God of War 1 and 2 Brief Thoughts

God of War(2005):

Good solid foundation for later GOW games and the story is the best in the series overall. But it has it's problems, the combat while not bad and the game does a good job at shaking things up with puzzles and platforming, the combat sections later in the game get a little overwhelming fighting the game enemies again and again. Some of the platforming and the Hades section is pretty bad, but it's a solid foundation.

God of War 2:

Where GOW found it's stride gameplay wise, the situational depth is truly incredible. The way it interconnects all the combat mechanics with jumping and platforming makes it better than the first. The story is worse but Kratos is still the high point of the story.

Earth Maiden Arjuna Review

I haven't been so conflicted watching an anime in a long while. The show is interesting at points and it can be thought provoking, but the whole story kind of just feels confused to me. It could be because it wasn't what I wanted it to be or that the first 2 episodes may have put my expectations out of whack but I was expecting this to be some kind of superhero globe trotting adventure show where Tokio, Juna and the SEED orangization go on adventures together defeating Raja and then some lesson and points about enviromentalism would be brought up while it was going on. I was expecting this to be some kind of monster of the week with an underlying over arching plot which would slowly reveal itself.

But it was ultimately a slice of life show with heavy enviromentalism themes with the show occasionally reminding you that Juna has superpowers. Juna would be struggling to live her day to day life and has that weird love triangle while problems around the world were happening and Seed was dealing with that. The latter was more interesting to me, and I care more about that because it felt bigger and more important then Juna's family problems or whether or not she still has the ability to eat "manufactured" food. I also got annoyed by the character of Chris and his endless philosophical ramblings and him constantly telling Juna that she "doesn't get it" throughout most of the show. The best way I can say it is, I wish the show had thought provoking themes and all that enviromentalism talk while also having a plot that was more engaging. Maybe I just wanted this show to be something like a cross between Blood Plus, Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex and Witch Hunter Robin but with heavy themes about how humanity treats the planet. I do feel being more like those shows could've quelled how lukewarm I am on the plot of this series overall.

I will admit, the OST and the dub did carry me through much of the show. I have a soft spot for the Ocean Group since back in the 00s, those guys were in a lot of animations and I get nostalgic listening to them. I always did like it when Shadowcat from X-Men Evolution pops up in anything.

Overall, this show was a weird experience, I can't decide I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would because it "subverted" my expectations or because the overall writing execution was sub par. It's alright, but I was very conflicted while watching and I probably only finished it at all was because I don't like leaving short anime series "unfinished".

Dragon Ball Z Battle of Gods Review

Watching Dragon Ball Battle of Gods for the first time in almost 10 years is kind of weird, I remember being so hyped up for the movie and remember being so let down by it, but watching it again, it was...alright. In some ways it's the best DB movie ever made by that point.

Beerus did have more character than most DB movie villains who most of them just wanted to rule the world or kill Goku because reasons, and they did do a decent job at building him up as a threat in typical DB fashion of excessively using the worf effect but that's what defined the series so I am fine with it. It is rather amusing how much they played on the whole, "DB villain blowing up the planet when they are pissed" by having the literal God of Destruction get angry over not eating pudding. It was dumb to me years back but now I find it hilarious.

Vegeta's portrayal which is the most infamous aspect of the movie I found to be kind of interesting, it's basically Vegeta trying to quell Beerus by not resorting to force because he knew couldn't do it after remember his father and beating Goku. That and he didn't want to turn his wife's birthday party into a battleground fighting someone he knows he can't beat. Him being stronger than Goku after hitting Bulma was strange but it's not too out of place in the series.

The weird part of it all is, once Goku comes back to earth, the movie actually goes downhill. Goku just randomly comes up with a plan to ask Shenron about the Super Saiyan God form yet I don't even recall Shenron ever knowing much about Saiyans at all, and this is the biggest problem with the movie, Goku's whole disappointment of obtaining power not because of his determinating, interesting idea on paper, but it's so awkwardly executed because it gets mentioned right when he becomes the SSG, I would've given him a subplot where during the party Goku just has to accept he can't just use his own power to beat Beerus, he also just popped up on earth out of nowhere after being MIA for so long. That and the movie was basically an overly expensive TV pilot than actually feeling like a standalone movie but overall, it was alright.

