the poll, so its time to look at the two IDW Transformers arcs: Megatron's Origins and Autocracy.

Disclaimer: I have not seen and/or read every single iteration of Transformers. The only time I recall seeing a origin story for Megatron was Transformers Prime and the only two times outside of this series of comics I've seen Optimus Prime referred to as Orion Pax was an episode of Generation 1 and late season 1-early season 2 of Transformers Prime.

Monday 5 October 2015

October Update: Good news, Bad news, but a whole lot of news.

While I would say this is a quick update, but I'm writing this without prep work. However I do need to share some info to you all.

In terms of upcoming content for the reviews site, not only will Megatron's Origins and Autocracy be coming out, but the review of Equestria Girls: Friendship Games will be coming out on the 14th of October and there are also plans to get a discussion going on the Smash Ballot and the latest Smash 4 patch and I'll be revisiting Steven Universe. I also have something big planned for Halloween week and, going back to Pax Aus, I'm going to try and organize a video camera to record some footage of the event which should go live early November.

However, I do have some bad news. For the next few weeks, I'm going to be pausing the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky and Earthbound Let's plays. The reason for that is because of both the Halloween project and also the fact that I'm graduating soon. At time of writing, I'm starting my last five weeks of my course. I have assessments that need to be done and what free time I have I want to invest into the Halloween Project. Explorers of the Sky still has several parts to it, but Earthbound is going to be out of parts by Tuesday next week. However, once I finish the course, I'll have a lot more free time on my hands to put out some larger projects, like the Star Wars Marathon in January.

The two sites are also due for some maintenance soon. And in that time, I'm going to be merging the Projects site and the Reviews site, and shutting down the Projects site in the process. This site will also get a name change. I'm also looking into ways of autoposting onto here from Youtube, so that anyone who reads this and who hasn't subscribed to my Youtube channel (or doesn't see my Twitter feed on the right hand column) can see it show up here.

One final bit of news, I am in the process of designing replacements for the Content Trailer and Montage. The Montage will just be an update, adding in everything that has been done and will be done by the end of this year, whereas the trailer will be rebuilt from the ground up as its own individual entity and not a condensed version of the montage, which the current one is.

But yeah, that basically sums up this. I'll see you all for the next Comic review on Wednesday. And before people ask why I'm still posting these and going to be putting the Let's Plays on hold, it's because I can knock a text post over in a few hours, a batch of Let's play parts is 2-3 days of work.

Wednesday 30 September 2015

Avatar: The Legend of Korra: New Tech, same powers, and a very PC questionable post

With the success of The Last Airbender show, a sequel was bound to show up eventually. And with a sequel comes another chance to delve into the world of Avatar. But how has the world changed, as this is set 70 years after the fall of the Fire Lord. Time to investigate The Legend of Korra.
Sadly this intro only plays once

Wednesday 23 September 2015

Avatar: The Last Airbender: With inner peace comes the ability to USE THE PLANET TO BEAT EVERYONE...

No, this is not the movie.
To me, its rare to see something like this. A show that's 10 years old now, that many people has said it's aged well for its time, praise from everyone, viewers and critics alike, successful attempts at other mediums and a movie... that was awful, ok so it hasn't all been perfect. This is a show that has interested me more as I've grown up rather then at the time of its original air, as when I first saw it on live TV, it suffered from "Australian TV syndrome" and that it was nothing but out of order reruns, which to this day pisses me off, though that's more of the fact that people still insist watching them even though its a rerun they saw recently.... Moving on, let's see how this series is. Avatar: The Last Airbender.


Wednesday 16 September 2015

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky: Now with 70% less random tangents



Sooner then I expected, but here is the review of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky.

Thanks to keybug for joining me, you can subscribe to her channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Keybug55/featured
Thanks to Falsely Profound for doing the thumbnail, link to the image can be found here: http://blaster5426.deviantart.com/art/From-Rescuers-to-Explorers-by-Falsely-Profound-559709586
Link to her Deviantart here: achyfi.deviantart.com

Monday 14 September 2015

Splatoon: Set all weapons to ink and open fire

What do you do to unwind? For some, its a book, others a beloved film. For me, its going through some of my favorite games, weather it be a simple platformer like Kirby or Mario, a adventure in a Pokemon game. For some, its covering every single spec of land you can see in ink. And this is where today's review comes in, for now we must travel to a post apocalyptic world, where man kind is long extinct and a new species has risen, we must partake in wars to decide what colour the floor should be, decided by a fat talking cat, restore our power network and prey to the all mighty fax machine to determine what the factions will be called... Kinda stupid when you say it out loud, but welcome, to Splatoon.

Friday 11 September 2015

First Impressions: Akame Ga Kill: I hope you don't have a weak stomach

The material this review is based on and the review itself is designed for a more mature audience.

So this one was a request to cover, however as the name suggests, I hope you don't have a weak stomach, otherwise you may not like this. This isn't for the kids, but for everyone else, let's see what Akame Ga Kill has in store.

Tuesday 8 September 2015

First Impressions: Nintendo NX



Thanks to Marissa for joining me on this, you can find her accounts and content here: https://twitter.com/keybug55 and https://www.youtube.com/user/Keybug55/featured

Monday 7 September 2015

Star Wars: Clone Wars: Oh this is going to get confusing fast.

