A Certain Scientific Accelerator (2019)

A Certain Scientific Accelerator is a spin-off anime from A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun. The season is 12 episodes long. As the title suggests, it follows Accelerator, the most powerful Level 5 esper in Academy City. It is highly recommended to have knowledge of at least A Certain Magical Index and the events that transpired given that this anime takes place after Accelerator’s first appearance there. This is especially since Accelerator has been handicapped and joined by Misaka Misaka, one of the Misaka clones / sisters.

Accelerator wasn’t really likeable in his initial appearances in the mainline titles and spin-offs, given his arrogant attitude and overpowered nature. However, here, given he is the protagonist, it works quite well. He’s also severely handicapped given what he had gone through, and relies on a battery powered device to help him perform the calculations required to use his power effectively. He’s in the hospital still recuperating, joined with Misaka Misaka, a young cheerful little kid, and the anime takes all this for granted that the viewer already knows the background.

The anime jumps straight into it and once again, Academy City shows off yet another dark organisation in the shadows performing unscrupulous experiments. It merges both the magical and science side of the series into its arc, as the initial key plot point was the ability to reanimate corpses using magic. It somehow manages to involve Accelerator. Unlike the other protagonists, Accelerator’s way of doing things is going in solo, smashing everything in his way. He’s still absurdly powerful here, explained with his ability of manipulating vectors, but still feels crazily overpowered.

In an attempt to humanize Accelerator, and make him more likeable in the process, it is surprisingly to see that he is actually affected by his past actions. His participation in the Level 6 project where he had cruelly and heartlessly killed so many of the Misaka clones actually affected him much deeper than he shows. And despite being constantly annoyed by Misaka Misaka, she is his weak point, and he genuinely cares for her.

The plot stalls in the middle of the season with several large scale battles happening. It’s not entirely bad given that the combat scenes are fun. There is the introduction of a team of espers who are powerful. Since they have the strength to back it up, they are quite arrogant. Unfortunately for them, they’re overshadowed by the even more powerful Accelerator who reverses their positions and is even more arrogant. It’s really quite satisfying to watch.

There are several connections and references back to the other titles in the series. The aforementioned group of espers will reappear in A Certain Scientific Railgun T, while several cameos from A Certain Magical Index also appear. Sometimes, it’s a bit too coincidental and forced but cameos are always fun. Antiskill, the heavily armed organisation charged with security of Academy City plays a central role, leading to a more serious tone for most of the season compared to the other titles.

A common theme is how a lot of the plot arcs within the series seem to resolve around creating a Level 6 esper. There’s a fixation on that, and it’s present here as well. The goal is the same, just the method is different. There’s heavy exposition when the anime explains that particular arc’s approach in reaching the rank beyond the current highest level, and it can significantly drag the pacing down. As a result, the second half of the season can become bogged down, even though there’s a lot of action, since by this point, it shows its hand and needs to wrap it up so it couldn’t make it more meaty.

The ending, while mostly predictable, does hold several surprises. Considering the class of the enemy and how powerful they were, the climactic battle ends up being a bit more boring compared to the one during the middle of the season. Perhaps it’s because Accelerator’s attacks doesn’t easily overwhelm the villain, or that he’s handicapped and can’t let loose, but there were actually some scenes where it was boring. Then there was the decision for the last few episodes to lose color, reflecting the state of the world. It had the unintended consequence of making the anime drab to watch.

Overall, A Certain Scientific Accelerator is a fine anime. If you liked any of the other mainline or spin-off titles, then you’ll like this one, especially since there are more than just cursory references to those. Accelerator himself is much more likeable here, and despite his insistence on calling himself a villain, his actions speak otherwise, and he is still regretting his past actions. The only negatives are the uneven pacing, but that’s basically a staple of the series by now.

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Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection (PC)

Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection is a business management game. It is the enhanced version of the 2013 game that was for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. It has ten short tutorials to teach you the basics of the game, although it is done in a fairly boring manner. This is particularly so if you’re itching to quickly understand everything so that you can get into the meat of the game.

