Forgotten Film Round-Up #3 – Vacation Flicks

I was on vacation last week, and as per my usual, it was more of a “don’t go to work for a week” kind of vacation, as opposed to other people who generally do things when they take time off. I mean, I did things, but from the comfort of my own home. A lot of those things, surprisingly, were movies. I credit the How Did This Get Made? podcast almost completely for that, as it has encouraged me to watch a lot of movies lately. Like, I’ve gone from one or two a month to several each week.

These are not necessarily “forgotten films” in the usual context of movies I own but haven’t watched, but they’re all movies that I’ve wanted to see at some point. And it’s just nice to have another collection of films to throw under that umbrella. Two entries does not a proper series make.

#1 – Birdemic: Shock and Terror

A film about birds who attack people, much like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Only, Birdemic was made on a shoestring budget by an actual crazy person. The acting is mostly terrible, the plot makes zero sense, and the birds don’t even show up until a good 45 minutes in. Oh, and also the birds are 2D clip art and explode like kamikaze fighter planes.

While the film is sold on the killer bird action, it’s actually billed as a “romantic thriller,” which is a gross overstatement on both counts. I mean, technically, there’s romance, but the main character is such a poor actor that he seems more like a robot or an alien than a man. And the thrills? Yeah, there aren’t any, really. The stakes are so low, and the characters so stupid, that you simply can’t be bothered to care. You don’t watch Birdemic for its artistic merits. You watch Bridemic because it’s one of the most staggering train wrecks ever committed to film.

It’s really a must-watch for anyone who likes bad movies. If nothing else, listen to the Birdemic episode of How Did This Get Made?, which is fantastic. It features Weird Al as a special guest, and they also managed to bring in Whitney Moore, who plays the female lead in Birdemic. It’s really, really worth your time to give it a listen.

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Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up – March 2016

If February was defined by Pokémania, then March was defined by… also Pokémania (and to a lesser extent, Zelda mania). Eh, what can I say? I really love Pokémon, and there’s been a lot going on with the franchise these days.

~ Game Over ~

Pokémon Yellow Version (GB) – Playing through this one again was a very welcome blast of nostalgia, and also a little frustration at trying to remember how the mechanics used to work back in Gen 1. Running the game with a team of monsters I’d usually never use was a great way to make it feel fresh again. Hooray for Flareon!

Splatoon (WiiU) – Finally bothered to just hone my focus and complete the single-player mode. It was an absolute blast, and the final boss was something else entirely. I’m seriously hoping that they release another campaign some day, even if it’s just a little eShop title.

Jett Rocket II: The Wrath of Taikai (3DS) – Replayed the game in “mirror world” mode, which I guess is just the same levels you already played but reversed? While I may not be as hype for it as I was when it originally released, I still think it’s a solid little platformer.

Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters (GC) – I was testing out some Gamecube games to see which save files on my giant memory card had been corrupted, and popped in Mega Man Anniversary Collection. The save was still good, and somehow I ended up playing through this one. I mean, just one story path as Bass, but that’s still a cleared game, right?

New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS) – I’ve been wanting to replay this for months now, but always had some other major 3DS game on the go. With Paper Jam and Pokémon Yellow done and dusted, there was no longer any reason not to jump into it. The twist is that this time I played about half the game in co-op mode, which is super fun.

Shovel Knight (3DS) – Do I really need to justify another Shovel Knight run to you? I think I’ve made it pretty clear already that it’s my favourite game.

Continue reading Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up – March 2016

The Pokkén Dilemma: The Top Tier

There are only two days left until the worldwide launch of Pokkén Tournament, and I am still struggling to decide which of the sixteen playable pokémon I’m going to choose as my partner for the single-player campaign.

Over the last two days, I rand down the lists of which ones I’m not overly interested in, and which ones may make the cut if they’re fun enough to play. Today, it’s finally time to go over the five pokémon fighters that I am most likely to choose from.

