Shine the Spotlight: Bayonetta

Seems early for another post about Bayonetta, doesn't it?  Well, screw you.  It's my blog.

After asking a friend to go over my other post about the game, they immediately told me I rambled far too long and never got to any solid point and probably should revise what I was doing.  They also decided to share their thoughts with me about how this crass character was probably not exactly a good one.  This made their advice about the post null and void to me and so I decided to Shine my Spotlight on Bayonetta herself.

For anybody who knows me, the whole "Shine The Spotlight" thing is where I go a little bit more in depth about a character, their personality, traits, and why I like them.  It's all a personal thing and what attracts me to them.  The opposing view is called "Lock Em' Up" where I go in depth about a character, their personality, traits, and why I dislike them.  Clearly this is about the former.  Also, Spotlights are VERY LIKELY TO HAVE SPOILERS SO BE CAREFUL.

So Shine the Spotlight:

Bayonetta aka Cereza

Doing what she does best: Being stylish and violent

 Introduced as the amnesiac last witch of a clan of witches known as Umbran Witches, Bayonetta is the foul mouthed, flirtatious, outrageous, hyper violent, and always fun as heck primary protagonist of the Bayonetta franchise originally released on the X Box 360 and followed on the Wii U.  We soon learn she's the last of two witches and she is a very special Umbran witch, not just because for an Umbran witch she's powerful, not just because she can curb stomp angels the size of lunar sattelites with demons she summons from hell, but because she carries in her the left eye of the overseer which when combined with the right eye allows the user to restructure reality.  While that story is more complicated, the story of Bayonetta is significantly less so.  She's just the abomination child of an Umbran Witch and a member of the Lumen Sages who happens to be the Umbran mortal enemy.  Her father is also the holder of the right eye of the overseer, and it turns out one eye was given to each clan to maintain balance and can resurrect the god of the universe but the eyes really belong to the god of chaos and ARGHGHGHG!!!

Bayonetta is basically spastic, stylish, playful energy cranked up way past eleven, handed four weapons to put on her very long appendages and told to kill angels.  She is a witch which means she made a pact with a demon (the demoness Madama Butterfly in this case) and must kill angels every day to keep this side of hell which she is ultimately doomed to upon death no matter what.  Though with the sheer volume she slaughters within an hour should get her a week long vacation.  Also the 500 years she was asleep wasn't held against her because demons are understanding.  And really not much of that matters.

Appearance wise, as you can tell from the picture, Bayonetta is a very lanky individual.  Tall (or just perhaps has a very tiny torso and head), raven haired, and bespectacled, Bayonetta almost has a geekish charm despite the fact she's very not geeky at all.  Crass, disrespectful, and extremely inappropriate are all terms that can describe Bayonetta.  From the way she blows expletives and tells people to screw off, to how she treats some of her friends far more like slaves, to her rather "whatever" regard she has for huge world threats, you quickly get the whole brushing off and overly cool feel of her personality.  She doesn't care, you annoy her, she just wants to more or less do whatever she wants to do.  And while she also enjoys the act of crushing angels, she isn't exactly someone who lusts after battle.  She doesn't really want to fight, but when she is fighting she makes sure to enjoy it.  She's also considered and extremely classy and literate lady who expresses her desire of etiquette upon others even if she herself barely shows restraint, up to and including pointing guns at others if they disrespect her.  Also she wears her hair as fine intricate black leather body fitting clothes.  You read that right, she wears her hair and it can take on the texture and shape of very detailed clothing.  Look at the picture above and note the only things which aren't hair are her shoes, the gold chains, her glasses and her guns.  The rest is HAIR.  And it must come off for her bigger attacks.  Which leads to the next bit.

Bayonetta is unabashedly sexual.  From the way she dresses to the way she speaks to the way she behaves to the way she fights.  Everything about her has some aspect of sexuality to her.  She purrs out her words at others with her breathy English accent.  She walks in an exaggerated hip swaying manner which emphasizes her well structured behind, she wears everything open back, her suits are skin tight, she dances around and strips for her Wicked Weaves and demon summons, even most of her attacks are something you imagine a fictional super stripper to behave like.  It's part of her charm, like a naked woman behind fogged glass which only hints at the sexuality without being completely naked or doing God of War sex scenes.  One of her attacks known as Breakdance has her spinning and crawling about the ground firing her weapons up and around only to finish with her on all fours, legs spread wide with her facing the screen with a wink and a camera shutter like some sort of magazine shoot.  Another called Umbran Portal Kick which has her land on her back to pose for another camera shutter.  I'm not going to say this is bad.  Not that needlessly sexualizing women in comic books and video games is good, but in the case of Bayonetta it isn't putting sex to simply put sex, but sex is actually woven into her character in a powerful way. "But Mak, that just means women only have authority and power if they're sexual objects."  To this I say no.  Bayonetta is both sexual and powerful, and one needn't the other in this case.  Bayonetta blends them in a satisfying and fun way.  Sex isn't bad, nor should it be disdained.  It shouldn't be used just to be used, but only when it helps craft a better story.  Bayonetta is her own woman, and she definitely comes off as all of this being her absolute choice in the matter.  It isn't like she's just the side character who has to flash skin to be recognized as the most attractive and hence the most important female.  She flashes skin because "Screw you, chump."  She is in control of herself and sexuality is just something she happens to enjoy.  She doesn't worry about what people think of her, or what man she is after, or relationships.  She is definitely a woman of her own being.  If she wants it, she gets it.  If she hates it, she shuns it.  She's a bitch but only in the best way.  An interesting character to say the least.  I have never really gotten the feeling that none of her traits are anything but the product of her own desire.  Never have I really seen or felt like she strips and dances for anything but fun of her own making or just to be a "cheeky" individual.  Sort of like the big tough guy who walks into a bar and orders frilly drinks and when called out he just is jolly and explains how he dislikes the taste of beer and prefers drinks with umbrellas.  You sort of gain a respect for that sort of confidence and that's who Bayonetta is at her core.  Confidence defines her.  Whether she's telling an enemy she doesn't have time for them, compliments them on their work, insults them for wasting her precious (immortal) time, about how ugly they are or how good looking they are, referring to partners as pets or her friends as almost slaves, Bayonetta knows she's the queen and is more than happy to play the role which makes things like her dancing all the more fun.  She knows nobody is going to call her out on it, and if they do she is more than smart and capable enough to simply shut them down or shut them up because nobody tells Bayonetta what to do.

Her powers also match her beyond over the top personality.  She's a witch and thus magic.  Magic enhances her through having infinite amounts of hair, ridiculous durability and strength such as taking falling buildings to her face or just punching them outright into orbit.  She's fast, really fast.  Bullets shot in her face can be avoided and it triggers a time manipulation event called Witch Time which allows her to sashay around, hold conversations, or just wail on enemies with beyond ridiculous weapons which are forged from the souls of powerful demons.  Speaking of demons, all witches are contracted to demons and in Bayonetta's case, this demon is Madama Butterfly.  A giant woman like demon with a butterfly motif, Madama Butterfly assists Bayonetta by imparting wisdom and great power to her which includes all sorts of techniques, but the most notable is the summoning and subjugation of lesser demons such as dragons, fire spiders, demon horses, devil dogs, nightmare millipedes, hydras, and even access to Queen Sheba the ruler of Inferno (though she needs help for that one).  Bayonetta can also "summon" Butterfly through her Wicked Weaves which strips Bayonetta of her hair suit and opens portals which allows fists and feet through temporarily to slam her enemies as part of her combos.  She also can call the weapons of the witch hunts as punishment attacks and commonly puts angels in iron maidens, wooden horses, burning cages, torture wheels, etc.  Everything you use with Bayonetta feels powerful and reminds you she is in charge.  And these are all over the top such as when she beats an angel into a guillotine then snaps her fingers with a little heart over them and the blade falls.  And going back to weapons, she has a plethora.  In the beginning of each game she wields four pistol like guns known as the Scarborough Fair in the first game and Love is Blue in the second.  Four guns seems a lot?  Not when you keep in mind she puts two on her FEET.  She is an extremely adept pistoleer with a strong skill in shooting all around her in super rapid fire sequence and her weapons just get more insane.  Shotguns, demon katanas or demon double swords, whips, fire/ice claws, ice skates, triple bladed scythes, gigantic hammers, even rocket launchers.  The variety is insane as she can pair things like the scythe in her hands and flaming chainsaws on her feet and use them with such deadly proficiency it has allowed her to conquer world ending nearly all-powerful gods more than once.