This genre doesn’t have the best reputation for its implementation of controller controls but surprisingly, it works really well it. It’s probably to do with the game originally designed for consoles. However, there are still some quirks that you need to get used to, especially if you wanted to get a quick overview of what’s happening. Luckily, using the left trigger will bring up a snapshot of the current needs of your zoo, like animal and guest happiness, and the areas that are critical for you to improve on.

There are two many types of views. The first one is a third-person view where you can explore the zoo as if you were a guest or staff member. The second is an overhead view that is more familiar for this genre. The latter view is more efficient at managing the zoo, while the former is fun to just fiddle around with and explore your zoo. The third person camera needs some work as it seems to get caught in the environmental objects and start shaking as a result. There are various photo options too, and ways to have the camera track specific animals.

The game is menu heavy and you will need to constantly enter and back out of layers of menus. This could be streamlined a bit more as it doesn’t feel very well designed at times. There are different types of enclosures and facilities to build. In order to appease your guests, you will require both types of buildings, to maintain the animal variety as well as entertainment variety. You’ll need to balance the number of animals you have in your zoo with food, entertainment, guest facilities and staff facilities. Money is naturally the limiting factor. There is also a fame level that will increase the potential for more guests as it increases, which will increase your income stream, as well as unlocking new things to build.

New facilities and enclosures are unlocked but you still need to research them. Researching takes times, anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. The same goes for animals and there is a solid variety of them to put on display. It covers most of the ones you would expect in a zoo, like giraffes, elephants, tigers, lions, hippos, chimpanzees, as well as ones like alpacas, antelopes, kangaroos and owls. You can feed and wash the animals manually but this is tedious and something you don’t want to do after trying it out the first time. It is better to build staff facilities and hire staff to automatically take care of them for you.

There are various single player modes, with the Campaign mode being a big one. In each level, it will give you a set of objectives to complete in an allotted amount of time. These range from increasing the fame level, to building a certain number of things, to adopting a certain number of animals. Some can be finished quickly, while others will take longer. This version contains the original campaigns, as well as two new ones. The harder scenarios can be tough as they require you to do things like breeding endangered animals and releasing them, all the while you are strapped for cash. Unfortunately, these scenarios can also feel padded given that you have to wait minutes at a time with nothing to do as you wait for the cash to build up.

So, while the game is easy to pick up and manage, it can quickly become repetitive. It lacks the nuances that makes business management games addictive. The levels in Campaign, and in the other modes, usually have you end up repeating the same types of basic steps to get your foundation in place, before completing the rest of the objectives. As a result, it doesn’t feel like there is much variety. The original campaign has 21 levels, with 5 additional levels in the new south American campaign and five more in the new Australian campaign. The two new campaigns focuses on the new animals but it is basically more of the same. It takes around ten to fifteen hours to complete all of them but it depends on whether you can clear those harder levels on your first go or not.

Challenge mode is similar in the fact that there are various zoos and the objective is to collect the specific animals in those zoos. There are some differences here, such as the limited money, and crises such as staff strikes will occur. Annoyingly, there are some animals which require you to obtain it in another zoo to then transfer it to the one that needs it for completing the challenge. The Sandbox mode on the other hand gives you unlimited money and no waiting time for new animals or buildings (you just have to fulfil the fame level requirements) to build your dream zoo. However, this mode is also kind of boring given that it removed too many of the restrictions.

Overall, Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection is an average game as it doesn’t quite capture the addictiveness of a business management game with its gameplay loop. In Campaign mode, there is too much waiting involved until you can do your next step, so there’s swathes of empty time wasted. While you can tell that it has simplified mechanics so that it is easier to pick up and play, it simplified it too much so that it can get boring fast. It’s still fun for the time that you spend on it but it is not going to keep you addicted for much longer than the campaigns.

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A Certain Scientific Railgun T (2020)

A Certain Scientific Railgun T is the third season and is comprised of 25 episodes. The anime takes place in Academy City, whose population has a large proportion of espers, people who have special abilities. Of note is Misaka, who is a Level 5 esper, one of only seven in the city, and extremely powerful with her ability over electricity. Joining her are her friends Kuroko, a teleporter, Uiharu, a whizz with computers, and Saten.

