"X-Men: First Class" will not settle for coach

X-Men First Class is a pretty fun movie. I’m always a sucker for super hero movies and can usually enjoy them no matter how terrible people say they are. Not that this movie is terrible or anything LOL. Probably my favorite part of any super hero’s life is their “first experience”; their ‘feeling-out” phase. My favorite part in the Spider Man movies was the very first film when he was just developing his powers and was struggling to get used to them within his school setting. I loved when Bruce Wayne had to go on a journey to learn combat while finding himself in Batman Begins. First Class has that same kind of feeling-out process as the young mutants try to learn to control their abilities and get stronger in order to fight an increasing national threat. All of the students have to learn to not only overcome their powers, but also their diversities and how to be proud of what they are.

If you are a fan of X-Men, this movie is also fun because it plants the seeds for future and you get to watch the young characters develop into the people you already know they become. Now, that’s not to say that this movie doesn’t take its liberties when it comes to the “official” X-Men history. A couple characters from off-shoot comics are added into the mix like Azazel, (the red teleporting devil and right hand man of Sebastian Shaw) who was never an actual character until the Uncanny X-Men story “The Draco” in 2003 and Darwin who has the power of reactive evolving and didn’t make his comic book debut until 2006. Family tree swapping is also in full effect like how Scott Summers’s younger brother Alex is depicted in this movie as Scott’s “older” brother. It is little changes like this that could possibly throw off the hardcore fans, but really didn’t bother me. There is also a Wolverine cameo that is pretty funny. I was not expecting him to be in the movie at all, so that scene was a nice little treat.

The movie is a pretty feel good tale full of action and humor. It has its heart wrenching moments as well as its over the top fight scenes. Special effects wise it’s pretty top notch. It also didn’t feel too long or too short. The ending is somewhat predictable if you know anything about the X-Men series, but was still very nice. So if you are a super hero fan (or X-Men fan in particular) I would definitely check this movie out if you have time this summer. It’s a pretty fun experience.

(There is also nothing after the credits if you are wondering)

"Winter's Bone"

Winter’s Bone is a drama with some thriller elements that takes place deep in the heart of America; the heart that can be pretty damn scary. It is a gritty, realistic tale that was adapted from a novel by Daniel Woodrell. The story follows a girl named Ree as she fights to support her sick mother and two younger siblings. But in order to help save her immediate family, she has to go through her extended one.

The different faces you come across as you watch the film really drives the whole experience. There is a very colorful cast of believable characters that don’t make it hard for the viewer to feel for. Ree is very easy to get behind as the main protagonist. She is strong willed and fights with her heart for those she loves. Jennifer Lawrence also did a great job acting her. The rest of the cast did a fantastic job of creating characters that were loving as well as powerful and frightening.

The story is pretty simple, but it likes to weave around. It lacks any real action scenes, and yet there was never a dull moment. No real frightening spots occurred either, but there was enough suspense to keep you guessing; not to mention a couple really powerful scenes that make the whole situation pretty horrifying for Ree. It is a dark tale that almost seems like a modern day western, but also has its feel good moments. All in all, this is a very good movie and I’m glad I took the time to sit down and watch it.

“Super Brothers: Sword and Sworcery EP" is the charmingest video-game of all time

I am writing this review of Superbrothers Sword and Sworcery EP while listening to Sword & Sworcery LP The Ballad of the Space Babies. The first thing that you will need to know about S&S is that upon completion of this lovingly constructed video-game, you will be greeted by the name Jim Guthrie. Jim Guthrie is a musician. S&S is a game about music. Music is the sorcery of S&S. Sorcery reveals to you and the Scythian that you are instruments and that the world that you traverse is an instrument. It reveals that all of the instruments together create the music that is this far away world. If you hold your finger on the Scythian, she kneels and raises her arms, and you guide a blue light about the world to sing a song of sorcery. Trees, animals and light itself all contribute to your song. Everything responds to this music, even you. This music is none other than that of Jim Guthrie. His music fills every second of this game and is the gravity of S&S. Without it, the pixels would surely dissipate and disappear off of the screen, and you would be left staring into the white void that is your touch device. This is a metaphor, but not an exaggeration. It draws you in, invites you to rest, drives you to go on, pauses you in your tracks, instills dread, ushers triumph and elicits both joy and sorrow simultaneously.

