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.

Second Look - Deadpool (Game) (PS4)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Deadpool.

Back in 2008, Daniel Way started his run on the Deadpool comic, which ran for 63 issues and ended in 2012. This run would give Deadpool more mainstream popularity, to the point he became the new “Wolverine” for selling Marvel comics, and served as many peoples’ gateway for the character, myself included. While the 2016 Deadpool film would expose the character to an even wider audience, including those who had otherwise never seen an X-Men film, the character also had one other notable mainstream release in 2013, the Deadpool video game developed by High Moon Studios, best known for the Transformers: War for Cybertron and Transformers: Fall of Cybtertron games, and written by Daniel Way. Although Acitivision would delist the initial PS3, 360 and PC release just a year after launch, a PS4 and Xbox One re-release would follow in 2015, likely to tie in to the film’s pre-release hype, followed by another permanent delisting in late 2017. Both releases garnered a mixed critical reception.

Back when I played the game in 2013, I had fun with it in spite of its faults and hoped for a sequel that never came. Fast-forward to now and our goal of catching up with the X-Men film series before the release of Deadpool & Wolverine inspired me to take another look at the game, this time through the PS4 port, and see how well it held up over a decade later. As a representation of an earlier point in Deadpool’s history, I still enjoyed the game for its writing, but the gameplay didn’t hold up very well.

The Wolverine

Note: This review contains spoilers for X-Men, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand.

Despite the cold reception X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Origins) faced on release, the X-Men film series continued going strong and development began on a follow-up film simply titled The Wolverine, based on the original Japanese arc of the Wolverine comics. Although development began in 2009, with Darren Aronofsky later set to direct, it ran into certain production troubles along the way. These troubles included a delay brought on by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Aronofsky’s departure and finding a replacement director willing to take on the lengthy commitment. In spite of these obstacles, the final film released in 2013 to higher critical praise than Origins and greater box office returns, earning $414.8 million against a budget of $100-132 million.

Considering how much Origins had missed the mark, I knew going into The Wolverine that there would be some improvement, especially after seeing some fans characterize it as an “apology” for its predecessor. What I didn’t quite expect, however, was that The Wolverine not only held up very well after over a decade, but is easily one of the stronger films in the franchise.

Second Look - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle

Note: This review contains spoilers for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Back in 2014, we reviewed JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle, developed by CyberConnect2, and though we were positive, we’ve since grown dissatisfied with how we covered the game then. With the release of the remastered version of the game, All-Star Battle R, we thought that now would be the best time to look back on the original version, originally released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and see how it stacks up ten years later. Not only that, but whether or not an ESRB copy of the game is now worth its aftermarket value (around $55+) versus the amount we paid for it originally (around $40 at SDCC 2014 directly from the Bandai Namco booth). As it turns out, thanks to the recent delisting of the game, your enjoyment may really depend on whether or not you already own it (and the eBay price may not be completely worth it).

Second Look - God of War: Ascension

Note: This review contains spoilers for the God of War series.

In the time between God of War: Ghost of Sparta and the 2018 Norse entry, a new entry in the Greek series, God of War: Ascension, was released on PS3. This not only sought to fill in another gap in Kratos’ story, it was also the first, and so far only, game in the series to feature an online multiplayer mode. While I did play it when it first came out, even getting the Collector’s Edition that came with a mini Kratos statue, I found it to be a largely underwhelming experience with stale gameplay that left me wanting something new. Revisiting this game again over a decade later did not really change my mind all that much, with technical hiccups and the fact that it was the final Greek game arguably making it worse.

A Snow Globe Christmas

Every year, the market gets flooded with an influx of Christmas films. So many Christmas films, in fact, that many of them share similar titles, premises and even whole plotlines. This close similarity brought us to two films, Snowglobe and A Snow Globe Christmas, both about a woman who gets magically transported to a snow globe world and both featuring the same actress, Christina Milian, in two completely different roles. Though we typically shy away from relatively lesser-known Christmas films, our curiosity got the better of us and we ended up watching both of these in particular just to see how differently they executed the same premise. Without spoiling too much, we can safely say that one of them actually turned out fairly decent and the other was A Snow Globe Christmas.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion

Note: This review contains spoilers for Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion.

