Thursday, December 30, 2010

Naruto the Movie 2 and 3 review

Photobucket

Naruto the Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel
Naruto the Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom
Review

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow review

Photobucket

Naruto The Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow
The Review

What can I say about the Naruto series as a whole? Well, it’s an anime alright. From beginning to end, it shows that it stays true to the anime nature and provides us with several arcs worth of entertainment. Like with many anime, the Naruto series is adapted from a manga series. And like most manga adapted series, Naruto needs to stretch things out like a motherf … euh … you know, like one of those in order to stay behind of the Manga, which was still running at the time.
But, here we have Naruto the movie. It’s an original story set within the Naruto universe, using a few locations and characters from the series. Here we see a movie that has an actual budget, and it shows really well. So if you aren’t a fan of the series, should you take a gander at the movie?

Friday, December 24, 2010

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time movie review

Photobucket

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

In the year 2003, one of the world’s greatest games was released upon this world. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, was an amazing game that sold enough to warrant two sequels, a reboot and then a sequel to the original game but a prequel to the two games that followed after the original game. Yeah …

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Plug Tiem - Tren

Photobucket

I would like to point your attention to the Norwegian force of nature called Tren.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Half Life 2 review

Photobucket

Half Life 2, quick review

Disclaimer: this is a review of the main game of Half Life 2, not its episodes.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Kick-Ass review

Photobucket

Kick-Ass

The origins for this movie begin in 2008 when a comic book series was created called Kick-Ass. Written by Mark Millar (known for writing The Ultimates, Civil War, Ultimate Fantastic Four and Wanted) and penned by John Romita Jr., the comic book series gotten a lot of mixed reviews. In the end it was said that it looked great but read rather weak.

Before the first issue of the series was even published, the rights to the movie were already sold. The director, Matthew Vaughn, stated that writing the comic and writing the screenplay happened at the same time, making it more of an organic process. Of course, certain things were changed, but the fans of the movie that have read the comics state that it are changes for the better.

So, is the movie good? Is it bad? Let’s find out shall we? Oh, mild spoilers ahead so beware all ye who enter here. Just skip to the TO SUMMARIZE part if you wanna know what I find of this movie.

Photobucket

Story:

Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like if you were a superhero? There are a lot of injustices in the world and many of them go by noticed, without anybody interfering as they are afraid of their own life. If you were standing at your window and you saw someone getting kicked all over the place … would you go down to help? Yeah, you would call the cops if you weren’t noticed, but what if you were? What would you do?
This is how the movie begins, with Dave Lizewski asking himself these questions. Sometimes, you just have to do it. So he buys a costume off of e-bay and goes out in to the streets to kick some ass! Only to take more than he dishes out. A whole lot more. In fact, this guy gets his ass kicked so hard, his nerve endings stop functioning.
Eventually, the young kid finds himself to be way in over his head when he gets blamed by the big bad criminals for something done by two other characters, Big Daddy and Hit-Girl.
Big Daddy is an ex-cop who got framed  and is now seeking revenge for his time served. Who’s the target? The boss of said big bad criminals. With his is his eleven year old daughter, Hit-Girl.

Without getting in to much more of the plot, I can tell you the following:

For the movie being called Kick-Ass, it has little to nothing about the character in the end. Yes, it revolves around him and his need to do good in the world, but once he gets sucked in to the battle between Big Daddy and the criminals, he takes a back seat. And I mean literally take a back seat. He’s so far back you’d need a fucking binocular to see him. If he wasn’t dressed in this spiffy green and yellow costume that sticks out like a white rapper, you’d barely even notice him in the last parts of the movie. Which is kind of a shame because there was potential to go further with this character. There’s also an interesting sub plot going on with his love interest, which was on its own pretty good and downright hilarious.
Luckily, the trade off isn’t so bad. In place of him, the movie focuses more on Big Daddy and Hit-Girl, who are the most interesting characters of them all. On one side you see a loving father and a charming daughter, living their lives happily, doing what they want to do. They really love each other and it really shows. On the other side, Big Daddy is shooting his daughter in the bulletproof vest to get her accustomed to it and he’s giving her butterfly knives as a birthday present.
Another interesting character is that of Red Mist, who I wasn’t sure what to think of throughout the movie until the very end. Now here’s a character I really can’t say anything about without giving anything away, but let’s just say he’s got a personality that might be contradictive to what he is doing, making it look like he is actually disgusted with what he is doing and what is going on.
In the end the most interesting character was that of Hit Girl, who is by far the most kick ass character of this movie. On one side you’re thinking that she’s awesome and cool and whatnot, but then you realize that she’s just eleven years old and there she is swearing like a motherfucker and shooting people in the face.