She jokes, she flirts, she's fun, she insults, she kicks all sorts of ass.  Bayonetta is truly a character while not being the first of her kind, is among the best of them. Bayonetta is no hero, and she's as happy to admit it.  But Bayonetta is the best thing to protect your world with so long as it happens to coincide with her own plans.

Bayonetta, a witch with true fun attitude.

The Bi... The Witch Is Back. Bayonetta 2: Return To Thunderdome (Possible Spoilers Of Course)

Sorry it's been more than a week since my last post.  Busy life is busy.  Especially with games to play, comics to read, and apartments to clean.

 

Let's do this.

Bayonetta 2 is a video game for the horrendously underrated Nintendo Wii U home video game console about witches and their quest to capture all the rings from Sonic the Hedgehog and use really cool weapons and techniques and demon summons to crush their angelic and demonic foes in a quest to capture all Pokemon everywhere.  Alright, so the rings are simply inspired by Sonic and there are no Pokemon.  It's really about the titular (no pun intended) character Bayonetta trying to save the soul of her friend Jeanne (pretty much pronounced "John") who is trapped in Hell Inferno, because Jeanne sacrificed her life to save Bayonetta (whom Jeanne calls "Cereza") from Bayonetta's own demon summon which oddly went out of control.  Of course the story spins off from that into a bigger end of the world sort of story we are familiar with and definitely echos back to the first of the series, but that's hardly of concern.  The primary concern is the character, style, and gameplay of Bayonetta 2.  At least that's all the concern Team Little Angels had, because the story definitely feels like it was developed to the point they could market it as a game and immediately stopped after that.  Also both Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2 are packaged in the same box at the price of one game.  It's great.

The first Bayonetta was somewhat controversial given the overt sexual overtones of the portrayal, dialogue, and pretty much every movement Bayonetta made.  The second one makes the first look somewhat conservative.  The overtones are sometimes replaced with just outright sexual commentary and the scenes of crotch and butt shots are somewhat a little more obvious.  It's not that this is a bad thing for the most part, but sometimes it felt like the game just goes a bit out of its way to remind us Bayonetta leverages her sexuality.  Gone are her platinum award "I should've been a pole dancer!" comments (or at least I think so, I haven't been able to WIN a platinum award yet) and in it's place gives us Bayonetta putting squirrels in her cleavage, or Loki commenting about how Luka stares at Bayonetta's tits all day long, or Bayonetta straight up ditching innuendo and blatantly saying, "Though if it's sex we're talking about..." (Summary, not an actual quote).  It's odd, because while these things aren't bad they just feel out of place or shoehorned in.  I get, accept, and revel in how Bayonetta is meant to be a sexy, flirty vixen who strips down and engages in suggestive combat styles while saying things like, "You want to touch me?" but that's part of her charm.  Before in the first game she simply implies it in subtle and smart ways and moves on.  The second game sometimes just ditches it in case the viewer didn't get the joke.  Like if Stephen Colbert made a joke about why nobody is comfortable with a celebrating Germany then waited a few minutes to say, "You get it?  Because the last time the world saw a very celebratory Germany was when it was run by the Nazi regime and they were storming Europe while reveling in their status!"  It sort of just ruins the mood a bit.  Granted she isn't always mega subtle with her lip-licking, hip-thrusting, ass-shaking dances, but that's all body language and she works best when talking with her body.  Granted this is just the second game, so maybe I am thinking her personality is already fairly well established when it might not be.  Either way, moving on.

If you can't tell by my last paragraph, let me Bayonetta 2 this for you:  The game isn't for children.  Kids can play it and have fun and potentially pick up the word "Fuck," but you as a parent might not appreciate the sexual tones, language, and if you're extremely religious you don't want them wondering aloud why angels look like animals and are portrayed as bad guys.  Granted if you qualify in the last one, you probably don't want them playing games about witches, dressing up as witches for Halloween, celebrating Halloween, or even reading Harry Potter books because it has witches in it.  This game has no reverence for religion at all and uses it as nothing more than a tool to play a game.  The angels are of the older design before they were given real human like appearances, they're strict, they follow extremist orders, and really shows the demons are no worse or better, just a different part of the spectrum.  Well, when it does tell story at least.  If you are a Nintendo owner with children, don't assume you can just plop this down after a game of Mario Kart 8 with your kids, because the transition would be as jarring as smacking a concrete wall with your car at 40 miles per hour. 

It's actually sort of weird how this ended up on a console well known for its more family-friendly variety and doubly weird when people try to pitch it to one another, much less to a company fir the first game.  Really it's just a weird game in general that I couldn't have imagined was easy to pitch.  Could you?  Imagine if I went up to you and said, "Hey guy, I have a game proposition for you.  It's a game we're calling Bayonetta, and in it you're a witch named Bayonetta who has to go around and kill angels, but the angels are bad guys.  But that's not the insane part.  The best part is how you're like this really sexy witch who uses hair as her entire costume and has to strip to become more powerful after dancing around like a stripper!  You shout sexy things, sway your hips, and when you finish it there's just a big ol' dance celebrating your sexiness!"  And at that point you call security because you don't remember Sega relaxing their security to let loons like this in.  It probably only really saw the light of day due to Hideki Kamiya of Devil May Cry fame being a writer.  Sort of like how if Brian Bendis decided to write a story about how Reed Richards spent the early part of his marriage cheating on Susan and Marvel only said yes because it was Bendis who wrote it.  It is a really weird and sometimes uncomfortable game.  I played both the first and second one with my girlfriend in the same room this weekend and I will tell you there were a few times we were both uncomfortable and she was most likely questioning why I was playing this in front of her and what I must think about behind closed doors when nobody is watching.  She might also think it's better she doesn't know.  She might also think this is what I find sexy in a woman, but I hope she doesn't because that would be unfair and Bayonetta would be horrifying in the real world.

But now I'm rambling on too much.  Bayonetta is fun.  Pure fun.  If you like games that are just fun and don't really try to do the whole "We're really the next big thing," and just want to sit back and wail on people by wearing flaming chainsaws on your feet and not being forced to QTE for funerals, this game is for you. 

I'll be ditching the Good/Okay/Bad system from here on out because I felt it was a bit too general.  The idea was not to give the idea there was real science to how I felt, but it also really didn't satisfy me with how I evaluated things since it implied that things I really enjoyed and things I mostly enjoyed were the same rank when it simply wasn't true.  I'll be using your standard numerical system and evaluating it at the end.

Graphics: 9.5

I really want to give this a 10. For some reason I can't bring myself to it.  Framerate is 60 fps, environments are beyond gorgeous, detail is tremendous, light, texture, flashy stuff, everything is just top notch.  However, when I write "10" I feel like I'm putting it too high.  9.5 will have to do. Maybe because sometimes the camera angles were off and caused clipping with certain punishments.  Though that really isn't so much a graphics problem maybe?  I dunno.

Sound: 9.5

Voices, attacks, music, all of it great. My only real problems were sometimes the soundtrack drowned out the dialogue or the dialogue drowned out the background noise or the background noise drowned out everything.  I tried to adjust all the metrics, but it seems the soundtrack just has a few problems like that.  Voices were superb as the always pleasant to listen to Bayonetta purred out her lines and delighted with her witty charm.  Rodin gave off the cooler weapon guy with his voice.  Enzo was annoying as ever.  Loki was something of a let down, and really all the other voices are either grunts or some sort of Latinish language or something.  Music was fantastic as the developer did the same thing here as he did in the last game by releasing an official song and having it completely overshadowed by a J-Pop remake of a classic song which in this case was the unbelievably infectious, "Moon River."  Unlike "Fly Me To The Moon" before it, "Moon River" isn't in every single scene and really is only up to highlight the more lighthearted and fun parts of the game, like the introduction in the beginning of the game where Bayonetta starts off in a dress, strips, spotlights, hairs up, and kicks ass immediately afterward.  Sound effects were very top notch.  All weapons sound very different and satisfying.  Chainsaws grind, scythes ding, shooty guns go bang bang, the insect bow was fun, all the sounds were great.  Like I said, the uneven nature of how the sounds balance was sort of off and the only reason this didn't nail a 10.

