Wednesday, April 29, 2020

The Thing From Another World (1951)

The Thing From Another World is loosely related to John Carpenter's 1982 thriller, The Thing. I consider the 1982 movie to be one of the best sci-fi movies of all time, as well as the most chilling movie I have ever watched. It presents a bleak vision of extraterrestrial life and a terrifying existential threat to the human race. As a result, I had to check out the predecessor to that movie.

While the Carpenter version is effectively a remake of this, his version follows a distinctly different plotline that is much truer to the source material. The source material in question is a 1938 short story called "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell Jr. Still with me here? Good. So what did I think of this movie? Read on to find out.

Can it compare to the Carpenter version from three decades later? Is there too much talking? Were dames sassy in 1951? The answers to all three questions may surprise you.

Friday, April 24, 2020

Trials of Mana (Playstation 4, Switch, 2020)

THIS IS IT. Remake time. Loooong awaited, this one, and a notably higher-effort remake than the Secret of Mana remake. I'm running the PS4 version, but it's also on Nintendo Switch.

Friday, April 10, 2020

Final Fantasy VII Remake (Playstation 4, 2020)

First of all, it's the ten year anniversary of the site. First post was on 4/10/2010 and the first thing I covered on here was Super Mario RPG. It's absolutely nuts to realize it's been ten years since then, and the anniversary just crept up on me. What better way to celebrate it than with an FFVIIR post. I'll keep the spoilers light for this. There's a lot of bad stuff goin' on in the world and I'm putting more than usual out there in an effort to help in some small way. Stay safe, and I'll talk to you again soon.

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Total Recall and Final Fantasy VII Similarities

I watched the original Total Recall on Netflix, and wow. It's totally Final Fantasy VII. I hadn't seen the movie in a loooong time, so I wasn't aware of this. Doing a quick google search doesn't turn up any comparisons that I can link, so I guess this is one of those things that is either all in my head or I'm the only one who noticed it somehow. More after the jump.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Touhou 13: Ten Desires (PC, 2011) - UPDATED


Time to check out a PC shooter from the Japan-only Touhou series. This is very much a "bullet hell" type shooter, where the emphasis is less about blasting the enemies and more about evading your way through swarms of projectiles with small movements.

UPDATE: I first played this in 2014 in Japanese, but recently I got ahold of an English translation and gave it another go. Updated shots are sprinkled throughout the original post here, with a bunch of new shots at the end. Did I beat the game this time? Tune in to find out.

Sunday, April 5, 2020

Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game (Sega 32X, 1995)

It's time to save this year's WrestleMania Day by covering a classic fighting game with outlandish arcade-style action. Shawn looks so hip here. When I was a kid, I saw this game and went "Who are all those guys? Where are Hogan and Macho?"

I saw the WWF New Generation as a bunch of midcarders, even when I wasn't even watching wrestling yet. Now I've got a much greater appreciation of this 1995 era of rasslin'.

Friday, April 3, 2020

Highlander: The Series 3x17 - Take Back the Night

This is a pretty good episode that feels like it should be a part of a larger storyline. Yet another episode that introduces some cool one-off characters and ideas that could have been a lot more, but so it goes. CAUTION: Contains no Methos. Not sure when he'll be back. 

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Seiken Densetsu 3, Part 4 - Chaos Of An Unseen Realm

Our next goal: Find all of the Mana Stones, which should open the way to the place formerly known as Pure Land (can't say Holy in early 90's Nintendo games).

Wednesday, April 1, 2020