#never going to be over live action team sonic interacting

[bunji-enthusiast]

Wonder how Redeemed! Scourge would act around Team Sonic during and after his therapy and redemption arc, would be interesting to see how he would react seeing the genuine friendship between the whole team especially if the reader is involved. He only had his team and Fiona, most probably stayed out of fear(?) idk I haven't read the whole lore but prob close to that

Note || somewhat rushed but here you go! I AM SO SORRY THIS IS LATE, SO MANY THINGS KEPT COMING UP AND LIFE AND UGGGGHHH—

Okay first of all, you probably had to give your friends a large heads up and a warning to be kinder and not act so weird toward Scourge. Considering his huge reputation with his previous actions, quite frankly it could be worse, seeing as how he enslaved a numerous amount of mobians and mobilized the plant in his own dimension. Then came his scars, then came this. 

His memories are scrambled, so he can't recall every single thing evidently. But when it came down to you, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails; he could feel the warmth of friends and family found alike. Working together and providing good memories together regardless of the circumstances or the situation. He didn’t entirely expect them to greet him warmly as they would.

But in all rights, they still reserved some resentment toward the green hedgehog. Scourge completely expected that, and he was fully ready and prepared to gain back their trust with time. 

Unusually, he felt a new sensation stirring in his chest each time he saw you interacting with any members of the team. Scourge evidently didn’t realize how much he had done his old friends wrong. Nonetheless, he simply watched from a comfortable distance – while maintaining his persona, less his old self, but with better restraint now this time. 

Fiona was one of his closest members, his old lover. But he sees now he was extremely piss-poor behavior when he saw you interact with one additional honorary member; Amy Rose. He did apologize to her properly for his prior behavior toward the pink hedgehog, to which she still held grievous amounts of skepticism toward Scourge, but was most willing to make amends with him. Scourge thought she was an absolute saint: at any point in time of his life, he never expected to have such a mindset. He felt a little better that he improved more on that aspect before meeting any of your friends. 

Scourge could appreciate how quickly Sonic could make amends with you, or any other of his friends for that matter. Before he was easily annoyed by Sonic, as he was often compared to the Blue Blur – but now he could understand why those comparisons were uttered before. He just needed a bit of straightforwardness and blunt honesty to set him straight on a bit of a better path.

He thought he was really annoying to converse with though, Sonic will not let him live down his infamous reputation for prior events. He didn’t like him in that entirety, but he came to learn and understand that he has a tendency to tease; Sonic surprisingly won’t cross any boundaries with Scourge, and even began to worry over him in the few past months he’s gotten to know him. The real him. 

The real Scourge.

Getting acquainted with Miles was something he found rewarding, he thought the little fox was cool as hell the better he had gotten to know him. Scourge didn’t mind being in his presence, as he had also found him to be very reliable. Tails was a nickname he was continuously called by many who have come to know him, as he had often introduced him this way. Scourge felt the honesty and modesty radiating off of the little fox, he could really respect the guy.

As for Knuckles, he wasn’t completely sure. He was cold and hardened, indifferent to Scourge. Though he did his best to remain with understanding and patience toward the echidna, understanding that the guardian may resent him moreover in comparison to the others.

[multicolour-ink]

I often have to take a step back and smile from the realisation that we are actually living in a timeline where we not only have a live action Sonic, but he's got two movies AND we have faithful live action Tails and Knuckles

[bimboamyrose]

Unfamiliar - A Metamy Fanfic (Ch. 9)

First two chapters

Previous (Ch.8)

Ch. 9: The Thing About Sunsets

Mid-morning that Sunday, Amy and Metal lounged crossed-legged on the couch. She ate cereal from her bowl absent-mindedly, more focused on the day ahead than her breakfast. Metal was enthralled with some cartoon violence on TV. Amy watched him idly, wondering how-or if- Metal would be introduced to the team. She didn’t want to force it, but leaving him out entirely seemed unwelcoming. As much as she’d enjoyed her week or so off, it was only a matter of time before they’d all have to spring back into action. Sonic was supposed to discuss something with everyone today, and she was just waiting for the call.

Noon was fast approaching as they watched TV, Amy only half paying attention. Annoyed, she decided to get up and make the call herself. They weren’t about to waste the day watching cartoons. Amy excused herself and made the call from her room.

On TV, piloted mechs battled one another in the vast expanse of space. Amy had flipped it on, figuring Metal would enjoy watching a pair of huge robots duke it out. That was entertaining enough, but Metal found himself more invested in the show’s drama. A romantic subplot followed two unwitting opposing pilots falling in love, only to confront one another in battle later. The climax found the two caught in the crosshairs until the soldier sacrificed himself for the rebel, turning against his own armed forces to protect her. It was almost ostentatious in its melodrama.

Illogical. Metal thought the soldier had plenty of opportunity to defend himself against his own team. Using his mech as a shield was played up for theatrics- his superior speed could have allowed them both to escape reasonably. Still, Metal could appreciate the character’s dramatic flair and supposed this could make the story more interesting down the line. He was eager to catch the next re-run the following Sunday.

The credits finished rolling and a few advertisements led into a cooking program. Not interesting. Metal flipped to the next channel to find an old black and white film playing. A gentleman escorted a lady out of her home, offering her his arm. She latched onto it as they walked across a promenade, the young lady chatting away as the man listened fondly. The scene reminded him of someone. He quickly flipped through a few channels as he heard Amy returning. 

“Well, it looks like we’re not meeting until tomorrow. Guess we can do whatever we want this afternoon.” Amy leaned against the back of the couch over Metal’s shoulder. “Anything good on?” He shrugged, pausing on a nature documentary. The screen showed a grassy plane speckled with violet blossoms, towering trees in full bloom losing flowers to the wind. Amy sighed. “Those are jacaranda trees- the first bloom announces the beginning of summer. I hope the one here flowers soon.” She looked through to the other side of the small living room, out the glass door. She motioned to a tall hill that sprouted from the opposite side of the valley.  “It’s up there, same place I like to watch the sunset. There’s a pretty cliffside that faces the ocean. Pain to get up there though- Well, not for you I guess.”

Metal followed her gaze outward. The hills were no longer blanketed in snow, small patches of green beginning to emerge. It was captivating, watching the landscape reshape itself through the glass door like a portal. It was only a few days ago they were trekking through muddy snow, but now, the palms stood proudly upright and the sun dried sand glistened gently at midday. And although the days were tepid, evenings were still too chilly to find Amy outside without a coat or blanket, who wasn’t the most cold-resistant. The scenery changed daily but still looked recognizable. He wondered how it would appear in a few months, and if he’d stick around to see it. Metal wanted to see all of it before it changed any more.

He stretched as he stood up from the couch. Amy grinned, amused at the thought that Metal would feel stiff when his entire body was rigid. But he had seen her do it and she noticed him mimicking her from time to time; She found it cute. 

He looked to her, pointing a thumb toward the back door. Amy frowned. “You wanna go now? It’s still too cold up there,” she reasoned. He placed a fist on his hip disapprovingly and cocked his head to one side. “No way, I’ve had enough of this never-ending winter. You go ahead, I had something I wanted to get done today, anyway.” Metal shrugged back at her, rolling his eyes. She waved him off, ignoring his sassy response in favor of picking up around the couch by rearranging throw pillows and fluffing cushions. He silently wished for the weather to get warmer. 

“Have fun exploring. It’s nice when you can fly,” she chuckled as she took her empty cereal bowl to the kitchen. “I’ll be here when you get back.” Not easily deterred, Metal accepted her proposal to go alone and waved to her on his way out. Amy paused her bustling and looked around the threshold of the kitchen to him as he slid the door aside. “Metal, promise you won’t watch the sunset without me, okay?”

The whirring of Metal’s engine intensified as a sudden alarmed sensation overtook him. That’s right, she’d promised to take him to watch the sunset- he didn’t want to disappoint her. But why did the thought of watching together make him so nervous? Amy was giving him a strange look now. He found himself staring back at her for longer than was conformable, trying to come up with an appropriate response. Shooting her a thumbs-up was all he could come up with.

“Aha… Okay, well, take care,” she said before turning back to her dishes.

Metal hurried out the door, practically shooting into the sky. There was nothing out of the ordinary about that interaction, so, why did he feel so embarrassed? Perhaps it was because he wanted to express that he found Amy so much more interesting to watch than a setting sun. 

He shook his head furiously, pushing the thought away. The world was at his feet, there was nature to explore. Whether he’d experienced much of it before his memory loss, Metal didn’t know, but it beckoned him now. He turned his head toward the spot Amy had pointed out earlier. Still wanting a preview, he decided to take a look up there later- before the sun began setting. Embarrassment. What a useless emotion.

There was a lot to see. Amy’s house was on a small private beach surrounded by hills big and small, some speckled with little hillside homes. A larger mountain loomed behind it all. The beach was just one of many valleys, a few of which were untouched by anything but the local fauna. They boasted little thickets of trees or small ponds. Metal spent most of the afternoon ducking in and out of wooded areas and up rocky hillsides. Grass was just starting to sprout everywhere he looked, slowly overtaking the rotted leaves littered across the ground from last autumn. He was surprised to find a clearing bursting with wild tulips that he examined for some time. Metal thought about bringing some back to Amy’s house, just as a souvenir. He then spent the better part of an hour picking only a few of the most perfect buds, the ones with the tallest stems and most symmetrical petals.

As his shadow grew long and Metal became satisfied with his very uniform bouquet, he decided it was time to head back home- that is, back to Amy’s home. But he was interested in taking a look at the spot she had pointed out to him. If that tree could really announce warmer weather, he was curious as to how long it would be before it bloomed. He flew, finding the rolling cliffside Amy had described- a long, flat strip of land overlooking the western coastline. A single mature tree sat atop it. 

Metal lowered himself down near the edge of the cliff. The low sun was radiating brightly, reflecting off the glistening ocean. It wasn’t quite ready to hit the horizon, but the view was still breathtaking. He didn’t have long to appreciate it before a rustling behind him caused him to turn his attention abruptly, however.

“I never could sneak up on you.”

Sonic hung off a low branch from the tree confidently. He looked a lot less aggravated than when he’d stopped by the day before. Metal now understood Sonic’s violent response, but it didn’t seem to make him any more tolerant of the hedgehog. Enemy flashed in his head like a siren. 

“Don’t worry, I’m not here to fight.” Sonic landed, taking steps towards Metal. The latter didn’t move. “Gotta say, I didn’t expect you to be the type to be a nature lover.” He stopped a few feet from Metal, not far from the cliff’s edge. “Did you come to watch the sunset?” Metal didn’t respond, instead turning away from him and starting in the direction of the jacaranda tree. Sonic noticed the tulips he was clutching in one hand. “Those for Amy?” he teased.

Metal’s head whipped back around to glare at him. Sonic didn’t return the stare, instead looking unimpressed. “You know, you can see Amy’s place from the other side of this cliff.” Metal remained still. “I’ve been watching you. You guys talked all night- well, Amy did all the talking,” he snickered. “I gotta say, you’re full of surprises.” 

Sonic was being a nuisance. Metal had no desire to stick around to be mocked. So, he continued on his way across the cliff.

“Me and you’ve been fighting for a long time, Metal. It’s weird seeing you on the same side.”

Metal stopped just next to the tree. It was the greenest thing he’d seen all day, as if it had never shed it leaves to begin with. He touched the trunk with his free hand, examining the leaves and branches. No vibrant purple flowers to be seen. It was still early in spring, after all. And Amy was right- it was much colder up here than on the beach.

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw you at Amy’s house yesterday.” Sonic took a few steps back toward Metal. “But you know what, I’m glad you’re becoming friends. She’s a great pal; sees the good in everyone. Even you.”

Even him. This implied that there was something deeply wrong with Metal, as if he was exceptionally heinous. What little he remembered of his past and his master was from the day he met Amy. It wasn’t a lot, but nevertheless impactful. He recalled a heavy sense of subjugation, a governing influence over his body and mind that he could do little to control. But could he really blame it all on that?

Sonic was in front of him now, arms crossed seriously. “For her sake, I really hope you’re not here to take advantage of that.”

Metal felt the cracked bark under his palm. Rough and slightly jagged. Given that Amy wouldn’t be happy if Metal lashed out, he had to focus on something to keep from shutting up his irksome rival by force. Even if he could express his genuine feelings to Sonic, Metal found it unlikely that he’d believe them. He turned his body toward Sonic, meeting his eyes. Instead of going for his throat, Metal placed a hand on his hip and bobbed his head around mockingly. Sonic didn’t seem to find it amusing.

“Cute,” he responded sarcastically. “All I’m saying is, this better not be an act.”

Metal’s eyes rolled dramatically. He held the tulips out in the direction of Amy’s house, as if to suggest he had somewhere better to be.

Sonic sighed in frustration. Metal was pleased that he seemed as annoyed as he was. “I’ve been looking out for Amy since we met. If you’re gonna be her friend, you better be willing to do the same. You know, maybe cover up those knife-hands of yours,” he smirked.

Annoying. Metal amended his memory file. He figured he might as well cross out enemy and see if it made him want to punch Sonic any less. He logged a photo of Sonic’s smug look before walking past him towards the cliff’s east side. The sun was beginning to touch the horizon Metal didn’t want to break his promise.

“Bring her up here some time. Amy likes to watch the sunset.”

Sonic sounded genuine that time. Metal didn’t bother responding, taking off from the cliffside and making his way down toward the beachy valley. Sonic watched him over his shoulder. Maybe there was something to Amy’s plan.

The sky was yellowing as he landed, the last rays of golden hour illuminating the little cabin warmly. Metal could spot Amy sitting at the dining table through the back door. She was tinkering with something, her full attention focused on whatever was in her hands. He watched her for a moment.

Amy noticed the light rapidly declining and looked up from her work. She was hand-sewing when she realized Metal was home. Waving to him, she quickly put her project away in her sewing box. Metal then pretended to look around as if he wasn’t just staring at her. Bemused, she hurried over to open the back door. “Metal! I was beginning to worry you were enjoying the sunset without me,” she laughed. “Come in. Oh, it’s chilly out.”

She quickly ducked back inside as Metal sauntered through, sliding the glass closed behind him. Amy was picking up loose threads and pins from the tabletop. “Did you have fun? You were gone longer than I expected.”

The nervousness that had overtaken Metal that morning suddenly returned as he made his way to hand Amy the flowers. They were admittedly rather windswept and didn’t look as lively as when he’d picked them. He worried she would find them ugly, but he couldn’t just get rid of them now. She was turning back to him already. Panicking, Metal brandished the bouquet high above him as if proudly holding a trophy. 

Amy’s face brightened. “Oh! How lovely. Let me get you a vase for your tulips.” 

His tulips. As she walked past him to search a low cupboard, Metal felt somewhat disheartened. He wouldn’t admit to himself that he planned on gifting them to his host, but he felt cheated now that he hadn’t. She placed a tall fluted vase on the countertop from the other side of the kitchen. “Here, I’ll trim them for you.” Metal delivered them to her, and she took them in both hands, supporting the bulbs in one. That was probably the proper way to handle the delicate flowers, he thought.

Metal sat himself at the counter as Amy trimmed and arranged the bouquet. She filled the vase with chilled water from a pitcher to keep them fresh. Leaning over the counter, she sighed. “These really brighten up the place.” She turned to him. “You know, tulips are some of the first flowers to grow in the spring. They come out when the ground is still snowy. They represent new beginnings.” Amy giggled, her cheeks coloring slightly. “I think it’s really fitting.”

New beginnings. They were certainly suited to the occasion. Metal supposed it really did make it his arrangement, but there was no reason he couldn’t share. He reached for the flower that looked the most aesthetically pleasing to him, a sunny yellow bulb with gently curving petals. Picking it from the arrangement, he quickly placed it behind Amy’s ear. She looked rather bemused at his unexpected playfulness for a moment before bursting into laughter.

“For me? Thank you,” she giggled, adjusting it to sit more comfortably. “I love yellow- it’s so cheery!” She made her way around to give him a hug from behind. Metal’s engine buzzed. He wasn’t sure if it was due to excitement or panic.

She pulled away, looking back through the glass door. He joined her in watching. The sky was a hybrid of sunny yellow and romantic pink. Amy leaned on the back of Metal’s chair, enchanted by the dreamy colors. “I see it pretty much every day but it never stops being pretty, you know? I guess that’s the thing about sunsets.” 

Metal gazed on with her. He had grown to enjoy the daily event, never ceasing to be entertained by the brightly painted sky. It gave him a sense of calm that seemed to cure even the peculiar excitement he kept feeling around Amy. Still, he lamented that she was standing behind him and he was unable to watch the dreamy smile she wore whenever she sighed over something she found lovely. But it happened every day, after all. The opportunities were endless.

.........................................................................................................

hi babes, not much to day just wanted something cute for a lil transition. besos 

[regrettablewritings]

How They Spend the Quarantine (Tadashi Hamada, Lucifer Morningstar, Dewey Finn, Wade Wilson, Harley Quinn, & Benoit Blanc)

Just a fun (?? is that even responsible to say?) little thing I’ve been thinking about while slogging through this neverending hellscape of an extended lockdown.

Tadashi Hamada

When San Fransokyo was ordered to go into a lockdown, there were mixed feelings.

At first, Tadashi had a hint of optimism that this would mean more time to work on his prospective projects . . . But then he quickly realized that his projects mostly required tools and space offered by the campus. He could technically make do at home, but it wouldn’t quite be the same considering the garage was considered Hiro’s space.

Somberly had to clean out his lab and take whatever he could home.

Cue the rest of the group (sans Fred and Hiro) griping that at least his style of science could travel well enough to be somewhat continued off of university grounds.

Helps do delivery for The Lucky Cat. It helps him get out the house, and it’s simply helpful altogether.

Uses Baymax frequently to make sure everyone down to Mochi is sanitized, and nobody’s running a fever.

Nearly as frequent a sanitizer as Aunt Cass.

He starts most days prepared to be productive, only to stop and poke fun at Hiro, who’s almost always got his eyes trained on a video game.

Tadashi realizes three hours later that he, too, has been playing the game as Player 2.

Learned how to make facial masks with Aunt Cass. He already knew how to sew a little but frankly, making the masks made him realize he could have a new hobby on his hands. He’s currently trying to figure out how to make Mochi a little vest . . .

Lucifer Morningstar

B o r e d. A s. F u c k.

At first, he thinks everyone being forced to go home would work in his favor -- surely some rule-breakers would sneak out and try to bunk up with the Devil, right?

Well . . . Kinda? Once Chloe found out and scolded him about it, the idea died real fast. Plus, he realized he wasn’t quite fond of the possibility of being around someone who could pop up with a disgusting human sickness at any point during their time with him. Smearing their snot all over, coughing into his Egyptian cotton sheets . . . Nope, never mind, he is perfectly content having the penthouse to himself, thank you very much!

Except he’s not.

The poor bastard is going crazy by himself -- he’s just not used to being without some kind of company!

“At least in Hell, you could tell there were people around you based on the screaming!” he’d whine at his phone during his hourly video chat with Chloe.

Oh yes: The video chats. He tries to make them hourly with anyone he can get a hold of (namely, his long-suffering detective) but this clearly never plays out as he would like for it to: If he had it his way, everyone would respond in an instant and let him bounce mainly one-sided conversations off of them -- basically, what he did before all this went down.

What usually winds up happening is he gets hung up on or nobody answers him at all out of sheer annoyance over his clinginess.

Ironically, he’s not exactly crazy about when Amenadiel initiates those “family calls”. He insists it’s healthy and normal for them to do this and even calls Luci out on the hypocrisy, but let’s face it: Lucifer finds it obnoxiously gushy and weird.

He works his way into Linda’s video appointment books to help him cope with his boredom and admitted need for interactions. She doesn’t mind offering him counsel, but once Lucifer starts attempting to butt in during others’ appointment calls, it becomes an issue.

Has, at some point, gotten buzzed down in Lux and streamed himself attempting to pole dance. It drew quite a bit of attention.

He’s managed to gain a bit of a following and some companionship by streaming himself playing piano and singing. It’s not the same thing as having an actual audience, in his opinion, but it will have to do for now.

He’s never been one to binge with regards to TV shows or movies, but after the first week, he decided to binge watch every work action star Wesley Cabot was ever in.

Makes sure his staff still gets paid well. After all, he’s pretty well-off; there’s no need to make an innocent bartender’s life a living hell just because some other rich bastard fucked up, yeah?

Going off this, should he need to order to-go or anything, we already know he tends to tip as handsomely as he looks.

Dewey Finn

Kids were being sent to Horace Green on tuitions worth more than what some people saw in half a year -- of course the school was going to continue classes online!

While technically an afterschool instructor, the program is popular enough for parents to expect it to continue, and for Dewey to be kept on payroll.

Initially, he was pretty smug: He’s one if, if not, the youngest teacher-figure at Horace Green, so surely that means he’s more tech savvy than his older, stiffer coworkers, right? For once, he’s ahead of the curve!

Wrong: Figuring out Zoom was a headache, and then there was the realization of just how dependent his classes were on actual physical presence.