To say that S&S is the charmingest video-game of all time is neither an understatement nor an overstatement, it is just a statement. It is truth. It is a game that magically extracts every pleasant memory of the first video-games that you ever played and combines it with the pure and simple joy of your most amazing childhood achievements (like jumping off of that really big rock in the woods). The most obvious source of the initial rush of nostalgia that will pour over you is the visual design. S&S is how your brain remembers the video-games of yore to look, rather than how they actually do. This game shows more with less. Each pixel is meticulously placed and animated to create a moving world. The Scythian’s every movement is mesmerizing, from the first time she sheathes her sword to every step afterwards, it is impossible to pull your eyes from S&S while it moves and it really needs to be seen. One of my favorite animations involves sitting in front of a fire. Never before have I believed a bunch of numbers running through a calculator to be so real. In fact, not once while playing S&S did I think of how the game was built, which is a wonderful and rare thing.
But you didn’t buy S&S solely to absorb graphical prowess through your eyeballs, you purchased S&S because you’re an adventurer. At some point in your life, probably multiple times, you pretended to have a sword in your hands, even when there was nothing in your hands. This is the genius of S&S, you don’t play as an adventurer, but as yourself guiding an adventurer. You play the role of a being peering into a mystifying universe through a tiny window. You are watching over and guiding the young adventurer that you once were, and with every fiber of your being, you want that young adventurer to succeed.

You also probably bought S&S because you like to play games. Which is good. S&S consists of pointing. Not with a cursor or any sort of tool. You just point, and that is where the Scythian will go. If you want the Scythian to talk to someone, you double tap on the character or object or whatever, and you will be greeted by a line of text that will put a grin of some sort on your face. If you forget what someone said, you can consult a magical tome and revisit every line of text in the game, so you won’t ever be too lost. The touch screen lends itself perfectly to the function of exploring S&S and feels completely natural. However, this is a game about adventuring, and as every adventurer knows, this means that this game has a lot of walking in it. Adventurers walk. They don’t run because they might exhaust their energy for the rest of the adventure, or they might overlook a small yet tremendous detail, such as a hidden path that can change the course of time itself. The Scythian walks a lot and you watch the Scythian walk a lot. And this is a good thing, because the walk animation is gorgeous, and the world that the Scythian traverses is gorgeous, and the music is gorgeous. This game is fucking gorgeous. But still, you will watch a lot of walking. There are also some puzzle type elements, but they’re pretty obvious most of the time. When they aren’t obvious, you usually just end up massaging the screen with your fingertips until you hear a distinctive sound, but there are a couple of these puzzles that end pretty spectacularly.

There is a reason that you had a sword when you went on your adventures, and that is to fight monsters that stood in your way. S&S features combat, but the combat is not the focus of the game. It is not even the secondary, or maybe even third most important element of the game, but it is worth mentioning due to the fact that it is in the game and that it is implemented well. Combat is, in essence, a series of quick-time events. But it is critical to note that this is well hidden, meaning you won’t have a big blue X appear on the screen with the word “LIVE” on it. You enter combat by rotating the device that you are using to a vertical position, and you proceed to engage the enemy in a series of carefully timed blocks and strikes. The mechanics on their own are not impressive, but the presentation and pacing are. There are only a handful of fights to be had in S&S, and each is a pulse pounding affair as a result of their scarcity. The low number of battles reinforces that fact that the Scythian is not a knight in shining armor, but an adventurer on a woeful errand. When she raises her sword in the midst of a warrior beating his shield like a war drum, it’s difficult not to have some sense of worry and dread for her. Technically, the combat is a little repetitive, but it is short, sweet, and effective. There is also a nice twist in combat as you progress through S&S, which some casual players may not appreciate as much as I do, in which your total health decreases as you go on. This makes absolute sense within the context of S&S, and I wish more video-games would follow this example.

A masterful soundtrack, exceptional sound design, brilliant visuals and a familiar yet quirky story (there is a story by the way) all work in harmony to deliver a monolithic video-game experience. There’s also a pretty neat real-time connection in S&S that coordinates with certain events in the universe that we actually walk around in, which is pretty awesome.

