Film Review #49

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Director: Lorene Scafaria Starring: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Adam Brody, Derek Luke, Melanie Lynskey, William Petersen, Connie Britton, Martin Sheen

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 101 Minutes

Tagline: "Nice knowing you"

I seem to have ended up watching quite a few films about the end of the world lately but this one is the first that actually has it in its title! The few words that precede them, however, indicate that it's not the most serious take on the subject there's ever been. There's also the fact that the cover is plastered with review quotes celebrating its hilarity of course. The more I thought about it though, the more I realised just how much potential there is for humour in the apocalypse - the many and enormously varied ways in which people would deal with their imminent doom, for example, could be worth the price of admission alone, especially with the always-splendid Steve Carrell in attendence. It was therefore with much hope that I recently bought and enthusiastically watched this slightly-exhaustively titled film.

Master System Shmups #7

Aerial Assault (1990)
By: Sega Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sega Master System First Day Score: 173,200
Also Available For: Game Gear

The poor old Master System had a bit of a tough time. Few could argue with its splendour but it was hardly awash with original titles, especially those of an arcadey nature. Those that did arrive were usually from Sega themselves and were sometimes based on currently-popular titles by their rivals. One of these is Aerial Assault which is a side-viewed military-based shooter. At first glance it could well have been influenced by any number of other games, and that includes its story which introduces your adversary as N.A.C., an 'evil militaristic organisation' who have developed a laser emitter capable of destroying the ozone layer and in so doing 'cast a shadow of fear stretching to the far corners of the Earth'. As well as their fancy laser, the N.A.C. are also packing a formidable military which eventually defeats all the nations of our proud planet. Then, in the far-future of 1999, a mysterious lone fighter appears...

Puzzle Games #13

Pang a.k.a. Pomping World, a.k.a. Buster Bros. (1989)
By: Mitchell / Capcom Genre: Puzzle / Shooting Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 107,700
Also Available For: PlayStation, PC Engine CD, SNES, Game Boy, PC, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
Download For: Apple iOS

I recently decided it was high time to revisit this classic game but, upon doing so, it got me thinking. It is usually considered a puzzle game but what actually makes a game a puzzle game? Take Tetris for example - the quintessential example of the genre for most, but any puzzle elements it may contain are extremely basic ones to say the least. Likewise, Pang is even less puzzle-based than the Russian classic and the game to which it bears most resemblance - Asteroids - is considered a shoot 'em up! Oh well, who am I to argue with tradition? Puzzle game or not, Pang was certainly an eye-catching title in its day and it's crazy premise is worthy of the genre - apparently the world has been invaded by 'bouncing balloons' which are somehow 'terrorising several of our landmarks and cities'.

Top Five Fast and the Furious Films

My taste in films has always been a bit perplexing, even for me. I often frown upon those visually dazzling films filled with good looking people, special effects, fancy stunts, etc, as they are often the only qualities they possess which makes them rather unsatisfactory, for me anyway. There are occasional exceptions though, and one of them is The Fast and the Furious, a film which one way or another has gone on to have a dramatic effect on my life (mainly because it indirectly led to me meeting the lovely lady who would become my wife!). That's not the only reason though, obviously - most guys like cars and here was a film that not only featured them but had them on an equal billing with the actors!

The result was quite original for an action-orientated film and featured some nice set-pieces, memorable characters, a thumping soundtrack, and some pretty sweet vehicles, as well as some blisteringly fast races and impressive stunts to show them off with. Add a 'new' tough guy, some nice girlies, and a rudimentary story and you were left with a surprise hit! Inevitably this led to a sequel. And then another. And then another, and now we find ourselves awaiting the release of the sixth film in the series (and a seventh has also been announced!). I thought this was a good opportunity to take a look back at the previous five and ramble on about it here.

