Steven Universe Review: “Gem Heist”

Metal Gear Steven

(This review contains spoilers!)

          It’s always great when Steven Universe takes us to new locations, especially ones that the Gems are unfamiliar with. Placing the characters in alien locations allows us to learn new parts of the show’s lore through them, as well as give us some excellent character moments we wouldn’t see back home in Beach City.

          That’s one of the main reasons that Gem Heist is so fantastic. For the first time since Jail Break way back at the end of Season 1, we’re seeing the Gems being pushed around by Homeworld gems, all the while they have no home court advantage. This leads to an excellent episode that not only leads to what’s to come, but is able to stand on its own by giving us an all-new insight to Homeworld.

          While the episode isn’t set on Homeworld itself (at this point I’m almost certain they’re saving that for the end of the series), we do get a close second: Pink Diamond’s human zoo. But in order to get Greg back, the Gems first need to get past the guards, consisting of several normal-sized Amethysts and an all-new gem type: the ruthless, drill-sergeant-like Holly Blue Agate.

          The design of the zoo overall is amazing in how it contrasts with the settings on Earth. Sharp lines and symmetrical patters dominate the backgrounds, and bright whites and pinks replace the more earthen browns and blues we normally see from this show. It’s an amazing change of style that really adds to how intimidatingly different the zoo is meant to feel.

          It was also fun to see how our Gems behaved when forced to conform to Homeworld’s rules. Garnet split down into Ruby and Sapphire to attract little attention, and it was interesting to see how Holly Blue treated her the same way one would treat royalty. We know from The Answer that Sapphires are “rare, aristocratic gems”, but here we see her treated similarly to a Diamond. On the contrast, Pearl, Ruby and Amethyst are treated as foot soldiers and servants with little brain power. While we already knew where most of these characters stood in the overall gem hierarchy, it’s neat to have them finally act out those roles.

          Overall, if you’re the type of person that likes Steven Universe to cut the crap and give you more plot instead of Lars episodes, Gem Heist is the one you’ve been waiting for. Boasting a fantastic setting and lots of new lore to be examined, as well as promise of the next part of the arc, this is truly one of the best episodes in a while.

FINAL SCORE

9/10

Amazing

Timeless Review: “Karma Chameleon”

Rufus and Wyatt’s Excellent Adventure

(This review contains spoilers!)

          I might be wrong about this, but I’ve heard that Timeless only has a couple of episodes left before the end of the season. It’s a shame, because things are really starting to pick up for our crew.

          For the first time, Lucy didn’t jump back to the past this week. Instead, Wyatt and Rufus took the time machine for a joyride back to 1983, trying to stop the parents of the man who murdered Wyatt’s wife from ever meeting. Things, uh, don’t go according to plan.

          While we sadly didn’t get to see much of the 1980’s atmosphere (most of the past scenes take place in a single bar), the costumes and environment captured the feeling of that time period well. I just wish we had seen more of it.

          This episode was also one of the funniest we’ve seen out of Timeless in a while, cracking several jokes about the 80’s along the way and how crazy Wyatt’s whole scheme was. I really wish Timeless was allowed to be funnier every once in a while, because the cast, especially Rufus, really have comedic chops on them. Plus, with how dire and grim the show can become at times when the main trio is grappling with what they’re doing, it would be nice to have a bit more levity inserted in there.

          Unfortunately, the main plot this week doesn’t really seem to be sure whether it wants to be played for laughs or taken seriously. Most of the first half of the episode is full of jokes and not taken very seriously, but the second half things take a bit of a loony turn for the more serious, as guns are drawn and people start dying. It’s a bit of a startling turn, and it doesn’t really work since up to this point we’ve been conditioned to think that this storyline isn’t to be taken seriously. I really wish that the showrunners had chosen one or the other, because the subplot about Wyatt’s wife has been a very interesting one to explore and it didn’t deserve this confused storyline. Thankfully this isn’t going to be the end of that plot, but I’ll get back to that later.

          Lucy was given something to do this week as well, teaming up with Agent Christopher (who is currently competing with Rufus for the title of Best Character) to find that scientist guy and hear about his master plan to fix all this. It turns out Rittenhouse is planning on using the time machine to rebuild history in their image, and Flynn is the only thing standing in their way. The scientist figured blowing up both time machines would be a good way to slow them down, as it’d take a few years to build a new one.

          Needless to say, things go wrong for our heroes towards the end of the episode. Wyatt manages to successfully break up the mother and father before they conceived the murderer, but accidentally killed the father in the process. Even worse, his wife is still not back, and he’s been arrested for his time machine joy ride. The scientist’s plan has also gone awry, as Flynn learned of his intention of destroying the time machine and killed him. Honestly, he hasn’t been in enough episodes for me to really count him as a major loss. If he’d been more involved in the overall storyline I might’ve felt more for his death, but he just kind of popped in now and again until the showrunners decided they didn’t need him anymore.

          But the most interesting part of the episode came at the very end. After learning from Agent Christopher that her biological father is the Rittenhouse guy talking with Mason, she confronted him at his home once and for all. We didn’t see much of what happened, except that he informed her that as his descendant she is Rittenhouse’s legacy, and he wants her on the winning side of history. It’s a small but significant scene, and one that is sure to grow into something huge later on.

          Karma Chameleon is, at best, a fun episode that does a good job of setting things up for later. No, it’s not as good as the other episodes we’ve had since Timeless returned from winter break, but it’s still an episode that I still think is worth watching just to see the beginning of what’s coming next. If the writers had blended the humour with the serious moments better this episode might’ve suffered less, but it’s still an enjoyable watch with some great character moments.

FINAL SCORE

6/10

Okay

Steven Universe Review: “Adventures in Light Distortion”

2001: A Steven Odyssey

(This review contains spoilers!)