Playstyle/Gameplay: 10

Solid 10 here.  When I first started there was just this button mashy way I played, but as I developed and learned how to time things better and understood how combos work the game became this unbelievably enjoyable experience where I performed better and overall was just far more satisfying.  Once again, nothing is as awesome as seeing a bit scythe slash followed up by a chainsaw laden leg sweep followed by Madama Butterfly's gigantic heel stomping someone.

Variety: 8.5

The variety in this game isn't...well, huge.  There are different enemies and they all require different strategies, but when you really get down into the gameplay they're not really all that different.  Sure I can't get better than a stone badge for that stupid flying snake boss level, but that's the exception.  Most of the time you'll be smacking away at enemies (generally ineffectively until you get your Umbran Climax) and waiting to dodge to engage Witch Time, which helps you fill your meter for Umbran Climax.  It basically becomes a game of waiting for visual cues and then unleashing combo hell on people and then repeating.  Really the best part is that the enemies all look different, but a good half of them just sort of look the same or ARE the same from previous games.  Also the demon army guys look like reskins of the angelic ones.  It feels unfair to say the variety isn't that big when it sort of is in some ways, but for the most part you will be wailing on the same enemies in every level after they're introduced.  The only real benefit is every level DOES introduce a new type of enemy whom you will fight 25 more times before the level is complete.  They do sort of mix the enemies together, but I wish they mixed them up more and integrated a few more enemy types.

Character Designs: 10

 Always a strong point for a series that is all about style and flash, Bayonetta 2 does not even come close to disappointing with character designs.  I passed this section in Borderlands the Pre-Sequel, so this is new.  Bayonetta herself looks fresh and wonderful, filled with personality, and completely realized as change for change sake as it relates to her character.  Her short haircut, shoulder bits, bare arms, and flowing hair...cape parts(?) (I'm a comic and game critic, not a fashion critic) are all beautiful and look like a natural evolution to her character that is both distinct and not at all the lesser of her older beehive style.  It looks like Bayonetta.  Jeanne looks slicker.  The angels are beyond well designed as are their demonic counterparts.  Rodin and Enzo look the same, but they look good.  10.  TEN!!!

Story:  7

 I was debating whether this was a 6.5 to 7.5 rating, but I think 7 is really the best for it.  Let's face it, the story is only as developed as it needs to be for gameplay to commence.  There is effort to tell a story, but it feels lost in most of the levels (aside from the War level).  There is a kid who has a mysterious amnesia and destiny who is being conspired against by authority forces he doesn't understand who sends angels to stop or retrieve him.  If this sounds familiar, it's because it is the basic plot of the first Bayonetta.  The only real difference is Bayonetta is just not the focus of that plot, and has her own subplot which is tossed aside after it has been achieved around the second half of the game and then Bayonetta goes to complete the first plot who has a bad guy which more or less is recycling the entire end goal of the first game in how he wants the Eyes of the World to elevate himself to God status and remake the universe in his image.  The only difference is instead of integrating Bayonetta into a statue, the enemy just wants the power for himself.  There's also this underlying story with the Masked Lumen which is obvious and unsatisfying.  The only reason this isn't lower is because of how interesting Bayonetta's world is.  You definitely WANT to know more about it.  How do demon pacts work?  Why are demons rebelling?  Is it because of this god guy?  How does he influence it?  Why don't we get more about Inferno and all of its awesome design?  More Rosa please?  There's enough there you want to know more but the game doesn't necessarily pay off.

Stability: 10

Aside from a graphical clipping and one failed start of a level, the game works flawlessly.  The clipping is probably a necessary evil due to the camera angle, and I think with the failed start the level had a timer and since I skipped the cinematic it was just following script.  This game very much felt like a finished product as an old school game was.  Something you open and worked perfectly.  Face glitches, balancing, all of that stuff didn't exist like problems do with some more modern releases which are racing out the door.  The game is just very polished and works flawlessly.  No lagging, no sagging, no graphical snagging.  Just pure gameplay and perfect rendering.

Replay Value: 9

This one is truly the most variable because Bayonetta's reasoning for replays is very dependent on what you're replaying for.  If it's just to smash more angels it has an okay replay value, though Tag Climax will be more your thing.  Really the replays will be mostly for those trying to improve their trophy values, collect rings for costumes and weapons, and those who want more challenge who also want to unlock certain weapons and costumes.  It has tremendous replay value in that regard because you can easily fight differently with different weapons and configurations and accessories, which turns each fight into something brand new in regards to how you actually combo and punish things.  If you're only interested in hammering through to say you've completed the game, then your replay value will be 0.

Total Score:

9.2

Final Thoughts: GET THE GAME

The total for me is a 9.2, and what really hurt it was the story.  Honestly this game is an essential for fun.  Even with the story shortfall and the variety "shortfall" the game was beyond fun and some of the most fun I've had video game wise all year.  Maybe even the past two years.  If you are one of the people who can get past their pride and own a Wii U,  you owe it to yourself to own this game.  It's worth the full price tag, and is ten dollars cheaper on the virtual store as opposed to the physical copy.  It comes with the first game which automatically unlocks the Nintendo costumes which are beyond fun (having Madama Butterfly's fists and feet replaced with Bowser's is endless fun), as well as the sounds that go along with it (coin and rupee sounds) is just a blast.  The game is pure fun.  GO BUY IT NOW.  If you don't own a Wii U, I'm sorry.  Out of the three "current gen" consoles, I honestly would say it's currently the best of them.

Let's dance, boys!

6 Heroes Somewhat Big: My Review of the Big Hero 6 Movie (Minor Spoilers Maybe)

Alright, let's get it out of the way:  I'm not normally a comic book purist, but sometimes it is hard to get past changes when one format moves to another.  I'm not a GeeWun fan which certain fandoms of Transformers are known for, but I do have some things I dislike when changes are made.  So if you get the feeling I'm just being one of those "You violated my childhood!" guys, know that I'm not being negative nor have I ever grown out of childhood.  Ask anybody.  I haven't developed emotionally since I was 15.

Anyways, onto the review.  There might be SPOILERS so be careful and be warned.














BIG HERO 6: A DISNEY FILM

Let's start by saying this isn't a reinterpretation of the Big Hero 6 so much as an entire re-imagining of the Big Hero 6.  The only way I could sort of compare it would be if someone took Star Trek and made it a movie about 1600's privateering where Captain Kirk led his British roughs across the ocean to find new lands to bring into the British Empire and the only real connection to Star Trek is the ship is called the Enterprise, it took five years to do their job, Kirk had some sort of foreign first mate, and the crew used the stars to navigate the ocean.  It's -that- wide of a difference.  So if you're a fan of the comics and want to see the comics translated to the screen, I will save you the time:  Don't go.  However, if you want what is a passably enjoyable movie, do go.

The premise of the movie is simple, a man named Hiro Takachiho Hamada is a young precocious boy who goes through the loss of his brother and when he discovers one of his inventions (which his brother urged him to build) is being used by a mysterious masked villain, he teams up with his brother's magnum opus, Baymax the medical robot, and his brother's former friends and colleagues to stop this man using his smarts, his friend's smarts (really just their bodies), and the power of duty and determination to save the day.  Though I apologize if I've spoiled the movie by saying Hiro wins at the end.

