KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! (2023)

KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! is based on the light novel series, which itself is a spin-off from the main KonoSuba series. It is 12 episodes long and follows Megumin in a prequel from before she met Kazuma and Aqua. When Megumin was very young, she saw first-hand the power of explosion and that was what kickstarted her obsession with explosion magic. The thing with explosion magic is that it is powerful but also extremely impractical. It requires an absurd amount of MP that most people don’t even have enough of to cast it. And even if they do, they won’t have enough MP to do anything else afterwards. Furthermore, explosion is so powerful that it just wipes out everything in the area.

Megumin is just old enough to start at the magic academy in the Crimson Magic Village and there, she also meets Yunyun. The point of magic academy is to train and teach the kids about magic, get enough skill points for them to learn magic, upon which point they officially become an adult. This being the Crimson Magic Village, everyone is a bit out of the ordinary. Exaggeration is a key skill that is highly regarded, and this is what makes the anime so funny. You can never anticipate how a character would act, or how a situation would pan out because it’s so unpredictable.

Megumin was always a bit cruel to Yunyun in KonoSuba but she’s a bit more of an obvious tsundere here. She can be mean to Yunyun, but at the same time, shows that she cares about her very much. Megumin is a lot more practical and cruel-hearted due to the poor situation of her family. We learn about her little sister Komeko and the black cat that is Megumin’s familiar. Yunyun remains the socially awkward lonely girl who’s easily intimidated.

It’s good to know that Megumin hasn’t changed from before she met the KonoSuba cast. She is still irrationally obsessed with explosion and still causes a lot of trouble with it. Megumin can be quick and clever enough to take opportunities when they present themselves. The backstory with Yunyun is fleshed out and while Megumin does constantly take advantage of her, their friendship can be seen as strong.

Despite not having the rest of the KonoSuba gang, especially Kazuma and Aqua, this spin-off still manages to hold its own. Megumin is interesting enough of a character to be able to carry the whole show. Coupled with the crazy antics of the Crimson Magic Clan where commonsense is out the window, and flashiness and style are what is most important, and this results in a very entertaining anime, despite the simple animation at times.

There is a little bit of an overarching plot across the season, being that the seal of the dark goddess has been weakening, which is causing more and more monsters to appear. Throughout all this is the normal life of Megumin as she goes to school and deals with all of that. The dark goddess subplot is played loose in that it shows up for a short time, and then subsequently disappears for a length of time before randomly reappearing. It’s not at the forefront and sometimes it isn’t even at the back of your mind.

The anime doesn’t stay only within the village as it chronicles Megumin’s journey up until she meets Kazuma and Aqua. We get to see some of the events that were referenced in the main series, and how her actions have consequences. When Megumin travels to Arcanletia, you’d know that the anime is going to ramp up the craziness. You can’t believe your eyes when you see just how much Megumin has influenced the Axis Church. The reactions of the characters to the unbelievable events that are unfolding in front of them are priceless.

There are times where the animation is nice and others where it is of a poorer quality. It likes to play off the poor quality with onscreen gags, but it’s still distracting even if the scene is funny. However, as per usual, the voice acting saves it and the voice actresses of Megumin and Yunyun has done an amazing job. Despite the lack of action, the series wasn’t known for them anyway. Megumin doesn’t get many chances to showcase her supreme power, but when she does, it will remind you just how powerful explosion magic is. This has the side effect of causing Megumin to be a bit too egotistical, being mostly all talk, in many situations as she doesn’t have a chance of displaying her abilities.

Like the main series, with the lack of a more complex plot, the season finale does its best to do some sort of satisfying ending. Megumin and Yunyun does indeed close off the big plot points and defeats the big bad of the season, if they could be called that at all. It’s a good stopping point given that it ends upon Megumin’s first real interaction with the wider cast of KonoSuba.

Overall, KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! is a good spinoff. As it is a prequel, it is forced to focus only on Megumin, so the interactions and camaraderie can be weaker than the main series. However, Megumin, being such a colorful character, managed to hold up the season on her own. Coupled with the funny moments and interactions with several characters, thanks to the craziness and absurdity of the Crimson Magic Clan, there are plenty of laughs and it makes for an enjoyable anime.

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Astro’s Playroom (PS5)

Astro’s Playroom is a small game that comes preinstalled with every PS5. It is more of a tech demo to show off the new DualSense controller and what it is capable of. Starring Astro and his fellow bots, this is a cutesy platformer styled game that’s bright and colorful, something that we rarely get these days. If you’ve played The Playroom or Astro Bot Rescue Mission, then you’ll feel right at home here.

Astro has basic abilities, being able to walk around, punch things, and hover, which gives him some extra height and distance whenever he jumps. That’s about it and it may feel a bit limited and boring at first, but the game does pretty inventive stuff to make sure of every single feature of the DualSense controller. Right off the bat, the game gives you a quick rundown of the features and perhaps the most interesting element would be the adaptive triggers. It might not sound like much, but changing the level of pressure required to press the triggers makes a huge difference and truly gives you a quiet sense of wonder.

The other features are stuff that we’ve seen before like better vibration (haptic feedback), microphone, lights, touchpad, and motion control. However, these are still used in fun ways, from how the vibration subtly changes to match the type of surface Astro is currently running on, to how you can feel the raindrops when it is raining. Or you might have to use the motion control to aim your character during certain parts of the level. Yes, it is gimmicky, but it is also fine for a small tech demo game such as this to get you used to your shiny new PS5.