          This was an…interesting episode, to say the least. I feel like the crew didn’t quite have enough content for the entire 5 episode arc, so this episode was sort of them shuffling their feet for a while before the good stuff started. What resulted was an episode mostly reliant on visual gags to keep viewers engaged.

          After realizing that Greg is likely being kept at Pink Diamond’s human zoo far out in space, the Gems take off in the Ruby Ship, leaving Lapis and Peridot in charge of defending Beach City (I can only hope we get an episode later on where we see how that goes). But the ship travels far too slow to get to the zoo in less than 70 years, so Steven turns on the warp drive. This results in the Gems’ bodies becoming all distorted, and…that’s basically it.

          Most of the episode is based on having the gems grow to wacky shapes and sizes, and unsurprisingly it grows old really fast. I imagine it’d be funny for young kids, but for me it just felt kind of silly and a waste of time. The animation is nice and all, but this silliness just kind of feels out of place after the more serious Steven’s Dream.

          But, this being Steven Universe, there’s of course a moment where everything goes horribly wrong and Steven is sent into mortal peril. The Gems’ physical forms are launched out of the ship as it goes faster than the speed of light, and Steven has to turn of the hyperspeed before he crashes into the zoo. This leads to another moment similar to those in Bubbled and Mindful Education where Steven breaks down due to all the pressure put on him. Say what you will about Steven Universe’s reliance on character development through crying, but you can’t deny that Steven himself may be the most realistic kid in cartoons, right down to how he handles all the pressure put on him constantly. Needless to say everything turns out alright in the end, and the Gems arrive at the zoo ready to continue this mission.

          As I said early on, this episode feels more or less than a bit of filler content to pad out the arc. While the beginning and ending are both decent, the good chunk of episode spent on the Gems being distorted is really uninteresting. While Adventures in Light Distortion is necessary to the overall story, it’s definitely not an episode that’ll be remembered.

FINAL SCORE

5/10

Average

Steven Universe Review: “Steven’s Dream”

Time for answers

(This review contains spoilers!)

          So full disclosure: I watched all the episodes in this StevenBomb a while back when they were leaked, and I’m rewatching them now to refresh my memory of them for review purposes. I’ll be uploading the reviews after each episode airs on Cartoon Network until the Bomb is over.

          One of the major gripes about Steven Universe I’ve seen around the internet is that Steven doesn’t ask many questions. He just sort of takes things as they come, not really wondering what else is out there or what’s going on. That’s why it’s nice to finally have a big question posed by the show earlier be answer, that being what the Palanquin in Buddy’s journal is and what significance it has.

          It’s also great to see Steven take a step forward and finally go against the Gems’ wishes for once. Although Garnet did everything in her power to stop him from leaving, Steven goes anyways through his own means, and I think that’s a fantastic bit of growth for his character.

          The episode also saw lots of great moments for Greg. While my personal favourite character on the show is still Peridot, it’s honestly hard to not say that Greg is the best character overall. He’s such a fantastic role model not only for Steven, but for the audience as a whole. The episode clearly knows what’s going to happen to him at the end, so it spends most of the episode focusing on Greg and reminding us why we love him. The montage of Steven and Greg exploring Korea was a lot of fun (plus with a surprising and hilarious bit of meta humour), and the emotional moment they spend together at the beginning of the episode was fantastic as well.

          Of course, I need to address the elephant in the room, that being Blue Diamond’s appearance at the end. This is our first time seeing Blue outside of Garnet’s flashback in The Answer, allowing us to get a good look at her character for the first time. Firstly, I love her design. Her more smooth and droopy elements both match with her character’s personality and contrast well to Yellow Diamond’s more angular and sharp edges.

          It turns out that Blue Diamond was very close to Pink Diamond, who the Palanquin on Earth belonged to. We also learned that Earth was Pink Diamond’s planet, and Blue was unaware that the Cluster has been bubbled. Still thinking Earth’s days are numbered, she took Greg to save him from destruction and preserve Pink’s legacy even further.

          While Steven’s Dream is mostly meant to serve as a beginning for the next story arc, it delivers an excellent episode that gives us lots of answers and character development for Steven. But this is only the beginning, as the Gems travel to space in hopes of getting Greg back.

FINAL SCORE

8/10

Great

Editorial: It's time to close the gates

It’s time to close the gates

          A few weeks ago, the official PlayStation YouTube account uploaded a trailer for a game called “Life of Black Tiger”, which was set to release on the PS Store for a suggested price of $10. The trailer quickly grew in notoriety, garnering over 32,000 dislikes and thousands of comments bashing it. Why? Well, if you haven’t seen it yet, I think this image explains it pretty well.

          Yup. They want $10 for this awful looking game. And trust me, in motion it looks even worse. Was this an attempt by Sony to troll on the eve of the Nintendo Switch conference? Or perhaps they were hacked? Regardless, the trailer is still up and the game is available now on the PS4 Marketplace. Even stranger, this isn’t the first time Sony’s done this. There was a trailer for a game called Skylight Freerange 2: Gachduine uploaded a few days before the Black Tiger trailer, and it looks even worse!

          It doesn’t take a genius to tell that Life of Black Tiger and Skylight Freerange 2 are crap. You can figure that out from the first few seconds of trailer, and the games themselves seems to reflect that. But we’re not here to talk about the games. Today, I want to talk about the implications that this garbage has on the current state of digital marketplaces as a whole, specifically the one that seemed to start all this nonsense: Steam.

          We’ve spoken at length before about Valve’s lack of quality control on Steam and how the entire purpose of Steam Greenlight has been destroyed thanks to the overflow of garbage that makes its way onto the storefront. The thing is, I wrote my original article on it back in September, and since then it’s only gotten worse. Nearly 40% of all the games on Steam were released in 2016.

