Book Review: Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project 10

Review:  #440
Title:  Neon Genesis Evangelion:  The Shinji Ikari Raising Project 10
Series:  Neon Genesis Evangelion:  The Shinji Ikari Raising Project - 10th volume
Author:  Osamu Takahashi
Read Before:  no
My Comments:  A few interesting chapters but it’s more on developing Shinji’s relationship with Asuka and Rei, rather than the mysteries of the lab.  There’s a lot of fan service here and the bizarre obsession on cross dressing Shinji which doesn’t quite work.  There are awkward falls galore and the humour is not good enough to keep the relatively dull story going forward.  You can’t fault the artwork though.

Rating:  6/10

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

It begins well, as you would expect and carries most of that momentum throughout the film.  It quickly loses its mystery factor as the antagonist and his plans are laid out bare.  The title refers to the fact that we see only Ethan and his team in action as the rest of IMF has been disavowed.  Once it gets to the point where a huge explosion takes place, we see that the film takes on a more surreal quality.  It feels exaggerated and this theme continues on throughout.  You will end up feeling detached as they hope to surpass each stunt before it with a bigger one but it just makes it seem much more improbable.  There were some funny moments and dialogue and made it more enjoyable.  Overall, it felt like another generic action movie, you don’t care for the characters and feels shallow.

Frozen Free Fall (Android)

Frozen Free Fall is another one of those "three-match" games, or as I like to think about it, another Bejewelled clone.  As you'd probably have guessed, the game is themed and its biggest draw is the fact that it's a licensed game based on Disney's latest (and amazing) movie, Frozen.  You should go into this game expecting nothing but something to cash in on the movie's hype while also getting real cash in the form of in-app purchases.  Yes, this is a freemium game.  Before we get too deeply into the in-app purchases, let's go through the game's mechanics first.  It is what you would expect, you're presented with a grid and you swipe each jewel to swap it with an adjacent one to get a row/column of three.

Once you've achieved that, those jewels disappear, more comes to take its place and you keep going.  The special effects from matching four (a whole row disappearing) or five (you get a snowflake which you use to rid of all gems of one type from the grid) are here, along with another powered up jewel which gets rid of all adjacent jewels.  There are special items which you can use at any time such as getting rid of eight jewels or getting rid of all jewels of one type, these are character "abilities" and each character have a unique ability for you to use.  It is simple and easy to get into.  You start off with a small grid and the game progressively gets harder, the grid size might shrink or grow and even change shape which presents a more unique play strategy.

One thing that makes the game more interesting is that instead of just playing level after level of the same stuff, it presents you with objectives in order to progress to the next level, whether it be a high score in a time limit (or move limit), getting rid of a number of particular gem types or getting items down to the bottom row.  New objectives are constantly being introduced such that even very late into the game, levels feel fresh and new.  Sad thing though, is that some objectives are ridiculous (usually a combination of the basic objectives) and this is where the usual money-grabbing-in-app purchases come in.  See, you get lives, you fail a level, you lose a life.  Lose all of them and you have to wait approximately 30 minutes to regain ONE life before you can keep playing.

In additional to lives, you can use special items to get to the next level but how do you get these special items?  You get a limited number at the start but then you have to use real money to buy them.  You feel this pay wall hit from around level 15 or so where the objectives just seem very impossible and rely heavily on luck.  It leaves a sour taste in your mouth.  Gradual updates have alleviated this such as getting a random power up or life each day through a luck based mechanic (you have one chance per day).  You can now also get free power ups after reaching a certain number of stars.  You get rated after each level, able to obtain one to three stars based on the final points score at the completion of the level.

I know I shouldn't get surprised or frustrated at this practice since it is so common behind freemium games but it's still annoying to have the developers so actively hampering your progress.  Granted, the game doesn't have advertisements so they have to get money some other way.  The difficultly gets really bad once you hit past 90 levels in which they give you a tight number of moves and you just have to keep playing in the hopes that you'll be lucky this one time.  So if the game mechanics aren't extraordinary or addictive, what keeps you coming back?  At first, nothing much but as the difficulty exponentially increases and more mechanics are introduced, it keeps you going and wanting to finish the level to get the next, even though it might frustrate you from time to time.