Each of the core worlds of the game are based around the major PlayStation consoles. Each one has a major gimmicky section that would make use of the controller in what is supposedly a very innovative way. It mostly misses because no mater how great it is, it is still not a lot of fun to wrestle around with the motion control or the touchpad. These inputs are too inaccurate to control Astro onscreen. However, the way it used the adaptive triggers along with the motion control to control the climbing in the game was definitely the most innovative and best of the bunch.

The game has four worlds, and each world has four levels. It takes around two to three hours to run through all the levels at least once. Each level has coins to collect, puzzle pieces, and perhaps the best thing is the artefacts. These collectibles are things relating to the history of PlayStation, from all the consoles to its accessories, it is a blast of nostalgia. Collecting these artefacts will allow them to turn up in an in-game collection room and this is like a big celebration of PlayStation, which feels very fitting as a preinstalled game on the PS5. It has some obscure stuff as well, including the PlayStation Vita.

The game has some combat as there will be enemies that try to attack Astro. The enemies usually die in a hit, but the same goes for Astro. If Astro gets hit, whether that’s by an enemy, an obstacle, or falling down a hole, he respawns at the last checkpoint. These checkpoints are frequent enough but may mean you need to start an area from the beginning which can be a bit annoying as the coins and boxes you’ve opened will need to be done again.

There are a lot of neat little touches to the game that constantly reference PlayStation’s rich history. From the way that there are always other bots playing out some scenes from iconic PlayStation games to the four symbols of the face buttons showing up everywhere. It can be quite cheeky with its depictions, particularly with the descriptions of the various accessories and consoles.

Then there is the surprise at the end after completing all the worlds. It is a very nice touch, especially if you get the reference. There’s no denying that it is a short game, but you can spend a little bit longer by replaying the levels to find the rest of the collectibles that you may have missed. There is also a speed run section, which you might have just expected to be a timed version of the regular levels. That’s not the case, while the theme of each level is the same, these speedrun levels are new shorter levels which are fully designed for speedrunning. It’s a lot of fun when you manage to make it work.

Overall, Astro’s Playroom is a great game, especially for a free pack-in. It continues to give you hope that Sony may give Team Asobi the budget it requires for a proper fully fledged platformer that isn’t regulated to a free pack-in game or stuck on the PSVR. While it can be too gimmicky at times, it’s a bright colorful platformer that’s fun for all. If you had grown up with PlayStation, then this game is made for you as it is a celebration of all its history. There was clearly a lot of detail lovingly put into the game and that’s what makes this so impressive.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Ultra Magnus (SS-86 Commander)

Review:  #790

Name:  Ultra Magnus

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Studio Series

Year of Release:  2023

Size Class:  Commander

Mold Status:  new

PACKAGING:

Ultra Magnus comes in a big box that's fully enclosed, given he is part of the larger Commander size class.

The packaging is quite nice given the big artwork, but it is not particularly too premium.

VEHICLE MODE:

Based upon his appearance in the 1986 movie, Ultra Magnus transforms into a car carrier with a white cab, and a blue trailer.

His design is familiar, there are not massive departures in terms of general characteristics.  For example, the back is still obviously the robot shins and legs.

In terms of size, he is decent, however, being a car carrier, there are a lot of empty spaces so he can appear to be bigger than he might otherwise be.

Despite the cab being able to separate, the cab and trailer doesn't have much turning clearance.

This is one long vehicle but he is very impressive in hand.

A gimmick is that he can carry up to three Deluxes.  They're mainly the smaller contemporary Deluxes but it is still a nice gimmick.

The top level can also unclip and be angled down to allow a vehicle to drive up there.

The robot weapons, which are two guns, can peg onto each side for storage in this mode.

Finally, the red tips of the missiles can detach and as depicted in the official instructions, you can peg in the flame effects instead.  It looks a bit corny and cheesy though.

If you look underneath, while the trailer component is compact and dense, the cab is much more hollow as it is mostly just a panelling shell.

Nevertheless, this is a strong vehicle mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

Again, the transformation scheme doesn't depart too much from previous figures.  The rear forms the arms and legs, while the cab folds into the torso.  What is quite nice are the way the panels unfold and fold upon each other in order to collapse away.  It's impressive without feeling fragile.

ROBOT MODE:

Robot mode is of course the star of the show and Ultra Magnus looks fabulous here.

He's got huge feet but that adds to his bulkiness, rather than making him look awkward.  He barely has kibble, which is extremely impressive when even the Masterpiece version couldn't achieve that.

The head sculpt is fantastic but he doesn't have any gimmicks related to the head, no face swapping or anything like that.

Size-wise, he is as tall as one the previous bigger Leaders, but he carries much more mass, feeling heftier in your hands.

He's extremely poseable of course, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with a huge cardboard stand as part of the Studio Series line, given the box is very wide, the stand is also very wide.

Ultra Magnus has a fair few gimmicks, the first of which is that his chest is springloaded.  Unclip the blue piece and the chest windows will pop open to reveal the Matrix of Leadership.

For weaponry, he comes with a pair of guns.

The guns can be held in either hand.

There is an open 5mm slot in his hands to peg the guns more securely in than just him holding it.

He comes with several fire effects pieces, but they're casted in a smoky plastic, rather than a fully transparent one.

The smoke effects can peg at the tip of the guns, and since the effects can split into multiple smaller pieces, there are a lot of options in how you can do it.

The guns peg onto his back when not in use.

He has some articulation for his fingers, which is pretty cool and fun to play around with.

A great robot mode, which to be honest, doesn't really have any flaws.

OVERALL:

Ultra Magnus has the moniker of being the first Commander in the Studio Series line and he lives up to expectations.  While he is a tad bit small in vehicle mode, he makes up for it in robot mode where he has good presence.  The transformation is solid, despite the engineering not containing anything too surprising.  While the robot mode is fabulous.

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