All in all, the movie was enjoyable.  Disney's new Hyperion thingie works well as seen in the image above I couldn't center because I'm too dumb to figure out how (it IS set to center oddly enough), the music was good and Fallout boy has a song called "Immortals" you will here often, the animation was excellent, the voice acting was awesome, and the action was very well delivered.  The studies of vinyl balloon robots was put to great use in Baymax's interactions with the world physically, his function, and how he even behaved. The character designs were all pretty unique, sharp, colorful, playful, and a pity we didn't see more of.  Though a problem I had with the movie was the extremely cookie cutter formula it had.  Everything about this movie was a cookie cutter.  The story, the villain, even all the characters.  Hiro is the detached boy who experiences tragedy and becomes something more through purpose and duty, Baymax is his cute and lovable sidekick, GoGo (not Tomago) is the rough girl who is all cold on the outside but has a heart of gold, Wasabi is the overly paranoid rule follower who shows symptoms of OCD, Honey Lemon is the mousey team player who wants nothing but the best for others, and Fred is the dorky extra who is thrilled by his dangerous predicament and provides much of the comedy relief outside of Baymax.  They're all...ugh...adorkable (I hate that word).  They're just so... ordinary for this sort of movie.  There's no real depth to any of them.  Even Hiro with his battle bot hustling loses character when he is turned student turned hero story loses depth, and it really all moves due to how the characters behave as opposed to how they grow.  If you like witty, funny, well animated stuff without the cumbersome drama of growth you will love this movie.  It's a movie for all ages, after all.  

I just thought of a movie where there's comparable characters: How to Train Your Dragon.  You can fill in the blanks there.

But going back to the story and characters, it was just all so ordinary, and what I was looking for was the awesomeness the characters from the comics had.  Sure the comics were a parody of what the writer thought Japanese superheroes would be like, but they became so much more and were so interesting.  Talking about the movie characters alone: Hiro was a man who lost his father and built Baymax (no brother involved) to basically replace said father, gave Baymax his father's mind waves, ridiculously cool transformations, and even a good personality that extended beyond pulling at heartstrings and comedy and even possibly shared some romance with Hiro's mom.  GoGo Tomago (Leiko Tanaka) was a criminal who worked for several gangs and was given an exo-suit which possessed energy projection capabilities to be part of the Big Hero 6 in exchange for parole and that explained her hard and jealous exterior, not because she's some tsundere (manga cred, what up) who is hard on the outside and gooey on the inside, GoGo is just one tough girl all around and is unique in that regard.  Wasabi no Ginger was a chef who utilized swordsmanship, shorts, sandles, and Qi energy blades which could render opponents unconscious. Honey Lemon was anything BUT mousey, was ridiculously confident, beyond smart as the inventor of a purse which utilizes wormholes to store anything infinitely and can pull it out from her purse, as well as being a gigantic flirt who was significantly more secretive (as she was a secret agent and all).  Finally Fredzilla was nothing like his Fred counterpart (see below) personality wise.  Fredzilla (who in the comics HATES that code name) literally channels a Godzilla like monster which appears and makes sound around him and enhances his physical power.  Fred also is the least connected to his team, does not really want to be a hero, isn't all that comical, and just...well... he's a significantly more jaded, negative, cynical individual.  He doesn't look to impress anybody, he doesn't want to really be a sign flinging mascot, he just wants to not have to deal with crap.

There is also the case of actually how the characters are portrayed.  Now I'm not going to say, "This be racist!" because it's not, but this might be unintentional whitewashing of an entire team.  Oh, I know, Wasabi is African-San Frantokyian, but is really more or less put in there to have racial diversity (GoGo and Hiro already were racially diverse), while forgetting the team is actually constructed of Japanese people.  It's sort of weird, because Honey Lemon is more of a Japanese model who wears scant clothes and loves the camera, Wasabi is a portly middle aged Japanese guy, and from what I remember Fredzilla is also Japanese.  I get Disney has to appeal to the widest audience and having an African-San Frantokyian is a good idea in that regard, but why not just leave him as distinctly Japanese and the chef of the school or something?  That's what I mean by huge re-imagining, because none of the characters are anything like their comic book counterparts.  I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, but maybe a missed opportunity to represent more Asian heroes since Marvel is already starting to branch out with big African-American (African-Falcon?) and women heroes already.  I guess I would like to see the inspiration kept because the Big Hero 6 was a very Japanese (if maybe a little stereotypical Japanese) team and to strip that away sort of makes the entire title seem weird.  Wasabi could've worked in the cafe with Hiro's aunt and maybe pulled him in as a secondary lovable sidekick/mentor guy.  It's not like the rest of the movie wasn't filled with stock types, might as well put in a mentor.  Okay, I forgot that Hiro lives in a blended family so it's not like there isn't any form of racial representation anywhere in this film.  Let me reiterate, I just think a chance was lost here.  Hiro got top billing most definitely and obviously is Asian, but I just wish more of the crew reflected their origins as well.  I don't know, maybe I'm missing something here and I'm being an old man who dislikes change or something.  Not that it would make this excusable but you know...whatever.  I think.  I'm really not sure what to add on that.

But don't let this dissuade you, or make you think there's some agenda either way.  The movie is still good and fun.  I'm glad my girlfriend forced me to see it (I don't normally want to go out to watch movies in the middle of the week), and I had fun even if it didn't meet what I was personally looking for.  Variety is the spice of life, and while there's no variety in terms of other movies, there is variety in colors I guess.

Gonna use the Good/Okay/Bad system again.  Slightly modified for movies.

Visuals: GOOD

The graphics were extremely well done as always with this sort of fare.  The environment was gorgeous in this film, the characters were lush, the colors were vivid.  All around it was a pleasure to watch.  I really wish I saw this in 3D because this would have been amazing.  How this ties to the Choreography was nothing short of a big treat.

Sound: GOOD

Truly it was.  The music fit perfectly and was just loud enough without being too loud (I honestly thought the movie started off louder than Terminator Salvation, but it seemed to smooth out).  The microbots and all the character's movements had a real vibrancy and oomph of satisfaction to them.  Nothing felt underplayed here.  Voice acting was excellent, and obviously especially on Robert Scott Adsit's side as Baymax.  When characters sounded desperate and sad, they came off that way.  It really was polished.

Choreography: GOOD

Fight scenes were fun.  Watching the flooding of the microbots and how they interacted was absolutely out of this park homerun awesome.  The teamfight was well done.

Characters: OKAY

You probably found it surprising I didn't label the characters as "BAD," but they really weren't.  They were just okay, middle of the road, cookie cutter, run of the mill in many ways.  They existed just to sort of be characters different from Hiro so Hiro simply isn't the only character in there.  It's odd, but they're almost decoration who provide little to nothing else to the film but convenience.  I would've really liked to have seen their personality quirks actually contribute to the fighting.  They were like...I don't know, place holders for ideas.  Basically to explain why certain pieces of technology exist and why they have them.  Wasabi worked on plasma so he gets plasma blades, GoGo worked on electromagnetic discs so she got a suit reflecting that.  But they were really all designed by Hiro and from then on served as being Hiro's extension.  This was really my only gripe with this movie is just how wasted the characters felt.  They were serviceable, I just wish they were more than that.  The characters were very humorous though. In fact, you'd be forgiven if you thought the titular BH6 only ran on two modes: Quirky and humorous.  It's odd, but everybody else seemed to have a little more depth to them in that regard.  Still fun to watch them, though.  Okay, I'm not being totally fair, the BH6 also had sad and anger specifically for Hiro.  Also, more Mochi.  They really wasted Mochi.  Next time Mochi needs to be part of the BH6, but the team would be renamed Mochi and his BH6 but not change it to BH7 because that would imply the BH6 are Mochi's equals and not simply his subordinates.  Sort of like Wolverine and the X-Men.

