Now Playing in November ‘14

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I didn’t play a lot of video games last month; my time was spent with NaNoWriMo, and other than that just general wasted. So this will be a short entry.

Beaten

Demon’s Crest – I almost forgot entirely about Demon’s Crest.  It is the final game in a spin off of the Ghosts and Goblins series from Capcom, playing as a red demon of sorts.  It is kind of a Mega Man style game with aesthetics closer to that of Castlevania.  It is an excellent, oft overlooked SNES gem.  It looks great and plays even better.  Though the difficulty curve is kind of out of whack, some stages are all but impossible until you get certain upgrades and other upgrades make the large parts of the game a cakewalk.  Still for the most part it is a really great game.

Ongoing

smashU

Super Smash Brothers 4 WiiU – It is even better than the 3DS version, which basically stole the month of October from me. It looks amazing, 8-player Smash is mind blowing and Smash Tour is a lot more fun than Smash Run, assuming you have people to play it with. One thing that has stood out about the WiiU version is that the characters I excelled with on the 3DS aren’t the same. I dismissed Dark Pit pretty quickly on 3DS, but I’ve really enjoyed using him on WiiU, while I have fallen to being completely inept with Jigglypuff after loving her the first time out. Rest assured I will have more to say about this game soon.

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Pier Solar – This game really wants to be a 16-bit RPG and it succeeds, but it doesn’t quite hit the top of the 16-bit RPG pile, landing instead somewhere near the middle. It is occasionally clunky and obtuse, like its inspirations were, but twenty years later that stuff is less acceptable. I still like the game, but through the first few hours it isn’t quite as good as it inspirations, like the Lunar series. Hopefully it gets better and really fulfills the promise it shows.

Mario and Luigi: Dream Team – I have generally enjoyed this series, but they can sometimes be too talky. This game is kind of like the rest of them. It does have a new visual style, and I’ve played enough now that I can say that I really enjoy it. It looks really good in motion. It has some good change ups to the series that aren’t as intrusive as the Bowser stuff from the last game. I would estimate I am about a third of the way through this game, but I will be hard pressed to finish this before the end of the month with Persona Q taking my time away.

Persona Q – This game combines two of my favorite RPG series, and through the first floor of the first dungeon it is everything I hoped it would be, even if it spends way too much time chatting. So far it seamlessly combines the dungeon crawling of the Etrian Odyssey series and the fun stories of Persona. I chose the Persona 4 side of the story, of course, because that game actually had good characters. Hopefully I can get through this before too long.

Yakuza 4 – I only played about 20 minutes of this last month. I will keep plugging away.

Earthbound – miniscule progress, but I’ll keep hacking away at it.

Upcoming

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker – This looks so good, and I loved the Captain Toad stages of SM3DW. I’ll be jumping on this next week.

Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword – This is the last game standing between me and the end of my Zelda replay. I will beat it, I swear this.

Okami HD – I don’t know if I’ll have time to get to it, but I really want to play this again.

Having Fun with Bayonetta 2

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Nintendo scored quite the coup when it was announced that Platinum Games was making two games for the WiiU and one of those games was going to be a sequel to their much lauded action game Bayonetta. That news got even better for Nintendo fans with the addition of a port of that game. Bayonetta 2 has more than lived up to the hype. It is an excellent game. It is not a revolutionary game; it is merely a revision of the original. Considering how good that first game was, that is not such a bad thing. Also, Bayonetta 2, as well as the port of Bayonetta, takes full advantage of the Nintendo connection to make a game that is all about bonkers fun.

bayo2

While Bayonetta 2 plays much like is predecessor, it also smooths things out considerably. I must admit that a lot of that smoothing might come from the fact that my previous experience with Bayonetta was playing the PS3 port, which by all accounts is flawed to say the least. That doesn’t change the fact that Bayonetta 2 plays perfectly on the WiiU. There are also some changes to the combat. The Bayonetta combat system is all about narrowly dodging attacks to activate “Witch Time,” where time slows and attacks to more damage. It is some combination of that Matrix influenced “bullet time” and Viewtiful Joe’s slow motion ability. Activating that is easier in Bayonetta 2 thanks to more clearly cued enemy attacks. It is a lot easier to judge exactly when to dodge than it was in the first game. It also removes most of the QTEs that the first game had, making for many fewer cheap deaths.

For the most part, the game is just more of the same. It is Bayonetta, but with more weapons, more enemies, just more in general. I love how the different weapons change how the game plays entirely. Using the bow is a completely different experience than using the scythe. The beast weapon is undoubtedly Salamandra, which is a chainsaw sword. It is supremely satisfying to use that weapon. The other part where the fun really comes in is the Nintendo fan service. The game is loaded with Nintendo themed fun. There are a bevy of costumes themed like Nintendo characters. You can dress Bayonetta as Link or Samus or Peach or Fox. It doesn’t end there, though. When dressed as Link, the halos you collect as currency become rupees. When you’re dressed a Peach (or Daisy) Bayonetta’s wicked weaves – attacks when her hair becomes demon fists or feet – become Bowser themed. As Fox anything that can be replaced with an arwing is replaced with an arwing. It sets the tone as a game that is all about fun. The actual game is as hard as ever and the game doesn’t coddle the player, each victory must be earned, but it is carefully designed so that even failure will be enjoyable.

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The big elephant in the room is what exactly to make of the game’s main character. It is hard to tangle out what Bayonetta is. Is she a powerful character with positive sexuality or was she created just to pandering with her frequent near nudity and playing to the leering, lingering camera? This has inspired a delightful debate, assuming one can ignore the gang sub-literate hyenas currently shitting up any sort of conversation about video games on the internet especially if it touches on gender. It is not a question with a clear cut answer. The game absolutely does provide ample opportunity for players to ogle Bayonetta, the camera lingers on her ass and chest every chance it can. The game devotes an almost disturbing amount of time to extended crotch shots. However, in the game Bayonetta holds all the power. Her flirty, sexual antics are to amuse herself. The other characters and even the camera to some extent exist to serve her needs. Is the condemnation of Bayonetta just slut shaming? Or is she just another in the long line of “Strong Female Characters“? I fall more to the positive side of that debate, though I am careful of whom I play the game in front of. Bayonetta is entertaining, but it is slightly embarrassing.