So, Star Wars is coming back, a new movie, inclusion in Disney Infinity, and merchandise to spare (though I will admit that new RC Droid is cool). So with Force Friday gone (because my timing sucks sometimes, and I didn't even know it was a thing), let's look at the version of Star Wars fans love to forget exists.


No not that one

Not that one either

Overshot it

That's not even out yet.

Close

What the frag? I told you the last one was close!

I think everyone would rather forget that one. 

There we go... Is it sad that I had to cut this sketch short? And yes, we are delving into the world of Flash Animation...

Wednesday 2 September 2015

First Impressions: Ace Attorney 6


Thanks to Falsely Profound for joining me on this Impression on the game, the franchise and Tokyo Game show (Yeah, we got a little sidetracked...)

You can find her Tumblr here: http://rancorousnerd.tumblr.com/

Nightmare Rarity arc: Would this be considered a downgrade for them?

The first villain introduced in the current generation of My Little Pony was a enemy called Nightmare Moon, a "hero turned villain because of having to live in the shadows of [insert character connection here]", in this case, it was Luna living in the (not so subtle) shadows of her sister, Celestia. I'm not going to retell the plot of the pilot, if you're curious, look it up for yourself. The reason I mention this is because this arc asks "What if "Nightmare Moon" survived?", let's see how this way to tie in a animation change to the plot works, Nightmare Rarity, and remember, you voted for this: http://strawpoll.me/5105730/r

Wednesday 19 August 2015

Big Hero 6: Because I haven't done enough superhero movies this year

Breaking news, Disney has done a superhero movie that not only isn't attached to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but isn't attached to Marvel at all.

So with the success of Wreck it Ralph and Frozen, where too from there? A superhero movie... Ok then... You're not going to go for the animated Superhero movie everyone wants to see? No? Well then, let's see what we have. Big Hero 6.

Wednesday 12 August 2015

Thunderbirds: "Who want's to save these Thunderbirds?"

Gather round boys and girls, for a quick history lesson about a series of puppets, and the world of children's entertainment. While the original Thunderbirds was first aired in the 1960's, during the 1990's and still to this day, the original series continues to be shown and at one point got a dramatic rise in popularity, leading to the creation of a lot of new merchandise. It was because of this that I myself was exposed to the Thunderbirds, and I still regard it as one of my favorite childhood shows, and why I love how the newest generation, Thunderbirds are Go, is keeping to the original feel using new technology. However, this was a time when anything popular enough would receive the cinema treatment, and anything for children wasn't really given that much care in terms of plot. And sure enough, 2004 comes along, and Thunderbirds was released to cinemas. I recall going to see it with my father in Sydney, though there was another movie I wanted to see, which I'll get to another time. But for now, "Who's going to rescue the rescuers?"

Thursday 6 August 2015

First Impressions: Deadpool

You see, I would add in some sort of subtitle, but for a character like this, and a movie like this... How? What would it be?

So anyway, the Deadpool trailer came out, so its about high time to look at it.


Wednesday 5 August 2015

Blackest Night arc: "What's this, something to do with zombies that's... ORIGINAL?"

This took longer then what I was expecting, and for that I apologize. This was intended to go up early April, right after the Digimon Marathon, however as you can see, that didn't happen. But, I do keep my word, so here we are, the Blackest Night arc, the first ever Comic book review on this site.

For those who either don't remember, or haven't seen the post covering it, let me explain how these reviews are going to work, at least, how I'll handle them (which has been updated anyway, so...). Due to many comic book stories and characters lasting many decades, it would be almost impossible for me to review entire comic series and still keep a weekly content schedule, especially when you deal with characters that have been around since World War II and before. As such, this will be handled in arcs, arcs that you get to decide. At the end of almost every review, with the exception being this opening period, I'll be putting up a strawpoll that has (at time of writing) 4 arcs, one from Detective Comic (DC), one from Marvel Comics, one from Archie Comics, and one from IDW publishing. These arcs will be picked from any arc that you send me as a request or, if necessary due to how rarely I get requests, are added in by me in order to fill polls. Anyone is able to send me arc requests, even from other publishers (the only reason why its four is because those are the four I know of). Each poll will last until the next Comic review, which I'm hoping to make a monthly occurrence.

With all that out of the way, time to look at Blackest Night.

Friday 31 July 2015

Opening Impressions: Adventure Time: Time to get ready for round 2 of this

On Twitter, I mentioned that this post wouldn't be ready because of the fact that I didn't have the time to complete it this week, and that's partially true, however there's more to it. The other main reason is that, a lot of the problems I have with this go back to Steven Universe's problems, in by that just the lack of any world building. However, there are some unique things to this, so time to conclude this mini marathon with Adventure Time.

Tuesday 28 July 2015

PSA: Forced site change

If you don't live in an area that connects to a European server to connect to this site, feel free to ignore the following

So I just got a notification from Google and Blogger concerning law changes. Due to the fact that I'm not connecting via a European network, I cannot check to see if the notification is showing up, altering European users that this site does indeed use cookies. Both Blaster's Projects and Blaster's Reviews use, to my knowledge, two types of tracking cookies, one for analytics, so that I can see what pages are being viewed, where and what operating system and browser are being used. The other is concerning the Ads that are displayed on the reviews site. There are potentially more that I am not aware of though.

