Hey guys! So summer is finally here,
and as the weather gets warmer and the water parks starts opening, things are
going to be changing a little bit on this blog, plus I’m going to be
introducing some new stuff that I really hope you’ll get excited about! So
let’s not waste any time and look over everything that’s happening this summer
here on CanadianYeti Reviews!
What’s staying the same?
Monday editorial: No need to worry, the game industry
keeps making messes for me to heckle them on regardless of what time of year it
is. Every Monday will have a brand new editorial as I talk about something
related to gaming throughout the summer like I always have. I can tease that
this Monday’s has already been finished, and revisits the topic of review
embargos, introducing sites like Rotten Tomatoes into the mix. I’m also working
on editorials about Star Wars Battlefront
II and Assassin’s Creed Origins,
so you can expect those sometime soon.
Game reviews: I’ve got plenty of games to play this
summer, so you can expect plenty of these over the next few months. If you
missed it, I put up a review of ARMS
yesterday, and you can check that out right here. The next game I’ll be talking
about will be RiME, and the review
for that one will be going live as soon as I write it.
Movie reviews: I don’t know how many of these I’ll
be doing this summer, since I don’t really go see movies unless they’re
something I know will be worth investing time in the theatre to see. But I can
guarantee that you’ll be getting a Spider-Man:
Homecoming review around when the movie comes out (most likely on July 7).
What’s changing?
Star Wars Saturday: This
was a tough decision to make, but considering how hard I work on this series I
felt it was a necessary one. While my bi-weekly Star Wars article series isn’t stopping anytime soon (I have topics
planned out through next January if you can believe that), scheduling of stuff
like anime and TV reviews are forcing a change of date.
When Inhumans launches this Fall, it will be on Friday nights instead of
the Tuesday slot S.H.I.E.L.D held for
years. This means that reviews for both those shows will go live on Saturday
morning. Similarly, a lot of the anime I’m planning on checking out this summer
air on Saturdays. So I had a choice to make: either stick to the original
weekday and risk the Star Wars content
competing with Marvel TV and anime reviews every week it goes live, or change
things up.
So I came to what I think is a
reasonable decision. As of today, Star
Wars Saturday and the Marvel TV reviews are officially swapping spots on my
blog’s schedule. With Inhumans reviews
going live on Saturday mornings starting in the Fall, Star Wars content will now be on Wednesday mornings. Next
Wednesday’s article will be the first ever Star Wars Wednesday, and I hope you
all look forward to this change.
TV Reviews
Timeless reviews: While
I’m extremely happy that my near endless pushes for this show to be renewed
ended in victory, from what I’ve heard we’re in for a bit of a wait before we
see the return of the Time Team. So until then, these reviews are going to be
on hiatus.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D reviews: Same
as Timeless, Coulson and crew are
going on an intergalactic vacation until January, and I can’t exactly review
something when there isn’t any content for me to write about. I’m looking
forward to watching and reviewing Inhumans
in the fall, but for now our Marvel TV reviews are taking a break.
Steven Universe reviews: I’ll
keep this one simple. Whenever this show decides it wants to come back, these
reviews will be back as well.
Anime Reviews
Little Witch Academia reviews: Unless
the fansubs are delayed, my review of the season finale and final thoughts on Little Witch Academia will be up bright
and early Monday morning. I’m also planning on doing a review guide of sorts
once the show goes live on Netflix, so if you’ve been waiting for official
release and want a quick and easy way to read along what I thought of each episode,
that’ll be a good way of doing it. I’m really going to miss this anime, but I
still hope we’ll see more of it someday.
Re:Creators reviews: These
aren’t going anywhere either, but I may be formatting them a little different
(as I’m going to explain in a second). Needless to say I’ve been enjoying this
anime a lot, and I’m absolutely going to see it through to the end.
Summer anime reviews: So here’s where things are getting a
bit tricky. I’ve picked out quite a few anime to review over the course of the
summer, but as always I’m probably going to drop a couple of them. Until then,
I don’t really have any plans set in stone for what I will and won’t be
reviewing.
The tricky part is that a lot of these
shows are airing on either Saturday or Sunday. The problem with this is that if
I do end up reviewing all the weekend shows, they might flood the blog. My
solution for this is the Weekly Anime
Review Roundup, where I review the episode of each show I watched one by
one in a single article each week. The Re:Creators
reviews will be included there from now on as well.
Like I said, I’m not 100% if I’ll be
going through with this plan yet as it all depends on which anime I decide to
watch and which I drop, but I’ll give an update in a few weeks on the
situation.
What’s new?
Salvation Reviews: So
this is a new show starting up in July I thought I’d check out. I know nothing
about it outside of the synopsis so I might just end up reviewing the pilot and
never watching the show again, but it’s worth a shot.
