Pokemon Alpha Sapphire (3DS)

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire is a remake of Pokemon Sapphire (the third generation game for the GameBoy Advance), released for the 3DS. As expected, there is a major graphical overhaul but since the original were GameBoy Advance games which looks pretty good already, it’s not as big a difference as the remakes from the first and second gen Pokemon games. If you’ve played X and Y, then there’s nothing much that’s new to this game. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have 3D in everything, which is disappointing. The only 3D sections are during battles, and so even though the game doesn’t look graphical intensive, apparently it would tax the hardware too much to have 3D all the time.

The core aspect remains the same. That is, you are a budding new Pokemon trainer as you travel out of your hometown. You’ll go through the region of Hoenn, catching Pokemon to do battle with, and eventually face off against the Elite Four and Pokemon Champion to become the next Pokemon Champion yourself. It’s a simple premise and one that still works well here.

As is customary, there is a subplot involving the villain team, in Alpha Sapphire that is Team Aqua. The third gen games’ villains actually had decent motives apart from the “we are evil” explanations. Team Aqua genuinely cares about the planet, in particular, the lakes and oceans of the world and they seem to have good intentions, even if they are going along the wrong way with it.

The game uses a turn-based battle system with a party of six Pokemon. Most of the battles are one on one, but there will be double and triple battles from time to time. Each Pokemon knows up to four moves, so you need to decide which ones to keep and which ones to replace as they learn new ones. Upon getting to a specific level, certain Pokemon can evolve into stronger ones and this collecting and evolving aspect is one of the most addictive parts of the game.

Each Pokemon also has typing and uses a more complicated version of rock paper scissors where each type is strong and weak against several others. Coupled with Pokemon being able to use moves that are not their type and it’s a strategic and varied experience. That said, given that you get the Exp Share item very early on in the game which gives experience to all your Pokemon even if they did not participate, and this is one of the easiest Pokemon games so far.

Pokemon are encountered via random encounters when travelling through grass or caves. Weaken the Pokemon enough and you can throw a Pokeball that has a chance of catching it for your use. There are plenty of Pokemon available and the main story (as well as most of the game) is designed in such a way that you can use any team you like and still be able to get through it.

Wild Pokemon variety seems really low. Each area only has one to three different types, and you start seeing the same ones in later areas. This makes it a bit boring in assembling your team, it’s worse on the water areas since there is a such a limited pool of wild Pokemon, despite comprising such a large portion of the map. This is also reflected by opponents, especially the villain team, who uses the same various Pokemon again and again. From the midpoint to the end of the game, you’ll start seeing the same types of Pokemon again and again, but right before postgame, and a bunch of new ones will be able to be encountered.

The game’s map slowly unlocks as you gain more abilities. Unfortunately, these are still tied to specific moves that you have to teach your Pokemon, using up one of the valuable spots. Using these moves is tedious as it takes several button presses and then you’ll have to wait for the animation to end. Flying high above Hoenn on Latias is really cool and fun, even if it is ultimately not a massive addition. The camera angles will shift from time to time, taking advantage of the 3D rendering. Despite these tricks, the progression can feel by the numbers, and not a huge improvement over the original games. It is also a lot easier as all your Pokemon will be of a much higher level than other trainers.

If you know where to go and what to do, the game feels really short. It’ll take you 20 to 30 hours to reach and beat the Elite Four to become the Pokemon Champion. That being said, at this point, there will be quite a bit of postgame content, and several routes that you would have not yet explored. Still, it does feel like it goes by way too quickly.

The biggest postgame content would be the Delta Episode. In terms of lore and story, it is also one of the most interesting as you investigate the meteor that is threatening to destroy the world, with a new rival, and the promise of Rayquaza. That said, the constant backtracking just to see a short cutscene is annoying. There are also a lot of Legendary Pokemon to capture. The amount is quite impressive, since it features the Legendaries from multiple generations including Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova.

Overall, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire is a by the numbers Pokemon game. It doesn’t try anything revolutionary or take many risks, instead opting to go towards the same story beats that has been used for six generations of games so far. This means that while the game did get a graphical upgrade and several quality-of-life improvements, it doesn’t feel like a monumental leap over the original games. As a result, if you’ve played all the previous Pokemon games, then you just might get a tiny bit bored here even though it is still a solid game.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations War for Cybertron Earthrise Barricade (Deluxe)

Review:  #704

Name:  Barricade

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Deluxe

Line:  Generations - War for Cybertron:  Earthrise

Year of Release:  2020

Size Class:  Deluxe

Mold Status:  repaint of Smokescreen

VEHICLE MODE:

As part of the Galactic Odyssey Collection two-pack with Punch / Counterpunch, this is the Earthern form of Barricade.

He transforms into a black police sports car.  He is a repaint off Smokescreen but features the lightbar of Prowl.

The lightbar is removable, if you want a sleeker car or something a bit more inconspicuous (although the giant "POLICE" lettering on the sides doesn't help).