For those who don't know what they are, Tracking cookies, normally just called cookies, a small trackers that many sites use to gather data. Some use them to gather more... inappropriate data then others. To give an easy example most will know, if you're familiar with the "100 in the "x" area want to talk to you" popups, its those tracking cookies they use to find out the suburb you live in, not magic or lucky guesses. Cookies should easily be detected by your anti virus and clearing your browser history should delete any that the Anti virus doesn't get.

This is basically going up on both sites so that, should anything happen, I can use this to inform people of what's actually being used. If there are any more cookies used on this that anyone should know about that directly affects them pop up, I'll add them into this. The only other one I know about is one that only affects me, it just makes sure that my own viewing of the sites don't tamper with the analytics.

On a side not, by only one vote (at time of writing), it looks like I will be covering Ben Drowned tomorrow, that could still change though.

Monday 27 July 2015

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: "This wasn't what I meant by 'when the moon goes down'"

With the sucsess of Ocarina of Time, its no surprise that Nintendo wanted a second game on the N64, now to use the expansion pack accessory for the system. With the use of Ocarina of Time's engine, what many regard to be one of the creepiest games ever made came to be. Time to look at the game that makes children scared of faces on the moon, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Like with Ocarina of Time, while I will be taking screenshots from both games, I've used the recent 3DS remake as the base of this review. Also, this WILL contain spoilers for Ocarina of Time as well as Majora's Mask.

Saturday 25 July 2015

First Impressions: Spectre: Back to the bar for this one

What do you think of when you hear "London Spy", I'm sure most of you think of "Bond, James Bond" (don't judge me, of course I was going to word that in). With a film series that has existed since 1962 and a book series since 1953, there's a reason why he's an iconic character. This film though took me off guard, as I had no idea this was happening. But, it is, so time to delve into Bond's latest outing: Spectre.



Monday 20 July 2015

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: How doth thou stand the test of time?

The 32/64 bit era was a time of dramatic change in the industry. It was the push from 2D to 3D, it was the rise of Sony with the PlayStation. New genres were made, new characters created, and it was a time where games would become legends thanks to what they bring to the table. Often regarded as one of, if not the greatest game of all time. A legend in its own right, introducing mechanics that wouldn't only be used in later installments of the Zelda series, but also games of other genre's to this day. But before I start, I must ask you. For right now, A Dark time is approaching. Willst thou run? Or Fly? Wilst thou sink? Or Swim? Willst thou finish? Or Die trying?" "Willst thou soar? Or willst thou suck?" "Willst thou flee? Or Fight? And in the end Willst thou get the girl? Or play like one?" Sexist quote from a 90's commercial out of the way (I'm not kidding, child friendly Nintendo green lit that for their commercials of this game), time to look at "the game that became a legend": The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the... I mean Ocarina of Time.
I know its not the cover, but I'd rather do one shared between both, not a version exclusive

Friday 17 July 2015

Hatfall: Why? Because I'm bored right now.

Sometimes when I'm bored, I'll look around, maybe play a browser game, or what I probably should be doing, catching up on sleep. However in this case, I went for the first option because "Live while you're alive, sleep while you're dead" and another reason you may or may not know of in the future... So Hatfall...

I'll start with the plot, as I could clear it in one sentence. To paraphrase a paraphrase in the game itself. Hats are falling, you need a hat.What else were you expecting? It's a browser game also in smart phones.

Gameplay wise, you do just that, you get hats. You use the left and right arrows to position yourself under an object and hope its a hat, the more hats you get, the more of a chance you have to get unlockable costumes and items, to which, by the looks of it, they're all purely cosmetic. Levels get harder by adding in more dumb AI walls and more chances of objects not being hats, like polls, fridges and more.

Aesthetic wise, if you're used to Zero Punctuation's art style, then you know what this is going to be, its the style used in his review, just more fluently animated thanks to the fact that this is a video game. Music's alright, nothing spectacular that hasn't been used in the reviews before.

Overall? If you're looking for a time waster, then this is alright. It doesn't do anything stupid like put in micro transactions, though you can choose to see an ad every now and then for a few extra hats, which is the currency in the game. Am I basically wasting your time with this? Yes, but I needed something to do, and now this has beaten the Kirby's Adventure record at 15 minutes to do... yay...
I'll see you for Ocarina of Time.

Opening Impressions: Gravity Falls: "Where's my phone? I need to call them"

I swear this wasn't intentional, considering as a 3DS game has been announced for this series recently.

Round 2 of the Adventure Time art style marathon, and today we travel to Disney. With the amount of stuff they've done, I don't think there's a person alive who hasn't seen a Disney show or movie in some form. So let's see what child friendly Disney does in this style, as we travel to Gravity Falls.


Wednesday 15 July 2015

First Impressions: Shantae 1/2 Genie Hero: *Insert obvious music refference here

Last post of this marathon. Remind me not to write these one after the other.

This is a series I've only recently herd of, even though it dates back to the Gameboy Colour. With my interest in Metroidvania's growing as I go on (still yet to actually finish a Castlevania, though my Metroid counter is at... one... again, new interest), new games have been appearing more and more in my feeds, one of them being this series, and with a new game being successfully kickstarted, thought I might as well throw this in while we were at it today, so: Shantae Half Genie Hero.