BLAZIKEN

I knew from the moment that I first saw the starters in Pokémon Sapphire that Torchic was absolutely going to be my choice. The adorable little fire-type chick melted my heart, and I had no idea about the awe-inspiring powerhouse that it would eventually evolve into. Blaziken is another one of those pokémon that is considered to be overpowered, and it shows. Blaziken has incredible speed and strength, and its mega evolution only serves to amplify those traits even further.

Blaziken and I go way back. Like, way way back. I have a special attachment to this pokémon not only because it was super powerful in the game, but because I have a lot of really good memories tied to my first playthrough of Pokémon Sapphire. I purchased the game at a point in my life when I wasn’t really interested in Pokémon any more, but decided to play it because my brothers were playing and it was a great way for us to connect. Also, I bought it while on a trip to Disney World, and it was a great way to pass time in the hotel at the end of each day. Finally, it is one of those games that really floods me with memories of summer spent out at the cottage, so we’ve got a triple dose of strong sentimentality there.

But Blaziken doesn’t get by on nostalgia alone. No, I think that it’ll make for an incredibly solid fighter, what with it actually being a fighting-type pokémon and all. Plus, it’s just totally badass in every way, even though it’s a chicken. And you just can’t ignore that.

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The Pokkén Dilemma: The Maybes

Pokkén Tournament, the new Pokémon fighting game, launches this Friday, and I’m taking a look at each playable fighter in hopes of deciding who I’m going to choose as my go-to monster. Realistically, I’ll have to give each one a spin and then choose a favourite based on play style, but it’s fun to sort them out based on which ones I already like.

Yesterday I ran down the pokémon that I feel I’m least likely to play as, and today we’re going to take a look at the monsters that have me on the fence:

MEWTWO

Mewtwo is a psychic powerhouse, artificially created by cloning and messing around with the DNA of Mew. He is the original unstoppable force in Pokémon; a Pokémon that you can only find and capture after becoming the Champion in the original Red and Blue versions. I’m not too fond of the idea of psychic-types in a fighting game, but Mewtwo can be a physical threat as well, especially when it evolves into Mega Mewtwo X and gains a secondary fighting-type.

Mewtwo has shown that it is a capable fighter in Super Smash Bros, where it uses a combination of deadly psychic attacks and its powerful tail to pummel its opponents. However, while it is a large and somewhat slower, it’s actually a very light fighter, and can be launched fairly easily. I like playing as Mewtwo in Smash, but I don’t know if it will be as satisfying to play in Pokkén.

There is also a secret (and unlockable) boss character known as Shadow Mewtwo (pictured). I don’t know at all if the dark version plays differently from regular Mewtwo, but it hasn’t really pique my interest yet. Time will tell how I end up feeling about this non-canon form.

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The Pokkén Dilemma: The Unlikely

Guys, I don’t know what to do. Pokkén Tournement is just days away and I have no idea which monster I want to choose as my main. Sure, I could just try them all and then choose based on my findings, and that’s probably exactly what I’ll do. But I do think that it’s fun to go over the competitors and try to figure out which one I’d like the most, based on wild guesses and theories.

To be honest, I don’t scrutinize trailers and other promotional videos to try to figure out the attributes and abilities of each character before playing them. Most of my thoughts are just based on my existing thoughts about the Pokémon in question, how they perform in other games, and how their designs might affect their performance in a one-on-one fighting game.

Let’s look at the monsters that I’m least interested in first:

SCEPTILE

The final evolution of the grass-type starter from Ruby and Sapphire, Treecko. while it’s in a dire position because I don’t usually give a hot damn about grass-type starters, Sceptile is actually one of the cooler ones, at least in my opinion. A big ol’ lizardy guy with some manner of tree for a tail.

I would imagine that Sceptile would use that tail in the bulk of its attacks, because it’s got pretty puny little arms. It does have blades on those arms, but they still seem like more of a liability than a real asset  Plus, man, grass type. I am really not a big fan overall, even though I love the colour green. There are a few grass-types that I absolutely love (like Roserade and Gourgeist), but for the most part I just can’t be bothered with ’em.

