Freedom Planet

A cat on a motorcycle? That's it, the cat-craze on the internet has gone to far!

So after playing some classic fast-paced plattformers of the past I saw that this game would come to the Wii U to Halloween, and since the I've already played Resident Evil 4 (seems I haven't written about it, might be an idea for a future game) which they released as well, I thought this would be a bit more fun. I also recalls seeing Some call Me Johnny's review back... when I saw it and I thought it looked good. So I downloaded it and started playing it and boy, first scene is an alien overlord cutting the head of a local king and brainwashing his son to do his bidding... and I thought it would be a cute anthropomorphic animal game, but it's more bloodier than some Resident Evil games. They even have a torture scene and several more beheadings.

Apparently I choose the right game for Halloween!

So after that shock I played the game and found it rather fun. I just choose Adventure mode since you know me, story first. So you either choose Lilac the purple/blue dragon girl or Carol the green wildcat girl to speed through the different levels and beat up the boss here and there. While exploring the stage you can get star cards that gives you things like music or voice clips for a sound mode or concept art. Now, when you play the game, especially after playing Sonic 1 and 2 you start to feel familiar with the stages and how many things work, like the loops and springs. The reason being that the game originally was intended as a Sonic fan-game, but it became its own thing, but the influences are there. I would even go as far as say it's a greatly improved speed plattformer compared to the Sonic games, although I shouldn't be so critical due to Sonic being released 25 years ago. This game don't have the ring system, instead opting for a health meter which is based on red leafs you can collect to replenish. Also, you can dish out a couple of attacks during your run and even use them to escape certain attacks. Doesn't mean you don't end up at stages that are more slower like the Sky Battalion stage where you need to be careful or you run of the ship (happened to me twice).

The motorcycle is actually rather fun as it climbs walls and ladders.

The story begins when Lord Brevon crash-lands on this planet after being shot down by the Chasers who protects the planet from this alien madman. Seeing his chance on this primitive planet he reenacts the opening scene and wants to steal the planets energy so he can get back home (boy, its like G1 Transformers cartoon and the search for energon) to continue his conquest. He is followed by Torque, the last of the Chasers that get's help of Lilac and Carol to stop him from stealing the Energy Stone, an ancient artefact given to this planet by a cosmic dragon. The game has very detailed sprite cutscenes and the music is amazing on several stages. The first stage and the Business district especially looks amazing. Even some rather good voice acting talents on this game. This game is at least Oscar worthy compared to the voice acting of Grandia. A rather fun game to play and apparently more characters will be added in the future like Spade, Torque and Milla getting her own Adventure mode. Hope it will be fun.

Super Mario Bros. 1-3

Closest thing to capture all three games in one image

Since it's Mario's 30 years anniversary (while writing this that is) and me skipping over Mario Maker (since creating my own courses is gonna fail, no stable internet access and me not want to play other people's hellish nightmares) I will instead look on the classics, the first three games for the NES that I played as a kid. Even though the picture at the top is from the SNES All-Stars I'm gonna speak from the perspective of the original games since those are the ones I most recently played (due to having them on my 3DS... and Wii U). So lets start from the beginning.

Ah, the classic look of a time-less classic

So we got it to the NES back in the early 90's. Best thing was that you could play as two players so either me and my dad could play or me and my sister. I think I used to be Mario, although I wanted to be Luigi since he was green. Never finished this as a kid. The closest I got as a kid was 8-1. I got pretty close when the browser based game with several different 8-bit heroes like Simon Belmont, the Contra guy, Mega Man and some others. The Contra guy being the best since every enemy or block gets destroyed before it can even hit me. I got to the final level and... failed the damn platforming maze. I  never reached Bowser. So when I finally got them on the newest systems with save state function, I play through them, compensating my lowered reactions and patience to relearn every single enemy pattern. Alright I might be pushing 30, but in video game years that must be in the late 50's. I need every help I can get. Of course the sense of beating it is of course lost and really, what is the point playing games if you have to cheat to beat it? Well, since most of my childhood was spent on learning these games, I think I put enough time on them to deserve to see the end screen. Also, there was a lot of secrets in the game like the warp pipes at the end of 1-2 or those at 3-2 (?, the first Lakkittu stage or whatever), but I can't in my life get how we found it out. This is pre-internet days so how did we know? Did we stumble upon them?