When the Puella Magi Madoka Magica (PMMM) anime first aired in 2011, its dark take on the magical girl genre made a big splash and received critical acclaim for its deep storytelling and discussions of the concepts of selflessness and hope vs despair, among other topics. The following year, animation studio Shaft would follow up their big hit with two recap films, subtitled Beginnings and Eternal, and then a third film in 2013, a sequel story subtitled Rebellion. For one reason or another, it would be about a decade before I finally watched PMMM, which I did through a cheaper UK Blu-ray set to avoid paying Aniplex’s notoriously sky-high US Blu-ray prices. After finishing the series, which I enjoyed but didn’t think was a flawless 10/10 masterpiece as some might be led to believe (I personally enjoyed works like Paranoia Agent and The Big O more), I grew curious about the Rebellion film and how it would continue the story. However, I had to wait until the release of a pricey 10th Anniversary movie trilogy Blu-ray set to watch the English dub, for lack of another legal option. Sadly, as much I liked a lot of the film, I wasn’t sure that it was entirely worth the money and effort required to watch it.

The Novelist

The Novelist is one of those independent games that I heard of when it first came out, in this case in 2013, and thought it sounded interesting, but never got around to playing it. When I obtained a massive itch.io bundle, however, I noticed that it included this game and eventually made the time to finally play it, since I could relate to the struggle of trying to write a novel. While I’m not sure that the experience completely resonated with me on a deep level, I’m glad I finally gave it a chance.

Antichamber

While trying to create a multiplayer version of Snake in Unreal Engine 3, Alexander "Demruth" Bruce made a simple coding mistake that inspired him down a completely different direction. Years later, this direction manifested in 2013 as Antichamber, a first-person puzzle game that heavily involved non-Euclidian space and subtly incorporated philosophical ideas. While the game may not have the same amount of attention it once did eight years ago, it’s still an engaging, if very mind-bending, game.

Stubs - Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 and 2

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 (2012) Voices of Peter Weller, Ariel Winter, David Selby, Wade Williams, Michael Emerson Directed by Jay Oliva Screenplay by Bob Goodman. Based on The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson. No Producer Credited. Color Run time: 76 minutes. USA Animated. Superhero

Batman seems to be DC’s most bankable superhero, as they don’t shy away from exploiting him whenever they can. While the live-action versions of the story seem to be in perpetual reboots, the  animated features seem to exist in a different world. Oftentimes relying on comic book source material, they seem to be truer to the original vision and the stories they tell have the potential to go places the live-action films have not or at least have not dared to go.

One of the writers that the animated films seem to rely on most is Frank Miller, who has written several volumes that have found their way into direct-to-video production. His Year One was the basis for animated treatment and is in the same continuity as Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which was originally a four-issue comic book miniseries published in 1986 under the titles: The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Triumphant, Hunt the Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Falls.

In a somewhat unorthodox adaptation, those four issues were turned into two movies, Part One released on September 25, 2012, and Part Two on January 29, 2013.

Papers, Please

When Lucas Pope released Papers, Please in 2013, it quickly received critical acclaim and landed on lists of the best games of that year. Though I had an awareness of the game at the time, including a hilarious Mega64 sketch, I didn’t get around to actually playing the Steam version until faced with a global pandemic and, even then, only after watching a few videos on YouTube of people playing the first few in-game days. As I watched these videos, however, I felt that they had, unintentionally or not, made the game look more difficult than it really was. After finally playing it myself, I can conclude that while it didn’t feel as difficult as it looked, it really deserved all the praise it got.

DuckTales: Remastered (PS3)

Back in 1989, Capcom released the NES game DuckTales, a highly-acclaimed platformer based on the 1987 animated series of the same name. Although I had no nostalgia for the game, or the series for that matter, I figured that WayForward’s 2013 remake of the game, DuckTales: Remastered, could help enlighten me on why people liked it so much. However, I waited for a disc-based physical copy of the game, as opposed to a retail copy with a download code and pin, before actually playing it. While I played this back in 2013, I didn’t review it then, so I recently went back a replayed it for review purposes and still liked it, despite its rather short length.