CanadianYeti Seasonal Specials: This is a project I’ve been thinking
about ever since I launched the bi-weekly Star
Wars content, and I’m finally ready to launch it!
Seasonal Specials is an entirely new
article series here, and it’s going to give me the freedom to write about more
unique topics instead of sticking to the usual reviews and occasional editorial
format I’ve been doing for over a year. How it’s going to work is every once in
a while I’ll pick a topic and do a few articles on it over the course of a few
weeks. It can be anything from extended top 10 lists to movies to games, as
long as it’s interesting and I have something to say about it.
The first Seasonal Special will start
sometime early on in July, and the theme is Summer of Stranger Things.
In preparation for the new season of Stranger
Things releasing later this year I’m finally going to watch the first
season and get all caught up. I’ll write an article about each of the 8
episodes over the course of 8 weeks, giving my thoughts on it and predictions
on where the story’s going to go.
So that’s my plans for the next few
months! As always thank you for reading, and I hope everyone has a great
summer!
I’ve never been a real fighting game
expert. I love me a round of Street
Fighter or Marvel vs. Capcom as
much as the next guy, but I’m most definitely not one of those people who can
master those extended combos and hold my own online.
So along comes ARMS, Nintendo’s first true foray into the classic 1v1 fighting
game genre. Being geared towards a younger audience, this game is much more
simplistic than others (no insane combos for one thing), but that doesn’t make
it any less fun than any other fighter.
ARMS
is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where the only thing humans find
enjoyment in anymore is beating the crap out of each other. They have now begun
experimenting with amputating their arms and tying slinky toys onto them
instead in an effort to find new and exciting ways to beat the crap out of each
other.
Okay, no, that’s not true. But the
explanation for how these characters got their stretchy arms is about as
ridiculous as that.
The gameplay of ARMS looks deceptively simple at first, but it’s hiding several
layers of strategy beneath its exterior. The absolute basics of it are
basically a glorified rock-paper-scissors. You have three tools in your
arsenal: punching, blocking, and grabbing. Punching counters grabbing, blocking
counters punching, and grabbing counters blocking. It’s a fairly simple concept…that
is immediately thrown into overdrive once you discover all the little
advantages you can give yourself just by playing smart.
Half of ARMS is the mind games you play with your opponent. One wrong move
can turn the entire tide of battle, so a lot of matches are spent circling your
opponent, trying to decide whether it’s smarter to try and get the jump on them
by making the first move, or waiting for them to throw a punch and try to
maneuver around behind them for a well-placed grab. It’s a strategy game as
much as it is a fighter, and a lot of high-level play online is all about
moving as fast as you can to position yourself in the right spot to take down
your opponent.
You also have plenty of different
characters and arm types to try out for a huge customization pool. Everyone’s
playstyle is represented here, whether you prefer to get up close and personal
or prefer fighting from a distance. Arms also have different elemental types,
such as fire, ice, slime, electricity and more that you can use to slow down
your foes in combat. Each of the characters also have unique abilities they can
use to their advantage. For example, Ribbon Girl has an extra jump she can use
to get the high ground, and Master Mummy heals himself while shielding. While
the characters various abilities don’t really come into play as often as the
various arm types, there are enough of them that it’s fun to experiment with
each until you find one that really clicks with you.
The overall presentation of the game
can only be described in one way: extremely Nintendo. The Big N’s influence is
all over this game, and in the best way. Each character is very distinct and
memorable, from the mech pilot Mechanica to the ramen noodle-inspired Min Min. Each
character has a very fun design, and you’ll quickly learn to recognize their
names and varying abilities over the course of gameplay. The music is also
great, despite being essentially the same song over and over again. The title
theme is one that especially never gets old even after playing for a while.
The game has two separate modes:
online and local. There is a single player mode in similar style to Classic
Mode from the Smash Bros games, but
it honestly feels like something tacked on at the last minute. You don’t get
any special reward for beating the mode (aside from a one-time unlock of online
Ranked Mode for completing it at a certain level), making it feel like
something you do once or twice to experiment with it and then never touch
again.
The real meat of the game is in the
online mode. There are two separate ways to play: Party Mode, which has a bunch
of crazy modes and extra stuff added in, and Ranked Mode, which is strictly 1v1
matches with no items.
Online is a lot of fun, but it does
have a few caveats. Firstly, Party Mode is more of a frustration than anything.
You are more often thrown into a wacky mode (2v2 with a rope attaching you with
a teammate, fighting a boss, and so on) than a real 1v1 fight, making it
annoying if all you want is to face off against another player. And secondly,
there is no ranking system in place in Party Mode, meaning that master ARMS champions and kids who just started
playing an hour ago can conceivably get matched together with none the wiser.
