I’m pretty picky anymore, so it’s not super often that I end up slightly disappointed with a figure, especially one that is expensive that I didn’t randomly pick up because it was marked down to nothing at Wal-Mart. Unfortunately, the 4 Inch Nel Roll Casket gets the pleasure of being slightly disappointing.
So, the figure itself is pretty decent, and I really like the Classic Megaman that I have. The real insult of this figure is the price and the dual release. The version I have is the AmiAmi.com exclusive version. It includes a hatless head and a mini figure of Data, the little save monkey from Mega Man Legends (Rockman Dash). The regular version has a hand holding a wrench and a head with Roll’s giant hat. The thing is, this figure is roughly $70 USD, and there really isn’t any reason that these two figures shouldn’t have just been “one release”.
What makes this really stand out is that in the same order, I received Figma Widowmaker, which is like twice as much figure and a ton of extra parts, for less cost. I mean, I realize these are different companies, and Figma is a lot bigger than Sentinel in terms of everything, but it really makes it obvious how much Roll is really price gouging it.
The figure itself looks good, all of the colors are nice and the sculpt looks really great for the most part. She holds together pretty well, in fact, I had a little bit of trouble getting her head apart to swap the faces it holds together so well. The joints though are a little ugly. Sentinel’s joint system works great on robots where everything is hidden by armor, it works a little less well on Roll, who is more human looking in appearance. She also has a little trouble with balance, primarily due to her skinny body and huge head. There is a stand to help hold her up, but it’s the huge claw style and kind of looks rediculous when wrapped around her.
Aside from the previous complaint of “the second figure should have just been accessories”, she really is kind of anemic on accessories. She has open hands and fist hands, though the open hands are very straight fingered and look a little weird looking. There are two face plates, one smiling, and one winking, a few more would have been nice given the cost of this figure. Then of course there’s Data, who has an articulated neck but not a lot else to do.
I don’t have a lot else to say. I hope she does all right because I would love to get Tron Bonne eventually, but I hope they have the sense not to split her up needlessly across two expensive releases. Another unrelated side note, I kind of wish Megaman Volnut would get a re-release, he’s pretty expensive on the secondary market these days, so my Roll is a little lonely. I have an old as the hills model kid but it looks pretty awful.
Gameplay has a ton of variety and courses and cars
The car Livery system is pretty great
The Bad
The PC version is a pretty mediocre port of the console version
There are a lot of bugs.
The Online Scene isn’t great
Racing is a genre of games that I don’t really obsess over but I often come back to. It’s quite possibly my secret favorite genre. I bought an N64 so I could play Cruisin USA, I played a ton of Gran Turismo 2 on my Playstation, I played a bunch of Need for Speed games. the only X-Box 360 title I have played with any amount of play time was Forza Motorsport 4.
I’d been kind of looking at trying one of the Forza games in the Windows 10 store, though I was a little apprehensive early on because, well, it’s the Windows 10 store. I’ve used Windows 10 enough that I can say I’m ok with keeping it around some so I went ahead and decided to dive into Forza Horizon 4, which is the newest title in the series. It was on sale and I had a bunch of Bing Rewards credit so I picked up the Ultimate Edition for a steal and have been playing it pretty regularly since.
So, Forza consists of two core series. The Forza Motorsport Series is a more traditional “Pick a race and run it” style game, the Forza Horizon series is a more open world experience. Each of the Horizon games take place in an approximation of a different real world region, Forza Horizon 4 takes place in the countryside of the UK near Edinburgh. It centers around the Horizon Festival, which is a sort of gathering for racers to show off their skills in different types of racing. The point is, there is some sort of vague plot to this game, you meet with some of the organizers and they give little cut scenes occasionally. Each race type culminates in a longer showcase event, that one of the characters has been building up to. It’s not going to win any writing awards, but it’s there. There are sub stories as well, though it all amounts to an excuse to drive a car and win some sort of race.
For example, one of the sub stories is a series of events hosted by a Vlogger who is showing off cars that appeared in video games over the years. Like the Ferrari from Outrun or the
Lamborghini Countach from Test Drive. Another has you participating in a series of outlandish stunts as you work do some side work for a filmmaker as a Stunt Driver. There are a series of special event races which culminates in a Halo themed run driving a Warthog. Another has you race a massive hovercraft as it storms over the terrain.
