Tag Archives: Just sayin’

REVIEW: Legend of Korra (Season 1)

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Back when Avatar: The Last Airbender was airing on Nickelodeon, I always enjoyed an episode or two when I could catch it, but I never fully invested myself into following the series. That was then. A year ago, I watched the entire series and loved it, so when I heard about Avatar: Legend of Korra, I was very excited for it! As it happens, the two-episode season finale of the 1st season (consisting of 12 episodes) was a couple weekends ago, which means that I can finally review this awesome show! So let’s jump right in!

Background:

For those unfamiliar with the show and its world, you don’t have to worry about knowing too much about it – the show does an adequate job of providing those who are unfamiliar with the bare basics and facts of the world of Avatar. With that being said, Legend of Korra is definitely more rewarding if you’ve seen The Last Airbender. Many references are made to The Last Airbender that make Legend of Korra that much more immersive for those who have seen the former show.

I won’t try to spoil too much of the plot, but I will give you a very brief overview: Korra, the new Avatar after Aang, has finally completed her fire bending training, meaning she can now bend Earth, Fire, and Water, and is now ready to begin her air bending training with Aang’s son, Tenzin. Unfortunately, Tenzin cannot stay to teach her where she is currently located, and so she follows Tenzin to Republic City, a hub for benders and non benders to live in harmony. There, she becomes involved in a war between benders and non benders whilst learning how to air bend.

Animation/Art:

Right away, in the very first episode, you can see how the world has changed from The Last Airbender; Republic City is very steampunk and modernized compared to the rural nature of The Last Airbender – you see cars, boats, and other various forms of technology, and alongside that you can see how much the team has improved in their animating. The environments are gorgeous, and the animation is much more fluid, especially when it comes to combat. There is no loss of production when it comes to Legend of Korra; each episode was pretty consistent when it came to its animation, and it was cool to see a different style of bending in the pro-bending matches.

Score: 9/10

Music:

The music is fantastic. I actually was able to get enough points on Korra Nation, an advertising campaign for Legend of Korra, for an exclusive soundtrack, and it’s great. While I enjoy the music for combat, I think my favorite pieces are the ones with violin during the more somber moments of the series. It really hit me during those moments. The ending theme is also great. All in all, the music fits each scene wonderfully, and its soundtrack is definitely one I could listen to again and again.

Score: 8/10

Plot Direction:

This is the show’s weakest point for me, but by no means is it bad. It’s great! I like how they play with how Korra is a much more physical Avatar – she relies on her bending to be an Avatar, and her difficulty learning Airbending lends itself to her difficulty connecting with her past lives spiritually, so to see her struggle through that was an interesting perspective for an Avatar. The whole “revolution” from non-benders (calling themselves Equalists) is also really interesting because you could see that in The Last Airbender where benders always had power over non benders. It was never addressed, but being able to see that as a sort-of foreshadow made the Equalist revolution a sensible direction because of how technology can bolster non-benders. The themes of revolution and corruption ran rampant throughout the series, but it is that very concept that we can relate so easily to thanks to the many movies and other shows that address these issues, as well as what we know from history in the past and currently.

Despite the predictability of the show’s plot progression, there are a lot of surprising twists thrown in there, and I was pleased with all of them. And to be honest, some of the predictable points were necessary, in my opinion. The ONLY thing I thought was kind of weak was the inevitable love triangle (square, maybe?) between Korra, Mako, and Asami, but to be honest, how they acted wasn’t too bad considering they’re all teenagers, but all of them had rushed feelings, I think, but that’s because the season was only 12 episodes.

A very solid plot, nonetheless, and definitely one worthy of the Avatar series. Oh, and the flashbacks with Aang, Toph, and Sokka was amazing!

Score: 7/10

Character:

I loved the characters in this series. Sure, some of them didn’t really get fleshed out, but Korra, Tenzin, Lin, Amon, Tarrlok, and a whole host of others were very fleshed out. I really enjoyed watching them grow as characters, despite how rushed some of it had to be because of the 12-episode limit. However, that can be forgiven because of the revolution and how that can cause more drastic change in characters. There was a lot of conflict between many of the characters, and I enjoyed seeing that many of those conflicts came to a resolution.