Unless you really want to play the admittedly fun sports minigames online, I’d
recommend spending the time in the singleplayer mode to unlock Ranked as
quickly as possible.
Ranked on the other hand is much more
fun, with only 1v1 matches allowed and a faster matchmaking system because of
it. You’re also only matched with players near your rank, so you are usually
put up against an opponent of similar skill to yours. When I play ARMS online from now on I think I’ll
only stick to Ranked mode if only because it’s my one shot at a fair fight.
There is one issue across the entire
online mode, unfortunately, and that’s what happens when you encounter a player
with poor connection. It’s very frequent that these players begin to lag,
which, in a bizarre twist of fate, gives them superpowers. Laggers will not
only gain speeds that would make Sonic the Hedgehog’s jaw drop, but also
invincibility to any and all attacks you throw at them. All punches will just
phase right through them as if they were a ghost, but unfortunately the same
cannot be said for you. Encountering a laggy player basically guarantees a loss
for you, because it’s not exactly a fair fight when you can’t even touch the
guy. I don’t know if this is just a problem for ARMS (because if the same situation happens again in Splatoon 2 I’d be really concerned for
this service we’re supposed to be paying for starting next year), but if it is
I really hope Nintendo fixes it sometime soon.
ARMS
is a lot of fun. The presentation is great, and I love the deceptively
simple gameplay that prioritizes quick thinking and strategy over mashing
buttons. Despite this, the singleplayer campaign is completely bare-bones and
the online multiplayer’s got a few kinks that need ironing out. I think if you’re
a fighting game fan this is an easy recommendation from me, if only because
there really isn’t anything else like it on the Switch right now.
My Top 10 Best
(and Top 5 Worst) Trailers from E3 2017
Well, another E3 has come and gone,
and with that it’s time to count down my favourite and least favourite trailers
from the conference. As always, my rules are that the trailers have to be
included in one of the six press conferences (so, for example, I can’t include Metroid: Samus Returns because it wasn’t
revealed until later). I also like to end the show on a high note, so we’ll be
going through the worst first.
(Disclaimer: Blogger won't let me put most of the actual trailers in this article, so I had to include links to them instead. I tried to include as many as possible, but for whatever reason I can't put most of the major ones in the article without using links. Sorry!)
Top 5 Worst
Trailers from E3 2017
5. The Crew 2
(Ubisoft)
As good as Ubisoft’s conference was
this year, they weren’t exactly squeaky-clean. This trailer served as a
reminder of sorts of the company’s past, and was one of the most overlong and
drawn out trailers of the conference.
I’ve never really been the type of guy
interested in realistic driving games. If I’m going to play a racing game, at
least give me one where I can use items to try to get ahead or play on wacky
and creative courses. I can see why they have an audience though.
The big problem with this trailer
compared to the Forza and Need for Speed trailers we saw at other
conferences is that it neither looked interesting nor showed any actual
gameplay. It’s mostly just glamour shots of various vehicles while an
uncomfortable silence lingers over the whole thing. Maybe there were Sony-esque
sound issues and the music was lost by accident? If so, whoops.
4. State of Decay
2 (Microsoft)
Now what we have here is a failure to
communicate.
Trailers are a great way to quickly
explain what sort of feel you’re aiming for with your new game. Is it going to
be silly or serious? Colorful or grim? Maybe a bit of both?
I think the developers of State of Decay 2 are aiming for the bit
of both, but this trailer was a complete mishmash of themes that it felt really
disjointed. On one hand you have this edgy voiceover talking about how the
zombie apocalypse is awful and how they can barely survive and the tough
decisions they have to make…accompanied by imagery of incredibly goofy looking
zombies that explode into green slime. Doesn’t exactly go together.
Couple that with the fact that I think
we as gamers are really past post-apocalypse zombie games. Unless one really
does something new with the formula (Days
Gone for example looks like it has potential), I personally am really tired
of wandering through these brown and barren wastelands.
Sony really dropped the ball this
year. After crowning themselves as the kings of E3 for several years now, they
made several mistakes with this conference that ultimately led to many viewers
feeling pretty darn unfulfilled.
One of the major problems they had
this year was that they slammed on the breaks right smack in the middle of the
conference to talk about what tech demos are coming to PlayStation VR next. I
was hoping that Sony was going to give the expensive peripheral a quiet and
dignified death now that the VR fad is coming to a close, but no! Instead we
got seven minutes straight of games nobody
is going to play.
That’s not to say that some of the
games shown here didn’t look somewhat interesting. Moss and Starchild both
look pretty unique. But those were compounded with stuff like yet another
first-person horror game, a Final Fantasy
fishing simulator, and even Skyrim VR,
telling me that Bethesda is still not ready to let that game die and make an Elder Scrolls VI even after six years.
