Live Action Little Mermaid Trailer

The first image and trailer for the live action Little Mermaid (2023) is here. Like many people my age,I really wish they would just stop. They aren’t made for me though. It looks beautiful and while Halle Bailey has a singing voice that just pierces my head like a nail gun for some reason, she makes an absolutely beautiful Ariel. Definitely something the kids will enjoy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Catmaze Xbox series S/X Review

Catmaze is another bank breaking ($9.99) game from Ratalaika Games. As always I am grateful to be tossed a copy to review.

The game starts off with a young witch named Alesta running an errand for her sick mother. This errand should be quite simple, go and get a special grass that grows near a town to the west. This is when the game starts to really teach you about this metroidvania game.

The general gameplay is quite simplistic. One button jumps, another has your little familiar attack,of which you can collect twelve. Each with its own ability such as burning or freezing an enemy.

Traversing this world is easy, and it has a very good map. It updates fast,it doesn’t take up much space and doesn’t make you guess where on the map you are. You will be backtracking a bit trying to figure things out,but the maps are nice enough that I never really minded anyway. you can also refill your health and save your game at special cat fountains which you will need frequently.

The combat itself is surprisingly tactical. At first I tried to beat everything by simply standing in front of it and blasting it or later jumping on its head. This actually works out quite well until you defeat the first boss. After that you need to be a bit more careful.

The game is a blast to play if you enjoy metroidvania games. If you don’t it is still rather enjoyable. At the price this point this game comes in which is beyond reasonable despite my earlier joke. It is worth picking up. It is a good 8/10 game worth adding to your collection. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Circus Electrique Review PS5

Circus Electrique is a new RPG from Saber Interactive and they were gracious enough to toss me a review code for this one.

The game takes place, you won’t believe this,at a place called Circus Electrique. You play as the niece (Amelia) of the owner and noted journalist. As always I won’t waste too much time on the story because I don’t want to risk spoiling anything. It is safe to say it is full of twists and turns and well worth a play though.

The combat is a lot like Darkest Dungeon but replaces the dark stuff with strongmen and fire breathers. In total there are 15 different archetypes of characters. One of my favorites are the clowns. They have a mood that increases the morale of everyone and snacks people with hammers.

The game takes place over the course of days. First pick a circus act to earn money and items. They all have different sets of attributes you need to reach to be allowed to use them. They all have different requirements and each character has things they are better at and people they get along with.

Really the only thing left to cover is the graphics and sound, both of which are solid. Neither one is anything to write home about but they don’t disappoint. I also never ran across any glitches or crashing and in the era of gaming it is hard to come by. The difficulty is fantastic. It starts off simple enough but it does spike later on. It is a great 8/10 and I definitely recommend RPG fans, especially if the Darkest Dungeon sort checks this one out. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Be Kind — Master Mix Movies

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a top contender for weirdest movie ever made. The directing duo Daniels was previously responsible for the equally bizarre Swiss Army Man. Everything Everywhere All at Once is just as independent, but it became a surprise hit for A24. The movie seemed to come out of nowhere, even with […]

Be Kind — Master Mix Movies

Neil Patrick Harris Apologizes for Mocking Amy Winehouse After Her Death

Neil Patrick Harris responded to criticism of a resurfaced image from a Halloween party he hosted 11 years ago, which included a buffet platter made to look like the corpse Amy Winehouse. Winehouse, a genre-defining jazz vocalist and songwriter, died on July 23, 2011 at the age of 27. A few months later, Harris and […]

Neil Patrick Harris Apologizes for Mocking Amy Winehouse After Her Death

Giraffe and Annika Review PS4

Giraffe and Annika is a game NIS America gave me a long time ago and I never got around to reviewing, but hey no day like the present right?

This game is short, you could probably blow through this in five to 7 hours without trying very hard. The game does have two endings to give it some replay value.

The story itself is pretty basic. Annika wakes up with no memory and searches the island of Spica and will eventually meet Giraffe. Giraffe will need Annika to enter dungeons, five of them to be exact since he can not. I won’t spoil why for you but it is all explained to you.

The best part of the game is the looks and sound, however. Seriously if you like studio ghibli movies this is something you might enjoy. The sound most notably feels like it. Graphically it has the same feeling though admittedly it isn’t quite as good.

The game has some big downsides for me, unfortunately. The game for example has no real combat. Even the boss battles are basically just a rhythm game. I know it is technically possible to die in this game, but even if you do restart a short way back and don’t lose any real progress. There just isn’t any real incentive to worry about it. The game is actually kind of just walking around and exploring. It is not a bad game, it just isn’t a great game. It is at best a 7/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Catmaze Release Date

Another hidden gem coming from Indie publisher Ratalaika Games and Redblack Spade is Catmaze. Releasing on September 9th on PS4/5 Nintendo Switch as well as Xbox one/series S/X this metroidvania will be a small fortune of $9.99.

The story is about a young witch trying to bring her mother back from the land of the dead and features cute pixel graphics and will have plenty of replay value it seems. Please enjoy the trailer and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3: La Pucelle: Ragnarok / Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure Review

As always with these I’d like to give a Huge shout out to NIS America for tossing me a copy of this one. As always it is greatly appreciated.

The Prinny Presents games always feature two classic games, this time we played La Pucelle: Ragnarok and Rhapsody: A musical adventure. Both are pretty niche titles with huge fan bases within the tactical RPG realm but outside of that most people will never have heard of them.

La Pucelle is a pretty straightforward story of a journey to battle a dark prince. You battle through various levels and attempt to recruit or “purify” enemies to increase your ranks.

There are different ways for each chapter to play out that I won’t spoil,but it is worth exploring each one. It is also worth noting if you only played the earliest versions of this, it is based on the PSP version with all of the extra content such as missions and many quality of life improvements that never made it to our side of the ocean.

Rhapsody is probably one of the easiest NIS America games ever made. I don’t say this as a bad thing, the story is cute there are some cheap laughs to be had and honestly it’s a nice history lesson.

The games however do feel their age. Both are well over 20 years old and play like it. While I enjoyed my time with them, they could have used a bit more touching up. I definitely recommend playing them though. They are a solid 7/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.