          Let me repeat that. Nearly 40% of all the games on Steam were released last year.

          That’s almost half of all the products on a storefront that’s existed since 2003! And Valve continues to just sit back and let it happen, only intervening when you have a case like Digital Homicide where a legitimately unhinged developer attempts to sue anyone who looks at them the wrong way. I think Valve knows they rule the roost when it comes to PC gaming storefronts, as the only real alternatives to Steam are currently Battle.net and Origin, who sell only Blizzard and EA games respectively, and the Windows 10 store, which is a complete and utter joke. With an empire like that and thousands of users checking in daily for their gaming fix, why should they care if a few hundred garbage games make it onto the storefront?

          The answer is easy. It’s because no professional store allows crap to be sold on their shelves. If you want a good reputation, you won’t sell something that is below your standards. For example, most professional storefronts don’t sell games rated AO by the ESRB, so as to not offend anyone shopping there.

          Steam has no such filters. At this point, literally any joker with the money to buy a Steam Greenlight license and a few hours to spare is granted shelf space. We’ve seen games released on Steam with missing executable files, games built from nothing but pre-made Unity assets, games stolen from somewhere else, and games filled with nothing but memes and potty humour. And if the recent activity of the PlayStation YouTube account is any indication, Sony is starting down the same path, allowing literally anyone to put a game on their marketplace and even giving them a spotlight for doing so, regardless of the actual quality of the game itself.

          So how do we solve this problem? Easy. Steam and Sony need to put on their big boy pants and hire a quality assurance team.

          I’m not sure if this is still a thing, but back in the day Nintendo used to have something called the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality. To ensure that no broken or flat-out terrible games would be sold on their systems, Nintendo would have their quality assurance team check out the game beforehand to ensure it was up to their standards. Then, if you went to the store and saw the Nintendo stamp of approval on a game, you knew that they’d given it the thumbs-up.

          Steam has nothing of the sort, and at this point they desperately need it. There was a time when Steam was so restrictive that basically nothing could make it on, but nowadays it’s the polar opposite. Steam and Sony need to close the gates, hire a quality assurance team to ensure that the Life of Black Tigers of the world don’t make it to the storefront, and then maybe, just maybe, they can redeem themselves a bit.

Song of the Week

          I’ve spoken before about how I thought that Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor had the best game soundtrack of 2016, the best of which being the festival music. Well, here it is in all it's weird, alien glory!

Little Witch Academia Episode 4 Review

A Witch’s Tale

(This review contains spoilers!)

          If anything, this episode proved that we don’t need last week’s high-speed broom races and crazy action every single episode. Little Witch Academia showed us that it can create an episode with little to no magic or action and still create something on par with everything they’ve done before.

          My biggest gripe with the show thus far has been that while Lotte and Sucy are still excellent characters, they haven’t really been given too much to do aside from help out Akko. This week, the roles have been shifted, giving Lotte the starring role and making Akko a supporting character. This, plus the fact that the episode takes place mostly outside Luna Nova, creates a very unique episode that is both entertaining and captivating to watch.

          Lotte’s favourite author is visiting the city, but she’s stuck in detention so she can’t visit. Thanks to her friends she escapes Luna Nova and easily wins a trivia contest about the books, but as a result the author deems her the next person in line to write for the series, giving her a magical fountain pen passed down for generations.

          It’s nice to have an episode focused entirely on Lotte, as she’s definitely the main character we’ve seen the least of in this series thus far. I love how her calm nature contrasts with Akko’s always-on personality, as well as her creative ability to communicate with faeries. She’s not a third wheel to Akko and Sucy as you might guess from first glance. She’s her own developed character, and this episode was perfect in demonstrating that.

          The other way Lotte contrasts well with Akko is her reaction to meeting her idol. Instead of wanting to be just like her, Lotte wants to support the author by being a fan of her work, and this is integral into returning the pen. When she meets up with the author again, she explains how big a fan she is of the books and how she’s still enjoying them, even when the author is taking them into a bit of a weird turn.

          In fact, the entire episode feels like a love-letter to book fans. Lotte’s reason for being such a huge fan of the author was that the stories helped her cope with being bullied when she was younger, something I’m sure many Harry Potter fans can relate to. Similarly, the event the girls attend is filled with cosplayers, many of them playing hilariously obscure characters. The animators and showrunners perfectly captured the atmosphere of a convention or a midnight book release, down to the way all the fans interact with each other.

          If I had one gripe about the episode, though, it would have to be the beginning. Lotte is initially told she cannot go to the event because she worked with Akko and Sucy to steal a tart from the school kitchens. Despite this, she goes anyways just a few minutes later. Why have that initial roadblock at all when the characters get over it almost immediately? It would’ve made sense to use that time to cut that subplot and give the mystery of the author and how to return the pen a bit more time instead. The other thing is that while Lotte has gotten some much needed development, Sucy is still more or less just comic relief. I imagine we’ll be getting an episode focused on her sooner rather than later, but I wish she was more involved with the stories going on.

          Still, this was another excellent installment of Little Witch Academia. This anime is proving to be one of my favourites in a long time, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. If anything, this week proved that the characters don’t need magical insanity happening every week to still be engaging. As someone who relates to Lotte and her love of books, this episode was a complete delight to watch.

FINAL SCORE

9/10

Amazing

Star Wars Saturday: Marvel’s Darth Vader comics

          

          For the longest time, the Star Wars expanded universe focused primarily on the universe created by the Prequel Trilogy. While Original Trilogy content was still being released, it was paltry compared to the avalanche of content surrounding the Clone Wars and the Jedi Knights. This is mostly because the universe surrounding the Prequel Trilogy was fairly new and ripe for exploration at the time, with plenty of new planets to explore and characters to discover. For a writer, it was a goldmine.