The biggest problem with Sony’s
conference was that they didn’t really show us anything new or exciting outside
of the Horizon: Zero Dawn DLC and Monster Hunter World, and I think the
giant chunk of time lost to messing around with a peripheral people have
already lost interest in really hurt them more than it helped.
2. EA Sports…just,
like, all of it (EA)
Someone please tell EA to stop with
the sports. Every year they inject more and more of these games into their
conferences, and every year they become more and more unwatchable as a result.
This year saw half the conference lost
to sports, sports and more sports. I wouldn’t mind so much except that I know
these games will be identical to the ones that came out last year, and the year
before that, and the year before that. I know they have to be there for the
investors, but why do they need to take up half the conference!? Microsoft and
Ubisoft always do a good job at getting stuff like Forza and Just Dance out
of the way either early on or quickly, because they know that’s not really the
type of game people watching E3 are going to buy. Why does EA have to drown us
in sports every year?
With Ubisoft looking like there’s a
chance they might be following in Microsoft’s footprints and redeeming
themselves (either that or I’m just way too naïve), EA needs a new partner.
Someone to continue gaming’s most infamous Dastardly Duo with them. What
company would be perfect to take Ubi’s place at EA’s side…?
I suppose congratulations
are in order. Bethesda now holds the notorious record at being ranked #1 on
both my 2016 and 2017 versions of this list. Last year saw them at the top spot
for their laughably awful Elder Scrolls
Legends trailer. This year sees them winning the unwanted prize for
announcing one of the slimiest things E3’s seen since Activision got Jamie
Kennedy to host for them.
I don’t know why
Bethesda’s suddenly begun to fall down the slippery slope towards video game
infamy. It started last year when they introduced their offensively bad review
policy, and with the announcement of their Creation Club they’ve officially
joined companies like EA, Ubisoft, Konami and Activision at the absolute bottom
of the barrel.
If you missed it,
Creation Club is just another way Bethesda’s trying to get money out of your
wallet. Bethesda games are normally a modder’s paradise, allowing fans to add
everything from lightsabers to Thomas the Tank Engine into their games. Knowing
this, Bethesda has now decided to create a service where they can charge money
for stuff other people made and have all that green go to them instead of the
creators. If that sounds like a complete joke to you, you’re not wrong,
especially when mods are generally released for absolutely no cost basically
every day on the Steam Workshop.
Bethesda, who hurt you?
How did the respected developer of stuff like Skyrim and Fallout 3 end
up as yet another scum sucker? I said this to you last year, and I’ll say it
again. Shame on you, Bethesda.
Top 10 Best Trailers
from E3 2017
10. Metroid Prime 4
(Nintendo)
This trailer is just a logo floating
in space, but c’mon. It’s Metroid Prime 4.
I’m not even a Metroid fan and this
got my hyped.
This trailer existing
really shows that while at times Nintendo can be one of the most frustrating
companies to be a fan of, at the end of the day they truly listen to their
fans. This year marks a decade since the release of the last game in the Prime subseries (as well as many would
argue the last actually good Metroid game),
and fans have been begging for some new content from Samus and company. While I
think Nintendo should’ve delivered on that plea sooner, it’s nice to have Metroid fans finally been thrown a bone.
I’ve made my intense
dislike of 2015’s Star Wars Battlefront very
clear in the past. It opened quite a few doors I was not eager to see other
companies go through, including basically needing to buy the game twice just so
you could get 75% of the content. Needless to say as a huge Star Wars fan I was very unhappy with
the final product, and I am more than thankful past-me was smart enough not to
fall for the Season Pass trick.
While my better judgement
is telling me that I shouldn’t be interested in Battlefront II, the way EA presented it was just about the only
thing they did right at E3 this year. They’ve done nothing but apologize for
the stunts they pulled with the first game, and having them admit they listened
to all the criticism while making this game really makes me happy.
This trailer showed off
quite a bit of gameplay over the course of all the available eras in game, and
it looks to be a lot of fun, even though most of it looks to be CGI nonsense.
What I like significantly more is the promises coming with the game. Not only
will we be getting an actual singleplayer campaign, but they’ve also said that Battlefront II will be getting the Splatoon treatment, with all the
characters, weapons and maps will release absolutely free. So long as you have
the game, you get everything they make.
While my personal belief
is that this should be the industry standard, only time will tell if EA sticks
to this promise. Here’s hoping.
BioWare’s been put into an interesting situation, to say
the least. If rumours are to be believed, the failings of Mass Effect: Andromeda might’ve killed their golden goose franchise
for the time being, so when EA announced we’d be seeing what the legendary
sci-fi developer was up to next at Microsoft’s conference, I was both excited
and a little skeptical.