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Bayonetta 2 just works. It doesn’t take itself seriously and it defies the player to do so. The story is just an excuse for every escalating conflict between Bayonetta and everyone who stands in her way. While the combat is intense and has an astronomical skill limit, the rest of the game teeters constantly on the edge of silliness. Sometimes it steps away, and is nearly genuinely moving at times, others it gleefully jumps into a pool of silliness and splashes around. Even the most grave moments the game manages are undercut by Bayonetta being dressed in an ill-fitting Princess Peach costume. Bayonetta 2 is certainly a unique experience.

What I Read in October ‘14

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I did quite a bit reading in October, all of it in two series. I finished up my reread of the Outlander series, which was largely entertaining. I also got caught up with Jasper Fforde’s Last Dragonslayer series. I don’t expect to come close to matching this pace next month, since NaNoWriMo will be taking up a lot of my free time. It is also why I am kind of phoning in these reviews. Let’s get on with it.

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The Song of the Quarkbeast

Jasper Fforde

I saw that a new Jasper Fforde book was coming out, which reminded me that I never read the one before it. So I bought both this book and its sequel. These are his Young Adult books, skewing a little younger than his other work, but they are still highly entertaining. Jennifer Strange is still leading the magic company of Kazam, with its founder, the Great Zambini, still missing. Now she is facing problems with the only other magical practitioners in the Ununited Kingdoms, meddling from the King, the reproduction habits of Quarkbeasts, and the mystery of what happened to The Once Magnificent Boo. She has to hold together Kazam in the face of a competition to determine who controls the future of magic itself.

Song of the Quarkbeast is another great Jasper Fforde book. It keeps the trademark humor and wit, but aims it at a younger set than something like the Thursday Next series. This book is funny. It also pulls the curtain back a little more on how the word of this series works. I liked this one more than the first one. It spends less time getting to know the characters; it just gets to the fun.

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The Eye of Zoltar

Jasper Fforde

I followed up book two with book three immediately. It is a similar thing. This time, Jennifer goes to a foreign country where magic is outlawed to rescue the Once Magnificent Boo, as well as look for a magical macguffin that may or may not exist, the Eye of Zoltar from the title. It is not a quest, though, those require regulations that Jennifer doesn’t want to deal with.

On its own, this is a fine story, but it is kind of a digression from the characters and setting that the previous two books established. The Eye of Zoltar is an excuse to the a few characters out of the way in order to set up the next (final?) book in the series. That would be a problem if this book wasn’t still supremely entertaining. It introduces some interesting new characters and some entertaining concepts. Again, I don’t like this series quite as much as I do Fforde’s “adult” books, but there is still enough wit and humor to make it worthwhile.

abosnaa

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Diana Gabaldon

It had been a long time since I had read this book. I remembered snatches of events, but not the sequence or the totality of them. Much like Dragonfly in Amber, this book is one to close up all the lingering plot threads from the previous books and clearing the way for the next one. The community of Fraser’s Ridge in the back country of North Carolina is firmly established by now, and thing are moving rapidly to the start of the Revolutionary War.

This is a sprawling book, with tons of small stories, but no strong central one. There is the growing unrest in the colony, with Jamie, knowing the outcome, trying to balance safety and his other obligations, with not allowing them to get caught on the wrong side of history again. They also have to deal with Ian’s return from living with Indians and some troubling new tenants, along with a host of other problems. It does let the stories take their time in the telling. The tale of the Christies’ is a sad, strange saga, with Claire’s protégé Malve doomed by the regressive gender notions of the time as well as her father’s harshness. It ended the only way it could. Her attempts to pin her out of wedlock child on Jamie is a strange soap opera-esque note, mostly because there is no chance that it is true. The fact that dealing with that accusation takes up a good portion of the back of the book is somewhat disappointing. The big deck clearing decision is Roger and Brianna taking their family back to the future. It was necessitated by the heart condition their baby had, but seemed to be mostly an effort to focus the narrative of the next few books.

A Breath of Snow and Ashes is a somewhat weak book on its own, but as a part of the ongoing Outlander Saga it is a fine entry in the series.

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An Echo in the Bone

Diana Gabaldon

Another Outlander book. This one deals with start of the Revolutionary War and, despite their best efforts to the contrary, Jamie and Claire’s participation in it. At the start of the book, Jamie and Claire attempt to go back to Scotland, both to visit his sister and to get his printing press, which is how he plans to aid in the war effort. However, their attempts to secure a berth on a ship lead to a series of misadventures that bring them right to the heart of the fighting. It is a story scattered all over colonial America.

It is a little too scattered. The sheer number of POV characters has gotten out of hand, and Gabaldon doesn’t stick with any one of them long enough for the reader to get comfortable. Especially with the frequent trips to the ‘future’ with Brianna and Roger. It is not that their portion of the story isn’t interesting, but it is completely divorced from the rest of the book. It also brings in Jamie’s son William as a major player in the story. He is still unaware of his paternity, but he and Jamie keep crossing paths. Ian also begins a romance with a young Quaker girl. Other than its inability to keep focused on one story for any length of time, this is a fine entry in the series, though it is clearly a part one with a part two coming.

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Written in my Own Hearts Blood

Diana Gabaldon

I did another quick read through of the most recent Outlander novel after I caught back up. It reads a lot better when you know what happened to lead to the situation where the book starts. It also is a lot more of a focused book than either of the last two. While there is just as much Roger and Brianna stuff, it is kept to its own section, letting it stand on its own better and not interfere with the other part of the story.

This one lets the Revolutionary War part play out, but with everything at the end seems to be setting up could be the end of this series. Roger and Brianna are back, William knows who his Daddy is and the Frenchman is not letting up in his search for Fergus, who may or may not be heir to a French Lord. I don’t profess to have any clue about how it will play out, but it seems like it is leading to a conclusion.