Saint Seiya Hades OVAs Review

I enjoyed the Hades arc when it started but the arc to got more boring as it went on. I can't really put my finger around it, the fact that they spent multiple episodes fighting 2 gods when they already spent episodes fighting the Spectres, the "God Clothes" came out of nowhere, Hades gets beaten in a super anti climatic way with Saori beating him with the power of "love". Seiya's sister coming out of nowhere and despite Sanctuary attacking Marin for being Japanese, no one ever even spotted or even noticed that there was another Japanese woman in Sanctuary before she showed up, a lot of the other characters mostly being sidelined and were just cheerleaders. The amount of times characters die, get brought back and then die again. The ending being super anti climatic.

Honestly, by the time I was done this part of the arc, I was glad it was all over. Not because it's bad but it was really starting wear out it's welcome both the arc and the tropes the series loves to pull as a whole like characters dying but then coming back then dying again, Saori getting kidnapped or is a damsel in every arc(seriously the reincarnation of Athena in this series was basically a purple haired Princess Peach), and the fights being special move spamming and then the characters saying, "the same move doesn't work twice" just to spam the same attacks again, all of it was just starting to get tiresome. I did wish the ending was better so I could've felt satisfied when I got to the end but I am left underwhelmed.

I get a lot of the behind the scenes drama regarding the series, and the whole thing reminds me of something that would happen in Marvel and DC with editors disagreeing with what the creators want but all of it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I wish I can say I got *something* from watching the Hades OVAs and the Overtrue movie, but all I get is just is "why did I bother?" I am sounding like a downer but that's how I felt.

Short Game Reviews: April 2022

 Invincible Iron Man Review:

This is a pretty decent game but I feel like it could be more. I mainly checked it out because this was an Iron Man game based on the comics. This is basically a 2D shoot em up in the style of Contra and Metal Slug and the game does what it tries to do well enough. The enemy death animations and carnage that happens on screen looks nice with those GBA sprites. The game does look and feel fun to play and it does that job well enough.

However, what holds the game back is how much gets reused. The same enemies gets reused a lot but with a color swap and not much else, the game makes you fight Blizzard twice, and the game never really does a whole lot to deviate from, "shoot stuff then an occasional platforming challenge", it's all fine and functional but doesn't really stand out when the Iron Man skin gets removed.

Another thing I feel like could be better is that the game lacks a lot of combat options even stuff the games it borrows from has like Metal Slug. Metal Slug gives you a melee attack and more distinct and different weapon variety than this game does. It feels strange for a game called "Iron Man" and Tony being a guy who makes weapons, all he has is 2 forms of attack and can't even punch anyone.

Still, it's a decent enough short little romp.

Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem:

Its basically more Serious Sam 4 which is a good thing since I loved SS4. Cutscenes are still badly optimized and optimization overall isn't great but it has way less cutscenes than the base game so it didn't bother me that much.

If you loved SS4 at all, this is a must play then again you probably got it already.

War of the Monsters:

Not a bad game, it sort of feels like Marvel Nemesis Rise of the Imperfects in that it's an "arena" fighter with lots of open space, makeshift weapons, destructible enviroments, and an "energy meter" to do special attacks. I do think this game is better but what holds this game back overall is that the camera controls feel very awkward, I feel like if the game let you move the camera with the right stick and had lock on be a simple button press rather than holding L1 and R1, then the game would just feel better to play as a result.

The bosses can get pretty irritating at times but the forgiving checkpoint system where you respawn at each phase of the boss as well as having your 3 lives back after every game over as well really mitigated a lot of the potential frustration the game could've given me.

Honestly, I consider this game to be a solid hidden gem on the PS2.

Timesplitters 2:

Good game overall, a massive improvement over what Perfect Dark tried to do. The level design is much better, it has far more charm, and the various movie genre parodies were pretty funny and amusing. The guns feel amazing and satisying and the OST is one of the best in gaming.

Now, the big issues I have which I think a modern remaster can fix if done well is more checkpoints, more medkits throughout the levels, and better aiming controls can greatly improve the game. I can't play on any difficulty above easy due to the controls especially.

Still worth checking out, until there is a modern remaster, I say emulate the game and tinker with the controls in the in game options to have strafe on left stick and camera controls on right. And also when you set the camera controls on the right stick, go to the emulator controller settings and invert the controls on the right stick because you can't play TS2 with camera on right stick with the normal up and down. It's weird, so weird, but for me, easy mode plus this control option is the most enjoyable way to play as of now.