The only play value here is rolling him on a flat surface, still, he looks great.  Too bad he lacks quite a number of paint applications, basically, only the gunmetal hood and the white sides are painted.

Above is a comparison with TLK Bumblebee for an idea of his size.  Barricade is on the smaller size for a Deluxe.

He comes with all the weapons from Smokescreen though, so all three guns can peg in vehicle mode.

This is a strong vehicle mode, although being a sports card, it may not have quite the tough look that you would expect of a police vehicle.

TRANSFORMATION:

Barricade is simple to get into robot mode.  The back unfolds to form the legs, open the doors, and then flip the arms out from underneath.  Complete the transformation by then folding the hood down to form the torso and reveal the head.  There are no surprises here, just a basic but solid, transformation.

ROBOT MODE:

Barricade is pretty much a black Smokescreen with purple highlights.  However, even such a simple repaint can make the figure look suitably Decepticon.

He doesn't have much kibble in this mode, basically none to be honest.  The doors end up as wings, in a deliberate fashion.

The head sculpt is a bit "chubby" for a Decepticon but it reuses Smokescreen's head so that couldn't be avoided.

For size, he's about the same height as Siege Sideswipe, make of that what you will.

Articulation is great, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with three weapons, a handheld gun and two shoulder blasters.

Naturally, he can hold the gun in either hand.

While the shoulder blasters peg into slots on his shoulders.

Those ankles are fantastic, and coupled with the large flat feet, this means he's super stable.  The larger more substantial fee, and the little panel to help cover up the gap, does wonders in making him feel much more solid than the Siege version.

Barricade has a wide range of motion, you might be surprised at the poses that he is able to achieve.

This is a great robot mode with no flaws.

OVERALL:

Barricade is a great figure, and this is one of the best usages of this mold.  While coming in a two-pack means that you'll probably be more unlikely to grab him unless you like the other figure, but if you do, you won't be disappointed.

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Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001)

Cowboy Bebop:  The Movie is a film based upon the anime series.  It is a standalone story that takes place before the end of the anime and is pretty much just like a regular episode.  Of course, the budget is higher so the animation quality is better, and the story is a little bit more involved than what you're used to from the TV version.  On the flipside, because it is longer, the pacing also seems to be slower.  There are various scenes where it felt it was dragging it for a tad bit too long with not much positive effect.  The story itself focuses on the group of space bounty hunters Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed and Ein as they target a bioterrorist.  The terrorist is planning to let loose a pathogen upon the population of Mars that will quickly kill them.  Each member of the team follows a different lead to try and track down the terrorist.  The plot itself, once you've finished the story, it fairly decent.  There was an elaborate plan, a mystery that was revealed, and a villain that was cruel but had some reason for doing the things he did.  The execution though was lacking, and it seemed to not have as much of elements that made the TV anime so charming.  Overall, Cowboy Bebop:  The Movie is good if you were already a fan of the anime and wanted something more, otherwise it feels like an average movie.

Daily Lives of High School Boys (2012)

Daily Lives of High School Boys is a comedy slice of life based on the manga. It is twelve episodes long. The anime starts off with a hilarious section that pokes fun at tropes and the companies that is sponsoring it. There isn’t much of a plot, but at first, it follows three high school boys, Tadakuni, Yoshitake and Hidenori. They’re good friends and they pretty much just hang out together. Each episode is broken down into shorter segments and involves normal day to day events of the three boys and it’s nothing too unrealistic.

Even though it’s just covering mundane everyday moments, it manages to make those moments funny and interesting either through exaggeration or the embarrassing actions of the characters that normal people do, like pretending the stick you’re holding is a weapon. Granted, sometimes these moments are a bit weird like how the trio suddenly decides they wanted to try out female clothing. The anime is great in that it speaks true of the phrase that “boys will be boys”. This leads to moments where one of them will start to embellish and exaggerate their stories in an effort to one up one another. These results in a hilarious conclusion as the others take it seriously.

The trio’s antics soon involving several other recurring characters like Tadakuni’s sister (who unfortunately falls victim to the trio’s sudden interest in female clothing as mentioned above) and their classmates. While they hang in separate groups, they do from time to time interact with the main trio. These include the student council, who ironically has the appearances of delinquents. There’s also an opposing group of “high school girls”, where the premise is similar to the boys but of course, much to their chagrin, don’t get their own anime. However, scenes often de-emphasize the female characters by not having their faces fully in view.

The anime embraces typical tropes in this genre, which is not a bad thing because it does them quite well. Being male teenagers, they often have convoluted (and yet focused) thought processes that they try and analyse the situation. This leads to over-complication of what should be simple matters. Several segments capture this really well such as not considering the consequences of what they are doing or talking about, or when they’re chatting about pointless things.

As with all comedy anime that are structured with short segments, there are hits and misses. The differences between the highs and the lows aren’t as pronounced; so on the whole, the content is fairly consistent. It does repeat similar concepts frequently though. Even if it was hilarious the first time, like the parts where the boys role play as if they were playing a RPG game, when it gets to the third or fourth time, the novelty wears off.