Now Playing for October ‘14

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This was a month of Smash Brothers, at least until the last week of the month when I got both Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse and Bayonetta 2. Next month should be pretty free until near the end of the month again. That at least will clear some time for me to complete NaNoWriMo.

Beaten

Bayonetta 2 –

I’ll have a full post about this sometime in the next week or so. It is a great game, but that is to be expected from a PlatinumGames title. It doesn’t quite reach the highs of its predecessor, but it is overall a slightly better game. It is a much more even experience; while it doesn’t reach the astounding highs it also doesn’t have the lows. By which I mean the instant death surprises and QTEs. I think the team at Platinum knew they weren’t likely to get another chance at this series (fingers crossed that I’m wrong) and they went all out to make this the best game they could. It is polished and inventive and just damn great.

Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse – wrote about it here.

Smash Brothers 4 3DS – wrote about it here and here.

The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks – wrote about it here.

Art of Balance –

This is a puzzle game, with previous versions releases for Wiiware and the 3DS, where the player stacks oddly shaped blocks, trying to keep them from falling off the platform. When the game starts adding special blocks, like breakable ones or blocks that reverse gravity it starts to get really intense. I really enjoy puzzle games, I can zone out for hours solving things like this. Art of Balance is a damn fine puzzle game. It doesn’t quite have the presentation of PushMo, but it is much easier to wrap one’s head around, though not necessarily easier to solve. This is a good game.

Ongoing

Yakuza 4 – I’ve played a few chapters of this, but I couldn’t make much more progress. I expect it is the last Yakuza game I’ll get to play in English and I want to savor the experience.

Mario and Luigi Dream Team – I started this up when I was sick of Smash Bros. I don’t know what I think about the new graphical style, it looks different from the previous Mario & Luigi games but I’m not sure it’s a bad thing. The rest of the game seems to play about the same as the rest of the series. Honestly, I didn’t stick with much past the prologue, but this is what I have to play on my 3DS until Persona Q hits.

Bayonetta
–

I’m not finished with this yet, but I am ready to call it the definitive version of Bayonetta. I’ve never played it on 360, but it certainly runs much better than the PS3 version. And the 360 version doesn’t have Nintendo themed costumes. This is a great game on any system, but the silliness of Link and Samus costumes make it even better.

Tomb Raider Underworld – wrote about it here. I haven’t managed to finish it, but I am still playing it.

Cursed Mountain – My attempts to clear out my Wii backlog started with this survival horror game. It isn’t a great game, the controls are clunky and some of the motion controls are awkward. But it does have some great atmosphere and a unique setting. I haven’t made it too far into the game, I had planned to play it on Halloween but ended up playing Bayonetta instead, but I will come back to finish it. It is a solid 7 of a game, flawed in many ways, but interesting nonetheless.

Earthbound
– I ambled around Fourside for a while this last month. I think I know where I’m supposed to be going now, but I’ve got distracted by other things. I’ll get back to it.

Upcoming

Persona Q – This is the only big 3DS game I am buying the rest of the year. My budget won’t allow for me to get this and Fantasy Life and Pokemon. I am going with the Atlus game. A combination of the Persona and Etrian Odyssey series, this looks like exactly the sort of game I’ll love.

Smash Bros WiiU – I spent 40 odd hours with the 3DS game already; I expect to double that with the WiiU pretty quickly. It looks so good.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – This is the last game in my Zelda replay, assuming I can’t track down 4 Swords Adventure, (I am baffled about what happened to that game. I’ve searched everywhere) and I will get it finished before the end of the year.

Okami HD – I picked this game up cheap at the same time I got Tomb Raider Underworld, but I played that first since I was fresh off of the Tomb Raider reboot. I am eager to play this again.

JSA Reread Part 2

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I originally expected to cover only issues 6 and 7 for this entry, but I realized that if I only covered 2 issues at a time it would take me more than a year to cover all that I want to cover in this re-read. So now, I am taking on issues 6-9, the first of which is an interlude issue with Black Adam and then the three issue Darkness Falls arc. My plan for the rest of this re-read is to try to cover one arc in each entry, though some of the longer arcs will require more. I have it planned out for 25 Parts total, unless I also decide to cover Johns issues on the re-launched Justice Society of America. So let’s get started on the first four issues of the Johns/Goyer collaboration on the JSA. After the first issue, drawn by Marcos Martin, the rest are drawn by Stephen Sadowski, with inking my Michael Bair and covers by Alan Davis.

JSA #6: Justice, like Lightning.

This is Geoff Johns’ first issue as co-writer and immediately we are introduced to the character his run centers on: Black Adam. I am assuming most of Black Adam’s arc is Johns’ doing because it is one the few that is not tidied up when Goyer leaves the book around issue 50. Also worth noting is that this issue is penciled by Marcos Martin, who is a tremendous artist. Just look at his work on recent issues of Daredevil or in Batgirl Year One.

The issue starts with the JSA holding a press conference to announce that they have reformed. The superhero press conference is one of the worst ideas in the world of superheroes. Not the idea that a team, like the JSA, would announce to everybody that they are back in business, but that anyone would show up to something like the ribbon cutting in this issue without realizing the obvious would happen. A villain will attack this get together. Every time this scene occurs, a villain will attack. And of course, it happens here.

Johns and Goyer aren’t subtle on this title. Just look at Sand’s speech. The earlier JSA “created a legacy. That legacy isn’t easy to live up to,” he says. That is the major focus on of the book. Sand just comes out and says it. Legacy and the struggle to live up to it or in some cases break free from it. There is another interesting line in that speech, “While others in our line of work are often in the shadows or adventuring beyond time and space, we keep our feet firmly planted on the ground.” While on the surface those are clear references to Batman (shadows) and Superman (time and space), it also foreshadows where the book is going. The next issue starts an arc called Darkness Falls, wherein the entire world is covered in shadow. After that, the team must fight the time traveling villain Extant, a battle the roams over all of time and space. This is a new beginning for this team, and those are the adventures they will have.