Plus, let’s be real: Dewey’s Internet connection was decent on its own, but craptastic when compared to those of his wealthier students. The lag is strong with this one.

Has definitely accidentally messed up the background on his screen. Somehow wound up with the Beetlejuice background and got so frustrated, he wound up keeping it there for two whole sessions.

In spite of the slight issues regarding lag, they pull through and try to resume lessons as best they can.

Tries to keep optimism by pointing out how this is a new form of entertainment they could be pioneers in.

Some days, it’s just going so wack or everyone’s so bleh that Dewey just assigns for them to watch a music documentary or something.

“Okay, kids, Mr. Finn’s hungover and clearly Summer is the only one who went to bed before 3am. So what I’m gonna have you do is watch . . . Prrrbbbb . . . Amadeus.” “How is Amadeus rock-related?” “It had a rock single, shut up. Anyway, we meet back next class and talk about what we saw, m’kay? M’kay. Over and out.”

Next class, he’s filled with dread as Summer produces an in-depth analysis of the relationship or lack thereof between character and the presence of talent as evidenced by Mozart’s abilities juxtaposed with his immature presentation and -- Dewey just can’t keep up. Sure, Summer, why not?

When he’s not busy teaching, however, he’s using the lockdown to work on some new material. Or just screwing around.

Otherwise, let’s be real, Big Boy’s living the high life in a place of his own: Playing video games (Animal Crossing, recently got back into Team Fortress 2, is trying to finally finish Ocarina of Time); eating a not very great diet; staying up late, napping at weird times; all in the name of quarantine.

If he orders delivery or to-go, he tips the best he can.

Wade Wilson

On one hand, murking never goes on lockdown. But on the other . . . He’s already technically not well, why risk that even with his mutation?

Oh, fuck I just remembered he lives at the X Mansion, never mind turn back turn back oh god give us free --

The situation is tense to say the least. There’s Wade, who’s sensible enough to know why the quarantine is in place . . . and then there’s everyone else, who knows Wade’s full of shit.

And by everyone, I “coincidentally” mean Colossus, Nega Sonic, Yukio, Domino, Cable, and Russ because the already small world of the sequel just got smaller by the fact that everyone is bound to a large but nonetheless single estate whose size has probably decreased from that of the First Class timeline.

You know those videos of the usual Quarantine Characters? Wade is somehow yet still unsurprisingly all of them, save for the frequent sanitizer. He raids the pantry frequently, sleeps at all hours, considers scooting a swivel chair down the halls exercise for the thighs, blasts video games, and so on.

Going back to the sanitizer thing, it’s not that he’s just not exactly known for being tidy. Colossus occasionally does drag him out of bed at a decidedly decent time (read: any time before 11am) to try and get him excited about cleaning up around the mansion, but it rarely ends well. At this point, the safest option is to just remind Wade to wash his hands for 20 seconds as necessary.

Has acquired a Switch and visits everyone’s island, often to bonk them on the head with a net or gift them with weird crap they don’t necessarily want. For the “friends” from Sister Margaret’s, he has somehow acquired their Dodo Codes. Nobody knows how he did this. 

Facetimes Dopinder frequently.

“Precious, you’re the beacon of light in this cold, cruel world.” “I miss you, too, DP --” “Sshshsh! I’m having a moment . . .” *weeps*

On the many occasions he orders delivery, he tips by giving the delivery person something expensive from the mansion that they can sell. Prof. X is loaded, after all. Plus, he more or less isn’t even present in this universe, it’s not like he’s gonna miss anything he can’t see/probably doesn’t even know exists in his house. The problem is, Colossus does exist and does notice and does care when things go missing. Leading to many a delivery person getting caught up in shenanigans at that weird school in the boonies that they either don’t get paid enough to deal with or couldn’t pay to make up.

“Oh, pawn shops are closed?” asks the man who looks like a skinned avocado if avocados had human skin. “Don’t worry, lemme hook you up -- I know some guys --” “DEADPOOOOOLLL!!” roars a Russian accent from inside the house. “WHERE IS THE BRONZE BUST OF THE PROFESSOR!?” The poor delivery person’s eyes widen as they realize that the odd cargo they’ve been presented with apparently holds some value of some kind. But before they can flee, the avocado man blurts, “Shit! Leave the pizza in the bushes, look me up on my Youtube page, byyyeeee!!”

In his defense, Wade does hold up his end of the deal. Much like the Dodo Codes, nobody knows what strings he pulled. They just accept it and move on.

Harley Quinn

Surprisingly compliant.

She’s crazy, not stupid: Staying at home may suck, but what sucks more is making things harder on people who may not fair so well. Besides, she’s spent time in a maximum security prison -- she can handle staying cooped up in her own home. At least home has TV, books, and snacks.

When she hears people are still going out without masks or plotting to have a protest, she strongly considers firing up the old Fun Gun and popping the next sign-carrying Karen she sees with a tit full of cadmium yellow powder.

Seriously, stay the fuck home and fuck up your own hair; this is the perfect time to make mistakes with your looks, it ain’t like you got anywhere to be or anyone to impress.

“STAY THE FUCK HOME, BITCH!” P O W!!! “JUST GO GREY ALREADY, WE ALL KNOW YOUR HAIR AIN’T THAT COLOR ANYMORE, YOU’RE THREE YEARS FROM BEING IN THE GODDAMN AGE-BRACKET!!!” P O W!!!!

Only leaves her new apartment to grab groceries and to take Bruce on a walk. She actually refuses to steal or cause a scene during this shitshow because she may be a bad guy, but she sure ain’t evil.

So far, there haven’t been complaints about the fact that she’s walking a hyena down a public street. Maybe it’s because there’s hardly anyone out? Maybe it’s because Gothamites just can’t be bothered to be fazed by it . . . Or maybe it’s because she made him a little mask for his snout.

“In this house, we wash our hands for at least 20 seconds, kid.”

Lets the forest reclaim the earth, so to speak. She was never really shaving anything for anyone but herself before, but now it just seems especially pointless.

Spends almost every day in a kigurumi. To give her a semblance of routine, she has a pink bear one she calls her “Sunday Suit.” She doesn’t know it’s not Sunday because the days just blur but Cass just doesn’t have the heart to tell her; she seemed so proud of herself . . .

Like everyone else, she’s gotten Animal Crossing. She’s trying to create an all-preppy island with a few exceptions (Astrid = Aesthetic, m’kay?)

Tips nicely when ordering delivery.

Benoit Blanc

As young and spry in nature as the gentleman sleuth would like to think of himself, he would really rather not test the dangers of the situation and go about all foolhardy -- he’s staying home!

In theory, it’s only logical and therefore perfectly fine. But in practice . . . God, he wishes he’d invested more in things to occupy himself with when home.

It wasn’t that Benoit was never home, he just never felt too much of a need to invest in a fancy entertainment center -- the fanciest he ever got was an iHome.

The beginning of the quarantine served as the perfect time for him to read over case files, catch up on paperwork, even catch up on some reading he’d been putting on hold since God knows when due to cases popping up left and right. But that dried up quicker than he’d assumed, and that’s when he was faced with what a man of his mind dreads the most: Boredom.

Finally caved and decided to hook up Amazon Fire.

Expected to use the one-month free trial on Netflix and be just fine but once the lockdown in his area got extended and he realized he wasn’t going to be able to catch up with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend at this rate, he caves even further and buys a subscription.

Fully delights at the influx of platforms uploading Broadway recordings; when The Show Must Go On put on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, followed by The Phantom of The Opera, it was a treat, I tell you!

Sanitizes often, despite hardly ever leaving his house besides to have a smoke or to go grab groceries. Honestly, it’s less about cleaning at this point so much as it is finding something to occupy his focus when he feels there’s nothing else to so.

Takes zinc after every meal to help lessen the intensity of any ailment that might hit him.

Definitely owns a facemask. There’s a good chance it’s from Marta or one of his relatives, and there’s another good chance the pattern is as flamboyant as his clothing. He’s delighted.

Benoit tries not to rely too much on delivery,  as he’d much rather just cook. On the rare occasion where tipping comes up, however, he gives as generously as he can.

Bonus: There’s a slight chance he might have acquired a companion to foster early on in the quarantine. Benoit hadn’t had a pet since childhood, a crime of which he was admittedly melancholic of his own involvement. However, his surprisingly busy lifestyle just wouldn’t suit a four-legged friend, now could it?

Well, now there’s time to. Besides, it would certainly ease the potential feeling of loneliness to have someone or something with whom he could interact with.

Admittedly, when shelters began encouraging people to invest time in taking home a companion, he’d been looking more for a comrade on the canine side of the spectrum -- but darn, if Duke wasn’t a handsome cat.

A lovely grey-and-white cat with eyes that matched his own, Duke has become the one Benoit monologues to (because in all honesty, the man is a performer at heart, in need of an audience to speak his mind to and portray a thought before). Plus, he doesn’t appear to mind it when Benoit finds himself belting out in tone-deaf notes to showtunes while washing the dishes: The mark of a true companion.

At this rate, he’s probably not going to keep fostering Duke when things calm down -- he’s probably going to just straight up adopt him.

Stay safe & healthy!

[we-rate-tmnt]

I request: Leonardo. Please and thank you 🙏.

Idk if everyone loves Leo or if my header and avatar just remind everyone about this amazing blue boy. (This one’s super silly btw. I’m just sillier as time goes on. Character development I guess?) 

The iconic leador Leonardo (1987)

Bro idk why but I loved this Leo. I have a tiny memory, especially with this version but I clearly remember that I thought he was the funniest and the coolest. I mean, he had swords, what was I supposed to do as a 7-year-old. NOT like him??? Anyway, while Raph was the best at insult comedy, I think Leo had the best puns and punchlines. I really like how nonchalant this Leo is compared to his iterations, going along with really silly ideas and having fun along the way. But because of this, his leadership is a little forced at times, he seems like such a chill and fun dude that when he gets serious, I have to squint and ask ‘are you Leo? Or were you just putting on act a moment ago?’ Or my perception is entirely warped over time. Either way, good turtle boy, could have used some work tho. 5.7/10

Here comes grumpy lad wooo this is all read very monotone btw Fearless Leader (2003)

What. What the fuck happened. I was actually so confused when Leo turned really angry and serious and almost manic. I thought that episode when he popped into Casey’s window and was like ‘Hey bitch lets go beat the shit out of some lowlifes’ I was WOAH THERE BUDDY BACK UP BACK UP BACK TF UP. It was so sudden to me and when it was finally explained, it made some sense??? Like yeah, character development is great an’ all but this ain’t it chief. I can’t imagine what it was like having to wait for these episodes to release one at a time. Bc I watched every episode back to back on Youtube and I was genuinely bamboozled. But when you have an experience like that where guilt is weighing down on you from a situation you couldn’t control, it would’ve been HELLA HELPFUL to have at least a flashback, like a line saying ‘I was so useless!’ at BARE MINIMUM. Like right after Shredder is booted off to Planet Zula, Donnie would notice that Leo didn’t seem all that happy and would ask why and Leo would get upset and yell at Donnie saying that ‘You wouldn’t understand’, ‘You don’t know how I felt, how I feel because of that’, etc. Like you don’t even have to say he felt guilty or helpless, just give us something to grab onto. We’re merely six-year-olds who thought they could climb the YMCA rock wall in easy mode but instead the script riders harnessed us up on the hard one and wouldn’t let us come down until we rang the little bell at the top. I think that is the only problem I had with his Leo. The sudden change of calm and decisive to angry and irrational was so jarring that it felt unnatural without that crucial context. If you want a surprise reveal, at least hint at the reveal (like just about every Disney movie with their ‘twist’ villains) not wait until the very last moment. I think this might be my least favorite Leo and I think the season where he stood out the most and seemed the strongest was Fast Forward (Which was GOOD FIGHT ME), especially in scenes with Dark Leo, his clone. He sees so much of himself in Dark Leo but he also sees something he had once grasped (AKA the poorly written character arc, I CANNOT stress how bad I thought it was). Although, I honestly think he’s a really good character and he’s a pretty neat guy. However, this score is entirely held up by Fast Forward and his connection with Usagi, sword bros to the end of time. 3/10 (2 for FF and 1 for Usagi)

And now a Leo that makes me genuinely feel UWU Leo (2012)

I cannot stress how much I like this guy! Like his design is so appealing, his dedication, his obsession with Space Heroes, like I FUCKING LOVE IT. And everyone knows, that shit with Karai, at first when they didn’t realize they were related, I can let slide but kajsdflksadf what even like why did the writers feel the need to add in more ‘love interest’ implications like yuck yuck yuck. The only two interactions with Leo and Karai that I really like are when Leo defeats her using the healing hands technique and when Leo has a goth/emo/punk/idk I’m new here phase and they team up and EXPLOSIONS. He was introduced to us as being incredibly naive and his idea of leadership is from some old cartoon that’s basically star trek but ethically questionable. After his fights in season 1, to the finale with the technodrome, you can see his growth. He’s able to formulate plans and make life or death decisions. BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE. When Leo got hurt, I felt like the oof sound effect mixed with some tears I normally shed at some Shojo manga bs. While the episodes following were super weird, it was a nice way to help Leo recover, not only physically but spiritually (Although I don’t remember the spirit arc at all except the epic Raph vs Fishface fight, so we’re skipping that). When Master Splinter really died, you could tell there was a huge impact on Leo, but he had to remain stoic and lead the family now. A lot of heartbreaking moments in this series came from Leo and I’m glad they took at least some thought into developing him. Tiny head Leo will haunt my nightmares, but the giggly fanboy will warm my heart constantly. 6/10

I only have one word for this Leo (Heroes in a Half Shell: Blast to the Past)

This is a super crazy bad idea accent on the super crazy bad part have I mentioned it’s also a really terrible idea/10

Okay, spoiler alert, didn’t really think this Leo was that grand Leo (2014/2016)

Painfully average. He didn’t stand out that much, Raph was part of the focus and had that touching scene at the end, Donnie was ICONIC and Mikey (with his weird-ass eyes) was super lively and funny! Leo? Uh, I don’t remember a single line he said. Because he never really grabbed my attention, I don’t have too much to say on this version. The Raph and Leo fight felt forced and the whole ‘keep this stuff that could turn us human a secret’ was pretty pointless and was added just to cause drama, I don’t even remember what that Splinter and Leo conversation was about. Design-wise, really neat! You can see some more traditional Japanese clothing/style mixed with modern (I’d feel a lot better about this assumption if some could tell exactly what the heck he’s wearing, but I get traditional Japan warrior vibes from it) in his look which was super neat! Other than that, if you like him, please tell me why because I don’t get. He was just kinda eh. 5/10

AHHH MY BOY YASSS WHOOO!! Neon Leon (2018)

Okay, I loved Ben Schwarts already from Parks and Rec but like him being Sonic AND Leo, like DUDE. He’s super funny by himself but teamed up with this shows writing and animation, it makes it hilarious. I literally love this Leo so much, maybe because we’re alike but honestly, he’s amazing. I love his design with the red and yellow crescents accenting his skin and livening up his color pallet. He has a very healthy and natural dynamic with his brothers, he’s the first to know what’s wrong and tries his best to make up for his actions. This is really prominent in the most recent episodes, along with the episode portal jacked. In both, Leo is separated from his brothers. Portal Jacked is in a more literal sense, while Air Turtle handles in more of an emotional sense. While both are brief, Leo sees his error and tries his best to make it up to them. I love his dynamic so much and it’s so nice to see something like this compared to the unnecessary drama and tension between the brothers in the previous series. It’s refreshing and this is something a younger audience needs to see; instead of fighting, it’s better to work together and improve yourself along the way. Improvement is a big theme for Leo here. He’s a goofball, makes jokes at every opportunity and isn’t quite skilled at fighting or using his weapon. But he grows over time, he learns to manage his power and he’s working on mastering it. He’s trying to put aside his narcissism more and focuses on his family. I think the approach they took with him rising to leader rather than slapping it on his forehead was the goddamn best decision they could make. He’s making plans, finding loopholes, helping out and getting out of his comfort zone. I cannot stress how well this show has handled Leo, along with the other characters. I can’t wait to see more episodes about his growth and I am awarding him with one of the greatest honors I could give... 10/10

Storytime: I drew a super cute 2012 Leo, you should look at him. Shameless self-promo, but you should follow me on my main blog bc I’m nice and I draw pretty pictures. Also. I have a little 2012 Leo Happy Meal toy??? I think??? guarding my window and he’s been there for YEARS. I need to bring him in and refresh his paint job.

Wow! I didn’t expect this many requests for Leo, so the blog will be momentarily spammed with the requests, but it shouldn’t be too much! Up next should be the last turtle (Mikey) and then we can get to some REALLY great requests I’m eager to answer. As usual, please comment and reblog! I’d love to hear your opinion!

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Donkey Kong Playthrough

Fighter: Donkey Kong.

Game: Donkey Kong Country, Wii U Virtual Console (SNES). First released November 21st 1994.

Fighter Bio.

He’s the leader of the bunch, you know him well, he’s finally back, to kick some tail. Donkey Kong is a gorilla (although it might be more correct to say he’s of the Kong species which we’ll go into later) who lives on and is the leader of Donkey Kong Island. He is not the first Donkey Kong as the original DK was the one who fought Mario in the arcade game of the same name, however that Donkey Kong is now an elderly ape known as Cranky Kong. When it comes to the current Donkey Kong’s relation to Cranky Kong it has not always been entirely clear, with DK being called in the past Cranky Kong’s son and more commonly now his Grandson. Compounding this is that the original Donkey Kong had a son called Donkey Kong Jr, who initially was believed to be the current Donkey Kong, but now it’s said that the current DK is actually Jr’s son. As with most Nintendo characters, it’s not entirely important and the main point is that the Donkey Kong from Donkey Kong Country onward is the current DK.

Donkey Kong can be a hero, but more often than not is motivated by fairly simple means into action, one of the most common of which is his banana hoard being stolen and him going on a journey to take it back. He is more laid back than the original Donkey Kong, preferring to just laze about eating bananas, however he has inherited Cranky’s temper when it comes to people taking what he wants. In most cases this is justified such as when it comes to his banana hoard or having his Island taken over, but there have been some occasions where he has gone on a rampage for more selfish reasons, such as the new Mini Mario toy he wanted going out of stock, causing him to steal them from the factory. Despite this, he has often been shown to care about his friends and family, and help out others when he feels in the mood such as in various Mario series spin-off games.

He has great strength and despite not being the absolute strongest Kong, is also faster than the few who are more powerful than him such as Chunky Kong. One of his trademark skills is throwing barrels, something Cranky Kong did back during his rivalry with Mario, and something the current Donkey Kong does in various adventures he goes on when he can get his hands on them. Although his ‘nephew’ Diddy Kong and others are much faster, DK can still move pretty well both on land, jumping from platform to platform and swimming in the sea. He’s more intelligent than most animals being able to use tools such as a coconut gun and having his own treehouse, however there are other Kongs who are more industrious than him making him of fairly average intelligence in comparison. He has sometimes been shown able to speak, although it seems more often he can only communicate with other creatures from his island rather than humans such as Mario.

Friends: Donkey Kong’s best friend is Diddy Kong, who at times has been called DK’s nephew, although in other cases a “nephew-wannabe”. Another friend of his also considered his best friend besides Diddy is Funky Kong who despite the last name has no known relation to DK beyond being a friend. Kong seems to be more of a species of ape which the various characters on DK Island belong to than a family name. His implied love interest is Candy Kong although their true relationship remains a mystery. Cranky Kong as stated before is said to be Donkey Kong’s grandfather and as his name implies tends to be grouchy often going on about how much better games were back in his day before all these fancy graphics and gimmicks. Wrinkly Kong is DK’s grandmother who is married to Cranky Kong. She passed away following Donkey Kong Country 3, however she still returns as a ghost to help out the various Kongs from time to time. DK is mostly friendly with the other various Kongs in the series, however he has not often interacted as much with them, with often Diddy being more related to characters such as Swanky Kong. DK has teamed up with Diddy’s girlfriend Dixie Kong recently however, Dixie having saved Donkey Kong in the past when he had been kidnapped a couple of times.

DK also has various animal friends, often referred to as Animal Buddies who he can ride to help him through levels. The most famous and long running of these is Rambi the Rhino. Expresso the Ostrich, Winky the Frog and Enguarde the Swordfish have also let DK ride them in the past to help him in his adventure. Squawks the Parrot is unable to carry DK, but has helped him in other ways such as carrying a torch for him in dark places, delivering messages to him and helping DK spot rare collectables in a level. There are also the various Mario characters DK has interacted with in spin-off Mario games. These include characters such as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi and many others. DK has been shown to get along well with most of them, although he has a competitive spirit for many of the sports and other competitions he takes part in. He has also been a helpful character in games such as Mario Party often giving characters bonuses for landing on his spot on the board. Finally, it’s important to mention the character who the original Donkey Kong knew and kidnapped in his feud with Mario, Pauline. The current Donkey Kong has met Pauline a couple of times in the Mario vs Donkey Kong series, and often when he’s gotten upset he’s kidnapped her, however he often is calmed down by her and reconciles with her and Mario in the end, even working together one time to test Mario’s new Mini Mario toys.