Fuse (PS3)

After playing through the Resistance trilogy, I decided to revisit one of Insomniac's follow-up games, Fuse, originally released in 2013. When I first played it after finding a used copy, I thought it was okay for what it was, though I wanted to see if my opinions changed at all. Following a second playthrough, I thought it had some interesting ideas, though I realized this time how generally forgettable the game is.

Second Look – The Stanley Parable (+ Demo)

Note: This review contains spoilers for The Stanley Parable and The Stanley Parable Demo.

Back in 2013, we reviewed The Stanley Parable, the first game commercially released by developers Davey Wreden and William Pugh under Galactic Cafe. I would later feel embarrassed by the original review and rewrote it a year later, but I still never really felt satisfied with it. As such, I decided to once again revisit The Stanley Parable and give it more of a proper review that explains why I still love it after all these years.

Gone Home

When Gone Home first released in mid-2013, it received lavish praise from game journalists, including perfect or near perfect scores and several Game of the Year nominations. However, it also received a lot of backlash and, as a result, birthed the term “walking simulator”, a label used unironically by both developers and detractors. I didn’t play it when it initially released, but I did get it as part of a 2014 Humble Bundle, Humble Indie Bundle 12, and played it to see what all the fuss was about. It didn’t really click with me at the time, but I never wrote a review to express that. A few years later, I decided to take another look at it and see if my opinion had changed. Although I now have a better idea of what worked about it, I also have a much clearer idea of why I’m still not that big of a fan.

Second Look - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.

Over the course of its nine-year lifespan, the inexplicably popular My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon had a short-lived spin-off series of films, collectively known as My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, which was made to into a toyline designed to compete with Mattel’s popular Monster High series and its ilk. When I first saw the original Equestria Girls film in 2013, I came away with a largely negative opinion of it, which I admit was partly influenced by having initially seen it in a theater alongside an audience with some particularly obnoxious members of the “brony” community, which, for those who aren’t aware, consists of the Friendship is Magic cartoon’s periphery demographic of adult males. Though I eventually stopped caring about the Friendship is Magic cartoon after 100 episodes, only tuning in later to watch the series finale, I wasn’t entirely satisfied with how my original review of the first Equestria Girls movie turned out, and so decided to revisit it in a context entirely divorced from my original experiences. Though not quite as bad as I remembered it, there were still some issues I had with the final product.

Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff (360)

Following the release of a video game based on Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension, another one followed two years later titled Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff. Unlike Across the 2^nd Dimension, however, while the game was available across all then-current Nintendo platforms (DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U), it would also be made available for Xbox 360 rather than PS3, allowing Xbox players access to their own Phineas and Ferb console experience. As I am not a heavy Xbox player, I opted for the Xbox 360 version anyway when hunting down this game simply to have an excuse to use the system, and was fortunate enough to grab a physical copy from a used game store whose inventory was disappearing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. While short, Quest for Cool Stuff is executed well enough that its story feels like it could easily fit into the show’s 104 days.

The Last of Us Remastered + Left Behind

Note: This review contains spoilers for The Last of Us and Left Behind

I originally played The Last of Us when it came out seven years ago on PS3 and though I remember liking it, I didn’t think about it again until The Last of Us Part II was announced. As time went on, however, I lost interest in playing the sequel, due to certain behind-the-scenes information that came to light and certain information from leaked footage. This made me consider replaying the original The Last of Us to see if my opinion had changed after all this time, which I fulfilled through the PS4 remaster, released only one year after the PS3 version, which I had bought but never opened. Doing this made me realize why I liked it in the first place, but now I see the flaws a lot more.

In-Flight Tetris

While this blog normally covers video games or movies under certain parameters, sometimes we dare to go outside the box and review something weird. In this case, we have In-Flight Tetris, a version of the popular game Tetris that can only be played on airlines which feature in-flight entertainment. As a major fan of Tetris, upon spotting this game when perusing my options on a couple recent flights I took, I knew I had to check it out.

The game offers three different modes of play: Marathon, Forty Lines and Ultra. Marathon is the basic mode of Tetris where you can play indefinitely, though most games have a cap where the game will end once you clear Level 15. Due to the conditions in which I played the game (more on that later), I was not able to discern a level cap, if any, however Marathon still proves to be solid entertainment. Forty Lines, as per the name, is a mode that ends once you clear 40 lines, with the goal of clearing them as fast as you can. Ultra is essentially the opposite of Forty Lines, where you must clear as many lines as you can within a time limit; most Tetris games give Ultra a limit of 3 minutes, however in this version you only have 2 minutes. In general, the game is geared towards shorter bursts of play, which is better suited for air travel and adds to the addictive nature of Tetris.