While this trailer didn’t
show too much, it was enough to really pique my interest. Flying around in a
jungle environment, shooting up monsters and robots, exploring and discovering
secrets, getting new gear and completing quests? Yes, please.
This trailer does lose
points for employing Ubisoft’s old trick of having voice actors talk over the
trailer pretending to be gamers, however. It worries me because Ubisoft so
often used that trick to try and make dull and lifeless games feel much more
alive. Remember how often we saw trailers for The Division with the fake mic chatter over them only to find the
game was far less exciting when we actually had it in our hands?
Despite that, this game
looks like a lot of fun. I really hope they don’t screw this one up.
I’ve never played the
first Beyond Good and Evil, so I’m
not nearly as excited for this game as most other people are. But I won’t deny
an awesome trailer its well-deserved spot on its list.
While the lack of
gameplay is a bit frustrating (and makes me feel like we’re not actually going
to get this game for another two years at least), this trailer is a lot of fun.
The characters are entertaining and the animations on them look great. If the
actual game looks like this, we’ll be in for a treat.
I do have to say that I’m
on the side of the people who find the swearing a little bit out of place and
even a bit juvenile. Like, it gets to the point where they drop enough f-bombs
that you wonder if a sixth-grader had a hand in writing the dialogue. It’s not
a huge problem, just something I’d like them to tone back on a bit, especially
since I’ve heard the first game wasn’t really that kind of game.
Despite that, I’m glad
that fans of the first game are finally getting the sequel they’ve been
promised for years now. Between this and Metroid,
this E3 had a lot of companies making good on old promises.
Another game from a franchise I’ve never touched (I’ve
gotta work on my backlog), we saw this new take on God of War for the first time last year. This trailer further
pushed the point that this is a whole new chapter in Kratos’ adventures.
Leaving his Greek past
behind and now venturing to fight Norse mythology, a lot of the game looks like
it’s going to be focused on Kratos’ relationship with his son, as they go on
many father/son bonding adventures, like watching dad rip frost giants apart
with his bare hands.
One thing I love about
this trailer is how much gameplay and combat it shows, while also showing off
cutscenes. So often nowadays we either get one or the other in a trailer, so
it’s nice seeing that these mixup trailers aren’t a thing of the past. Also,
having the trailer end with the two of them encountering Nidhogg the world
snake is just epic.
It’s weird to think that
after all these years there still isn’t really a definitive gaming pirate
experience. Yes, there’s Assassin’s
Creed: Black Flag, but I’ve personally always wanted a full-on pirate
adventure that stands alone, not being tied to another franchise.
Skull and Bones looks like it might be just the game I needed.
While we saw very little
of the game (it’s not due until fall of next year), I was very impressed by it.
The trailer is awesome, teasing epic multiplayer pirate ship showdowns not
dissimilar to the stuff you see in Guns
of Icarus. They also teased sea monsters will be in the game as well, and
it’s impossible to hate a game that involves the Kraken in some way.
How on Earth did an Assassin’s Creed game make the list!? I
thought these games were the same thing recycled year after year?
Well, they are, but even
if this game turns out to be just another brick in the Assassin’s Creed wall, Microsoft did a great job at showing it off.
Right off the bat you can see that this game looks to be a departure from the
series norm. Instead of being in a historical city, this game is set all the
way back in the time of pharaohs and sphinxes. There are animals like hippos
and hyenas all over the map. And, perhaps the coolest addition, the end of the
trailer sees our intrepid hero squaring off against a giant snake. Bosses will
supposedly feature heavily in this game, a first for the franchise.
The fact that this game
really interests me makes me feel that taking last year off was the right thing
for the franchise to do. Assassin’s Creed
has grown insanely exhausted as Ubisoft attempted to put out a game a year,
and now that it’s back after taking a break, I really think there’s a chance
for it to bounce back.
It’s weird to think that after all
these years there still isn’t really a definitive gaming pirate experience.
Yes, there’s Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag,
but I’ve personally always wanted a full-on pirate adventure that stands alone,
not being tied to another franchise.
Sea of Thieves looks like it might be just the game I needed.
Wait, hang on a second.
Yes, this is the other
pirate game we saw at E3 this year, and to be honest, as cool as Skull and Bones looks this one was more
appealing to me. Maybe it’s the more colourful art design or the apparent focus
on treasure hunting and exploration over ship combat (although they have some
of that too).
This trailer was a huge
improvement over the one we saw last year, which was so bad it actually made my
worst trailers list. This trailer had a lot of Rare’s trademark wit, utilized a
much more Pirates of the Caribbean inspired
take on piracy than we’re used to seeing in gaming. I think this game could be
a lot of fun either alone or with a group of friends, and Rare is a company
long overdue for a comeback.