To that end, I recently re-watched them to help me assemble this list and while doing so I realised that it's a bit of a pointless list really (not unlike many of my Top Fives I guess!). If you like one of them you're probably going to like all of them, and if you don't like one of them I doubt you'll like any of them. They're all slightly different in style but still similar enough that there's little to separate them, frankly. Oh well, here are my largely inconsequential thoughts anyway:

Spoiler Alert: the movie-related Top Fives featured here obviously assume that you've seen the films in question or don't mind knowing about their most prominent moments so don't come whining to me if they ruin a film that you haven't seen yet!

5. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

There was no doubt a great deal expected of this film after the surprise success of the original. A glance at the cast list didn't bode well though. Vin Diesel, the breakout star of the first film, had decided not to return and nor had anyone else save for Paul Walker, the weakest main actor from the first film in the view of many people. It suffers a little from the omissions but does introduce some decent new characters in Roman Pearce (Tyrese) and Tej Parker (Ludacris), the former of whom plays an ex-con reluctantly partnering the now-disgraced Brian as drivers working undercover to bring down Carter Verone (Cole Hauser), a scary drug lord. There are some lovely cars on display in this offering which get more attention than the girlies represented by Devon Aoki and Eva Mendes, but the dialogue seems to alternate between amusing and cringe-inducing and the story/action is probably the least realistic of the series so far (which is saying something, I know!). Still entertaining stuff though.

Bat 'n' Ball Games #6

Robo-Squash (1990)
By: Atari Genre: Bat 'n' Ball Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Atari Lynx First Day Score: 16,200
Also Available For: Nothing

Considering the genre was one of the first ones ever created, there's been surprisingly few innovations in the world of bat 'n' ball games, but Atari, the very creators in question, tried doing just that with this slightly obscure release for their own Lynx 'handheld' (snigger). The objective does not, however, include the usual block-hitting tomfoolery that I had initially believed formed the basis of the game. Robo Squash is instead a tarted-up version of the very first bat 'n' ball game of them all, and indeed the very first popular video game full stop - Pong! Instead of the simple left-to-right-to-left-again gameplay of the original though, this example asks you to do the same thing but from an into-the-screen perspective! There's a bit more to it than that though, of course.

Doujin Platform Games #2

Obake no Koushinkyoku (2004)
By: Samona Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Featured Version: PC First Day Score: Still going!
Also Available For: Nothing

During my occasional searches for more doujin goodies to try out, it often doesn't take much to pique my interest. With this title it was a mere glimpse of the unusual looking main character, or what I had immediately assumed was the main character at least - it may be tough to tell from the screen shots but he's a curious-looking white ghost similar to one of the pesky examples found in the original video game haunting ground: Pac-Man. Except he's white, as is more traditional for ghosts of course. Although having said that, he's not actually a ghost but a type of spirit called an 'obake' which means 'thing that changes', and was the star of his own manga, and later anime show, called Obake no Q-taro which is a rather Doraemon-ish offering from the same era (60's and 70's). The character in this game, whose title means 'March of Obake', incidentally, doesn't look much like the original though.

N64 Driving / Racing Games #3

Beetle Adventure Racing (1999)
By: Paradigm Entertainment / Electronic Arts Genre: Racing Players: 1-4 Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo 64
Also Available For: Nothing

There's no story so why the film strip?

Considering the apparent ease with which the mighty N64 was able to handle 3D game worlds, I always found it rather surprising that it didn't host more top quality racing games. There was the king itself, F-Zero X, of course, and a few other corkers such as the floopy Wave Race, but alternatives were few and far between. I thought I had found one when I saw a rather enthusiastic review in a gaming magazine of the day so I bought the game in question at full price only to find it sucked big floppy donkey dicks. No, I'm not talking about Beetle Adventure Racing - I'll review the actual culprit another time - but such was the horror I endured with the other title that I became far more hesitant to try any other N64 racers, and that's where the EA's Volkswagen-starring game comes in. It too received decent reviews but I was so scarred by my previous experience that I never dared to try it... until now.

