X-men: Evolution

xmen evolution

A very underappreciated show from my childhood that blends teen drama with superheroes, X-Men: Evolution was a short lived show that changed my life and helped me see things. Not only do we get to see our favorites like Wolvy, Cyclops, Storm, and Beast, but we get many other favorites throughout like Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Spyke, and a huge host of others as well as villians like Magneto, Mystique, Sabretooth, and Apocalypse at the very end. While the show doesn’t reach as far out into the lore like it’s 90’s counterpart did, it dwells on the lives and depth of its characters just as much. There are more characters that are more flushed out than others and because of the early 2000’s timing, it can’t come as close to the dark subject matter as the 90’s cartoon could get away with. I did find myself attached to it’s characters though.and there is some cool action throughout. In the end, it is worth checking out. Best wishes an may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Gunstar heroes (Sega Forever)

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Gunstar Heroes is one I actually never played until now so I don’t have much to compare it to. It looks and sounds pretty good but I have to say as a fast paced shooter for a cell phone it simply doesn’t translate so well to a cell phone. I had trouble aiming most of the time and there was a delay to my jumps. That was pretty simple to compensate for but it was still pretty annoying. It is playable but for me it was easily the worst of the Sega Forever games I have played. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

X-Men the animated series

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Only in comparison to Batman’s animated series, there was X-Men’s and Spider-man’s. The 90’s X-men series recounted some of the mutants most coolest adventures whether fighting the Murlocks or The Brotherhood of Mutants or the planet shattering Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix sagas. We get to join our favorites like Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Gambit, Beast, Jean Grey, and Professor X and many others throughout the series. It is a pretty dark show and there is a lot of social commentary for the older folks like myself. A small problem I have with the layout is there is A LOT of cliffhangers and you find yourself getting slightly annoyed by the sometimes lengthy arcs; it’s not really a show you you can often sit down, watch a episode or two, and be satisfied. I feel more comic book fans will enjoy the series more than the casual viewer but for the hardcore X Men fans, this is for you. On a final note, the opening theme is addictive as hell. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes.

Goon (2011)

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Goon is the story of a bouncer that has a gay brother and a friend with a big mouth at a local hockey game. When a guy from the opposing team gets tossed in the box for fighting in typical fan fashion his friend lets fly with some nasty obscenities and hand gestures only for the player to jump out of the box to attack and calling him a fag. Our man Doug doesn’t like this and demands he takes the word back, and when this demand is denied he beats the ever loving crap out of him. He also discovers a new job as a hockey player.

Good you see is the movie of Doug “The Thug” Glatt, bouncer turned hockey player. His job? Take out those that would get a little rough with his fellow players. and he is damn good at it. He also happens to be one of the nicest guys on Earth, to the point that he at a few points apologizes to a few guys or even a hey nice fight. It was actually nice to see Seann William Scott play someone besides Stiffler and he did it very well. The movie isn’t perfect and honestly being a hockey fan really helps. In fact if you aren’t a hockey fan you should probably skip it since much of the fun comes from being a hockey fan. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Batman: Sub Zero

batman subzero

Subzero is a movie based around the animated series. Victor Fries loved his wife Nora with all his heart and was devastated when she became inflicted with a terminal illness; until he could find a cure, he froze her in suspended animation. After a tragic turn of events, Victor was mutated by his own cryogenic science and became Mr Freeze. With time ticking, he has a final option to save Nora but there seems to be only one match for her: Barbara Gordon. Kidnapping Barbara, Batgirl, it’s up to Batman and Robin to rescue her before Freeze may end up killing Barbara. I always loved Mr Freeze so I was glad he got an appropriate movie (we all know about the other Mr Freeze film). If you loved the animated series, you’ll love this movie. It does feel like a long episode but still has great performances and some sweet action. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Streets of Rage (Sega Forever)

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Catching up on some Sega Forever games this week I noticed Streets of Rage. I loved this game as a kid so I loaded this bad boy up and start thinking ” please don’t be shit please don’t be shit” over and over again.  So I select my character, Axel, and start punching the hell out of some bad guys. The sound isn’t perfect, tho it wasn’t all that great originally anyway but the controls are actually more responsive on my cell phone than they ever were on the console which was very nice. Any fan of the original release would enjoy this, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Batman: the animated series