What makes this plot so good is that it’s just so much more than what the trailer promised it would be. It isn’t just all action and comedy, but there’s also a lot of drama and deep moments that will stick with you until long after the movie is over. Especially the character of Hit Girl will make you think things over of how you’re supposed to feel about her. As I said, you wanna root for her but you also feel sorry for her.

Lastly, the humor is just fantastic. This movie will make you laugh a lot with it’s great jokes that sometimes come right out of nowhere. There’s this one fantastic moment near the end of the movie. Very dramatic and suspenseful as you have no idea what’s going to happen. If you want to know when, then all you need to know is that it’s the live broadcast, before the action sequence. You’re sitting there, marveling at the brutality of it all when suddenly … well, you’ll just have to see but DAYUMN, I laughed so hard.

Performances:

Overall, I can’t complain about any of the performances at all. But let’s take a look at the big ones.

Aaron Johnson plays Dave Lizewski. He plays the character quite well and very strongly if I might add. He makes the character seem believable and does a very good job of portraying being kicked in the ass and shown every corner of the room. Hell, after this movie he might just be a pro at it. Let’s just he doesn’t get typecast now or he might be in some real trouble.

ChloĆ« Grace Moretz as Mindy Macready, Hit Girl. PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR, people. Oscar worthy material if you ask me. She puts down one of the best superhero character I have ever seen before in my life. Unbelievable stuff, seriously. It definitely shows that she has a lot of talent and that she’s having a blast making this movie.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Red Mist. Above average performance, nothing special, but he is quite good at giving this character a deeper personality just by the emotions he portrays.

Mark Strong as Frank D’Amico. Great performance if you ask me, the way he does some of the lines is downright hilarious. The man can be a comic genius in this movie. Whether by nature or by good directing, I really enjoyed his performance. Just so dry throughout the entire movie.

Lyndsiy Fonseca as Katie Deauxma was almost stereotypical in character and in performance. She did it as good as she could, though it was sad to see her part go so underused as it could have been a bit more fleshed out. In the end, stereotypical love interest and nothing more.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST: NICOLAS CAGE AS BIG DADDY. Adam West meets Elvis meets Nolan’s Batman. That is best how to describe his performance. This might very well be the best batman I have ever before seen in my life. I shit you not. Not only is Big Daddy awesome, but the man behind the mask is a great guy as well. A little bit of a weird assed father, but a great guy and definitely a loving parent.
Truth be told, he was the perfect guy for the job because I honestly can’t see anyone doing the scene of the live broadcast without making it look comical. He really carried that scene and made it so touching that it almost made you want to look away.

Varia:

The action sequenses were immensely brutal, bloody and gory. However, it never goes that one step too far that most movies like that tend to do. Take for instance John Rambo, Rambo IV, First Blood Part whatever. That was one bridge too far if you ask me. Doesn’t take away the fact that the action in this game is murder and very realistic … as far as guys in green spandex go, but you get what I’m saying.
One thing I absolutely appreciated was that THE ACTION WAS FOLLOWABLE. Not once did I wonder what the fuck was going on. Though it did came pretty close (Live broadcast scene again). 

