Anime Review: Stein's;Gate

This anime actually started out a little slow, so I dropped it after a couple episodes back when it was first airing, but then I decided to pick it up again after hearing the praise it was getting, and boy am I glad I did. Stein's Gate is a masterpiece about a young MAD SCIENTIST who invents a time machine out of a phone and a microwave with the help of a fat, otaku hacker and a cool tsundere chick. Also there are some other characters. Doododoo~


This is one of those anime where you simply can't stop watching. You're on the edge of your seat at the end of each episode and you keep wanting to know what happens next. Although the pacing is slow at first, it picks up fast once the time machine is used the first time. From there on the show just gets better and better.

The artwork is great. The animation, while not entirely fluid, fits the mood perfectly. The voices and music all fit excellently as well. There were probably a few plot holes as there are in any story involving time travel, but nothing really stood out to me. I don't think I could have asked for a better ending, and I'm anxiously looking forward to the movie announced at the end of the series' TV broadcast. I give Steins;Gate a 9.5/10.

Oh, and one more thing. The main character drinks Dr. Pepper.

Toonstruck

Continuing the trend of talking about games that no one has ever heard of, I'd like to tell you all about Toonstruck, a point-and-click adventure game released in 1996. My girlfriend and I finally finished this game a little while ago after playing it for several weeks. Pretty long for a non-episodic point-and-click game.

I stumbled upon this gem a couple months ago while online looking up different adventure games to play. The description for the game sounded interesting enough, then I read the casting roles. Christopher Lloyd, Dan Castellaneta, Tim Curry, Jeff Bennett, Dom DeLuise, AND Jim Cummings!? Why hadn't I heard of this game before???

Needless to say I had to start this game right away. I told my girlfriend about it and she was interested too, so we decided to play it together. We started up the game one night and boy, lemme tell ya, nothing is greater than Doc from Back to the Future complaining about pink fluffy animated bunnies.


...Off to a good start. As we played I starting noticing popular 90's cartoon voice actors left and right. It was amazing. The guard from Aladdin as a frog who works at a bakery, the cat from American Tail as a sarcastic octopus, Johnny Bravo as an extremely flamboyant "carecrow," NIGEL THORNBERRY AS THE MOST EVIL CARTOON CHARACTER OF ALL TIME! This game was amazing. Then this happened.


...What more can I say? If you're a big fan of 90's cartoons and you like parodies, you need to play this game.

The Wii U Experience

So as many of you know Comic-Con was this last weekend and although I only attended day four of the convention, I was busy down in San Diego all four nights. Thursday night was the Legend of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses where they played various musical pieces from the Legend of Zelda video game series. Friday was Sonic Boom, a showcase/concert for the latest in Sonic the Hedgehog. Saturday I was able to attend an exclusive Nintendo Wii U showcase that I'll come back to in a minute, and Sunday was Comic-Con.

Merchandising at Comic-Con wasn't very good this year in my opinion. The only thing I ended up purchasing was a figurine of Winry from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist. Anyway, I think the highlight of the trip was the Nintendo Wii U Experience, so I'd like to take a little time to talk about that.

A couple weeks ago I received an email from Nintendo saying that I was invited to come try out the Nintendo Wii U at Comic-Con. At first I figured it was some mass invite that everyone signed up for Nintendo's newsletter received, but apparently it was only for dedicated Club Nintendo members. Anyway, when my girlfriend and I got there on Saturday, we were greeted by several not-yet-released Wii U games, very short lines, and free legos (apparently they helped sponsor the event).

Wii U games available for play included:
- 4 different Nintendo Land minigames
- Rayman Legends
- Game & Wario
- Pikmin 3
- Scribblenauts Unlimited
- ZombiU
- New Super Mario Bros Wii U
- Wii Fit U

So yeah, it was pretty awesome. The only games I didn't get around to playing were ZombiU and WiiFit U, and that's mainly because I didn't really have any interest in playing them. Anyway, I think my favorite was either Scribblenauts or Rayman. I'm really looking forward to the Wii U now, and I'm totally going to get one once they're released. If anyone has any questions related to these games let me know. I might write more about them in a later post.

Ports and Remakes

Boy, a whole mess of remakes/ports have been announced recently. The ones I'm sort of interested in are...

Dragonball Z Budokai HD Collection - Includes HD versions of DBZ Budokai 1 and 3. Budokai 1 had the best story mode out of any DBZ game ever, and I never got the chance to play Budokai 3 back when it first came out, so that should be fun.

Kirby's Dream Collection - Compilation of Kirby's Dream Land 1-3, Kirby's Adventure, Kirby Super Star, and Kirby 64. I've played most of these already, but it might be nice to have them all on one convenient Wii disc.

...and most importantly,
Nights into Dreams - I never had the chance to play this one since I never owned a Sega Saturn, but I've always wanted to. Now I get to play it in HD on the PS3. I can't wait.

Other recently announced games I'm looking forward to include Tales of Xilla (a North American release was finally announced) and Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 3. Hopefully we'll get even more good video game news out of San Diego Comic-con this weekend.

Summer 2012 Anime Line-up

Busy as usual lately. Right, well you guys should know the routine by now. Here are my thoughts on the Summer 2012 anime line-up.

Sword Art Online - I'm always interested in anime that incorporate video games. Hopefully this one will be less disappointing than what I saw of Accel World.

Kono Naka ni Hitori - Generic fanservice.

Tari Tari - I like the art style...

Binbougami Ga - Happiness Energy? I miiiight look into this one...

... Wow, that's honestly I'll I'm really interested in. Welp, I guess this will be a good chance to catch up on my backlog. If I ever stop being busy that is. @_@