These are all in addition to the more standard races that make up the core Horizon Festival series. The Horizon races are broken up into types you might expect, Off-road racing with trucks, Street races with lots of tight corners and turns, Road races which are a little more forgiving than street races and have a few more straightaways. You start off with only a handful of events available but unlock more as you level up your skill in each type of race. Eventually the entire map is essentially covered in events.
The map itself is pretty good size. It can take a pretty good while to circle the entire area, and even just traveling across it can take five to ten minutes, depending on how much you go off road or what car you’re driving. In addition to race events, there are all sorts of activities on the map itself. Speed Trap challenges to achieve a high speed at a certain point, Drift Zones where you accumulate points by drifting around a series of turns, or Danger Signs where the object is to see how far you can jump your car. Like regular races and mini stories, doing these activities, unlocks other activities.
When all of this gets old, there’s also the hourly Forzathon events, which are sort of impromptu gatherings of players who all work to do the world activities for accumulated points. These, admittedly, get a little old, they last 10-15 minutes and it involves doing the same speed trap or danger sign jump over and over and over and over while a meter inches upwards for the group. It really feels like these could be given some more variety, maybe a series of checkpoints for everyone to race through that span the map or something. These events give special Forzathon Points which can be used to buy special weekly exclusive items.
Thinking of buying, the game’s other progression system is through accumulating cars and player outfits. You can’t exit your vehicle but your avatar appears on race start and completion screens and shows up in your car driving. You earn clothes and cars through a variety of methods, winning races and leveling up the different race types is one. You can outright buy cars with your winnings. You can also win prizes through Wheelspins which are earned from victories and leveling up your character. These are pretty much what they sound like. A big prize wheel spins and you get an item afterwards.
It’s notable to add that there is no real world cash shop. You buy the game, and that’s it. The Wheelspins especially feel like something that would normally be a “pay $1.99 and get a wheelspin” item but there is no way to buy extra wheelspins. They must be earned by racing. This is good because frankly, micro transactions are kind of hurting the game industry. It’s a little frustrating since it means you get a loot box that you can’t control and may get some garbage emote out of it instead of that rare car that happened to show up as an option. Fortunately the game pretty much showers you with Wheelspins.
So, while there aren’t any micro transactions, this does lead into my first complaint. I purchased the Ultimate Edition on sale, so it didn’t seem too bad, but the game kind of feels like it almost needs the $99 Ultimate Edition package, for anyone who has any intention of seriously playing the game and the expansions. In addition to including the current (Fortune Island) and unknown second expansion, the Ultimate Edition comes with a ton of cars and the VIP Pass, which includes a bunch of perks like double experience and free wheelspins and whatnot, all things that make the progression of the game fly by.
My other major problem comes from how shoddy the PC port itself feels. The game itself plays well and looks great and on the whole, I am happy, but it has a lot of weird quirks and a lot of bugs that feels like they stem from the whole “Windows 10 Cross Play Xbox experience” or whatever it’s called. For example, there is an elaborate and nice Photo Mode in the game, but the only way to get the photos into a useful sharable format is to first share them to your Forza Profile on the Forza website. I mean you can print screen them, but the actual export produces a much nicer quality image.
I also feel like the lack of a user defined radio stems from this weird Xbox wrapper. The in game radio is all right but gets a little old after a while, having the ability to point a user radio station to a folder of MP3s would be amazing. You can play whatever music you want of course on something else, but the game is really bad about auto turning to a new radio station during races and the console version apparently doesn’t have a way to permanently mute the radio at all on the volume slider. Between this missing feature and the lack of screen shots saving to the drive, it’s like the game just doesn’t have access to the file system. It’s more of a Windows 10 problem than a Game problem, but it’s kind of a problem.
On Windows 10 problems, I have also had problems getting updates to take and the game to launch, a problem others have had as well. Sometimes it just doesn’t launch with no helpful errors. I also had to do a complete reinstall to get the Fortune Island DLC to take.
I also kind of hate the complete lack of in game chat, which i understand is also a side effect of the cross play aspects with the Xbox One. The text chat is all done via these little emote meme phrases and you can only “equip” 4 at a time.
Most of these problems, aside from the literal game breaking updating issue, aren’t game breaking. The pluses really outweigh those negatives. Racing games aren’t for everyone, but this one is pretty awesome. It’s visually amazing and the lack of micro transactions despite how easy it would have been to add them is really great. I’d definitely recommend the game, especially if it’s on sale.