First Impressions: Need for Speed: Welcome back old friend

I know I harp on EA often, and not without good reason mind you. However, there was a time I loved their games... well, two in particular. Burnout 3: Takedown, which I still maintain to be one of the best party games I've ever played (yeah, you herd me Mario Party). And the Need for Speed series, especially Need for Speed Underground 2. One of the best gaming memories I have from when I was a child was when me and my father would boot up Underground 2 on the PS2, spend the afternoon building a car up from scratch and once we were done, sending them to the "City loop" track (I can't remember the name), and racing them to see who was the better driver... let's just say there's a reason why Burnout 3 was a fairer challenge, though I did get better. However, I haven't really followed the Need for Speed series as close as my father has, and even then he doesn't play it that much now. I loved watching him play Most Wanted and Undercover, but that was about it. I was going to do the same with this one... and then I saw E3...


One thing you should know about Need for Speed, no one cares about the plot. The plot's there to give you missions and races. Which is pretty much all you're doing in this game: Going from point A to point B, doing races, outrunning cops, and getting better cars to do the same thing. Its a mix of arcade racing and realistic racing games. Now I don't know how that will hold in this day and age, however it'll still have its audience.

One of the things I enjoyed about Underground 2 was the overworld. I completed races to unlock more areas to drive to more so then anything else, and I'm glad to see that back here. Basically this Need for Speed is a fusion of three others. The car customization from Underground 1 and 2, the pursuit from Most Wanted (and maybe Undercover, I don't know if you can drive Police cars as well) and the overworld of Carbon, one I have no experience playing, but I have seen in action and it looks like it was well designed... at least according to memory. Those alone have sold me on this, if the entire world is unlocked at the start, then I'm sold...

Unless this ends up suffering from some of the problems I have with the industry at the moment, and with it being EA, I wouldn't be surprised if it did. I hope not, but I know there's a chance of it happening. I'll see you all soon for another game: Shantae 1/2 genie hero.

Yes, today is literally an experiment, I hope you like the flood of content, but don't expect this to be often, I'm not that crazy.

First Impressions: Transformers Devastation: I'm getting him ready now

Probably about time I covered the games I said I'd cover in the post E3 vid, isn't it? So yeah we got the announcement of a new Transformers game, and it has nothing to do with Bayformers. In fact, not only is it based on Generation 1 for all you Gen 1ers, but its also a prequel for the current line in the toys and IDW comics (something I really need to start reading soon, I'm actually ashamed that I haven't yet), being the Combiner Wars. And with Platnium games as the main Development team... let's just say I have a few words... so what are my thoughts on Devastation? Well, unlike a lot of other people doing posts like this, I don't have nostalgia goggles for Generation 1, as I said during the Transformers Marathon last year. However, that doesn't mean I'm not excited to play this.


First Impressions: Five Nights at Freddy's 4: "I CALLED IT, I F$(#*@! CALLED IT!!!"

If you don't want a jump scare, don't watch the trailer. 

People who know me personally know that I don't gloat very often, I'm a smart ass, but I'm not a very smug person. Even when I was dealing with the trolls months ago, while my words could be taken many ways, my intention was never to gloat. There will be times where I am, but that's few and far between more often then not. This is one of those times where I am and I'll relish in it. A bit of back story, I have a schedule of what I intend to review and when, updating it throughout the year with any changes due to timing, opportunities or adding in content that isn't a review, like all these impressions. After doing the Red and Blue Rescue Team review, I sent a schedule out to some of my friends, including Marissa, letting them know what I had planned and if they want to join me for anything. One of those is the Five Nights at Freddy's series, as a Halloween review. Now this game was first teased at the time so some of them said "don't do it yet because this game is coming out then". My response at the time was "I'm going to go ahead with it, lumping that in if I think that my views on the series also affect it", even though it would have been released that day. However, and this was reflected on my Twitter in a conversation I had with Marissa, I knew this game wouldn't be an October release. And who was right? Anyway, Five Nights at Freddy's 4.



First Impressions: Suicide Squad: "What joke?"

I can see your attempts at covering this up Wanner Brothers, but did you seriously think you could control this?
"Am I freaking you out yet?"

First Impressions: Batman vs Superman, Dawn of Justice: "So these red capes you talk about..."

As with what I did a few months ago for Age of Ultron, I intend to do a DC marathon to cover, not just the subject of this, but the other "DCCU" film, and what's coming out in a few hours on here, Suicide Squad (First impressions, not review. Do you think that someone who sucks at timely reviews overall, and is a nobody in comparison to others would get something like that this early?). But for now, the start of the flood of content for today, because I'm insane. Part one of six in today's marathon of content, because I'm insane (I'll check myself into Arkham later): Batman vs Superman.

Monday 13 July 2015

Kirby's Adventure: Please understand: one of the rare time the bad guy isn't the bad guy

While Dawn of Justice is still coming out on Wednesday, I think this takes priority, with what has happened. I'm not going to repeat it here, I'm sure other social network sites will do just as good of a job without me. Instead, I want to do what I did for Robbin Williams last year again, but with something that, while I have a lot of experience with the series, not so much its opening titles, something that is actually quite common for me. One of Iwata's early games (in terms of producing), Kirby's Adventure for the NES.