Enemies/Rivals: DK’s main enemy is King K Rool, the leader of the Kremlings who has stolen his Banana Hoard multiple times. K Rool has also however managed to kidnap DK a couple of times, often by catching him off-guard, which makes him arguably the most dangerous villain he’s ever faced. Other enemies DK has faced over the years include the instrument themed Tiki Tak Tribe, the Viking Snowmads who took over his island and fairly rare run ins with Bowser in a couple of Mario Spin-off games where he’s playable. DK doesn’t have the same antagonistic relationship with Mario as Cranky Kong once did, however he has been at odds with him before, such as with the previously mentioned Mini Mario toy incident. Often this is due to DK’s temper however and afterwards he will calm down and reconcile with Mario. Finally, in one unusual case, Donkey Kong travelled to various Kingdoms fighting their kings in order to conquer their islands, which brought him into conflict with various Kongs and other large beasts, finally culminating with him battling the evil Cactus King. Following his defeat of the Cactus King he celebrated with the other Kongs which seemed to suggest they had become allies in the end. Personally I prefer to think of the somewhat unusual events of this game as actually being the original Donkey Kong as it would fit his more rage fuelled rampages than the current DK, but there’s no word really on it either way and the game’s too obscure for it to likely be clarified.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Donkey Kong himself has had a few crossovers over the years with other Smash Bros characters. In Mario Kart 8, DK crossed over with Link (his Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild incarnations), Inklings, Isabelle and some human Animal Crossing Villagers. Samus herself didn’t appear in Tropical Freeze, however her gunship can be seen in the background of Busted Bayou seemingly crash landed in the vines. Metroids also make a cameo appearance underwater in Amiss Abyss, appearing in the background floating up to the surface. Mr Game & Watch similarly to Mario crossed over with DK in the Game & Watch Gallery series, however it seems this version of DK is actually the original aka Cranky Kong, as he was often accompanied in this game by DK Jr rather than Diddy Kong. Mr Game & Watch also appeared in Donkey Kong Country Returns as a cameo in the background of the stage Foggy Fumes hammering a pipe. DK appeared as part of the group in the NES version of Tetris playing instruments, this being the original version of DK also. He was playing the drum alongside Pit, Samus, Link and Mario. DK was in all but the original Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series, first appearing in the first Olympic Winter Games, as such crossing over with Sonic and many characters from his series, often interacting most with other power-based characters such as Knuckles and Vector the Crocodile. 

Although I do not want to go into other media too often, Donkey Kong technically appeared in Captain N the Games Master cartoon. In this he was based on the original DK and more like King Kong being a giant angry antagonistic ape. Through this show, DK crossed over with Megaman, Simon Belmont and Pit once again. Perhaps the biggest crossover for DK was his appearance in Punch-out on the Wii as a secret boss. DK would sometimes appear in the audience for matches watching as Little Mac made his way to become the champ. During Little Mac’s Last Stand, a mode where Little Mac will retire from boxing after three losses, he decides to take on the champ himself in the ring, making him the final new opponent faced in the game. The original DK and DK Jr also appeared in the crowd in the arcade Punch-out games. DK appeared in all of the Mario Kart GP arcade games, crossing over with Pac-Man, interestingly their only game crossover despite both being famous for starting as arcade games. Finally, despite a lot of association between the series, DK himself never crossed over with Banjo and Kazooie, although in an early beta version of DK64 there was a shower stall with their faces on it in DK’s Treehouse which was later removed. Whether this would have involved a crossover with the games such as the Stop N Swap features planned for Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie is unknown at this point.

Why this game?

Donkey Kong is known best as a character who is typically one of the most powerful in the games he’s in, including Smash Bros. Over the years he has had various games where he’s been playable, with his own series, Donkey Kong Country. What’s interesting with this series is that in the original three games DK himself was only playable in the very first, having been kidnapped by K Rool in the second and third games. He returned to being playable in DK64 where he was the first of 5 characters that were unlockable in the game being second only to Chunky Kong in strength. After Rareware, the developers of the Donkey Kong Country games and DK64 were sold to Microsoft, Nintendo came out with a new game, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. In this game DK was probably the most violent and powerful he’d been shown in a platformer, with his moves often involving beating his enemies repeatedly with powerful attacks. After this and a long break, the Donkey Kong Country series finally returned in a game called fittingly Donkey Kong Country Returns, a new 2.5D platformer in which DK had to go across his island to reclaim his banana hoard again. This time however, he had to take it back from the Tiki Tak Tribe rather than the Kremlings as in the original series. This game managed to make DK feel more powerful as he did in Jungle Beat but also keep the same platforming style of the original games with one of the most notable features being how the environments DK would travel through would often change based on his actions, with him smashing his way through various locations.

So, with many of the later games focusing more on DK’s power, why did I choose Donkey Kong Country rather than the later games to represent DK? Well, simply put because those games all build off of the foundation Donkey Kong Country set down. Before Donkey Kong Country, DK had only appeared in games where he was an enemy of Mario or in one case a pest exterminator called Stanley. With a remake of the original arcade game on Gameboy having come out within the same year, only a few months before DKC, it’s easy to compare the two to see just how different the original DK was to the one who’s used today. Donkey Kong in this new game was made into a new character from the original, with the original now becoming Cranky Kong, a grouchy old ape past his prime. Donkey Kong Country introduced DK’s new home of DK Island, a new cast who helped him on his adventure along with a new set of enemies in the Kremlings and their leader King K Rool. DK’s design was also changed, one which has stuck pretty much to this day with the odd sort of hairstyle the fur on his head makes. It’s for this reason I feel when looking at DK’s origins, this game is the best place to start, as it was the game that essentially redefined DK into the form he has to this day.

My past with this game.

This game and series as a whole are very important to me and a huge part of my gaming history. This series along with Mario were the games I grew up with, with this and Super Mario Bros 3 I believe being probably the first videogames I ever played. As such, I admit to having a massive nostalgia bias to the series, however, I still to this day feel this is a fantastic game, amongst some of my personal favourite games of all time. This game specifically isn’t my favourite of the series. In comparison to the other two Donkey Kong Country games, this game was shorter with less secrets, such as the secret worlds and secret final bosses the other two games had to offer. However, I definitely wouldn’t pass it up in favour of the other two games and I have enjoyed replaying it many times over the years. One aspect I have fond memories of personally is that this was one of the few games my parents would play with me, with my Dad in particular being a big fan of it. It was probably one of the only games where I had the experience of starting off being far worse at the game than my Father but gradually getting better until finally, I could beat the game, something he’d not been able to do. As such I suppose I could consider this game as sort of a benchmark for me with regards to finally starting to actually finish games. I have other personal memories from my childhood relating to this game, such as only really being able to play when my parents would allow me to set up the SNES as I was around 4-5 years old and having my Cousins over to play the game with me, but I don’t feel going into that much more would really add a lot to this.

With regards to the gameplay itself etc, the game was fairly simple to the point I could play it as my first game, but even now there are definitely a fair few challenges later down the line, granted nothing on the level of other games around at the time and earlier that I’d never played such as Megaman and Castlevania, but definitely parts that I had to play a lot of times to get past. I remember one specific stage I had trouble with to the point that I actually asked my parents if I could phone the Nintendo Helpline. The level in question was Slipslide Ride, a level where there were ropes you would climb, with the purple ones constantly sliding you down and the blue ones constantly sliding you up. The part I got stuck on was where the only option to proceed was to climb up two purple ropes, however trying to climb up wouldn’t work due to the constant slipping with you only at best being able to stay in place. I remember when I managed to get through on the Nintendo Helpline the operator on the other end gave me the solution, which was to jump between the two purple ropes which would let you gradually get higher until you could jump off them onto the platform above. So what’s the moral of the story? Well, I’d say it’s that I’ve always been a stinky cheater even before looking up solutions on the internet was a thing. Although really, I’m only mentioning this because I find it sort of an interesting example of one of the possible ways to get help with games before you could just look up a walkthrough on the internet. Of course, I believe book guides and game magazines were probably around at the time that I could have used, but being a fairly young kid then and not really seeing many other kids beyond my Cousins sometimes meant that I wasn’t really aware of most of these options. I forget now if the Nintendo Helpline was meant to be one for people with actual issues with their systems or games etc or was advertised as a service for help with “game tips” also, either way I was probably one of those kids who would lead to Nintendo’s attempts to put help features into games down the line, i.e. a true hero.

Something not particularly good for the subject of this post, Donkey Kong himself is he tended to be shown up in this game by his new friend Diddy, with his only real advantage being he could defeat a specific enemy Diddy couldn’t. DK could defeat Krusha a muscle-bound Kremling, and could defeat two other enemies Diddy couldn’t as easily, being Klump a Kremling with a hardhat that Diddy had to cartwheel into, and Army an Armadillo who Diddy would have to jump on once to bring him out of his ball form and then jump on again to defeat. DK could defeat both of these enemies with just a single jump. Diddy on the other hand, would move faster and was nimbler with his jumps, although DK could still manage to jump as far as was needed in the game, everyone I knew who played the game would always prefer to keep Diddy in reserve when playing. This brings me onto another aspect that at the time and even now I quite liked about the game, how the Kongs would team up. Instead of playing through stages as either DK or Diddy alone, you would play as one of the Kongs with the other following you. When you got hit by an enemy, the Kong who was hit would run away and you’d take control of the Kong who was following. The Kong who was following you wouldn’t be able to do anything, being more of a ghost really in actual gameplay, just following you along not being affected by enemies or obstacles. This I feel really added to the atmosphere of the game as you didn’t feel as alone as in other games unless you’d lost one of the Kongs, and with DK and Diddy often being on-screen together it helped make them feel more of a duo than other game characters at the time such as Mario and Luigi, who in most of their games then would take turns going through levels on their own rather than together. The game also did a good job of avoiding the screen becoming too cluttered or confusing the Kong you were controlling for the one you weren’t by making the one following have a slightly more faded look, making it easier to focus on the character you were specifically controlling at the time. In order to bring back one of the Kongs you’d lost when you were down to just one you would have to find a DK barrel to break them out of, which you might recognise in Smash as being DK and Diddy’s entrance animation.

Atmosphere is probably why this game has always been so nostalgic to me. I’ve never cared overly much for graphics (although I definitely can appreciate when something looks good) and whilst this game at the time was fairly breath-taking graphically, the music and the art style were probably the bigger aspect of why I loved the game, with me often as a kid enjoying drawing all the different characters and enemies and reading the instruction manual to look at the various artwork in it. The series would get even better from here, but there are a lot of visual aspects unique to this game that stand out even now. Probably one of the most cited examples at the time was in the very first stage where just before you reached the end of it the sun would set and the place would turn from day to night. It’s hard really to describe atmosphere much more as it’s something you get just from playing or seeing the game itself, so I think it’s best to leave it at saying simply I’ve always liked it in this game.

My Smash Playthrough.

As I’ve stated before, this is a game I’ve played through a few times before, and I was looking forward to doing so again. Although this is the second post I’m making, at the time this was probably the fifth game I played roughly. The reason why is that I made this list before Smash Bros Ultimate was announced and gave an order to the fighters, so rather than having DK as fighter 2 I had the characters more often shown in various trailers, such as the first trailer for Smash Wii U with Mario, Link, Kirby and Pikachu as the first ones on my list. It was due to this therefore I was on a roll and moved pretty quickly onto this game seeing as the previous game I’d played for Kirby wasn’t very long or difficult. Replaying this game from what I remember I didn’t run into many problems and it was overall the same fun experience I’ve always found it to be replaying it.

So when it comes to remembering this run again as it was some time ago there aren’t many things that stick out in my mind. Stages I remember having issues with were mostly ones I’ve always found difficult, and I think most people do. One of them, Tanked up Trouble was a level I’d always found irritating as you are on a platform with five lights on it which gradually go out. You have to collect fuel barrels in order to bring the lights back on, and if the lights all go out the platform would fall with you on it. Of course, you also had to stay on the moving platform the whole time or else you would fall off the stage, and enemies would be waiting to block your way requiring you to either avoid them or jump on them if you could all while not losing track of and landing back on the platform. I believe overall I didn’t find this level as difficult as I had in the past, although I definitely had a couple of deaths on it. Probably the hardest level overall was Platform Perils, the final regular level in the game which has you jumping between various small moving platforms. The biggest issue on this stage however was the grey Krushas, exclusive to this stage. These variations of Krusha enemies were strong enough that even DK couldn’t beat them by jumping on them, requiring a barrel to be thrown at them as the only way of defeating them. Due to this, often the stage would require you to carry a barrel on small moving platforms and not drop or accidentally break it before you reached the Krusha who is on another small platform you need to get onto. If you lost the barrel there was no way to defeat the Krusha meaning you’d end up dying and having to try the level again. This level took me many attempts I remember and was probably the biggest challenge I had, but eventually I beat it, leading on to me beating the final bosses not too much longer after.

When replaying this game, I’ll admit there was one negative that stood out to me more now than I remember when playing it as a kid, which is objects in the foreground. I think this is more a problem I’ve found myself than one that many people commonly find, but I’d sometimes find myself getting irritated in stages where there would be decorations in the foreground that go past. I would not find them big enough to actually block the view of gameplay, but moving quickly through a stage and having them go by would on some occasions be something I’d find irritating to look at, with some examples being the stalactites and stalagmites in the cave levels that would appear in the foreground as you went along. Another irritating visual effect I’ve found is the blizzard effect in the snow stages. The point of it of course is to make it more difficult to see, however I would find it somewhat taxing on my eyes at times, and with the stages often requiring either precise jumping on platforms or timing when to blast from one barrel cannon to another it could get very irritating. One improvement I’d say in the virtual console release is the removal of a specific effect in the stage Torchlight Trouble. In this stage you are going through a dark cave and require Squawks the Parrot to follow you with a torchlight so you could see where you’re going. In the original version of the game, every time you’d turn Squawks would turn and shine the torchlight directly at the screen creating a bright flash for a fraction of a second. This would happen every time you turned and I remember finding it could be very irritating, so I was glad to see the Virtual Console release had gotten rid of the flash.

The bosses are fairly average when it comes down to it, and out of the three games in the series probably the least interesting. This isn’t helped by two of them being basically recoloured harder versions of earlier bosses later in the game, although this game was hardly the first to do this. This does get a funny reference in the GBA remake of this game where Cranky Kong will appear to talk with DK after each boss, and on the first recolour boss he appears to basically complain about how lazy the designers are just reusing an earlier boss. Probably one of the few aspects of the remakes I liked. Most of the bosses simply require you to jump on them when you get the chance, with the others requiring you either to simply avoid them and kill the enemies they spawn, or throw barrels at them when they’re not invincible. The bosses consist of larger versions of regular enemies such as the giant beaver Very Gnawty which is a bigger version of the regular Gnawty enemies. The final boss King K Rool however is easily the best boss in the game. He’s fairly challenging and has a lot of fun attacks. I don’t want to spoil too much of the boss fight against him as a lot of it relates to his portrayal in Smash so I will simply say he makes a great conclusion to the game.

The game’s ending isn’t particularly special, but of course personally it holds a lot of nostalgia for me, especially being one of the first ever endings I actually got to in a game. The music for it is a really nice ending track and it has a nice cast call with every character, enemy and boss in the game walking through DK’s Treehouse with their name being displayed below. I tend to like these endings in games as it’s a fun recap of what you’ve gone through in the game. I didn’t 100% (or as this is a Rareware game 101%) the game, mostly as the only real reward is Cranky Kong’s dialogue changes from saying ‘if I’d been playing I’d have found everything’ to congratulating you. Also, I tend to leave some things in the games I’ve been playing through so I have something that if I feel like coming back to the game later down the line I can still do. Overall, despite the few complaints I brought up, this is still an amazing game and one that will always be very important to me personally which I enjoyed playing through again.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Donkey Kong in Smash.

Donkey Kong is another character who doesn’t really have equipment he uses in the game, nor any really customisable aspects. Unlike Mario in Super Mario 64 however, he also doesn’t have a lot of moves he really draws from this game. The only moves he has in Smash Bros that come from this game specifically are his forward roll, which was added in his later Smash Bros appearances, and his Hand Slap move. This move involves DK slapping the ground with his hands, often defeating enemies who are right in front of him when he does it, producing a single banana when they’re defeated and being usable sometimes to find hidden items in the floor. It is fairly difficult to use on enemies not having a very far reach and is fairly slow making it not very useful, especially in comparison to just jumping on or rolling into enemies. Later games such as Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze would make this ability far more powerful and useful, but this is where it originated and as such is what the move in Smash Bros is based on. One final aspect from this game that DK uses in Smash Bros is his ability to lift barrels and move around with them. In Smash Bros DK was one of the only characters in the original game who could lift heavy objects such as barrels and walk around with them. Later games would have other big characters such as Bowser also be able to do this, however DK has another ability unique to him. When grabbing another character, DK can lift them similar to how he lifts heavy objects such as barrels and he can carry them around before throwing them or they escape from his grasp, which is most likely based on his carrying abilities with barrels in this game. The only other thing of note which I mentioned earlier is DK’s stage entrance involves him breaking out of a DK barrel, similarly to how he will be trapped in one when playing as Diddy alone in this game and will have to be broken out of it.

Credits.

Information such as release dates were found through Super Mario Wiki and Donkey Kong Wiki.

Screenshots taken by me using Miiverse.

[sonicfanj]

One of the things that endears Tails and Amy to me is the strength of self contrast the two of them used to have that sold a positive message of freedom to be yourself. 

In Tails’ case it was the fact that he was both athletic and highly nerdy in a time era when you were either one or the other (jocks vs. nerds anyone?) and promptly insulted for either. Jocks were frequently called dumb behind their backs for fear of physical retaliation while nerds were insulted for liking anything that wasn’t scholastically approved in addition to enjoying science and were frequently physically abused because of their physical frailty. Yet, along comes Tails who is both a nerd and has the physical ability to put most jocks to shame. He married these two opposing extremes/contrasting archetypes in a character who strangely lacked any self confidence yet was always encouraged to do his best and embrace being him. He embodied the good of both athletic and intellectual ability while sympathizing with how no matter how good you are there is always insecurity. He’s such a superb character in that regard to me.

Then you have Amy, who still faces the same stigmas over and over again that have been persistently present since she was introduced. If a girl is girly she must be frail and simultaneously is demeaning to women because she paints a stereotype that prevents woman from being equal with men. If a girl is a tomboy she is throwing away her femininity and trying to be a man to earn “false respect” without recognizing her place. I’m sorry, what? This type of rhetoric has always found its way to Amy conversations and as a result people ignore her spectacular contrast of being a girly-tomboy. She enjoys traditionally girly things like fashion, frilly things, thinking about the boy she likes, and simultaneously loves doing the things that the boys do such as going on adventures, taking part of the action regardless of the form, and so on. Like Tails, Amy takes two supposedly opposing extremes/contrasting archetypes and marries them into a character that has both harmoniously. And then on top of that she is absolutely over the moon happy when she is doing either traditionally girly or boyish activities and strongly emphasizes that these activities are enjoyable and can exist together harmoniously. The emphasis she brings to just doing what she likes and enjoying that has always been so inspirational in my opinion.

Unfortunately I have seen too many people demand for both of them that they pursue a unique identity by shaving off large chunks of who they are. I constantly see people wanting Tails to be the gadget guy because it matches his smarts and makes him distinct from his hero that he wants to be like, or bashing Amy for either being too girly or too boyish as it makes her a bad role model for girls by not being some elusive idea strong female character. Somehow these individuals fail to realize that Tails is awesome because he has brains and athletic ability, pretty much able to be the Spider-Man of the Sonic universe if just given the chance, and fail to understand that Amy is a great role model and powerful female character because she embraces who she is, what she wants to do, and lets absolutely no one tell her she can’t be her even though they don’t like it. It just eats me up when I see Tails not using his physical abilities or Amy stripped of her everything to be some model female clone who supports indescribable agenda’s that she better supports by just being her.

Tails and Amy are built from contrasting archetypes and are so much stronger for it with so much potential that is freely brought out just by traveling with Sonic. Tails can demonstrate his athletic ability just by keeping up, but interacting with Eggman’s creations also brings out his nerdy side as he marvels at the doc’s work. Amy has her girly side brought out as she tries to win over the boy of her dreams but also has her love of traditionally boyish things come out by her love of the adventures and excitement that she experiences by chasing after Sonic and partaking in his adventures.

Their is also the potential for a great relationship that exists between Tails and Amy as Sonic’s two biggest fans. Amy’s optimism and belief in the ability of others serves as a counter and foil to Tails’ self-doubt while Tails’ more reserved nature and abilities supports and foils Amy’s more reckless and spontaneous tendencies without necessarily the ability to keep herself out of trouble. The two support each other so well and are so heavily invested in Sonic and what he brings to their lives, as well as him as just a person and the most important person in the world to them. It’s part of the reason I believe in a trio of Sonic, Tails, and Amy instead of Knuckles* as the relationship between the three and ability to partake in a never ending road trip is so harmonious and multi-directional. Sonic encourages Tails to be his best at everything he does and constantly provides encouragement by being a great big brother figure, while with Amy he may tease her, but with her personality his teasing encourages her to keep going and strive to get better and better creating a cycle of constant self improvement. Tails meanwhile supports Sonic both with his physical and intellectual abilities while Amy’s overflowing emotions, teasing, and persistence in chasing Sonic gives him reason to keep doing what he loves (running) and also face those emotions of his that traditional masculinity and boyhood naivete frowns upon. And as stated above there is the relationship of support that can exist between Tails and Amy that is also two way.

