The Last Guardian Review

It lives!

(This review contains minor spoilers!)

          After years upon years of delays, false cancellation rumours, delays, a move from the PS3 to the PS4, delays, some awesome E3 trailers, and a couple more delays here and there, to say that The Last Guardian had some lofty expectations to live up to would be an understatement. A few delays later, and it’s finally here! So was it worth the wait, or does it join No Man’s Sky and Watch Dogs in the ranks of overhyped messes?

          Well…it’s hard to give a definitive answer as to just what it is. Firstly, I’ll just clarify that it’s not by any means a disaster. Far from it. The big problem here is that there’s a lot of stuff in Last Guardian that holds it back from truly being a game worth remembering for more than its hellish development cycle.

          Let’s take it from the top. The game starts with you as an unnamed boy trapped in some sort of cellar. Chained up alongside you is a two-eyed two-horned flying purple people eater by the name of Trico. The opening segment of the game is dedicated to getting Trico accustomed to your presence by means of feeding him his favourite snack: glowing barrels. Once he’s happily fed and freed from his chains, the two of you are off to explore a puzzle-filled valley as the boy attempts to return to his home village.

          That’s all you get in terms of story for 90% of the game. Most of the plot of the game is focused on building the bond between yourself (playing as the boy) and Trico through gameplay. While this leaves you without much motivation aside from wanting to see the ending throughout most of the game, once you do get to that ending the payoff is immensely rewarding. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

          At its core, The Last Guardian is a puzzle game with some platforming elements as you cross the towers and temples of the valley with your enormous puppy pal. The puzzles themselves rarely become too hard to figure out without a little thinking, although there are a couple that definitely cross into the “how would anyone figure this out without a guide” territory. What’s good about the puzzles is that none of them are made unfairly or designed poorly. While towards the end you may feel like you’re repeating yourself, each puzzle room is crafted to keep you on your toes and looking around for clues or answers, some of which you pick up on immediately and others that seem unsolvable but with an answer staring you right in the face the whole time.

          The game is undeniably beautiful to look at, with some amazing lighting effects throughout the experience. This can lead to several framerate drops unfortunately, but they aren't frequent enough to completely damage the experience. Trico is the highlight of the visuals, as he looks downright incredible. He looks and behaves just like a real animal would. Though some might say Trico is a little too realistic, and this is where The Last Guardian’s biggest and most significant problem comes into play. While your companion is undeniably adorable, he’s not exactly the best behaved dog in the pound. To reach new areas, you often have to ride on Trico’s back as he leaps from ledge to ledge. The problem with this is that Trico is deliberately designed to be as realistic as possible, and with that includes the fact that he won’t always do as he’s told. You can use various pointing and button combinations to suggest him into going the right way, but sometimes you’re forced to sit and wait for minutes at a time while your pal takes in the scenery. He also tends to get stuck sometimes when trying to perform simple tasks, including jumping from ledge to ledge. Sometimes he’ll complete a sequence with no problem, other times he’ll need to stop and take a minute to readjust and get his bearings before continuing, and still other times he’ll be completely confounded by a 2 x 8 platform, resulting in up to 5 minutes of fruitlessly pointing and directing him where you want him to go as he roars and stares off into space. It’s something that honestly could’ve been fixed by replacing some of these jumping segments with cutscenes to cut down on the time you spent waiting.

          The other main component in the game is platforming. Every once in a while to solve a puzzle, you must jump and climb your way around the crumbling platforms up to where you need to go. Looking back on it, the platforming is a bit of a double-edged sword. The majority of Last Guardian’s unfair deaths are a result of the platforming, as the boy’s jump is floatier than a hot air balloon, but afterwards he plummets like a stone. He also has trouble grabbing onto ledges sometimes, and when he finally does manage to latch onto one it’s a pain getting him to let go. This is especially clear when trying to climb Trico, as you often can get stuck trying to make the climb from his knees to his back, and jumping off him is harder than it sounds. Nathan Drake he is not. But the platforming actually leads to several really cool and fun segments, such as a collapsing bridge segment first glimpsed at E3 2015.

          So what’s the best part of the game overall? Surprisingly enough, the answer is combat! Your primary foes in the game are reanimated suits of armour that hunt you down. If they grab you, you have to button-mash your way to freedom, lest you be pulled into a strange blue door and killed. Trico is, again, your main line of defense against them, and he is much more focused when battling than he is puzzle-solving. Watching him go to town on these armour guys is flat-out awesome, and while you do fight lots of them throughout your adventure, seeing Trico stomp through a horde of them never gets old.

          You’ll also face off against the armoured villains without the help of Trico, forcing you to rely on your wits to outsmart the villains rather than fend them off yourself. The boy’s only attacks are a weak shove and throwing small objects, neither of which do much more than cause your foes to stumble. You also gain access to a mirror that allows you to shoot lightning from Trico’s tail, but it’s not an item you have with you for much of the game, so it isn’t something to really rely on. In my opinion it’s much more fun to figure a way to trick your way around the armour while you figure out a puzzle to allow Trico in than just have him rip them to shreds with no problem.

          There are also a few boss fights in the game, but they don’t really show up until the last quarter of the story, so I won’t spoil them. All I’ll say is that they’re awesome and the final battle is a perfect cap off to your adventure.

          So is The Last Guardian the legendary experience that we were all hoping it would be? No way, not even close. There are way too many things wrong with it that prevent it from shining at its brightest. I will say though that, unlike No Man’s Sky, I am wholly satisfied with the final product and feel that it was completely worth the wait. Yes, the platforming could’ve used a little more balancing and yes, Trico may be the most adorable yet unreliable NPC companion in gaming history, but I feel the awesome action set-pieces, gorgeous visuals, tricky puzzles and excellent combat more than make up for it. Still, Trico’s tendency to sit and contemplate life mid-adventure does make this a game that will make you frustrated. To any gamers with impatient tendencies, avoid The Last Guardian at all costs. It’s absolutely not the game for you. To everyone else, I’d say you should at least give it a rent just to see what all the fuss is about. I’d also recommend seeing it to the end, because that finale really gives you a reason to appreciate the slow moments.