Score: 9/10

A lot of Legend of Korra’s criticisms, for me, stem from how short the first season was. But, it’s important to keep in mind that this was supposed to be a mini-series with two seasons of less than 20 episodes, so you can’t expect what The Last Airbender provided. With 12 episodes, Legend of Korra is very impressive, and if you haven seen The Last Airbender, you will enjoy Legend of Korra. Even if you haven’t seen The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra is sure to impress.

I will eagerly be awaiting next season, where I hope a lot of my criticisms are put down.

Animation/Art: 9/10

Music: 8/10

Plot Direction: 7/10

Character: 9/10

Final Score: 8/10

Just sayin’.

REVIEW: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

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On my birthday last week, my friends and I went to go see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which was released that night at midnight. I went in there expecting a horror/action film, and what I got was probably one of the best comedies I’ve seen all year. So let’s jump in and see why this film is so funny!

Plot:

I think this is probably one of the best parts. As you can probably take from the title, this is a movie that takes place during the time Abraham Lincoln was alive. We see him grow from boy to young man to our 16th president, and during the latter two periods he hunts vampires. Yes, you get to see Abraham Lincoln, as president, hunt down superhuman creatures with an axe. If you’re smiling and laughing after reading that sentence, go see this movie – you won’t regret it!

Really, the plot is Abraham Lincoln’s rise to becoming the president along with the civil war, and it all includes vampires, where the vampires are aiding the South in their desire to conquer the North in battle and keep slavery as a practice. What’s striking is how vampires are weaved in. It’s almost ridiculous how they just end up in the south and feed on slaves, and then aid the South in the civil war.

And Henry, Abe‘s mentor, being a vampire was such a twist…except it wasn’t, but I wasn’t expecting great twists from this movie considering it’s supposed to be part-historic.

Acting:

Honestly, the acting is good. That’s why it’s funny. These actors are legitimately trying to convince you that this could have happened – that Abraham Lincoln was, indeed, a vampire hunter. I don’t know exactly who the actors and actresses were (nor am I interested enough to look them up because none of them astounded me), but they were good, and I enjoyed their acting, especially the interactions between Abe and Henry, his mentor (and also a vampire).

I can’t really comment much on the characters – they’re ones you know, and since it’s made out to be like history, you kind of know where each of them is headed in terms of arc progression.

Music:

The music was pretty standard. Nothing really to comment on because I wasn’t too engrossed by it. It wasn’t bad, just not stellar.

Fighting:

This was the best part. To see Abraham Lincoln with bloodlust eyes as he hacks away at a vampire ind killing them in gruesome/badass ways was, simply put, amazing and hilarious, especially once he becomes the president. I really don’t want to go into too much detail, but believe me when I say that it’s gory, although the blood looks kinda fake, but maybe that’s because vampires have a different kind of blood…yeah, I’ll just go with that.

Anyway, the war scenes are also pretty cool, especially once the vampires come in. The battle of Gettysburg is hilarious because of the vampires!

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Really, the movie isn’t too bad. I mean, it’s a movie about our 16th president hunting vampires, so take that as you will, but I very-much enjoyed it because of how serious the presentation was. It’s movies like this that present a hilarious concept seriously that I love to watch, and I find these kinds of movies funnier than most movies that are actually comedies. If you’re not against seeing some gore and vampires, and want to watch Abraham Lincoln be a complete badass, do go and watch this move – you won’t regret it!

Rating: 3 out of 5 (stars)

Just sayin’.

Was E3 2012 as horrible as it was made out to be?