Now, like a lot of NES games, you're not going to find the plot in the game itself, this was due to size limitations and back then, even still to this day, gameplay takes priority over plot. I'm quoting this from a wiki so this may not be the exact lines from the instruction manual (remember those?). "In the beginning of the game Kirby awakes to find that all of the citizens of Dream Land have lost the ability to dream. Before this event occurred, dreams were composed through the Dream Spring and through the Star Rod. Kirby visited the location and found the antagonistic King Dedede swimming in the spring's waters. Kirby eventually found that the Star Rod had been broken by King Dedede, and that he had handed it over to all of his equally evil friends. So, it was Kirby's obligation to seek the lost pieces of the Star Rod by fighting Dedede's evil friends." Short hand though: Dedede broke this, go and fix it. However you'll later find out that there's a reason why. While I would complain that the plot is badly executed in the game itself... I'm willing to cut it some slack as this is a late NES game. The plot's just there to give you an excuse to "be the hero".

Gameplay wise, its interesting to see how the Kirby series started, however at the same time, this hasn't aged well when you consider the later games... well most of them... You see, while Kirby still has access to his powers, a mechanic introduced in this game, you only have access to one move per power, something which will become a problem when you're use to using side abilities of some powers like I am. There's no charge up for some of the powers, the dash attack for Fire is its own power and many others. While its not a complaint against the game, it makes it feel unnatural if you're used to games where the powers have their own sub moves (like Triple Deluxe, the last Kirby game I reviewed, as an example). I would raise it as a problem for more recent Kirby games, however I can't complain too much as it is the first game to have the Copy Powers.

The aesthetics are great for the NES, not as great as some other games in its library, but still up there as some of the best. I love the music in this game specifically, one of the best soundtracks I've herd on the NES, the sprites though... eh. They're ok for the NES, with praise going to the background and animation, its more the design of them, and the fact that some of them are randomly different colours for, what I can tell, no good reason. That's literally my only problem with the sprites.

My one major problem with Kirby's Adventure is, while it may not be the first game, it still suffers from First Game Syndrome, where the end product is fine, its just that later games do the job so much better. If you want to play this though, asside from it being on the eShop, there's also a Game Boy Advance remake called Nightmare in Dreamland so if you are curious, I'd pick them up, just keep in mind this is still an NES game. The game is still fun to play, something that I think gets ignored more often then not when talking about games, I myself maybe guilty of it as well, I don't recall every review I've written word for word.

The review is over, with Dawn of Justice coming tomorrow, and I'll go back to more images for Gravity Falls and onwards. However there are somethings I want to add. This first part I'm quoting from Marissa, which is something she brought up as I was writing this:

"If I were to say anything about Iwata, I remember playing Animal Crossing (GC) and I picked up one of the NES games you could get in the game. It was the only way I could play NES games at the time. My favorite one that I always go back to was Balloon Fight. Little did I know was that Satoru Iwata heavily influenced both of those games. RIP Satoru Iwata, your influence will never be forgotten."

I don't have that kind of memory, I became a Nintendo fan more recently, I have gone on record (if memory serves me correctly) saying that my early gaming experiences were with the PS1 and PS2 more so then Nintendo. I actually learned of him thanks to a magazine I read, the Official Nintendo Magazine for Australia and New Zealand. And its actually thanks to that magazine, which printed its final issue the month before I started the two sites, its because of that magazine that I am where I am today in terms of content production. However, I can thank him for some of my all time favorite franchises from Nintendo, Kirby, Pokemon and Super Smash Brothers, with many more games under his name. Though one thing I find very honorable, even if it was a persona, which I honestly doubt, is the way he was to the public. All the jokes, the smile always on his face, it was a joy to see. Its also, indirectly thanks to him, that I always look for fun in games, in many ways. To me, fun and joy are this mediums greatest factors, what makes the medium an artistic tool. There are very few people in the world like Satoru Iwata, and to me, the world is poorer every-time men like him die. My sincerest condolences go to his close friends and family.

Before I close, there's two thing I want to quote, which is something that I find rather inspiring, and it fits him so well.  

"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer."

"Like any other entertainment medium, we must create an emotional response in order to succeed. Laughter, fear, joy, affection, surprise, and - most of all - accomplishment. In the end, triggering these feelings from our players is the true judgment of our work."

Rest in peace Mr Iwata, I hope your legacy continues to bring joy even after your death, and I hope you enjoy peace, maybe even in the Bubbly Clouds. While I don't know if these are his actual words:




Opening Impressions: Log Horizon: "I can show you the world"... well, a digital world... another digital world...

An anime type (does it count as a sub genre yet?) that has appeared recently is, what I'm dubbing, the MMO world. Basically, the main characters get sucked into some sort of MMO and have to survive in that world, using their knowledge of the game. In this, we have the world of Elder Scrolls... I mean Elder Tale and the world of Log Horizon.


Friday 10 July 2015

Opening Impressions: Steven Universe: "I'll take your word on this..."

So for those who saw the montage, you'll notice that there were a few cartoons and an anime in there. Yeah... this month is going to have a lot of Opening Impressions again, though unlike last time, this time it'll be paced out.

