Video Game Review: Back to the Future: The Game

Honestly... This was quite possibly the best point-and-click adventure game I've ever played. Granted I haven't played too many point-and-click adventure games, I thought it was at least better than Sam and Max and the old Humongous Entertainment games. Don't get me wrong, Humongous Entertainment was amazing, but unfortunately all of their games were kid-oriented.

The story for this game went from so-so, to cool, to what!?, to downright amazing. It seemed like the story picked up after each episode and got more and more interesting. I suppose it helps that the game had an entire movie trilogy to play off of, but the developers really did a fantastic job of implementing a wonderful new story while stile incorporating most if not all of the important aspects from the movies.

In Back to the Future: The Game, you're joined by the same (mostly) lovable cast from the movies as well as a few new additions. The voice acting is beautifully done and they even use the same soundtrack from the movies. The graphics were... not the best, but the developers still did a really good job of working with what they had, I assume using the Telltale design kit to the fullest of their abilities. While most of the animation consisted of bits of dialogue between two or more characters, there were also a few pretty cool cutscenes involving the Time Traveling DeLorean.

Nothing changes from playthrough to playthrough so there's essentially no replay value unless you forgot certain parts or just want to see some parts over again for whatever reason. So that's my only real complaint with the game aside from the sub-par graphics which are extremely easy to look over. For that reason, I'd say this game is probably a rental, but I would still definitely recommend at least one playthrough to anyone who is even remotely interested in adventure games. I give Back to the Future: The Game an 8/10.

Movie Review: Chronicle

Another crazy movie. Chronicle is a fairly recent movie (2012) about a group of angsty teenagers who acquire telekinesis after stumbling upon a mysterious glowing rock underground. Some of them abuse their powers and things eventually get out of hand leading to some pretty bizarre results.

I'm still not quite sure what type of genre this was. Drama/action I guess? Sort of like a super hero movie, without the super hero. There wasn't much music in the movie, but there were a lot of crazy sound effects that were used pretty well and really helped add to the atmosphere. There were three main characters that were all pretty much douchebags, especially the "main" one.

The special effects were pretty cool, even if it was pretty obvious that they were special effects. I thought that the scenes where they flew around the sky were especially entertaining to watch. The plot... pretty good. Decent pacing, plenty of drama, kept you entertained. So yeah, I liked it. A little weird though. I give Chronicle a 7/10.

Movie Review: The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Not a bad kid's movie. Not a bad kid's movie at all. From the makers of Wallis and Gromit and Chicken Run comes clay-mation film The Pirates! Band of Misfits. The movie is about the Pirate Captain and his band of misfits who are down on their luck after a series of unsuccessful raids. After almost giving up hope, the Pirate Captain stumbles upon Charles Darwin during a raid and finds out that his fat parrot is actually a Dodo bird. The pirate, his crew, and Charles Darwin then face a number of wacky hijinks in attempt to get the glory and the gold.

The plot's not too bad for a kid's movie, certainly not on Pixar's level, but still well enough to compete with the likes of some other Disney films. The animators do an excellent job, so no complaints there. There were actually quite a few recognizable songs throughout the movie, nothing like most of the subtle background tracks and occasional top 20 songs you usually hear in movies nowadays.

Some of the characters were pretty clever, while others seemed extremely one-dimensional. One of the pirates was a woman dressed up as a man, and they never really built on that. It seemed like an unnecessary plot-point, but I guess it wasn't really a plot-point in the first place since it had nothing to do with the plot. But I digress, the three or four main characters had plenty of personality, so that was good.

Overall, it was pretty good. Not the best, but definitely not bad either. I give The Pirates! Band of Misfits a 7/10.

Glyde Sale

My favorite online video game and electronics retailer Glyde is having a $5 off sale until Friday. Simply enter the coupon code SUMMER5 during checkout and $5 will be deducted from your total. In order to take advantage of this deal I would like to buy a game, but I'm not sure which one to get. Maybe you guys can help me decide.

Choice #1: Psychonauts
I'm a big fan of platformers, and I've actually tried out this game before, but I didn't get very far. If I use the coupon code I can get this game for $8. It's a little old, but I've heard it's very good.

Choice #2: L.A. Noire
I've heard mixed reviews on this game, but a friend of mine told me it's a game I would probably like playing through at least once. It looks good, but this would be the most expensive of the three options coming out to $19 with the coupon code.

Choice #3: Demon's Souls
I'd like to try out either this game or Dark Souls, and since Dark Souls is newer and apparently improved, I've been leaning towards that. On the other hand, this game would only be $8.50 with the coupon code. Another great deal from the looks of it.

So there you have it. What do you guys think I should get? The sale doesn't end until Friday, so I have another couple of days to decide.