          This was up until Disney got control of the Star Wars license, and the focus of the expanded universe was almost entirely shifted back towards Luke and company. The Clone Wars cartoon was brought to an end, replaced by Rebels, set in between Episode III and IV, and Marvel got the licensing back to make comics set in the Star Wars galaxy, nearly all of them set just after A New Hope. The main reason for this was to try and remind people who may have fallen out of the Star Wars loop in the years after Revenge of the Sith came out why they loved these characters and this universe before revisiting it in The Force Awakens.

          The headlining attraction of these new comics (and one that’s still running to this day) was their flagship Star Wars comic, focused on the Rebellion’s adventures fighting off the Empire as Luke begins his Jedi training. It’s a fun series, and well worth checking out if it sounds like something you’d be interested in. There’ve also been mini-series focusing on a single character, such as Han Solo, Princess Leia and Lando. But for me, the true shining achievement of the Marvel comics came with their other main series: a little comic known only as Darth Vader.

          It’s strange to think about this, but Vader has never really been in much of the original expanded universe. There’s much more Star Wars content focusing on him as Anakin Skywalker than as his Sith Lord counterpart. This all changed when Disney got control, as they turned Vader from a stoic and ominous villain to a full on monster. Wondering where they got the inspiration for Vader’s scenes in Rogue One? It just might’ve come from these comics.

          Written by Kieron Gillen, Darth Vader sees Vader just after his failure at the Battle of Yavin. The Emperor is keeping a close eye on his Apprentice, going so far as to enlist a Sherlock Holmes-esque Imperial officer to keep a close eye on Vader, as well as begin training cybernetically-enhanced replacements for him, complete with artificial Force powers.

          Vader is none too happy about this, instead following his own path as he searches for clues as to the identity of who exactly blew up the Death Star. His travels bring him into contact with several major Star Wars villains, including Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, and even a hive of zombie-like battle droids.

          The best character he meets with is one completely original to the comic, however. In issue #3 he teams up with rogue archaeologist Doctor Aphra, a fun Indiana Jones-type character with a chip on her shoulder and accompanied by a pair of murderous droids who want nothing more out of life than to torture everything in the galaxy. Aphra and her droids accompany Vader for the bulk of the story, adding some levity and humour that Vader himself doesn’t provide.

          The series even crosses over with the mainline Star Wars comic at one point, in a big event known as Vader Down. In this storyline Vader’s Starfighter is shot down over the planet Vrogas Vas, an ancient Jedi homeworld that has since been reduced to ruins. The Rebels give chase, hoping to put an end to Vader’s tyranny once and for all. It…doesn’t go very well for them.

          It’s hard to talk too much about Vader without giving anything away, it’s just that good. Each of the 25 issues is packed to the brim with fun action and mysteries that keep the reader engaged. If you’re a fan of Darth Vader and you haven’t read it yet, I’d highly recommend it. You won’t be disappointed.

BREAKING NEWS

          You didn’t think I’d go the entire post without talking about that, did you? It’s time to look at the latest news straight from Lucasfilm!

          This week we finally learned the true title to Episode VIII, and no, it’s not The First Order Strikes Back. The next installment in the Star Wars saga will be known as Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

          So a couple of things are interesting about this. First off, the red logo. If memory serves me right, the Star Wars logo has been red a few times in the past, including in promotional material for Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith, as well as a few Clone Wars episodes focused on Darth Maul or some other Sith presence. Generally seeing red in logos gives a movie a more foreboding air, as red tends to be a colour signifying danger. To me this, in combination with the more subdued title, means that we’ll be seeing a far darker side to the Sequel Trilogy than we saw in The Force Awakens.

          And second, it’s important to remember that the word “Jedi” can mean both singular and plural. The title isn’t necessarily referring to just Luke, it could be referring to Luke and Rey, Luke’s dead class of padawans, or even Kylo Ren. Maybe that’s looking too far into it and it’s just about Luke, but you never know with these things.

          I’ve seen some people running around the internet saying that we’re going to be getting our first look at Last Jedi during the Super Bowl, but I’d say that’s doubtful. Most likely we’ll be seeing the first teaser at Star Wars Celebration in April, after Rogue One has come out on Blu-ray and the publicity for that is finished. An April release also would mean it would likely be seen in theatres alongside Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, a fellow Disney sci-fi movie.

          Whenever we see it, it’s very exciting to think that we’re less than a year away from reuniting with Luke Skywalker himself, and see what the galaxy has next for our heroes.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Review: “Wake Up”

Cheers love, the Cavalry’s here

(This review contains spoilers!)

          Oh, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Every time you think you know what’s coming next, they throw a curveball of an ending at you and you need to rethink everything. Whereas most of this episode felt like the writers were more or less retreading old ground, it was all set up for an ending that assaulted you with twists, some expected but others entirely out of left field.

          Most of this episode focused on May as she finally woke up and tried to escape Radcliffe’s lab, fighting and defeating Aida several times along the way. But towards the end of the episode, it turned out that everything she did this week was inside a simulation Radcliffe programmed into her brain, one that she’s been repeating over and over. This honestly surprised me, but in retrospect I probably should’ve seen it coming. The episode opens by somewhat bizarrely showing clips involving May from the last few episodes, this time showing how she woke up the first time. Knowing that the writers explicitly wanted us to remember that May was in a simulation (plus the laughable amount of stairs she climbed) made it kind of an obvious surprise, but a fun one nonetheless.