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E3, one of the big gaming events of the year, was last week, and although I had finals, I did take some time to explore E3 and what it had to offer. As I perused, I noticed that almost everyone held the same opinion about the event as a whole – that it sucked. And I found myself disagreeing. Ultimately, I think it’s because too many gamers aren’t critically thinking about what decisions each company has to make and because they were expecting big surprises, but I digress; let’s dive into the big three conferences, first:

Microsoft:

This was the worst conference according to popular opinion, and I do agree that Microsoft’s was under the bar. There was a lot of ‘apps’ being shown and not a lot of games – of course, there was Halo 4, Gears of War, and the like, but this is a problem that every company had – a lot of their games shown were of franchises that have been out for years. In short, they’re safe bets, but I’ll talk about why I don’t think this is that bad later. Besides that, Smart Glass looks cool – if they can pull something off with it next year I’ll be impressed.

It seems to me that Microsoft is trying its arrest to be that one system that every family wants to have – a true entertainment hub. Honestly, I think it’ll do fine – great, even – if it gets there. I think anyone can see why they’re trying to go for the ‘entertainment hub’ angle. If they beat Sony to the punch, they’ll pull out ahead.

Sony:

Sony’s was definitely better – a new God of War, Tomb Raider, Beyond, and The Last of Us all looked solid, and as you can see, a mix of some newer games. There was a lot about the Vita and ‘apps’, though, which disappointed a lot of people, but like Microsoft, Sony is trying to be a hub of entertainment for people. Sony’s style usually is, “take something and make it better,” so when you look at how Sony has developed, it’s easy to see why they’re trying to bring out new material to show that they can make better ‘apps’ than Microsoft and Nintendo. And they still had some great-looking games thrown in. The Wonderbook is a huge source of anger for gamers, but I found this to be fascinating. I realize that many hardcore gamers think this is trash, but look at the possibilities! Now, Sony has a way to compete with Nintendo for younger ages. In a market where Nintendo generally dominates the younger market thanks to kid-friendly characters like Mario and Kirby, parents may now decide to purchase a Playstation and Wonderbook instead.

It has to be good, so I’m not really sold, but it has a lot of potential.

Nintendo:

Because Nintendo is more of a first-party developer than a third-party one like Microsoft and Sony, it had a lot more on the line when it came to their franchises. What’s more, it had 3 conferences to cover everything it wanted to. I only saw the press conference and 3DS Showcase, so that’s what I’ll be talking about here.

The press conference, I thought, was just as good as Sony’s. The Wii U looks awesome, and I can’t wait to get my hands on one. What really jumped at me was Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Pikmin 3, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, and ZombiU. All of them look awesome, and because I am a huge fan of Nintendo, I do intend to purchase all of those games. The Super Mario’s looked good, and Nintendo Land looked interesting and fun. One of my problems with the conference was how long they took to explain one mini-game in Nintendo Land. It was really stupid. Besides that, Nintendo’s press conference, I thought, was good.

Their 3DS showcase was, for me, AWESOME. I got to finally see some real Paper Mario: Sticker Star gameplay, which I’ve been wanting for a long time, and hearing the New Super Mario Bros. 2 is co-op was a pleasant surprise. The new Castlevania game coming to 3DS looked nice, and they showed Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance with better trailers than ones I had seen before. The new Epic Mickey I did not care for, and it didn’t look very good to me.

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All in all, I enjoyed all three conferences, which many people I talked to were surprised to hear. Many wanted something new and big. They wanted a huge surprise like Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs (which does look sick!) but instead got games that were, as I said before, safe bets. But that isn’t bad. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all laid their new cards (Wii U, Smart Glass, Wonderbook) on the table, and to complement that they laid out games that will, more or less, sell well. This allows them to work on new games and hopefully have some big surprises next year.

The 3DS showcase garnered a lot of disappointment because it only showed games we had already heard of and games releasing this year, and this is not just Nintendo – all three companies were getting complaints about this. To that, I ask – why would they show you something that’s going to be released next year? Wouldn’t that be something for another event like the Tokyo Game Show? Maybe next year’s E3? It just didn’t make sense to me.