As internationally
beloved Mario is, for me his 3D games haven’t been the best ever since the Galaxy games came to a close. 3D Land was a fun platforming adventure,
albeit an unmemorable one, and I found 3D
World extremely boring. I wanted more than anything for his next adventure
to be more like 64, Sunshine or the Galaxy games instead of just another rehash
of the 3D game formula.
Knowing this, I had high
hopes for Super Mario Odyssey, and
the first trailer really had my fingers crossed. This trailer really
exemplifies everything that made the 3D Mario
games of the past so great, while also showing off some new tricks I can’t
wait to try out.
From first glance I’d say
Mario Odyssey looks to be a successor
to Mario Sunshine above all else.
Similar to your F.L.U.D.D pack in Sunshine,
this game sees Mario’s hat become a tool he can use to complete levels and
gather collectibles. The coolest new ability Mario has in his arsenal is the
ability to take control of various enemies and objects, using their abilities
for himself. It’s awesome, yet at the same time unsettling. Does this mean
Mario’s very soul is tied to his hat?
This game looks like it’s
going to be yet another must-have for Nintendo Switch owners, and I can’t wait
to go on this odyssey with gaming’s number one man.
And, finally, my
favourite game of E3 2017 is…
1. Spider-Man (Sony)
I’ve wanted an awesome Spider-Man game not based off of any of
the movies for years now. The Arkham games
did a great job of creating a fantastic Batman experience, so much so that
basically that any combat system similar to the one it created is still called
“Arkham style” to this day. Why
couldn’t Marvel do the same for its most famous hero?
First teased last year,
I’ve wanted to see more of this game ever since that all-too-brief teaser
ended. And boy, did Sony ever deliver. This trailer basically single-handedly
took a mediocre conference and turned it into a good one.
This game seems to wear
its Arkham inspirations on its sleeve
in the combat, while still creating a perfect Spidey experience while swinging
through New York. The controls on Spider-Man look to be not too tight, but not
too lose either, allowing for a lot of awesome third-person parkour
possibilities. I also like that the developers seem to be taking inspiration
from newer Spidey material, utilizing lesser known characters and villains like
Miles Morales and Mr. Negative.
Honestly, the only thing
I didn’t like about this trailer is that I have to wait until 2018 to play the
game.
So another E3 under the
belt, and while this one was overall pretty even, it did a great job of getting
me excited for what’s to come next from the gaming industry. I’m already
looking forward to 2018!
We’ve finally arrived at the grand
finale. Now that all the main characters are in one place, it’s finally time to
confront Croix and stop her master plan once and for all.
The first showdown between Chariot and
Croix was one of the best animated pieces we’ve seen in this entire show, and
while this second battle was significantly shorter, it had the advantage of us
getting to see Chariot using a lightsaber. While some might say it’s a little
out of place, I have a counter argument:
It’s awesome, shut up.
But things don’t go well, as Croix
uses the giant evil Shiny Rod to teleport back to where it all began: Arcturus
Forest. Our heroes follow (and literally all of them are there), and it’s not
long before they all square off against Croix.
Despite the large cast, this is
Chariot’s episode through and through. Her relationships with Croix and Akko
both have an extremely satisfying ending here, with her deciding to save Croix
instead of letting her die by her own machine gone amok, and her final talk
with Akko about who she is and what they mean to each other.
When this series started I felt that
Akko learning Ursula’s true identity was kind of an inevitability. The question
was how they were going to do it. Knowing Akko’s character I figured it could
go either two ways: either really, really
over-the-top, involving a lot of screaming and wacky faces, or have
something go wrong and have the two need to talk it out later. The writers
(perhaps thankfully) went with the latter, and the scene where Akko finally
forgives Chariot was near perfect. I do think the animation on them looked a
little weird during the whole thing, but the dialogue about how Akko, despite
everything, still loves Chariot was pitch perfect.
This led to the discovery of the
seventh and final word, as Akko gained the power of the Grand Triskelion, which
she used to create lots of flowers and rainbows and butterflies and all that
good stuff. Everyone looks happy…until, of course, we cut to some ominous
beeping and what looks like a nuke made by Croix hurtling into space. That’s
probably not good.
So the big question is how this is
going to wrap up. Considering the tone of this anime (and since the director
has said that he wants to do more with these characters) I think there’s
extremely little chance we’ll be getting anything other than a happy ending.
One thing I really hope doesn’t happen that I’ve seen people suggesting is that
it ends with a Space Patrol Luluco crossover.
As much as I love that anime, having a random character from another show be
the one to finish the story here would just kick the legs out from underneath
the finale, and sort of screw up Little
Witch’s intent to be an anime for people who don’t watch anime.
