30 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 02

Favorite Fighting Game.

This was an extremely hard question to answer. There are so many great fighting games out there that I love. I just chose this one because I remember being the most dominate at it. Sure I'm pretty great at other fighting games, but I was king in Tekken 2.

Scream 4 Review

“Fuck Bruce Willis.” That’s right and welcome to my review of ‘Scream 4’, the movie that doesn’t know if it wants to be a parody or serious slasher film. The movie brings back the original cast of David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and a slew of new red shirts, I mean actors and actresses to take on Ghost Face (The Killer). The story goes as follows. Sindy(Campbell) returns to Woodsboro, fifteen years after the original killings in the first movie,  on a book tour for a book she wrote about the killings. (Yea, Dr. Loomis style.) She soon discovers that there’s a new killer in town and he / she wants her dead.

Like I said above, this movie is very confused on what it wants to be. I know these films have kind of always been a parody of the slasher genre to a point, but I feel like it went to far this time. The entire movie I was waiting for the actors to start talking to me like this is a Deadpool comic or something, it just seemed like it would fit in some parts. There were even a few scenes that could have fit perfectly, as is, into one of the ‘Scary Movie’ films, most notably the first five minutes of the movie.

Another problem is that it doesn’t really seem like the main characters have evolved any, well minus now being the only people in the town with the balls to stand up to Ghost Face. To me it just seems that with a series as “smart” as ‘Scream’, the characters would have changed and grown much more than just getting older and getting new jobs. As for the rest of the characters, you don’t really learn much about them. Well except that one really likes to bake and a couple of them really love horror movies. (Yea they had to replace Jamie Kennedy somehow.) Oh and one more thing. Maybe it’s that I haven’t seen a ‘Scream’ movie in years but Ghost Faces’ voice sounded a bit different. Sure it could just be me and my spotty memory but it just sounded off.

All in all ‘Scream 4’ was a decent enough ride that all fans of slasher films should check out, regardless. As for everyone else, just wait on it. I wouldn’t recommend paying to see it in theaters, just rent it once it’s out on dvd from redbox or something.

30 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 01

First Game You Finished.

When I was younger my aunt was my babysitter and everyday I would sit at her house and play this game and I remember the day I beat it, when I got to World 7, she tried to take the controller from me because she didn't want me to get upset because the levels were to hard. The only time I got upset that day, well besides when she took the controller, was when she gave it back to me after losing a few of my extra lives trying to "get me past the hard stuff." Now looking back on it, I just think she was trying to steal my thunda!
 

Hunter, Prey Review

Oh and I have to mention the way the aliens in this movie talk. I don’t know if it was their masks or fake teeth or what it was, but when they talk it sounds like they have mouth guards in their mouths. All of their speech is slurred and it’s just really annoying. Five minutes into the movie and I already wanted to punch the costume designer and director for letting that slide through.

Confused? Yea I thought so. That’s how ‘Hunter, Prey’ starts off. It just throws you right into the movie and it feels like you missed the first few minutes were the movie would’ve been set up. The story here is fairly generic though. A space ship carrying a high risk prisoner crash lands, thus allowing the prisoner to escape onto the unknown world and the soldiers have to find and capture him. Pretty basic stuff that can be good if done right, just look at ‘Pitch Black’.

Something about this movie that really bothered me was the way that it seemed like they were trying to tell you who you were supposed to be rooting for. About halfway through the movie it turns into something like ‘The Prestige’ were you have two characters that you kind of know and they are competing against each other. Naturally you will lean one way or the other but were this movie fails is that they try to hard to persuade you in the direction they want by completely changing the established characters. This is particularly noticeable with one character who, in almost every scene he’s in, switches from being a planet saving army Lt. into “Mr. I don’t give a shit about my planet”. At one point he even switches between sides mid conversation and goes back on what he was just saying. That made it fairly easy for me to choose the side to root for, plus the trader is one I was referring to that sounded like he was speaking with a mouth guard in his mouth. Yea that guy never stood a chance.

On a more positive note about this movie, I will say that the writers did a great job of creating a universe that I want to see more of. You don’t learn all that much about it, but the tidbits of info you do get, just make you want more. You hear things throughout the movie about planetary genocide, different planets allying and going to war, and for once the human race is kind of badass without needing any kind of magical powers.

All in all, this movie is definitely worth a watch if you’re into cheap and cheesy sci-fi movies. Just don’t go into the movie expecting anything great and I’m sure you’ll come out of it satisfied. And for everyone else whose not a sci-fi geek, skip it and don’t look back cause you’re not missing anything.

