My Recency Bias

  Mario in 2D has stagnated for the past 20+ years. After Yoshi’s Island in 1995, the majority of Mario’s 2D outings have been through the New Super Mario Bros. series, a series that has increasingly seemed like a snake eating its own tail, as the past 3 entries for each of Nintendo’s major consoles have all seemed incredibly similar in terms of both mechanics and aesthetics. Juxtapose that with the sheer level of innovation, creativity, and difference between any of the original 2D games, and you would not be called crazy to say that modern 2D Mario has seemingly run out of juice. In comes Super Mario Bros. Wonder to dispel any notion of that idea. There is not a moment in Super Mario Bros. Wonder that doesn’t feel bursting with new enemies, mechanics, or set pieces. The game’s precise goal is invoking joy and wonder, and it does both to the utmost degree.   The story of Mario Wonder has you collecting royal wonder seeds from the flower kingdom in order to defeat Bowser, ...

Play Final Fantasy VII Remake Fail to understand Final Fantasy VII Remake Play original Final Fantasy VII Play and finally understand Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade Watch the trailer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Change all my wallpapers to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth           Guess there’s only one thing left to do.   o    Play Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion The path most taken when making a prequel is making something to be experienced after the original that explains how everything happened and how all the pieces fit into place. An example of this is the Star Wars prequels, where it’s a major story revelation that Darth Vader is actually Anakin Skywalker in Episode 5, and in the prequels, specifically Episode 3, the story shows exactly how that happened both physically and mentally. Episode 3 was never meant to be seen before Episode 5, and the same can be said for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion . This game exists as...

  A lot of people’s favorite movie post pandemic is Spider-Man No Way Home . It is a film that brings back our favorite characters from the older movies and allows them to interact with all of our current characters, and it also sets up a foundation for Tom Holland to have more typical Spider-Man circumstances in his life. My problem with this movie (a problem that I’ve had since the second time I watched it) is whether I liked the movie for what it does, or did I like the movie for what it was trying to convince me it was doing. Concept versus execution is the name of the game with this review, as the video game Alan Wake has a very similar struggle between its story and gameplay mechanics. Story wise, Alan Wake is an engaging thriller/horror game, with an intriguing plot that kept me wanting to know more the entire time, but a rift begins to form in the overall package when the game side of this game does not deliver in equal measure with what the story is offering to the playe...

  Part 2: Orange Town The Manga One Piece’s 2 nd arc, Orange Town, is the introduction of 3 very important aspects of the series’ world, that being Nami, Buggy, and how Luffy takes on the aspirations and dreams of others. The basic overview of the arc is this: Luffy crashes Buggy the Clown’s party of destruction in Orange Town where he meets Nami, the thief that steals from pirates. Luffy eventually asks Nami to join his crew, and she becomes angry with him after he mentions he’s a pirate. Nami sells out Luffy to Buggy, offering her fealty to him (when in reality she just wants to rob him blind), but backs out when the initiation into his crew is killing Luffy. Luffy escapes with Zoro’s help, and as they hide out in what’s left of Orange Town, they meet Chou-Chou the dog, who they learn has been protecting his deceased master’s pet food store in his memory. When Chou-Chou isn’t able to fight a giant lion, Luffy fights for the dog, kicking the crap out of said lion and Buggy as...

  Part 1: Romance Dawn Romance Dawn, One Piece’s first arc, has been retold an innumerable number of times, starting off as a one shot concept that Oda wrote as a predecessor to One Piece, and ending (as of 2023) as the first episode of the Live Action adaptation of One Piece. With every medium it’s been retold in, different aspects of the story are highlighted given the strength of said medium. With that, I thought it would be a nice exercise to examine the big three mediums One Piece has used, that being the manga, anime, and live action, to see what aspects of the story are hindered or bolstered thanks to how the story can be told. This also is my excuse to rewatch more of One Piece, spoilers ahead. The manga can almost be viewed as the control group in this experiment, because it is the blueprint that other adaptations take from and change. I won’t waste much time singing its praises, but I will say that there is a reason that One Piece is still around today, and that poten...

  I have tried writing this review at least five times, and after all of that I’ve come to the conclusion that I just can’t separate my thoughts on the live action One Piece adaptation. My attempt in those reviews was to talk about the show as a show, and then talk about the show as a One Piece fan, but I am honestly unable to convey these thoughts separately since they are so entangled and connected to each other. So, I will do my best to be balanced, but know that the perspective I am coming from is that of a super fan, who also is just a fan of really good television. The best thing I can say about this live action anime adaptation is that it feels like a real tv show and not some weird fan film. This can be attributed to three pillars that keep the show balanced: plotting, acting, and choreography. The plotting does a mostly satisfactory job of mixing up the story of One Piece’s first saga, and most everything is connected in one way or another. This is something that the liv...

Gris is a lot of things. Mechanically, it’s a 2D platformer with some puzzle elements that feels wonderful to play. Sensorily, it’s a visual and auditory wonder as you move through this watercolor world, where any one frame of the game looks good enough to be hung in a museum, and the sound design and music do much to try and create an emotional experience within you. Artistically, this game floored me. Gris is a story of grief and its five stages, and by the end of the game you can’t help but admit that you played something both beautiful and worthwhile. The first impression you’ll have of Gris is the striking, watercolor art style. What makes the art style work is the fact that it always maintains itself during gameplay, so there will never be a point when the game doesn’t look stunning, even during some of the more complex platforming sections. The same can be said for the sound design and music, as both work in tandem with the art style to allow the player to immerse themselv...