Super Mario Galaxy:

Definately one of my favorite games in the 3D Mario games, it's level design and how it messes around with gravity is pretty damn creative. Every level is iterating on what was done previously, and no gimmick gets used once. The only bad thing about the game is the motion control stuff but other than that, I really enjoy it.

Twisted Metal Head On:

This is a pretty good brainless fun kind of game to play casually. This and TM Black are tied for my favorite games in the series. The bosses are pretty bad but other than that it's pretty solid fun.

Donkey Kong Country 3:

Unpolular opinion: I prefer Donkey Kong Country 3 over 2. 3 just had way less bullshit moments and animal transformation crap for me. First one is still the best of the trilogy.

Yoshi's Story:

An N64 game I actually do like which is funny but that is because it's in 2D and not attempting to be 3D. Overall, the collecting aspect was kind of interesting and probably the only 2D platformer non metroidvania game to have an interesting take on collecting because it's not mandatory secret hunting but you have to look around and collect in order to progress. But it is rather short, like it is really short, I can picture people who bought back in the day not to find the game to be worth the price but it's a decent enough ride and worth playing for the short run time it lasts.

Boomerang X:

It's a cool game but it's way too fast paced for a controller. It's impressive how they made an fps with one weapon so engaging.

At the same time, I wished the game was in third person rather than first. It'd be easier to know where enemies are attacking me, easier to tell where my position is in the air, and split second landings would be easier to pull off. 

Every time I am in the air, I always have to look where my character is in proportion to the ground, it's a game where your weapon is also your primary way of battlefield traversal and third person just makes it more clear where my character is when enemies are attacking me from all sides.

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege Review

Onimusha 3 is a good game and it's my favorite in the series overall. The level design is quite good and it handles backtracking much better than Devil May Cry 3 and 4 do.

Onimusha 3 does a good job having exploration but not having get in the way of the action gameplay. The puzzles are simple enough without being overbearing and the backtracking feels like it gives you enough information without feeling like you are going in circles.

The visuals, music and the opening CGI movie are great. The story has it's weird interesting charm in how oddly Hollywood it feels while combing aspects of cartoons and anime.

While the combat is good and feels mostly solid. There is one big problem for me that I dislike and that is the camera, remember how people insult the camera in older Resident Evil games for how you are at it's mercy during shooting parts? That is the problem here, it's easy to get attacked by enemies off screen, or the camera angle changing making you lose the alignment of where you are moving and I will admit this could be because I used the strafe feature too much, but I wanted to be more aquianted with it due to one big issue: the final boss and this is interesting because the final boss is a curve ball so big that I didn't beat him until 2 years later after I got to him when I first played the game and now I know why, the game changes it's camera out of nowhere. Remember how you were relying on a fixed camera and you rarely ever needed to strafe? Well here is a boss that uses a follow cam and actively makes you strafe out of the way rather than block, which the latter you were doing up until that point. The whole I was fighting him I am like, "why didn't the whole game just have a follow cam instead of a fixed camera?" This is probably why the final boss can stump people.

Another issue, and while I think they do an interesting job at breaking up the pace, but I do find interesting is how much of a mess Resident Evil 4 might've been if the whole game kept the fixed camera from the Michelle levels in this game rather than using the over the shoulder view. All of the combat problems with the camera I mentioned here goes double for the Michelle levels, and how the lack of aiming and overuse of auto aim makes the shooting feel not that satisfying as a shooter, fine for breaking up the pace, but I would never want a whole game like this.

Overall, it's a good game but I think it can be rough around the edges at times.

Rayman 2: Revolution Review

This is a very good game and better than I remember it. It's an interesting game for the era it came out, it felt like a platformer that came out in the early 00s rather than the 90s, there is nothing to collect to in order to progress and it's not a linear make it to end stage by stage platformer either, it kind of felt like a game with adventure elements where one minute you will be platforming, then you will be pulling some switches, then there is combat, then there is on rails sliding sections and vehicle sections, then you are lifting various objects to open a door, among many other things. The combat in some ways felt like a shooter too mainly with the strafing and dodging projectile attacks.

My only big gripes is that the camera controls are not great controlling the camera can feel weird and there are lots of sections with no camera control. That and the game while quite varied can go on for a little too long, you just spend so much of the game rescuing people and the whole goal of collecting the masks feels like it takes a lot longer than it should to reach due to the amount of detours you have to take before you finally get to them.

Wish they made another 3D Rayman game, I want Rayman 4 as much as Murphy does.