          The rest of the episode focused on Coulson and crew, as they attended a senate meeting lead by Nadeer about inhumans. Daisy went along to try and explain why inhumans deserve equal rights, while Coulson and Yo-Yo tried to infiltrate Nadeer’s private quarters to find out more about her. But surprise again! Nadeer has been two steps ahead of them the whole time, catching Coulson in the act and risking S.H.I.E.L.D be branded as criminals once again.

          One thing that bugged me the entire episode is how reckless Coulson seemed this week. This is one of the few times I actually sided with Talbot in their argument. There really was no point in him going and trying to do spy work on Nadeer, except for this storyline to be introduced. Thankfully the show does bring it up towards the end, but I honestly think there could’ve been a better way to show how much jeopardy Nadeer has put them in.

          Speaking of annoying stuff, Mack and Yo-Yo’s annoying relationship is back! I really wish they’d just put this stupid plotline out of its misery. The two of them don’t have much chemistry, so the romantic scenes they spend together just feel awkward and stiff. We did finally learn that Hope was Mack’s dead daughter, but I kind of liked the ambiguity about that, even if it was kind of obvious. It just felt like a cheap way to insert Mack into an episode that he didn’t really need to be in.

          The best part of the episode was easily the ending. Radcliffe opens the episode by saying that a second LMD was already in the field, leaving you to guess who it was. The earliest contenders were either Fitz or Mack, but knowing S.H.I.E.L.D’s history with these sorts of things it’s more likely to be the least obvious person. But as it turned out, it wasn’t any of the main team, but rather Radcliffe himself! Radcliffe has been an LMD since Aida failed to steal the Darkhold, and the real deal has been leaking S.H.I.E.L.D information for Nadeer. The two of them are also working for someone called “the Superior”, but just who that could be is anyone’s guess.

          The post-credits scene also showed off where May’s mind trip was going next: it’s going back to Bahrain, where she initially got the nickname “the Cavalry”. There’s only one major difference: in this simulation, she saves the little girl instead of killing her. I don’t think I’m the only one who was kind of hoping the next simulation would be her fighting Ward, but this is equally as interesting, if not better than that. May’s origin story has always been one of the more tragic parts of S.H.I.E.L.D, and to have them bring it back but warped into a success story is super interesting. I can’t wait to see how they explore this one.

          While it certainly had its moments, this episode wasn’t exactly S.H.I.E.L.D at its best. The twists were really interesting and well done, setting up some very intriguing plotlines for later, but much of the episode was spent retreating old ground or being stuck with Mack making goo-goo eyes at Yo-Yo. It wasn’t bad by any means, but while I often commend S.H.I.E.L.D’s use of twists as a great way to keep viewers engaged, you need to have a little more than that to create a truly good episode.

FINAL SCORE

6/10

Okay

Update Impressions: Overwatch’s Year of the Rooster

          

          It’s only been a few weeks since Winter Wonderland ended, so…time for the next Overwatch event! Chinese New Year is just around the corner, and we’re celebrating with new skins, emotes, and more sprays than any sensible person would know what to do with!

          Before we get to the Year of the Rooster content, there’ve been some more permanent changes to both the UI and a few of the heroes. Starting off, you can now equip 4 different sprays, voice lines and emotes at once, choosing which one you want to use thanks to a handy wheel. You can still only have 1 spray on the battlefield at a time, but this allows you to be more expressive and have more to do while waiting for the doors to open and the match to start. The kill count in the top right hand corner of the screen has also been tweaked. It looks better than ever, and the coolest part is that it now detailed exactly what abilities were used to take down the fallen player, with Ultimates being displayed more prominently than regular attacks. It’s really cool.

          Several changes have come to the heroes of the game as well. For starters, the healing on Ana’s Biotic Grenade has been significantly decreased, making her fall in line more with the other healers in terms of overall healing strength. D.Va has seen a very large rework, decreasing the amount of Armor on her mech while also increasing its health. She’s a lot easier to take down now, but as a D.Va main I am concerned she’s become too easy to beat. I can safely say she’s not nearly as bad as she was before she got her Defense Matrix update, but now she plays similar to Winston in that she should be primarily used for swooping in, doing some damage and causing a ruckus, and escaping before the mech is broken. Experienced D.Va players may want to rethink their strategies in getting kills and maneuvering around the map. Finally, Roadhog’s hook has been changed, making it now that targets land directly in front of Roadhog depending on the direction he was facing when he grabbed them instead of landing whichever way he was pointing in the end. Also, if the hero leaved Roadhog’s line of sight the ability ends. This will likely lead to us seeing less clips of Roadhog hooking players across time and space from Route 66 to Point 2 on Ilios.

          On the buff side of things, there’s only Sombra, who’s gotten a few changes that make her a little more viable. It now takes less time to hack an enemy, and the cooldown of her hack has been dramatically reduced. This allows her to be more viable as a Support or Defense hero (I still don’t know why she’s grouped in the Offense category), disrupting the battle from the shadows and causing chaos.

          Onto the actual event itself, there’s plenty of new Chinese New Year themed loot to go around! Just as with Winter Wonderland, every character gets 2 sprays and a voice line, with some lucky heroes getting skins, emotes and more.

          Being the hero actually from China, Mei has been given the most goodies this time around, boasting 2 Legendary skins, a new Emote, and a new Victory Pose. This has propelled her into being the Overwatch hero with the most cosmetics in the entire game. D.Va also received a really cool Palanquin themed skin (that looks far better in-game than the promo image made it look!). Finally, the remaining Legendaries are inspired by the Chinese fable “Journey to the West”, giving Winston, Reinhardt, Roadhog and Zenyatta the appearance of the characters from the story. Winston and Reinhardt both look really cool, whereas Roadhog and Zenyatta…don’t. Roadhog’s might actually be a contender for Worst Legendary in the game as far as I’m concerned.