Plus, it sucks in all those Frozen fans.  You "play" through the events of the movie but it's basically just location art.  You also get to "play" as a character which means the 3D character model appearing to the left of the grid (or above, depending whether you're playing the game in portrait or landscape mode).  The characters occasionally perform a gesture such as a wave of the hand or smiling.  It doesn't tie into the movie too much.  A missed opportunity is using the movie's music, we only get a recurring loop, which, while it isn't bad, after playing through the 285 levels, it is draining.  The graphics are decent and the character models look good.  Granted, if you expected high quality animation you will be disappointed, of course the models would have some jagged edges.

In terms of the jewels and shattering animations, they are smooth and pleasing to the eye.  You have to consider though that it's pretty hard for developers to stuff up on something as simple as a grid of jewels.  One of the great things about this game is the level of developer support.  I thought I had completely finished the game at 285 levels, with the map all filled out and a congratulations notice at the end.  Then, a few weeks later (because I hadn't uninstalled the app), an update comes up with thirty new levels, focusing on a "summer" version of the map, which promises heaps more new levels.  This is considering that the app has been out for nearly a year, it is incredible to still have new levels regularly added.  Overall, Frozen Free Fall will grow on you and it gets addictive.  The concept of lives limiting each play session may seem restrictive but it has the benefit of not allowing your play sessions to blow out of time.  Since it's a free app, this is highly recommended.

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Toy Review: Transformers Figure Subscription Service 2.0 Thrustinator

Review:  #186
Name:  Thrustinator
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Predacon
Line:  Transformers Figure Subscription Service 2.0
Year of Release:  2014
Size Class:  Deluxe
Variations:  a retool of Dirgegun, which was a retool of the original Waspinator

INSECT MODE:

Thrustinator transforms into a half mechanical, half organic, wasp.  The mechanical parts are painted in pink (to represent Thrust) and the organic parts are painted in green (to represent Waspinator).

This figure is supposed to represent the concept of Thrust and Waspinator sharing and fighting for the same body.  It's probably also inspired by the final scenes of Beast Machines in which Thrust's head is attached to Waspinator's wasp body.

I think this is one of the best repurpose of a mold ever, and kudos to Funpub for that.  It feels natural and the idea is really cool (although is an acquired taste).

To be honest, it is not the most realistic of wasps but then again, it isn't striving to be.

This mold was approximately 18 years old when Thrustinator is released and it shows here.  The aesthetics is bulky and not as slim as contemporary offerings.  There's also slight mold degradation in that the balljoints used for the wings are loose.

As a Deluxe of yore, Thrustinator feels huge, bulky and heavy.  A common flaw of Beast Wars figures is the fact that as time goes on, the beast legs cannot support the body and will sag, I'm glad to say that Thrustinator do not have this issue out of the box, probably in a few years time but he stands solidly on his legs for now.

As part of the original Dirgegun retool, Thurstinator has a cannon on his back that can flip forward.  A 45 degree angle is the best that it can do due to the insect head getting into the way.

A rather ingenious way of storing missiles is that they're in the wings.  Two missiles, one under each wing.

The cannon on his back is a spring loaded launcher, which is quite powerful.

An imaginative repaint that makes it seem that this was the original intention all along.

TRANSFORMATION:

Transformation is simple and doesn't present any sort of challenge.  The best part is probably in how the legs form, it was interesting and now what you expected.

ROBOT MODE:

Thrustinator's robot mode looks familiar yet also very different.  The Waspinator elements looks just like the original but it's the Thrust elements that makes him stand out.  It's actually a great clash of sculpted elements and colours that somehow works (although others may attest to that).

A significant portion of the wasp lies on his back, the most noticeable being the wings and the metasoma (I believe that's the term?).

Thrustinator is actually a retool, because the head was remolded.  We get a mismash of Waspinator's and Thrust's elements and it fits with the rest of the figure.  It's glorious, well painted and well sculpted.

There is a Predacon symbol on his chest.  I think it was an error but the insect eyes are painted yellow while the robot is blue, I believe both were originally intended to be blue but there was a factory error, which is a shame.

