An Extremely Goofy Movie

Note: This review contains spoilers for An Extremely Goofy Movie.

Five years after A Goofy Movie, Disney released a direct-to-video standalone sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie, on Leap Day in 2000. I remember watching this film as a kid and liking it, mostly for the extreme sports angle, but largely forgot the story over the years until I decided to rewatch it after viewing A Goofy Movie. Watching this film again as an adult, I saw it as a sequel that squandered its own potentially interesting plotlines and realized that the three security stickers on my sealed DVD copy were actually a warning.

Bombastic

After the release of Devil Dice, developer Shift would produce a handful of other titles related to it, however only one of them, Bombastic (XI Go in Japan), would see a release outside Japan. Between these two games, I actually ended up playing Bombastic first, which I picked up for cheap from a GameStop back when they still sold PS2 games. I enjoyed my time with it, however I spent most of my time with it on one mode and gave up when the final boss proved to be too difficult for me. Upon finally getting to play Devil Dice, I decided to revisit Bombastic and actually explore its other offerings, finding myself enjoying it just as I did back then.

A Goofy Movie

Note: This review contains spoilers for A Goofy Movie.

While there are many motivations to watch a film, as we’ve discussed before on this blog, sometimes you’ve seen a film during childhood, but either didn’t pay attention or memories of it faded until you’re reminded of its existence years later. This was the case with A Goofy Movie, an animated Disney film based on Goof Troop that turned 25 this year. While looking for something short to watch, I remembered wanting to watch A Goofy Movie while actually paying attention to the plot, which led to buying a cheap DVD copy. At the next opportunity, I finally gave it a watch and realized I had just seen an underrated Disney classic.

Devil Dice

As with any major console release, “homebrew” development exists to allow people to make their own games for a given system in an unofficial capacity. However, it’s not too often that any of said games get an official major release. Such is the case with Devil Dice (XI [sai] in Japan), a dice puzzle game from developer Shift of God Eater and Code Vein fame, originally developed for the Net Yaroze homebrew platform. After stumbling upon Devil Dice’s existence after having already owned its follow-up title, Bombastic, I managed to find it in a used game store on a trip to Texas, though I didn’t get around to playing it until recently. After getting the chance to play it, I found it to be a rather unique and enjoyable title in the puzzle game space.

Lupin III: The First

Since its initial publication in 1967, the Lupin III series created by the late mangaka Monkey Punch, which chronicles the misadventures of a gentleman thief descended from Arsène Lupin, has entertained audiences around the world through numerous iterations that continue to be produced to this day. While I was aware of the character for some time, I didn’t get my first true exposure to the series until Lupin III Part IV: The Italian Adventure, also known as Blue Jacket due to Lupin’s jacket color in said series, first aired on [adult swim]’s Toonami block, and from there I was instantly hooked.

I was then curious when I first heard about the series’ first computer animated feature, Lupin III: The First, through a Japanese trailer, finding the animation faithful to the series and being curious to see whether it would ever be dubbed into English. Later, I was even more curious about seeing this movie when an English version was eventually announced, especially when the first English trailer confirmed the return of the Blue Jacket voice cast, though I opted to wait until it was out on Blu-ray to see it due to a limited US theatrical screening taking place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Having finally gotten the chance to view it safely, I would say the wait was well worth it.

Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

Like other films we’ve reviewed, I have some personal history with Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. I have distinct memories of watching it in the theater when it originally came out, as well as the Nicktoon that spun off from it, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. I actually liked Jimmy Neutron enough that years later, I would get the DVD of the film signed by Debi Derryberry, the voice of Jimmy Neutron, at San Diego Comic-Con. However, my memories of the actual film had faded away with time. When I learned that it was nearly 19 years old, however, I decided to give it another look with a completely fresh perspective. While it isn’t perfect, I did remember why I liked it so long ago.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (PS3)

Back in 2010, Ubisoft developed and released Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game as a tie-in to Universal’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, both based on the Scott Pilgrim series of graphic novels. Though the game released to critical acclaim, Ubisoft delisted it and its DLC from digital storefronts on December 30, 2014, as Universal’s license expired. For the longest time, no new users could play it legally and the game subsequently turned into a poster child for the dangers of digital-only titles. However, in August 2020, Ubisoft struck a deal and announced a miraculous re-release, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition, which would also include both pieces of DLC. To tie in with this new release, it felt right to go back and play my copy of the game to see how well it held up after a decade. It turns out that it aged pretty well, but there’s still some jank that I hope the re-release irons out.