          Now, when I started this blog, I swore to never add a .5 to a score unless absolutely necessary. I’ve always felt that everything I review should stick to the standard 10 point score so as to give an easier way to measure games, movies and the like up to each other, and I still believe that. However, I feel that this game is the first time I’ll have to make an exception, as I really can’t decide where to put this one. Plus, this is my final post of 2016, so might as well go out with a bang right?

          So, The Last Guardian earns my first ever…

FINAL SCORE

7.5/10

Good - Great

Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor Review

Here comes the clean-up crew

(This review contains minor spoilers!)

          Have you ever played a type of game that you didn’t know you wanted, but afterwards you can’t keep your hands off it? For me, that game is Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor. This game is both extremely simplistic and extremely repetitive, yet for whatever reason it has me hooked.

          So what’s the story? You’re a little blue “girlbeast” who has been hired to clean up the filthy spaceport you’re trapped on. You do this by picking up all manner of trash, from your average spills and lost papers to alien bones and worthless gems. You can either burn the garbage in your portable incinerator or hang on to them for later use, which is helpful if you find something with some worth. If you find a valuable treasure, you can trade it in at a specific vendor for some extra cash. At the end of the day you return home, and the next morning you get paid a small amount of credits you can use to satiate your hunger at a local food stall. Then you do the whole thing over again.

          Oh, and there’s a screaming skull that constantly follows you and you have to figure out how to get rid of it. Probably should’ve mentioned that.

          So what could possibly make a game about walking around a spaceport and picking up garbage fun? Well, it’s actually just that that’s keeping me hooked. It’s surprisingly cathartic to clean up the town, and very rewarding when you finally accomplish a goal and get further in your quest to remove the cursed skull. But honestly, you could remove the overall quest and I’d still find the game entertaining. Most days involve walking around the spaceport, picking up trash, getting something to eat, and going to bed with very little interaction with the main plot. And you know what? I love it. I love all the creative and funny descriptions the garbage has, and I love the design of the spaceport and its alien inhabitants.

          The presentation is the other thing Diaries has going for it, having an adorable and unique art style as well as one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard all year. The 16-bit world of the spaceport is large and memorable, with lots of shops and neon signs dotting the landscape. There are even large structures that can be used as landmarks as well as goddess statues where you can leave offerings in an attempt to increase your luck. In my playtime I haven’t come across a significant change in luck after leaving items at the statues, but that might just be me. The spaceport comes alive the most during the weekly music festival, as the entire town comes out to sing super catchy and upbeat alien songs all day.

          The size of the spaceport does lead to a pretty big problem, however. You’re given no map of any description, and the sheer size of the town will leave you completely lost more often than not. No joke, I often had to allocate time out of my in-game day just to figure out where the hell I was and how to get to where I needed to be. For example, there’s an NPC living in an alleyway necessary to your quest of removing the skull. Despite visiting him twice before, it took me no less than three in-game days to find him a third time. It’s not that he’s particularly hidden or out of the way, it’s that everything around you just looks pretty much the same and it’s easy to get disoriented and lost. The game tries to remedy this by adding coloured arrows to the floor that point to the different districts, but they are of little help if you’re trying to find something specific. The best you can do is try and remember which district your destination is in and work from there.

          The other major problem comes in the form of the meters you need to keep maintained in order to continue your garbage mission. There are three: food, rest, and gender. Food and rest are what you’d expect. Eat so you don’t starve and sleep at the end of the day. To add an extra layer you can’t sleep if you’re hungry, so it’s recommended you keep some spare change around for a late-night snack just in case. Gender is…less standard. I’m guessing they’re trying to make a witty observation on navigating gender in the workplace, but with that aside this is not a good mechanic. When your gender starts to deteriorate you must track down a gender stall and shell out 10 of your hard-earned credits to replenish it. If you don’t, the text boxes become nigh-unreadable until you recharge. It’s frustrating to be having a good time collecting trash when suddenly needing to stop what you’re doing and find a gender stall just so the game will stop looking awful. If the mechanic wasn’t called “gender” and was instead called “space tax” or “alien brain slug prevention potion”, I’m almost certain the devs would’ve removed it for disrupting the gameplay.

          Despite these problems, Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor feeds that simple joy of cleaning up and making things pretty the same way as Super Mario Sunshine. The graphics and music are delightful and the trash-cleaning gameplay is surprisingly a complete blast. But in all honesty, too many things get in the way of you having an uninterrupted good time for me to wholly recommend it. If you’re the type of person who likes bizarre and different indie games and doesn’t mind getting lost or meter management, Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor is one you should definitely look into.

FINAL SCORE

7/10

Good

My Top 5 Anime of 2016

My Top 5 Anime of 2016

          New Year’s has arrived once again, as we finally bid farewell to the nightmare that was 2016! So let’s ring in the new year by celebrating the best animation coming from a country that’s basically already in 2017: Japan!

As a reminder, this is just my opinion, and if there’s a show you liked that isn’t here, it’s either because I haven’t seen it or didn’t like it as much as you did. I’m also not counting second seasons on the main list, but in that case I will be giving an honourable mention to Assassination Classroom Season 2. It’s a perfect conclusion to what’s already one of my favourite anime of all time, and if you haven’t checked it out yet you owe it to yourself to do so.

With that said, these are my top 5 favourite original anime from 2016!

5. Amaama to Inazuma

          If you remember my reviews of this one, you may recall how critical I was of how most of the episodes seemed content to do the same thing over and over again. But the reason it’s on this list is simple: when it decided to try something different, it got really good.

          Amaama is the story of a single father as he comes to grips with the loss of his wife a year prior. As a result of her passing, he has been feeding their daughter, an adorable girl named Tsumugi, only boxed lunches for the most part. After a chance meeting with a student with a passion for food, the father teams up with her to make meals for Tsumugi.

          If that seems extremely simplistic, that’s because it is. Most of the episodes follow the same pattern: the first half introduces a problem, which is resolved during the cooking segment in the second half. Each episode they cook something different, and occasionally different characters will visit and shake things up a bit. While the cooking is fun to watch, by the end of the show it does feel a bit like its retreading old ground. In fact, the best episode in the whole thing features no cooking segment whatsoever.