          Rounding out the epics, Ana, Bastion, Junkrat, Mercy, Symmetra and Tracer all get some neat Chinese themed recolours. My personal favourite of these is Bastion’s, as it turns his little bird friend Ganymede into a rooster. Whoever came up with that, I applaud you. Junkrat also receives a new emote, and Mercy, Roadhog and Tracer all get some really cool looking Highlight Intros.

          Last but not least, it wouldn’t be an Overwatch event without a new Brawl, and Year of the Rooster doesn’t disappoint. For the first time ever, Overwatch has received the ever-popular Capture the Flag mode, called “Capture the Rooster” here. Taking place on one of the 3 points on Lijang Tower (here decked out with Chinese lanterns and lightable fireworks), it’s exactly what it says on the tin: get to the enemy’s base, steal their flag and run home before they catch you. It’s fine for what it is, but I can already see that players have figured out ways to make point capture near impossible. Symmetra is a near necessity to have in this mode, as her entire build makes it incredibly easy for your team to be positioned well and have enemies be killed nearly instantly after entering the base. Add in either Bastion or Torbjorn, and you’ve got yourself a bad time. Granted, this can be negated through a board clearing ultimate like D.Va’s or Hanzo’s, but very often I’ll see teams that group in an unbreakable circle around their flag, making it inevitable that you’ll either draw or lose. Capture the Rooster is really fun if both teams decide to play fair, but if you find yourself unable to reach the flag at all, it can be a bit of a slog.

          All in all, Year of the Rooster isn’t quite as good as Winter Wonderland was, but it still brings enough new content to the table that makes it an event that’s not to be missed. I’ll leave you with a quick reminder: if there’s a skin you really want, remember to save your gold until one of the last few days of the event (it ends February 13) just in case you find that particular skin in the loot box. Nobody likes double Legendaries, so even though that Mei skin looks really nice, patience is a virtue.

Timeless Review: “The Murder of Jesse James”

In which everybody gets their panties in a knot

(This review contains spoilers!)

          Ah, the old west. Home to such famous cowboys and crooks as Buffalo Bill, Billy the Kid, and Pecos Bill. Fun fact: the most popular name in the old west was John. The more you know!

          This episode started out looking like yet another standard Timeless episode, with the crew going back to a certain point, meeting a figure from history and chasing after Flynn with varying results. But no! This week Timeless threw everything it had at us, creating not only a fun and memorable episode but an incredible setup for what was to come next.

          This week Flynn teamed up with outlaw Jesse James, saving his life from the hands of his gang members and enlisting him in locating some person hidden way out in the middle of nowhere. Of course, our heroes aren’t close behind, as they decide to work with U.S. Marshal and Lone Ranger inspiration Bass Reeves to apprehend them.

          Of course, things don’t exactly go as planned. Firstly, Wyatt is out for blood this week as a result of him meeting with the man who murdered his wife. Meanwhile, Lucy is suffering from nightmares of her long-lost sister, leaving Rufus to be surprisingly the only one who doesn’t seem to be freaking out over something this week. The three of them do get a fantastic moment together about halfway through the episode, where they reflect on where their adventures have brought them and if it’s really worth sacrificing their mental stability over what they’re doing. It’s really telling how far these characters have come over the last few episodes. Whereas I didn’t like Wyatt at all for most of the series, I’ve recently come around to enjoying the guy, albeit not as much as the other 2.

          Similarly, the Characters of the Week were all really fantastically done. Bass might go down as the coolest partner the team’s had yet. While I don’t think he got as much screentime as he deserved, every time we did see him he completely dominated with his presence. His Native American partner was also very fun and memorable, responding well to a few Tonto jokes made by Wyatt.

          On the other side we had Jesse James, who worked well as a foil to Rufus. I don’t know if I’ll remember him as one as the best villains on the show so far (especially compared to the last 2 episodes), but he was enjoyably sinister and served his purpose well.

          It’s not until the final few minutes of the episode that things really get crazy. For most of the episode you assume the person Flynn is tracking is a Rittenhouse member, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Shockingly, Flynn introduces us to Emma, the original pilot of the time machine who stranded herself in the Old West after Rittenhouse threatened her and her family’s lives. He takes her back home with him, but exactly what he plans to do with her is unclear.

          This is such a great twist on so many levels. First off, it’s never been mentioned before that anyone aside from Rufus piloted the time machine. Not only does this allow the twist to catch the audience completely off guard, but it adds another layer of mystery to the time machine crew, as detailed in the final moments of the episode. What else could they be hiding? Could Mason turn out to be one of the big bads of the series? And secondly, this new character’s experiences with Rittenhouse might be the key to turning some of the main crew over to Flynn’s side, primarily Rufus, who knows how hard it is to work for them. I sincerely hope this isn’t a one-off plot thread that goes completely nowhere.

          If I had to gripe about something, I’d have to say that both the very beginning and very ending of the episode are more than a little melodramatic. It opens with a very cliché and over-the-top dream sequence where Lucy’s sister berates her for forgetting her birthday. It’s kind of unnecessary, as it takes way too long to explain something that could’ve been made clear in a single sentence. Plus, the sister overacts it like crazy, making it seem more laughable than anything. The ending is even more ridiculous, with Lucy appearing in a photograph of Jesse James’ death on Wikipedia and having her cry a single tear…for whatever reason. It does lead into what’s happening next week, though, as Wyatt and Rufus are taking the time machine for a joyride as they attempt to save Wyatt’s wife once and for all.

          While not perfect by any means, The Murder of Jesse James truly captured the spirit of the old west by creating a fun atmosphere full of great characters and surprises. Adding in some excellent new issues for the main cast as well as some great setup for next week, and it’s no wonder how Timeless was able to save itself from an entire season of mediocrity. They’ve finally realized how to make a great show, and I couldn’t be happier about that.