Soundtrackwise, this movie is making me want to pick up the CD. A rarity for me but this is making me want to go out there and buy the damned soundtrack. And I haven’t bought a CD in … ten … twelve years … give or take.

To summarize:

A very entertaining movie that doesn’t only deliver in action and comedy, but in story as well. It’s not without its flaws, not by a long shot, but it’s still a good movie in my eyes. A movie where you can forgive its flaws just because its so good. So therefore I want to give this movie a solid

8/10

What I really found to be great about this movie is the Hit-Girl controversy where people went all apeshit over the way she acted in the movie. Her response? “If I said one line of what I said in the movie in real life, I would be grounded for years!” She even goes as far as called Kick-Ass “the film” in interviews just because of that and at home she called it: Kick-Butt.

This has been Puddle Jumper reviewing Kick-Ass! 

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Team Fortress 2 tips & quick review

Photobucket

Team Fortress 2 - Tips and a quick review

Photobucket

It’s taken me a while *cough* but I’ve finally bought The Orange Box for the Playstation 3, the successor to the Half Life Generations box, where the Half Life, it’s expansions and a multiplayer game were bundled together.
My first impression of the game was literally that it sucked balls. There was just so much that I didn’t like about the game, things that were to heavy to ignore. I honestly thought that it was the worst multiplayer experience I’ve ever had.
But here we are, later in time and more experienced because of it. I’ve managed to study the game more closely and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not really that bad a game as I first presumed. Quickly mastering the controls, since they are fairly basic and generic even, I focused more on trying to understand the game instead of mastering it. Finding that it’s really all about tactics, I decided to really try and use strategy. Because, like always, good teammates are hard to find, I wasn’t only forced to take in account the enemy troops, but my own as well. What was on the field? Where were they? Are they any good?
What I also needed to take in effect was how crappy the game was. Take for instance the classes. Way outbalanced. The Heavy class is a class with double health and a rail gun. However, distance is shit and speed is shit. On short range, it has potential. But not much. Balancing him out is the fact you really can’t take him out easily. 6 direct hits with a missile and he wasn’t dead. A full 10 seconds of close contact flamethrower and he wasn’t dead. Barraging him with scatter shots with a scout from close range and he wasn’t even halfway dead.
Then there was the fact that the action is way to fast for your guns, making sure you’ll miss your shot most of the time. By the time you press shoot, the other person would have moved an inch and you’ll the shot by miles, no matter which class you are.
At one point, I was a pyro and the other guy was a pyro. We both had full health. I started flaming him from behind for a full two seconds before he turned around and started with me. He killed me and still had 15% health.
What breaks this game is its gameplay. But the music, the sound effects, the graphics and more are just insanely awesome.
I just wish people went to other maps now and then. All I see this day is Dustbowl and 2Fort.

Now it’s about 2 days after I wrote the above and I have to say that I somewhat changed my mind. Because, after a while, you start to get more acquainted with the game and you see something that lies a lot deeper. Therefore I wanted to amp up my time with the scout, really learn how to play it. After that I searched the internet for some educational guides and videos. And you want to know something? The scout is amazingly fun to play if you know how. But, I’ll get in to this in another blog.
Because of this, I feel a lot better about this game than I did before, seeing that it has a lot of potential and that it’s just a damned shame that it’s being neglected like this. I hope that with Valve’s new love for the consoles, they’ll soon release Team Fortress 3 as a game good enough to be stand-alone. Slap it on to The Pink Box with Half-Life 3 and Portal 2 and Voila! Awesome sauce. (Yes, I do think that they should skip Episode 3 and go straight for Half Life 3, making major changes to the formula in the process.)

Final score:

8/10

Last time I played I managed to find three points that could be very useful tips to other people. Even those who want to play this game on other platforms. So, ladies and gentlemen, here goes!

Photobucket

1) Know your classes!