So, the makers of Super Meat Boy, Team Meat, apparently have an
old school Nintendo Fetish of the worst kind. First you have Super Meat
Boy, which has vague connotations of Super Mario Brothers. Though the
reality is the name is all it really has in common with Super Mario
Brothers, that and being a side scrolling platform game. The Binding of
Isaac is sort of like this, only with The Legend of Zelda. It sort of
has the same cadence and style in name and shares a lot of game play
style.
The reality is, other than the basic interface design, The Binding of Isaac shares very little with The Legend of Zelda. The presentation is similar but the game itself is a rogue-like. This game’s primary gimmick, and the source of it’s possible lone flaw, is it’s randomness. It can be extremely cruel at times. The ability to complete the higher levels tends to be closely associated with the items and upgrades you find. These upgrades tend to be pretty random and are also often dependent on if you have enough coins to buy them. This can lead to some rounds where you manage to become an overpowered juggernaut and others where you’re essentially the same guy on Level 3 as you started out.
Assuming you can even make it to level 3 without upgrades. There is
also the problem of keeping yourself alive in this random mess. Some
rounds, enemies will almost always drop hearts and coins, others you’ll
get nothing. There does seem to be some level of algorithm in place to
keep things fair, it just could use a bit of tweaking. The game does do
a pretty good job of keeping the earlier enemies easier and the later
enemies more difficult.
It also is surprisingly not as frustrating as it seems like it should
be. This was a trait shared by Super Meat Boy. It also becomes easier
as you become accustomed to how the enemies act and move. Now, granted
it does start to shove curveballs at you like nobody’s business later in
the game, like having the laser blasting aliens with small corridors to
navigate, and swarms of flying spitting creatures in a room full or
rocks.
Despite the frustration, the gameplay is pretty solid, and decent.
The real likely turn off to some people is the game’s somewhat
grotesque nature and it’s somewhat mocking of religion gameplay. The Binding of Isaac
is a story from the Bible where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son
Isaac. The basic plot of the story is that Isaac’s mother is told by a
mysterious voice that her son has become corrupted and he must be taught
humility, or something along those lines. There are numerous
references to biblical elements. This is mixed in with what is
essentially a horror house of bloody enemies often based on bodily
organs. Often enemies spew blood pellets or drop piles of shit on the
floor. It’s generally something that people who have a more sensitive
disposition will probably find offensive.
This game has one final really great point going for it, it’s cheap.
It’s almost like some sort of experiment in marketing but the game is
only $5, which is hard to pass up. It’s frustrating as hell but it’s
fun enough that it’ll keep you coming back, assuming you’re not turned
off by the slightly disturbing imagery involved.
Sony is kind of in a weird place with it’s Spider-Man license. They are working on their third reboot of the series, which is not tied to the MCU which they don’t really own any stake in. So they have a pretty decent and successful Spider-Man series going now, but it’s technically part of a universe they can’t fully touch. Take the recent Venom movie, for example. Venom is pretty tied to Spider-Man, but this new movie itn’t part of the MCU, so that gets a little tricky.
Maybe they don’t really care a lot about continuity.
Maybe they also have just made a bold move that let’s the nor really care about continuity, with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse.
Into the Spider-Verse is a fantastically animated color fest that does a pretty good job of giving us an Origin story, while also giving us a developed world that lets everything sort of speed along without being yet another slow burn Spider-Man origin. In fact the movie repeatedly pokes fun at the idea of yet another Origin Story, and how everyone already knows the origin on Spider-Man. It’s an enjoyable film and I look forward to the eventual sequel and likely spin-offs.
Spoiler Free Thoughts
So, I had an idea of what to expect going into this movie, but I wasn’t super sure it would be that great. I honestly kind of skip most of the animated comics based stuff these days, more for lack of time than anything. I kind of worried this was joust going to feel like something that should have been a TV Special or straight to Blu-Ray sort of deal. Considering how few films I actually see in a theater, that I went at all says something I suppose.
The basic plot follows the origin story of Miles Morales becoming Spider-Man. It’s not quite the same as his comics origins but it shares some similarities. So, you might be wondering why there is a Black Spider-man named Miles, he is not new to the Marvel Universe for this film at all. This isn’t meant to be a detailed run down, but to sort of give you an idea.
