Film Round-Up #31

The Fallen Series (2013 - 2019)
Directed By: Antoine Fuqua, Babak Najafi, Ric Roman WaughStarring: Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Radha Mitchell, Piper Perabo, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Angela Bassett, Sean O'Bryan, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lance Reddick, Tim Blake Nelson, Nick Nolte, Danny Huston

Certificate: 15 Running Time: Approx 339 minutes (so far)

Despite having a fairly appealing premise, it has taken me a startling (though I suppose not too surprising) amount of time to get around to watching the reasonably-well-heralded Olympus Has Fallen - all the more odd since I generally enjoy so-called 'mindless' action films. I have of course since discovered that it's the first in what soon became an entire franchise, with two movie sequels already made, several more planned, and a TV show on the way too. The films already released have of course been publicly shunned by movie snobs, as many action films and/or big-budget blockbusters are (though I suspect many of them secretly enjoy them). I, however, watch films simply to be entertained, and since action films can entertain just as well as more cerebral dramas, perhaps more so depending on your mood, I have no problem with publicly stating my fondness for them. So, despite the frankly unexplainable delay, I was looking forward to seeing these...

Neo Geo Round-Up #1

I've never really been the biggest fan of one-on-one fighting games, I'm sorry to say. I did get drawn in by the Street Fighter II craze like most gamers around that time, but aside from that game and a few other Capcom examples, it's a genre I haven't spent too much time on. This may be because I'm not that good at them. Learning the often-complicated special move commands and performing elaborate combos can be very satisfying but I'm not one of those gamers that it comes naturally to.

Mainly for this reason, most of the examples found on the Neo Geo have been largely neglected here in RKS Land. In an effort to rectify that, however, I have decided to take a look at each fighting game series found on SNK's mighty console in the form of round-ups. I can't promise they will be the most comprehensive evaluations as the finer points of such games are often lost on me, but I shall do my best. These posts, much like all of my posts, are more for my benefit than yours anyway, assuming anyone is even reading this, as they motivate me to play games I've seldom or never played before, but I do of course hope you like them! First up was going to be the Fatal Fury series which was, I believe, the first SNK fighting game series, but there are about a million of them. So instead, I've started with one I'm at least a little familiar with - the Art of Fighting series. Before I get started, however, here's a bit of general info on the series.

PS4 Purchases #10

I suddenly realised today that I haven't done one of these PS4 posts for a while, and while deciding which of my backlog of games to feature, I was startled to discover that I haven't mentioned these two games yet despite having them in my collection for over two years now. Oops! Oddly, I actually have them both twice too. This is because I had them on my Christmas wishlist on Amazon, but when I didn't receive them as gifts I decided to buy them for myself. Then, however, it turned out my sister, who I hadn't seen over Christmas, had got them for me. Harumpf! Oh well, here's a look at both games (well, one copy of each anyway - chortle!).

Cat Quest by The Gentlebros/PQube (2017)

Unlike most of my PS4 games, this one was introduced to me thanks to the free demo I found on the PlayStation Store. I'm not usually much of an RPG gamer but I was quickly enchanted by its casual, humorous tone (including many cat-astrophically bad cat puns - har har!), and as soon as I finished the demo I sought out the full version. Happily, a physical version was available, and for a very reasonable price on Amazon too, and upon receiving it I got stuck in with an enthusiasm I seldom have for any game these days. In fact, I played it so much I should've written a full review by now - soon, perhaps - but suffice to say, this entertaining adventure is still one of my favourite PS4 games despite being one of my first. Sadly it isn't one of those indie releases with an instruction booklet or other goodies in the case, or even a leaflet, but it doesn't matter too much when the game is as much fun as this one. I would say it's one I'll spend a lot of time on but I already have!

Film Review #116

Ammonite (2020)
Director: Francis Lee Starring: Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Jones, James McArdle, Alec Secăreanu, Fiona Shaw

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 120 Minutes

The last year has been a lean time for movie fans. This is of course understandable given the rather unique circumstances, but lean nonetheless, with many films I was looking forward to being delayed considerably. Some, like Black Widow and The French Dispatch still aren't out, while others have seen low-key releases on streaming services or very limited theatrical releases. Ammonite is one of these, and while it has only been released in the US so far, I'm happy to say I have now finally managed to see it anyway. I can't even remember what put it on my radar now. It definitely wasn't the much vaunted 'intimate' scenes between the two female leads (*cough*cough*) so what could it have been? It was could well have been simply down to Saoirse Ronan's presence here, having been something of a fan of hers since Hanna, but it's rarely less than interesting to see a biopic of an important historical figure. In this case it's Mary Anning (Winslet), the 19th-century British palaeontologist, but as my wife (who had also been looking forward to seeing it) and I sson discovered, it's not exactly a biopic at all.

Arcade Shmups #27

1942 (1984)
By: Capcom Genre: Shooting Players: 1-2 (alternate) Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 62,520 (one credit)
Also Available For: NES, Game Boy Color, PC-88, Fujitsu FM-7, Sharp X1, MSX, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum

Capcom have been responsible for some truly wonderful games over these long years but one series that seems to be somewhat overlooked nowadays is the 19XX shooter series. It isn't even one of the 13 series mentioned in the company's summary on Wikipedia! What has the series done to deserve such scorn? Does it suck ass? I doubt that, but in order to find out I will play through the entire series starting with this original which graced arcades long before their mighty CPS boards were introduced. It is therefore a simple enough game as you might expect. Rather surprisingly for a Japanese-developed game, however, it sees you on the side of the Americans against the entire Japanese Air Force!