The Mario game that isn't a Mario game, and yet is a Mario game

The second game in the series and as we all know isn't the real 2nd game, but a reskin of another game that Miyamoto worked on, and later he took many of the enemies and put them in other Mario games, effectively adopting the game into the series. First time I played it was with my cousins game and when we travelled from Gothenburg one summer we found it in a store and bought it as well. This was the last of the first Mario games we bought. Then I got it again for the GBA as the first game as well. The fun thing with this game is you could choose between four different characters. Sadly I think the longest I got was past the first boss, the 3-headed snake at the bottom of the pyramid. The least played of the originals for me.

Interesting that in 2-3 Mario goes toward the right while in the first game it went to the left... which you couldn't do in that game

The biggest game of the three. And we actually got to the last world, but that was that. Easiest way was getting the two first flutes and enter world 2 and then warp forward. As the first game, how did we know how to get those two flutes as kids? I guess I saw my cousins play it and they got it, but how did they know? I don't think they saw the Wizard that let everyone else know. Maybe there is something in those Nintendo magazine we got from them. Again, me and my sister played this game over and over, if nothing else just so we could fight each other for the special cards you get at the end of each stage. And as always, we didn't finish it. I finished it on my 3DS and Wii U with save state support. How people could finish these games as kids I don't know.

So that's my memories from my childhood. coupled with some reflections as I replayed the games again. Didn't focus much on story because....  well 1 and 3 was Bowser or King Koopa kidnapped princess Toadstool later known as Peach and Mario and Luigi had to get her back. The second game was Mario dreaming about a door where he and his friends entered and they appeared in a world where some people asked for their help in stopping Wart. Music in all 3 games are rather good and are classics used over again... maybe not the second game, but the others as late of Paper Mario had many of the songs reused and remixed. Graphics are of it's time, but they are nostalgic and I prefer them over the vamped up sprites of the All-Star compilation and one reason I skipped buying the 25th anniversary game... especially since it didn't have anything else to show like Super Mario World or some other Mario games. Why get it, when I have all games on Virtual Console?

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 3D

The first game to my very own first console

So I took the time to play through the second game as well and finished it rather fast, may be due to me finishing it a couple of years ago with my sister and almost finished as a kid... again with my sister. She played as Tails and basically defeated every boss while I sped through the stages since i played the games more, but had a hard time with the Metropolis Robotnik since I couldn't get his pattern down. What we didn't do was finish with all the chaos emeralds in our possession. Funny enough the Super Sonic made the final stage much harder since you speed-up so you miss the fine tuned platforming section... wasn't Sonic about being fast? Then why is it harder if I go fast? Lucky the save state function make it possible to finish it 100 %. Another funny thing is that we finished the game on my Nintendo Wii. 

Here we have a real special stage!

The thing about this game is that my parents bought me a Sega Mega Drive with two controllers and Sonic 2 when I learned to ride a bike. I guess I rode the bike for maybe 5 years and after that I never rode it again. Still plays video games. I can compare this game to the first one and I can say is this game is much better. In the graphics apartment we have the Special stages that gives the 3D effect something to work with and the music is at the top. Each stage is a marvel from start to end. Best is Metropolis Stage. Love it. Also the addition of a somewhat 2-player mode is rather fun and as I mentioned enabled me and my sister to actually finish it... since Tails is basically immortal. Need to see if I can get a Super Tails mode in collecting each emerald and such. Really, this game is clearly an improvement.

And to think I became an obsessed Nintendo-fan!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3D

Apparently the fastest thing alive

So after many years I finally finish the original Sonic the Hedgehog game... or really not the original, but the remastered 3D version for the 3DS which includes save states and other goodies. I got a version closer to the original on the Wii Virtual Console, but that was a bit of a shock to play for me the first time since everyone said it was so fast and so, but he really wasn't. Growing up I only played the 2nd game, and there you could spin-dash. In this game you need momentum which you loose if you stop or get hurt. God how annoying that is to loose such an important function. Thankfully you can choose if you want it in this remake.