Then we get a page of character positioning. Hawkgirl hates the spotlight, Dr. Fate misses his wife, and Star Spangled Kid is a bit self-centered. After Courtney (Star Spangled Kid, soon to be Stargirl) cuts the ribbon, it moves inside the JSA museum. In the middle of the page are three panels highlighting heroes who have passed on. First is Mr. Terrific, the predecessor to the man from issue 5 that Sand offered JSA membership to. Then it’s Dr Midnight, who will join in the next issue and finally Hawkman, whose return is a big arc itself in a few issues.

Then Black Adam attacks. Remember what I said about subtlety or the lack thereof? After the initial wave of JSAers is manhandled by the near Superman powerful Black Adam, Sand opines, “there’s nothing I can do if Black Adam’s feet aren’t on the ground.” An obvious call back to the line in his speech about the JSA being grounded. While most of the team tries to fend off the enraged strongman, Hourman, Dr. Fate and Hawkgirl travel back in time to ancient Egypt to the point when Black Adam received his powers. Using a combination of Hourman’s time powers and Dr Fate’s magic, they channel the magic lightning bolt to the present to drain their foe’s powers. Conveniently, this happens just after everyone on the team had the chance to show off their powers.

Everyone is confused about Black Adam’s attack because they thought he had reformed. For those unaware, Black Adam had been an ancient hero, but now his powers are used by his villainous descendant Theo Adam, though Black Adam had regained control. Sentinel (Green Lantern, really) discovers that he has a brain tumor that may have caused his outburst. Then Agent Chase (of her own short series) from the DEO (Department of Extranormal Operations) shows up and takes custody of Adam, while her boss Mr. Bones thinks some cryptic thoughts about Hawkgirl.

While this issue is primarily a cool down issue between big stories, it does seed a ton of story points for future issues. The most important of which is the introduction of Black Adam, who will play a major role in the series from much of its run. It also marks the first, but far from last, trip the team will make to ancient Egypt.

JSA #7: Darkness Falls

Now we start the second big story of this series. The threat was seeded in a couple of scenes in the first few issues, with Alan “Sentinel” Scott’s son Todd talking with shadows. Now we see what he was going on about.

This issue starts in medias res with Black Canary falling from a window. She is chased by shadows of her teammates, which eventually catch up with her.

Then it jumps back to earlier that morning and the apartment of Jade, Alan Scott’s other child. Johns and Goyer make sure you don’t miss this connection. Jade cuts her hand on a photo of her, her brother and her father and reminisces about the connection her and her brother share and wonders about how odd he’s been lately. So she calls her dad.

On the opposite page, Dr. Fate tries to connect with Hawkgirl, who is both his cousin and possibly his mother reincarnated. Very creepy, and it won’t get better. Echoing Jade cutting her wrist on the previous page, Hawkgirl’s scarred wrists are exposed. Her troubled life before the series is slowly explored during the time she is on the team and this is one of the first hints of her situation.

Fate’s and Hawkgirl’s talk is interrupted by a call to see a news report saying that all the shadows in Milwaukee had disappeared. While the team heads for the city, Sentinel info dumps all the back-story and set up for this arc. He just throws it out there.

Once they arrive at their secret underground bunker, we meet Star Spangled Kid’s step dad, who is the team’s mechanic and appears in only 3 or 4 issues of the series. His inclusion here seems like a bit of cross-pollination with John’s Stars and STRIPE book, where he is the co-star. However, it may have already been cancelled by this point. He takes a little guff from old friends and sets the team up with a plane, the Steel Eagle, which aspires to but never achieves the status of the X-Men’s Blackbird. Off they go to Milwaukee.

Why Milwaukee? Because that is the home of Jim Rice, Todd’s stepfather, a drunk who used to beat him. In his apartment, the team finds a shadow man sitting an armchair. As far as they can tell, it is the only shadow in the city. When Sentinel approaches, the shadow sucks him inside of itself; then it expands to cover the whole the city. The heroes try to protect civilians around the city, but the shadows slowly possess the heroes. Inside the shadow, a realm called the Shadowlands, Sentinel sees Jim Rice and the other part of the villainous duo Ian Karkull. There is the only editor’s note in the issue to explain Karkull’s history, referencing a story from 1941.

Outside the only three JSAers left who aren’t possessed, Atom Smasher, Black Canary and Star Spangled Kid, are captured. Obsidian (Todd) begins a classic villain monologue while Atom Smasher argues with him. Kid manages to free Black Canary, bringing us back to where the story started. Just before Canary is overcome by the shadows, a flash of light disperses them, revealing the new Dr. Midnight.

JSA #8: Shadowland

The first seven pages of this issue are introduction to this new Dr Midnight. Quickly we learn that he is an actual doctor, that he has a few light and shadow based gadgets, he can see in the dark and he has one of the best sidekick/pets ever: and owl. The owl is peeking in on Obsidian with the rest of the JSA, and feeding it back to Dr. Midnight via a tiny camera around its neck. It also features the first pairing of Black Canary and Dr. Midnight, which is the only real, possibly sexual, relationship that suns through the first year or so of the book.

Back with Obsidian, Atom Smasher tries to appeal to his shadow possessed teammates, but Obsidian tells him that they can’t help because they are currently living out their worst nightmares in their minds. Flash sees his dead successors come back to haunt him, Hourman is faced with an existential crisis; Hawkgirl relives an apparent murder she committed, etc. Obsidian proceeds to taunt Atom Smasher until Karkull returns with Obsidian’s fathers.

Obsidian then rails against both of his dads with ideological rantings. Nothing is left as subtext. From the juxtaposition of Nature and Nurture, which this story comes down on the side of nurture, to Obsidian flat asking Sentinel what he thinks about the legacy he’s left, with a wife that has committed suicide and a son who has become a super villain.

As Obsidian moves in for the killing blow, Canary and Midnight arrive. They free their non-possessed teammates and manage to break Hawkgirl free from the shadows. Atom Smasher manages to corner Obsidian, but despite Obsidian’s taunting about him being weak, he is unable to kill him to save his friends. So the team beats a hasty retreat. Karkull then reveals that he has been playing Obsidian from the start and tries to take him down. Obsidian then turns the tables on him and absorbs his powers. He then uses it to cover the whole world in shadow.