Alien vs. Ninja Review

With a name like ‘Alien vs. Ninja’ you would think that you’re at least going to see some great action scenes, but that’s not exactly the case here. The story here is pretty basic, it’s about a Ninja clan who witness “fire in the sky” on there way back to there village, go to investigate and discover an alien bent on destroying world. You know, basic sci-fi action stuff. Now I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by this movie, but I was expecting to have a good time watching some ninjas and aliens kill each other, but I guess that’s just asking to much nowadays.

One thing that I never got over with this movie was the costume design. Seriously I don’t know what they were thinking when they made this. First the ninjas in the movie all wear loosely fitting leather pants with studded spike belts and big belt buckles. If that’s not bad enough for you then don’t worry there’s more. One ninja has red emo hair, and spends most of his time using his sword as a mirror to move his one bang around. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Chris Kattans’ scene from ‘A Night at the Roxbury’ were he’s moving around the car and fixing his hair in all the mirrors. Also apparently they had jewelers back in feudal Japan because the emo ninja wears a pretty big but very distinctly shaped diamond stud earring. There’s also a guy with a blonde half hawk, a guy with multiple crowns on his teeth, a cross dressing gay guy who seems to really think he’s a girl (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I’m just saying.), and the alien whose costume looks worse than what I wore for Halloween last year. I know this sounds kind of nit picky but when you’re watching a movie about ninjas seeking vengeance, and fighting for their lives, it’s hard to not be bothered by all of this.

I almost don’t even want to go into the train wreck they call a story here, so I won’t. Instead I’ll just mention how the hero of the movie is not really a ninja. They actually say this in the movie. He basically just moved into the ninja village and happens to be a really good fighter so they let him go out on missions but he doesn’t really know how to do many of the things ninjas can, such as hear at great distances, move quietly, move quickly, but then at some parts he can do some of these things….wait what!? Yea like I said, train wreck. Now the final fight of the movie is probably the craziest fight I’ve ever scene, and not in a good way. It goes from a Samurai type showdown (Yes the alien is a sword master.), to a John Woo style gun fight, into a wrestling / MMA fight. Then not to be out done, EVER, it turns into a boxing match, full with Mike Tyson ear biting and all, seriously. Next we have a chase scene, then they fly around for a while and then the alien goes boom. This fight was hilarious and I’m sure it wasn’t supposed to be.

All in all, this was just the very definition of a bad movie. Don’t waste your time watching this, it’s not worth it. If you really need to watch a movie about some awesome ninjas kicking ass, then go and check out ‘Shinobi: Heart Under Blade’, it’s a much better movie with good actors and a story that makes sense. Plus the awesome fight scenes in it don’t hurt.

Mortal Kombat Review

If there’s one thing about this game that I haven’t heard people bring up, it’s reboot. That’s right all the crazy storylines about Raiden sending messages back and everything is just a way for them to justify a reboot of the series. I’m not mad that they went this route, as a long time MK player I know the “lore” and how all the events went down and seeing them tweaked is pretty cool. It only helps that the game plays so well. They made the switch back to the 2D realm of fighting, I blame Capcom for this, but it works. Awesome combos, air juggling, special moves, fatalities, babalities, tag matches, and limbless matches. This game really does it all, and it does it better than ever. The klassic (You see what I did there.) Ladder arcade mode is back and full of four arm bosses and hammer wielding chumps, yea I’m looking at you Shao Khan. The story mode is were the real fun in single player takes place. It retells the story of the first three MK games and throughout the story you play as many different characters and experience there side of what happened. The Krypt also makes it return in this game, although it’s return isn’t as triumphant as the rest of the game. The lack of un lockable characters kind of killed the experience for me. I mean unlocking concept art and what not is cool and all, but not something I’m going to spend hours trying to get, like I did in MK5. Where this game truly shines at though is in the online multiplayer. I would just like to add in that if you plan on picking this game up be warned that you need a, I think they call it a Kombat pass or something like that, anyways it’s that stupid code you have to put in to play online to prevent you from buying used. The King of the Hill mode is so much fun with a group of people, especially your friends. Basically it’s two people fighting while everyone else watches the match and once the match is over the loser goes “to the back of the line” and watches the next person try and beat the winner and so on. It really is a lot of fun and makes me think back to playing the original MK in my room with all my friends. A key part to the game play of MK and an interesting thing to see how other people use it, is the Super Gauge. It’s pretty much just Street Fighters Hyper meter or whatever it’s called, only with much more brutality and x ray vision. It also breaks down into two other parts, so that if you’re in a bad spot you can bust out a combo breaker or “enhance” your special attacks, such as shooting to two fire balls instead of one. In closing, even with it’s faults MK is a great ride full of blood, guts, and is a must play for anyone who has ever enjoyed any of the other games in the series.