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Happiness undying

Friday was a big day. An expensive day, I should say. Not only did The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD release, but also Tonight Alive’s new album, Limitless, which I was considerably more excited about. So excited was I that I bought it right away  on iTunes, even though I know that I’ll eventually be double-dipping to get a physical copy.

Because that’s just the kind of guy I am.

A guy who’s bad with money. Don’t act surprised. This has already been established.

Anyway…

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

You know, I don’t let myself squeal like a little fangirl often enough. It’s really quite a lot of fun. You should give it a shot if you haven’t.

Tonight Alive had released a few singles before the album proper dropped, all of which were very distinct from each other, as well as being very distinct from the band’s prior music. Obviously, the reaction from “fans” was not very positive, what with the internet and all. There are a few positive comments scattered throughout YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc, but for the most part it was the “This is not the same as your last album, never listening to you again” fare.

While not every single clicked with me right away, I did really get into the lot of ’em with a few listens. And it’s true, the album at large does lean more heavily towards the pop spectrum of TA’s pop-punk classification, but there are a couple heavier tracks on there that serve to keep it from all sounding the same.

I haven’t had a chance to listen to it enough times yet, or to really take it all in yet, but I’m definitely on board with Limitless. Heck, I even changed my Facebook cover image to reflect it, and I was pretty sure that my previous cover page was never going to be dethroned.

So that’s that. I may report in when I have more to say about it, and I may not. Probably the latter, because I always struggle to actually write anything meaningful about music. It’s good. That’s all that really matters.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up – February 2016

I don’t know anymore, you know? I sort of force these intros to the monthend posts, but are they really necessary? I mean, mostly I just want something in there to break up the post title and “Game Over” heading. So I suppose that this silly rambling has done exactly what I needed it to.

~ Game Over ~

Xenoblade Chronicles X (WiiU) – Finally finished it, after 125 solid hours of wandering and cutting down wildlife (also, being cut down by said wildlife). The ending was a little… I dunno, bland, after the crazy ending to the previous Xenoblade. I didn’t think it was as mind-rendingly stupid as most do, but it certainly wasn’t anything to write about. Definitely gonna keep playing this one for a while.

Goosebumps (PC) – Played it again to rack up a few more cheevos. My first run took almost three hours, but as it turns out, you can finish it in well under 20 minutes if you know what to do. Neat!

Mega Man 9 (Wii) – You might be surprised to learn that I have never beaten this game before. It’s just so unrelentingly difficult! But I finally soldiered through, and I can now say that I’ve beaten all of the traditional Mega Man games. The Wily 2 and 3 bosses were utterly ridiculous, especially compared to how easy the Wily Machine is.

New Super Mario Bros Wii (WiiU) – Played through it again with a friend and her daughter. That was certainly not how I had expected to spend Valentine’s Day.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS) – I really like this game, and trying to 100% it would probably just make me hate it. So I took my acceptable completion rate and marched right into the final boss’ lair. That was an awesome fight. Not terribly original, but cool as heck.

Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure (3DS) – I sometimes with that Dr Mario didn’t end after 20 levels, but there’s really nowhere to go after the jar is filled completely with viruses. An hour well spent, at any rate.

The Legend of Dark Witch 2 (3DS) – I quite liked the first game, which was some godless amalgam of Mega Man, Gradius, and Anime. This is basically the same, but with more stages and the difficulty toned way down. Recommended, but not as heartily as the first.

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Ice to see you

I think that the worst feeling in the world, is that feeling when you get in the shower and turn on the tap, only to realize that you forgot to turn off the showerhead the previous day.

That split-second of dread, and realizing what’s about to happen is probably even worse than the impending blast of ice-cold water that arrives soon afterward. It’s just enough time to look up and say “aw, fudge” dramatically, but not quite enough time to leap out of the way.