As the medium evolves, new technology and new styles arise, there was 3D animation... which looked awful at the time, Flash animation, which lead to a influx of awful cartoons made as quick and as cheep as possible to make a quick buck (something I wouldn't mind online, but they gained footing on national Television). While those were more of the tech and people behind them, now the trend is style, by way of "Adventure Time style". Smooth 2D imagery embracing the cartoons of old, but not afraid to pull some more mature humor, some more so then others, one of which I'm still contemplating putting in here, which is why it wasn't in the montage. I intend to do Adventure time last, due to its sheer popularity in comparison to the others, but for now, lets start with the one I got asked to do on camera, Steven Universe.


Monday 6 July 2015

The Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie: Care for a gaming history lesson?

Warning, while I do try to keep clean language here, due to the nature of the film, I won't be for this review, as there will be times I'm directly quoting the movie, or the Youtube series. I recommend older audiences reading this first before allowing younger kids to, to see if its suitable for them. Please note that if I get any complaints about young kids reading this first, I will ignore them.

I highly doubt there's a person reading this who hasn't herd of the AVGN, one of the oldest independent game reviews channels on Youtube that's still going if not the oldest (I haven't exactly cross referenced that so take it with a grain of salt, I don't want a repeat of The First Avenger). Primarily focusing on reviewing the awful games of the earlier generations, normally 16-bit and older, the AVGN quickly became the standard for gaming reviews on Youtube, even to the point where people called others trying to get into that market "AVGN clones". While that's not exactly the case nowadays, the channel itself is still relevant, due to the amount of care that goes into each review. So when James Rolfe, the man behind the AVGN character, made a Kickstarter to fund an AVGN movie, let's just say it was successful, which is why I'm reviewing it today. A review of a film which is also a review of a game regarded as the worst game ever made, it's time I "took you back to the past", though unlike him, not "to play the shitty games that suck ass", due to many reasons. Time to look at The Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie.

Sunday 5 July 2015

First Impressions: Terminator Genisys (Genesis): Looks like Arnie's seen better days

While I have plans to cover the full series eventually, quick summary of the Terminator movies: AI becomes self aware, and decides to nuke the planet and kill all the human survivors because "it's an as*&%@!". Because said AI, known as Skynet, is absolutely horrible at strategy, it builds a Time Machine to send what are known as Terminators to go back in time to try and change history in their favor, by wiping the leader of the Human Resistance, John Connor, out of the timeline. This backfires due to 80's film logic and the fact that Skynet went to the Princes Hilda school for management, and will fail you in every way (I will get to Link Between Worlds eventually). The day is saved by either a member of the resistance who went back in time to stop the machine from being an as#$()! or a reprogrammed Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator. Congratulations, you know know the plot to the first three Terminator movies. And why am I telling you this? Because we're about to rewrite that history entirely, welcome to Terminator Geni... you know what, screw it, I hate that spelling, I'm writing it as its actual spelling: Terminator Genesis.

Quick note, I'm going to be focusing on the second Trailer moreso then the first, if you watch the following video on Youtube, it will give you the link to the first one.





Saturday 4 July 2015

First Impressions: Equestria Girls; Friendship Games. "Oh no, not again"

When I made the content montage, I intended it to show off all my content for July as well, with an updated version for the end of the year showing off the August-December content as well... and then I wake up Friday morning to see this has been unveiled... well because I got a request to review the movie (and I needed an excuse to do the next first Impressions after this), lets see what this trailer has. The first impressions of the third Equestria Girls Movie, Friendship games. To the people who saw my main stage presentation at the Tech Games Fest, as I said in the Facebook page, I swear I'm not a brony.

Trying to see if I can fix that annoying bug that's plaguing the Facebook page for this site

Thursday 2 July 2015

Promotional videos, and a hidden July update

So for some time, I've been working on some promotional videos for this site, to be used on accounts like the Patreon account. The videos include a small trailer, which used the most popular reviews as its base, and a montage of all the reviews and individual impressions since launch, and the end of July this year, so yes, there is content that hasn't been uploaded yet. Please let me know what you think of them, as I'll use your feedback to make any future videos like them better.

The trailer: 

And the montage: 

Wednesday 1 July 2015

Kid Icarus Uprising: "Sorry to keep you waiting"

Remember when I said that Nintendo tends to neglect some of its franchises? Well, this is one of them. Only three games ever made, and one only because of his appearance in Super Smash Brothers Brawl. So, in the Post E3 craze (and while I'm at TGF, the power of scheduling and planning in advance), lets take a look at the Starfox game that became Kid Icarus Uprising. And no this will not talk about anything at E3, this is being written the day before E3 starts.

Sunday 21 June 2015

Four people talking about E3 2015

EDIT: Version 2.0 of the video because for some reason I didn't catch the bad audio sync.
So what did we think of E3 2015?
Special thanks to CJ, Jeremy and Marissa for joining me on this.

Side note: Really excited for the new Need for Speed as I loved messing around in Need for Speed Underground 2 as a kid. My inner child is excited for Transformers Devastation, even though its not the Unicron Trillogy. And the other inner child in me wants a Yu-gi-oh game for the Holo Lense (or Magic the Gathering if it has a yu-gi-oh theme to it).

Friday 19 June 2015

The Animaniacs: "Now that's comedy"

So for those who saw the Square Enix coverage on Wednesday, there was a line there that didn't make a lot of sense then. So it turns out my plan may have backfired, and before Pinkie could do any harm, we sedated her to try and get her back to normal. And seeing as we have it out, may as well take a look at something that is sure to make her smile in a way that doesn't put The Joker to shame.