So to me at least, Tails and Amy are such great characters conceptually who are more often than not squandered due to any number of reasons. It’s a shame to since I feel the Shōnen Jump tenants of friendship, effort, victory easily work with them and the franchise and target demographic. Then of course just their shared desire to follow Sonic on his adventures, not just with each other but with the audience, combined with the caring nature they draw out of Sonic on a much more personally level than his strong sense of justice ever demonstrates. I think SEGA/Sonic Team isn’t necessarily wrong that a trio setup best benefits the franchise, but where SEGA/Sonic Team looks at the profit margin imagery I look at the character narrative ability and think they focus on the wrong trio. Sure that trio brings instant familiarity which guarantees a quick sale, but I think that a solid narrative that fully embraces the relationships that can happen naturally and takes full advantage of that would bring the business so much more money just becasue something well crafted and believable that reaches well beyond just the gameplay/classic imagery crowd could bring back so much more. Sonic games have narrative after all, and when people come for a narrative good and natural character dynamics can it make memorable even if the narrative isn’t so much. I feel personally that Tails and Amy add that to the Sonic/Eggman dynamic and find it a shame that who should have been a one off character prevents that from being because it seems to me at least that the short term dollar signs orbiting him blind SEGA/Sonic Team/everyone else from seeing how teh franchise can grow beyond its currently shriveled state.

*[I don’t have anything against Knuckles but prefer him as the Guardian of the Master Emerald whose excursions away from Angel Island are duty related (like in the Japanese Chaotix manual) making his every appearance a question of whether or not he is an ally this time.]

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Geddon #3 Thoughts

Okey dokey this was actually better than the last few issues of the main book.

 Now look...there are still problems.

Still gaping fundamental problems.

Let us put aside the fact that the Inheritors are awful antagonists.

We still have 3 glaring problems that were present in Spider-Verse yet totally fixable in this event.

a)      The over focus upon Doc Ock, which if anything is WORSE in this event than in the last one

b)      Just like in Spider-Verse waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many characters rendering most everyone generic cartoon variants of Spider-Man as opposed to using the nuances of their personalities and exploring them via interactions. We have RYV Peter and MJ right next to a kid Peter and Uncle Ben Spidey and...nothing. Isn’t seeing Ben or kid Peter react to seeing all grown up Peter and his Spider WIFE more interesting that talking about how we should have one big Spider team? Isn’t seeing RYV Peter react to a living Uncle Ben more compelling than Spider-Ham making a snarky one gag? The closest we get to truly exploiting these types of opportunities is Ben and Otto butting heads and RYV MJ briefly (very briefly) showing a soft spot for Kid Peter. But would that have been that different if it was any other character? It only means something because he’s a kid and she’s a mother.

c)       Why. Has. No. One. Suggested. Fighting. The. Inheritors. With. RADIATION!

*facepalm*

I’m even ashamed of myself for not bringing that point up sooner.

The first Morlun story concludes with the genius tactic by Peter to use radiation to fight Morlun which practically kills him.

In Spider-Verse NOBODY brings this up until conveniently towards the end when they are stranded on a radioactive Earth.

In Spider-Geddon, again, nobody brings this up.

Radiation might not be to the Inheritors what sonics and fire are to symbiote but it has still been a consistently effective weapon against them as far as anyone knows. And in almost all the early Venom and Carnage stories Spider-Man or the other protagonists (and the writers handling them back then) were smart enough to try and exploit that obvious weakness so why do we start up the stupid pills in Inheritor stories?

In Spider-Verse you vaguely had the excuse that really only Peter and maybe Doc Ock would know of that weakness but after that story everyone knew of that weakness and no one is trying to exploit it. I get that you need recruits but if you HAVE a means of beating them then maybe USE it? For fuck’s sake Doc Ock is a specialist in radiology!

This next criticism is a little more debatable I will admit.

In the context of this situation...is it really believable that there would be a roughly equal number of people opposed to killing the Inheritors?

Of course there would be some but there seems to be about as many opposing the idea as supporting it. In fact the book is (superficially) framing both sides as neither wholly right or wrong.

But...is that really the case?

Touchy subject here but...this is a genuine bona fide war for survival. The Inheritors were actively engaging in genocide in their killing spree last time and were trying to achieve an endgame of eradicating all spider totems, willing to murder a baby to do that.

Now you might be saying it’s right and proper for there to be a side opposed to the killing. Because Spider-Man has a no kill rule right?

And that’s true...usually...Because....he has actually taken life a few times. Sometimes deliberately. He’s no Punisher or even Captain America but it’s happened.

In fact in Morlun’s first story Peter very seriously considers for a moment how far he’s willing to go to stop Morlun once he has him at his mercy. He’s spared the decision but it’s really not clear cut what he would’ve done. In fact he outright murders Morlun in their next encounter, granted he was not in control of himself.

Now of course you have got situations like Maximum Carnage wherein Spider-Man has considered but ultimately rejected killing as a viable option, and that was also a sort of war too, one in which you had some nasty characters indeed.

Buuuuuuuut...there are important differences.

First of all Carnage and his gang were very possibly not as physically imposing as the Inheritors. Carnage was their biggest gun and he was stronger than Venom and Spidey combined. But Shriek wasn’t. Demo-Goblin wasn’t. Doppelganger wasn’t. They had their own strengths and weaknesses and none of them were push overs by any means. But it wasn’t like the only hope anyone had of taking them down in a fair fight was with sheer weight of numbers. The Inheritors are essentially a gang of Carnage’s but who can kill and weaken with just a touch.

Carnage specifically also had a more easily exploitable weakness that enabled him to be subdued more easily. Sonics and fire are easier to come by and safer to use than radiation. Remember the Inheritors might be vulnerable to radiation but it’s like how Superman is vulnerable to magic. It’s not their specific Achilles Heel like with kryptonite or sonics/fire, it’s just something beyond the limits of their durability.

Team Carnage was also not as much of a threat. Okay the Inheritors arguably might only target totems instead of civilians in general, but Carnage’s limited technology and means of travel meant he was at worst a citywide threat. The Inheritors are a multiversal threat at least to totems.

Another crucial factor here is that as weird as this might be to say now, Team Carnage had some hope of reform, whereas the Inheritors really don’t. Carnage and his crew were mostly mentally disturbed individuals with homicidal tendencies and super powers. In theory they could maybe be cured of their mental instability or their abilities. This isn’t the case with the Inheritors because they aren’t crazy at all. Mass murderers yes, but not crazy. As cartoonishly evil as they are, fundamentally they do what they do to survive. They kill the totems because they literally eat them, that’s how they are biologically constructed. They were trying to wipe out all spider totems to neutralize future threats to themselves. To hope for them to reform is akin to hoping a lion will turn vegetarian, it’s never going to happen because it’s in their nature to be what they are. They could be nicer, they could be unwilling to kill civilians to reach their goals, maaaaaaaybe they could even be convinced to not try and en masse wipe out all spider totems.

But fundamentally they do what they do because of the food chain and the Spider-Heroes of this story are their menu options.

This goes beyond the morality of taking life, it’s survival plain and simple made clearer cut because the Inheritors are willing to kill those in the way of their snack time.

Finally, and perhaps most crucially, not killing the Inheritors in Spider-Verse was arguably an option because there was a viable means of containing them long term (even though eating radioactive mutant spiders would surely kill them but whatever).

In this story, that option is dead in the water. They haven’t got the means to imprison them the way Team Carnage could be imprisoned and potentially rehabilitated.

So with all this said I find it seriously questionable that the story would even bother framing this as a true blue ‘debate’. Killing them is at least as morally justified as killing Nazis in a fire fight during WWII would’ve been.

I also debate some of the people who’re on Miles’ ‘no kill’ team.

I mean RYV Peter Parker...he did literally kill Venom. And I know RYV #5 by Slott tried to make out he was renewing his no kill vow by not killing the Regent but like...he wasn’t in the wrong really for killing Venom in the first place.

Maybe this is justified on the grounds that they didn’t know of the schism between the two groups and just stuck with whatever group initially recruited them.

In the flipside I find it a little unbelievable that Gamerverse Spidey is so unfazed by Otto’s willingness to kill. From what we’ve seen of his character, I dunno I don’t get that impression of him at all. At least he’d question it and morally wrestle with it to some extent. But he just goes along with it.

In fact that describes his whole character thus far in the main event. After issue #0 (which in hindsight was released when it was because the game was at it’s hottest) his appearance here amounts to being shocked by Leopardon and making a few quips and that’s it. He’s basically here for the same reason Peter was in New Avengers, boost sales via investment in him, so he shows up to do the bare minimum. Although what makes me raise an eyebrow is if his multiverse saving adventure where he met a giant robot will ever be mentioned again. I doubt it will. Also doesn’t it make more sense for him to be on Miles’ team given his history with Miles, his comparatively more similar morality and the fact that there is an MJ on his team? It seems way more full of potential drama if nothing else; but like I said this series isn’t interested in that so much as playing with variant action figures.

Now speaking of Leopardon, unquestionably he and Supaidaman (along with Spider-Ham in fairness) stole the show. The gag scene about leading with the sword was genuinely great especially if you’ve seen shows like the 1970s Japanese Spidey show or Power Rangers/Super Sentai.

Other positives include the art and Ben Reilly not being a jerkoff. Now I’m reading this having NOT read his solo-book that preceded this so maybe he’s out of character and I just don’t know.

Something that is a positive and a negative is the use of Otto and Miles.

Obviously pushing Miles and/or (especially) Otto over Peter would typically piss me the fuck off.

As would doing a story so outside of what a Spider-Man story should be.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut...I have come to appreciate some caveats to that in the context of this series.

Spider-Geddon mercifully didn’t derailing Peter (or to my knowledge Miles’) solo books the way Spider-Verse did. Even in Spec from what I’ve read it’s just Spider-Man and Morlun punching each other on the streets which mitigates the mysticism that typically shouldn’t be in a Spider-Man story. Plus Zdarsky’s (crappy) Spec run had wrapped up when Spider-Geddon hijacked Spec.

Spider-Geddon is in a sense off to the side, it’s own mini-series and can thus be it’s own thing. The tie-ins to it from other titles (like Spider-Gwen) is another discussion and I’m not reading everything because I don’t hate myself enough to do that.

Not only does this mostly mitigate it not being what a Spider-Man story should usually be (because it’s a Spider-Man universe story off to the side, not a Peter Parker or Miles story in their own books) but it also better justifies Miles and Otto getting the spotlight.

Whilst in Spider-Verse it was insulting that Peter wasn’t the main character in his own book, because this isn’t happening in his own book (but he is still the lead in his tie-ins to the main story) it makes his absence from the spotlight okay.

In theory it even makes Otto’s presence in the spotlight okay...were it not for him being an asshat painted as more morally greyer than an asshat.

That however does bring up the problem that this series was both advertised as and specifically exists to serve Miles first and foremost. This series was supposed to make bank off the public awareness of Into the Spider-Verse but Miles is at best the secondary character in this cast of thousands vs. Otto who is clearly the primary character. He gets more panel time, he gets more exploration of his personality...even if that mostly amounts to obnoxiously repeating ‘the die is cast’ over and over.

It doesn’t help when the narrative, in spite of it’s pretences of even handedness, subtly paints Otto as in the right and much smarter than Miles.

Sticking with the issue of leadership I get that this event exists to primarily (in theory) serve Miles and secondarily (in theory) serve Otto (in practice it is the reverse) because one was getting a movie and the other was getting a solo book.

So it adds up then that they’d be the leaders of their respective factions....but...surely on Miles’ team there were more qualified people?

Miles is an inexperienced kid who to my understanding has never operated as a leader in a team. You have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more experienced Spider-Heroes there some of whom may have worked as leaders before so...why is Miles leader in-story exactly?

I mean think about it, Peter was made leader of a faction in Spider-Verse because he succeeded in beating Morlun and/or he was the Chosen One or something right?

But...RYV Peter is right there. He’s identical to 616 Peter in almost every way except he

a)      Didn’t have 10+ years of shitty Brand New Day and Slott stories to live through...which automatically makes him better than 616 Peter if anything, and

b)      He’s had over 8 years worth of experience functioning as part of a team and arguably the leader of it to, or at least co-leader with MJ

Surely he  is more qualified than Miles?

Another sort of double edged sword presented in this issue is how it handles tie-ins.

Spider-Verse is slightly notorious for Slott outright lying in claiming that you wouldn’t need to read the tie-ins to follow the story but of course you did.

However to Spider-Geddon’s credit that’s only been the case in regards to issue #0. Most everything of significance that has happened outside the main books has been shown or referenced enough that you could follow the main book thus far without having read anything else. Yes, this does still make the book feel like an anthology add for everything else but it’s done better than Spider-Verse is what I’m saying.

One thing that is a hold over problem though is the wonky timeline.

I said of issue #2 that it weirdly happens before issue #0 and shows us stuff that happens after the first Spec tie-in issue. Well issue #3 continues that trend.

Whilst Spider-Geddon #2 showed us something that surely happens after the first Spec  tie-in issue (thus ruining it’s cliffhanger) but Spider-Geddon #3 seems to give us the resolution to that second tie-in issue as well because we learn Peter chooses to fight Morlun in order to keep him occupied and make everyone else’s jobs’ easier.

Um....nice to be told that in this issue rather than be shown it in Peter’s own book.

And before you ask if I just read things out of order I double checked and the second Spec tie-in issue was in fact released after Spider-Geddon #3 so the editor(s) fucked up big time.

It’s also a decision that seriously hurts the main book if they stick to it going forward.

Because Morlun for the strong first impression he had...was really never one of the more interesting or colourful of Spider-Man’s enemies.

And his family are even blander variant action figure versions of him.

Verna is Female Morlun.

Daemos is Bigger, Dumber, more Brutish Morlun.

Brix and Bora are ‘Those Ghost Twins from Matrix Reloaded’ Morlun...who also take out whips and pose as if it’s fight time for no reason in that one panel randomly.

Jennix is Scientist Morlun if he also ripping off Ra’s Al Ghul.

And Solus is Old Morlun who looks like evil Santa Claus.  

If Morlun isbread with some thinly spread butter, then his family has no butter and has dried out a lot.

Like honestly how much of a difference would it have made if you swapped out 2 of the 4 Inheritors in this story with Verna and Morlun who were absent? Nothing sans the fact that you needed Jennix to do science stuff but even then he wasn’t very good at it. And that’s the plot too. He’s a super cloning genius but he can’t figure out New U tech. Um....okay that is weird.

Moving on, this is more a point in connection to Spider-Force than this comic but Otto claims that he handpicked the members of that team.

This raises some questions.

1)      How? I get Ashley Barton, Kaine and Jessica Drew. He knows all of them, but how could he have known about Charlie?

2)      Spider-Force claims that the strike force was assembled because they don’t mind dying. Now this is inconsistent in the issue itself but for the sake of argument let’s say it was true, how would Doc Ock know any of those people sans maybe Ashley wouldn’t mind dying. Maybe also Kaine but I’d imagine his bad blood with Kaine would colour his perceptions on that one. With Jessica and Charlie...there is no reason for him to think that that I can think of.

3)      Now in fairness the attitude and skillset of that team does make them well suited to a strikeforce...except Charlie. He seems tough and streetwise...why does this make him a great fit for that team, someone Otto would handpick??????????

Let’s stick with Scarlet Spiders for a moment.

So Ben Reilly’s 27th clone says dying all those times turned him wonky. Okay that’s not too bad. But also all the other spiders met him and he already explained himself to them and endeared himself to them.

Again...why are we telling but not showing. Ben Reilly (after recently being basically an evil businessman) meets a version of Norman Osborn? Where was that juicy scene??????

Let’s change gears here and talk something more superficial briefly.

So the art was....good. Different artists from the last 2 issues and it shows but not bad art by any means. The transition from one artist to another is a little noticeably but the styles are similar enough and both look good enough (great even) that it’s not a problem.

The fight scenes sans anything involving Leopardon though...are. They’re just so bland and functional, there is no sense of dynamism or choreography to them. I blame there being too many characters along with the Inheritor’s boring visual designs.

Ironically for all my gripes the last scene of the comic was...intriguing.

I didn’t read the Edge of Spider-Geddon issue introducing Norman Osborn Spider-Man...but now I just might do that.

The idea of Norman being Spider-Man is already kind of interesting.

But more poignantly the idea that whilst Miles and Otto have divided the team along moral lines and the Inheritors are also out there, there is now a small, secret fourth faction working their own agenda makes this way more interesting.

It hints that Spider-Geddon will become more like a real war and have people running their own agendas. And Norman is a great choice to make that faction. What’s so delectable also is Norman isn’t even making a power play out of selfishness per se. He like Miles and Otto is seeking to win the war, beat the Inheritors and above all else survive, but he’s just considering yet more extreme methods to do it. In a very abstract way it’s a little like how Xavier and Magneto fundamentally disagree about their methods regarding mutantkind but they are united in fundamentally disagreeing with Apocalypse third extremist option.

So over all...I can’t say I disliked reading this issue. A first for the main Spider-Geddon book I must admit.

P.S. the cover lied. No fight between the factions and no Superior Ock

[another-sonic-blog]

New Beginning

New Beginning:

“So tonight its the village’s New Year Party...remember to stay in guard. We still don’t know if Eggman could attack tonight”, Amy said to Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles as she walked around her apartment. Sticks haven’t come yet, for whatever reason she was coming in late.

“Yeah and make sure not to get trapped inside a cave during a snow-storm”, Sonic said sarcastically. Amy turned around and gave him a silent death stare, which made Sonic shut up. “It’s not like I wanted to get trapped you know, and besides it wasn’t that bad. I could have ended up in the worst situation than that”, Amy took a sip of her tea. Team Sonic sat ‘quietly’ in her living room. Right now they were discussing the times each member should stay in guard in case Eggman decided to attack the village.

“Yeah, she could have ended up being trapped with Shadow or something”, Knuckles felt tea being a splash in his face. Everyone turned around to look for answers, they saw a blushing Amy.

“What--t? Hahaha, what makes you think that? haha, Sha-shadow? He is just a friend-enemy, YES, that he is our enemy, hehe”, Amy gave a small smile and she could feel her hands get sweaty.

“umm...ok?”,everyone in said in unison. Tails took a moment to look at Sonic that for a second look mad at the situation. He decided to put more gas into the fire.

“Wow, Amy you sound as if you had a crush on him”. Tails winked at her and after that, he just took a sip of his tea and waited for the fire to spread.

“Tails what are you talking about? Amy having a crush on Sha-”, Sonic looked at Tails and then at Amy. He was surprised to find her quiet, blushing in a way that he could only make her when he decided to tease her. “Wait, Amy...do you actually like that emo?!”

“I-I um-no, I don’t-”

“GUYS!”

   Everyone heard Amy’s door small open. Sticks were exalted, which was normal but not so much like this.

“Sticks, what happened!?”

“SHADOW IS IN THE VILLAGE!”

. . .

   Shadow couldn’t stand anymore the stare of the villagers. He just wanted to see Amy, he had actually gotten her something this time. Ever since he received that Mistletoe from her, he looked for something suitable as a present. He never learned where the home was located, so he decided to look for her in the village. Instead, he found her badger friend. He tried to get info out fo her but that didn’t work as planned.

           “Do you know where Amy is?”

           “......”

                   “......”

           “AAAHHHH!”

   She just went running off after that. Shadow just kept looking around the village, trying to find the pink hedgehog, he was interested actually. Seeing all the villagers do their thing was actually very amusing but he stopped enjoying it as soon as the villagers stopped and stare at him. He knew that he tried to destroy them before but this time he wasn’t planning on doing so...yet. Anyways, everyone in awe and even the policemen hide from him. SO he decided to just stand there in front of meh burger, waiting for the pink hedgehog to arrive.

“Stay where you are Shadow!”

   Team Sonic had now surrounded Shadow and everyone was in the position to fight except for Amy who just awkwardly waved at him. He waved back but he stopped himself as he noticed that he lost his cool. He looked away waiting for anyone to begin talking.

“What have you done to this people?”, Sonic said at him.

“Nothing”, Shadow answered sarcastically, waiting for the drama to end already. “Yeah like we would believe-”, Team Sonic looked around actually surprised to see that none of the villagers were hurt nor screaming in fear.

“Well, if you are not here to destroy the village...then why are you here?”

“I am here to talk to Amy”

“WHAT?”, Sonic screams.

   Everyone dropped their fighting stance. Looking at Amy directly who had a nervous face. She was actually surprised that Shadow wanted to see her. She just left a small ‘hehe’ come out of her lips and then looked at Shadow to find an explanation from him.