The mechanical elements are well painted, being highlighted with yellow and silver.

Thrustinator retains the look of bulkiness in robot mode but once again, the age shows through the aesthetics.  He is not as athletic looking as recent figures.

Whether it was a design flaw of just the balljoints not being as tight as they can be, Thrustinator is prone to falling over backwards due to the knees giving way.  You can rectify this by forcing the balljoint opening to be facing the other way but this means that he will not be able to bend his knees.  As it is, you'll just have to pose him leaning forward slightly.

Thrustinator's weapon is a gun which is formed from his wasp stinger.

He can hold it in either hand as a hand gun, the top side featuring green, yellow and black.

It is also a spring loaded missile launcher, yup, so you can now detach a missile from one of his wings to use.

As a byproduct of the original mold having a mutant head, you can flip his head down and the gun over such that he can have a head-gun or cannon-head or face-gun or whatever you want to call it.

It looks pretty cool and even better with a missile plugged in.

The other option if you don't want him to look like a demented headless freak is aim the gun into the sky.  He can only shoot flying enemies as his head blocks it from coming down any further.

The insect legs attached to his forearms will get in the way at times and annoy you.

The gun-head makes Thrustinator look like a drone, losing character and personality.

Articulation is good, he features a lot of balljoints, it's just the balancing issues to worry about that hinders the enjoyment of posing.

The fixed waist and chunk of kibble behind his legs hinders a lot of leg movement, which is annoying.  It would have been easily solved if the kibble could be pushed further out.

There are no further gimmicks to speak of.  His insect antenna is made of a slightly more bendy plastic reducing the chance of breakage.

The gun missile launcher is very powerful, easily firing the missile halfway across the room.

Just like insect mode, this is a great representation of the concept and is arguably better thanks to the retooled head.

OVERALL:

A fantastic figure that manages to bring a somewhat questionable concept to great effect.  The mold choice was perfect and the retooled head adds in a lot of personality.  There are plenty of paint applications highlighting the molded details and while it is an acquired taste, the toy is definitely recommended.  However, as is the usual case with Club Exclusives, the biggest thing against the figure is the price premium you must pay.

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Mission: Impossible II

Inferior to the first movie in pretty much every way.  It lost the spy theme of the original and while it has more action and explosions, they don't make up for it.  The plot is stock standard, protagonist Ethan Hunt has to go and thwart antagonist, by retrieving what he had stolen.  Add to that that the movie dedicates a significant amount of time to the relationship between Ethan and his love interest, Nyah, and it bogs the whole movie down.  The first hour was slow, as mentioned, half of that it focused upon Ethan and Nyah when it doesn't add to the movie.  We don't care about their superficial feelings, you almost wished that it would end at the one hour mark when Ethan goes into destroy stuff since you don't want to watch any more and it seemed like the right time.  There were many elements where it was easy to guess what was going to happen.  There are also too many slow motion scenes in which we get a super awesome handsome face shot of Tom Cruise in doing some acrobatics.  A few times is okay but when we're constantly bombarded with that, it gets in your face.  Mission:  Impossible II is bloated, has pacing issues and doesn't have much going on for it.

Book Review: Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project 9

Review:  #439
Title:  Neon Genesis Evangelion:  The Shinji Ikari Raising Project 9
Series:  Neon Genesis Evangelion:  The Shinji Ikari Raising Project - 9th volume
Author: Osamu Takahashi
Read Before:  no
My Comments:  The chapters in this volume feel more like relaxing fillers rather than the more intense ones in the previous volume.  We see Shinji and his father awkwardly falling too much such that it isn’t that funny anymore.  We see Asuka arguing and hitting Shinji all the time, and all the girls clamoring for Shinji.  What we need is a twist, one that isn’t expected to refresh the whole series because it is starting to become repetitive, objectiveless and bland.  There are still some funny sections but the lack of advancement in the overall arc isn’t helping matters at all.