I think its time we go to the "American animation renaissance" of the 90's, where animation once again bloomed, and characters old and new found homes once again. It was a simpler time, where characters only had to be themselves, comical, serious, where all that mattered is the world and their interactions.
So for now, come in, pull up a chair, dance, mingle. Say hi to Christopher Walken, because.



Wednesday 17 June 2015

Square Enix E3 2015


  • Can't wait to show you more seems to be a trend here
  • Just Cause 3: I haven't had any interest in Just cause before, and while I may give this one a shot, its not a priority for me. Though the trailer that is basically the presentation is quite boring
  • Nier: Nothing to say, It looks nice and it has some well known staff working on it
  • Rise of the Tomb Raider: I've already said what I had to say
  • Lara Croft Go: would like to see it in action before I form opinions
  • Heavensward Final Fantasy XIV: Hard to talk about expansions without experience of the games themselves
  • Life is Strange: Ok?
  • Dragon Quest Heroes The World Tree's woe and the Blight Below: Dragon Quest IX themed?
  • Final Fantasy VII remake: Said what I needed to say, though I don't see the logic behind putting the original and the remake on PS4
  • Kingdom Hearts Unchained: It looks nice for an iOS and Android game
  • World of Final Fantasy: I'll get to it
  • Hitman: I've said what I had to say already
  • Hitman Sniper: ?
  • Triad Wars: Not meaning for this to be racist, but Japan GTA?
  • Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness: It looks intresting, though I'm more curious about the series itself
  • Deus Ex Mankind Divided: Looks interesting, though I get the feeling I should play at least the last game before I play this one
  • Final Fantasy Portal App:Just a name dump
  • Project SETSUNA: The concept art looks nice

And with that. I'm done with the press conferences, but I'm not done with E3 yet. I'll be back on Friday for a break from E3 with The Ani... what's that at my door?

Nintendo E3 2015


  • I don't care what people say, the muppet intro is hilarious
  • Starfox Zero: It looks like a lot of fun, with the transforming vehicles
  • Skylanders Superchargers: It's skylanders, but amiibo fans have two more to get
  • Fire Emblem Fates: It's IF
  • Shin Megami Tensai X Fire Emblem: Still looks great
  • Xenoblade Chronicles X: Something that I'm becoming more and more interested in everytime I see it in action, it looks really good
  • Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer: It looks charming, but nothing else aside from that
  • Animal Crossing amiibo Festival: Animal Crossing Mario Party?
  • Yoshi's Woolly World: It's so adorable
  • Yo-Kai Watch: Nothing has caught my attention with it yet
  • Mario and Luigi Paper Jam: Its a mash up of the two Mario RPG formulas that has a giant Mario Tank made of paper fighting giant paper Goomba tanks. Enough said
  • Mario Tennis Ultra Smash: Its Mario Tennis
  • Super Mario Maker amiibo support: Because why not have wii fit trainer go through Mario levels?

Tuesday 16 June 2015

Sony E3 2015

Quick note, who was in charge of the vision mixer, when there's something on the screen, PEOPLE WATCHING THE STREAMS WANT TO FOCUS ON THE SCREEN, NOT EVERYTHING ELSE
  • The Last Guardian: Looks ok, not a fan of how the feathers on the "griffon" are being rendered, but apart from that, it looks good
  • Horizon Zero Dawn: It looks really fun to play and the world just looks gorgeous
  • Hitman: Not much to say as it was a CGI trailer
  • Street Fighter 5: It looks nice, but its still just another street fighter
  • No Man's Sky: Pretty much what I said last year. I am considering picking it up though when I get a PS4
  • Dreams: It looks nice, but its something that I can't really describe. I'm probably not going to pick it up because I'm not that kind of artist though. I could see people using it to make movies though for YouTube.
  •  Firewatch: I've got nothing
  • Destiny The Taken King: It's a little hard to talk about an expansion to a game I've never played
  • Assassins Creed Syndicate: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
  • Final Fantasy 7 Remake: O.O Getting!
  • Ronin: Eh
  • EITR: Looks interesting
  • Mother Russia Bleeds: That's a gameplay style I haven't seen in a while
  • Crossing Souls: Meh
  •  Shenmue 3: Nothing to say, its a kickstarter
  • Batman Arkham Knight: First person section?
  • Project Morpheus: Something I need to test for myself before I form an opinion
  • Playstation.Vue: Don't care
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops III. I was so close to realizing my dream :( Maybe next year
  • Disney Infinity 3.0: Still wanting to see fan movies people will make with these
  • Star Wars Battlefront: I'll get to it later
  • Uncharted 4: A thief's End: Looks like fun

Ubisoft E3 2015


  • South Park The Fractured But Whole: First, are you honestly surprised at the name? Second. May give this a look, but then again, there was enough in Stick of Truth that turned me off, looks like a fun RPG, but... lets just say I agree with the censorship board on that one
  • Good to see them acknowledging the fact that last year was a wake up call in terms of what you actually need to do for a game's launch. Like finishing the game
  • For Honor: Looks decent, but I don't get why you're calling it a new genre
  • The Crew Wild Run: Looks to be adding in more events and vehicles
  • Trials Fusion Awesome Level Max: She was right, the only thing I have to describe it: WHAT THE F$&@ IS THAT?
  • Tom Clancy The Division: Don't care
  • Just Dance 2016: It's Just dance
  • Tom Clancy Rainbow Six Siege: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
  • Assassins Creed Syndicate: Finish the game this time before releasing it. This means bug testing and face rendering
  • Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Wildlands: How many Tom Clancy games do you need in one year?