Sega SG-1000 Round-Up #4

Sega's oddly appealing SG-1000 has apparently harboured few hidden gems so far (that I've seen, at least) but I've missed it anyway so I figured it was time for another Round Up. The lucky dip on this occasion has yielded a nice mixture of genres including the only RPG released for the system! Take a look:

The Black Onyx (1987)

Yes that's right, this very game is supposedly (barring any doujin releases or something) the only RPG released on Sega's first console. That means there is a bit of Japanese text on the options screens but surprisingly the in-game menu is in English. Unfortunately that did little to improve my enjoyment of it. At the start you need to create a party of up to five adventurers before starting the game in a multi-storey labyrinth located beneath a town. However, I didn't get much further than this as sadly it's only marginally less confusing to play than the MSX's horrifying 3D Bomberman which it immediately reminded me of. Accordingly, it's incredibly easy to get lost and using a map to explore defeats the object really so I'm afraid I didn't stick with it for long. Black Onyx did appear on several other platforms and I can't comment on those versions, but this one was mighty unpleasant... 3/10

Maze Games #9

Raimais (1988)
By: Taito Genre: Maze Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 82,620
Also Available For: Various Compilations for PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox

I wonder how the name is pronounced...

Good old Taito, they sure know how to rip a game off don't they? Take Breakout as an example - released way back in the 70's to great acclaim and popularity, but by the 80's it was starting to look and feel rather dated, so what did Taito do? Around ten years after the original appeared they made their own version, gave it a sci-fi theme and basic back-story, tarted up the graphics, chucked in a load of power-ups, and released it as Arkanoid, which... also received great acclaim and popularity, and is in fact still generally regarded as the pinncale of the genre. Next move? A couple of years later, they worked their magic on another early classic in pretty much the same way, and the result is Raimais. As you may have already noticed from the screenshots, it's based on Pac-Man, but what have Taito done to moderise it? That's right - given it a sci-fi theme and basic back-story, tarted up the graphics, and chucked in a load of power-ups!

Almost 3D Platform Games #1

Spider: The Video Game (1996)
By: Boss Game Studios Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: Nothing

The arrival of the powerful 32-bit CD-based consoles brought many new and exciting things to gaming but one of the most obvious was 3D games. Although some had come before, notably on the PC, it was now much easier for developers to create complex game worlds in all three dimensions. A good number of these flashy new games came on Sony's PlayStation which was much better suited to the job than the Saturn (boo hoo!) but, whilst they almost always looked nice, not all of them were truly 3D. This was particularly true of platform games - many featured lovely polygonal worlds in which you often spent as much time moving into and out from the screen as you did moving left and right, but their stages were still linear, forcing you to follow a set path. This didn't necessarily make them bad of course; some were spiffing and one that I always found interesting was Spider.

Top Five Lynx Arcade Conversions

Despite being hailed by its fans as the most underrated hand held ever, Atari's poor old Lynx was pretty much a flop from start to finish. It was a mighty powerful machine for its time, perhaps too powerful, as it sadly crippled the machine with a bulky size and woeful battery life. Due to this, few developers other than Epyx (the original designers of the machine) and Atari themselves actually released games for it, and what this means is that a large percentage of its back-catalogue is made up of arcade conversions. Thanks to that aforementioned power it managed most of them admirably though, and here are the very best ones:

5. Roadblasters (1990)

To be honest, I've never been hugely keen on this game. The version I've played the most is the monochrome version on the Speccy which is decent but too easy, but fan or not, this Lynx version is a pretty impressive effort. Like the arcade version and unlike the Speccy one, it's not particularly easy, partly because the car controls in the same slightly annoying way and I consequently didn't make it very far (and had little desire to try due to the aforementioned mild dislikeness I still harbour). The gameplay has been well duplicated though, and the graphics are superb - very colourful and fairly fast, although the scaling looks a but iffy on the Lynx's screen. So, great job on the conversion, less so on the game itself...