Designs:GOOD

Characters were extremely well designed.  Everybody looked unique, from the stocky Wasabi to the laid back Fred to the athletic looking GoGo to the lanky Honey Lemon, etc.  When in their costumes they are instantly recognizable and fun to watch when the characters are allowed to shine.  Special mention obviously goes into Baymax who clearly got the most attention in this movie in focus, development, and design.  From his ballooned body being an entirely "huggable design" as was the intent, Baymax is clearly the anchor visually with the diversity from being a healthbot to fightbot to herobot.  He exudes a calming and inspiring effect depending on his form and that works out really well for the movie.  However, my favorite design is the "Kabuki Mask Guy" who's real name is [REDACTED] and his design was truly the best in the movie.  Honestly, how they married his black suit on black trenchcoat on black head cowl and his mask was chilling.  Especially when paired with the robots he controls.  He almost looks like something straight out of a professional villain's gallery considering he was an entirely original character.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say he's the best designed villain in the entirety of BH6's very limited rogues gallery.  Since Marvel isn't afraid to translate success to their comics, and I'm sure BH6 is going to get the Marvel NOW treatment, I hope the villain gets the transfer as well.  It might not work out as long term villains need more than what this guy offered which only might work in the short term view of a movie, but a man can dream.  God that design and power pairing was a stroke of genius, even more than the rest of the BH6 combined.  Menacing, chilling, stoic, it was just really -really- well done.

Story: OKAY

Let's be honest, this movie is all about the visuals and few moments of heart string plucking.  The movie feels fairly generic in regards to what happens in it, and everybody plays their part like a fine tuned puppet show.  The story isn't bad by any means, but you see everything coming from 15 miles away.  But that's the problem with so few characters and such high focus in a movie like this.  You know everybody's involved and because of it you can quickly figure out who wears what hat.  But like I said, this movie was a visual showcase which runs on thrills and humor.  The story serves that function perfectly well, even if I wish it were more.  "What are you expecting out of this movie, Mak?"  I don't know.  The reason behind human existence and suffering I guess.  At least the answer to why I can't stop eating Kit Kat bars.

Pace/Consistency: GOOD

Story moved along at a nice clip with nice little turns throughout.  I might almost say the movie felt a bit rushed at under an hour and a half, but I might be getting too used to the bigger blockbuster movies which clock in at over twice the time.  I'm sort of glad this movie was shorter (God I wish the trailers and pre-movie film were), but a little longer would have given the characters not named Hiro more to do.  Still, the pace and consistency were really well tuned and thought out.  Fights didn't drag on and were satisfying, the story was brisk as well.  You felt pulled along for the ride but not washed out into the street.  But seriously, trailers and that pre-film "Feast" were just way too long.  It was just...  They weren't bad I guess, but I sort of got frustrated by how much waiting I had to do.  It was like THIS SORT OF REVIEW of the Duck Dynasty game by the witty Jim Sterling

Rewatchable: SURE

I could see people wanting to see this movie again, and I'll probably buy it on DVD if for any other reason than how much my girlfriend enjoyed the movie.  It's not overly long, it's not boring, and it's definitely not ugly.  This was a well crafted movie that many people will definitely enjoy the heck out of.  It's an all ages sort of show and will appeal to kids and adults alike.  I say this because the audience was five to one in favor of adults at the showing I went to and everybody had a blast.  Maybe except me because I'm bitter and old.

GRAND SCORE:

GOOD

 Go out and enjoy the Big Hero 6 with friends and family today.  Or you can be that person (guy or girl, I won't judge) who goes alone and makes fathers nervous because they don't understand your desire to enjoy things without others.

Pretty much sums up about how I feel about the character re-imaginings.

Congrats Rosetta! Happy Veteran's Day! Comic Books and Their Movies/Shows. Character Changes.

Good day and congrats to the Rosetta Probe!

Sorry this is later in the week than I wanted.  I really want the format of a news entry on Monday with an opinion article on Wednesday and maybe Friday.  Oh well, I'll sort of mash them up unintelligibly here.

Firstly is the news segment.  The Superior Iron Man and the Spider-Verse event has launched from Marvel today, as well as the new Captain America series starring former sidekick (though he'd say partner) Sam Wilson as a Falcon/Cap hybrid.  Notable releases from Image include The Walking Dead #134, new series Drifter, and another TPB release of Invincible (vol. 20).  For DC, Dinah Lance finally takes up the (non-fishnetted) Black Canary guise in the Arrow show, and...well... Convergence.  Frickin' Convergence.

Let's start with DC.  The hard one.

The show Arrow has been fairly successful and was somewhat controversial in how it was clearly meant to be a show about Batman but someone scribbled out "Batman" on the top and renamed it "Green Arrow" about Dinah Lance, who in the show was Ollie's former love interest he cheated on with her sister (long story sort of), and how she wasn't the Black Canary but her sister (same one) was until the sister died.  The death led to the obvious in which Dinah will be stepping into her sister's non-fishnetted persona and continue on as a crime fighter.  So not news exactly, but it still seemed relevant enough.  Picture of her in the wrong costume below.

So let's get down to Convergence.  DC really loves it when people say they steal from Marvel (and vice-versa), but when Marvel has the same exact big event coming out of the pipeline you do, well... There you go.  Convergence is about Brainiac pulling the wool over a great and underappreciated character named Booster Gold in getting to something called the "Vanishing Point" where he basically has access to all realities and all time.  From here, Brainiac picks up all these quaint little cities/worlds/events/etc. and puts them under domes for his collection next to one another.  You might say, "Mak, isn't that the premise of Secret Wars?" And I'd say, "Only to this point."  The difference is, unless the Collector is the one placing all of Marvel's periods under one Battleplanet roof, then no. So what's the difference?  Well, it looks like instead of an all powerful time and space capable Beyonder placing specific points in history he probably enjoys onto a planet to encounter one another, Brainiac is reaching through time and space to specific points in history he enjoys and is putting them onto a planet to encounter one another.  Totes different, because the Beyonder is a snappy dresser.

You must be this fancy to be omnipotent for a while until you're not

 So the question is, "What is different?"  Well, the Beyonder at his core is someone who wants to see what people will do under conditions he sets and in locations he has selected and is in general curious.  Very different from Brainiac who wants to see what the people will do under certain conditions he sets and in certain locations he has selected and is in general a curious guy.  Hmmm....  Okay, well...  The Beyonder is a formerly all powerful sort of guy (who probably will have some influence in Secret Wars), and Brainiac is more or less a collector who has gained access to enlarge his collection.  There are subtle differences in the characters (assuming Marvel plays this straight and has the Beyonder come back and at near original power), and well... Yeah.  The events seem a lot of the same.  And this is very weird.  I'll explain in another post why I think this is weird.  But ONWARDS!

Image is releasing a new Walking Dead issue and that's important because people like the Walking Dead.  While they release comics every week all year long, WD only comes along once a month and blah blah blah.  I honestly have a real monotone reading of this in my head.  Image's other comic Drifter and this is the one I'm excited about. 

From Bleeding Cool: " Mankind’s colonization of the galaxy has left countless planets mined bare and lifeless in DRIFTER. A space transport crashes onto a backwater world whose unique properties set the stage for a story that combines the dark wonder of a strange and alien landscape with the struggles of an abandoned and lawless frontier town."

That's the basic premise of Drifter and judging by some of the art it will look great, and the premise has me interested enough to check it out.  Written by Ivan Brandon who is a complete unknown to me and art by Nic Klein who is also an unknown (but the image below is wonderful), I'm definitely seeing potential in this series and I'm glad Image has their hands on it because Marvel or DC would probably not even allow this series to see the light of day, and even if they did they'd axe it within a couple months when it doesn't reach Captain America numbers of sales.

SPACE FRONTIER, AHOY!!

 Finally is Marvel with Superior Iron Man, Spider-Verse, and good ol' Cap.  First up is Superior Iron Man which I hinted about in a previous post being Tony Stark with the dick knob turned up to 15.  Apparently from the events in Axis (which I skipped because of how I normally feel about Big Events), Tony Stark has been switched from his normally heroic (ha) persona to what he was pre-Iron Man: The incarnation of ego and evil with little regard to the people he may potentially harm.  That's right, an entrepreneur who's looking to make shareholders happy.  Daredevil is supposed to feature heavily in this and I should have a review on this soon-ish.

So is he superior because he's white?