FINAL SCORE

9/10

Amazing

Editorial: Niche vs. Mainstream

Niche vs. Mainstream

          We’ve all heard the story of Rareware’s rise to fame and subsequent fall from glory. At one time the undisputed kings of the platformer and shooter genres among others, the company took a significant tumble when they were wholly purchased by Microsoft. After a few years of making good but poorly selling titles, it seemed the end of the line for the developer’s glory days came with the release of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. After that game turned in disappointing results both critically and commercially, Microsoft went to Rare and told them that the colourful cartoony platformer’s days were over, and relegated the once legendary developers to working on tech demos for the new Kinect.

          While these days Rare seems to be making a comeback, with the original Banjo developers forming their own indie studio and releasing Yooka-Laylee, as well as Rare itself finally returning from the depths of Microsoft to release pirate game Sea of Thieves, it’s important to remember what happened to them a few years ago, for one particular reason: exactly why Microsoft sent Rare to make the Kinect Sports games, and how it resulted in the company splitting in two as it were, with most of the original Rare braintrust creating indie studio Playtonic Games.

          One of the most famous and renowned developers of the ‘90s was almost destroyed because Microsoft thought nobody wanted Banjo-Kazooie style games anymore.

          We’ve spoken at length before at how publishers can make some really stupid decisions (and trust me, it’s a topic I’ll probably be going back to many times in the future), but I wanted to talk about this one for one specific reason: a few weeks ago, PC Gamer reported that this year, Stardew Valley outsold Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare on Steam.

          If you’re unfamiliar with it, Stardew Valley is a farming/life sim style game, sort of a spiritual successor to the Harvest Moon series. I personally wasn’t super into the game, but I can definitely see the appeal to other players. But the game itself isn’t what matters here: it’s the sales. Despite any personal misgivings over the quality of the franchise itself or that it seems to be on the wane in recent years, there’s no denying that Call of Duty is still a gargantuan franchise. So to be outsold by an indie pixel-graphics farming game poses the interesting question: is it time for the triple-A developers to start thinking outside the box?

          I’m not sure when this started, but once publishers discovered that big guns and big explosions sold really well, that became the most popular genre of game to make. The Xbox 360 is a prime example of this. Look at the highest selling games on that console: Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Call of Duty and Gears of War dominate the charts, leaving little to no place for Rare’s famous bear and bird.

          Today, on the other hand, we’re seeing an upswing in innovation of old genres, with games like Stardew Valley and Yooka-Laylee leading the way. While the original franchises these games are inspired by aren’t really around anymore, these new indie developers are taking it upon themselves to revitalize old genres.

          And you know what? It’s working! Stardew Valley was an enormous success last year, with it topping several Game of the Year lists. Similarly, Yooka-Laylee saw one of the biggest video game Kickstarters ever, and is on target to release this April. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, an homage to the Castlevania franchise helmed by developers of the original games and due for release next year, is also garnering lots of attention. Even Mighty No. 9, as disastrous as that game was, was Kickstarted because it was a spiritual successor to the Mega Man franchise, yet another hallmark of gaming’s past that seems to have fallen by the wayside in recent years.

          If there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching the indie community flourish in recent years, it’s that nostalgia sells. Both Mighty No. 9 and Yooka-Laylee boasted lucrative Kickstarter campaigns, each gathering well over 1 million dollars. So with that kind of money on the table, why are the indie developers the only ones taking advantage?

          In the end, it all ties back to sales. Publishers like EA or Ubisoft want something that they know will sell well. We’ve seen this before when we learned that EA almost gave Battlefield 1 a no-go because they were unsure the World War I setting would sell well with the kids. The sheer brainlessness of wanting to market an inevitably M-rated game to kids aside, while we’re seeing more innovation out of the major publishers recently than we were a few years ago, we’re still not quite out of that “modern warfare” phase of gaming the Xbox 360 ushered in. While the mainstay franchises are trying new tactics and angles to stay afloat (last year saw the previously mentioned Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty deciding to go to SPAAAAAACE!), those are still mainstay franchises with their hardcore fanbases. But while that may be the truth, they’re not going to last forever if they keep doing the same thing. The time is coming for developers to try something new and different or risk being lost to the ever-changing industry, and sometimes the answer to that might just be in the past.

Song of the Week

          Since we had a tribute to Rare this week, I’ve decided to choose Freezeezy Peak from Banjo-Kazooie. It’s my favourite song from the game easily, adding a great background to one of gaming’s best snow levels.

Little Witch Academia Episode 3 Review

Wacky Races

(This review contains spoilers!)

          Well, this certainly was an episode and a half. If you doubted at any point that Little Witch Academia wouldn’t live up to previous installments or be able to stand on its own, this is the episode that will prove you wrong. Everything from the worldbuilding to the humour to the visuals was completely on point this week.

          It’s well documented that Akko is unable to fly a broom, but this episode focused on it in a way nothing ever has before. With a broom baton pass race coming up, Akko becomes determined to win and have her picture hung up alongside Shiny Chariot’s in the trophy cabinet of previous winners. The only problem is, of course, she can’t fly a broom to save her life.

          This episode reintroduces several themes from the previous LWA shorts we haven’t seen in this series, such as the Sorcerer’s Stone and the magical radius it produces, as well as the delinquent trio of Amanda, Constance and Jasminka from Enchanted Parade. This episode also shows off some all new bits of the world, including the Shooting Star, the fastest broom in existence. Studio Trigger has always done a great job at making their worlds truly come to life, including the epic over-the-top school of Kill la Kill and the galaxy of planets from Space Patrol Luluco. Despite that I’ve gotta say that this might just be their best work yet. Thanks to the backstory and creativity of this world, alongside the fantastic animation and background work, the world of Little Witch Academia jumps off the screen like nothing before it.