Go play this game.

"Limbo" sets the bar high

Limbo is an Xbox Live Arcade game from Playdead Studios. It is a side scrolling, puzzle game with platforming elements, a fantastic art style, and gameplay that not only looks fluid, but feels fluid. The movement of the main character and the transitions between animations really make this game flow. It's simplistic controls make it easy to play, but still challenging to beat.

Before I talk about its difficulty, I want to say that I am a fan of easier type games. Really hard games are frustrating to me and in my opinion, can take away from the "fun". I know many gamers really enjoy tough challenges, but I'm not really like that. So if I say something is really hard, it may not be as difficult to those who thrive on challenges and can breeze through puzzles quickly. That being said, I usually judge a game's difficulty by whether or not I have to consult the internet to figure something out. With Limbo I had to consult the internet one time. I'm told however (by friends who happen to love extremely hard games) that this one instance in Limbo is kind of stupid hard in the sense that it's just really easy to over-look (they also had to look online for this one). In conclusion, other than one or two instances, the game is comfortably difficult for me. It was hard and challenging to the point where I could figure things out after some thought with only a few moments of literally being stuck.

Moving on! This game is special because of its art style. Its look and its world are something fresh and new. Creepy as it may look, the game is quite charming and cute; although the deaths are pretty harsh and gory at times. At one moment it can be cheerful and other times horrifying, but never actually "scary". I'm not one for "jump out and scare you" moments, and you can rest assured that this game really doesn't have anything like that. The music also helps to propel the game's overall mood and all around it was just very well done.

The game is somewhat short, and can probably be completed in one sitting if you're really invested in it; but that's to be expected with an arcade game. Re-playability is questionable. I know people that have played through it a number of times just because it's so much fun, but some people might just play though once and stop considering it's the same game with the same puzzles each time.

Story wise I was a little disappointed because the game holds a lot of mystery but nothing really pans out. You don't really learn anything about what is going on. It's still a very intriguing world and, to a point, it leaves you with a sense of closure, but I was left wanting more from the story. Other people are ok with this however. They enjoy having things left open ended. It's all in how you look at it.

All in all, this game is pretty amazing. I'd say it's one of, if not my favorite xbla game so far. I definitely recommend it to everyone (unless you're a little kid).

Pros

• fluid feel and fun to play
• clever puzzles
• beautiful and different visual style
• makes you want to play it over again
• right for price

Cons

• mysteries left unsolved
• one spot that's hard to solve because it's easily overlooked

“The Fancy Pants Adventures” Allows for Both Fancy and Pants

After graduating from high school in 2007, I really got into flash games. My family had just bought a new Dell that ran wonderfully and could run then-current computer games. Of course, besides trying a few of those, I also really got into flash games. The one that stood out the most, however, was Brad Borne’s “Fancy Pants Adventures”, which, at the time I started playing, had just seen the release of its second world. As a flash game of the time, it was so impressive for its flowing animation and large amount of content. Imagine my surprise when, three years later, World 3 is finally being released and packaged with 1 and 2 for Xbox Live Arcade?

I will swiftly state that it was worth the admission price of 800 Microsoft Points ($10). The pants are still fancy, and the adventures are even grander.

World 3 follows the adventures of Fancy Pants Man, as he journeys to save his sister from a band of pirates who wish to make her their captain (a little backwards and odd, yes, but charming, nonetheless). Through the world’s 11 different levels, the player will make Fancy Pants Man run, jump, and flip through many colorful locales. As per previous installations to this series, the world itself is presented as “sketch-like,” with Fancy Pants Man who isa stick man with parachute pants. Regardless of its simplistic art style, the series continues its trend of downright fancy animations for its titular character, with new abilities such as swimming and light weapon-based combat thrown in. Fancy Pants Man has the ability to run up walls and other free running talents, and you’ll find yourself using his innate parkour skills to collect all of the squiggles in a single level.

Each level has one ultimate objective; find the end of the level. Getting there, however, has its challenges; from enemies like pirates and ninjas to spiders and rats, along with a specific number of collectible “squiggles” (much like Sonic’s rings) and challenge rooms to complete, each level is pretty packed with content, all of it sprawled throughout the stage. If you can find, collect and complete all of these objectives, then you 100% complete the level, which is the primary draw for replayability – making this a good game for people who like to complete something all the way through.