          What really sells the anime is the two leads: Tsumugi and her father. Their relationship is a fascinating one to explore, as the father comes to grips with the wife he lost and the daughter who doesn’t quite understand what’s happened yet. Despite these dark undertones, Tsumugi is able to keep the mood light with lots of dancing and singing, resulting in a simple, happy show that is good for relieving stress.

4. Re:Zero

          Yes, Re:Zero is clichéd to the max, and it wasn’t quite the genre-breaking masterpiece I was expecting after seeing the sheer outpour of fanart for it. But once you get all the tropey stuff out of the way, you’ll find an anime that has a very interesting take on the tired “slacker dude goes to a fantasy world” story with some great animation and fantastic worldbuilding.

          The interesting part of Re:Zero is that the main character, Subaru, is able to time travel back to a set point in his past…but only after he dies. With every death and every screw-up he learns more about the world around him and what the other characters will do in specific situations, allowing him to formulate plans that allow not only himself, but as many others to survive as possible. Through this, it allows the side characters to be much more developed, as through time traveling Subaru often uncovers new sides to them that may not have been obvious before.

          The characters do fall into many of the classic anime tropes, and there are way too many of them, with many I assume only existing to set up later stories should this ever get another season. With that said, the main characters are interesting and fun to spend time with, most of all the blue-haired maid Rem. They aren’t 1-dimensional cutouts with a single personality trait, although it may seem that way at first. As the show progresses, they become more and more complex. While it’s ultimately nothing to write home about, Re:Zero is a show that you enjoy while you’re watching it.

3. Magical Girl Raising Project

          What a wild ride this one was. Essentially being a Magical Girl Hunger Games, Magical Girl Raising Project succeeded the most at creating a lovable and memorable cast of characters…and then killing nearly all of them before your very eyes.

          Beginning with a cast of 15 girls (and a 16^th added later on), Magical Girl Raising Project wastes no time in setting up the different alliances and factions and beginning to tear everything apart. What follows are 12 episodes of suspense as it’s hard to predict who will go down next or what the more nefarious characters are planning.

          Well, except for one thing. It becomes easy to predict who’s next on the chopping block when you pick up on the show’s signature telltale death mark: the cursed flashback. Almost every time a character is about to bite it, there’s a lengthy flashback either just before the death or earlier in the episode that attempts to make you feel sympathetic for the victim. Instead, however, they just ruin what could’ve been a great surprise. Amazingly, the problem is solved somewhat for some of the later characters, but it’s too bad such a great show had to have its blade dulled.

          Still, Magical Girl Raising Project is a great show, one I’d highly recommend for fans of stuff like Madoka Magica. The characters are all incredibly uniquely designed with very memorable costumes and names, and when the show does manage to catch you off guard with something, it is legitimately surprising.

2. Space Patrol Luluco

          So, funny story. This was the first Studio Trigger anime I ever watched. Ironic, considering Luluco is filled to the brim with Studio Trigger cameos and references. While watching it a second time after seeing all their other stuff made me appreciate it all the more, I think it’s really telling how good Space Patrol Luluco is that I loved it just as much when I didn’t get half the jokes.

          This short-form show follows young girl Luluco, who is trying to live a normal life in an alien spaceport on Earth. One morning, when her father is accidentally frozen and then smashed to pieces, she is drafted into the Space Patrol in his place. What follows is a quest across space and through various references to Studio Trigger’s past, while Luluco and the Space Patrol crew attempt to bring justice to the galaxy.

          Space Patrol Luluco is a Studio Trigger show through and through, with their sharp wit and unique animation style shining through. Rarely a moment passes by without a joke or reference of some kind, and all of them land. What’s surprising about Luluco is that it isn’t played entirely for laughs. There’s a definite heart lying beneath everything, resulting in the most heartwarming ending I’ve seen to an anime in a very long time. Space Patrol Luluco is a wonderful, wonderful anime that can be enjoyed at its fullest whether or not you’re familiar with Studio Trigger.

1. Erased

          I started this blog not too long after this one ended, so it’s the only anime on this list I didn’t review. But wow, if you haven’t seen Erased yet you are missing out big time. It’s so good that I went back and re-watched it again not long after it ended, and I loved it just as much. It’s that good.

          Erased tells the story of Satoru, a down-on-his luck manga artist that, for some unexplained reason, can transport through time to prevent tragedies from happening. Following the murder of his mother, Satoru is sent back to when he’s 11 years old. What follows is a time-travelling murder mystery, as Satoru copes with being an adult in a child’s body and attempts to uncover a child murderer.

          The way Erased’s narrative flows is absolutely brilliant. The mystery that unfolds is one of the most intriguing I’ve seen in a long time, and while I was able to guess the true culprit before they were revealed, the way they unveiled them made it still a surprise. This is also thanks to one of the most interesting leads in anime in a long time. Satoru has a chip on his shoulder from the way life has treated him in the present, so after being thrust back to the innocent of childhood he’s not sure how to react. This plays into how he treats his past friends who he hasn’t seen in years, his mother, and future victim Kayo Hinazuki.

          It’s with Hinazuki that Erased truly shines as more than a simple mystery show. Satoru’s first step in attempting to stop his mother from being murdered in the future is attempting to stop the murderer from capturing Hinazuki. He does this by slowly becoming closer to her, and the more she lets her guard down, the more of her home life and backstory are revealed. The way Satoru changes her is nothing short of heartwarming, and adds an extra dimension to Erased that one could argue it could function without.

          Erased is a masterclass in storytelling, in character design, and in keeping you invested. The mystery is brilliantly woven with lots of red herrings and tricks to make you second guess yourself a lot. But it’s with the characters and their interactions that it truly shines, and make it not only the best anime of 2016, but my favourite anime of all time.

          While 2016 definitely had a few down points in terms of anime, overall I thought it was a very stellar year for it. With next year promising some interesting new shows as well as some returning favourites, I can’t wait to see what Japan has in store for us next.

Flip Flappers Review (Full Show)

Flop

(This review contains spoilers!)

          Whenever an anime season ends, I’ll usually spend the time before the next season starts to catch up on any popular shows I missed out on when they were airing. For this Fall season I tended to hear people talking about two shows around the internet. The first was Hot Dudes Figure Skating, a show I will not be reviewing because I’m pretty sure I’m as far from the demographic for it as possible. The other was Flip Flappers.