Rating:  6/10

Puppeteer (PS3)

Puppeteer is a 2D platformer from Studio Japan.  The gimmick of Puppeteer is that you're playing out a show, with the audience gasping and showering you with applause at every moment.  It is a unique premise and creates an amazing atmosphere.  You control Kutaro, who has lost his head and on a quest to not only get it back, but defeat the Moon Bear King who has taken over and polluted the Moon world.  Throughout Kutaro's journey, he uses a variety of objects as a substitute head from bananas to burgers and weirder obscure stuff such as a guillotine and iron spike.  It's refreshing, charming and makes for some great laughs.  The "show" is comprised of seven acts, with three curtains in each act, i.e. there are 21 playable levels.  The platforming is frequently interspersed with cutscenes, some going for a decent amount of time.  Puppeteer is a story heavy game, you spend something like one quarter to one third of your time watching events unfold.  Even when you're performing platforming sequences, the narrator keeps going on.

I found the first two acts to be underwhelming where the story cutscenes did not feel as if they were worth the time.  However, once Kutaro heads into the third act, things became much more interesting and more imaginative.  The humour ramps up, excitement ensues and the music becomes better.  I found it really fun when Puppeteer went into an underwater musical, it was at these moments where the theatre aspect shines through.  You find yourself constantly switching from enjoying the show elements to the platforming elements and vice versa.  One thing is note is that the numerous cutscenes will break the flow of the game when you forced to stop and lose control of your character, just as the momentum was building up.  One undeniable thing about Puppeteer is that it has the best and most plausible story of any platformer game.  It's hard to imagine a story driven platformer but Puppeteer is it.  Throughout the game, there are many heads to collect (100 in total) yet in the grand scheme of things, there are too many collectibles in the game, from defeating all enemies to collecting all stars.

Every head has a "head action".  I initially thought that each head had its own special move like Kirby but it is more of a trigger.  At a specific place you need a specific head to activate a bonus event so it's somewhat more of pain (you need to replay the level ensuring you have the right head) than anything.  The voice acting is superb and while the lip syncing is off, each character has emotion pouring out of their dialogue.  The voicing acting can be over the top sometimes.  Character designs are good; they all have a blocky wooden feel.  The design can sometimes border on weird and creepy, not what you would expect from a feel-good game.  In terms of gameplay, the aim is to go from left to right, Kutaro can jump as you would expect, however, he gains various powers along the way.  The big one is a pair of magical scissors in which he can cut through many things.  Mostly he just cuts through fabric or thing objects that look suspiciously like paper, which remind's me of Tearaway's papery world.  It's fund when you can move by cutting.  While mechanics wise, it's simple and nothing extraordinary, it feels novel.

The beginning of the game feels more like a chore than later on due to the limited abilities you have at that time.  Once Kutaro starts to unlock more abilities, the games becomes super fun.  You unlock all abilities by around the middle of the game, these abilities aren't your typical abilities either, Kutaro can body slam, throw bombs, hook things and create a shield.  Other common gameplay elements are on-rail riding sequences in which you jump and duck to avoid obstacles and cutting through things.  Bosses are a big draw of the game.  While all you do is recognise each boss's attack patterns and then work that to your advantage, they are fun and each attack pattern is different enough to keep it refreshing.  There are heaps of bosses and sometimes it feels as if there are too many.  All major bosses end with a quicktime event which if you fail means repeating the boss battle again.  It is somewhat annoying that there is such a large penalty for pressing a wrong button but thankfully, they're easy enough to not be too much of a problem.

The final boss was an enjoyable experience.  He somewhat breaks the "hurt the boss three times to win" cliche so it's more like "hurt the boss three times again and again".  While not difficult, it gave an epic feel and a good finale. The ending cutscene afterwards was swift but still satisfying.  Puppeteer is a long game for a platformer, taking upwards of nine hours.  A big chunk of it is cutscenes but you're still getting bang for your buck.  A positive is that the action doesn't slow to the point where it feels dragged out.  Plus, there are heaps of trophies to try and get.  The music catches your attention right from the start.  It feels just right, giving a sense of heaviness and evil, while also lighthearted enough such that you won't take the game too seriously.  The graphics are amazing and looks brilliant, this is partly thanks to the aesthetics but Studio Japan has done a wonderful job here of making the game pop and each environment unique.  Overall, Puppeteer is a fantastic platformer with a charming story and character.

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