This issue is mostly rising action. It is the team beaten, and held at their lowest point. Their enemies appear triumphant. There are some moments of thematic worth here, though. Like Sentinel realizing the failures in his legacy and Atom Smasher thinking he’s found some of his own with inability to kill Obsidian, his best friend. The middle issue is tough, since the first issue generally establishes the conflict and the last one ends it, but in the middle, it is only rising action.

JSA #9: Black Planet.

Now that the entire planet is covered in shadow, everyone on the planet is going crazy. Because not only is the world dark, but also people are forced to face their inner darkness as well. Sentinel tells the rest of the team that by staying together they can pool their willpower and overcome their dark thoughts. So he leaves them to deal with their possessed teammates and the other possessed inhabitants of Milwaukee while he deals with his son.

Star Spangled Kid and Hawkgirl manage to free Hourman, who slows down Flash enough for them to free him as well. Dr. Fate manages to shake free of the possession on his own. Atom Smasher, with Rice hanging around his neck, seals the rest of the shadow people, including Sand, behind a wall of cars. Rice wants to know why Sentinel doesn’t need to be in contact with anyone else to stave off the darkness and Atom Smasher tells him it is because he is already living his greatest nightmare.

The central conflict of this issue is the conflict of this whole arc. It is Sentinel facing his mistakes and the truth of the legacy that he has left behind him, all in the person of his opposite powered son. So they have one of Johns patented shouting philosophical debate/fights. Obsidian feels as though the world has cheated him, with some pieces of a good point. He was the son of the superhero, but he was raised by an abusive drunk. He did not inherit his father’s light-based powers, like his sister, but instead powers of darkness and well as his mother’s mental problems. Not an actual good point, but enough of one to see why he wants what he wants. Sentinel is facing his most immediate legacy, his son, turned from being a hero (just before this he had been a member of a particularly forgettable JLA team) to a villain. And not an ambiguous villain, he has turned evil for evil’s sake. For the reasons mentioned above, as well as for the obvious symbolism (light vs shadow) and because he is actually crazy. It is not the most spectacular fight in this series, but it is a warm up for later, larger stories.

One interesting note is that Alan is only effective against Obsidian after he recalls his time as Green Lantern. Due to supposed reader confusion, he was going by Sentinel at this time, instead of his original name, Green Lantern. In a series about a character’s legacy, being forced to use a different name is problematic.

In the end, Alan is unable to save Obsidian, though he does stop him. Obsidian flees back into the shadow dimension, taking Jim Rice with him while Alan goes off to break the news to his daughter. The team is kind of down here. They saved the world, but they didn’t save Obsidian On the flight home Flash utters a disgusting sentiment about people being born bad, but it does not seem to be one endorsed by the book. Idly some members of the team wonder what Wildcat got up to in their absence.

Which segues to the two-page coda of Wildcat sitting in the bathtub, possibly attempting to engage in phone-sex with Catwoman only to be disturbed by an attack by the all-new Injustice Society.

I don’t feel that this title is completely up to speed yet. Some characters very important to the run have yet to be introduced and Johns has not yet found his footing. However, this is still a solid arc that sets up plenty of future stories. Yes, there will be more intercalations with Obsidian and Atom Smasher’s willingness to do kill to save people will again be tested.

Next time: Wildcat stands alone, JSA v Kobra and Sins of Youth.

Rating the Smash Bros Roster

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At first I intended to write something like a review of Smash Bros 3DS, but since I’ve covered a lot of my thoughts in my previous two Smash Bros posts I don’t really have any more to add right now. Any additional thoughts about how this version of Smash Bros stacks up can wait until I get my hands on the WiiU version. Then I will write something more complete. However, I have been playing almost nothing but Smash for the last couple of weeks. I have been exhausting myself trying to complete all the challenges that are part of the game and I’m close.

While some of the late challenges are more tedious than difficult, they have helped me get used to the whole of the roster. Challenges like complete Classic or All-Star Mode with all fighters or complete the 100-Man Smash with the same. It isn’t hard; it just takes a long time to complete. Now that I’ve mostly conquered those challenges, I have a few more fighter to do 100-Man with, I feel like I have a handle on every fighter in the game. So I am going to rank them using a complicated formula known only to me. Mostly just a combination of how much I like them mixed with how effective I think they are and how much I like or dislike fighting against them.

*: Mii Swordsmaster, Brawler and Gunner – I haven’t used these three enough to rank them.

48: Wario – Remember, this list is largely based on how much I like to play as the characters. And as much as I love Wario and his motorcycle and his farting, I am terrible with him. I die so often and so quickly that I can’t ever play as him. Bottom of the list.

47: Meta Knight – Meta Knight I simply don’t like. He annoys me when I play as him or against him. Screw Meta Knight.

46: King Dedede – Another Wario case. Dedede his hilarious, but I just can’t play as him.

45: Mr. Game and Watch – I have softened on Mr. G&W since I forbid his use on my Gamecube back in the day, but as amusing as flipping sausages at foes is ,I don’t really like to play as him.

44: Olimar – He is too weird for me to have any fun with. I like his games, but that doesn’t really translate to Smash.

43: Yoshi – My hate for Yoshi has lessened greatly from the Melee/Brawl days. Him and his baby voice still annoy me, but I actually have some fun with him now.

42: Pit – I like the character, but try as I might I can’t figure out how to get a KO with him. He is too weak.

41: Sonic – A slippery fast jerk with a bunch of annoying fans. Not using him.

40: Ganondorf – He is basically the opposite of Pit, all I can do with him is get KO’s. I can’t move or fight, just randomly punch around to occasionally knock people out.

39: Fox – Better than Brawl, but still no fun.

38: Captain Falcon – I want to like Captain Falcon. But I am so very, very bad with him. Still, I can occasionally manage competence using him.

37: Diddy Kong – I’m actually not bad with Diddy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t find him annoying. Another character I find too weak.