          And honestly? I don’t get it. Is this part of some massive joke? Did I miss something? Because the show I got was one of the most cookie-cutter stories plot-wise that goes absolutely nowhere and only got worse and worse as it progressed.

          Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The story (or lack thereof) is about a girl named Cocona, and she’s stuck in the boring doldrums of life. Then, out of nowhere, a girl named Papika shows up, and the two of them begin adventuring in the alternate realm of Pure Illusion. What is Pure Illusion, you ask? Good question, because even after watching all 13 episodes, I’m still not sure! I think it’s supposed to be like a mix of dreams and imagination or something like that, but it’s never made clear what this place is or what its rules are, despite 75% of the show taking place inside of it. Shortly after, the duo is recruited by an organization called FlipFlap to explore Pure Illusion and retrieve magical stones. FlipFlap and the magical stones are never explained either, by the way.

          The one thing Flip Flappers has going for it is the animation, which in all honesty is actually really nice. The world of Pure Illusion is very trippy, using lots of weird colours and distorted motions to really make you feel like the characters have been transported to a magical world. The backgrounds alone completely steal the show, looking almost Miyazaki-esque.

          And with that, I’ve run out of nice things to say about this anime! Time to rip it to pieces!

          The first and biggest problem Flip Flappers has is a lack of focus. More often than not each episode consists of little but throwing wacky and bizarre animation in your face, as if the director was screaming “NOTICE ME! LOOK HOW WEIRD THIS IS! NOTICE MY DIRECTING!”

This is at the expense of developing the two leads, Cocona and Papika, who have absolutely nothing to go on for the near entirety of the show. They both get a little character development in the form of backstory in the final episodes, but too little too late. For most of the series, Cocona is as dull and lifeless as a rock, not interesting in the slightest. In the complete opposite direction, we have Papika, a shrill voiced cutesy character who is so annoying that I imagined the perfect ending for the show would be her finally shutting up. Papika exists for one purpose and one reason: cute anime girl equals merchandising! Who needs interesting character traits and development when you can have this adorable red haired flying surfboard girl acting like a spoiled child all the time! It also doesn’t help that their dialogue is basically just screaming each other’s names over and over again. If I ever have to go through another round of “Cocona!” “Papika!” “COCONA!” “PAPIKA!” I might just lose my marbles.

          The side characters aren’t much better. There’s the crew at FlipFlap, all of which have personalities that can be guessed just by looking at their character designs. Let’s see here, we’ve got the mysterious boss, the wacky scientist, the cute robot companion, and the token female secretary. The gang’s all here! The most hilariously awful part of the cast has to be the villains. I’m starting to believe the title Flip Flappers refers to them, because they flip flap back and forth from helping the protagonists to half-assedly trying to stop them so much that by the end you’re questioning whether they were even meant to be the villains at all. The Pokémon anime’s Team Rocket got more done than these guys. They serve this weird secret society, but that really doesn’t matter because, again, it goes absolutely nowhere.

          Also there’s a green rabbit that occasionally turns into a macho green rabbit dude. There’s really nothing to say about him, I just wanted to let you all know that he is a thing that exists.

          The other thing Flip Flappers’ lack of focus leads to is a mashing of genres that has more variety than a bag of trail mix. All your favourite anime storylines are here, including school, sci-fi, fantasy, espionage, magical girl, and even some mech stuff at one point! I think they’re trying to have the primary focus be the magical girl stuff, but with everything spread so thin there’s no backbone to it. It just feels like the showrunners threw every single anime trope they could into a pot and hoped the resulting soup would taste good.

          It didn’t. It was 13 episodes of horrible soup.

          The designs of the magical girl outfits are some of the most generic and forgettable I’ve ever seen, by the way. After seeing how creative Magical Girl Raising Project was at differentiating the characters through unique costumes, these characters just look pathetic in their plain white dresses.

          The story doesn’t even make any real progression until towards the end. Before that, it’s nothing but episodic trips through Pure Illusion as things get weirder and weirder with no real rhyme or reason. At one point it’s a desert with some weird Jawa-like villagers. Next it’s a haunted school. Later it’s a futuristic city. I get that it’s supposed to be random and bizarre, but the way it’s different every time is just staggering. There’s no reason for why it changes, no districts or anything like that. You just have to accept that this is what they’re doing now and go with the flow.

          I think that sums up the show the best. You just have to accept that this is what’s happening and go with the flow. Who cares about story progression and narrative flow, right? If Papika’s surfboard is lost early on in the series, no one will question it when it randomly reappears much later on, right?

          And I think that’s what made me angriest about Flip Flappers. This boring, paint by numbers anime expects you to just shut off your brain and look at the pretty pictures instead of wanting a decent story. That is completely and utterly inexcusable. If I’m going to spend 6 hours watching your show, give me a reason not to jump ship at the halfway point aside from wanting to rip it to shreds in an eventual review.

          It doesn’t help that when the show actually tries to have some plot progression, it’s always muddy, confusing and just makes you want to turn the episode off early. At one point, the two girls enter the memories of one of their school friends. Or at least, that’s what it implied they were doing. None of the plot is ever really made clear because the directors can feel like they’re creating a mysterious and strange environment. Anyways, after they explore this girl’s memories and learn about her tragic past with her aunt, she never appears again. Literally. Except for a brief cameo, she’s just written out of the show. If they were going to just give this random friend character the boot, why give us this lengthy explanation of her backstory!? Why not use that precious time to, oh, I don’t know, give the main characters some development!?

          And then there’s the ending, which in all honesty, is about as good as I was expecting it to be. There’s a lot of nonsensical plot that seems like it’s trying to make you care, but at this point it’s way too late for anything and you’re just continuing on because you need to see how it ends. They go through the lazy video game ending trope of fighting old enemies again before defeating the final boss through sheer deus ex machina bullcrap, go home and everyone lives happily ever after. Except for the audience. They just wasted 6 hours of their life.