          The best part of the episode is without a doubt the entire finale. The broom race itself takes up a good chunk of the episode, and with good reason. Prior to this, we followed Akko and Lotte to visit a magical item store in town, where Akko discovered the legendary broom known as Shooting Star, a broom that can supposedly fly forever. She wants to use it to fly in the race, but the storekeeper warns her it’s too dangerous. Out of options, she turns to Sucy for help, resulting in a laugh out loud sequence where Akko is truly put through the wringer to try and get her broom off the ground.

          Then comes the race itself, and I’ll be completely honest in saying I was invested in every moment. Despite knowing that story-wise it was very likely Akko wasn’t going to win the race, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and with good reason, because not a second was wasted in making the race seem to move at breakneck pace.

          Sucy used her potions to give her team an advantage, growing spores that tied the opposition’s brooms to the ground and giving Akko a potion that gave her broom the ability to hop like a frog. Their lead didn’t last long however, as Amanda stole the Shooting Star for herself, only for it to escape her grasp and land in the hands of Akko.

          My one gripe with the episode is that things do kind of fly off the rails once Akko gets the Shooting Star. As the broom sort of has a will of its own, it flies her literally around the world before landing her back in the race at Luna Nova. Amanda tries to catch up with her, but is disqualified as Jasminka gave her a donut instead of the ring required to win the race. Then, just before the end, Akko loses control of the broom and Diana is crowned victor. It’s a bit of a crazy end and I am a little disappointed by Amanda kind of getting removed from the story (it would’ve made more sense to have her be the one to make Akko lose control of the broom, to be honest), but honestly it caps off this insane storyline well. As strange as it seems, I’m actually glad Akko didn’t win the race. She’s had 2 major successes so far, and to have her first major setback be broom-related will likely move her character forwards.

          This episode was fantastic on so many levels. I loved that we got even more worldbuilding around this magical school, with the introduction of the town outside Luna Nova and the Shooting Star broom. I loved the humour provided by Sucy, and Akko’s infectious determination is delightful as always. And, of course, the broom race truly showed that we’ve come to love the main trio over the course of just a few episodes and already want them to succeed, even when the odds are against them. This episode set the bar for what this series will be in the future, so I can only wish them good luck in surpassing it.

FINAL SCORE

10/10

Legendary

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Review: “The Patriot”

The Mystery of the Missing Suitcase

(This review contains spoilers!)

          Director Mace went front and center this week, as Senator Nadeer seems to be working from the shadows to destroy him once and for all, even going so far as to employ HYDRA soldiers to shoot down the Quinjet he was traveling in. Through this, Coulson and Mack discovered a dirty little secret he’s been hiding.

          Not much went on back at home base this week that didn’t tie back into the main plotline about Mace. We saw the return of Talbot, who took control of operations with both Mace and Coulson gone missing.

Meanwhile, Radcliffe and Aida spent their time catering to May, who actually woke up! She was put back to sleep almost immediately, yes, but this tells me the real May will be back sooner than later.

          The episode knew where the focus was meant to be, and that was with Mace, Coulson and Mack being stranded in the woods somewhere on a hunt for Mace’s secretive suitcase. What’s in the suitcase, you ask? Well, as it turns out, syringes pumped with formula that gives him his super-strength! Mace isn’t inhuman at all, and was only told to claim he was because Talbot couldn’t find an inhuman worthy of running S.H.I.E.L.D. That picture of him saving the lady in Vienna was nothing more than a picture of him tripping.

          Not only is this a great twist that I didn’t see coming, the aftermath of the twist is equally fantastic! In S.H.I.E.L.D’s past whenever some huge secret about somebody comes out, they usually result in turning evil or against Coulson or something else. Here, it actually allows Mace to turn over a new leaf and be honest about himself: he’s just an ordinary politician who wants equal rights for humans and inhumans. I’ve said many times before that Mace has been one of the best parts of the season, and this added onto that fact. He’s a much more relatable character as a result of this, and the fact he immediately wanted to resign is really telling that he’s a good person. Of course, he didn’t resign and will be sticking around, but I feel that he’s going to be a much more interesting character in the weeks to come as a result of us knowing him better.

          The episode did end with an interesting new development: as we know from last week, LMD May doesn’t know she’s not the real deal. This week, she was hurt badly in a fight to rescue Mack from one of the HYDRA goons, and in the final moments of the episode she discovered the metal beneath her flesh. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that LMD May isn’t lasting much longer, as the original May is already starting to wake up. When that happens and Radcliffe’s plot is finally revealed, the cast is likely going to stop trusting in each other, because anyone could be one of Radcliffe’s LMDs. All season Mace’s mantra has been “A team that trusts is a team that triumphs”, and I can’t wait to see that be put to the test.

          I’ve always said that S.H.I.E.L.D makes every episode feel like a season finale, and The Patriot is no different. While Mace’s dirty little secret was pushed to the backburner in the wake of the Ghost Rider storyline, the show did a great job of never really making you feel like you could trust him fully. Despite that, I do like that once his cover is blown open he’s not a mustache-twirling villain. He’s just a guy trying to do the right thing. I also think it’s good that this was gotten out of the way early on, as to give us more time to focus on the upcoming LMD storyline and give us more sympathy towards Mace’s crumbling ideals when everything inevitably goes wrong. I do wish the other main characters had more to do this week aside from react to Mace’s big secret, but S.H.I.E.L.D continued to do what it does best and make the most of every episode.

FINAL SCORE

8/10

Great