Category: Retro Review

Smallville Season One

In much the same way I did the Supernatural series I decided to check out Supernatural starting in season one. Now I saw the first couple seasons years ago years ago when it was on the air but honestly, the show started in 2002 so it wasn’t long into the show I joined the Army  and had my first kid, so I lost track of the show and many other things so after a point I will be seeing this show for the first time.

Season one starts as you would expect, introducing us to the characters, Tom Welling as Clark Kent, Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luther, Sam Jones III as his best friend Pete Ross Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang and the much less popular these days due to her very odd legal troubles, Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan. The stories are mostly self-contained, for example in one episode he is trying to solve how fires are popping up all around school only to discover they are controlled by a very angry football coach trying to protect his legacy and his soon to be a record-setting amount of games won.

The season does have a few over-arching stories tho, for example, the love triangle between Clark, Chloe and eventually Lana. Clark and Lana despite living close together won’t start out as friends, in fact, the meteor shower is what brings Clark and kryptonite to Earth, which killed Lana’s parents and she wears a piece around her neck. It will take a while before Clark figures out what makes him sick, and at least in season one it simply called meteor rocks, but we all know what it is. The first season tho is enjoyable, and I Having already started season two I feel like that will be even better. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Sega Forever Shining Force 2

Shining Force 2 is one of my all time favorite games and I don’t even have to stop and think if this belongs on the list. Once again I will not be giving you a full review simply saying how it works on android. Which is a good thing, because it doesn’t. The game is actually quite unplayable. It sounds and Looks good but as soon as you start to fight and use a spell with Sara the games healer the game freezes and quite honestly the game is essentially useless that way. This I am sure will eventually be fixed but until that day, don’t waste your time. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sega Forever:Shining Force

Shining Force has been a game I have enjoyed for a long time so it being added to Sega Forever was pretty exciting for me. Now I will be reviewing Shining Force one and Two separately but they do come in one download with Shining in the Darkness. Obviously as I have already reviewed the game I won’t be fully reviewing it but more saying how it plays on android.

For starters it looks and sounds as good or better than the original release so have no worries there. The controls are a bit stiff tho but truthfully they were always a bit stiff but sadly this feels even more noticeable on a cell phone. This isn’t a deal breaker by any means but honestly if you have access to it on one of the many collections that it is available on you really should go with one of those unless you really want it to play on the go. It is definitely playable, but it isn’t the best way to experience it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

PumpkinHead (1988)

Oh Pumpkin Head, the 1988 cult classic. The story is simple, some city folks accidentally kill a child with their dirt bike, and dad (Lance Henriksen) goes to an old witch type woman to call upon the folklore monster of Pumpkinhead to come and kill those city bastards. The problem is when Ed Harley starts to actually see the deaths happen he starts to have some buyers remorse. When it turns out he can’t undo what has already been done he sets out to stop the monster himself.

The creature actually looked pretty solid for the 1980’s and the story itself is pretty fun. The movie isn’t actually all that special and offers nothing new really. It is just a tail of revenge and a creature being fought, but what makes this different is that Ed really seems to regret it and tries to stop it even tho he is the one that was wronged in the first place. Pumpkinhead himself isn’t even truly evil as he can only be summoned by someone against someone who has done something really bad against them. You can’t summon him because your neighbor like keyed your car or because she won’t go out with you on a Friday night. The movie is a fun watch, but it isn’t a great movie. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

As always feel free to help us out if you want the movie by picking it up on Amazon

Pumpkinhead

Final Fantasy 6, Why Its Only An Average Game.

As I promised this morning here is an opinion that will probably annoy a lot of people. Final Fantasy 6, is only an average game. The story is good yea. The first 3/4th of the game or so is really good, the traveling around, the war itself. Kefka is a pretty demented guy poisoning people and even managed to demolish the world and take it over. For more details on all that check here.

This is where many of my issues come into it tho. First Kefka taking over the world and all was 100% accidental. He had no intention of destroying half the surface of the place like this and clearly if that is true taking over the world this way was also not the plan. You can’t really claim this guy is a great villain when his plan wasn’t a plan but a happy mistake.