Starting off the arc during the city-wide sports festival, poor Misaka pretty much finds herself in yet another terrible situation. Being such a powerful esper, trouble finds her. Unlike previous seasons, it is better paced at balancing the slice-of-life aspects with the plot developments, it’s nowhere near as rough. Misaka faces off against yet another Level 5 esper and we see how truly formidable every one of them are. It’s kind of unfair too given the abilities of this esper, it’s something that’s really hard to counter again and to see Misaka be placed in such a disadvantaged can be painful.

Unfortunately, through circumstances that couldn’t be avoided, Misaka ends up having to mostly rely on herself for most of the arc. It’s not a bad arc but it is one that’s shrouded in secrecy, as it is difficult to discern the motivations behind each character. Actually, it’s difficult to discern just who the parties are as there seems to be various groups that are working against each other, but also with each other. Of course, eventually, things will become clearer, but piece by piece where you can slowly grasp more and more of the situation.

Once again, we see Misaka use her abilities without restraint. She uses them even more freely now, rapidly traveling through the city with them. It’s always satisfying to see Misaka triumph over her opponents through sheer power at times, and ingenuity at others. However, what’s even better is that we see more usage of other characters’ abilities, some that are more unconventional, making it much more interesting to see how they utilize it in combat.

Similarly to the structure of previous seasons, the pacing keeps increasing until the middle of the season, where it reaches the climax of the arc. At that point, those few episodes are intense in terms of the sheer amount of revelations and actions. There are multiple viewpoints and events happening concurrently, each of them quite important. The combat sequences remain visually engaging, especially with new characters showing off their moves. And we shouldn’t be surprised at some of the revelations. One thing we’ve learnt is that Academy City is a cruel place, where inhumane research happens without anyone else batting an eye.

The climax of the first arc kind of fizzles out, most of the action was in the build up right before the resolution, so it can feel jarring. It was still satisfying but it teased quite a lot of elements and potential with its material that it’s a shame that it is cut short. A unique thing with the anime is how each arc still manages to connect with the previous ones, no matter how little. That is, it either provides more insight to previous events, or the results of previous arcs have a not unnoticeable impact on the current arc, and that is impressive.

The back half of the season covers another arc. As expected, it starts off with a bit more slice-of-life stuff, but the pacing is faster than usual, with a lot more foreshadowing. It becomes quite obvious from some of the things that happening on what the central theme or conflict might be. The beginning also focuses a lot more on Misaka’s friends rather than Misaka herself, allowing them to shine with their own abilities. Although you can’t help but feel that Academy City is a small place given how coincidental and how often, the supporting characters (from both sides) manage to often meet, mingle and being acquaintances or friends.

Eventually the focus will return to Misaka and it gets to one of the craziest points yet. The plot isn’t as coherent as some previous arcs, but it makes up for that with its shock and awe factor. Misaka once again shows how she has still not once used her full abilities and we see what she is capable of. It becomes a gigantic clash that’s quite the visual spectacle. All in all though, this second arc is definitely one of the weakest yet, although there were some good injection of humor and gags, too many loose ends were left by the end, and the season just kinda… ends without much fanfare.

Overall, A Certain Scientific Railgun T is a fun and engaging anime that builds on what made the first two seasons great. We’ve come a long way in seeing Misaka and her abilities. The fact that Academy City is shown to be such an interesting (and dark) place keeps it engaging. It strikes a good balance between melodramatic end-of-the-world stakes with a more grounded scale, so it doesn’t feel over the top. The second half is weaker, thanks to several plot threads not going anywhere this season, and Misaka’s friends don’t have as much screentime as you’d expect, but you’ll still end up craving for more.

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A Certain Scientific Railgun S (2013)

A Certain Scientific Railgun S is the second season based upon the light novel series that is a spin-off to A Certain Magical Index. This season is 24 episodes long. The anime takes place in Academy City where espers exist, and they possess abilities. Their power is ranked from 0 to 5. Misaka is one of seven Level 5’s in the city, and has the power of electricity which she can use in a lot of interesting and varied ways. Joining her is Kuroko, a Level 4 teleporter and part of Judgment, a security force of the city; Uiharu, also a part of Judgment with a negligible ability but has great computer skills; and Saten, who has no powers.