 Next is Spider-Verse.  Written by Dan "Always a good time" Slott, this series is about a being named Morlun who is going about the entire multiverse destroying spider totem types, aka versions of Spider-Man, and it's up to every Spider-Man (or girl as famous now) to team up and prevent this disaster.  Notable because this series launched an entire cosplay fever and entire new ongoing comic series about non-616 Gwen Stacey: Spider Girl just by the cover alone.  And I can't blame them. That cover is gorgeous and the character design is just beautiful.

                              

The cover on the right is the only one anybody really cared about anyway.  Love that design.

Next is one of the controversial (only if you subscribe to the White Power movement) character shake ups: Captain America!  (Who am I kidding? The same movement is just as pissed off about Thor being a woman now even though she's technically white)

Due to the events of a battle with a cloned Red Skull, Steve lost the Super Soldier Serum which kept him eternally fit and youthful, which aged him to an extremely old man.  In his place he has selected his previous partner in crime-fighting, Sam Wilson the Falcon, to take his place.  Right away this is an interesting decision as Marvel has been under fire recently (as have all comic books) about inclusion and variety.  This is actually a pretty good move for Marvel because it's not just "See, we can have black heroes who aren't Luke Cage!" (Yeah, I know about Black Panther, I mean always in your face heroes.) This feeling is organic, and Sam's design alone makes him his own Cap even better than Bucky did when he took over the shield.  Sam has integrated much of his old Falcon suit into this new Cap suit and really melded both identities together to create something new, fresh, and very exciting to look at.  This is less "Black Captain America" (Yeeees, I -do- know about Isaiah Bradley.  I own Truth: Red, White, and Black and many comics concerning Josiah X, and his descendent Patriot was an extremely well conceived character) and more a great Captain America who happens to be black.  It's organic, it makes sense, it doesn't feel forced.  You don't read it and say, "Oh yeah, I forgot Marvel's PR needed a boost with all the crap going around all entertainment industries right now."  This also might set a precedent for the future of Marvel's movies with how after the Civil War-like movie of Cap 3 (which I said would never happen, so egg on my face), Chris Evans is probably done with Marvel (I think), and Sam (played by Anthony Mackie) might step into the shield wing first to continue on the tradition and keep the movies from getting too stagnant.  I cannot stress how good of a move this is.  Too bad Steve will be back in his red booties in the next few years.  Oh well.

Fear my Super Soldier/Captain America/Falcon fusion!

I wanted to write an opinion piece, and I will try to later this week.  Maybe it'll be about Big Events.  Maybe.  Or maybe just comic book fans in general.

Oh, I did want to put a quick bit about how Naruto is now complete.  I didn't realize in a previous post that it would be over the VERY NEXT DAY after I posted it.  I mentioned before how life is a little darker without a series like that going on.  It really brought it home today when I realized it wasn't coming out this week anymore.  You really sort of get hooked on a schedule of watching and waiting, and then finding out it's gone.  I mean, it's not like losing a pet, but it's definitely a little weighty.

Either way, thank you very much for taking the time to read this!

Nintendo Is Relying On Their Past... And I'm Loving It.

I'm sure I'll get tired-ish of making so many posts in a single day in between things I'm supposed to be doing, but today is not that day!

Either way.  Without further ado...

Allow me to introduce you to the majesty which is The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Released originally in 2000 two days after my birthday for the Nintendo 64 console, Majora's Mask is a markedly darker tale for the hero Link and a direct sequel to the enormously popular Ocarina of Time.

Okay, full confession.  I may normally hate rehashing of old titles, or relying on old success to breed new success.  I even criticize when comic companies won't support new characters due to fear, and simply push their older characters to ensure money flows at the highest margin.  I understand it, but I dislike it.  However Nintendo gets a pass with Zelda and Pokemon for me.  With Pokemon it's because new features are added, everything is updated with current Pokemon, problems are fixed, and I can play with friends who are not connected by a cord in high school.  Zelda gets a pass because... well... I don't know why, but probably because Zelda is my favorite gaming franchise of all time.  ALL.  TIME.  I like Zelda so much I ensure vacation days are set aside so I can play the latest Zelda game.  I eat this stuff up like if I hadn't seen food in days and someone took me to a Golden Corral.  There's something about Zelda games which allow me to look past things and just enjoy myself in a way I don't normally get to anymore.  In more modern times I just see a game as a technical device filled with moving parts and find the flaws and enjoyable bits and weigh them and notice them.  Not with Zelda.  Zelda sort of washes over me and brings me back to a time of adventure and exploration where even as a tiny insignificant person, a little wit, plenty of courage, and just the right tools can send me across a vast land and free an entire people from the fear they've been forced to endure.  Such is Link's burden, and Majora's Mask really drives home this fear.

Quick rundown: Link is looking for his friend he lost at the end of Ocarina of Time and falls into a whole new world (dimension) which is being threatened by the moon crashing into it in three days.  That's it.  Doesn't sound big?  You see that moon in the picture above?  It stares at you, getting closer and closer each passing moment, mocking and daring you to stop it.  How do you stop it?  Defeat four dungeons in classic Zelda style in the three days allotted at which you must turn back time and constantly lose your stuff while trying to progress through the game.  It creates an air of urgency and fear other Zelda games don't.  It deals with death and mourning and our blind ignorance to our own problems.  Seriously.  Everybody in Termina town pretty much have to know the moon is gunning them down, but they don't care.  They have a festival to plan.  Very much a cakes and circuses comment I'm sure, even if unintentional.

Having this title re-released for the Nintendo 3DS is just good, though.  Most people gave this title a pass originally due to late release on the console's lifecycle, the need for what was an expansion pack (not the kind you buy online, the kind you bought in a store to boost the power of the N64), and what admittedly was a fairly hard (by Zelda standards) and imposing game.  The management and pressure was on, masks were central, creepiness was everywhere, a potentially sympathetic villain at a time it wasn't common, and the awesomeness of the Fierce Deity Mask (which actually implied maybe YOU were the bad guy) made up a different sort of monster which only gained appreciation after the fact.  It isn't a case where we look on the past with nostalgia (though a bit of that is definitely there) as much as we see the game for what it was, and not have to compare it with the at the time fresh and massively popular Ocarina of Time of which nothing could compare to (though I said A Link to the Past was better and still stand by that).

I may be a bitter, jerkish, small man, but seeing news of a great game getting a second lease on life for a generation who've only heard about it warms my small, small heart.

Marvel Secret Wars 2015 Battleworld Revealed

I know I just posted yesterday on this very subject, but that's what I get for horrible as heck timing.

Marvel released a video today which detailed to nobody's surprise that these storylines are set on a planet (Battle World) and will be fighting.  I'm going to assume so some godlike entity will grant them whatever their desire is if one wins, or it's the Stranger in disguise, or it's some weird Collector scam.  What is detailed is the actual boundaries of this Battle World, and while the original Secret Wars pretty much gave you, "This side owns this half of this planet, and this side owns the other," we get much more solid definition.  I'm going to say that most likely entire cuts of town or country are taken and put on this patchwork planet sort of like the original Battle World, and that's a good thing.  Turf war never looked so odd.

I'm looking forward to seeing Planet Hulk members fighting border skirmishes with Future Imperfect Maestro Hulk. 

This is going to sound weird but... I'm looking forward to this Big Event.  I haven't really written much on the subject of the Big Event, but anybody who knows me knows I don't really care for them in the long run.  I'll definitely write about that later, but for now let me just say I'm really sort of curious what is going to happen.

Below is the video of Battleworld Revealed.

I'm Tired Of All These Mother-Trucking Glitches In This Mother-Trucking Game!!! Borderlands The Pre-Sequel Review

Give me a second to collect my thoughts as I take a few breaths in an effort to calm down.

I love the Borderlands series.  I'm one of those brainless "give me things by the semi-truck load" sort of guy.  Shooting enemies and seeing more items fall out of them than blood.  I love the differences between the "classes" and I love the humor of the series.  Sure, it's filled with memes, but that's okay.  But you know what Borderlands the Pre-Sequel is filled with?  If you say "glitches," then you guessed it because you're clever and can read titles.  GLITCHES.