36: Charizard – He was the worst part of the Pokemon Trainer trio, but he still isn’t terrible. I just find him awkward to use.

35: Lucario – He’s fine, but I don’t ever really want to use him. I do like gimmick of getting much stronger as he takes damage.

34: Shulk- I like the character, but I haven’t been able to crack using him. So he ends up pretty far down the list.

33: Kirby – My eternal nemesis. (i.e. my brother’s favorite character) He’s fun to play against, but I am just no good with him.

32: Mario – From here up are characters I generally enjoy playing as, where below are the ones I kind of don’t. Mario is neutral.

31: Dark Pit – He’s like Pit, but just enough stronger for me to get KO’s with him.

30: Zero Suit Samus – Too fast for me, but a generally fun character to play as.

29: Sheik – See ZSS, Sheik is the same deal.

28: Greninja – I’ve fiddled a little bit, but he kind of falls into that same ZSS Sheik mold.

27: Falco – He’s a little better than Fox, that’s about all I can say with him.

26: Villager – I suck as this guy/gal. But his attacks are all so weird that I can’t help but love him/her.

25: Pikachu – Probably my favorite of the small speedy characters.

24: Dr. Mario – He is Mario, but fun to play as. Plus, he’s got the Tornado Spin.

23: Palutena – Another weird new character. Her moves are strong, but awkward.

22: Wii Fit Trainer – I really love the new characters. WFT is just as amusing I’d hoped s/he would be when announced.

21: Zelda – This is basically the same as she was before, except with a new down special. I really like her.

20: Donkey Kong – This is the last character that I am terrible with, but he’s so much fun. He is strong and slow and I lose and lose and lose while playing as him. I don’t care; I’m going to keep using DK.

19: Marth – My old favorite Melee character, but I can’t quite use him as well as I’d like, though I’m better than I was with him in Brawl.

18: Pac-Man – Weird newcomer? You bet. He is such a fun love letter to Namco arcade games.

17: Peach – She’s the floatiest and has some fun moves.

16: R.O.B – This robot is a tough character to deal with. I’ve got nothing else to say. I’m glad he’s here.

15: Samus – I hated Samus in Brawl. She had not power. Here she is nearly back to being the beast she was in the original; she is just hard to KO.

14: Luigi – Luigi is my boy, but I’ve lost a lot of my skills with using him. He is still the best, but I’m no longer the best with him.

13: Rosalina – She is like Ice Climbers lite, with the Luma echoing Rosalina’s attacks. Plus, she is pretty heavy.

12: Little Mac – Strong on the ground and nothing in the air. I like him a lot, but you best not end up off the edge, he’s got no recovery.

11: Duck Hunt – Biggest surprise in the game. He has a lot of medium range attacks and a great hook.

10: Link – Link was terrible in Brawl, but I love him this time. His move-set has a few changes, like his hopping running attack, but for the most part it was just small tweaks to make him fun again.

09: Robin – Another character with a kind of high concept hook. Robin is the first Fire Emblem character to use that games breakable weapons or magic. It makes for a fun, versatile character.

08: Ness – The original weird character. His recovery is still chancy, but he still has an excellent array of moves.

07: Mega Man – He has the most versatile move-set, a great KO move and is just generally a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I haven’t used much since I wasted all my time with him on the demo.

06: Bowser Jr. – This should actually read any of the Koopalings names, because I don’t use B Jr. here, I use Ludwig or Roy. While he lacks a good KO move, his clowncar has a lot going on.

05: Bowser – I hated Bowser before this, but now they’ve got the heavy right. His power is scary and he now he doesn’t die before he can bring it to bear.

04: Jigglypuff – She’s a Kirby clone without his signature move. Her singing, falling asleep combo is impossible to pull off against an opponent with a brain. But I love to clown people with Jigglypuff. Rollout and spike kick and constant taunts.

03: Lucina – She is the return of Roy. Same moves as Marth, but a little stronger and with a different focal point on the sword. I liked Marth more back in the day, but I am much better with Girl Marth this time around.

02: Ike – Ike is still a beast, though a little less of a beast that before. He is still a KO machine, but he is a little easy to take out now. I still love him.

01: Toon Link – He seems to be the sturdiest of the light characters. Plus he has Link’s wide variety of attacks. Plus he’s Toon Link.

Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse

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This has been quite a year for 2D platformers, seeing the release of such titles as Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (technically 2.5D, but the play style is the same), 1001 Spikes, Shovel Knight and Guacamelee Super Turbo Championship Edition (I know that one is not technically a new release, but close enough) among others. It has simple been a great year, with several more due over the next few weeks. Even though I was greatly anticipating Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, I am shocked about how good it is. I wanted it to be this good, but I really didn’t expect it. Wayforward’s original forays are almost always worth playing, but they also tend to be flawed. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is their original masterpiece.

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I love Wayforward; they make good games. Most of their output is licensed titles of variable quality. There is an underlying level of competence to even the bad ones that makes any Wayforward game worth giving a look. Their Adventure Time games are pretty good and their superhero games, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Thor, are solid beat-em-ups. They are good, but not great games. Then they have a handful of remakes and re-imaginings; which is largely their best output. Contra 4, A Boy and his Blob and Double Dragon Neon are all excellent games. But those are all built upon pre-existing works. They are refinements of existing templates. That is not meant to diminish them, again they are great games, but they feel in a small way like they are not Wayforward’s games.

Wayforward’s original titles haven’t been bad, only small. The original Shantae is a fine game, but it chafes against the limitations of its platform. The GBC is not a great system for action games. While Shantae looked good it was an uneven title. The difficulty is frontloaded and Shantae’s sprite, while great looking, is a little too big for the small screen. The loosely tied Mighty series of games a delightful, but they are also bite-sized. Shantae: Risky’s Revenge was just short of being great. It is very, very good, but there are a just too many small problems. The game can be a chore to navigate and it, like the Mighty games, is just too darn short.