Every class has its up and downs. Take for example the Scout. It’s a very fast character with a lethal swing and a very powerful, short-range weapon. Downside is that he has 25 less points of health than the average class. This class is best used on the offensive as support, or as a Zerg rusher when you’re on the defense. I’ve won countless of battles with the Scout just by Zerg rushing the enemy intelligence or the enemy control point.
But, when the time was right and I saw a shift in the enemy’s classes, then I too changed my class to something else. If the enemy’s defense became too strong, I would go Engineer and pull up a dispenser and a turret at our intelligence. If the balance was tipped and I was still alive, I would destroy that turret and set it up again at the enemy base if I could. If I died, I’d switch to a more devastating class to keep the enemy down. If you have your enemy pinned down to single locations, like their spawns, take a spraying class like a Pyro, a Heavy or a Demo. If you see a Sudden Death is imminent, become a medic and keep your troops healthy. When you see that the enemy has a lot of annoying fucking turrets, become a spy and SAP THEM GOOD.
Just know that the better you support your team, the better your team can cover you. Pick a class as your favorite and stick with it when your team is easily winning.
Most importantly though, don’t forget to fight as every class once in a while so that you know what you’re up against! Know their weaknesses and learn how to exploit them.

2) Know your maps!

Now this is an important one kiddies. Lucky for me, the only two maps being played at the moment are Dustbowl and 2Fort so I managed to learn these two maps rather quickly.
Learning your maps is always important in any game, but double so for this one. You see, in every corner, you have the probability of being shot to smithereens by a sentry gun. You wouldn’t even last a second. (cheaters not withstanding. And yes, I have encountered them a lot in this game, unfortunately.)
So not only do you have to get a good reading of where people usually place the sentries, but you have to know the places from where best to take them out if you’re not a spy. Or how to bypass them.
Another important aspect of this tip is that you know the quickest routes. Speed is everything in this game. The slower you are, the harder it’ll be to furfill your goal of the map.
Knowing every nook and cranny will also help you hide from attackers if your health drops too low. Normally I wouldn’t recommend this but this is the kind of game where you have to run back from your base spawn. And it’s a real pain in the ass.

As a last note on the previous two: Pay Attention to as much as you can.

3) Know yourself!

Combining the previous two items can be very tricky if you don’t have a firm grasp of what you like and what you can do. If you have seen videos or reviews or whatever of this game before, then don’t let that make the calls for you. Maybe you liked the Sniper in the Meet The Sniper video and you want to use him. All I can tell you is that you better get over it fast if you suck at it.
Also, know what you want to do. Do you want to be in on the action, be on defense or be support, then chose that and stick with it. Change it up once in a while if you must, but stick with what you can do best. The longer you play with one set, the more experienced and the better you become.
If you know yourself, then you know what to chose and then you can kick some ass. Remember, it’s not about points, but about getting victory for your team. The best way you can help out to achieve this is by doing what you do best.

This has been PJ and that have been tips and a quick review on Team Fortress 2. See ya.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Kamen Rider W review

Photobucket

There was a time when all I knew about Tokusatsu was the fact that Power Rangers was based off of Super Sentai. Then I was informed that all or most the ranger footage was of that series. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, was a very long time ago. I stand before you now having actually seen many seasons of not only Super Sentai, but Kamen Rider as well. And what a joyous ride it has been.
Today I wanted to review a little Tokusatsu series known as Kamen Rider Double/W. Before I kick it off though, I wanted to go a little deeper in to this Tokusatsu phenomenon and introduce some of you to it who haven’t been already.