This guy oddly and fun..nly(?) runs on glitches as an entire skill tree and action skill.

Let me say that no Borderlands title has ever been free of glitches.  I can't think of any game that's completely free of glitches. But the multitude and level of glitches in this game are infuriating.  I cannot tell you how many times missions wouldn't progress because the game didn't pick up my character running over the arbitrary point on the ground which triggers progression.  Several times I went back and forth through the RedBelly level where the gate opens in the Crimson Scar, killed all of the guys and couldn't go anywhere until I ran around like crazy to trigger the dialogue and a gate all the way at the beginning of the stage.  ARGH!  How many times enemies just sort of slipped through the floor and I couldn't progress even with a storm of butt slams and grenades to that spot in an effort to kill that one guy needed to finish something.  ERMAHGERD!!

Two seconds, need to take another calming breath.

It's not to say this game is bad.  It's far from it.  When not glitchy, the game runs great.  Running and gunning is fun, the air boosting makes for all sorts of fun, the weapons are fun, the humor is fun, it's just a fun game.  Several problems with Borderlands 2 have been addressed in this game such as good weapons never dropping, because good weapons drop sometimes.  And the inclusion of the Mr. Grind weapon grinder is a touch of genius.  Take three of the beyond plentiful trash weapons, shove them in the grinder, and there's a decent chance of pulling back a better gun.  Rinse and repeat till you're sitting on better gear all around.  It makes trash loot seem more important and you're always excited you'll get a Luneshine weapon that doles out more XP or gives you O2 (Or Oz as the locals call it) as you hurt enemies, or the other plethora of weirdness which pervades this game's potential weapons.  While you do find more junk than gold, at least it isn't always bad.  Also money means something again.  Orange Legendaries show up in vending machines again.  Remember how in BL 2 you just didn't come across legendaries unless you either hacked them or won the non-money lottery?  Gone are those days.  Legendaries are a bit more common, but not so much you see them all over.  Except for the Excalibastard which is literally out in the open for taking if thou art Badass enough to pull it with a score of at least 2500 Badass Rank.  You only get to pull it once, so make sure it counts.  Going back to the legendaries, you do find them in vending machines for heart crushing amounts you normally don't have nearly enough cash for.  But at least they're there, and money has actual value again because of it and the fact you'll probably buy ammo occasionally if you suck like me.

A quick rundown of the characters: Athena the Gladiator is an ex-Crimson Assassin who wields the Aspis shield which absorbs kinetic energy and can be thrown for explosive damage who has three trees which either focus on expanding the power of her shield, expanding her melee with things like bleeding, exploding, and health regen, and a tree which gives her odd electrical powers.  Wilhelm the Enforcer is...an enforcer who wields two drones named Saint who heals and Wolf who hunts, and his three trees focus on boosting Wolf, enhancing his body and laser weaponry (love that dash and shoot and robo punch), and enhancing Saint.  Nisha the Lawbringer is a bandit hunting bandit who looks for fun and her action skill is Showdown which increases every aspect of gun using and has an autoaim feature which confused me at first as I'm a scope shooter.  Nisha has three trees which enhance her melee, her pistol using (notably with Magnificent Six and One for Each of Ya which clones her pistol and allows dual wielding), and a tree which emphasizes larger magazines and non-elemental weapons which means Jakobs is king with her.  Claptrap the Fragtrap is a complicated and extremely varied character with his Vaulthunter.exe skill which randomizes through battlefield variables which skill he may access like a rubber ducky defense which bounces out of control, Funzerking which clones a gun and forces the whole team to shoot like crazy (though they don't clone), Meat Unicycle which makes him like Krieg the Psycho of BL2 and enhances melee for the team, among others which are unlocked through his trees.  His trees are really weird in that one enhances solo play and explosions in general with a skill that hurts his shields but recharges his health as he kills things and gives him two explosive based transformations.  A teamwork tree which gives team wide buffs, a big bomb which kills him if it kills nobody else, a healing nova which unlocks his gun wizard skill, and a high five skills which gives out buffs to the team or solo if nobody gives him a highfive. And finally the Fragmented Fragtrap tree which is a horror of subroutines which do things like increase damage with one gun/elemental type which reducing damage in all others with a rotation every couple minutes as frag stacks run out, but does give two more transformations as a hunter with a one hit kill (likely patterned off of Sir Hammerlock) and the laser inferno which is a disco ball which shoots lasers.  Needless to say Claptrap is the weirdest to play with, but I will say he potentially is the most fun.  He also is the one I find least reliant on action skills for, and not because he's good at dealing and taking damage (because he's definitely not great at it), but because since you really can't predict what you'll get unless you study and craft the battlefield correctly, you might get something which hinders more than helps.

Characters this time around are fairly interactive, though I do have a problem with how dialogue is triggered in multiplayer.  Sometimes your character will give their witty response and sometimes it will be a partner, and it all depends on who reaches the arbitrary spot in the sand first, turns in a quest, or starts a quest.  While it's fun to have that difference in interaction I would rather have my character be the only one who responds on my screen, my friend's character on theirs, etc.  It is nice to get a taste of other characters, but man oh man sometimes I really hate the idea I'll have to go through an entire game solo just to get a few words.  I mean I will play it again, but I'll most likely do it with a friend and so I'll probably get some of the same missed dialogue.  And the dialogue is good and funny enough that this is an actual complaint for me, with Claptrap obviously having the most fun of them all.  And all of the characters have really different personalities which show through this as Nisha the Lawbringer will respond to things which may hurt with excitement, Wilhelm is extremely blunt and drone sounding as he gets upgraded with cybernetic parts, Athena is all business all the time, and Claptrap is...well... Claptrap.  What is fun is how the characters also react to one another while playing multiplayer, such as Nisha telling Claptrap how she'll murder his robot family if he screws up or how she hates him more than kittens, and how Athena and Wilhelm with appreciate one another as they use action skills as well.  However the characters don't feel as...Borderlandsy as the BL2 characters, and I mean this in extension to the side NPC's as well.  Sure Moxxie is there, and her role is expanded, but it just feels like there could have been more.  Janey Springs the hot for Athena rummage dealer and Mr. Grind owner feels a bit flat, though Nurse Nina is plenty of fun.  I wouldn't say the characters are bad, but much like the rest of the game sort of feel like expansion characters, which leads me to another problem.

The game feels like overglorified DLC.  Sorry, but it's true.  I couldn't help but think that the game felt small and more like an expansion with how the lands all sort of feel the same (aside from a few), and how the story just doesn't have the same bravado.  Yes, it has new movement mechanics, yes it does tell a very different story, yes the characters are very different than the ones who came before, but it still sort of feels like DLC in some ways.  I mean if it were a DLC it would be a massive DLC, but it just doesn't feel like a 60 dollar game.  Maybe a 40 dollar game?  And this feeling is compounded with the glitches present.  I've already detailed a few of them, but the worst of them happened to me and a friend in where we literally lost all of our Badass Ranks, aesthetics, and even a few items.  Gone.  FOREVER.  Including ones you can only get through quests and badass upgrades.  Which means that to get them again I'd need a whole new character of the same exact class starting from the bottom to get them all back.  Gearbox was understanding (read: well aware of this complaint) and gifted me ten Golden Keys for my trouble.  While nice, they wouldn't return some stuff to me because they couldn't ensure I actually had the gear before, despite some of it being quest and game end specific.  This infuriated the hell out of me and pretty much had me contemplating returning it for Bayonetta 2 (which is still tempting), but I decided to just let it go and keep having fun.

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Before I forget: I was told saving your characters to your hardrive instead of the cloud for the 360 was the best way to ensure this doesn't happen.

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I could not believe how pissed off I was with it, because I ended up with really crappy looks and colors (yes, ALL costumes were gone) and some of my weapons that I worked hard for were just poofed.  It would take a bigger man to make a stand and put away the game, but it really is so much fun I was able to work past it.  So let me give a quick point review in the Good/Okay/Bad spectrum.

