to a T

I will admiT I haven’T kepT ThaT close aTTention to Keita Takahashi’s career since The original Katamari Damacy, so I hadn’T heard much abouT his oTher non-Katamari projecTs aside from Noby Noby Boy and Wattam. His mosT recenT game, to a T, was someThing I had noT heard anyThing abouT unTil The YouTube channel Mega64 released a sponsored video promoTing iT, aT which poinT I boughT and played The PS5 version as soon as iT was made available. While The game is an unconvenTional experience by The sTandards of Takahashi’s past work ThaT I had played, I still ThoughT he delivered while keeping his whimsical Touch.

Sonic Lost World

As part a three-game deal on Nintendo’s ill-fated Wii U console, Sega released Sonic Lost World (Lost World) in 2013, as a follow-up to Sonic Colors (Colors) on the Wii. Although the game has since been released on PC, I opted for the Wii U version (specifically the Deadly Six edition with a code that no longer works) when that console’s storefront was being shut down. While going back through Sonic’s back catalogue of games after watching Sonic the Hedgehog 3, I decided to finally play Lost World, only to not quite finish the game due to a number of factors stemming from the game design.

Jaws Unleashed (PS2)

Although the 1975 film Jaws has had a lasting impact on pop culture (for better or worse), the film has had a number of product tie-ins over the decades, including in the video game space. While a handful of home console games exist, one that had caught my interest in particular was the 2006 game Jaws Unleashed, as while I wasn’t quite old enough to actually play it at the time, the idea of playing as the shark had always intrigued me, in spite of its reception. In the years since, I was reminded of this game by the existence of the game Maneater, which features a similar concept, and was recently lucky enough to find a wild PS2 copy of Jaws Unleashed. While I had been wanting to play the game anyway, this year being the 50^th anniversary of the original film provided motivation to finally boot it up for the first time. Although I found the expansion on the Jaws world interesting, the game unfortunately shows some age with the flawed execution of its gameplay.

Jaws

Fifty years ago, Jaws made a huge splash in the cinematic landscape and its ripple effects are still felt to this day. Shortly after its original release in 1975, it thrashed box office records and became the highest-grossing film of all time until the release of the original Star Wars just two years later and even surfaced to a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. Such a feat put Steven Spielberg, who had based the film off of the bestselling Peter Benchley novel of the same name, on the map and led to a lucrative career that made him a household name. Even now, Jaws is often regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, as well as perhaps the only good Shark movie ever made. It also can’t be understated how much of an impact it had on Hollywood filmmaking and society at large, for better or worse.

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of such a monumental film, we did our due diligence and gave Jaws another watch (with a twenty-five-year-old DVD to boot). After all, films this old may not have held up as well as its reputation would suggest. However, not only has Jaws held up surprisingly well after a few decades, its reputation feels more than earned and it’s easy to see how it still serves as a continuous source of inspiration.

Deltarune Chapters 3 & 4

Note: This review contains spoilers for Deltarune Chapters 1 & 2.

At the end of my review for Deltarune Chapter 2 (Chapter 2), I expressed hope that we wouldn’t have to wait another three years for Chapters 3-5. As it turned out, we had to wait four years for Chapters 3-4 and Chapters 5-7 are still in development. Despite this long wait, however, my hype never really went away, though it helped that I kept up with the development through Toby Fox’s newsletter. As promised, Toby Fox started charging for future chapters, though the price tag of $25 would ensure that those who paid now would get Chapters 5-7 for free when they officially released (as well as carry over their save data from the free version). Shortly after the website countdown ended, and after I managed to recover my saved data from a previous computer, I started playing Chapters 3-4 In earnest and did whatever I could to dodge spoilers throughout (I started grazing them towards the end, but nothing too major). While not without nitpicks, Deltarune proves itself worth the price of admission (so far).

Stubs - Big City Blues

Big City Blues (1932) Starring: Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, Jobyna Howland. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Screenplay by Ward Morehouse, Lillie Hayward. Based on the play New York Town by Ward Morehouse (copyrighted 5 Jan 1932). Producer Uncredited. USA Run time: 63 minutes Black and White. Drama.

There are some actors that when I see one of their movies is going to be on TCM, I make a point of recording to make sure I can watch it. Joan Blondell is one of those whose films I try to catch if I can. Recently, I happened to see that Big City Blues was going to be on, which is how I ended up watching this film.

At this point in her career, Blondell was very busy. Having arrived in Hollywood in 1930 thanks to her Broadway appearance in Penny Arcade and was cast to reprise her role in the film version Sinners' Holiday (1930). By the end of 1932, she would have appeared in 21 films, some as a co-star or in a supporting role and some as the star, as with Big City Blues.

Stubs - Caveman

Caveman (1981) starring Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, Dennis Quaid, Shelley Long, John Matuszak. Directed by Carl Gottlieb. Screenplay by Rudy De Luca, Carl Gottlieb. Produced by Lawrence Turman, David Foster. Run time: 91 minutes. Color.  Mexico, US. Comedy, Adventure

To quote the late character actor Edmund Gwenn, who on is deathbed supposedly said, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” That might have been a clue for Lawrence Turman, one of the producers of Caveman. Around 1978, Turman saw comedian Buddy Hackett in a caveman loincloth in a sketch on the ''Tonight Show'' and thought: ''Wouldn't it be a great idea to do a prehistoric comedy?''. He said: ''As a kid, I loved the film 'One Million Years B.C.' [1966] and the thought of doing a picture like that, using the same wardrobe and the same language, but played for laughs, seemed like a great idea.''