          Flip Flappers is completely atrocious in all respects…except for the visual design. They wanted trippy and weird worlds, and they accomplished that. Unfortunately, with all the focus on how pretty everything looks, the plot and character development are completely lost. The leads are either too dull or too annoying, the side characters are walking anime tropes, the villains go nowhere, there are way too many genres being used without any rhyme or reason, you never learn anything about the world or the magical items they’re hunting, and the ending is a lazy cop-out. If you want a show about magical girls exploring trippy stuff, watch Madoka Magica instead. Flip Flappers can go flip flap as far from me as possible.

FINAL SCORE

2/10

Awful

My Top 8 Movies of 2016

My Top 8 Movies of 2016

          So the year is coming to a close, and with that, it’s time to write up some top lists as we look back on the best and worst entertainment of the year. This year, I’m starting out with my top 8 favourite movies! Just a reminder that I haven’t seen everything that came out this year (including some big name stuff like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), so if there’s a movie you enjoyed and it isn’t on this list, it’s because I either haven’t seen it yet or didn’t enjoy it as much. Without further ado, let’s get started!

8. Kung Fu Panda 3

          I’ve always considered the Kung Fu Panda movies to be the absolute crown jewel of DreamWorks Animation. Yes, the How to Train Your Dragon movies get more publicity as their best of the best and Shrek 2 remains one of the greatest animated comedy films of all time, but for whatever reason, these goofy movies about roly-poly panda Po and his quest to become a kung fu master have always really resonated with me.

          The story follows a few familiar beats, but it overall feels like a culmination of the Kung Fu Panda trilogy, and if it truly is the final movie in the franchise, it goes out on the highest note possible. The characters are the same excellent ones you know from the first two, and the new characters are equally as lovable and memorable, especially Po’s true father, as played by Bryan Cranston.

          But the real star of the movie is the absolutely gorgeous animation and music. The Kung Fu Panda movies have always done a great job at capturing the spirit of China in their art design, and this third movie is no different. Between the beautiful yellow and green hued landscapes to the amazing look of the location of the movie’s climax, this is truly one that is a sight to behold.

7. Warcraft

          Maybe it’s just because I’m a fan of Warcraft lore, but I found myself really enjoying this one. Director Duncan Jones and his team really captured the spirit of the games onscreen, and while it did get a bit talky at times (and I imagine it could get confusing if you’re not familiar with the games), I felt that overall it was a very satisfying fantasy film with lots of fanservice for gamers.

          Taking place at the dawn of the franchise’s story, as the orcs invade the human home of Azeroth, several famous characters in the Warcraft universe make their way to the big screen, including Medivh and Gul’dan. Each is adapted well from the games, allowing their personalities to shine through towards the audience.

          I do feel that a bit of entry-level knowledge of the Warcraft universe is necessary to get the full enjoyment out of the movie, though. I showed it to my mom, and while she enjoyed it, she did say that she likely wouldn’t have liked it as much had I not have been there to explain some of the story that didn’t translate as well from the game to her. Regardless, Warcraft really is a love letter to fans of the lore of the games, and if you enjoy that, I’d say ignore the reviews and check it out.

6. The Jungle Book

          It wouldn’t be a proper end-of-2016 best movies list if I didn’t include the very first thing I ever reviewed on this blog! The Jungle Book will likely hold a special place in my heart for a very long time, as the need to write out how much I loved it gave me the final push I needed to finally create this site.

          My personal attachment to it aside, Jungle Book really holds up not only as a masterclass work of CGI, but as an excellent adaption of the 1967 Disney classic to the modern day. It really feels like the next step in CGI after Avatar, as the animals and jungle around them looked so impressively real you could almost reach out and touch it.

          In addition to the visuals, a literal dream cast rounded out the movie, each filling their roles well. I think I even prefer Bill Murray’s Baloo and Ben Kingsley’s Bagheera to the originals, although they are ultimately very different takes on the characters. Idris Elba is incredibly menacing as Shere Khan, creating one of the best villains of the year, and while I doubt many would agree with me on this, Christopher Walken completely steals the show with his portrayal of King Louie.

          Right now, Disney are 2 for 3 in terms of the recent live action adaptions of their movies in my book (I loved Cinderella and hated Maleficent), so at the moment I am very cautiously excited for next year’s Beauty and the Beast. Considering the original is one of Disney’s most perfect adaptions of a fairy tale ever made, I’m not sure if this movie can improve on or even compare to it. Still, I’ll go see it if the reviews are good.

5. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

          Rogue One is a really interesting, really different take on Star Wars. The 7 movies we’ve had before this have been mostly light and happy affairs, with lots of bombastic and in-your-face action sequences with lots of lightsabers and witty banter between the leads. This movie throws all that out the window in favour of what is easily the darkest thing Star Wars has ever seen put to film.

          Taking place just before A New Hope, Rogue One tells the story of just how the Rebellion got their hands on the plans to the Death Star, as well as the origins of that pesky exhaust port that ruined Grand Moff Tarkin’s day. Given the time period, the set designers spared no expense on ensuring the movie looked like it jumped straight out of 1977. Computers and consoles blip and bloop electronically just like they did in the Original Trilogy, and the overall designs of the ships and droids are straight out of George Lucas’s imagination. There’s even some surprise cameos of iconic Original Trilogy faces, like Ponda Baba! …Anyone know who that is? The guy who got his arm cut off by Obi-Wan in the Mos Eisley Cantina?

          Honestly, at times talking about Rogue One feels like talking about 2 different movies. The opening 40 or so minutes crawl forward at a snail’s pace, as the movie spreads itself far too thin in trying to gather all the main characters at Saw Gererra’s fortress. But after that, all bets are off as the movie gives us one of the most insane climaxes in Star Wars history in a madcap hybrid of the best parts of the opening to Revenge of the Sith and the Battle of Endor from Return of the Jedi. To say it will leave you on the edge of your seat is an understatement, and it all ends with what may very well be the greatest scene in Star Wars history, one I dare not risk spoiling for anyone reading this that may not have seen the movie yet.

          While it’s not exactly as much of a success as last year’s Force Awakens was, Rogue One is an extremely dark take on the Star Wars formula that anyone who enjoys the Original Trilogy deserves to see.

4. Star Trek Beyond

          While I definitely prefer Star Wars, I love me some Star Trek as well. It’s almost bizarre, having this year’s Trek movie be light, fun and happy and this year’s Wars movie be dark, slow and brutal.