While I was watching the 3DS showcase, all the comments were, “Where’s the new Animal Crossing/Zelda/Fire Emblem?!” Hey, guys, ever thought about them coming out next year? Why get gameplay for something that’s not going to come out for another year or two? That’s a stupid thing to do, in my opinion.

Just wait until next year’s E3 – that’s when I think all the surprises are coming. For now, I’ll be content with my Super Mario’s and Paper Mario‘s and ZombiU.

Just Sayin’.

P.S.: I would comment on the booths, but I wasn’t there. I heard all of them had way more games than showcased during the presentations, so that’s good to hear!

REVIEW: Limbo

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Another review! Since school’s ending (my finals week is this week!!), I’ve had a lot more time to play games, so I’ve actually been getting around to playing some of the games in my backlog. Today, I’ll be reviewing a game I purchased during Steam‘s Christmas Sale last year – Limbo.

Plot:

Let’s dive right in with me saying this: I don’t like open-ended and subtle narratives. I hate them. I like to have my narratives laid out in front of me with character as the more subtle element. That aside, Limbo’s plot is fairly simple: you know that you play a boy who is seemingly in Limbo (at least, that’s what I thought), who is looking for his sister. Although simple, that’s enough for the game to be enjoyed.

You do see a few things – a giant spider, dead humans, and even ones that are alive and hostile. What they mean, I have no idea, and this is my problem with subtle narratives – it’s all up to interpretation, and I don’t like that. The ending is the same way (and it’s rather abrupt), so you never actually find out what the story is – you’re supposed to interpret it for yourself. But, despite my distaste for these kinds of narratives, Limbo does do a really nice job setting its world and narrative up, and it really adds to the replay value for those who enjoy these kinds of narratives.

I don’t like it, but Limbo does it very well.

Atmosphere (Music/Graphics):

This is by far my favorite part of the game. Everything’s laid out to you Noir style, so you’re given only black and white, and it is stunning. The faded out backgrounds in grey, the lights and darkness at the end of puzzles, the lighting effects with blurs and shadows – all of it is simply fantastic! It really sets and maintains the mood of the game throughout the entire experience. I especially loved the character model. The few musical compositions are great, and they really invoke emotions when you do hear them since they’re during critical narrative parts of the game. Throughout most of the game, all you hear are sound effects, but those are fantastic background noise, especially once you get to the more city-like areas and you hear the gears and crackling of electricity. It was a game that I felt benefited greatly from the quietness of not really having a soundtrack.

I really can’t say anything more – you simply have to experience it yourself. I think this right here is enough of a reason to replay (and buy) the game.

Gameplay:

I was looking up plot details to see if anything official had been released (there hasn’t as far as I know), and I came across “trail and death” as a style of game, and I think this was a good way of categorizing Limbo. Some of the puzzles I died multiple times just to get the timing right, but while some may find this kind of game frustrating, I enjoy it. The checkpoints where nicely set, so I never felt like I had to do something I had just done over and over, and the difficulty wasn’t even bad – many of the puzzles were thought-provoking, and I enjoy that in a puzzle-oriented game. It definitely has replay value, but knowing the puzzles already does detract from it unless you enjoy time attacking.

Overall, Limbo delivers an excellent experience for those who enjoy puzzle games and a more subjective narrative. I would recommend it to anyone, especially since it’s so cheap! It’s indie games like this that I will continue to buy because they’re always good!

Score:

Plot: 4/10

Atmosphere: 10/10

Gameplay: 9/10

Overall: 7/10

Just sayin’.

P.S.: Limbo is currently part of the newest Humble Bundle that is out right now. It’s for a limited time, so I suggest you go get it – it’s got a ton of great games PLUS Limbo, and you get to name your price!

Go here to get it! — http://www.humblebundle.com/

REVIEW: Pushmo

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Right after I reviewed Pictobits, my friend Jacob suggested I get Pushmo, another game from the 3DS e-shop, so I decided to buy it when I downloaded the Rayman Origins Demo. Just like Pictobits, it’s another gem that is sure to please anyone!