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Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, though, irons out all those flaws. It is a meaty game, a good ten hours long the first time through and never tedious or repetitive. It finally becomes the true Metroidvania that the previous two games hinted at, though it still somewhat level based. The individual areas do not connect like the areas of Super Metroid, but it does nail that free roaming exploration feel. In practice it feels like Monster World 4, but with the ability to backtrack. It is just a finely tuned game. Shantae’s hair whipping attack always looked good, but this time it actually feels like the attack has enough range. The heroine has lost her transformation abilities, but the new pirate themed skills she acquires more than make up for it. The transformations were great, but the pirate skills are smoother. It is easier to flip between them. The whole game just feels perfectly honed.

It is impossible to talk about this game without mentioning the graphics. Many 2D games go for a stylized self-consciously retro look. Shovel Knight does its best to look like an NES, 1001 Spikes looks like something older. Anything that tries to look newer inevitably goes 3D. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is 2D, but it isn’t trying to look old, it simply looks great. It looks like a 16-bit game on steroids. It also uses the 3D capabilities of the 3DS to make the sprite layers look great. Everything just looks great. It also sounds pretty good as well.

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This game is seriously the best case scenario I imagined when Wayforward announced that this game was coming. But it kept getting pushed back, the release date was constantly uncertain and they did a kickstarter for a new Shantae game in between the time this game was announced and when it released. I never really thought the game was in trouble or anything, but I expected it to be a little flawed. They seem to have taken the Nintendo philosophy with delays, that it is better to delay a game and fix it than release a flawed game on time. That is unusual, only Nintendo has my faith to pull it off, but Wayforward did it with this game. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is the best possible game it could be.

Watching Home Movies

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Around the start of the aughts there was a rash of animated sitcoms that hit TV. While a couple showed lasting appeal, most fell by the wayside. Futurama is one of the all-time great television shows and somehow the soulless husk of Family Guy is still being broadcast, but who remembers Mission Hill, The Oblongs or The PJs? Despite being an undeniably great show, Home Movies seems to have fallen into that latter category. That is a real disappointment; Home Movies is every bit as good as Futurama.

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For those not fortunate enough to have seen it, and yesterday I learned that the whole series is up on Youtube so there is nothing stopping you, Home Movies is about Brendan Small, an eight year old kid who makes movies in his basement. He is helped by his friends Jason and Melissa, and gets advice from his Mom, Paula, and significantly more dubious advice from his soccer coach McGuirk. The show was never destined for big success. The style of the animation is not all that appealing. The first season is in “Squigglevision,” the same scratchy looking animation technique used on Dr. Katz, but the entirety of the show uses the borderline abstract character designs and flat, sparse backgrounds. While one grows to appreciate the look of the show, it is not initially appealing. It is a somewhat ugly show, but its look perfectly fits the combination of normality and weirdness.

I love the way that this series evolves. I am ignoring the first season for the simple reason that I don’t own it on DVD and am therefore not as familiar with it. The second season is all about the movies that Brendan is making in his basement. There are plenty of other goings on, but they are filtered through his movies. As the third season goes on, the movies start to fade in importance. In the fourth season, they are often dropped completely. This isn’t a case of the show losing sight of its focus; it is Brendan growing up. Everyone was eight at one point; everyone had something that meant everything to them as child. Very few people are still in love with the same activities that they were at eight. At that age I was in love with dinosaurs (Jurassic Park), everything I did revolved around them. That fascination was short lived, though. It is the same with Brendan and his movies. They were what brought him and his friends together, but as they grow up the movies start to become less important. It is brought home in the last episode when he drops his camera outside of the car and barely seems to care. He has moved beyond his movies.

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While there is change, it is amazing that Home Movies has such well-defined characters when improvisation played such a big part in the scripting. Most of the show is at least partly improvised. Still, the core of the cast comes out as very real characters. Brendan, Paula, Jason, Melissa and Coach McGuirk are all great characters. Having a handful of them in a scene to play off of each other is just amazing. It has a lot of pithy one-liners. Characters will face a completely ridiculous problem that every character not directly involved recognize as ridiculous. They react with very adult sarcasm. The show really takes off, though, when the secondary characters become more prominent and start getting thrown in with different configurations. Characters like Walter and Perry, Mr. Lynch, Fenton and Duane. They all add something fun and new to the mix.

It is sad that Home Movies is gone, but its spirit lives on in the shows its creators, Loren Bouchard and Brendan Small, are doing now. Brendan Small went on to do Metalocalypse, a show about a crazy Death Metal band. Music was a big part of Home Movies, Brendan (the character) spent a lot of time working on the sound for his films with Duane, his slightly older friend with a band. Metalocalypse is a different show from Home Movies, but there are times when the patter of dialogue is similar. Loren Bouchard went on to make Bob’s Burgers, which in tone is much like Home Movies. It is about a weird family and weird neighborhood. Bob’s Burgers is the show that really keeps the spirit of Home Movies alive. Home Movies is on Youtube for anyone to watch, you should do that. It is one the best animated shows from an era full of great animated shows. Then watch Bob’s Burger’s on Netflix.

There are Tomb Raiders and there are Tomb Raiders

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I recently played two Tomb Raider games, last’s years Tomb Raider reboot and Tomb Raider Underworld. The differences between them are a prime example of why I am feeling increasingly disconnected with so called AAA video games. Tomb Raider 2013 (from here on just called Tomb Raider) is easily the better made game, but I enjoyed Underworld more despite its flaws. There is a fundamental difference to the way they approach things that, even though Underworld’s execution is flawed, I still find it to be the superior experience.

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This is not about Tomb Raider changing what the series is really about; honestly I don’t care much about that. After playing these two games I’ve now played 5 Tomb Raider games and beaten 2 of them. (I have not yet reached the end of Underworld) I spent some time with Tomb Raider 2 way back in the day, but never played it enough to really gain an appreciation for it. I understood the importance of the series; along with Mario 64, Tomb Raider was essential to the development of 3D games. However, while games like Metal Gear Solid and Ocarina of Time built off of that foundation, Tomb Raider never really advanced. For all of the PS1 generation, it was stuck much the same as it started. That sort of design bottomed out early in the PS2 days, and then the series rebounded with Tomb Raider: Legend. I liked that game because it took many cues from the Prince of Persia games from the same time. I beat that game and dabbled with Anniversary before the change in consoles left me out in the cold. So while I do have some experience with the series, it has never really been one of my favorites. While I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the direction that Tomb Raider when in, it has nothing to do with any delusions of it abandoning what came before it, a threat I’ve seen leveled as other popular games from long running series like Resident Evil 4.

