Author: Shmee

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Shmee Shoots A Lot Arrows With Merida!

Games with Gold has given us two Disney games back to back this year.  The first being the interesting yet flawed racer Split Second, and now a true ‘Disney’ game in that it is based off of Pixar’s Brave.  Brave: The Video Game is better than most licensed platformers, but that is not a high bar to clear.  That it is playable and has some fun moments means it is already better than 90% of the other licensed dreck out there.  It will not however be a game that you long to play day in and day out.

In order to gamify Merida’s story, Behaviour Interactive had to change a lot of Brave’s plot.  Instead of roaming about with Merida’s mother bear looking for a way to undo the spell, Merida now knows exactly what she has to do, and that is to use a variety of arrow and sword types to clear out all the blighted creatures from her father’s kingdom.  Then the Witch’s magic will work properly again, and she will be able to change Merida’s mother back.  Merida will also get help from her Mother and her brothers from time to time.

At first I thought Brave would just have a lazy hack and slash mechanic that would allow kids to button spam their way through this game, and it can probably still be played that way by exclusively using the sword and setting the game on easy, but the arrows are much more fun.  They shoot by just aiming the right analog stick the way you want to shoot.  In other words, Brave: The Video Game is a twin stick shooter/platformer, and in the moments when they are throwing a lot of different enemies at you and you are constantly changing arrow types to do the most damage, it is a lot of fun.  Even more fun, it has co-op where one person plays Merida and one person plays a giant wisp.  A wisp with Merida’s powers and equipment, so it is great for a parent to play with a younger child.  Which is what I am doing right now.

Unfortunately, it falls down in most other areas.  The graphics are fine, but dark and muddy, and everything looks the same.  There is no real gameplay variety.  You will jump from one place to the next, and then once you get to a purple ‘blighted’ area, you will shoot all the spawning monsters.  Clear that and you will jump around some more.  You will do this around eight times then finish the game.

Listen, Brave: The Video Game is a game for kids and their parents to play together, and it works rather well as Timmy’s first twin stick shooter, but once you are done with it, I don’t think you will go back for more.  The ‘hidden’ items are all easy to find and get to, and the game itself is quite easy, but if your daughter loves Merida and playing video games, it is worth downloading to show her how to make a blue orb shoot arrows all over the place.

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Shmee Witnesses The Frankenstein Chronicles!

It is hard to keep track of the almost infinite number of shows Netflix has, but my wife’s love period pieces combined with my love of light horror made The Frankenstein Chronicles very interesting.  Now, if you are from across the pond you may be wondering what the big deal is.  This show is from 2015, but due to channels changing and going under and a myriad of rights issues it has taken three years to hit North America, and it is now called a Netflix Original.  Of course the main reason to watch this show is to see if Sean Bean’s character can live through it.

The Frankenstein Chronicles takes place in London during the early 1800’s.  Which if you were not rich was apparently not a great time to be living in the city.  Much like Taboo and a lot of other new grimy period UK dramas, there are not a lot of balls or tee parties in this show.  Instead, Sean Bean plays a police officer that patrols the water ways, and one day a child washes up on shore.  Which sadly isn’t that uncommon, but in this case it looks like it is several children all sewn together.  Not unlike Mary Shelley’s infamous (at the time) novel.

The story and the actors really make this show work.  Not to mention the time period makes for a great setting since scientific medicine is just starting to take hold, but it is making the uneducated and superstitious populace very nervous.  Unfortunately, you can tell it is a non BBC show.  While the costumes and the actors are great, it feels like they are always in the same three rooms all the time.  Which is the long way of saying it feels like they blew their budget hiring Sean Bean, but he was worth cash in this case since he carries the show.

If a little blood and Sean Bean don’t scare you, The Frankenstein Chronicles is worth watching.  It is interesting, and there are some slight chills and thrills woven deftly in to this tale, as you would hope with Frankenstein being right in the title.  Now that Netflix owns it, I hope they pick it up for a few more seasons.

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Shmee Tries Out A Logitech G433!

I recently got a Thrustmaster Ghost Recon Wildlands Y-350x from Xbox’s own Major Nelson, and for the most part I really like it.  It gives a good representation of 7.1 surround sound, and it fits on my large melon head.  The problem is that it doesn’t have inline controls, or a USB dongle, so to use it with my PC I need to loop it through an Xbox One controller.  While that doesn’t sound like a big deal, it is annoying to have it getting knocked around while playing games, or just using it with my PC in general, so to alleviate this issue, I picked up a refurbished red Logitech G433, and it is so much better.