After this point in the game the entire rest of the game is negated and pointless. You wake up on an island, your party scattered. You will now spend this entire section of the game finding and recruiting people you already recruited. Maybe. Why maybe? Well many of them are now option characters, some of those important characters from the first part of the game you can now go beat the game without. There is no trick to this by the way or game glitching needed, they are simply optional.

This brings me to another issue I have. There are 14 characters in this game, 11 main characters and 3 optional. Sort of, as stated before after the world is destroyed you only need to recruit 3 characters. (Celes, Edgar and Setzer) That is it, after those 3 are back in your party it is actually possible to go finish the game. You can go collect the other 11 main characters and 3 optional characters (and Gogo and Umaro have 0 backstory by the way and Mog isn’t much better) so aside from being strong are pointless.

Hell even Shadow and the other characters aren’t exactly well made, tho some for their time are greatly done. Much of the game tho is busy work simply to add play time. Now the game isn’t by any means bad, but to say it is great or even one of the best is insane to me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Anyone interested in checking this out and helping us out here is a link to Final Fantasy Anthology on Amazon.

Final Fantasy Anthology

Horror games that deserve a remaster

rere2

Hi folks, meet Lisa Trevor. Lisa Trevor is a undying, hauntingly tragic character from Resident Evil (remake) who helped set the remake apart from the original. I’ve played a good deal of horror games that would do some from touch up and could actually compete today. In no particular order lets begin with a particular favorite of mine…

a51 1. Area 51 –

I love crazy ass government conspiracies one thing I loved was how all the collectibles were linked to famous conspiracies like Sasquatch, psychics, aliens, super soldiers, cloning, and the JFK assassination.  Touch up the graphics, add some new depths to Area 51 and these days we have a wealth of crazy things to ponder..

fear 2. F.E.A.R

I’m honestly shocked this hasn’t been remade or remastered yet. It’s a widely loved horror game that with some new graphics and a few gameplay tweaks, this game would be truly great.

alienr game1 3. Alien Resurrection: the game –

Ok, I know Alien Resurrection wasn’t exactly everyone’s favorite installment in the series so besides being a huge Alien fan, why include it? Well, the game had a damn good atmosphere, the aliens weren’t easy to take out, and I think with updated graphics and some new controls it could be close to what Aliens: Colonial Marines was supposed to be.

trapt 4. Trapt –

This is a strange case. The atmosphere and music are creepy and there are some alarming ways to kill people in this castle but it’s not your typical horror game. I think with a bit bigger story and a few new trap ideas, I think this could be really special.

eternal darkness 5. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s requiem-

I’m really curious why the hell Nintendo never re-released a game many have praised for being ahead of it’s time in horror and now modern systems have more than the capabilities to give this game a grand remake it deserves.

silent hill 2 6. Silent Hill 2-

I know pretty much nothing about Konami except Savior rage quitting the Metal Gear Survive preview but the effect Silent hill has had on the horror field is undeniable. Silent Hill 2 gave us Pyramid Head and a great twist; imagine with a updated camera system and new graphics?

dino crisis 7. Dino Crisis-

The last game on this list and I don’t know why we haven’t heard from the series in decades. Essentially it was if Resident Evil and Jurassic Park had a weird hybrid baby. A reboot could be amazing if done with love and care.

 

I hope you enjoyed my list and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Our Favorite Movies Day 9: Jason Goes To Hell

Jason goes to Hell: the Final Friday Is our day 9 favorite horror movie. It is also another movie that is a damn liar when it comes to the title. Tho this movie made the list because for me the ending was iconic and was really our first confirmation that a Freddy Vs Jason (Jason’s side) would actually happen. Just seeing Freddy’s hand rip Jason’s mask down to hell to me was amazing. Me and friends used to debate as kids who would, and that was the first time we saw them together in any capacity. The movie itself was also pretty solid but the ending? That secures it a place from me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Hills Have Eyes

hills 78

Last House on the Left was legendary horror director Wes Craven’s first big film and the impact it had was huge, pushing boundaries and kicking ass. His second major feature to follow would only solidify his status as a renegade of horror.