Bugsnax (PS5)

When Bugsnax was first revealed during E3 2020, it got a lot of traction online for its characters and premise, but it didn’t fully capture my interest at the time. When I got a free PlayStation 5 copy through PlayStation Plus, however, I figured I might as well check it out while I still had some curiosity. I soon discovered that while it’s a creative and lighthearted title on the surface, it actually hides a secret so horrifying that you’ll never view it the same way again.

The Powerpuff Girls Movie

Note: This review contains spoilers for The Powerpuff Girls Movie.

When I first discovered the world of TV animation as a kid through Cartoon Network and its original generation of original IPs, The Powerpuff Girls was one of the first shows I got really hooked on and stayed with for most of its 1998-2005 run (and the less said about the 2016 reboot the better). Naturally, when a theatrically-released movie, known as The Powerpuff Girls Movie, was announced for 2002, I was excited at the prospect and saw it on the big screen when it came out. I recall being a little disappointed after walking out of the theater, as it turned out to be a feature-length origin story for the Powerpuff Girls and primary antagonist Mojo Jojo. However, some time after finding a copy of the DVD release for cheap at CD Trader, I decided to try and give this movie another chance. Over 18 years later, the movie held up a little better than I remembered, however while the animation is great, I had some issues with the storytelling.

Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures

Note: This review contains spoilers for Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures.

As a follow-up to Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People (aka SBCG4AP) and to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the Wallace & Gromit franchise in 2009, Telltale Games developed the episodic game Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures. Though I wanted to play this game after I learned about it sometime after release, I will admit that actually getting to play it was not the smoothest experience. Though I bought the series through Telltale’s website, I don’t remember actually receiving the digital or physical game, however I’m not sure how much of it was it being around when they lost the rights to the IP. I then bought the physical collection off of Amazon a few years back, however rather than the US Telltale release I somehow ended up with the two-part UK Mastertronic version instead, which while technically correct was not what I expected (I kept the game anyway because I was just happy to own it), and while it is still playable on Windows 10, the game doesn’t like it when I have both discs installed at the same time.

While I have played the game in full before and liked it, especially Episode 3, I decided to take another look at it after replaying SBCG4AP to see if my opinion held up. After what is my second complete playthrough, I thought it was still good despite some technical issues.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People

Note: This review contains spoilers for Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People.

Even though I wasn’t there at the beginning, I have been a longtime fan of Homestar Runner, a Flash website created by Matt and Mike Chapman (aka The Brothers Chaps) that has been continuously updated on and off since 1996. Though I had not played anything from Telltale Games at the time, their announcement of an episodic game based on the site, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People (SBCG4AP), caught my interest to where I played each Episode as they came out in 2008 and later bought a physical copy of the entire Season one year at San Diego Comic-Con. While it has been 12 years since I played it as of this writing, during which time Telltale Games famously shut down and the game was eventually delisted from digital storefronts, the COVID-19 pandemic and recent updates to the website after a very lengthy hiatus led to me to revisit the game to see how well it held up. After successfully getting my physical copy to run on Windows 10, I found that it held up much better than I expected and was surprised to see how much the game had stuck with me in all that time.

Review Hub - Final Fantasy

While 1987's Final Fantasy started out as possibly creator Hirunobu Sakaguchi's final video game, it spawned an explosively popular franchise that still sees new releases to this day. Like a lot of people, our first exposure was through Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, a rather divisive collection of content that, nonetheless, was still iconic enough to get a PS4-exclusive remake in 2020. However, we've remained open to trying other Final Fantasy content, since the first mainline game completed for this blog was 2016's Final Fantasy XV.

Below is a list of links to every Final Fantasy review on this blog, arranged in release order and categorized accordingly.

 

Update (9/18/2024): Added FFVII Rebirth.

Compilation of Final Fantasy VII

 

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII Remake (Second Look)

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Final Fantasy XV

Final Fantasy XV

My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising

While modern juggernaut My Hero Academia doesn’t show any signs of stopping anytime soon, the current hiatus with the anime, at the time of this writing, necessitated catching up with the story through the manga. This turned out to be a good choice, since the series’ second feature film, Heroes Rising, takes place within the manga’s timeline. Although I missed the limited US theatrical screening, I did obtain the film on Blu-ray and watched it as soon as I could. Overall, it’s an improvement over the previous film, Two Heroes, but a specific element of the finale left me scratching my head.