Film Review #48

I Am Legend (2007)
Director: Francis Lawrence Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith, Emma Thompson

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 96 Minutes

Tagline: "The last man on Earth is not alone"

Adapting a novel to film must be a damn tricky business at the best of times. This particular effort is actually the third attempt to place Richard Matheson's book on film following The Last Man On Earth (1964) and The Omega Man (1971), and the first to use the book's original name, but none of them have earned (or even asked for, in some cases) the endorsement of the author. Armed with a big budget and the very latest in ultra-fancy technology however, Lawrence's attempt to finally do justice to the celebrated book must surely be in with a good chance? I didn't actually get to find this out until just a few days ago when I finally got around to watching this well-liked film (see, it's not just games it takes me a while to get around to!). Despite its popularity, I've always been in two minds as to whether to watch it. Films set in post-apocalyptic worlds are always at least intriguing, but I couldn't really give two pieces of monkey crap about zombie films, which I've always been under the impression this is.

Doujin Platform Games #1

Yamamoto-san (2012)
By: AnnoJoe Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: PC First Day Score: 23,376
Also Available For: Nothing

Well, isn't she a lovely-looking girly!

There was I, merrily scouring the limitless ether for another interesting-looking doijin shmup to play (and review) and pretty much by accident I discovered that the phenomenon that is doujin seemingly extends to almost all other genres too, not to mention many non-video game related interests as well. Since platform games are, along with shmups, probably my very favourite genre, I figured it was worth picking one at random and giving it a try, and that game was, unsurprisingly, Yamamoto-san. It's a game that features enough kanji to render its premise a mystery to me, but a short intro sequence reveals a tornado or something causing some havoc. That leaves the sprightly girly to the right here to vanquish her land of the evil creatures that have moved in, presumably since the unwelcome disaster.

Gaming Memories - Part 11

For any keen gamer, the prospect of acquiring a new console can often be an exciting one. From the first announcement of the new system to leaked photos of games in action on it to finalised prices and launch line-ups and then finally the chance to actually own it, finances permitting of course. This cycle was particularly memorable for me with regards to several consoles which remain among my favourites, but none more so than NEC's mighty PC Engine.

The classic white Engine is the most appealing one...

I can't speak for other countries but here in the UK we had some fantastic gaming magazines in the 80's and 90's. One of them - Computer & Video Games (more usually referred to as C&VG) - covered computers such as the Spectrum, C64, Amiga, etc in its front half but had a dedicated console section in the second half know as Mean Machines which would eventually evolve into a separate magazine in its own right, but at this stage it was about as comprehensive as console coverage got for us. The most tantalising system they featured was the PC Engine which was quite mysterious but immensely desirable. It was released in Japan in 1987 and glimpses started appearing in C&VG soon afterwards along with the odd screenshot of early games like Alien Crush, Victory Run, and a stunning-looking port of the amazing R-Type. Every gamer who wasn't stupid immediately wanted one but, due to the lack of a European release, that wasn't an easy proposition.

Film Review #47

Adventureland (2009)
Director: Greg Mottola Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Martin Starr, Margarita Levieva, Matt Bush, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 107 Minutes

Tagline: "Nothing brings people together like a crappy summer job"

Teen comedies have always been a bit of a mixed bag for me. Some of them are fantastic but many more are boring, stupid, or just plain awful. One example of the former is Superbad, a film I found immensely witty but also highly rewatchable as well, so when I first heard of Adventureland I was mighty pleased. It is after all from the same director, as its cover states proudly, so I was pretty much expecting more of the same juvenile, booze-fuelled tomfoolery. However, while Mottola's earlier film places the two 'heroes' in their final few weeks of high school, Adventureland is set shortly after its end when James (Eisenberg) is about to depart for a road-trip around Europe with his best friend. After spending the opening scene getting dumped by his girlfriend though (for the second film of his in a row that I've seen!), Jesse soon receives some more bad news when he discovers that not only can his parents no longer afford to fund his trip around Europe but they can't even put anything towards his upcoming stint at Columbia University either. That leaves him stuck in Pittsburgh circa 1987, and that can only mean one thing...