I really would like to see all of the
characters get a moment in the spotlight for the last episode, especially Lotte
and Sucy who’ve barely done anything this cour. Having all the major players in
one place and a massive end-game villain to fight seems like the perfect place
to give everyone some time to shine. It’d also be awesome to finally see the
return of the Shooting Star broom from Episode 3, something they’ve been
hinting at literally over the course of the entire series.
But before we can get to the big end,
we have to talk about this week, and yes, it was yet another extremely stellar
episode. The fight scene was just plain awesome, even if it didn’t quite match
up with the setting of the series, and Akko reconciling with Chariot was
everything I’d hoped it’d be. I will say that the animation wasn’t quite as
amazing as it’s been over the course of the show (I really hope their budget
isn’t running out), and that kind of made a few scenes look a little strange.
Other than that, this penultimate episode of the season was well worth the
wait.
We’ve officially reached the halfway
point of our adventures with the creations and creators, and this episode was definitely
a tonal shift from what we’ve been seeing for the last few weeks. Altair and
Magane are nowhere to be seen, and the episode focuses on Sota as he finally tells the truth about his past
with Altair. Now that that’s out of the way, I don’t see him as a waste of
space anymore.
Instead I see him as a terrible person
now, but I digress.
The creations are recovering from
their injuries from last week’s showdown, so that means it’s time for idle
chitchat! In all seriousness, the characters do have some nice genuine moments
together, including a very good scene where Selesia and her creator go over the
merits of creating a fictional world for others to see. It’s a genuine
conversation you’d think for these two characters to have, and it makes me
really happy Selesia is back in the spotlight.
The mech guy also finally does something this week! Yeah, remember him? He’s still in
this show! He turns out to be the one that finally encourages Sota to tell the
truth about his past to everyone and how he can make a change despite being
human. It’s a very Kingdom Hearts-esque
speech, but one that rings through nonetheless.
So now it’s finally time to see what’s
going on with Sota and that mysterious girl from his past. And…it’s basically
what we already knew. The two of them hung out, but when her art started to get
more popular than his they drifted apart. Then someone accused her of plagiarism,
and now she’s dead. Simple and easy.
The flashback scene felt pretty darn underwhelming
for two specific reasons: one, we already basically knew what was going to
happen thanks to the show outright telling us a few episodes back. And second,
the voice actress for the girl wasn’t quite up to snuff. Her delivery made her
feel like a parody of the typical romance anime love interest instead of a character
of herself. If the character ever comes back I really hope she does a better
job.
This really felt like the “breather
episode” after the breakneck pace back-to-back fight scenes we’ve had for the
past few weeks, and there’s nothing wrong with that. These episodes give us
time to build characters that we really haven’t seen in a while because of all
the action, like Selesia and the mech guy (I’ll learn his name someday, I
swear!) Despite this, this episode felt kind of skippable, especially since
they all but told us what happened to that girl a few episodes ago. It was
extremely easy to put the puzzle pieces together just from the info we had, so
I think the only reason why they spelled it out for us was so the other
characters could get that information. This episode was a weaker one, but it’s
easily forgiven when you remember how good this anime’s been the last few
weeks.
Have
you ever wanted to visit a world you’ve seen in the movies? Maybe you’ve always
dreamed of getting a Hogwarts acceptance letter, or you’ve wanted to board the
bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise.
I
personally have always wanted to travel to that galaxy far, far away we’ve only
seen on the big screen (plus this is a Star
Wars series, what’d you expect me to say?) While Disney is still a few
years away from truly creating a real-life Star
Wars outpost in their theme parks, today I’d like to talk about the
original real-life Star Wars experience:
Star Tours.
First
opened at Disneyland in California in 1987, Star
Tours was advertised as “The Ultimate Star
Wars Adventure!” on posters around the park. Being released just a few
years after the launch of Return of the
Jedi, people everywhere were looking for the next bit of content from their
favourite movie series. And, having ridden it several times myself, the
original Star Tours delivered on
their expectations.
Star Tours was a simulator ride, meaning
you sat in a small theatre that moved and jerked around in accordance to what
was happening on the screen. The ride put you in the role of a passenger on
Star Tours, the canonical airline in the Star
Wars galaxy. Here you’re going to travel to the moon of Endor for a
relaxing getaway with the Ewoks. Upon entering the queue the first thing you’ll
see is C-3PO and R2-D2 watching from beyond the queue fences, making banter
about the flight company and their new jobs there. Meanwhile up above, a crew
of Mon Calamari monitor their progress and ensure they don’t get too off-task.
There’s also a large ship sitting right in the middle, known as the Starspeeder 3000. This is the craft
you’ll be riding in just a moment.