The Hills Have Eyes, like Last House, is simple but full of layers. The Carter family is on vacation, driving through the desert after receiving the deed to a silver mine as a anniversary gift ( I know, WTF but let’s go with it.) They come by a grizzly old guy who runs a rundown gas station who gives them a short cut, a short cut that leads to disaster as they break down in the middle of the desert with there RV, miles from anywhere. The oldest men set out for help, leaving 2  women, 2 teenagers, and 2 dogs behind. They aren’t alone however. The hills are inhabited by a group of incestuous cannibals that are watching the Carters and when night falls, they strike on family. The father is burned alive, the mother and oldest daughter are killed and a baby stolen leaving the daughter’s husband alone with the teens and 1 dog left. the husband rushes into the desert to face the cannibals and get his daughter back while the kids are left to fend for themselves. Can they survive?

I have a massive amount for this movie and the influence it had and the boundaries it pushed but I cannot lie, it didn’t age great. Back then, Hills struggled not to have an X rating; in 2018 it could pass for  PG-13  I’d d wager if reevaluated. There is almost no bad language, not much blood and no real nudity. I have a glaring issue with the narrative itself. I feel the beginning and end are too abrupt, especially the ending; I feel there should be more to the beginning to either give the characters more time to develop or develop the situation and the end feels like a car crash, you just slam into it. The cannibals mostly feel like the family from Texas Chainsaw Massacre only with a more deformed, Mad Max twist. Michael Berryman, the iconic face of the film, is great and is a genuinely eerie presence on screen. It’s filmed alright and the score is there but nothing memorable. In the end, by today’s standards the original Hills Have Eyes is an ok horror movie that had some groundbreaking ideas for it’s time but has softened with time but worth a watch. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

X men: the official game

x men the offical game

I have a weird pet peeve when it comes to franchises. I hate when a series begins in one medium but has installments in other mediums to fill in the gaps. X men the offical game is one such game, existing to connect the gaps between X2: X men United and X Men: The Last Stand . The game is divided into three campaigns: Wolverine, Iceman, and Nightcrawler leading into where they are in the third film.

The game isn’t a marvel (yes, pun intended) by any means. As Wolverine, you go straight up hack n slash which never really feels special. Nightcrawler you teleport around trying for more stealth attacks; the teleporting can be funky and like many stealth characters, you take a lot of damage super quick. Iceman you slide around on streams of ice and blast stuff with ice projectiles; his part was my favorite of the three and ran the smoothest. There is a comic book style to the cut scenes which doesn’t really fit that great. Graphics are fine and the voices are fine. In the end, the game is meh but doesn’t really try to be anything super special even to a hard core fan. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Spider-man 2: the game

spidey 2 ps2

Spider- man 2 is one of my all time favorite superhero movies and strangely  has probably the best movie tie  in game I’ve ever played. The story follows the main story of the movie while adding a Black Cat thread through most of the game, ending with a rematch against Shocker after the events of Spider-man (Ps2 era) as well as facing off against Rhino and Mysterio- which has a hilarious end.

Unlike most reviews , I’m going to start with the negatives rather than bad to good. The worst aspect of the game is the voice acting which, with the exception of Bruce Campbell as the narrator again, sounds dry and tired. The game otherwise is damn near perfect. Web swinging is fantastic; Spider-man moves with a lot of cool acrobatics and feels fast and realistic. Combat is fun, almost a precursor to the Arkham game. There is a flaw with the combat in that once you master the game’s mechanics, you no longer need the instinct mode and the game becomes too easy- there is only one difficulty. There are races, civilians to save, pizzas to deliver, petty crimes to stop, and secrets to find to pass the time which is fun. In the end, the game is far behind it’s time and deserves a fun play through. May the gaming gods bring you glory.