The story doesn’t have any objectives since it pretty much just shows random bits of everyday life. This matches well with what the characters are experiencing at well. They just take each day and event as it comes. Even though sometimes may be a bit weird, they never get too out there to be completely impossible. The ending to the season is kind of like an ending and not an ending. It leaves it open without the characters fully moving on.

Overall, Daily Lives of High School boys is a funny collection of segments, which makes it an enjoyable anime. The animation appears simple at first but there can be a lot of detail packed into the background. It breaks the fourth wall in certain segments as the characters know that they are in an anime and will complain how they’re not getting screen-time. The good thing is that this anime has a consistent level of quality and peaks fairly high with its randomness in everyday situations.

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Watch Dogs 2 (PS4)

Watch Dogs 2 is a sequel to the original Watch Dogs with a new protagonist who is a lot more talkative and animated than Aiden Pierce. The game looks great and there are a bunch of small improvements in gameplay compared to the first game. However, this is still an Ubisoft open world game, and as a result, can feel generic and samey. The vehicle handling is still slippery but at least it’s controllable.

Hacking is the key gimmick of the game and it’s expanded to be more than just a single button press. It’s still simplified but when you select an object, you get a few options like setting it off, attracting enemies, turning it off and setting up a proximity field that triggers whenever someone comes close. There are a lot of these hackable objects since it is set in the San Francisco Bay Area where everything is connected to the internet and made “smart”, with ctOS.

You control Marcus, an expert hacker who joins Dedsec and seeks to expose Blume. Blume is a company that harvests data from users thanks to their software. Citizens have no choice but to give this data but they don’t fully understand the dangers to their freedoms in doing so. This faction of Dedsec is formed with a group of people with various expertise.

Marcus is able to climb various objects, hack and use weapons. A lot of things are tied to the Marcus’s phone, such as hacking, viewing and accepting missions, the map and other functionality. Interestingly, the combat encounters usually give you two options, you can go in guns blazing in a huge gunfight, or you can try the stealth approach and knock the enemies out one by one. While Marcus is nimble, he doesn’t have the same versatility and climbing ability of the Assassin’s Creed games, so you’ll constantly think you may be able to climb a wall only for the game to be realistic and show that you can’t.

Marcus’s phone is a core part of the HUD. It is basically a menu with a smartphone software skin overlay. This does make going into and backing out of its menus taking one or two button presses too many though. You’ll have to click through various menus to select a particular mission, then track it on a map before backing all the way out, so it can be clunky and tedious at times.

The game feels really generic and bland in the beginning, especially if you have played the original. However, once you get into the groove of things, it can be enjoyable. The story, which doesn’t take itself too seriously but isn’t to the point of being cheesy and corny, is serviceable. The dialogue tends to try too hard to stay relevant though, but the references to various movies are quite funny to listen to.

Just like the first game, the online integration is quite unique. As you play the game, other players can randomly drop in or out. You’ll encounter friendly players who are just going about their game when they coincidentally cross paths with you. Or you’ll encounter players currently on a mission where they “hack” your information and you have to try and find them among the NPCs surrounding you. It’s not obtrusive and is done well.

Some of the combat scenarios can be tedious and annoying. All your progress is undone if you’re noticed since enemies constantly call reinforcements that immediately knows where you are. It can be frustrating when you’re forced to restart everything after painfully whittling down the enemy. The useless non-lethal environmental weapons are lame, as are Marcus’ limited repertoire. Once you get a lot more gadgets and options, this problem is solved and the game gets fun, particularly when things work according to plan.

The environmental “puzzles” are also annoying when you have to get to a specific sectioned off area that you have to physically get there to hack, so you can hack another place, to then hack another. When you cannot climb, and have to take a huge detour, it’s really annoying. This doubles for the puzzles that involve Marcus basically directing rays of light, which were already overused in the original game, let alone being used here in the sequel.

The game does constantly swap from being extremely bland and generic, to quite fun and enjoyable. The cast, having good banter and camaraderie is a plus, and helps make them a lot more bearable although the game at times tries way too hard to show this off. Nevertheless, it takes around 12 to 15 hours to complete the game, so it’s not long at all, although by this point you would have easily seen everything several times over. The ending does sort of sneak up to you, so when you get that warning that it’s the final mission, you will be surprised.

There are plenty of optional activities to do, although they’re the same kind of things you have already been doing over and over again. There’re are numerous collectibles and side missions that you can collect to your heart’s content, so the game can keep on going. Or you can cause some mayhem with all the abilities you would have gained.

Overall, Watch Dogs 2 is a solid game. At times it feels generic, and while it is true it brings very little that’s new to the open world genre, the hacking has been slightly improved upon and given more variety compared to the first game. Over the course of the story, it slowly nudges you towards favouring stealth, which is its strengths, rather than running and gunning your way through the situation.

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