Going
further down the queue, you encounter other small droids that work on repairs
and make snide remarks about the ships and pilots Star Tours employs. After a
brief but memorable safety video, it’s time to board the Starspeeder and meet your new pilot: Captain Rex.
Uh,
no, not him. The other Captain Rex.
Yeah,
that’s the one.
Rex,
or RX-24, is new to this whole “flying” thing, but with the help of R2, he’s
sure he can get everyone to Endor safely. Things almost immediately begin to go
wrong, as he takes the wrong turn off the landing pad and flies through a
maintenance tunnel. Once he makes his way out of there, the jump to lightspeed
is made…and we fly right past Endor.
From
there we encounter all sorts of trouble, including comets, Star Destroyers, and
even a third Death Star. (A favourite little bit of trivia of mine is that,
since the original Star Tours was
considered canon in the old Expanded Universe, they had to retcon in the Empire
somehow building a third Death Star after Return
of the Jedi. Most authors ignored this entirely, but it did officially
happen at some point in the old universe.) The ride ends with us performing the
iconic trench run, blowing up the station and returning to home base before
anything else can go wrong.
Like
most rides it’s much rather seen than heard about, so I’d recommend giving the
whole experience a watch right here:
Star Tours was a delightful little
corner of the galaxy that everyone seemed to love. So what happened to it?
Well, it’s still there…sort of. The old film was retired in 2010, and the ride
was revamped into Star Tours: The
Adventures Continue in 2011, which is a better ride in all respects. Now,
instead of one linear story, Star Tours plays
out like a randomized choose your own adventure book, with multiple different
planets you can see, including Tatooine, Hoth, Coruscant, and even Jakku. C-3PO
is your unwitting pilot this time around instead of Rex, and his bickering with
R2 adds a lot of extra humour to the ride.
As
for Rex himself, he’s still very much a part of the Star Wars universe. RX model droids have been used as pilots in Star Wars Rebels as a fun nod to the
classic ride. But if you’re looking for the original character, you need to
look no further than the Star Tours queue.
After you leave the room with R2 and 3PO, look to your left. He’s pretty hard
to miss if you’re looking for him. It looks like poor old Rex has finally been
marked as defective after all these years, and every once in a while he’ll
spout some garbled dialogue from the original ride. Give him a nod if you ever
see him.
I’ll
probably do an article going into further detail on Adventures Continue someday, but this trip down memory lane was a
fun one for me. The original Star Tours was
one of my first experiences with Star
Wars outside of the movies, and even though the updated version is a much
improved version of the ride, I’ll always have a soft spot for Rex and the
crazy adventure he took us on.
Warriors
games are some of my ultimate guilty pleasures. Yes, they’re extremely
simplistic and even a little stupid, but I can’t help but enjoy them. It’s just
fun to mow down enemies like you were cutting grass. Spirit of Sanada is no different, being a very enjoyable experience
for fans of the franchise, but one I wish took a few more chances.
Set during ancient Japan, Spirit of Sanada has you playing as
Masayuki Sanada, the head of his family clan and actually a real person from
Japanese history. Despite this, the developers took some liberties with his
appearance. Here he is in the game:
And here’s the real deal:
Yeah, it’s a little different.
The story overall is the weakest part
of the game. I don’t know if it’s based on actual stuff that happened in
ancient Japan, but a lot of it is “go here, take over this kingdom, rinse and
repeat”. The writing doesn’t make it much better. The characters all constantly
state the obvious out loud, often to the point where the dialogue is just
laughable. Maybe it sounds better in the game’s native language of Japanese,
but I have no way of telling.
The frustrating thing is that a good
30% of your time in this game is spent watching cutscenes. Most of them are thankfully
skippable, allowing you to the next bit of action quickly, which I began doing
once I realized this plot was going nowhere fast.
Much better is the actual gameplay
itself. Spirit of Sanada is your
typical Warriors fare: you’re dropped
into a map surrounded by enemies with very little health, and are given a bunch
of fun special abilities to use. Go nuts. There’s obviously objectives and
stuff to do, but easily the most fun part is charging into a group of enemies
and just watching them fly as you one-man army your way around the map.
As for the rest of the game, the
graphics are pretty good considering this game was also released on the PS3 in
Japan. It’s definitely one of the better looking “anime-style” games I’ve
played recently. The music is also passable, but it has a weird problem of
playing the wrong tracks at the wrong time. There’s a scene where Sanada is
talking to a friend about the tragedies of war with epic fight music playing in
the background. It doesn’t exactly fit.
There’s really not much else to say
about Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada.
I think just by watching a video of it you will immediately be able to tell
whether you’ll enjoy it or not. As someone who likes Warriors games I found it to be a very enjoyable experience, albeit
one I won’t exactly be lining up to play again any time soon.