Atmosphere (Music/Graphics):

While the music isn’t the best I’ve heard, it is nice, and complements the way Pushmo feels while playing – it’s definitely good background music for trying to solve a puzzle. The actual puzzles are awesome, especially the murals, which range from Mario‘s head to a Christmas tree. All of them are really creatively made, and Tetris-like look of them makes it even better!

Gameplay:

Pushmo is a puzzle game where you manipulate blocks to reach the top of the Pushmo (the puzzle), and save the child whom has been trapped inside of it. It’s a very simple concept that anyone can pick up and play with ease, but the puzzles are so cleverly designed that you’ll find yourself thinking on more than a few occasions, which I find awesome.

Manipulating blocks is really simple. You can pull out a row three times as long as there’s solid ground behind you, and you can pull a block that you’re not standing on sideways as long as there’s solid ground to the side of you. A lot of puzzles require you to push a block in to be able to pull another block sideways out or in, and then re-pull or push a block back in or out to create a series of steps that you previously couldn’t access before. There are multiple ways to solve some puzzles, and only one way to solve certain puzzles, so there’s some flexibility and creativity in the way you can solve them.

And don’t worry, if you mess up, you can turn back time by pressing the L button or press the reset switch to restart the level.

After a while, ‘gadgets’ come into play, such as manholes and switches. Switches push every block of its color out 3 rows (the maximum), and the manholes let you reach areas you couldn’t by just jumping or manipulating blocks. Once those come into play the puzzles get a lot harder, but way more fun. I found myself really enjoying the gadgets, as they allowed the puzzles to be structured much differently, and many of the puzzles still are simply pushing and pulling.

Another feature (that I have yet to try) is Pushmo creation. You can create your own puzzles using an editor and play them and share them. I want to finish the game before I try it, but it looks absolutely awesome, and I’m really excited to try it out.

Pushmo has a lot of content for a game under $10, and it’s perfect if you’re a fan of puzzle games. The puzzles look great and are really satisfying to solve, and, like Pictobits, you can pick it up, play it for a few minutes, and put it back knowing that you can play it again later and still enjoy it. I’m glad my friend recommended it, because I’m loving it!

Score:

Atmosphere: 8/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Overall: 9/10

Just sayin’.

The Battle Subway (and why its rules should be changed)

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After making my Pokémon Black team for ACen and not using it, I decided to do the next best thing: enter it into the Battle Subway, which I apparently had not ever done except with friends. This is because I abhor the Battle Frontier/Subway for a few reasons: you can only use 3 Pokémon in singles and 4 Pokémon in doubles, the Species Clause is in effect, and  the Item Clause is in effect. For those not familiar with the terms, they’re term used in competitive Pokémon; Item Clause prevents any two Pokémon from holding the same item, Species Clause prevents the same type of Pokémon (two Pikachu, for example) from being entered, and all Pokémon are set to level 50.

I think those four limits should be lifted in light of teams of x (where x can be 1-6 in singles and 2-6 in doubles) number of Pokémon being entered, no Item Clause and Species Clause in effect, and Pokémon are the level of the highest of your team. Why? I think it would make the Battle Subway more accessible and more fun to partake in, plus it gears itself toward competitive players, which the games have slowly been aiming towards since Generation 3 (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald) with the introduction of the Battle Frontier in Emerald.

The limit on Pokémon being removed and replaced with a system where your opponent’s number of Pokémon equal yours would be an awesome idea – who wouldn’t want to take their prized Pokémon and see how far they last in singles, or take their favorite team and see how far they last in doubles? Battles would be quick and fast, where on the flip side going for higher numbers of Pokémon means the battles would be slower, but you get to use your whole team, which, in my mind, is way more rewarding to win with a limited number of your team, especially if you’re a competitive player and your team needs its other teammates to perform well. And if your team is 3 Pokémon, then more power to you – go and use those three in the Battle Subway. I would very much prefer to use my team of six.