Speaking of replayability, a large draw for replaying the game comes from the rewards you win to customize your own Fancy Pants Man at the end of every level. While there are 140 different collectibles, you’ll hardly find 25% of them by the time you complete the game. It then becomes tedious to obtain the rest, as you’ll find yourself running through the same levels just to complete them and get a new reward. Not to mention, many of them even seem arbitrary, as the tiny graphics make some of the props indistinguishable and there are still a few that I can’t even figure out what they are. Not to mention that despite the character having many animations, there was very little care added to the collectible hats, as his default hair animations still leak through with some motions, which was something that was honestly rather disappointing.

The largest complaint I have for this game is its level design and lack of a difficulty curve. It was challenging is the strangest places, making it feel very inconsistent. On top of that, I have to admit that later levels feel a bit pointless and very tiresome. I found myself quitting when I started a new level because I was just not into the idea of scouring a new level for pointless collectibles. Unfortunately, the cutesy story and the way it plays out becomes rather grating, as the humor doesn’t really seem to at least reach a demographic I can understand. As a tripe complaint, there were also a few spelling errors and some of the text was just cheesy, resulting in a story that I was frankly tired of by the end.

Fortunately, this game really shines when you find a few friends to play 4-player co-op. The game’s controls have a pick-up-and-play feel to them, and playing with friends reminded me a lot of N+ (another flash game-turned XBLA game). There exists the silent competition to win the most squiggles yet while still working together to look fancy.

If you’ve got some points to spare, I highly recommend this game, especially if you’re a classic platformer fan. It’s a pretty good precursor to a summer that isn’t promising many big name releases. This game really feels fluid and is great in smaller pieces, with the innate attention to detail a great benefit. Looking past the small faults, this game is best played with friends. Always remember to run fast and run fancy!

Pros:

• Great classic-feeling platformer
• Large amount of content
• Fluid and entertaining controls and animations
• Awesome local and online co-op!

Cons:

• Level design feels uninspired
• Collectibles are ultimately pointless
• Difficulty is inconsistent
• Tasks for each World can feel overwhelming

"WWE All Stars" layeths the smacketh down

I am a big time pro-wrestling fan and I've been purchasing WWE Smackdown vs Raw (SvR) games every single year for at least the past 5 years. SvR titles are usually somewhat realistic. They are basically pro-wrestling's version of the Madden games. But this year THQ announced that they would be releasing a NEW title along with this year's SvR, and that is WWE All Stars.

Admittedly, when I first laid my eyes on this game, I was disgusted. All of the wrestlers were physically blown out of proportion and just looked completely goofy. I brushed the game off at that point, but as it came closer and closer to release, it grew more and more intriguing. I'm not sure why or how it caught my eye a second time, but I'm glad it did because this game is utterly awesome!

If you think about it, this game sounds like everything a wrestling game should be, and it is! It has larger than life characters and makes them ridiculously bigger by buffing them up larger than humanly possible. It takes rather simple and uninteresting moves and makes them look phenomenally insane! Let's take Honky Tonk Man's finishing move which is basically a swinging neck breaker (but barley, this move looks terrible when he does it in person). In real life, Honky gets his opponent in a head lock and basically falls over. HOWEVER, the All Stars remastered version of this move has Honky getting his opponent in a head lock and then flinging them some 75 feet in the air before they land brutally to the mat, shattering every bone in their body (ok, maybe it's not that extreme, but it's damn close). In essence, this game takes wrestling to a whole new level and does it in a super fun way.

This also is not technically a "wrestling" game. It is being dubbed by its creators as a "more traditional fighting game" approach to the series, and I can understand why. While it's not a fighting game in the Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat sense, it does have many fighting game aspects. It has quick and strong strikes, quick and strong grabs, blocking, and all that jazz. They take all of this and give you free, 360 motion as well as an interactive arena environment and occasionally weapons (also 2 on 2 or 4 way matches which you can't get in a "traditional" fighter). It's also got more glitches than a regular fighting game, but that is to be expected in a game like this that gives you so much free reign. But the glitches certainly don't take away from the gameplay in the slightest.