Video Game Review: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2

You know... I was a little disappointed with this game. After seeing that they revamped the physics from Episode 1, I was pretty excited about it, but after it playing it it doesn't really feel like they changed much.

Sonic 4 basically has no story, at least none of any importance, so I'm not going to bother commenting on that. The gameplay is slightly enhanced from episode 1 so that you can no longer stick to the side of walls and rolling into a ball has increased momentum gain. Still not as fast as the good ol' days though.

The level design... seems a little lacking at times. It feels like there are a lot more gimmicks in this game than there were in episode 1, especially with the new Tails-buddy-up combo thing. The music has improved slightly in my opinion, and they threw out the horrible boss theme from the first game. In it's place is a pretty a couple of pretty cool up-beat music tracks.


The graphics look really nice, although I'm not sure I prefer the 3D models over the 2D ones from the first episode. But getting back to gameplay, it's not bad, just not all I had hoped for. I give Sonic 4: Episode 2 a 7/10.

Zurker Invite Referral Code

I don't know much about this, but I saw this image online and figured it couldn't hurt to sign up, so here you go. If you're interested, go ahead and use my referral code at the bottom of the image.


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inMomentum

Has anyone here heard of this game? It's so crazy. The trippiest game I've played in quite some time. The object of inMomentum is to gain momentum, jump from panel to panel, and pick up these blue orb things. That's it. But it's actually really fun for some reason. It's hard to explain.


The game takes forever to get a feel for, I must have died at least 100 times now. But because of instant respawning, it's still fun. I definitely recommend this game to anyone who is into speed-based games. It's a shame it has such a tiny fan-base. InMomentum is available for the PC and can be purchased for $9.99 off of Steam.

Hyouka: First Impressions

The main character and his best friend are voiced by the same guys who did Okazaki and Sonohara? Really? Well, I guess that doesn't matter, those guys were awesome. So how was the first episode of Hyouka? The animation's what we've come to expect from KyoAni. Pretty great. The opening made my computer lag... Anyway, still not sure what this part was all about.

But overall, the first episode was pretty... well, boring. After waiting several weeks for this anime to air, I was honestly pretty disappointed. I've only watched the first couple episodes, but it doesn't really seem like it's going to get much better. It seems like there's a different mystery every episode, but the problem is there's no action. No real suspense. The entire second episode was about the gang trying to figure out why a certain library book was checked out in oddly similar intervals.

Borrriiiing...
But hey, I guess it could get better. This is Kyoto Animation we're talking about. Pretty much my favorite anime studio. On the other hand, it could be a huge flop. I guess only time will tell...

Sankarea - First Impressions

Okay, so this is that new zombie anime I mentioned during the Spring 2012 anime line-up post. The first episode certainly was... interesting? Let's do a little recap, shall we? Apparently it's about a guy who has a zombie fetish.

Okay, so this could be interesting. What happens next... Apparently the guy's cat died, so he wants to bring it back to life. He figures if he can bring it back to life, it will probably be a zombie, but he doesn't really care because he wants to see his cat alive again.

Hmm.. lovely...
So while attempting to resurrect his dead cat, he runs into a chick who's pissed off at the world because her rich parents don't understand her.

And the guy agrees that he won't tell anyone about her screaming into the well if she doesn't tell anyone about him trying to bring his dead cat back to life. Seems like a fair trade.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes from here. Like I said earlier, I am interested, so I guess I'll keep watching for now.

Movie Review: The Avengers

This movie. It was amazing. Everything I expected and more. The Avengers is about a group of Marvel super heroes who are brought together by Nick Fury(Samuel L. Jackson) when Thor's brother Loki threatens to unleash an army upon the Earth.

This is going to be a short review because I really don't have anything to criticize about this movie. Everything was pretty much perfect. The way the characters interacted, the background music, the filming, the magnificent mix of action and comedy, the way the plot advanced, everything!

The movie had a helluva lot of fanservice, but the good kind! Not the bad kind like in this image...

Anyway, my opinion may be a little biased, and if you're not into this sort of thing you're not into it, but this was quite possibly the best movie I have ever seen. 10/10.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who wished me well. I'm feeling a lot better now. :D

Tiny Update

Hey everyone, still feeling kinda sick, just thought I'd give you guys a little update. I was feeling a lot better on Thursday, so I decided to go to the midnight premier of the Avengers with some friends. Expect a review on that in the next couple days. Unfortunately, after the premier I felt like crap, so spent all day Friday resting up. Anywho, I'll try to keep up the blog posts over the next couple of weeks, but with Finals drawing nearer and a pile of homework loaded up from this last week of being sick I'm not making any guarentees. Content Hedgehog, out.