Back in the early 2000s, Marvel created the Ultimate Universe. This was essentially a new Marvel continuity where everything was darker and grittier and the Avengers were known as The Ultimates. In 2011, Miles Morales was introduced as a new character who was also bitten by a radioactive spider. Shortly afterwards, Peter Parker of the Ultimate universe was killed and Miles Morales too up the Spider-Man mantel in the Ultimate Universe. Cut to more recent times, during Marvel’s Secret Wars event. Basically, Marvel wanted to combine all of it’s various continuities into one continuity to trim the fat off things a bit and simplify everything. So Secret Wars saw the Ultimate Universe crossing over with the main Earth-616 Continuity. They used this plot to kill off some versions of heroes, and revive others by replacing them with their dimensional counterparts and just in general slim things down. Miles Morales Spider-Man however, had become pretty popular, so he was spared and became part of the main Marvel continuity.
There is a lot more to it of course but I’m not really here to give a full history of Marvel Comics. The real fun of the movie comes from “The Spider-Verse”, and the overall fairly tongue in cheek way it handles itself. Early in the film, the plot is revealed involving Kingpin trying to open a gateway to other dimensions. This rift causes several other Spider-folks to cross over into Miles’ world. Miles being new to the job, gets some help and grief from these other Spider-people and of course, learns to be his own brand of Spider-Man. We also get a brief history of each of the various other Spideys through little cut away story sequences, though for the most part, three of them are a pretty throw away part of the story.
So, the three throw away Spideys consist of: Spider-Man Noir, a Spider-Man from a 30s world who is a detective and lives in a black and white world; Spider-Ham, a Looney Tunes style anthropomorphic pig complete with Subspace hammers and random anvils; and SP//DR, a futuristic Anime girl who pilots a Spider-Man sort of robot. These three pretty much exist as comic relief characters once they arrive. Of the 6 main Spiders, they are probably the most one off anyway.
Most of the story revolves around Miles Morales, Peter Parker, and Gwen Stacey, and mostly Miles Morales and Peter Parker, as Peter shows Miles the ropes of being Spider-Man. This particular Peter is a little washed up though, so Gwen gives a lot of later pointers and help to both. I should add, this isn’t really like some training montage of teaching, it’s much more of a trial by fire sort of deal, as Peter and Gwen must work to get control of the dimensional gateway to get back to their own respective universes.
There are a ton of references to all sort of Spidey things outside the actual Spideys. Nods to things like the Tobey Maguire movies, several Spider-Man Memes from the old 60s cartoon, the comics themselves make an several appearances as part of the plot. The whole thing feels very aware of itself while never really acknowledging itself. It makes for a lot of great jokes and moments.
It’s also really visually interesting. It feels like a comic in motion. Everything is very bright and colorful, and everything looks nice and smooth. It’s a really great effect that would have never worked in a live action film. I also like how the different Spideys are different styles as a not to their different universes. SP//DR looks like an anime cartoon, Spider-Ham looks like a Looney Tunes cartoon, even a brief shot of Spider-Woman in her own world has a differently styled background that more matches what the Spider-Gwen comic looks like.
Spoilery Thoughts
So moving on to a little more actual detail. I have to say, I really enjoyed the villains. Granted, they were fairly throw away in the case of Scorpion and Tombstone and Goblin, Prowler and Doc Ock were both pretty cool. I don’t know if lady Octavius appears in any comics, though I suspect she does, it was a twist I didn’t see coming since I wasn’t familiar with the source material. While we’re on the subject of twists, I also didn’t know about the Prowler thing, though when it was being set up, it felt really obvious. Prowler overall really shines and feels pretty menacing. I really liked all of his moments and it’s a shame he didn’t get more screen time.
Then there’s Kingpin. I, kind of hated Kingpin. I have just come off of wrapping up Daredevil on Netflix, I definitely never expected Kingpin to be Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, but this Kingpin was so outlandishly cartoonish, I found him a little hard to take seriously. Don’t get me wrong, every character in this is highly stylized, but Kingpin’s microscopic head and massive body is outlandish even by the stylization of this universe. His design felt more out of place than Penny Parker, who was literally designed like a 2D anime girl.
I also really enjoyed the contrasting Peter Parkers. Peter from Miles’ universe is basically peak Spider-Man. Getting to see him in action was also great, because he’s just full on Spider-Man. No dark angst or worry and conflict, just Spidey being Spidey. Then we get to meet Midlife Crisis Spider-Man, commonly called Fat Spider-Man. There is so much nuance going on here that work so well. He’s out of shape and doesn’t really care, but when it counts, he still just does what he does. He’s been in the game long enough that everything is second nature, but he also has been doing it long enough he’s kind of become jaded and apathetic.