Graphics: GOOD

Nothing mindblowing.  Same system and graphics used in BL2.  Some of the character designs are pretty good, like Moxxie's mechanic outfit.  Some of the faces were weird in the cinematics though.  The graphics still emphasize the fun while allowing expression and touching moments. 

Sound: GOOD

Aside from having to turn back the music volume so I could hear the damned game, everything was spot on.  Guns sounded satisfying, explosions were joyful, the voices were beyond hilarious (go do the Billabong quest in Crisis Scar for my favorite moment of voice acting in the entire game)

Playstyle: OKAY

Same as BL2, and while that's not bad, I wouldn't say it's great.  I found I couldn't use sniper rifles as much due to the new mechanics, and while that's definitely a positive the game still didn't feel any tighter as other shooters.  

Variety: GOOD

Guns and aesthetics are plentiful and while they're all just recolors they are still a lot of fun.  Well, heads are clearly the most different.  And double clearly Claptrap gets the most fun out of this, from looking like a train to looking like a trashcan.

Story: OKAY

It's nothing to write home about.  It's not as grandiose as BL2 despite having similar scope in what it's trying to tell, and since you don't have Handsome Jack being the magnificent jerkoff who calls you up to let you know he's naming his diamond encrusted horse "Butt Stallion" in your honor it loses a little of the fun and depth that BL2's second half had.  Following Jack around and watching him become a villain could've been handled better for me in terms of understanding because without spoiling too much, it just feels like he wants to be a villain rather than is forced into too many choices of becoming one.  The idea behind the game is how desperation changes a man, but aside from a few points, Jack didn't seem all that desperate in most of his decisions.  The story is one of the weakest points of the game.

Stability: BAD

Glitchstorm city all up in this game.

Replay Value: GOOD

Let's not mince words, BLTPS is fun for more than one playthrough given how every character plays differently and True Vault Hunter Mode adds to the game in fun and challenging ways.  And playing with friends is always great.

So overall I'd say this is a good game.  Duels can be tons of fun unless you're robo punch Wilhelm who loses his robo punch simply accepting a duel, and Claptrap blew up into a million pieces with one shotgun blast from my Nisha in the most humorous of victories.  The game is a lot of fun with friends or solo, and there is a lot there to offer.  If you disliked previous Borderlands this isn't for you, if you're looking for an escalation of the series past BL2 you will probably be a little disappointed despite the new features, and if you think looting like a loon and don't like being easily entertained with bright colors then you definitely will dislike this game.

There is one last thing I'd like to add which I felt deserved it's own little tidbit: The Boganella.  There is a quest chain where you basically have to rescue someone's sister and the reward is a shotgun named The Boganella.  Truly this is the gem of a game which wears the crown of vulgarity.  If you're from America you're familiar with the term "Redneck," and a "Bogan" is basically the Australian version of it, meaning the Boganella is a female Australian redneck.  And boy does it show.  The gun is mouthy as heck with how it spouts out vulgarity and profanity with everything you do.  "F****** stick it in me!" it'll cry when you reload it, "F*** in the c**t and the ****and the f*****n's s*** p****!" it sometimes shouts when you just shoot the shotgun "See ya around, you f****** f***," when you switch away, and "Suck my lady d**k, you ganger!" when you kill things regardless of if the shotgun did it or not so long as you hold it.  And the Boganella says them loud.  I heard it clear across the virtual room when playing with a friend and it is ALWAYS entertaining.  I actually waited for a few upgrades before it became undeniable the Boganella was no longer useful before I finally replaced her, and it was a sad time.  I really wish that was a legendary or something which you can get at a higher level, though it would've reduced how much time I actually got to enjoy the Boganella.  So if Davis Pickle sends you on a quest to go save his sister, screw the moon or whoever it is who needs your help and go save the lady!  You will NOT regret it.  I would say this is the crown jewel of the entire Pre-Sequel.

And in case the Boganella didn't make the point, everybody on Elpis is from Australia.

Is This The Best Time For A "Jumping On" Point In Mainstream Comics?

As the title asks, "Is this the best time for a jumping on point in mainstream comics?"  Clearly not verbatim.

It's a good question.  The answer is no.  That would've been the early 2000's when the Big Two (Marvel and DC) decided to pull the nearly dead body of good comics out of the financial gutter and breathe life back into quality and sales.  So unless you have a time machine you will have to settle for this point in your life.

But this is a good time to jump into the big two superhero factory comic companies, and that's because of the hair width, finely tuned, sweet spot planet aligned placement the two companies are in right now.  Let's start with Marvel.

With Marvel, as I've talked about two posts back, we see they're gearing up for some huge multiversal event which promises to bring out many of the most well known Big Events and somehow have that lead up into what seems to be (from the art provided by Alex Ross) multiversal fight between the current timeline and possibly their past counterparts and even other universal counterparts.  And while I'm not sure, I am sure about one thing: Continuity of only the most important parts will come to light.  With all of these Big Events possibly being revisited, which really only reinforce how I feel about modern Big Events and how they mean nothing, new readers will be treated to a rare conglomeration of points in important moments of a character's life.  See the photo below for reference:

See the two Iron Men there?  One all white, and one all retro?  One of them isn't Tony Stark.  Well, at least in the original Secret Wars.  This would be a very interesting conflict as Jim Rhodes is actually acting as Iron Man as his Tony is lost in the pit of alcoholism and had recently relinquished his role and responsibility as Iron Man to Rhodes.  Rhodes would see Stark is back in a fantastically futuristic armor and only 40 times the dick he was when Rhodes knew him.  Cap is fighting his protege who has taken his place.  Heck, Iron Man 2020 and Miles Morales the Ultimate Spider-Man are even in there.  Thor fighting new female Thor, etc.  With all these characters converging on one point, and all these Big Events being teased up to it in a single year, Marvel will have to be working in overdrive to get important character points (especially points in time) about the differences between characters.  If a new reader ever needed a synopsis and comparison about a character's past, this would be it.  And like I said, it seems Marvel is looking toward some sort of reboot and so maybe this would be good to get a taste of what might be coming.  I'm pretty sure I see Earth X in there as well, MC2, and definitely Marvel 2099.

For DC.  If Marvel ever had a reason to not reboot their universe, DC is that reason.  While the House of Ideas isn't exactly ashamed to copy what DC does, it at least tries to not make it so obvious (though both do steal and both fail at subtlety).  DC has this history about rebooting their universe both hard and soft.  They've done it quite a few times actually. And while each time is met with groans, it seems everybody forgets and adapts to the new universe with positive reactions.  Such is also the case with their Post-Flashpoint New 52 universe.  Not to be confused with their New 52 post Infinite Crisis where Superboy Prime retcon punched the universe until it changed history in the fallout.  This New 52 is much more severe in that it completely reset the entire universe and merged DC's other imprints (which were their own dimensions) into the fold.  Superman got a new start and was no longer married, the Justice Society was now Earth 2 specific, etc.  DC just basically pressed the reset button on their universe so they can tell similar stories, but in new and potentially exciting ways.  While you may think, "Well Mak, shouldn't the jumping on point have been three years ago when they actually pulled this stunt?" I'd say the answer is, "No."  Why?  Simple.  DC has had three years to put this new universe together, which means that you get to jump in AFTER the confusion of the reset.  You don't have to wonder why Tim Drake wasn't the Robin, but is Red Robin, or why certain characters behave as they do now.  You can read a few issues knowing they're still fairly recent, and if you like them you don't have a gigantic several hundred issue backlog to look up.  You can just go and pick from the previous few dozen issues which exist in their print line.  Granted the New 52 isn't a completely hard reboot, but is just mostly a hard reboot.  Just shy of Crisis on Infinite Earths, which means that some of the stories prior to Flashpoint are still relevant and you can search those out as you desire.  So long as they have nothing to do with Power Girl or any of the JSA.  So with only a few back issues and most of the wrinkles iron out of the Post-Flashpoint universe, you can jump in and have yourself a good ol' time in the Big Two publishers.  I'd talk about Image, Avatar Press, and all the rest, but I'm sure if you're new to reading you've probably watched DC and Marvel movies and want to start there.