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As I’ve already said, Tomb Raider is in most ways a better game than Underworld. The graphics are a big step up. Underworld has some nice environments, but Lara’s character model is grotesquely cartoonish. The environments look real, but Lara simply doesn’t fit in. Underworld also fails at times with its controls. No matter what I liked or disliked about Tomb Raider, I can’t think of a single situation when the controls did not work as intended. Within the first hour of starting Underworld it had already had its context sensitive inputs fail or misinterpret what I was trying to do a half dozen times. There are times where the camera doesn’t cooperate in giving you a useful view to maneuver through the environments, another thing that as not a problem with Tomb Raider.

What I like more about Underworld than Tomb Raider is that Underworld is a game about exploration with some shooting while Tomb Raider is a game about shooting with some exploration in it. The focus of Underworld is in exploring various environments. They are obstacle courses, mazes and treasure maps; the point of the game is to look around and find what’s out there. Sometimes the obstacles in Lara’s do involve shooting, but that is far from the focus. In Tomb Raider, the shooting is the main point. The exploring that is in the game is there for contrast with shooting. It ratchets up the tension with gunfights and set pieces; then lets the player cool down with some relaxing exploration. It is an effective combo, but it mostly succeeds in taking all the importance out of the exploration. The exploration is just the extra stuff.

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By itself Tomb Raider is a fine game, but it is also an example of a trend with big budget games. On the PS2 Ubisoft made Prince of Persia games about navigating a series of complex traps, but those gave way to the Assassin’s Creed series, which have similar, in some ways, gameplay but shift the focus onto killing people. The kind of platform and action games I like have given way to a cavalcade of shooters. Many of them are good games, but they are just not for me. Which is fine. Luckily, despite the myopia of big publishers, we are living in a golden age of new and different types of games. Sure, they might not have the production values and polish that games from big publishers might have, but the variety is astounding. As long as the indie game scene keeps cranking out new and interesting experiences, I don’t mind missing out on the big stuff.

Some Early Smash Thoughts

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So I’ve has Smash Brothers for 3DS for a weekend now and I feel like I am just scratching the surface of what this game has to offer. I had already spent a ton of time with the demo before the game came out, but the whole game is much different and more robust experience. It is Smash Bros, at its heart the same game that it’s been since the N64 but as always stuffed to the brim with love for Nintendo.

The accepted narrative is that Smash Bros 4 rights the wrongs of Brawl. I disagree with that, Brawl was a fine game, a better one than Melee by a country mile. There were flaws, the character roster wasn’t that well balanced and tripping, while amusing, was not a good addition. But despite its unbalanced nature, the roster of characters was expansive and varied. The single player experience was by a wide margin the best thing the series has ever seen. Smash Bros. 4, though, does improve on Brawl in several ways. Despite the loss of a few fighters, the stable of fighters is even more impressive. The game is also sped up from Brawl’s leisurely pace. Not back up to Melee’s uncontrollable speed, but it is faster than it was. There are some problems as well. The single player seems somewhat barren. There are several different single player modes, but not a one of them is as substantial or entertaining as Brawl’s Subspace Emissary, as flawed as it was. Still, it makes up for it by having a worthwhile online mode.

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all pics taken from Nintendo’s website

That online mode is much better than Brawl’s. Brawl was of Nintendo’s earliest forays into online play and they didn’t quite get it. I played a few matches without lag, but unplayable lagginess was the norm. I have had some laggy games on the 3DS, but mostly it has been a pleasant experience. Other than the fact that I am getting beaten pretty regularly, that is. The local multiplayer is a little less spectacular, since the game doesn’t feature download play. I can understand why not, but it isn’t ideal.

I am in love with this games character roster. Not only are there a ton of new character, but a lot of the old characters feel drastically different despite not having their move sets changed up all that much. No matter how much I play, I can’t seem to choose a character, or even three characters, to be my main. There are plenty of interesting characters here. I’ll break them up into a couple of different categories: best newcomer and most improved returning character.

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The best newcomer is a tough call. Most of the really interesting characters are new. Like Palutena, who is fun despite the fact that I can’t quite figure her out or Little Mac, who is powerful but lacks good recovery moves. There are surprises, like Xenoblade’s Shulk and Duck Hunt Dog. I love Duck Hunt Dog, even if I don’t love playing as him. My favorite is, shockingly, Bowser Jr. Bowser Jr. is a stupid character. His existence lessens the importance of the more interesting Koopalings. Seeing that he was going to be in the game was a little disappointing. But not only are his alternate costumes the Koopalings, making him essentially 8 characters in one, but he is a ton of fun to use. He has decent power and movement. His unorthodox set up, being a small character in a machine, gives him an interesting hook.

The most improves returning character is also hard to choose. A lot of the old standbys were kind of awful in Brawl. Link and Samus were just north of jokes and both have seen a significant bump up in power. Both of them are legitimate combatants this time around. Like in the early Smash Bros games, Samus is a chore to finish off. No matter how hard you hit her, she just floats back in. Link is capable of a ton of feat, with both solid ranged and up close abilities. The most improved, though, has to be Bowser. I hated Bowser in the last game. He was strong, but he was too slow to be that serious of a threat. He is still just as much of a beast, but now he has some much needed agility. He actually moves around decently. He’ll never be anything but a lumbering giant, but now it is not such an insurmountable flaw.

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I guess what I’m saying is that new Smash Bros is great and you should be playing it. I feared this game might lessen my desire for the WiiU version. Even though this game is great, it is hampered enough by its platform to make me yearn for the solid heft of a real controller, instead of contorting my hands to hold the 3DS. Time to get back to Smashing.