Some sample gameplay (Marathon mode pictured).

Since the in-flight entertainment is provided via a touchscreen, the game plays using touchscreen controls, which involve tapping and swiping the screen to manipulate pieces. While the game is certainly playable this way, your performance can be greatly affected by outside forces since to the screen is placed on the back of the seat in front of you (in the case of the front row of a section of an aircraft, the screen is presumably placed on the wall in front of you). Such outside forces can include turbulence and how the person in front of you positions their seat, which can easily lead to a lot of mistakes.

First Class passengers are known on flights to get special accommodations. As I discovered first-hand, one of these benefits is a remote attached to the seat, which can be used to control the screen as an alternative to touch controls. On the back of said remote is a keyboard/game pad, allowing a different way to play the gaming options available. While this did work for In-Flight Tetris, the controls are a little awkward, since, while generally following an Xbox controller's face buttons, Y is used for confirm rather than A, which takes some getting used to. On top of this, the control stick provided is rather sensitive, which can also lead to making numerous mistakes that can ultimately cost you the game.

The graphics are actually pretty decent, with a general background aesthetic modeled after aviation and a usage of bright colors. The game also uses a ghosting effect to display where the next block will fall, presumably to make it accessible for more casual Tetris players. The game includes a special mix of “Tetris Theme A” (aka “Korobeiniki”) that is more comparable to elevator music or “muzak”, which is actually more appropriate for an airline environment. There are also some sounds cues during gameplay that appear to be recycled from previous Tetris iterations (including Tetris Elements and possibly Tetris Worlds), though this didn’t really bother me that much. You can’t actually hear anything though unless you are using a headset, which can be connected via a headphone jack located underneath the screen (between seats in First Class; earbuds will suffice either way); your airline may provide you with a headset, though it is generally recommended that you bring your own.

In-Flight Tetris is an interesting variation on the long-standing puzzle game, one that I would recommend to anyone looking for something to keep them busy on a flight, to say nothing of any passengers who happen to enjoy Tetris. Since I played it on an American Airlines flight, I have no idea what the general availability of the game is amongst other airlines, though this may depend entirely on which one you choose to fly with. In any case, if the game is available to you and you find yourself on a particularly long flight, and/or have a good grasp on the provided controller, In-Flight Tetris may keep you occupied for a good while. And remember, please fly responsibly.

Stubs - Good Ol' Freda

Good Ol’ Freda (2013) Starring Freda Kelly. Director: Ryan White. Written by Jessica Lawson, Ryan White.Produced by Kathy McCabe Ryan White, Jessica Lawson. Run Time: 86 minutes. United Kingdom/USA Documentary

Loyalty thy name is Freda Kelly. As the personal secretary to Brian Epstein and as the head of the Beatles fan club, Freda knows a lot of dirt about the Fab Four, but she is not one to spill it. Rather, one of the few close associates not to have written a book, Freda gives away no real secrets in this crowd-funded documentary.

The title is taken from the 1963 fan club Christmas recording The Beatles recorded annually. Over the years, these recordings became more elaborate, but on the first one, they were much more casual and low key with the group sitting around a microphone speaking off-the-cuff and singing traditional carols like "Good King Wenceslas" and not so traditional ones like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ringo." When it was George’s turn to speak, he wanted to thank the Beatles Fan Club and Freda Kelly in particular, to which the other three yell “Good Ol’ Freda!”

A native of Dublin Ireland, Freda moved to Liverpool with her family in the early 1960s. After quitting school at the age of 16, Freda worked as a typist in a corporate typing pool. One lunch, two men took her to the Cavern Club, where she heard The Beatles, then a local band, play for the first time. She became a fan and continued to make the lunchtime trek to the Cavern, where she admits to having seen the group play nearly 200 times.

The Beatles were still in leather jackets and still had
 Pete Best as their drummer when  Freda first saw them play.