Tokusatsu is a term from Japan that literally means “special filming”. However, it also applies to any live-action film or television drama that features superheroes and special effects.
It’s a term that is associated with various genres such as Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Staples in Tokusatsu, which CineMassacre fans should easily recognize, include Godzilla and Gamera.
Most of you who are reading this are probably familiar with the fact that America has released several series of their own which are adaptations of Tokusatsu series. These series include Beetleborgs, Masked Rider, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight and most known of all: Power Rangers. Now, here is where a lot of people could get the wrong conclusions. You see, Super Sentai and Kamen Rider have seasons that, if they were released in America, would hail upon them the wrath of soccer moms everywhere. If Lord Zedd was too frightening, just wait till they get a load of some of the villains in Sentai and Rider. (here’s a hint: they actually kill people.) Not only that, but Kamen Rider and Super Sentai have far more mature storylines than seen in any Americanized season. Take for instance Power Rangers Jungle Fury. It is nothing more than a watered down version of Gekiranger with far less character development and much less deep character development. They “dumbed it down”. Immensely too. That’s not to say the Japenese series aren’t kids shows. Because they are. But let me just say this: If America thinks that Lord Zedd would mentally corrupt and scare kids, Japan is filled with serial killers and sexual perverts. … Euh … *rereads the last two words* Never mind. 

With that said, let’s dig deeper in to the 2009-2010 series of Kamen Rider:



In general, every season of Kamen Rider stands on its own and is situated in its own private little universe. There have been exceptions in the past such as Agito, which is a successor to Kuuga. W is not a successor per se, but it takes place in the Decade universe (MUST SEE MUST SEE MUST SEE MUST SEE MUST SEE) which on its own is a Kamen Rider who travels from universe to universe. So technically W is situated in his own personal universe, only his world is connected to other worlds from the Decade universe. Yeah, it’s complicated, but you will find this out rather quickly. Because there’s actually something you need to know about Decade. You see, Decade’s season ended in a cliffhanger, which was to be concluded in a series of movies after the season. Enter Movie Wars. First was a movie about Decade and how things continued after the cliffhanger. Then came a movie introducing W whilst at the same time giving the backstory of how everything began. This movie ended as W’s world collided with Decade’s story.
Interesting to note here is that there’s a plot element in the season that gets resolved in these movies, as these movies take place mid W season, timeline wise. In the grand scale of things, you don’t need to watch the Decade movies, only the W oriented one. So check that out before you tackle the season.

Truth be told, I didn’t like W when I first saw that movie. It was interesting, but I didn’t really like the characters all that much. Just too goofy for my taste. Were it up to me, I never would have even watched the season. But, after recommendations, praise and very positive reviews, I decided to give it a go anyways.



Can’t have a review of a TV series without discussing the theme song, amirite? Simply put, this is by far the best theme song to any series I have ever heard. Not only does it perfectly match the series which it is for, but it is also a perfect song to use in the series to add to the emotions a particular scene is invoking.
The more that I watched of the season, the more that the theme song grew on me. In the end, I got goosebumps just listening to the theme song. Usually, when I’m watching the final episodes of a TV series that I like and the theme song kicks in, I just zone out till it’s over so I can get to the good stuff without having to listen to the same song I’ve heard way too much. Not now though. I sat there and listened to every glorious second of it.

Story:

W takes place in the fictional city of Futo, also called the Windy City. No, not Chicago. Anyhoo, the story revolves around private dick Shotaru Hidari and his partner Philip. Why did I call him a private dick? Because that is his character. But I’ll get more in to that later. Now, the two of them run a private investigative service that used to belong to their boss, a former Kamen Rider by the name of Sokichi Narumi, father of Akiko Narumi who joined Shotaro’s and Philip’s ranks in the first episode. Besides doing normal PI business, the two also seem to attract some of the more abnormal cases, which is exactly how they want.
The City of Futo, you see, is being plagued by these USB sticks called GaiaMemories that can turn human beings in to Dopants, monstrous beings. Creators and distributors of these GaiaMemories  are the Sonozaki family, a rich and powerful family that sells them to criminal and people who would be interested in buying them for personal reasons. That is where Shotaro and Philip come in. Because of them being Kamen Rider Double, they found themselves quite capable of handling these dopants, solving these cases rather efficiently. And so more and more people come to them to handle these kind of jobs.
This is the basic premise of the show and it sticks to this rather nicely. Throughout their journey however, they discover new things and the case of the Dopants grows exponentially. Soon, new enemies appear, new allies appear and the entire thing gets more and more personal.
The draw of Kamen Rider W is the mystery of Philip and who he is, plus what the deal is with the Sonozaki family and the organization they run called Museum. But the one thing that pulled me in was the intense stories of the cases that Shotaro and Philip partook in. Especially the emotional involvement of the people turned Dopant or the story of the victims. Things can get really deep and emotional sometimes that it really makes you wish that the particular story wouldn’t end. Bad news was that it did end. Good news were that most of these fillers were double episodes and that a new story was waiting.
However, as intense and emotional that the series might be, there were a lot of silly episodes definitely created for the kids. Although they did made me chuckle many times, even luring out a good laugh now and then. Might be offputting for a lot of people. I know that it threw me off in the movie. But it only took me a few episodes to get over that and really enjoy the series, no matter how silly it got.
Like I said earlier, Tokusatsu can get rather dark. Too dark for some western soccer moms that can topple entire government if they wanted to. This series is the same. Not only do people die, but things get pretty dark in the emotional sense as well. Plus, and this is a little spoiler here, seeing someone explode in to a million frozen pieces when he was just alive a few seconds ago is rather disturbing.