The season starts off slowly introducing the next arc. It’s probably one of the more iconic arcs if you had watched A Certain Magical Index. It’s a slow introduction because it eases the viewers in by focusing more on the slice-of-life aspect of the characters in Academy City. Although it was neat that it showed off another Level 5 esper, just to let us know how capable and powerful that they can be.

The season soon finds its pace though once Misaka discovers the truth about the secretive experimental projects that the people in power are conducting. Whether you know what is coming or not, it’s still quite shocking when the sisters show up, and the truth of their purpose for being alive is revealed. It’s quite horrifying and there were various scenes that managed to convey the full extent of it. It took on quite a dark and violent turn so quickly that you’ll do a double take to make sure that it really was happening.

While the first season has fight scenes few and far between, this season takes a different approach. The pacing is still uneven as you’ll get episodes with little action and not much happening preceding the huge episodes where so much stuff happens. We see Misaka go all out early in the first half of the season, where she uses her electrical powers against worthy opponents. Given that she had steamrolled her opponents before this point, it’s refreshing and interesting to see her go toe to toe in battle against someone her level, and at times, above her level.

While Misaka is still strong, you’ll no longer think she is invincibly overpowered. Yes, she will overcome her opponents, but she takes damage, she gets exhausted, and her attacks are foiled. In fact, when she goes up against the Accelerator, who is touted as the most powerful Level 5, it can feel unfair given how absurdly strong Accelerator is. Nevertheless, Misaka uses her abilities in such versatile ways that it is pretty much cheating at some points. Seriously, she can shoot lightning, use magnetism to psychokinetically move metal objects and even walk on walls, it can be ridiculous.

While we were told this before on how Misaka is stubborn, often shouldering things alone and not wanting to involve her friends, we only really start to see it here. She takes on a whole organisation by herself. Yes, she is strong, but she is still one person, and you can tell that if she had just asked for her friends to help, it would have been safer and less disastrous. Then again, she is protective and not willing to put her friends in danger for something that she perceives is so personal. It’s a tough line to draw.

The arc looks to be set to take over the whole season. It does a great job at conveying the despair and hopelessness that Misaka feels. You can see her point of view, anyone can, and it’s so much bigger than her that despite all that she’s done, it’s like she still took several steps back. It has a moral and ethical feel to it that makes you invested.

Due to the terrible adaption and quality of A Certain Magical Index, you might not like Toma for his generic harem protagonist personality, but he is much more likeable here. The sisters arc felt truncated and poorly explained in that anime, but it is fully fleshed out here. It covers the events from start to finish, giving it a lot of context and most importantly, the reasons and motivations for each of the characters’ actions. We finally see why Misaka acted the way that she did, and how from her point of view, Toma managed to come in and help her.

Accelerator is seriously too overpowered so it is even more satisfying when he eventually gets his just desserts (given he is the primary antagonist this season). The pacing ramps up in the middle of the season as the arc reaches its climax, and it was emotionally charged. It conveyed all the emotions that Misaka was feeling, and the glimpse of hope provided by Toma. None of the characters felt superfluous. The only negative with this arc is how Misaka’s friends, who had such prominent screentime in the previous season, are almost nowhere to be found in this arc.

After the sisters arc, there’s a lull, as expected. It’s back to the slice-of-life stuff with plenty of foreshadowing of the next big event. Still, it can be slow until it finally picks up within the last few episodes. There are a lot of coincidences to allow Misaka to discover the perpetrators and it never reaches the emotion heights of before, but it’s more cheerful and upbeat tone gives it some much needed contrast to what was an overly depressive atmosphere until now.