The sound is crystal clear, even if a little muted, and the mic is a hundred times better.  Not to mention the cloth material it is covered with is just more comfortable to wear, and it is flexible enough to fit snuggly on my three-year-old’s head and mine while still being comfortable for both of us.  My issues so far are that it doesn’t have an Xbox One dongle, so it can only do surround on the PC (I guess I will still have to keep using my Y-350x), and the bass doesn’t quite hit hard enough for me.  What can I say, I like my bass.

Considering it is a basic simulated 7.1 surround sound headset, it is probably a little pricy at its suggested retail price.  Especially considering once you get over $100 mark there are a lot of options out there, but if you get one refurbished like I did for almost half the cost? Then it is probably one of the better cheap options out there.  I love Logitech’s gear, so I am probably a little biased, but I am very glad that I picked up this headset for my PC, and I like it so much that I might just put up with it being stereo only on my Xbox as well.

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Get Out And See Get Out!

Thanks to Comcast feeling like they needed to lock me in to a one year contract, I now have access to HBO again.  Which means I got to watch Get Out for free just before the Oscars last night.  Sadly that means I didn’t get to post this review until after it already won its Oscar for Best Screenplay.  An Oscar Jordan Peele deservedly won.

Get Out is about an African American man, Andre Hayworth (Daniel Kaluuya), who is visiting his white girlfriend’s rich parents for the weekend.  Things are as awkward as you would expect, but then after a while things go from everyday racist to something more sinister, and Hayworth needs to figure it out before it is too late.  Actually he should just listen to his buddy and GET OUT!

Get Out is brilliantly written.  It uses horror movie tropes to shine a light on the little racist things people who say they aren’t racist do all the time.  From asking dumb questions about stereotypes to touching without asking.  Not to mention just saying all the things that make them not a racist to make themselves feel better.  Honestly, all of that was more horrifying than the horror parts of this movie.  Which are still pretty good.

Daniel Kaluuya gives a wonderful performance as Hayworth.  They way he understandably misunderstands what is going on as the normal crap he has to deal with everyday is completely believable.  Though my favorite character is Rod Williams played by Lil Rel Howery.  He is Hayworth’s best friend, and probably the best TSA agent out there.  He adds some great comedic moments, and is a prefect stand in for the audience.

Jordan Peele made something special with Get Out, and I am glad the Oscars rewarded him for it.  Peele showed that he had a lot of potential with Key & Peele, and it is great to see him living up to it.  If you haven’t seen Get Out yet, get out and watch it.

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My Little Pony: The Movie Isn’t Quite Magical

It was only a matter of time before the hit reboot of My Little Pony got a movie of its own.  Sadly, the writers were not able to come up with a story worthy of the big screen.  It feels like a multi-episode special, but not one of their better ones.  If you have kids that love the show, they will still probably like this movie, but My Little Pony: The Movie will not win over any new fans.

Princess Twilight Sparkle (Tara Strong) is having a hard time shouldering the load of being a new princess.  She feels like it is all up to her to make sure everyone is having fun and making friends.  To make matters worse during her inaugural Friendship Festival a new villain called the Storm King decides to invade Equestria.  His forces are being led by the broken horned unicorn Tempest Shadow (Emily Blunt).  Twilight feels like she is the only one who can save her home and friends.

This is a fine enough setup, but a story about how Twilight feels like it is all up to her when she should be leaning on her friends is well trod territory for the show, so fans will no doubt see how this movie plays out from its opening frames.  Also, it seems like the producers knew the plot was a little thin, so they just amped up the cast with a lot of well known people as random characters for marketing purposes.  Tempest Shadow is kind of an interesting character, but the rest of the new additions to Pony Canon are pretty much throwaways.

The animation at least got a good bump in quality.  The Mane 6 have never looked so good.  The flat basic color style is preserved, but there is a lot of extra little detail, and it is much smoother.  For My Little Pony fans it is probably worth watching just to see the best representation of their favorite Pony Pals.

My Little Pony: The Movie feels like a lost opportunity to tell a good story and win over some new fans.  Right now I can only recommend it to existing fans, or families with young kids.  There have been far worse movies made out of kids shows, but considering how good My Little Pony is, My Little Pony: The Movie feels a bit like a let down.