I would say this game's biggest shortcoming is its learning curve. All Stars is hard, especially if it's your first time playing it. Any move is reversible but the timing of the reversals is something that you have to master and that takes a LONG time. You also can't button mash or spam buttons to get anywhere (which can be good or bad depending on who you are and how you play) but in my opinion, this is a good way to even the playing field and weed out really annoying gamers. Once you master countering and reversals, the game gets really ridiculous and fun. You can start reversing reversals with crazy, spinning, back and forth animations.

The roster is a little on the small side too, although 30 fighters really isn't really anything to sneeze at. Not to mention more are coming in terms of DLC (although, knowing THQ it could be a while before we see them). I got my game at Gamestop so I could get the Million Dollar DLC pack as a bonus but it says I can't use the code until the end of next month. Kind of weird that I have to wait almost a month in order to redeem my "pre-order" bonus (curse you THQ for making me shop at GameStop!!).

Yes, it can be frustrating at times, but what game isn't? All in all this game is simply a blast! Once you get the hang of the controls you can start flying around the ring, smashing people 20 feet in the air, and chaining 4 to 5 grapple moves together in a row! The finishing move animations are so ridiculous, I never get tired of watching them.

I am so glad I gave this game another chance. It actually reminds me of back when Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker first came out I HATED the look, but upon playing it it turned out to be one of, if not the greatest Zelda games I ever played. Even though WWE All Stars looks... different, it is super enjoyable, and if you are a wrestling fan, you owe it to yourself to at least give this game a shot.

Pros:

• really fun (once you get the hang of it)
• diverse roster
• amazingly over the top animations
• cool video packages before each match in Fantasy Warfare mode
• it's something new in terms of WWE games

Cons:

• can be hard to get the hang of
• roster could be larger (also have to wait a month for pre-order bonus....)
  
• can sometimes be frustrating (especially if just starting out)
• Create a Wrestler mode is not as in-depth as other WWE games (you have to choose from the pre-made movesets of other wrestlers WHICH you must first unlock)

"Pokémon Black and White" are glorious returns to form

As every kid in the late 90’s knows, the most addictive drug on the market is Pokémon. A hybrid of adventure games mixed with role -playing game elements and a sprinkle strategy is now in it’s fifth generation.

Starting with 151 Pokémon in it’s original games the final Pokémon count has reached 649.

The game starts like all Pokémon games, with a voice-over by a “Pokémon Professor” who gives you, a child, your first Pokémon and sends you on an adventure across the country.

While this introduction may seem strange to non-fans, as your best friend’s mom amply puts; “Going on a Pokémon adventure is a critical part of growing up” and as any fan can attest, this is the truth.

Pokémon are creatures that live harmoniously with humans. In this world people known as “trainers” capture Pokémon and raise them to be fighters. The player is one such trainer and is faced with the daunting task of being the best, like no one ever was.

You do this through battles with wild Pokémon and other trainers. Battles involve one Pokémon from each side taking turns attacking each other. The winner of the battle receives money and their Pokémon will gain experience and level up, which increases their stats.

In terms of mechanics and gameplay, Pokémon is the same game it was a decade ago, and it operates under the mentality that if it’s not broke don’t fix it. Usually this can stagnate a series but in the case of Pokémon it helps add familiarity to a series that is constantly adding new characters, locations, attacks and battles.

Previous games have added double battles, which allow the player to use two Pokémon at the same time against two opponents. These are insanely challenging and force the player to think on their feet to conquer the enemies Pokémon.

Some new features in “Black” and “White” are triple battles, which take the challenge to a whole new level because the position of your Pokémon directly impacts whom they can attack.

There are very subtle differences between the two editions of the game, “Black” or “White”. “Black” features more rotation battles, which make players constantly change Pokémon while “White” includes more triple battles and an exclusive area which dozens of exclusive Pokémon.

For fans of the series, “Black” and “White” are the best of the best that a Pokémon game can get.

The game is without serious faults. Critics may nitpick about the difficulty curve that seemingly appears out of nowhere or the bland personality of everyone who was gifted enough to have an actual name. For me Pokémon is a flawless example of well designed games that have only gotten better with age, like Catherine Zeta-Jones.