“...she invited me to come to the New Year Party”

“SHE WHAT?”

“Oh....”

   Shadow noticed Amy’s surprised look. Maybe he heard wrong? Maybe Amy didn’t actually invite him? Maybe she was just trying to be nice but actually didn’t want his companionship. “I’ll leave, of course, if that’s what you want”, Shadow began to walk away in defeat, feeling embarrassed for the first time in his life.

“Wait, no that’s not what I mean...you can stay but you came in too early”

“HE CAN WHAT?”

   Amy tried to calm, still worried that she might of hurt Shadow’s feelings. She clumsily walked towards him, trying to stop him from leaving.  Shadow looked around and found the villagers doing their own thing. Barely decorating the streets, putting up up lights and building a small stage. This reassures him, he took a sigh, making the pressure on his chest go away.

“Well then, I guess I’ll see you later”, Shadow began to walk away, but Amy grabbed him by his arm making him turn around to face her. They were pretty close to each other and everyone went silent for a second.

“Why don’t you stay and help us with the decoration?”

   Shadow and Amy looked at each other for what seemed to be like five minutes and everyone was amused by it. It was like watching a TV Drama, an episode in which the two protagonists need to kiss ASAP.

“Fine”

“Wow...did Shadow just say ‘fine’?”, even Tails was amused by this fact, he doesn't know Shadow very well. However, he knew for a fact (well everyone knew) that Shadow was someone that should not be messed with. He never saw him as the type to...well party. So the fact that Amy convinced him to stay was honestly amazing.

“WHY IS NOBODY PAYING ATTENTION TO ME?” . . .

And so, Shadow decided to stay and help the villagers with their New Year decorations.

First, he was entitle put the lights around the village. House by house, street by street, Shadow used his rocket shoes to quickly end his first task. Secondly, he was assigned to pick up some heavy boxes and put them in the stage. This would naturally be Knuckle's tasks but Shadow said he could do it faster and in one go. And he did.  At this time, Shadow had now got himself a small group of girls following him. His last task was the most complicated one. He had to watch over the small kids of the village for a while until Amy comes back. Shadow had never interacted with kids before and they all look so fragile, he thought they could break if they tripped.

"You don't have to do much, just keep an eye on them until Miss Amy comes back from decorating the playground", Zoeey said as she left Shadow by himself with the kids in the open air. The villagers were passing by as Shadow looked just straight at the kids' eyes and vice versa.

"Would you play with us?", A little fox boy said smiling at him. Shadow had to admit, he was adorable.

"I am not good at playing", Shadow said calmly.

"Don't worry we will teach you!"

. . .

Amy walked at a fast pace this time, hoping that the kids weren't been too cruel with Shadow.  When she got there, Amy was surprised to see a larger group of females surrounding Shadow, all of them giggling and smiling. She came into the circle trying to find out what was the problem.

"Kids, what do you do if someone tries to attack you?", Shadow said out loud.

"You go for the neck!", all the kids said in unison. Shadow proceeds to give them all hi-fives as he quietly mutters 'You all will be great assassins one day"

"AAAWWWW! At this point, all the girls in the village were swooped away by Shadow. Who would think that he was so charming like this? Even Amy had to admit that she utterly impressed by his actions. He turned around to face his new group of fans, not really knowing what he was supposed to do.  He gave them a small smirk, actually enjoying a bit having so much attention.  Amy knew that if Shadow wanted, he could have the whole village eating out of his palm. Especially with the girls, who were suckers of mysterious, captivating smiles...just like her.

"Amy, you are back", Shadow stood up from giving the little kids hi-fives and made his way towards Amy. Pushing delicately all the other females who were standing on his way. All of them a bit disappointed at the fact that he gave attention to the pink hedgehog. but still happy to be at his presence.

"Is there anything else I can help with?"

"Umm...I think that's-"

"Mr. Shadow, can you help me organize my bookstore? I can make you the manager!"

"No, Mr. Shadow help me clean my cake shop! I'll give you free cakes for eternity!"

"Mr. Shadow, you don't have to do anything for me. Just come have dinner with me!"

"No, Mr. Shadow-"

"Mr.Shad-"

The girls went crazy over him and he didn't want to be rude. "I am sorry everyone but...", Shadow turned once again to look at Amy in the eyes. To make his point clear, " but right now I am all Amy's"

"AAAHHHHH!" Once again, the girls thought they were seeing a real prince charming. Appreciating the moment as if it came out straight of a fanfiction. There was an evident blush in Amy's cheeks and Shadow wonders if she had gotten a fever or something.

"Well, I just need to take the kids to the playground with their parents", Amy said quietly but Shadow had heard her loud and clear. "My pleasure"

Shadow turned around to face the kids who were currently playing with each other.  "Soldiers!", Shadow said loud enough, not yelling knowing that that could scare them.

"Yes, sir!", All the kids saluted him, a serious and funny face in all of them.

"Make a line and follow Miss Amy and I"

"OOOOHHHHH!", The kids looked at each other and giggle. All of them communicated in a weird way but knowing exactly what to do.

"SHADOW AND AMY SITTING ON TREE K-I-S-S-I-N-G! FIRST-"

Shadow crooked his head in amusement, still trying to figure out the meaning of the song. Amy blushing uncontrollably and wanting for them to continued. "STOP IT!", Amy said demanding and kids knew better than to get Ms. Amy mad. They quickly did as Shadow had told them before and began to quietly follow them as they secretly shipped the two together.

In the background,  you could hear a blue hedgehog rage out of anger as his yellow fox tried to calm him down.

"He thinks he can just come here and steal my spotlight uh?", Sonic said already planning on a different way to take him down. Tails was really not having any of this today, not on New Years. "I think you are exaggerating a bit Sonic...Shadow is just helping Amy"

"No, he is evil and we need to get him away from Amy"

"But Sonic!"

Sonic looked around as he saw the sun go down while smiling evilly to himself. "And I know exactly what to do"

. . .

"What are you going to be doing now, Amy?", Shadow asked as walked next to her, enjoying the view of the night. The city was beautifully decorated, setting the atmosphere with a very romantic air.

"Well, I'll probably need to get going to the outskirts of the city. I need to do my 'hero' shift. After that, I am probably free", Amy said smiling to him.

"Well, after that...would you like to spend the night with me?"

"Um, yes of course! I'll see you at the beach, by the time my shift ends", was this really happening? Was she going to have her first date? It was kinda strange to her actually. She knew that Shadow doesn't probably have a clue of what a date is. As well that she thought that Sonic was going to be her first date. Talking about Sonic...

"Hey Ames, can I borrow Shadow for something? It's really important", Sonic looked preoccupied. "What happened?"

"Oh, sorry can't say. It's a guy thing"

Amy looked at Shadow making sure he wasn't uncomfortable at the situation. Shadow looked back at her reassuring her that he was was alright.

"Fine then, I'll leave to my shift now"

. . .

Amy waited patiently by the beach. Hearing the waves crash against each other and the sand. She was beginning to feel nervous, walking side to side. The wind hitting her face delicately, totally entranced by the moon above her. She turned around as she heard bushes moving behind her, she smiled knowing exactly who that was.

"So-sonic? What are you doing here?"

Sonic was a bit hurt at her remark. He expected for her to be glad that it was him and not Shadow. "Shadow couldn't make it, so he asked me to come in his place", Sonic walked over to Amy who was trying to hide her real feelings.

"Oh, I see...how did the thing you needed Shadow for go?"

"Why did you need me here for blue?"

"Well, I am trying to look for this very unique rose for my girlfriend. It only blooms this day, that's why need your help finding it"

              "girlfriend?"

              "Yes, Amy"

"It went well", Sonic lied as he tried not to worry Amy.  "That's good"

Sonic took a moment to appreciate the moment. He was completely baffled at Amy's beauty. The moonlight makes her skin glow and for a fraction of a second, he could feel his heart stop. Time didn't exist for him, nor the world. Only Amy.

"Amy, I-"

"I really wanted him here"

"What?"

"It's not like I don't appreciate you spending time with me...but I was really hoping he could be here"

Amy sat down in the sand and Sonic did the same. He noticed her worried face, her disappointing and even hurt in her eyes. Sonic didn't want to see her like that. Not today nor ever, he quietly throws away the unique rose he found with Shadow a couple of hours ago.  Knowing he had messed up, he knew he had to make up for it.

'I think I need to go", Shadow said as Sonic and him made their way back together.

"Oh but why? Don't you need to go see Amy?"

"No, I am afraid I can't. But, can you give this to her?", Shadow pulled out something small and gave it to Sonic.

"I...give her this?"

"Amy...I have something for you", Sonic had his hand wrapped around something small. He was quietly thinking if he should do it or not, this was risky but if this made Amy happy then... Sonic held Amy's hand, extending it as he placed a small mandarin on her hand.

"Amy, Shadow actually lik-"

BOOM! BOOM!

His words never came out, as fireworks spread to the sky. One after another, making the mixed color look beautiful in the sky. Sonic looked at Amy one again, and Chaos...he couldn't stop looking at her. Her face had changed, her expression as well.  Her eyes sparkled brighter than the fireworks, her excitement was noticeable. This moment, for Sonic, was everything. He couldn't let her go, he didn't want to. The fireworks resemble his heartbeat, exploding by each time Amy blinked. Because every time she opened them, his whole body would be paralyzed.

Only for this time...he will be selfish.

The fireworks died down showing the start of a new beginning.

"What were you saying about Shadow, Sonic?", Amy asked him, her good mood suddenly coming back to her.

"Um...Shadow actually", Sonic tried to come up with something quick. His hands began to sweat, showing a bit of discomfort.

"Shadow actually told me to tell you Happy New Year!"

"Oh really?!", Amy said smiling, making Sonic a bit sadden by her excitement but happy at her change of mood nonetheless. "Yeah, he did"

"Oh and thank you Sonic for the mandarin...how did you even find it? They are extremely rare and only grow in some parts of the world!"

"Well, I have my ways", Sonic smiled and this reassures her. Shadow may not be with her, but her blue bur will never fail her.

. . .

Shadow watched the couple from afar. He saw them from above a tree where he could watch the fireworks.  He had seen them before, but this time it felt different. Seeing all the villagers happy at his own work made him feel like he actually part of something bigger. The fireworks didn't make him feel lonely anymore, but a sense of unity within him. However, he wasn't complete at all yet. He was looking forward to giving her his present and may even give her a kiss again.

"Wait, what?"

Shadow stopped mid-track, believing his own thought. However, he had to admit that he felt betrayed when he found out that Amy was dating Sonic.  He didn't really get the whole concept of 'dating' but he thought that their relationship must be at a more intimate level. And he wanted that with her. He looks back at the couple, and sigh at defeat. Maybe he could visit her another day, at another time. He wasn't going to give up, no...no until he could see her again.

"A mandarin? Really? That's the best you can give her?", Sonic had a humorous tone to his voice. Clearly wanting to be superior.

"No, I can give her better....I hope you can too", Shadow began to walk away. Only the stepping of his shoes against the ground could be heard.

"Believe me, I can beat  you any day when it comes to that"

"Yeah, just like I beat you to be her first kiss"

. . . . . . .

A/N: this is late but Happy New Years!

[skull001]

About Amy in the IDW comics...

Something that I really, really like about the IDW Sonic comics is the way they have used the cast of characters, often doing a much better work and displaying a better understanding than the current writers for the games. In particular, I like what they have done with Amy ever since her debut in issue #2 (though being fair, this improvement can be traced back to the post-reboot Archie comics before the publication was cancelled). I really enjoy how she has in a way matured, no longer being a gag character like in some of the games where her characterization suffered from being flanderized to a single trait at the expense of the rest of her character.

Something that comes a a welcome addition is her being the one character that does the duties of a leader in the Resistance, despite Knuckles still being referred as the commander... Something I never agreed with for reasons that have to do with his particular character/personality.

However, although many fans received Amy's characterization with a positive reception, there are also people who waste no opportunity to question Amy's role, even going as far as calling her a "Sally clone".

I personally think that Amy growing into a leader is a development that comes much more naturally to her than it ever did to Knuckles: When Amy was introduced in Sonic CD, she began her journey as being no different from the civilians who suffer the consequences of Eggman's plans and who need to be rescued by Sonic. This is very important IMO since later it will play a part in Amy's development and interaction with other characters.

Next in Sonic Adventure, Amy was, for the first time, placed in a situation where she had to take action on her own without depending on Sonic to come save her. As her story advanced, we could see Amy starting to display a heroic side of her, one that drive her into overcoming her own fears and limitations to help those that were in need like the little bird... Hey, much like how Amy was also a victim in CD that needed to be rescued.

In Sonic Heroes, Amy is now in charge of leading two characters (Cream and Big) on a mission to rescue their friends. I think this game did a neat job at showing how Amy's personality and charisma offered someone whom Cream and Big could depend on to lead them to a successful rescue. Through their quest, Amy cheers them up and maintains the morale of the team, once more showcasing her aptitudes as a natural leader.

I think that what makes Amy a leader character for the resistance is that because of her humble origin, the civilians can relate to her just as how Amy can also feel empathy for them and the hardships that the fillain Eggman makes them go through. You could say that Amy is living testament of how anyone can be a hero if they listen to their heart and have the courage to do something about it... To do the right thing.

When Amy leads, it's not all about just giving orders. She also look after the well being of those who follow her, providing them with understanding and moral support, like when Knuckkes starts blaming himself for Eggman's forces having taken over Angel Island, helping him see that it wasn't his fault... Something that reminds me also of one of the last Sonic Universe story arcs where Knuckles is starting to have doubts about whether he is a good guardian, his mind drifting towards the negative like the times it has been taken away, to which Amy reminds him of the positives, like how he never gives up and always recovers and brings back the ME to safety. I think Amy is the kind of leader that will do everything in her power to make sure that everyone reaches the goal, together as a team, never leaving anyone behind.

I think it's fair to recognize that Amy is a different kind of leader than Sally. She may not be the most brilliant tactician since she is still a kid who is learning as she goes, but she knows how to keep the team united, since her strength as a leader resides in her ability to bring out the best in everyone, from your everyday civvies, helping them realize that they are stronger and more brave than they ever thought (since Amy went through the same trials and can talk from her personal experience) by believing in them to boosting the morale in stronger heroes like Knuckles who may start doubting themselves.

Tl;dr version: Amy is basically a kid friendly version of John Connor in the form of a pink, cartoony gerbil. XP

[crowdvscritic]

round up // JULY 20

New music is saving 2020! This is one of my most music-and-musical-heavy Round Ups yet, not even counting the Beverly Hills Cop theme I’ve been whistling and dancing to around my apartment this week. (Don’t judge—you’ll do it to if you watch any of those movies.) And speaking of movies, I’ve got three new movies from 2020 to recommend! When theatres reopen I might go every week even if there’s nothing I’m excited to see, but I’m thankful for VOD movies to tide me over in the meantime.

July Crowd-Pleasers

This Twitter Thread

I’ve laughed out loud so many times I don’t care if this thread is made up. An anonymous Frenchman is documenting the “adventures” of a British family with a vacation home next door and no clue what Brexit actually means. This journey is a sardonic roller coaster, but I appreciate this tweeter isn’t devoid of empathy.

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

An insanely satisfying legal thriller that will have you shouting at your TV. Matthew McConaughey is a hot shot lawyer who doesn’t care if his clients are guilty, but he starts to reconsider that position with his newest (Ryan Philippe). What seems like a cut-and-dry defense of a man wrongfully accused escalates into so much more. I’ll stay scant on the details so the twists can surprise you as much as they did me. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8/10

Summer Jams

2020 has gotten, um, a bad reputation, but I’d like to give it a shout-out for one of the best years of summer pop music in a long time. The last time I remember jamming to this many songs on the radio was 2013, the summer of “Mirrors,” “Get Lucky,” “Roar,” and “I Love It.” Thanks to Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, the Jonas Brothers, and Doja Cat, I keep flipping through radio stations looking for the next new song that will make me bop. Enjoy a round up of my favorite summer songs of 2020 so far on Spotify above.

Focus (2015)

As noted last month, I love when a heist movie can pull a fast one on me. Focus may not be a creative height of either Will Smith’s or Margot Robbie’s careers, but it’s a romantic and funny story of two con artists with just enough plot twists to keep me guessing. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10

Love Crazy (1941)

William Powell and Myrna Loy appeared in 14 movies together, and their chemistry in this zany romantic comedy shows us why. The premise starts with their married characters planning an eccentric anniversary celebration, but somehow it escalates to a legal declaration of his insanity. (Unlike My Man Godfrey, Powell is the comic instead of the straight man this time.) While how we talk about mental health has changed much in the last 80 years, this comedy is so screwball it can’t be taken seriously as commentary. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell star in a musical light on songs but huge on charm, laughs, and diamonds. In a perfect world, we would have gotten more musicals directed by Howard Hawks, but if we could only have one, this is proof we’re not living in the darkest timeline. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Double Feature — Very Silly Spoofs: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) + The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

I’m very late to both of the parties for Monty Python (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8.5/10) and The Naked Gun (Crowd: 9.5/10 // Critic: 8/10), so all I need to say about these absurd comedies is the hype didn’t ruin them for me.

Fast & Furious (2009)

In a strange turn of events, I finally succumbed to watching all Fast and Furious flicks. (Blame it on quarantine.) While my favorite remains the spin-off Hobbs & Shaw (maybe because it’s so unlike a normal movie in this franchise, sorry), the fourth movie is another highlight. It features one of the best character team-ups before the stunts become hilariously unrealistic and acknowledges some of the moral complexities of the plot, which is surprisingly uncharacteristic for a movie series about, um, criminals. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7/10

Double Feature — Action Crime Movies Based on True Stories in the ‘70s: Donnie Brasco (1997) + The Bank Job (2008)

In, Donnie Brasco (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8/10), Johnny Depp is an FBI agent undercover in the Mob, keeping an eye on Al Pacino. In The Bank Job (Crowd: 8.5 // Critic: 7.5/10), Jason Statham is caught up in an MI6 plot to save political face by breaking into a London bank. Both are tense, twisty, and somehow true.

Jim Gaffigan: Cinco (2017)

While he’s best known for jokes about food, I’ll always appreciate how his self-deprecating jokes are never really just about his appearance or his many children, though he’s funny enough he could get away with that.

Covers by Switchfoot (2020)

Harry Styles! Vampire Weekend! My music tastes past and present collide in this album of bops Switchfoot covered this year.

Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)

This is really just a plug to watch all three Beverly Hills Cop movies for Eddie Murphy at his funniest, Judge Reinhold at his most underrated, and a score so catchy you’ll be dancing to it for days. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7/10

July Critic Picks

Hamilton (2020)

Who knew? Listening to the Hamilton soundtrack is not the same as watching it in the room where it happens. I reviewed the filmed production with the original cast for ZekeFilm, which was a treat since my May theatre tickets were cancelled. At least we’re not dealing with formal duels in 2020! Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 10/10

Double Feature — Journalism Films Based on True Stories in the ‘70s: All the President’s Men (1976) + Zodiac (2007)

Maybe it’s just because I have a degree in Journalism, but I appreciate a story about a good story. In All the President’s Men (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 10/10), Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman are digging into the Watergate scandal at The Washington Post even when no one else thinks there’s anything to investigate. On the opposite coast in Zodiac (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 9/10), Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. are hunting the Zodiac Killer at the San Francisco Chronicle with the help of police officer Mark Ruffalo. This double feature focuses on reporters so committed to their work it comes at personal cost, but it highlights the need for people who are that committed to the truth to make our society function.

Greyhound (2020)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a studio in possession of a good World War II script must be in want of Tom Hanks, and we can always feel the warmest gratitude for any means of uniting them. I reviewed the film Hanks wrote himself for ZekeFilm. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

Dark Waters (2019)

Mark Ruffalo plays a real-life lawyer who helped investigate DuPont and change legislation on chemicals. A different kind of legal thriller than The Lincoln Lawyer, but yet another movie confirming Mark Ruffalo is a treasure. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

These Pieces on How We Interact With Media

I’m a believer in good journalism (see above), so I appreciate when writers do some self-examination on their own craft. I’ve been on an Instagram break the last few months because it’s been contributing to an anxiety spiral re: world events. It’s easy to talk in hyperbole, to complain, and to dehumanize others on the Internet, and I know I’m guilty of all three, so kudos to these writers for speaking on them.

“The Power of Media and Misinformation in the Age of Coronavirus,” DarlingMagazine.org (April 20)

“My Big Old Rant,” SeanDietrich.com (July 10)

“Kanye West and the Media Are Once Again Playing a Dangerous Game,” Vulture.com (July 13)

Brightest Blue by Ellie Goulding (2020)

You might know Ellie for her electro-pop hits, but I’ve always preferred her ballads that let her unique vocals shine. Brightest Blue is another collection of both styles, and it’s another strong outing from one of my favorite singers.

West Side Story by Richard Barrios (2020)

The making of West Side Story is a classic collision between art and commerce. This new Turner Classic Movies book details the many conflicts between the creative team, cast, and financiers to make one of the most beloved musicals and most Oscar-winning films in history, and you might be surprised it made it to the screen at all after reading it.