EA E3 2015

Just the summary here, I've got to get to Ubisoft
  • Mass Effect Andromeda: Not much to say, but I do want to start playing the series
  • Star Wars The Old Republic expansion: It looks like an interesting expansion, may give The Old republic a look
  • Unravel: It looks charming in a Little Big Planet/ Chibi Robo kind of way. I'd need to see more gameplay before making a decision to play it, but you could tell the presenter was very nervous there
  • Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2: I find it interesting that you can now play as the Zombies, nice change of pace. And the inclusion of Singleplayer is great to hear. Execution though is going to be another story
  • Minions Paradise: Charming little mobile game
  • Mirror's Edge Catalyst: It looks interesting to play. The only Mirror's Edge experience I've had is with the Occulus Rift so I've got nothing really to talk about here.

Microsoft E3 2015

So what did Microsoft bring to the table for its confrence? Well, I'm going to need to look into their other shows during the course of E3, but here's most of the stuff from their show. Which was a lot better then last years, one tech issue aside.

  • Recore: It looks intresting
  • X-box one backward comparability: ABOUT TIME!!!
  • X-Box Elite controller: It's a customizable XB1 controler
  • Fallout 4: Same as Bethesda, I'll get to it later
  • Mods on X-box 1: Interesting
  • Titanfall and Dragon Age Inquisition on EA Access: Eh
  • Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2: Highway to the Dangerzone, comical
  • Forza 6: I don't care about car porn
  • Dark Souls 3: Nice CGI trailer...
  • Tom Clancy's The Division: Fairly certain I saw this last year, even if it was just teased, so this isn't a world premiere. Meh otherwise as its just a CG trailer for a shooter
  • Tom Clancy Rainbow Six Siege: Nothing new to talk about here in comparison to last year, from a person who has never played a Tom Clancy game's perspective
  • Gigantic: Um?
  • ID@XBox games montage: Looked like something that would be good to see, if the video feed was there. Audio was though.
  • Tacoma: Space station Gone Home?
  • Ashen: Not sure what to say as its just a gameplay less trailer. I do have one thing though: "I AM LIZARD GROOT!!!". I just woke up at time of writing, ok?
  • Beyond Eyes: Maybe not something I'll pick up as its not the kind of game I enjoy. But I can't deny that the game looks beautiful
  • Cuphead: It looks adorable. If I do get an x-box one, I'd pick it up. That and its final line "Coming 1936 (plus 80 years)" To those who don't like math, 2016
  • Game Preview: aka Xbox's Steam greenlight esque system
  • Ion: Something I may keep my eye on, interesting concept, but it hasn't sold me yet
  • Rise of the Tomb Raider:It looks like a lot of fun, however I'm probably going to wait to see if its a timed exclusive or not
  • Rare Replay: Its a collection of past games, not much more to say
  • Sea of Thieves: Looks interesting
  • Fable Legends: Already covered last year
  • Gears of War Ultimate Edition: Its a remaster
  • X-box and Valve VR/ Occulus: Not much to say really, Occulus Rift is being bundled with an XBox 1 controller
  • Gears of War 4: Meh, don't care about the Gears of Wars games

Monday 15 June 2015

Bethesda E3 2015:

Considering what's coming up, there isn't going to be a lot here, just some brief notes. There wasn't much in terms of staging, but so much to talk about later this week. So what am I going to talk about now?

  • Studio montage: Something I wish I could talk about now, but POLARIS WOULDN'T STOP TALKING LONG ENOUGH TO LET ME HEAR IT (Thank you Bethesda for also streaming it on your own Youtube account)
  • Bethesda.net: We want steam's pie is what I got out of it, what I'm curious about is if its exclusive or can steam tap into it for some of its games, like one I'll talk about later)
  • Battleblade: Not TF2 is what I got out of that, basically a melee oriented TF2 from what was shown
  • ESO: Meh, looks nice.  I'm not playing Elder Scrolls online, so I don't care
  • ES Legends: Nice trailer :/ not much to say other then that



Sunday 14 June 2015

Just two people talking about E3 2015

Exactly what it sounds like. Once again, thank you to Marissa for joining me on this one, and up next starts the coverage of E3.

To those who watch it on Youtube, you'll notice that the video's been live for roughly 24 hours. Subscribers will be the first to know of new videos that go live, with posts on the other accounts following later. Just an incentive to subscribe. Let me know what you all want to see covered in the post E3 video.

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: It's going to be one of those shows, isn't it?

It's been a while since I've done a anime hasn't it? Digimon Marathon aside, the only other animes I've done here are The Unicron Trilogy during the Transformers Marathon (Armada, Energon and Cybertron) and K-On... which I will get back to... should get back to... maybe....hopefully... So, Magical Girls. It's pretty much self explanatory, girls, normally teenagers, are given magical powers to stop some sort of force of evil. Think of Sailor Moon as an example. That's pretty much all the explanation that needs to be said, now to look at the series that turns it into something dark and depressing: Puella Magi Madoka Magica, commonly referred to as just Madoka Magica.