Then there’s Spider-Woman who sort of contrasts between Miles and Peter (Fat Peter, amazing Peter dies early on). She is still kind of a rookie at being Spider-Woman, but she is driven and confident in her abilities. I also particularly liked how both Peter and Gwen basically just accepted everything, because they have already been through plenty.
This does bring up some bits that almost felt like they should have been addressed. Maybe a director’s cut could add them, and maybe they got dropped because the writer’s didn’t want to complicate things. Maybe it wasn’t addressed because it would be kind of creepy since Fat Peter is like 40 and Gwen Stacy is something like 15 or 16. Basically, Peter and Gwen never really acknowledge their relationships with their alternate selves. There is a sub plot involving Fat Spider-Man and the alternate Mary-Jane Watson too, so it’s not completely off the table. Gwen mentions that she couldn’t save her friend, spoiler, Spider Gwen basically killed her Peter while he was The Lizard, but doesn’t really seem weirded out by meeting an older version of her dead friend. Meanwhile we get no history from Peter and any Gwen Stacy he may have known. Gwen Stacy dying is kind of a big moment for some versions of Spider-Man.
Otherwise, I really have no real complaints about the movie. It does a great job of just rolling with everything and assuming we either already know or can figure it out. The crossover mix nature of the plot is great too because it keeps the origin story of Miles Morales from being being, because we get several experienced and capable Spideys to watch instead. I almost wish they would do a Spider-Gwen movie now, because I really enjoy that book and enjoyed her presence in the movie. There is a post credits scene that sets up more cross universe shenanigans so I’m sure the sequel will bring her back. Hopefully it will give us more Midlife Crisis Spider-Man too.
The latest Transformers Movie, Bumblebee, takes things back more to the original roots of Transformers. It features G1 versions of a lot of the characters and the main character, Bumblebee, takes the form of a Volkswagen Beetle like he had in the original 80s cartoon. The movie isn’t getting it’s own toyline but is instead being looped in with the Studio Series line. The first figure from the new films is Bumblebee himself though in many cases, Dropkick from the followup wave is also showing up with him.
The new Bee reminds me a lot of Studio Series Jazz in that he is really tiny in both modes. This feels a lot more appropriate given it’s Bumblebee, who was one of the smallest Autobots in the original G1 series. It does make the $20 price point for deluxe Transformers a little hard to swallow but he has a few little parts that help make it feel more worthwhile. The robot is pretty nice, though he has a huge backpack that feels like it should collapse on itself a bit more, but doesn’t really seem to without pushing the plastic beyond what feels comfortable. The legs also are a little funny in that they feel like they should peg together better but don’t seem to.
The design itself is very reminiscent of the old Camero Bumblebee design from the last few Michael Bay Transformers movies. The way the layered chest lays and the panels fall on his legs and the door wings sit on his back, these elements are all very Movie Bumblebee. The Door wings aren’t very accurate to the film though, where the doors seem to do some mass shifting and point downward instead of becoming wings.
I mentioned he comes with some extras to help offset his cost. Specifically, he has an alternative face plate for his “Battle Mask” look and a swap-able arm piece for his arm cannon. There’s also a blade weapon which can attach to the side of any of the three forearm pieces. These sort of swap out parts aren’t a real common things for Transformers. Having them, it’s kind of clear why. The canon arm falls off a lot more easily than the standard hand arm and the Mask face falls off if you look at it funny. These are definitely parts which will become lost over time by some.
The transformation is pretty straightforward in it’s execution, though fairly complex. Its a pain to get everything to massage together properly, partially I think because it’s such a small figure. The legs and back piece are particularly problematic and I can’t see anything obviously out of place like the hidden peg on the underside of Jazz’s roof that just made everything sit right in place once engaged.
The VW Beetle looks alright aside from things not quite sitting together properly. The vehicle does feel a little funny because the G1 Bumblebee, was very much a stylized chibified VW. This Bee feels too long, though I’m sure he’s not for a real Beetle.
Cutting to the chase here, I think that Studio Series Bumblebee is alright, but I kind of wonder what the wider audience is for him. He’s too complex and finicky for kids, and there are plenty of simpler options out there. He doesn’t really mesh well for collectors. I don’t have it but I suspect the pricier Masterpiece Movie Bee does everything slightly better and he probably looks better. I suppose if you’re in the middle like me and don’t really need a super classy Bee but don’t want something overly simplified this version does the job, but if you want a perfect VW Movie Bee, you’re probably better off looking elsewhere.