The Vast of Night (2020)

The Twilight Zone-esque movie is all about some weird happenings over the airwaves in a small town. Two high school students, one a nighttime radio host and the other a phone operator, team up to investigate a mysterious noise they’re hearing. The filmmaking is unconventional but gripping, and the story has major Stranger Things vibes, which is only helped by the fact that one of the stars looks a lot like Sadie Sink. (FYI, her name is actually Sierra McCormick.) Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

folklore by Taylor Swift (2020)

It’s tricky to put into words what new music from Taylor Swift means to me because her words have been part of my life for over a decade and I admire what she shares of her creative process so much. Her unexpected eighth album is nothing like Lover—instead it’s a sonic and poetic continuation of songs and themes from Fearless and RED, her two most sock-me-in-the-gut-and-how-did-you-get-a-hold-of-my-journal collections. Just 11 months ago she released an album I said was her best yet, but I’m saying it again and even faster than last time.

Bonus: Enjoy this piece about the inspiration for her song “Last Great American Dynasty” from St. Louis Magazine.

Westworld (1973)

Before Jurassic Park, Michael Chrichton wrote and directed another sci-fi adventure set at a theme park with a Hunger Games flair. Here we go to a Western-themed resort where almost-human robots serve patrons’ every whim—that is, until they start rewriting their programming.  At least we aren’t dealing with homicidal robot cowboys in 2020! Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 9/10

Also in July…

I wrote a tribute to Olivia de Havilland after her passing at 104. She’s best known as Melanie in Gone With the Wind, but I’ll argue that’s not the best showcase of her talent.

The Best Picture Project continues with Clark Gable! He starred in 1934’s It Happened One Night and 1935’s Mutiny on the Bounty, but I’m only recommending one of them for your viewing pleasure. You can scroll a little further back or read the reviews here:

It Happened One Night – Crowd // Critic

Mutiny on the Bounty – Crowd // Critic

On SO IT’S A SHOW?, our pop culture references spanned 250 years with 1976’s Rocky and the 1726 novel Gulliver’s Travels. We found a crazy number of connections between Gilmore Girls actor Milo Ventimiglia and Sylvester Stallone, and we figured out what the hey the word “brobdingnagian” means. 

You can keep up with everything I’m watching in real time on Letterboxd, where I’ve rounded up my favorite journalism films, including All the President’s Men, It Happened One Night, and Zodiac.

Images: Switchfoot, Media, Ellie Goulding, West Side Story. all others IMDb.com.

[105ttt]

I’m just going to ramble about how we see Shadow’s character develop throughout the Sonic games (mostly the Dreamcast era with some modern era stuff thrown in there) and why I think his character is a lot more than just being an “edgy hedgie with a gun”. Everything is going to be below a readmore, since this is going to be really long.

Yes, it’s an old complaint that Shadow is not just some edgy teenager with a gun who gets angry all the time and solely lives to pick on Sonic, but if you actually take time to sit back and consider all of Shadow’s actions from his first appearance in SA2 onward, he actually seems less evil and edgy than people make him out to be.

Shadow’s character changes a lot in my opinion from SA2 to Heroes, but there are reasons that he acts differently in these games. Starting in SA2, Shadow is depicted as a villain who helps Eggman in trying to destroy the world with the ARK, and of course his tragic backstory combined with his evil actions makes him look like a stereotypical edgy angst magnet. But we need to consider the reason why Shadow helps Eggman in order to make a judgement about how evil he really is.

Shadow wasn’t helping Eggman just because he wanted to see the world burn out of some innate sadistic desire or a desire to have power over everyone else for no reason other than being evil. He helped Eggman because he incorrectly remembered Maria’s wish before dying as her wanting revenge for her death. He was also somehow made to believe he owed Eggman a favor for waking him up from cryostasis (literally calling him “Master” and saying he will grant him one wish).

Speaking of cryostasis, a friend of mine brought up the fact that from Shadow’s point-of-view at that point in time, he had literally just plummeted to Earth after watching his only friend sacrifice herself to send him to safety and then be murdered by people he doesn’t know for reasons he doesn’t understand, was then captured and imprisoned by said people he doesn’t know for reasons he doesn’t understand, and now has been awoken by someone he hardly seems to know and is expected to fulfill that person’s wish of destroying the world. Shadow’s mistaken memory conveniently matches up with Eggman’s desire to destroy the world, and while it’s not justified to kill innocent people just to get revenge for the unjust death of one person, Shadow didn’t necessarily want to murder people out of sadism or some evil desire - his actions in SA2 are done out of his devotion to Maria, a trait which we see in later games.

Shadow’s actions take a dramatic turn when he eventually remembers what Maria really wanted after Amy convinces him to help the others stop the ARK. After that point, he abandons his stubborn refusal to help and leaves Amy immediately to go join up with everyone as quickly as he can (even though he had been Sonic’s nemesis up until that point throughout the entire game). He even goes as far as to fight the Biolizard for Sonic and Knuckles so they can stop the Chaos Emeralds and later joins Sonic in his super form to stop Finalhazard, only to sacrifice himself to save the Earth in the end. These actions are clearly linked with the fact that Maria’s true wish was for Shadow to protect the Earth, and we see here that again, his actions are done out of devotion to Maria and possibly a genuine sense of heroism.

What do I mean by heroism? Well, even as early as SA2, we see that Shadow is quick to defend or protect innocent people and his friends, and he doesn’t let innocent people be endangered if he can help it. One major example I can think of in SA2 is when Rouge is trapped on Prison Island. After running late in escaping the island on her mission to get the Chaos Emeralds, she calls Shadow and lets him know she won’t make it off in time with the Emeralds. Shadow naturally wants to save the Emeralds because he needs them to achieve his goal, but when he uses Chaos Control to get to Rouge, does he simply grab the Emeralds and leave again? Absolutely not. He takes Rouge with him right before the island explodes, thus rescuing both her and the Emeralds. When the two talk later, Rouge brings this up, and Shadow claims he only came to save the Emeralds, but that may be a cover so that he doesn’t show Rouge he cares (this connects to something I’ll mention later). After all, he could have, in theory, grabbed the Emeralds while Rouge was still shocked from seeing him use Chaos Control and then left Rouge to die in the explosion.

Shadow actually shows this same willingness to protect others in Sonic Heroes and Sonic ‘06, both incidents involving Rouge as well. The example from Heroes is really striking because it’s implied that Shadow forgot everything that happened in SA2 after falling back to Earth again. In the opening cutscene of Team Dark’s route, Omega awakens when Rouge tries to unlock the capsule holding Eggman’s “secret treasure” and opens fire on her. Shadow wakes up to notice this and, instead of immediately facing off with Omega to stop his reckless shooting, actually pushes Rouge out of harm’s way and then tries to stop Omega. What’s significant about this interaction is that Shadow supposedly doesn’t remember Rouge at all, and yet he decides to keep her safe even though he doesn’t know her. He could have left her to die from Omega’s gunfire and used that to stall Omega so he could take him out, but he decides to make sure she’s safe first. On the other hand, he attacks Omega because Omega seems like a threat to him - Omega attacked first, and so Shadow feels the need to stop him. This scene brings up another interesting point in Shadow’s character we see a lot: Shadow doesn’t attack someone who doesn’t threaten him first or otherwise causes him some sort of problem. This may be why Shadow was so quick to fight Sonic in SA2 despite not knowing who Sonic is. Sonic often posed a threat to Shadow by trying to take the Chaos Emeralds away from him or otherwise just demanding a fight, to which Shadow obliged. The same is true for the inter-team boss fights in Sonic Heroes, where Team Dark faced off with the other teams because Rouge was worried they would get in Team Dark’s way. Rather than being the aggressors who pick a fight for no reason, both teams involved typically had a reason to defend themselves.

But getting back to Shadow’s heroism, the example from Sonic ‘06 I mentioned earlier is equally important in showing this facet of Shadow��s character. When Rouge and Shadow are on a mission to get the scepter holding Mephiles, they are ambushed by Eggman, and at one point Rouge is struck down from the sky. Shadow had a choice at this point to either keep his hold on the scepter and let Rouge crash or save her and let the scepter break. He goes for the latter and catches Rouge just in time, but as a result, the scepter breaks, and Mephiles is freed. This decision to save Rouge over keeping whatever dark power trapped inside the scepter contained shows that Shadow prioritizes his friends’ safety greatly, even if it means he has to sacrifice something else.

Shadow really is a kind and loyal person at heart, though sometimes his emotions get the best of him. The same friend I mentioned earlier pointed out that Shadow’s aggression in earlier games like SA2, Heroes, and ShTh was probably just a side-effect of him being so confused about who he is - and more importantly where he is. Keep in mind that Shadow had never been on Earth before SA2, and now that he has to face this brand-new world, all while not knowing what his intended purpose was in life, must have driven him to be aggressive. His dedication to achieving his goals probably fed this aggression as well, since it may have been the best way to deter any impediments to his goals. My friend also brought up the fact that Shadow, while being chronologically 66 years old, is mentally and physically 16 years old. He’s going to act and think like a typical 16-year-old, albeit with some behaviors found in people who experienced trauma, because that’s what he is. He likes blowing things up and being powerful because he knows how powerful he is (he brings up the fact that he’s the ultimate life form all the time), but he doesn’t use that power for evil or just for kicks, as we see in many games where, when Shadow acts like his true self, he uses his powers for only good. His overconfidence in games like SA2 and Heroes also stems from the fact that he is, in fact, a young teenager with lots of power at his fingertips and a new world to explore. In this respect, he and Sonic are very similar: both are kind and a bit prideful, but they don’t put down others unless they prove to be evil or a threat.

An interesting side note on Shadow’s power is that he seems to get untold amounts of strength from his love for and devotion to the people he cares about. We see this multiple times in the true ending of ShTH, where Shadow is able to instantly recover from the effect of Black Doom’s paralyzing gas through his accumulated memories of Maria and later when he breaks free from Black Doom’s mind control after seeing Gerald’s message to Shadow about the Black Comet. The entire premise of Heroes being that each Team grows stronger through teamwork and the friendship between all three people in each Team also remains true for Shadow, despite people typically seeing him as a loner-type. And just as much as Shadow gets strength from his loved ones, he encourages them as well when they need strength. Throughout the entire Finalhazard fight in SA2, Shadow constantly checks on Sonic to make sure he is okay and even compliments him at one point, saying with a laugh that he believes Sonic may be the actual ultimate life form. In Heroes we see this same kind of support towards Sonic when Shadow offers to distract Metal Sonic during the Metal Madness fight so that Team Sonic can go super, and later in Generations Shadow says the infamous line: “You’ve got this, Sonic!” as an expression of genuine encouragement and faith in Sonic’s abilities.

Just as Shadow believes in his own power and others’ power, Shadow also has a capacity for understanding right from wrong, and though ShTH shows that he understands that some choices aren’t black and white, he knows when evil needs to be punished. It is ironic that people consider Shadow a villain simply because of his appearance when he has spoken out against evil multiple times in multiple games. In Heroes, during the Metal Madness fight, Shadow actually criticizes Metal Sonic for stealing data on all living life forms in order to become strong, showing that he doesn’t believe in unfair methods of obtaining power. In ShTH he shows the same kind of sentiment towards Black Doom, refusing to give him the Chaos Emeralds and becoming angry at Black Doom for tricking him into collecting them for him in order to enslave the human race. Shadow’s distaste for evil is shown directly in the lyrics of “Supporting Me”, where the “air of darkness” is said to be “disgusting”, and yet Shadow “never [loses] out” to it, indicating that he doesn’t let his past evil actions get him down or discourage him from wanting to change for the better. He even outright states in his victory phrase after defeating Finalhazard that he wants to destroy “all the evil [Professor Gerald] has created”.

Another point in Shadow’s character that is similar to Sonic but also shows his own unique perspective on life: he values his freedom just as much as he values his friends, and doesn’t let his past get to him. The Dreamcast era games really focused on Shadow’s identity issues, but they also showed that he handles them in a way that doesn’t let them bring him down. In fact, Rouge is the one to mention Shadow’s identity problems in both SA2 and Heroes. In SA2, Rouge confronts Shadow about the fact that his memories may be fake and that he may not be the real end product of Project Shadow, but Shadow doesn’t respond with sorrow or a typical “angsty” answer. He instead asserts that even if his memories are fake, he is who he is now as a result of his actions throughout the entire story of SA2, and he is content with the identity he has made for himself. He then doesn’t dwell on the issue any longer and focuses on his own goal. A similar situation occurs in Heroes, where, upon finding the Shadow Androids, Rouge attempts to console Shadow, who has gone silent. Rather than breaking down, Shadow simply tells Rouge to disregard the Androids and to keep moving. This action ties back to the point I made earlier about Shadow not letting others see that he cares all the time. Possibly because he doesn’t want to burden others with his problems or let those problems affect who he is as a person, Shadow doesn’t let Rouge dwell on what he may have felt upon seeing the Androids and decides to ignore them. We see a similar reaction in Sonic ‘06, after learning that Omega was the one to seal him away in the future, Shadow doesn’t go off on Omega or cause an uproar. He simply walks away, probably to give himself time to think or just to avoid burdening Rouge and Omega with his feelings at that moment.

During the final stage of Heroes, Shadow makes a declaration reminiscent of the one in SA2 and affirms his identity as who he is currently rather than what he was in the past. ShTH really brings this together during the True Ending, when Shadow outright declares to Black Doom after breaking free from the paralyzing gas, “I’m Shadow the Hedgehog. I’ve left the past behind me. No one can tell me what to do now!” Shadow not only retains his freedom to determine who he is but also his destiny - which brings up another quote from Sonic ‘06. After Mephiles shows Shadow his future self imprisoned in a capsule permanently for fear of his power in order to convince him to take revenge on the humans who imprisoned him, Shadow simply tells Mephiles to quit the act and that he will never listen to his futile persuasion. Upon Mephiles asking if Shadow will really forgive humanity for his fate, Shadow says only one thing: “I determine my own destiny.” We even see in ShTH that Shadow doesn’t let his memories of Maria and Gerald haunt him: in the final cutscene of the True Ending, Shadow tosses away a picture of himself and Maria while saying “Goodbye forever, Shadow the Hedgehog”, signifying that he won’t let his past define him or haunt him any longer. He doesn’t let anyone - whether it be his own father, Maria, Gerald, or even his friends - determine his path of action and his choices. The entirety of ShTH is spent with Shadow determining his course of action in order to get to what he believes in the truth, demonstrating his belief in his own strength and sense of right and wrong (which is shown to be less black-and-white than it seems at first). All of Shadow’s character songs tie back to themes of freedom to be oneself or confidence in one’s identity created through one’s actions, and these songs often give off a feeling of being victory songs because victory for Shadow is asserting that he is who he is no matter what may have happened in the past.

In the end, I think Shadow is a kind, loyal, and determined person at heart who knows that right and wrong aren’t always easy to discern at first but still wants to protect the world from wrongdoing and help those in the world who are symbols of goodness, and who also values his freedom and loved ones more than anything.

[beevean]

So what are your overall thoughts on Forces storywise? Positives and negatives? Where do you think the story ranks in the series?

Maybe it’ll be easier to just list positives and negatives (warning: long post):

Positives:

- Even by watching a low-quality stream of the Switch version, I can say the game looks gorgeous. It does suffer a bit from the Adventure 2 syndrome, where the art direction can bet too dull for you to appreciate the graphics, but some stages are breathtaking. Egg Gate in particular looks amazing.

- While the plot on its own doesn’t belong in this section, I appreciate the simple fact that they actually dared to break from the lighter and softer approach that’s been going on since 2010, and the fact that they remembered that the cast isn’t just made of Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Orbot and Cubot. The concept was awesome! The tone was perfect, serious but not depressing and too try-hard! There was some action! It’s a step in the right direction, and I hope people will criticize the plot for the right reasons and not because “lol sonic shouldn’t try to be edgy”.

- Shadow will be playable. Even if he’s at his core “Sonic with a OP Light Speed attack” this is very important.

- While at first I was annoyed at seeing old levels again, I’m actually happy with what they’ve done. They’re not just rehashes, they’re treated like actual dynamic environments. Green Hill is not just “hey remember this level”, it’s a place dear to Sonic that was ruined by Eggman. Chemical Plant is also ruined and repurposed as a space port, almost like a Sonic CD Bad Future. Only the Death Egg is pretty much the same, although I admit, the Classic level using the same gimmicks as the S3&K version was a nice touch that I forgave because it made sense in-universe.

- The dialogue! Aside from a couple of stupid lines, mostly by Sonic, there was no trace of childish, jarring humor, nobody was OOC or treated as simple comic reliefs, and the interactions between characters were genuine and believable. Some parts kinda reminded me of the Boom cartoon. “See, Infinite, now we het to know each other! So what’s your favorite color? Do you enjoy long, romantic walks on the beach? What’s the source of your powers? You can skip the first two questions if you like” “Maybe he’ll have more friends if he stopped talking about himself in the third person.” (maybe I just have a bad sense of humor idk :V)

- Eggman and Knuckles were perfect. We didn’t see them a lot, but their characterization was on point. Knuckles was just full of charisma and he radiated confidence, a far cry from the butt monkey he’s been since Sonic X. And Eggman was actually smart, with some clever ideas like having backup sources for the Phantom Ruby, rightfully chewing out Infinite for not killing Sonic, and… well, we didn’t see it, but I like the idea of him keeping Sonic alive in his cell just so he could see what happened to the world thanks to his absence (that’s perfect fanfic fuel). And Mike Pollock managed to sound badass in certain parts. “The sun will fall upon you. Boom! The end. Your pathetic lives… are over.”

- Speaking of Pollock, the voice acting was some of the best in the games this far. I can count on a single hand the times someone sounded fake or unconvincing (mostly Silver, sadly, and Sonic was a bit oscillating). I think I gushed about Liam O’ Brien enough, he clearly had so much fun with Infinite. I can’t wait to hear the Japanese version

- And finally I love Infinite way more than I should. His design, his voice (especially his voice

- I like that thing Infinite did in Capital City. You know, when he mind raped everyone in the city by conjuring those abominations of nature. That was a clever use of his powers.

- The last shot of the game, with the Resistance hideout shining under the sun’s light and a single flower at the center, with the instrumental version of the credits’ song in the background, is honestly moving. Even after the huge disappointment that was the ending, this part made me feel satisfied and like I accomplished something (and I didn’t even play myself). It reminds me of Wiosna from Katawa Shoujo, and if you played it you know how it feels to hear that music after finishing a route.

Neutral:

- The scrapping of lives. I’ve seen people complaining that it makes the game too easy, but

1) there’s still some punishment if you lose a life, just like in Unleashed the timer doesn’t reset and of course you lose all your Rings, so if you die you can kiss that S rank goodbye;

2) lives have been pointless since the introduction of save files. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you got a game over in a game that saved your progress? And what was the punishment for a game over? At worst you just have to restart the level you died in.

So while I’m not particularly happy, I’m not disappointed either and I welcome the change.

- The music. I put it here because it’s kind of a mixed bag, there are tracks that I hate with a passion and tracks that I can’t get enough of (and I’ve only heard a tiny fraction of the whole OST). So overall I would say it’s average-to-good. 

I really wonder why they’re insisting of forcing Ohtani to compose whole soundtracks - the guy is seriously talented and I admire his work, but why can’t he be helped by someone else? I know Kenichi Tokoi and Naofumi Hataya also worked on the soundtrack, but afaik their roles are minimal.

- The Avatar himself. I’d enjoy the idea a lot more if 1) they talked, and 2) the characters stopped shilling them just a tiny bit, especially since everyone else was relegated to the background. Still, the concept of a muggle wanting to help the heroes is cool, as it goes against that sort of “elitism” in the Sonic series. And I just grew too attached to Gadget the Wolf :)

- The level design, the thing people trashed for months on end… it’s okay. Is it good as Generations’? Absolutely not. Is it bad? I don’t think so, because when I think “bad level design”, I think of Knuckles’ Chaotix and Sonic CD. 

Forces is inoffensive in this regard. On one hand, it’s not as linear as it looked like, there are multiple paths and some nice platforming sections. On the other, the 3D parts are few, short and in general not that engaging, and yes, Classic Sonic’s stages are supported by too much automation because the physics engine can’t handle him apparently. In short, if you’re okay with shallow fun and you thought Colors was fine, then you’ll be okay with Forces. (and while we’re not supposed to judge the developers as people, considering the level designers were all newbies I’d say they did a good job)

Negatives:

- the fact that you can’t recollect your rings unless you’re playing as the hedgehog Avatar. That just flies against the very core of the Rings concept.

- The sheer lack of “show, don’t tell”. Most of this game is just told, in fact most part of the plot is told via walkie talkie convos. The majority of the cast is just there to comment and guide the characters during the levels, only Silver is shown actually doing something. The most offensive example is how Eggman conquering the world is “shown” by a simple text box (people are already speculating it’s another sign of troubled production). And we don’t even see that much of the conquered world, either, aside from City (no seriously that’s the name of the area).