Due to the casualness of the environs, Kelly was able to get to know the band on a friendly basis, even spending time in the band’s room at the club along with other fans. On occasion, members of the band might give her a ride home, much to her father’s displeasure. He didn’t like the scruffy looks of the band, then still attired in leather jackets. Kelly got involved early in the group’s fan club, taking over running it when its founder lost interest.

At these lunchtime concerts, she also made the acquaintance of Brian Epstein, the son of the owner of the NEMS department store and a fellow fan of the band. Seeing their potential, Epstein would sign the band to manage and hired Kelly to be his secretary but never quit running the Fan Club.

With the group’s growing popularity, Kelly put some organization to the Club, even using her own home address as the club’s. Letters began to flow in, quickly becoming sacks of mail, which Freda attempted to not only answer but fan’s requests come true. As an example, she once had Ringo sleep on a pillowcase sent in by a fan.

Freda with Ringo.

Not only was she close to the band members, she also became close to their families, becoming like a daughter to Ringo’s mother, Elsie Starkey. So close in fact that when there was a reception at Liverpool City Hall for the band, the Starkeys had her invited as if she was one of their own. Angie McCartney, Paul’s stepmother, also appears in the film, speaking highly of Freda.

Freda also began to write a column in The Beatles Monthly, a fan magazine, a publication that would outlast the group by a couple of years, before it was decided to shut down the fan club in 1972 when Freda left on her own to spend more time with her husband and children.

While some of what she wrote in her Beatles Monthly column was gossip, Freda is very mum about the boys’ personal lives and, as an example, if she ever dated one of them in the early days. This is not a tell-all documentary.

Freda with Paul. There were once false rumors that they had wed.

The focus is squarely on Freda, who since leaving the Beatles’ employ has continued to work as a secretary, never talking openly about her previous position. She only agreed to the documentary after the birth of her grandson, wanting him to know that Grandma once did something extraordinary. There are interviews in her home as well as field trips to some of the famous locations around Liverpool where the Beatles performed or were honored.

As far as time-frame is concerned, like most Beatles documentaries, the emphasis is on the early days. Freda recounts how the members of the band would frequently come into Epstein’s offices at NEMS and how she would get them to sign autographs on the spot or backstage at shows.

When Epstein moved Beatles operations to London, Freda was not able to go, since her father forbade it. They kept her on in Liverpool and she would make frequent trips to London, but her daily contact would end. After Epstein’s death in 1967, she would continue on with the group, even appearing as one of the passengers in their first post-Epstein project, Magical Mystery Tour.

Freda between John and George during the filming of Magical Mystery Tour.

There is very little information discussed regarding the Apple years, but she apparently carried on with the fan club until 1972, when it was dissolved. She would continue to answer mail for the next three years on her own time. Also, there is no mention of the other bands that Epstein managed, even though none were ever as big. There are interviews with members of The Merseybeats, a band that played in the Cavern when the Beatles did and apparently still performs today, but no mention if they were also represented by NEMS or not.

Freda with George near the end of her 11-year employment.

For someone who spent 11 years with The Beatles, she has very little memorabilia, just four boxes that she keeps in the attic, having, she said, given the rest away to Beatles fans. She admits to always having been one herself so she could empathize with other fans' wants and desires. Freda never seemed to forget that she was in a special position. When she discovered one member of her then staff was trying to pass off someone else's hair as Paul's, she fired everyone since she didn't know who she could still trust.

Even as the Beatles were breaking up, Freda was still working for them.

While of the two surviving members only Ringo appears in the documentary, and even then only during the credits sequence, the Beatles are apparently squarely behind it, allowing archival footage as well as several of their own songs to be used; quite a feat for a documentary with a budget of about $60,000.

Freda Kelly, as she was when the documentary was
made; one of the unsung heroes of  Beatlemania.

Good Ol’ Freda shines the light on one of the unsung heroes of Beatlemania. No doubt there were other typists infatuated by the group when it played lunchtime concerts at the Cavern, but things might have been very different if it weren’t for dedicated people like Freda Kelly helping to shape their image. One more ingredient in the formula that made The Beatles the biggest act in the world.

For other Beatles films, see our Beatles Film Review Hub: http://trophyunlocked.blogspot.com/2014/02/review-hub-beatles-on-film.html