One good thing is that Misaka actually learnt from her experiences and is able to rely on her friends now. This means that the final episode is feelgood episode where it everyone comes together to help out and overcome the current disaster. Naturally, with nearly all of the series’ theme songs so far being played during the sequences, it’s a visual spectacle, and you can’t help but grin as nearly all the characters that Misaka had met so far, come forward in one way or another. It’s a good season finale, even though its plot was undercooked.

Overall, A Certain Scientific Railgun S is a great anime that improves upon the first season. The rough pacing is lessened, although still present. What has been drastically improved though are the action sequences and the frequency of them. We finally get to see what a formidable force Misaka is. While the first arc can drag out at times, especially when Misaka refuses to ask for help, it is a really good alternate perspective (and expansion) of the events that we first saw in A Certain Magical Index. It is definitely much better than that anime though and it continues to be fun and exciting with plenty of emotionally charged scenes to round out the season.

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New Super Lucky’s Tale (PC)

New Super Lucky’s Tale is a cute and colorful platformer. This is actually a remake of Super Lucky’s Tale, which wasn’t received very well given its flaw, so this version gives it some much need improvements such as a reworked story, an expanded cast, camera control, but most importantly, tighter controls and better level design.

You control Lucky, a fox with the usual platforming abilities. He can jump, swing his swing as an attack, and burrow into the ground. The only thing missing from his arsenal which would seem like a good addition would be the ability to dash even faster. This is because the levels feel like they can be fun to speed run through at a faster pace than Lucky’s default running speed.

The level designs aren’t too bad, although they’re generally on the easier side, particularly if you’re an experienced player. However, it’s because of the lower difficulty that they are still fun. The levels have basic enemies which telegraphs their attacks in an obvious manner. They’re easily defeated by either jumping on top of them or by Lucky swinging his tail against them. Apart from avoiding the obstacles, there are coins to collect which are used to buy different costumes for Lucky to wear.

There are different types of levels, with the general one being 3D platforming. There are also 2D sidescrolling stages, as well as ones where Lucky autoruns. Within each level are a few secret areas to find and optional mini challenges like timed sections. Further adding to the variety are the levels which has you complete tasks given by the NPCs. These levels still have platforming elements but has a bit of a quest design to it. No matter which type of level it is, each one will have four objectives that’ll reward Lucky with a clover page. One is for completing the level, one for collecting at least 300 coins, one for finding the clover page hidden in the level, and one is for collecting all five letters of “LUCKY” in the level. This adds a bit of replayability to go back to levels to get the pages you may have missed the first time around.

The levels are accessed via hub worlds, of which there are five in total. These hub worlds also contains minigames which are either puzzles or a marble type game where you use the analogue stick to tilt the board. The game follows a typical platformer structure where you beat a bunch of levels in each hub to collect a certain number of pages before unlocking the boss. The bosses will then have three phases before you beat them.

The story is basic. Lucky is a part of the Guardian Order that protects the Book of Ages. Lucky was pulled into the book when the villains attack. Thus, he goes through the worlds in order to collect the pages. The game has a colorful aesthetic, although the graphics are on the simpler side, it still works though. It’s a short game, given that it takes only around four to five hours to get to the credits while collecting most of the pages in the progress. The three hits that Lucky can take is not really a problem throughout the game until the final boss given how much longer it is compared to the other boss battles.

After the credits, there is one last hub world which has harder versions of the minigames as well as harder levels. The levels are tougher, yes, but they’re also a bit more trial and error based. Some sections rely on you knowing what comes next. At the same time, it is also quite fun when you manage to pass the levels. To be fair, these levels aren’t extremely difficult, just a tad annoying and with practice, you’ll be able to easily get through them. A slight disappointment with the game though is that all of Lucky’s abilities are available from the start. You don’t get to gain any new ones throughout the game.

Overall, New Super Lucky’s Tale is a fun platformer. It’s easy but that isn’t necessarily a negative as the level design is good and varied enough to keep you engaged and interested. It’s a bit on the simpler and shorter side given that Lucky doesn’t gain any new abilities during this adventure and the story is quite basic. Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile experience, especially if you wanted to take a break between longer games due to its more relaxing and fun nature.