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“I am vengeance. I am the night. I AM BATMAN!”- Kevin Conroy, portraying Batman and delivering the greatest I am speech of all time. Any 90’s nerd knows the classic opening noir with Danny Elfman’s perfect score and feels a chill when we catch that iconic image of Batman before the show begins. With four seasons, and four animated movies, Batman was edgy and dark as hell for a kid’s show. With dark, complex adult plots and extremely well acted characters the show didn’t pull punches. Whether it was the tragic two part Two-Face origin episode, or the creepy ass Mad Hatter episode to flushing out the epic story of Ras Al Ghul, we got to see the darker side of Batman’s lore come out. Not to say the show was all doom and gloom. Robin added some levity without being annoying or dragging the show down as much as Joker and Harley frequently brought on laughs without taking away from there menace. Kevin Conroy delivers a masterful voice performance as Bruce Wayne and Batman while Mark Hamill is iconic as Joker but there is too many great performances to name. I will say the suddenly artistic reset in season 4 may jar many fans, especially Joker’s appearance which is the worst of that seasons redesigns but the stories and voices remain just as good. In the end, I highly recommend the show to pretty much anyone. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Friends with Benefits (2011)

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Friends with benefits is essentially that thing everyone tries at some point that doesn’t work. You know a two friends decide they need a lil something something and help each other out and poof, someone catches feelings and wrecks the whole thing. This isn’t real life tho, so its both of them.

The movie is as you would imagine full of jokes, sexual innuendo and brief nudity. So ladies, ever wanted to see Justin’s butt here is your shot. Men knew about Mila years ago so I feel no need to mention it. But you know…her butt as well.

Another amazing and unexpected part of the movie is Woody Harrelson playing one of the best gay characters in recent movie history. He is fun and hilarious and adds quite a bit to the movie  despite having a pretty limited role.

The actual story is pretty basic. Both have rough breakups , eventually meet and become friends have a few drinks and a bad idea becomes a good idea and things escalate from there. The movie isn’t the best but it is quite good. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Fullmetal Alchemist

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The ultimate rule to alchemy is equivalent exchange, you never get anything without a price for it. There are very few times in life I see something that totally shakes my life up and changes my outlook on a genre or a art form. Fullmetal Alchemist did this for me.

Edward and Alphonse Elrich are young brothers who have seen tragedy: their father is out to war and their mother tragically dies. In an attempt to revive her with alchemy, the brothers fail and are left nearly dead. Edward without his arm and leg, and Alphonse without a body, instead his soul encased in a suit of  armor. Edward, becoming a State Alchemist after being recruited by the Flame Alchemist Roy Mustang, vows to gain the knowledge and skill to set things right, setting forth on  an a epic journey with his brother to set everything wrong, fix the wrongs of the world around them, and face the embodiments of there sins and the people in there past…

Fullmetal Alchemist is probably the most heartfelt anime I’ve ever watched, weaving touching genuinely touching moments with pure tragic times. The characters are all compelling and memorable. Alchemy is a fascinating and imaginative power. The only real flaw I can see is the ending is a bit anti climatic and while exciting and captivating, it lacks the action level of say DBZ or Bleach but I’ve been told Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is more action packed, though I haven’t watched it yet. I highly recommend this fantastic anime. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes everyone.

Beauty And The Beast (2017)

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First I have to say I had very low expectations and standards for this movie. Not because I hate the actors, I don’t. They are all very talented. I also don’t hate Disney or have a strange loyalty to the old Disney movies from my childhood even tho I do love them. All I wanted was Gaston to be well done and for his song in the bar to be in the movie and fun. I got Gaston, and my bar scene. Savior was a happy camper. Because truly nobody does it like Gaston. But how was the rest of the movie?

Well honestly, it was pretty damn good. Emma Watson played Belle great which shouldn’t surprise anyone since really Belle and Hermione Granger are similar characters anyway. Both are bookworms that most people considered kind of odd that liked to do their own thing, and that is a role Emma spent half her life perfecting. And the Beast isn’t exactly some hard character either, he starts out as kind of a dick then turns out to be a pretty decent guy which Dan Stevens did well. The hardest part of that job really is something that can’t be taught and that is would Dan Stevens and Emma Watson have the right chemistry to make people believe that occurred naturally, which they did.

The biggest surprise for me tho was how close to the original they kept it while changing it enough to be its own thing. All the major scenes you would want are still very much there and they took the time to make them as accurate as they realistically could which was nice. As a person that liked the original but never loved it, this remake that I admittedly wanted very little from surpassed even my most optimistic expectation. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.