I lost to a Dragonite the 30th battle of the Super Single Train because it 2 Hit KO’d (2HKO’d) my Slowbro, One Hit KO’d (OHKO’d) my Blissey, and then OHKO’d my Espeon with Outrage. If I had my Hippowdon and Aron/Sigilyph on my team, I could’ve easily dealt with Dragonite either with Hippowdon or Aron/Sigilyph, and it’s frustrating that I know my team would be able to take him and lose because I was limited to 3 Pokémon. Once I lost, I tried again and went up against a Mixed Sweeping Poliwrath whom I couldn’t take down after 3 Work Ups because I had no fast, hard-hitting Pokémon (I had chosen Slowbro, Blissey, and Tyranitar). I was swept by him, knowing I could’ve beaten him with Espeon or Aron/Sigilyph. It’s worse that I couldn’t put Leftovers on my Slowbro, so let’s talk about the Item Clause.

Let me put this out there – I HATE the Item Clause. Whoever thought of the Item Clause is dumb, because they probably thought people were going to use 6 Bright Powder or Leftovers, and while I understand Bright Powder, in competitive play an item like Bright Powder and moves like Double Team are banned, but that’s not the point; the point is that Bright Powder and Leftovers aren’t that good. You can’t just slap Bright Powder or Leftovers on a Pokémon and they suddenly become godlike. Yeah, you’ll miss a couple more moves against a Pokémon with Bright Powder, but that shouldn’t warrant the Item Clause, because I think anyone who slaps 6 Bright Powder onto their team is bad and will probably lose within the 20th battle anyway. A more stylized and thought-out item spread will do better. It should be any Pokémon can use any item they want, and if it happens to be 6 Leftovers or 6 Bright Powder, then so be it!

And for those who would argue that the Item Clause “forces you to be creative with items”, it also forces you to lose because some Pokémon work well with a certain item, and another may also work well with that item, and when two of your team uses the same item and the rest use different ones, I would hardly call that being uncreative. It’s a stupid rule and I don’t think it should even exist within any kind of battling in the games or in competitive play.

Speaking of Clauses, let’s talk about the Species Clause. I don’t know why the Species Clause is in effect, but I know I’d love to go into the Battle Subway with 6 Pikachu and see how far I get! That’d be fun to try, but I’ll never get to because the Species Clause is in effect. I also have a fun team that I call “The Ice Cream Team”, which is composed of Abomasnow, Heatran, and 4 Vanilluxe. It’s a really fun team to play with even though it’s really bad, but I bet I could make it to at least 40 battles in Super Singles. This isn’t really that big of a deal to me, but I’d definitely be playing Pokémon more if I could do this on the Battle Subway. It’d be fun to do! Most competitive scenes have the Species Clause in effect anyway, I’d just like to try out my fun teams sometimes and a Battle Subway without the SPecies Clause would allow me to do that.

The last thing I think needs to be changed are the forced levels. No matter what, all Pokémon are forced to be at level 50. I understand the logic behind this – there shouldn’t be any Pokémon at a different level because it would provide a disadvantage to the player. For those, like me, who use weird strategies (I use a level 1 Aron), however, I need that level cap to be gone, so there should be three options – one where every Pokémon is set to 50, one where every Pokémon is set to 100, or one where the level of the opponent’s Pokémon is that of the highest-leveled Pokémon on your team (so if your highest is 85, every Pokémon on the opponent’s team would be 85, and your Pokémon would all be at their respective levels, whatever they may be). This allows for level 50 play, level 100 play, and play where someone (like me) who uses a weird strategy that employs low-level Pokémon can utilize that strategy.

The Battle Subway is actually pretty limited in terms of what you can do with your teams when playing. If these four limitations were lifted then I think a lot more players would find themselves enjoying the Battle Subway more. It’d be more competitive, more fun, and I know I’d find myself coming back again and again to play it.

As a side note, the Infrared battles should also have those three level options, too, because it also sets every Pokémon to 50.

Just sayin’.