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A Certain Scientific Railgun (2009-10)

A Certain Scientific Railgun is a 24 episode anime based upon the light novel series, which itself was a spin-off to A Certain Magical Index. The anime follows Misaka, who was one of the more interesting characters already. She lives in Academy City, which are full of people with special powers. They’re known as Espers, and they’re ranked from Level 0, for people without abilities, to Level 5 for people with the strongest powers. Misaka is one of only seven Level 5’s currently in the city. She has electric powers with her trademark move being shotting a coin by flicking it from her hand as a makeshift railgun.

Misaka s joined Kuroko, who is part of the organisation Judgment. Judgment is responsible for uploading the security of Academy City and complements Anti-Skill, who deals with the more serious threats. Kuroko has a strong ability herself, ranked as Level 4, she is a teleporter. Rounding out the main cast are Uiharu and Saten. All of them attend middle school in Academy City.

This is a slice-of-life type of anime with the beginning just chronicling their days. Therefore, it’s just normal things like going to shops, to slightly more intense events like fighting criminals or catching troublemakers. As you’d expect of a city full of people with special powers, the negative elements are amplified, so there’s more bullying, more crime and more troublemakers. There’s quite a significant amount of fan service in the anime, and if Kuroko was male, there would be an uproar on the kind of stuff that she attempts to do on Misaka.

Toma from A Certain magical Index makes plenty of appearances here. He’s basically a reoccurring side character. These are events that we never saw in that anime so it feels a bit too forced here when Toma and Misaka “coincidentally” bump into each other so frequently. Other characters like Index and Toma’s sister also make appearances, so they’re like bonuses for viewers who have see both anime.

The first quarter of the season has the anime feeling itself out, getting us familiar with the characters, since it doesn’t feel as if anything important happens. However, the first real big arc comes after that quarter, and ends by the middle of the season. This arc really ups the pacing and stake. The arc was interesting by playing into the characters’ strengths and weaknesses. It creates a good backstory to make us sympathise with the characters’ actions and rounds it out with an excellent display of Misaka’s powers.

Misaka is Level 5 for a reason and even though her ability revolves around electricity, we’re shown that she can use it in various versatile ways. She can naturally electrocute her opponent but can also use it to magnetize iron in her surroundings to create a physical shield or a weapon. She is rarely shown to be using her full strength, so it feels that she always has a reserve of power that will allow her to overcome her enemies.

After the first major arc, the anime goes back to random chilled slice-of-life episodes. The pacing gets quite slow, and it’s filled with standalone episodes that doesn’t feel like it has much impact to the plot. Eventually, it strings back together into the next major arc, just in time for the season finale, and it was actually worth it. It had a nice tie-in to the events so far, and while it wasn’t as interesting as before, it was still engaging. Misaka is shown to be a flawed character, in the best way, where she is strong and although she makes mistakes, she still places a high priority on loyalty and justice.

The biggest asset of the anime are the characters. Some of them may be annoying (e.g. Kuroko and her obsession with Misaka) or unfathomable (e.g. Uihara and her sudden personality change to be overly protective, to the point of being angry at others), but the four are good friends and works great as a team. This is shown in the season finale where they rely on each other and the climaxes were a culmination of everything to reach the peak thus far. The action sequences may be infrequent and short, but they are spectacular. Although Misaka seems to be able to let loose without any regard for the damage she causes with her powerful attacks.

And of course, the voice acting, for Misaka in particular, were amazing. Although the villain at the end was a tad bit overdramatic, so it was hard to take them seriously. The animation, just like the pacing, is uneven. There are rough patches where it was lacking in so much detail to the point of certain objects looking like blobs, while other scenes looked flawless. Both opening themes were instantly addictive, particularly the first one, Only My Railgun, which just instantly set the tone with its lyrics and beat.

Overall, A Certain Scientific Railgun is a solid anime. At first, it might be a bit off-putting since it felt like another generic slice-of-life friendship happy anime, and it is, but it eventually builds up to several intriguing plot points. The season has uneven pacing and at times, it’s hard to tell where it is going, but it is worthwhile sticking until the very end as it becomes rewarding with its plot developments and how it portrays its characters.

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