- What happened to you, Tails? What happened to the boy who wanted to be more than Sonic’s sidekick? Why the mere sight of Chaos 0 sends you into a panic when you fought Chaos 4 before? Why thinking Sonic is dead makes you “lose it”, when the same thing happened twice already (or once, if you want to discard ‘06) and in both cases you were devastated but still managed to kick ass? Why are you just an exposition fairy? Who hates you that much in the writers’ team? :(

- THE. RUSHING. Oh my god I could rant for hours about how the game not only is too fast-paced, but outright misses chunkes. I already mentioned the text box part, but what about the part where Infinite sends Sonic and the Avatar into null space… and they get out of there in literally ten seconds? What about Fake!Chaos and Fake!Shadow being dispatched like that, without even the simples of boss fights? What about Silver, Shadow and Omega just appearing out of nowhere? What about the “fake sun” plan being thwarted simply by the Avatar after less than ten minutes? What about the relentless teasing of Infinite’s origins, all culminating in a big fat nothing (he didn’t even take off his mask for fuck sake)? What about Eggman just vanishing after the final boss? What about the fact that two thirds of the final boss are rehashes, and at this point I’m seriously insulted by seeing Egg Nega Wisp for the third time?

- Going hand-to-hand with the rushed plot, the wasted potential. Sonic gets tortured in isolation, so you’d expect some consequences to his characterization. Nope! Not even a reveal that he was just hiding his fear by acting tough. Why are Shadow, Chaos and Zavok on Eggman’s side? Lol, they were just illusions, the real Shadow is fine and the others just don’t appear. All the cool hints about a tragic past for Infinite in his own song? Nothing mentioned in-game. He’s an experiment, that’s it. The connection with Mania? Just an excuse to justify the presence of Classic Sonic, whose only purpose in the plot is to snap Tails out of his depression. This game is just begging, “Rewrite me, please!”, and if I could write decently I’d do it myself, I’m that disappointed.

- What’s the deal with Aqua Road? It’s the only gimmick level in the game and it looks like the unholy child of those horrible bingo tables in Bingo Highway and this part in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for PC.

- Very minor, but if Eggman could see the fake sun, that means he would’ve been incinerated too. Considering how smart he was otherwise, that seems like a huge hole in his plan.

That’s everything I can think of. So, in conclusion, the game is generally good but overall mixed, and I dread the coming of November 7th because I can’t even imagine the kind of reception this game will get (and since it’ll come right after Super Mario Odyssey I don’t think it will sell well :\). 

I would personally play it if I had the chance because the game doesn’t look broken, boring or frustrating, and if I can manage to have fun with ShTH Forces will definitely be entertaining :V but it’s clear something went seriously wrong during the production and it feels like there are bits of the game missing, bits that could’ve elevated the quality from “good” to “excellent” - which is also why I hope Sonic Team doesn’t throw everything away but keeps the good parts and expands on them to create an even better game next time.

So if you’re planning on getting Forces, ask yourself what do you want to see in a Sonic game, because that’s the thing that makes the difference between “it’s not perfect but I can have fun with this” and “this game is absolute trash and Sonic doesn’t deserve this”.

[vrheadsets]

10 Franchises SEGA Would Be Crazy Not To Bring To VR – Part 1

Welcome to another edition of VR vs. The weekly VRFocus column where the ‘other one’ from the site talks about most anything and everything to do with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) or some crazed combination of the three. Today we’re continuing a thread begun last week in the final part of my three-week feature into what may lie ahead in 2017.  There I mooted the idea that of all the studios currently involved within VR, certainly from a gaming perspective there is one that is conspicuous by its absence. SEGA. Yes, yes, I know there are Hatsune Miku games but as I pointed out at the time Hatsune Miku and the vocaloid bunch ultimately aren’t SEGA property and aren’t a traditional franchise. They aren’t one recognised within their All-Stars series for instance – and whilst that isn’t a qualifying marker for this list considering how big the Project Diva series is and how iconic a figure Miku is in Japanese culture certainly, you’d’ve thought SEGA would make more of a deal out of things than they have were she theirs. So on that basis, scrub those out PSVR games off your mental tally.

Updated total? Zero.

This is unusual for SEGA. Historically SEGA (at least in the third-party era) have rushed in to support whatever new technology comes along. Do you by any chance remember the EyeToy, Sony’s camera accessory for the PlayStation 2? Yes? No? There weren’t exactly a whole heap of games for it. But SEGA were there with the original SEGA Superstars to fly the flag. They supported the Kinect they fell into bed with Wii U pretty quickly, etc, etc. For SEGA to not have had one of its more noted franchises in the West ready to rock and roll when VR came to retail, certainly the PSVR, was pretty unusual. (Again, discounting the leek-swinging singer lady.)

But that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of opportunities for SEGA to embrace VR and thrown a bone to its more beloved franchises. It’s one of the sad truths about SEGA that their most iconic of series, with the exception of the fast spiky one, have never exactly been humongous successes financially. Still, why not use some of them and maybe give them a new lease of life outside of a new racing game? (No, really SEGA. It’s time for Transformed 2. Throw some money at SUMO Digital, will ya?) It’s also not like we don’t know SEGA aren’t messing around with VR either. Both SEGA Europe (SOE) and SEGA America (SOA) revealed their ownership of VR kits (HTC Vive and PlayStation VR for SOE and Hololens for SOA) thanks to community videos. Way to keep that secret chaps. A+ work.

So let’s get things underway. As before I must point out that I used to work for SEGA for several years and worked on a number of the franchises listed that I’ll be bringing up. It was some time ago now, but I’m reliably informed that if I don’t do that the world will apparently end. We begin first with an honourable mention.

Honourable Mention: Alien Isolation

It’s just not going to happen folks. Many have said the masterfully creepy atmosphere of “SEGA’s Good Alien Game” – tho everyone forgets they also did an Alien game on the DS in that discussion – was a perfect match for a full and proper adaption into a VR experience. The scare factor would be immense, obviously. As it’s bad enough being stalked by a Xenomorph without actually looking down at your chest as its tail pushes through it to kill you.  As much as we’d all like it to, the economic factors involved just mean Alien Isolation is a non-starter for Creative Assembly to even get involved in really. Boo-urns.

However, speaking of Creative Assembly…

  Total War

It’s one of gaming’s little quirks that one of console gaming’s most well known names is the publisher that is in actuality one of PC Gaming’s powerhouses. Between Sports Interactive’s Football Manager series and Creative Assembly’s Total War franchise SEGA have an commanding grip of the PC chart, one would go far to say dominance at some points in the year.  If you have lived in a hole for the past couple of decades, Total War is a series of real-time strategy games that takes keen players take on the role of General in various eras of time. Replaying notable battles and playing tactical hardball with history. Whether it’s the Medieval period, the time of Rome, the rise of Napoleon or the era of the samurai there’s plenty to do. Heck, you can even throw history right out the window now and enjoy some Warhammer in your Total War.

Total War has always been about getting stuck in to battles. The planning, the preparation, the implementation and the execution.  The buck stops with you, and as the series has developed the control system has allowed you to get ever deeper into the action.  You can even follow individual soldiers. It’s such a well developed system that there’s even been a BBC game show (essentially) based on playing the series. One that’s recently had something of a comeback.

So with this in mind how would VR make Total War better?  Control.

Now, considering what I’ve just written you might be wondering what I’ve been talking about since I’ve just been praising the system. But you can always improve and everyone and anyone who has played Total War has always had periods where the game just won’t place units right or you can’t get the camera in jussssst the right position. Now imagine you are in the map as opposed to looking at a 2D surface. Imagine you were, with your motion controllers able to to manipulate your units and your surroundings just so. How much easier and dynamic and engaging an experience that would bee if you brought a touch of Minority Report to proceedings.

Heck, can you imagine a Hololens version of Total War? With you waging battles from your sofa over your coffee table, and manoeuvring your archers onto the high ground of the TV unit? That’d be amazing.

Samba de Amigo

Break out the Bellini boys and girls!

When I first saw the HTC Vive controllers my first thought, partly because of how they were being held and moved at the time, was that they kind of looked like maracas. And there’s only one game that invites you, without a hint of suggestiveness, to get your maracas out. Samba de Amigo first burst onto the scene on SEGA’s much loved Dreamcast and was actually developed by Sonic Team if you didn’t realise it. It also came out as an arcade experience before next surfacing on the Nintendo Wii. The game plays with you in amongst a vibrantly coloured carnival, armed with your maracas you control Amigo, one of SEGA’s two monkey mascots (the other being Super Monkey Ball‘s AiAi, strangely the two have never been seen as rivals in the Superstars/All-Stars titles. Which has always puzzled me.) You move and dance along to a selection of upbeat tracks, shaking your controllers in time to the beat and occasionally having to strike a pose. It’s a simple enough title, and well and truly puts the party into party game.

VR needs more games like that I think. More games that are just full on fun and colours. It’s why Balloon Chair Death Match got people excited, it was a simple premise and it looked fun. Job Simulator is the same. Bright colours and poitively oozes fun. Yes, we can all enjoy a nice serious game with high stakes, but in dammit we all just want to be silly sometimes. Samba allows you to do exactly that. Now, what I’m essentially asking you is to imagine this in VR. Please watch the video below as in this instance it is important to what I’m writing about.

A warning before you do however; if you are wearing headphones please turn them down. There’s some loud audio distortion on the video from the outset.

Just look at this man. Look how bloody happy he is. He doesn’t care he’s in the middle of an arcade, he doesn’t care he has a crowd. He’s just going for it: a master at work. Nevermind your beloved Salt Bae (a reference I realise will date this article terribly), in your heart of hearts you wish that were you. You wish you were as cool as the Samba Bae.

Now I’m waving any potential wire-based issues here. Forget ’em. Let’s lay it out. You put on the headset and you step into a party; a “Carnaval de VR”. Everyone around you is interacting with you. The movement is infectious. You are the centre of a mass celebration with bouncing creatures and an equally bouncing musical beat. You have motion tracking controls. You wave them about in time to the music. It’s escapement, elation, exercise and fun. Now we bring things up to date with the new technology and throw in a dash of evolution to the game as well. Unlike before you can use the sensors or PlayStation camera to fully track your movements. All of a sudden Samba can have a touch of Dance Central in it, evolving it into a bit more of a full body game with one stroke. You have greater accuracy than ever before on the controllers, the game can actually see you for the first time and you get one of the most smile inducing experiences on VR. As an added bonus it gets to be a game franchise fully realised on VR, something people are clamoring for.

Yo SEGA. You’ve got my number. Call my people (me) and let’s make this happen. I’m totally open to being Producer on this thing. SAMBA! Du du de-du du-du du de-du…

Condemned 

There’s a very good chance you don’t remember Condemned: Criminal Origins. There’s an even better chance you’ve never played it or Condemned 2: Bloodshot. Which is a pity really. Condemned is a first-person experience which puts you in the shoes of Ethan Thomas, a police officer investigating a murder which slowly takes him down a path to discovering secret societies, mysterious entities, encountering nightmarish visions and the city falling into the grip of madness. Both games are a twisted mix of dark menacing settings, genuine scares that mess with play on psychology and improvised combat usually involving whatever Ethan can get his hands on. It’s frantic, up in-your-face stuff and perfect for VR with the combat emphasis on melee.

It’s not just that though. The first Condemned game especially has you dealing, within your role as a police investigator, a number of different crime scenes. These are technical, and involve you hunting for clues, such as finger prints and making deductions. What Condemned is, is what I suggested it could be back at E3 2016. It could be the Batman VR game you’ve always wanted but combined with all the best twisted bits of Resident Evil VII.

We’ll just ignore the bit about shouting people to death from number 2. (Check out my good friend John’s Let’s Play of Condemned 2 to see what I mean.)

That’s all for this week. On next week’s selection of titles we’re embracing freedom in a couple of ways and I use the term “wave shooter”. Which will probably annoy people. Until then…

  from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2jsNXtJ

[terryblount]

Shenmue III – PC Review

The height of the console wars between Sony, Nintendo and Sega was undoubtedly a trial by fire for developer and publisher alike. These companies had invested huge sums of money in the promotion of their respective platforms, and studios hired the most creative minds in the business to develop that one game that would rise above their competitors. It is here that Sega deployed Yu Suzuki.

Now while gamers enjoyed an idyllic time in which studios created brilliant games to gain market dominance, one fact had become clear: Sega was falling behind. Nintendo had the mascots and Sony had massive 3rd party support, but Sega was stuck with a library for their Dreamcast console that just couldn’t gain a foothold. Sonic and the gang simply failed to bring in sales from this volatile market.

The opening of Shenmue with the murder of Ryo’s father

Fortunately, Yu Suzuki had been developing an idea since the previous generation for not just a new IP, but a new kind of game that didn’t really have a genre yet. Yu Suzuki had been at the frontline of the console wars for some time, but the game he was about to pitch for the Dreamcast had grand ideas worthy of Sega dropping an initial budget of a whopping $47 million. This game was Shenmue.

Sega’s killer app

Whereas Shenmue is more typically remembered for introducing modern, quick time events to the gaming world, which indeed it did, its true legacy lies in how Yu Suzuki had conceived the world’s first, 3D, open-world game. His team at Sega AM2 used their astounding pile of cash to invest not in action or explosive set pieces, but in pushing the boundaries of the player’s immersion.

When their masterwork finally released in 1999, gamers found themselves entering a world that was more than just a digital playground for the protagonist, Ryo Hazuki. The town of Yokosuka was a fully-realized, mini-universe filled with distinct characters, various side activities, and a day-night cycle which was all woven into the core of a beat-‘em-up, kung fu adventure. Truly a feat for the 90’s.

In short, Shenmue’s world and its revolutionary graphics felt like a reality not just to play in, but to live in. Yu Suzuki had a vision of making players a part of his game by giving them the freedom to progress at their own pace. Shenmue had therefore become a paradigm for how a new generation of games should represent the open-world genre, and its legacy is clear in everything from Grand Theft Auto to Assassin’s Creed.

Today this looks rather sterile. In the 90’s this blew gamers away

The neverending story

In terms of the actual narrative, Shenmue shares many characteristics with those 80’s Jackie Chan movies I used to watch as a kid on Friday nights. You play as Ryo Hazuki, a budding martial artist who witnesses his father being murdered over an ancient artifact named the Dragon Mirror.

The murderer in question is the formidable kung fu master, Lan Di, who journeyed to Japan from China once he learnt of the artifact’s hiding place in the dojo under the tutelage of Ryo’s dad. After forcing his father to hand over the mirror with his dying breath, Lan Di then returns to China with his prize, leaving the fire of vengeance burning strong in Ryo’s heart.

Ryo and Shenhua in a cave next to huge depictions of the dragon and Phoenix mirrors

The stage is set, and Ryo pursues his father’s killer starting with only the scraps of information he can salvage from the villagers of Yokosuka. He eventually picks up the trail of breadcrumbs and encounters some nasty people willing to defend the secret of Lan Di’s whereabouts with their lives. So, like Jackie, Ryo uses kung fu to pound some answers out of them, and thus improves his own fighting techniques along the way.

Sadly, our hero appears to be broke, which is where the infamous forklifting gameplay came in. Shenmue used its open-world as something of a pragmatic diversion where Ryo could earn some moola by doing mundane chores, such as forklifting for cash. Yet all work and no play makes Shenmue a dull game, which is why Yu Suzuki filled the game with various side-missions also, such as going to actual arcades in the town.

Enter Shenmue III

Again, this was the nineties and the first time gamers of the day could switch seamlessly between the game’s key story missions, the monotony of work, and fun side-activities within a single, cohesive package. It was far from perfect, as the tedium of just waiting or working did outweigh Shenmue’s fun factor (and the core gameplay) at times. The novelty of it all did make plenty of room for misfires.

Yet, the substantial following garnered by Shenmue and its sequel is testimony to how innovative the experience was. Yu Suzuki could not save the Sega Dreamcast, but droves of gamers loved the freedom of just exploring unrestrained through both games, helping Ryo with his detective work, practicing kung fu moves, or just trying their hand at all the mini-games. People wanted more.

So why the drawn-out pre-amble you may ask? Well, it has been 18 years since the release of Shenmue II, but I have to say I have never played a game released this many years after its forerunner, only to resemble it so closely. Shenmue III is such raw, undiluted fan service, so devoted to its source material that it seems utterly inseparable from the bigger picture.

Tranquil village life. This is probably the best world in the Shenmue universe thus far

Seriously, I played both the remastered ports last year to see what the fuss was about, and rather than feeling like a separate game, my time with Shenmue III often felt like an expansion pack, or perhaps a upscaled textured pack. On the one hand, this works in the game’s favour since this really is a true sequel in this eleven-part saga. On the other, certain aspects of the game should have been modernized a bit.

Why it works

As if nearly two decades haven’t passed, Shenmue III takes off right where players were left hanging with the previous game. Ryo has since made it to China in his search for Lan Di and finds himself in Bailu Village, a remote little hamlet nestled in the mountains known for its culture of martial arts and stonemasonry. It is also here where both the Dragon Mirror and its companion, the Phoenix Mirror, were created.

Ryo has also befriended Shenhua, the daughter of a stonemason involved with the mirrors’ creation, and in the words of the only friggin’ loading screen, “their fates becomes entwined”. As is the modus operandi from both prequels, the gameplay is once again centered around searching the village one small clue after another taking Ryo ever closer to Lan Di.

Shenhua

The Dragon Quest games are more generally regarded as by fans as the most chilled franchise and I have played almost all of them, but for me it is Yu Suzuki’s beloved series. Every time I launched Shenmue III I inhaled, exhaled and just relaxed as I luxuriated in the bliss that is fundamental to how the game unfolded before me. It is like Tai Chi transformed into a game.

Bailu Village is one of two main hub worlds that the game opens with and it is an absolute Shangri-la of green mountain fields, majestic peach trees in blossom, and villagers just going about life. While lacking the the more complex textures of a AAA title, the Unreal Engine 4 does the job beautifully here, and it it augments the game’s tranquility and total lack of stress.

Such tranquility

As Ryo continues his search of Lan Di’s whereabouts, and learns more of how this opening setting is a crucial component in the path leading to his father’s murder, the player is never rushed, or urged to progress. If you get tired of talking to people, or beating up the thugs harassing the villagers, go fight some of the monks at the local dojo, help the old shopkeeper chop some wood, try your luck at the various ‘pop-up casinos’ to buy Ryo some new threads, or… drive a forklift hahahaha.

Like I said, this is a thoroughbred entry in the Shenmue franchise and these fun (if perhaps somewhat meaningless) mini-games one again reinforce the idea that the player has left the real world behind.

You get to see Ryo not in over-the-top action scenarios, but is a variety of smaller, more routine situations that we ourselves could actually relate to, bringing the player closer to his character.

Yes you can race turtles!

There have been a few minor tweaks to the formula as well. Aside from the obvious graphical upgrade, Shenmue III sometimes lets the player skip ahead to an objective’s location and time. The fighting also feels much more responsive and easier to master since Ryo now executes moves automatically with deadly force once the player becomes skilled in executing a technique.

Why it doesn’t work

For all the occasional forklift driving, quick time events, casual character interaction, kung fu and other staples of the Shenmue franchise on display, the very character of the third installment also represents its biggest weakness. While Shenmue III smashed Kickstarter records, and while a dedicated fan base still upholds their beloved franchise, this game belongs mostly to them.

See, the problem with this kind of sequel where the only true change lies in the presentation is that the game very easily succumbs to its forebears’ weaknesses and shortcomings. Shenmue III is no exception.

Turtle racing!

I get that Shenmue was originally conceived as a sixteen-part epic, which was later cut to an eleven-part story covering four or five games, but the narrative just does not feel like it moves much further from square one. Ryo hardly makes any substantial progress towards avenging his father, and the overall plot is beginning to show signs of fatigue. I think Suzuki needs to consider wrapping things up.

The relaxed and tangential gameplay is also likely to ring hollow with players who like to see their grinding translating into something more substantial as with more modern RPG’s. It is true that the martial arts training is useful to Ryo to a certain extent, but even my nostalgia failed to cover up how I was often doing something in the game only to wonder what the point of this activity was.

Again, it must be remembered that Shenmue III is attempting to make a seamless transition with the first two games which took shape in a climate that had never seen any of this before. Bringing this forwards to the current generation creates a charming sense of continuity, but also gives Shenmue III a noticeably asynchronous feeling when placed next to the hoards of games it inspired.

I don’t really have an issue with the graphics given that this game’s budget places it on the lower, middle shelf. In fact, at times it even puts other releases with five times its budget to shame. Yet, I imagine many players would likely be put off by the slightly robotic look of the NPC’s regardless. Where I see old-school charm, others are guaranteed to perceive certain aspects of the visuals as dated.

One for the fans

So there you have it. Despite the community thinking Yu Suzuki’s most passionate project had died with the veryconsole it was trying to preserve, here we are, eighteen years later, thanks to the magic of crowdfunding. Instead of trying to establish itself as a new JRPG force to be reckoned with, Shenmue III seeks to pay tribute to what players loved and remembered about it.