          I’ve enjoyed all 3 of the rebooted Trek films (yes, I like Into Darkness despite its faults), and Beyond is my absolute favourite one yet. Being a self-contained story, it feels more like an awesome season finale episode for one of the Trek TV shows than just another filmographic chapter in the story of the reboot crew. The story is simple: the crew is stranded, the Enterprise is destroyed, and they need to get back together and escape before the dastardly villain’s plan is completed.

          While I was very nervous about the choice of Fast and Furious director Justin Lin to helm the next Trek movie after J.J. Abrams was called over to a galaxy far far away, he did a damn good job not only capturing the spirit of the series, but by also furthering the characters in ways the original 2 movies never did. I’m so happy Kirk and Spock’s friendship was put in the backseat for this adventure, as we got to see those two build relationships with other characters, like Kirk with Chekov in what was tragically Anton Yelchin’s final performance as the character, and the amazing and hilarious pairing of Spock and Bones. Add in Scotty, Uhura and Sulu continuing to be their excellent selves as well as fantastic new addition Jaylah, and you have a fantastic cast of characters that carry this movie.

           Oh, and the way they are able to stop the villain’s swarm of drones at the end is one of the most genius and smile-worthy methods I’ve seen in a movie in a long time. It encapsulates the overall feel of the movie perfectly: pure, unrelenting fun.

3. Doctor Strange

          Like I said in my review, the magical world of Doctor Strange was definitely the hardest to adapt into the more scientific and reality-based Marvel Cinematic Universe. But as seems to be the case with Marvel these days, they pulled it off in a way that both stayed true to the source material and welcomed newcomers.

          The visual effects were the best I think I’ve seen in any movie all year. Doctor Strange will likely be remembered in years to come thanks to its incredible CGI sequences. The scene where Strange first arrives at Kamar-Taj and the film’s climax are both sights to behold, and just as with Jungle Book, have made me very excited to see what movie will eventually top it.

          But crazy visuals aren’t enough to make a movie good, so Strange fires on all cylinders, delivering us a very funny and smart story alongside some fantastic characters and some of the best Marvel action scenes to date. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Stephen Strange is literally perfect. It feels like he jumped right off the comic page and onto the big screen flawlessly. The rest of the cast is also fantastic, even if some of them have roles that really do deserve either more screentime or more development. Doctor Strange is a big, fun movie that easily ranks up with Marvel’s best, and if you somehow haven’t seen it in theatres yet, it’s definitely worth seeking out a place that’s still playing it.

2. Captain America: Civil War

          How are they going to adapt the Civil War storyline to film with so few characters? That was the question I and many other Marvel fans asked in the years after they announced that it would be the basis for the final movie in the Captain America trilogy. But, Marvel being Marvel, they took their own interpretation on the storyline, building around the characters that have been previously established instead of trying to adapt the comic version word for word.

          While the beginning is a bit on the slow side (that’s why I gave it an 8/10 in my initial review), after watching the movie a few more times once the Blu-Ray came out, I’ve found the opening to be absolutely necessary to the rest of the film. You appreciate it far more when you know what comes later, because halfway through the movie, things are kicked into overdrive. Between all the Avengers gathering up in one movie to the mind-blowingly impressive airport battle to the introduction of Black Panther and Spider-Man, each of which were adapted pitch-perfectly, to the final battle that results in what may be Robert Downey Jr.’s best performance as Tony Stark in the 8 years since he first took up the mantle as Iron Man, Captain America: Civil War is amazing in that there’s so much great stuff in it that the titular character is just a small piece of a much bigger puzzle going on.

          Honestly, seeing how good both this movie and Winter Soldier are, I couldn’t be happier with Marvel’s choice to have the directors of those two, the Russo brothers, be the ones to helm Avengers: Infinity War. Their clear love and respect for the characters really make me feel like they’re the perfect choice to create the ultimate finale for everything the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been leading up to.

1. Moana

          What can I say about Moana that I didn’t already say in my review? It’s an incredibly solid Disney movie that easily ranks among previous princess flicks like Beauty and the Beast and Frozen by having some incredible worldbuilding and animation alongside fantastic characters and songs.

          The story is fantastic in the same way Frozen’s story was fantastic. While it definitely pays homage to some of the classic Disney tropes, there’s an air to adventure and excitement to it as well as a story that keeps the audience engaged the whole time. Moana herself is a particularly unique character in many ways, especially considering past female leads in Disney movies. She does what she thinks is best for her people, choosing to look at the world around her and go against other’s wishes to do what is right. In a world that’s so often telling kids to listen to her parents with no excuse as why you shouldn’t, here’s an empowering character that tells them it’s okay to bend the rules and make your own path for yourself, as long as you know what you’re doing is for the best.

          Moana also benefits from a fantastic supporting cast, including Dwayne Johnson’s brash demigod Maui and Alan Tudyk’s dumb-as-a-rock chicken Heihei. The soundtrack by Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame is one of Disney’s best ever. I’m still humming the songs over a month after actually watching the movie. This is easily the best Disney movie in years, and when they’re able to top something as good as Frozen just 3 years later, you know they’re really on a roll.

          Next year has a lot of movies to look forward to as well, including the next installments in the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor movies, our first ever Marvel Studios Spider-Man story, Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, a new Pirates of the Caribbean, a little movie called Star Wars: Episode VIII, and I’m sure plenty more I’m forgetting. Here’s to them all being good!

Steep Review

Skirim

(This review is spoiler-free!)

          My history with skiing is a weird one, to say the least. I’ve never done it in real life for one specific reason: in Grade 6, we were going to go on a ski trip. Before we left, the teacher showed us a video detailing literally everything that could go wrong while skiing. I can’t remember exactly what happened in it, except at one point a guy fell out of a chairlift and rolled down the mountain. After that video, I more or less…uh, lost interest in the sport.

          That hasn’t stopped me from playing winter sports video games from the safety of my couch, though! Steep is a new game from Ubisoft (booooo!) all about exploring the Alps while performing stunts and completing challenges. The trailers for it looked neat, but how is the final product?

          Well, I can pretty clearly tell that I’m not the target demographic for Steep, but even with that I can say the game is pretty cool for what it is.