He can't catch the fat scientist, fastest thing alive you said?

Can't say I got the story for this game, Robotnik (that's what I grew up with, I never played a Sonic game where he was called Eggman) has kidnapped some forest critters and put them in his robots to do... whatever Robotnik is after. So Sonic set out to stop them. That's pretty much it. Graphics are nice, but some of the worlds can be rather frustrating to pass through, especially all the water ones when the time limit is put in action and the horrible music is used for suffocating. Funny thing I found out is that it was an extra second after the countdown which really simulates the eternity of waiting for the saving bubble. If it would be nice to show it self. Music was alright, but the only memorable track is the first world, the classic Green Hill Zone. An interesting thing to note that the Chaos emeralds are here, but they don't actually do anything other than some credit-scene changes. And don't get me started on the damn mini-game to get them.

What is this maze-like contraption?

The added 3D effects don't do much as far as I can see. Overall I can't say I like this game, everything the second game did was a clear improvement creating a much more enjoyable gameplay experience. Maybe if I played this one first I might have found it fun, but as is it feels archaic without the additions to make it closer to the second game. Speaking of the second game it was just released as a 3D classic so guess what's the next Sonic game will be... when I ever finish that one.

Spectre

Live and Let Die?

So I saw the latest Bond-film yesterday at the cinemas and I thought it was okay for a Bond-film or even an action movie. Apparently the reviewers are on another side, but then again, it's not perfect. Some complains about the chase scenes, some about the call-backs to the pre-Craig films. My complaints lie in that the film was pretty blurry at times, not the chase scenes, but perspective shots with a character in the foreground or background. To often and obscured some scenes. And then the standard intro song was bleh, I can't now recall it and that is a problem with a lot of the modern Bond movies, they don't have great songs or even great music at all. Of the Craig-songs I must say Quantum of Solace have a great track, but apparently I'm alone on that, it like the Eurovision all over. Really miss John Barry's score for the films since he knew how to use the main themes and tracks to really push a scene to the limit.

Other problem with the movie is a plot hole to me. So it begins in Mexico as 007 are hunting an assassin for Judy Dench dying wish. He goes to the funeral in Rome and the widow tells him about this meeting with the biggest villains in the world. There we find out about a scheme to take global control of all the worlds intelligence agencies and MI6 are one target as it is joined together with MI5 and are pushed to be a part of the 9 Eyes organisation including members of South Africa and... China? Heres the problem. I gather it's a collect information and share information collectively. Now why would western democracies join together with the Chinese? Apparently someone mentioned G8 and South Africa which would include Russia? Why? It doesn't make sense, we have enough problems and mistrust with sharing information and spying on democracies between EU and USA and why then would we give our information (which includes who oppose the autocratic regimes of Russia and China), why give away our intelligence network? The film tries to establish terrorists forcing the governments hands, but I don't buy it.

That's my main complaints about the movie. For Bond-lovers out there you can always quiz yourself if you can get the call-backs. Heres some of those I found so potential spoilers. Mexico felt like a Live and Let Die segment. Bond was gonna be replaced by 009 although the other movies seemed to push for 008. 009 was the clown in the Octopussy opening and the agent shooting Renard, but not killing him in The World Is Not Enough. The clinic in the Alps is clearly a reference to Blofelds clinic in Her Majesties Secret Service. They travel to Tengir which was the location for several scenes in Living Daylights. The train scene felt like the Orient Express from Istanbul in From Russia with Love. The compound in the desert was at a place looking like a volcano reminding of of Blofelds lair in You Only Live Twice and big spoilers Ernst Stavro Blofeld is in this movie with his white cat... the film is called SPECTRA so what did you expect? To me the torture chair just at the beginning reminded me of the speed tester in Moonraker. As they escaped the blown up MI6 complex they took a boat looking like the one Pierce Brosnan hunted the assassins in the World is Not Enough. These I found, I didn't mention other Craig movies and Blofeld is technically all Spectre movies, but what's the point pointing that out? 

I'm guessing next movie I will see at the cinema will be the new Star Wars movie. Just one and a half month left.