Unfortunately, to those that have never played the first two Shenmue games, or have little interested in the legacy of this series for our beloved pastime, this very fact makes Shenmue III a hard sell to newcomers. Standing by itself, this game is bound to raise more questions than answers, and looking at several early reviews, it seems that players just weren’t feeling it.

As a recently converted Shenmue fan, however, I enjoyed my time with it in spite of a few frustrations. It was so relaxing to play and I can practically sense Yu Suzuki’s passion within every aspect of the gameplay. They will not get away with this formula for a fourth time though, so Shenmue IV had better try to introduce a few modern, open-world mechanics to bring it up to speed. For now, we can allow one last homage to the past I think.

Pure fan service

Decent variety of mini-games

Tranquil tone

Looks good for AA game

Needs more fast travel

Some boring grinding

English localization sucks

Dull side-missions

          PC Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an XBox One controller

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[tinymixtapes]

Feature: Favorite 15 Video Games of 2017

Let’s face it — art is escapism. We might feel like we’re doing serious work when we catch up on arthouse films or when we listen to music that preaches values we believe in. But at the end of the day, sitting on the couch is just something we all need sometimes. The old guard has a vested interest in inflating the significance of the media we consume in our spare time, in making us feel as if it’s our collective duty to remain caught up with the season’s latest rehashes on contemporary issues. But is escapism in itself really so shallow? Is it so low to seek visceral immersion in this terrifying and numbing reality we’ve found ourselves in? And more importantly, if we’re going to burn away our hours staring at a screen, why just absorb when we can participate? Amid another year wherein it seemed as if the amount of music to listen to and TV to watch reached a breaking point, video games pushed forward yet again as one of the defining platforms of our time. After all, we’re talking about a medium that distinguishes itself from other artistic formats in the agency it gives to its recipient, placing the experience of a video game as much in the hands of the player as in the hands of the developer. And never before has there been so much freedom in how we create that experience: Between AAA titles that pushed the boundaries of the open-world concept to unimaginably beautiful new heights (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) to indies that sent us tunneling down absurdist rabbit holes (West of Loathing), the games we played in 2017 reflected the expanding chaos of our world, trading in linear pathways for freeform silliness (Super Mario Odyssey) and easy relaxation for carpal tunnel-inducing mindfuckery (Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy). Even if we couldn’t control what was happening beyond our front door, we were the masters of our domain, as far as our living rooms were concerned. Of course, in the end, it’s all fun and games, and sitting at home isn’t going to fix all of our problems. But rarely have we felt as nourished as we have after picking up one of these 15 gems, each one as inspired and invigorating as any film or album or book from last year. It’s with that in mind that we present our Favorite Video Games of 2017, with a little reminder that if you’re going to escape reality, do it right. –Sam Goldner --- 15 Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Developer: Nintendo [iOS, Android] In 2017, it often felt like our most basic sense of community and fellowship to one another continued to deteriorate. It was a small but powerful relief when Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp hit the app store. Beyond the purely nostalgic appeal of hopping into a camper and getting away from it all, of hearing the sound of leaves crunching underfoot as we ran errands for all our cute animal friends, Pocket Camp distinguished itself with a simple goal for players: give to others, unconditionally, purely for the sake of giving. The fact that the game drew such ridicule for this suggestion of unreturned generosity is telling of our world in and of itself; but even in the face of its haters, Animal Crossing felt like a big bear hug from an old friend, the sort of neighborly, low-stakes game that championed a kind of calm that seems to be disappearing from our lives. Best of all, it was essentially free, with pay options only cropping up if we felt the need to speed up our steady furniture accumulation — as if the game itself was asking us, hey, why are we always in such a rush? –Sam Goldner --- 14 Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice Developer: Ninja Theory [PlayStation 4, Windows] Hellblade boasted a range of state-of-the-art technical features, from expressive motion capture to miasmic binaural sound design, but its most effective trick was decidedly old school: a disorienting, medium close third-person point of view. Unlike first-person walking simulators, which often dissolve the nuances of character in service of narrative simplicity and reduce the experiences of being, of embodiment, to mere avatardom, Hellblade never let you forget whose story you literally stand in the shadow of. Considering that one of Hellblade’s core mechanics involved the manipulation of perspective, there was a harmony of theme and structure, a rare achievement, even in consideration of the whole history of the medium. That these devices were utilized in service of a melancholic, Herzogian fever dream of love, loss, trauma, and hereditary psychosis was more astonishing still. As VR tides continued to rise throughout 2017, Hellblade made a convincing argument for the ascendancy of those smaller stories yet untold, over the paradigm-shifting promises of vulpine industrialists. Best of all, Hellblade’s commercial success proved that there’s a market for games as immersive, empathy-building experiences, which is perhaps the most impressive of its tricks and achievements. –embling --- 13 Puyo Puyo Tetris Developer: Sonic Team [Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch] I copped Puyo Puyo Tetris on a whim, hoping to eke a few hours of portable puzzle-solving between classes. Turns out, I’d underestimated just how much longevity this title packed within its cartridge: it’s the Switch game I’ve most frequently returned to this year. Whether I’m playing it on a TV at a friend’s get-together, getting decimated while attempting to play competitively online, or just plugging my way through a ridiculously written story mode, I never seem to get bored with its simple and succinct gameplay, which pits two classic stacking puzzles against each other, side by side. Puyo Puyo Tetris was a straightforward title that breathed new life into veteran concepts. The learning curve’s quick, but there are hours and hours worth of strategic depth built into the game’s blocks and blobs. –Jude Noel --- 12 Prey Developer: Arkane Studios [PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One] Who would have thought that a first-person, sci-fi horror throwback under the premise of an alternate reality (wherein JFK was never shot and the space race flourished) could be so captivating? Touted as a “space horror version of Groundhog Day” at E3 2016, Prey certainly delivered in story, but it became a true standout through its slick, immersive atmosphere, inspired by films like Moon, Starship Troopers, and The Matrix. It was such a joy to play an original property that recalled playing Doom for the first time, but the game complemented its retro aesthetic with interrogations into morality and artificial intelligence. While Prey is that rare, underrated gem likely to be buried among similar genre titles, it was nonetheless an alternate reality worthy of being lost in. –Emceegreg --- 11 Golf Story Developer: Sidebar Games [Nintendo Switch] Golf Story was one of the biggest surprises on a system that was itself one of 2017’s biggest surprises. The game sported a typical hero story, but twisted such that your golfer was old and unlucky instead of young and plucky. And instead of townspeople cheering you on, the crowd consisted of a crew of sarcastic golfers rooting for your failure, in the most pleasant way possible. The story was amusing, but it never got overly involved, present just enough to introduce new courses and rivals with flair while letting the excellent gameplay speak for itself. Traditionally, sports games don’t have stories, but the bizarre combination offered by Golf Story led to an intriguing mix of genres that was absolutely worth the low $20 entry fee. –Munroe [pagebreak] 10 Thimbleweed Park Developer: Terrible Toybox [Xbox One, Android, Windows, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Linux, Macintosh OS] The 1990s were the golden age of the point-and-click adventure game, largely due to companies like LucasArts and Sierra Entertainment. But the genre has persisted over the years and even thrived with the recent popularity of tablet devices. Indie developers of all stripes have embraced these casual (and sometimes frustrating) games, often applying a pixelated aesthetic in homage. Thimbleweed Park, from the creator of Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle, was this year’s standout example. All the aspects of the classic gameplay were there: the crosshair cursor, the blocky verb actions at the bottom, the humorous dialogue, and of course, the bizarre use of objects to advance the story. Thimbleweed Park gave us control over two secret agents plucked right from The X-Files, a female video game programmer, a foul-mouthed clown, and a ghost, all humanized with superb voice acting. And at its core, the game’s logic was pleasantly goofy, much like its predecessors. –Tristan Kneschke --- 09 Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy Developer: Bennett Foddy [Windows, Macintosh OS, iOS] Part B-game, part Sisyphean metaphor, part pop psychology, tough-love therapy, and meme generator, QWOP mastermind Bennett Foddy’s latest absurdist platformer carved out an unexpected niche in the 2017 zeitgeist thanks to the revival of tired conversations about difficulty in games sparked by Cuphead’s punishing, retro-style gameplay. But Foddy’s incredible, impossible, holy mountain-climbing abstraction brought new life to old discourse by challenging the nature of simulated obstacles in gaming, testing the player’s perseverance by delegitimizing itself as just another emblem of gamer credibility, and actively questioning why we’re even playing. Foddy created a game that could’ve used its quick novelty and high meme potential to cash in on a voracious Twitch and YouTube market. But with theming that blends a delightfully clumsy control setup, slapstick physics, and existential horror/psychological torment courtesy of Foddy’s alternatingly abusive and encouraging voice-of-God commentary, the game also proved to be one of the most unique interactive experiences of the year. As for my own quest up the mountain, I still haven’t hit the top, and I honestly probably never will. But I’m fine with that. I think Camus would understand. –Colin Fitzgerald --- 08 NieR: Automata Developer: Square Enix [PlayStation 4, Windows] A tree in the vastness of a broken future, its many branches varied and reaching toward an open-ended sky. It’s these visuals in the bleak fast-forward of NieR: Automata that best exhibits how rich and entrenching the storytelling was with the latest in the series. And though the multiple endings and perspectives (and the chase therein) were the top-level canopies of NieR: Automata, it was the interactions and revelations drawn by 2B and 9S that truly stripped you of your own cynical bark. There were plenty of post-apocalyptic games littering the gaming market, each fitted with its own emotional gimmick, yet it was the lack of a gimmick that set NieR: Automata apart. The branches of its storytelling reached into the futuristic ether, a towering coniferous that brightly blossomed the higher you climbed it. Much like that tree, NieR: Automata shouldn’t exist in this prophetic space of humanity’s not-so-distant landing spot — and yet it did. And I’m glad it did. –Jspicer --- 07 Night In the Woods Developer: Infinite Fall [Windows, Macintosh OS, Linux, PlayStation 4] Here’s an Indie Game Mad Lib: Night In the Woods was a self-aware, slice-of-life adventure game with an ironic sense of humor about millenial social fatigue, set in a 2D cartoon world populated by morose talking animals. The game also mercifully swam against the rushing currents of contemporary gaming culture. While the industry at large continued to thrive on unquestioning nostalgic dogma, Night In the Woods sought out the true value of reminiscence in an era of profound disconnect; while most games took on social issues with a myopic perspective and a heavy hand, Night In the Woods was, if anything, too muted in its depiction of the communication breakdowns plaguing a generation buckling under the weight of modern strains of anxiety, depression, and socioeconomic disenfranchisement. The game was stocked with authentic characters whose stories you learned gradually through awkward encounters and halted conversations, all simultaneously desperate for something meaningful to happen and terrified of making themselves even the slightest bit vulnerable. It was either an empathy machine for a society automating itself into isolation or a quirky little story about how we’re all just confused idiots floating directionless in space. The result was the same. –Colin Fitzgerald --- 06 West of Loathing Developer: Asymmetric [Windows, Macintosh OS, Linux, iOS] The Western is America’s answer to European medieval fiction. Both genres are essentially fantasy that romanticize the unwritten reality. Both possess a certain character that reflects ideals for each location. Some would argue they whitewashed the truth, a claim for which there is some validity. However, what truth it hid was more mundane: These times were actually boring. In Europe, knights were spoiled rich boys, marriages were political and financial transactions, and the life most people had was tending to a farm. The American West was not full of gunslingers, cowboys, and prospectors, but immigrant farmers, bored Civil War veterans, and cattle ranchers just getting by. Sometimes it’s important to reflect on the absurdity of these fictions in subtle ways. Meat as a currency. A necromancer raising dead saints and antipopes — taking back their “holy relics” in the process — only for them to be instantly killed by a lady with a bone saw. Crowded trains waiting for the continental railroad to finish. A ghost town’s bureaucracy denying cow-punchers a shot of whiskey. A great cataclysm occurring when The Cows Came Home. It was all so goofy. But when you think about it, aren’t Westerns just as ridiculous? –Ze Pequeno [pagebreak] 05 Persona 5 Developer: P Studio [PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4] Although its core gameplay wasn’t a revolutionary departure from the JRPG subgenre’s tropes and traditions, Persona 5 kept me coming back to its magical-realist incarnation of Tokyo on aesthetic strength alone. Visually, aurally, and ethically, the game’s cast of delinquent teens had their finger point-blank on the pulse of 2017, bumping future-funk jams in the background as they dealt vigilante justice to their oppressors, all the while decked out in high-fashion fits equally inspired by Victorian literature and late-70s punk. The game oozed style down to its animated menus, bordered by sketchy illustrations: though much of the game took place in a surreal meta-reality populated by demons, an elegant charm stitched the torn fabric between its fantasy and beautifully mundane reality. Give Persona 5 a try for yourself: you’ll exorcise ancient evil, buy soylent from vending machines, date the two-dimensional character of your dreams, and have uninterrupted fun through it all. –Jude Noel --- 04 Horizon Zero Dawn Developer: Guerrilla Games [PlayStation 4] Horizon Zero Dawn might not have offered the best open world of 2017 — hi, Breath of the Wild; hello, Assassin’s Creed Origins — but no matter what it appeared to lack, in the superficial and reductive comparisons that commonly pass for game criticism, it more than compensated for with hope, hard-earned humanism, and technical polish. 2017 being a banner year for the format, there were plenty of games that did more, but few that did better. Whether in terms of the satisfying tactility of its weapons, the impossible, magic-hour glow of every single in-game moment, or the unexpected, hard sci-fi implications at the core of the narrative’s parallel mysteries, Horizon Zero Dawn presented itself with more craft, care, thought, theme, and feeling than any other escapist entertainment this year. Sure, the characters’ photo-realistic wax figure faces could be jarringly unnatural from time to time, but what this game had to say — about faith, our relationships to technology, and the very concept of the uncanny valley — was so much more impressive than any mere graphics engine could ever be. While I came to fight robot dinosaurs, I stayed for the mechanical flowers that pollinate poetry. And during a year that consistently dimmed belief in our collective myths — such as peaceable resolutions to decades of cultural Balkanization or the prospect of a decent, sustainable future for humankind — Horizon Zero Dawn served as a balm, a worry stone, a bright and vital reminder that, no matter what, life rarely fails to find a way. –embling --- 03 Super Mario Odyssey Developer: Nintendo [Nintendo Switch] All due respect to The Young Bucks, The Usos, and The Beatdown Biddies, but Mario and Cappy were the greatest tag team of 2017. Mario games tend to have a central gameplay conceit, and with its “Mario’s hat is a sentient being now” mechanic, Super Mario Odyssey was no different. In order to save Princess Peach (as well as Cappy’s sister Tiara the tiara) and restore balance to the universe, Mario and Cappy must join forces. With Cappy by his side/on his head, Mario was able to jump higher, accumulate more coins, and of course possess unwitting enemies before using their abilities toward his own purposes. The resulting body horror made for one of the single-best platformer experiences ever, which might be a little hyperbolic, but I mean come on, it’s-a him, Mario! That name carries a lot of prestige with it, and this latest adventure more than lived up to the pedigree. Collect hundreds upon hundreds of Power Moons, wear a variety of fun costumes, take over a human’s free will and force it to drive an RC car around a racetrack in under 30 seconds. Along with another game that shall remain nameless because this blurb isn’t about it, Super Mario Odyssey made the Nintendo Switch a console worth owning. –Jeremy Klein --- 02 Cuphead Developer: StudioMDHR [Xbox One, Windows] The little Xbox One champion that could this year was also one of 2017’s biggest surprises: a run-and-gun platformer based on rubber hose animation. If you asked if we wanted to play a game that looked like Steamboat Willy, we’d probably be a little reluctant at first, but usually the best and most unique games are the ones you didn’t know you wanted. Cuphead had truly stunning animation that convincingly reimagined what playing a 1930s video game would be like (thanks to independent Canadian studio StudioMDHR). But besides the delightful aesthetic quirk, there was also an impressive difficulty to the game that made it pleasantly addictive rather than annoyingly impossible (see Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy). So many indie side-scrollers rely on the same tricks from decades before, but Cuphead had mechanics that didn’t allow players to simply remember patterns. In the end, Cuphead was a reminder that all we really want in a game is to have a fun and be challenged. –Emceegreg --- 01 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Developer: Nintendo [Wii U, Nintendo Switch] “Games and play are not identical categories. Games are organized forms of play; they have elements that might not be playful. Finite games are games that come to some kind of conclusion, and the conclusion governs how the game is played and what the game means.” The above quote comes from a book about baseball (Fail Better, by Mark Kingwell). It’s strange to me that, in 2017, I’d be looking to a book about a physical sport for a way to understand a video game, but it’s also not surprising that the lines of philosophy in sport, video games, and art run concurrent (hence why you’re reading a video game feature on a website that focuses on music). It’s often what we do when we try and grasp various forms of art: we end up looking back as well as across to see the permutations of ideas run through their forms and related ideas. Sometimes we look at Cage and say Duchamp, or visa versa, as often it seems as if one is looking back at the other, even though often (almost always) they were both working simultaneously. Shared philosophies are reflected in aesthetic permutations in various mediums, but it’s less interdependent and more of reaching to an idea of why we talk and write about our experience with art. Forgive the digression, but I personally find this above point important, at least for myself, when I try to understand what I find so enjoyable, invigorating, impactful, and remarkable about Breath of the Wild. In all ways, it shouldn’t be: another franchise game in the running output stream of a mega-sized corporation that specializes in spectacle and entertainment, etc., etc. But against an understandable skepticism against large-scale video game producers (cf. loot boxes, the existence of EA), we often forget companies like Nintendo were at the start of the medium, or in fact were the start. Breath of the Wild was not a swoop-in project from the outside, even if it’s open-world construction bears some resemblance to games like Skyrim or Assassins Creed. BOTW’s true predecessor exists in its own lineage: the original Legend of Zelda. Before the term “sandbox game” was coined, Shigeru Miyamoto referred to the original Zelda as a “miniature garden that they can put inside their drawer.” I love this quote because it reflects how games at the time were built around experimenting with the experience rather than the presentation of a cinematic, linear plot. Zelda was approached more like a garden than a book. Early games, in their limitation, had to find new ways to approach a person’s interaction with it, and after the limitations of platform games became obvious, why not make a game wherein a person just might miss one of the game’s crucial objects because it’s not explicitly laid out for them to grab? For those who are unfamiliar, the original Zelda puts a sword, your main weapon, in the care of an old man inside a cave. This cave is in the first screen you start on, but nothing stops you from not getting it, save for an extreme difficulty navigating the surrounding areas full of enemies (it is possible to make it all of the way to Ganon, the final boss, without the sword, and to play the rest of the game without it). Everything about the original Zelda was so antithetical to a guided experience. Sure there are numbered dungeons and even one that requires an item from another to gain entry, but the closest dungeon to the start (arguably) is the one marked “2,” and there’s nothing to stop you from entering it. So what might have looked like a technical limitation initially ended up being a source of liberation for the Zelda series. As Kingwell states how the interaction with finite games is governed by their conclusion (think of games that bait you with multiple endings, how the result is dependent on very specific interactions within the game, and how a player is rewarded with this ending by behaving a very specific way), at what point does a game lose its sense of play? In a game like the original Zelda, and especially in BOTW, play is created by the absence of organized form. To free-jazz enthusiasts (and many, many other art forms) this is definitely not a new concept. Even to video games, hell, even to the Zelda franchise it’s not new. So why then does BOTW’s sense of play give me the feels so much? Here’s an example: BOTW contains a physics engine that lets you essentially “break” certain puzzles. There’s a puzzle in one of the game’s shrines that works by way of the motion controller; you attempt to move a ball from point A to B by rolling it through a maze. However, if you take your controller and flip it upside down, the maze turns around as well, revealing a maze-less, smooth backside that makes guiding the ball to the point much easier (at least for me). But no approach to this puzzle is exactly the same; I’ve watched videos of people pan-flipping the ball like a fried egg to its goal; I’ve seen people try and hit it like a baseball as it dropped from the sky; and I’ve also witnessed doing shit. Expectation colors experience; try as hard as we may, what we expect will always bleed into how we see/hear/read anything placed in front of us. Every now and then, we experience a work of art that goes out of its way in both methods subtle and unsubtle to break us from this cycle. It might be outside of the realm of possibility to be a true blank slate and, in the reality of humanity and history, only possible in ignorance, but it’s often a work’s subtler transgressions that last beyond those of a more obvious flavor. I can’t help but think of works by Cage when I play this game, and it might be that a video game’s strong suit is how far removed it is from the problem of authorship/auteur theory. BOTW is not a new entry into this idea, but rather a reminder of what was there while we were taking an artistic format for granted as a children’s toy. Maybe BOTW will signal a movement into which we quit expecting to be constantly rewarded for participating in a work, asking that we turn inward to study our own experience rather than constantly criticize works on the grounds of delivery and feed. Cynically, I doubt this, but if I could interact with every artwork at the level on which I can interact with BOTW, both myself and the experience will be better off for it. Credit to Joe Davenport for bouncing off ideas and helping me find secrets. –Riboflavin http://j.mp/2ElLuva