          There’s really not much to say about the gameplay. Anyone who’s played games like We Ski (did anyone else play that?) or the Skate series knows the story here; the game dumps you into the Alps, and you get to ski. Or snowboard. Or do various flying sports stuff. There’s no overlying objective or an end goal to get to, aside from some challenges to complete and more mountains you can visit the higher your level rises.

          The first thing you notice upon booting up the game is that it’s one of the absolute best looking titles released this year. I’m not kidding, the folks over at Ubisoft have really outdone themselves in the graphics department. While I’m sure it doesn’t at all measure up to actually visiting the real thing, Steep allows you to experience the frosty mountaintops from the comfort of your living room, all rendered with excruciating detail. As someone who lives surrounded by snow for about half the year, I can safely say that the game captures how it looks, feels, and interacts with the other objects in the area.

          I’m personally not a fan of sports games of any kind (or sports in general, for that matter), so Steep didn’t hold my interest for very long, especially with other, more engaging games to play nearby. Honestly, to me this is one of those games where you can get just as much out of it by watching a Let’s Play of it as you can playing it yourself. But I live in a family of sports-loving people, and they can’t keep their hands off the game.

          Steep’s enormous open world is suited to host four different kinds of sports, two on land and two in the air. The two on land are skiing and snowboarding, and they play as you expect. You can tell that, as these are the main modes of standard point-A to point-B transportation, Ubisoft put a lot of effort into making sure they control perfectly. The skiing/snowboarding is responsive and I never had any trouble controlling it in my entire playtime.

          I can’t quite say the same about the air sports, however. I honestly tried to avoid playing them as often as I could, they were so irritating. The first is the flying-squirrel suit, which controls similarly to the Wing Cap in Mario 64. On its own, it can be used just fine with no issues, but in challenges when you need to fly at a breakneck pace you often lose control and speed head-first into a tree. One of the earlier challenges required me to fly in the squirrel suit as low to the ground as I could get to accumulate points, but I reached a point where I was going so fast I couldn’t recover in time to avoid the powerlines and hills the challenge threw at me towards the end. It ultimately took me around ten minutes to beat an early game challenge that should’ve been a cakewalk.

          And don’t even get me started on the complete joke that is the paraglider. A lawn chair tied to helium balloons would be easier to fly. It’s mostly only used to fly across large expanses of land without the risk of crashing that the squirrel suit gives you, and it can be handy if you only need to go in a straight line. The problem is that in the paraglider challenges you need to do everything but fly in a straight line, making you flail around uncontrollably as you attempt to pull around sharp corners and dips, all the while trying not to crash into the mountain.

          There are several options to customize your skier as well, if you’re interested in that sort of thing. There’s several different jackets, pants, squirrel suit and parachute designs, but none of them are really memorable…save for one. There is an unlockable helmet known only as the Deer Head. Equipping the Deer Head silences your player character’s default chatter (pressing X makes him spout some mindless chatter about how excited he is to be skiing) and replaces it with deer noises. There’s nothing funnier than watching your deer-headed skier go plummeting off the edge of a mountain while screaming “MEEEEERRRRRHHHHHH”. It gets me every time.

          While I think everybody deserves to experience the majesty that is Deer Head for themselves, it is kind of hard for me to recommend Steep overall. It’s the type of game that if you think you’ll love it or you think you’ll hate it, you most certainly will. I will say that the target demographic for this game is about the same as the EA Sports and Tony Hawk titles, not for core gamers like me. If you want a game that’ll give you a massive world where you can ski to your heart’s content without worrying about catching hypothermia, Steep is right up your alley. But if you’re like me and you only have a passing interest in the game, I’d say watch some YouTube videos of it or give it a rent before you drop money on it. It’s a gorgeous looking game with great controls, and I actually find it a lot of fun to just watch my brother play. But if you want more actual stuff to do besides complete missions, Steep will likely leave you out in the cold.

FINAL SCORE

6/10

Okay

Editorial: The Top 8 Games I’m Looking Forward to in 2017

The Top 8 Games I’m Looking Forward to in 2017

          Christmas is over, the presents have been unwrapped, the turkey has been eaten, and New Year’s is almost upon us. I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday and is looking forward to their post-Christmas games! But with the New Year arriving, it’s also time to look forward to the future, and all the best games coming out next year. For the sake of this list, I stuck to games that have been officially confirmed for 2017 release, so no games like Spider-Man PS4 or Last of Us 2 that have no confirmed release date. I also want to stick exclusively to games, but with that being said…

HONOURABLE MENTION

The Nintendo Switch

          Yeah, I couldn’t not put this somewhere on the list. Ever since its first trailer, people everywhere have been all over the Switch, and for good reason. It looks to be everything the Wii U wasn’t and then some.

          In all honesty, I think what I’m most excited for about the Switch is that Nintendo seems to be focusing on it being a gimmick free console, aside from the interchangeable controllers. There’s no cumbersome motion controls and the singular Wii U GamePad is a thing of the past, replaced by the awesome new idea of a console that you can take wherever you want. At home, you play on a Wii U Pro Controller-type remote, and when you take it outside it resembles the Wii U GamePad, although supposedly without a touch screen.

          After 10 years of the Wii and Wii U, it’s been high time for Nintendo to change things up, and that’s why I think the Switch is going to be successful. It doesn’t have to worry about escaping the shadow of any older consoles like the Wii U did. The Switch is its own thing, and I think that alone will make it a console to remember.

8. For Honor

          Honestly, after watching how excited that guy who always presented this game at E3 was, it was difficult to not get excited for For Honor. It also helped that the trailers made it look really cool and exciting, with a very Dynasty Warriors feel over everything. Plus, a multiplayer mode that allows you to smash through enemy forces online sounds just awesome. The theme of the game is really cool as well, being a massive battle between viking, samurai and medieval knight forces.

          The reason why it’s on the bottom of the list, though, comes down to one major reason: it’s Ubisoft. They tend to be very…hands-on when it comes to major releases like this, and with microtransactions already leaked for the game as well as some of the reviews for the beta being less than impressive, For Honor’s blade has been dulled, so to speak. But you honestly never know. As much as I dislike Ubisoft, there’s no denying they can put out a quality product every now and then, and For Honor just might be their next big success story.

7: Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite

          I enjoy a casual match of the Marvel vs. Capcom games. I’m nowhere near skilled enough at button mashing and combos to be a professional at them, but they’re always fun to pick up and play with a friend every once in a while.

          That being said, I’m always down to play a new installment in the series, and Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite looks to be a good next step for the series. It seems to be taking lots of inspiration from the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the theming of the game, having the Infinity Stones from the films play a large role in combat. Exactly how they’ll work hasn’t been revealed yet, but I expect them to be used similarly to Final Smashes in Super Smash Bros, as a massive finisher move that can be used to destroy opponents easily.

          My one fear for this game is that it follows in the footsteps of this year’s Street Fighter V, becoming another early access game being sold for $60. While the fighting mechanics in Street Fighter V were some of the most refined in a Street Fighter game we’d seen to date, the lack of singleplayer options and character variety essentially killed that game where it stood. Here’s hoping Capcom doesn’t make the same mistake twice.

6. Guardians of the Galaxy by Telltale

          Yes, I know, we’ve seen less than nothing from this game so far. And yes, I know, it’s not good to get hyped about a game before you know any information on it. But come on, it’s Guardians of the Galaxy!

While this is no doubt being made to tie in with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 next year, you can’t deny that Telltale makes some really stellar games. Plus, considering that now Marvel has become a juggernaut of a company, I highly doubt they would allow their good name to be sullied by tying in with a terrible product. I sincerely hope we see more from this game sooner rather than later, because I personally am really excited to see what Telltale has in store for us.

5. Red Dead Redemption 2

          Now let me explain: I’ve never played the original Red Dead Redemption, and that’s why this game is this low on the list. We good?

          Despite my inexperience with the series, I couldn’t help but be very impressed by the trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2. It looks absolutely gorgeous, and while the trailer didn’t show us much gameplay-wise, the graphics alone were enough to bring me back to watch it again many more times. Knowing Rockstar, I’m sure that the game will be filled to the absolute brim with stuff to do and places to explore, and doing that in a Wild West setting just seems awesome. Honestly, if anything, my excitement for this game has given me justification to go and play the first one.

4. Yooka-Laylee

          Ah, Rare. While I don’t quite believe that the company was killed as soon as they were purchased by Microsoft, I definitely agree with the sentiment that they were at their best when they were making games for the N64, such as Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. It truly is a shame we never got a proper Banjo-Threeie, especially after the…interesting game that was Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.

          But now with many of Rare’s original crew leaving the company once and for all and forming their own development studio, Playtonic Games, they’re on target to release their first ever spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie: Yooka-Laylee.

          If anything, Yooka-Laylee feels like a love letter to that era of video games, the days where mascot platformers seemed to be everywhere and Rare was the undisputed king of the genre. Now being released in beautiful HD, this game is likely going to be the game that Banjo fans have been waiting years for.

3. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

          This isn’t really so much a game as it is an expansion pack for Uncharted 4, but this is my list and I can cheat if I want to! Any long-time readers of my blog know my love of the Uncharted series and how much I adored Uncharted 4, and I’m glad that while the ending of that game seemed to wrap up the story of the games really well, it makes me extremely happy to see that Naughty Dog isn’t closing the door on this franchise for good.

          Focusing not on Nathan Drake, but instead on Uncharted 2 kinda-sorta-but not really villain Chloe Frasier, we don’t know much about the story in Lost Legacy yet, except that it focuses on Chloe adventuring with Uncharted 4 villain Nadine Ross, as I can only guess they’re off to find a treasure that’ll make them rich beyond their wildest dreams.

          Just from the trailer, it’s already clear that Lost Legacy is retaining the best parts of Uncharted, that being the climbing and spelunking segments, and honestly, that’s all I really need in an Uncharted game. Although Lost Legacy is likely going to be short, if it leads to further games in one of my favourite franchises, I will welcome it with open arms.

2. Horizon: Zero Dawn

          From the moment I saw Horizon: Zero Dawn back at E3 2015, I was hooked. I’ve been very vocal in recent years about how sick I am of brown and ugly apocalypse settings, zombie or otherwise. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve yet to play Last of Us or Fallout. But Horizon: Zero Dawn subverts those tropes, instead creating a green world filled with several biomes to explore, dominated by robotic animals and with a mysterious history that ties back to present day.

          The visuals alone are incredibly impressive, making me already want to see the art book for the game. I love the designs of the robotic animals, especially the crocodile and dinosaur themed bots. It’s an incredibly creative take on the very tired apocalypse setting, as the developers over at Guerilla could’ve taken the easy route and just made Horizon a Far Cry Primal knockoff or a zombie game. I really must applaud them for taking the high road and creating a game that stands out among the crowd.

          In addition to the setting, the gameplay looks to be a complete blast. Exploring this prehistoric-themed apocalypse as huntress outcast Eloy seems fun enough, but when you include bow-based combat against giant robot tyrannosauruses, the ability to turn the bots into rideable mounts, climbing massive mecha-giraffes and swinging across vines, Horizon: Zero Dawn looks to be an incredible adventure that I can’t wait to experience come February.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

          And here’s the big one; the game that we’ve been waiting years for just a smidgen of info on and Nintendo’s biggest headliner for years: the new Zelda game coming out for both Wii U and Switch.

          Just by looking at the first trailer for Breath of the Wild, it’s obvious that this is an extremely different Zelda game, one that we really haven’t seen from the series before but is still somewhat inspired by the first game in the series. Hyrule is now an open world waiting for you to explore, and classic series staples such as Hearts that refill your health meter are out, replaced by Skyrim-style food and meat. The world of Breath of the Wild is beautiful, being inspired very much by both Skyward Sword and Wind Waker, and I can’t wait to explore it all.

          Nintendo has been very tight-lipped about Breath of the Wild, and we truthfully know very little about what the game will have to offer us. I kind of like that, though. They aren’t blowing their load early, leaving us many surprises to find for ourselves once the game releases sometime next year. This return to Hyrule has been very long-awaited, making it easily the game I am most excited to play in 2017.

Song of the Week

          I figured it was a no brainer to feature a song from one of these games on this week’s editorial, and I chose the song featured in the Game Awards trailer for Breath of the Wild, called Life in the Ruins.