Characters:

Shotaro Hidari is the former pupil of Detective Narumi, head of the Narumi Detective Agency. After his demise, Shotaro took over alongside Philip, mourning the loss of his boss and the circumstances in which it happened. The man likes to call himself a being a hard-boiled detective. Like in the old private eye stories, hard-boiled means that he has a tough attitude, confronts danger and engages in violence on a regular basis. A hard-boiled detective is cool, cocky and flippant. Through the course of the season though, it becomes quite clear that Shotaro is clearly half-boiled, as he is being pointed out as being several times by his friends.
The man’s heart is pure and good. He will always do what’s right and he will never give up on his friends. Always will he try and find a way to solve the case and save everyone.
He is definitely my favorite character in the entire series. Not only does he look the part, but he also acts like a cool detective. The man’s just awesome, no going around that. Although usually it’s his friends that make him look like a fool.

Philip is Shotaro’s partner, the brains of the duo. During the events of the W movie we are informed that Philip is not his real name. Instead it’s a name that Shotaro gave him. Named after the great detective Philip Marlowe, Philip has lost his memory and only knows that he wanted to escape the facility he was being held at.
The reason why he is the brains of the operation is because he can access something called the Planet’s Library, a plain of existence that contains all the knowledge of the world in the shape of books. Shotaro provides keywords that Philip can use to narrow down on the selection of books until one book remains, which will contain the knowledge needed to solve the case. Unfortunately for Philip, the one book he can not read is the book about his past.
Whilst Shotaro is subject to the most development in personality, Philip is most prone to get development in his backstory. And boy, what a backstory it is. Very engaging story that becomes a tearjerker in the end.
At first, Philip’s character was the one that threw me off the series the most. The more I got to know him though, the more I started to learn that he is like that for a reason and that he can’t help it. Like Shotaro, I just had to accept it and learn to deal with it. And also like Shotaro, his flaws didn’t stop me from eventually liking this character.

Akiko Narumi is the daughter of Shotaro’s boss, coming to Futo to first tell Shotaro and Philip that they are being kicked out of the building they used as an office, seeing as she inherited it from her father. But, once she finds out what the two are about, she joins them and … well … takes over in a way. She renames the agency, creates this “cute” website and starts handling cases and all. All this whilst twisting the duo’s thumb with the fact she can kick them the fuck out if she wants to. Akiko is the character that will surprise you here and there with some very good character development, but for the most part she’s just being Akiko.
I like her character a lot, even though she is the most annoying and childish character of the bunch that can really have me facepalm. She carries around these green slippers that she keeps hitting Shotaro with and at first I was like: Urg, but in the end I found it to be great when she did it.
It’s this character for whom you need to watch the Movie Wars film for. You see, a major point in her character development is handled in that movie.

Ryu Terui is a man who joins the Futo Police Department mid season. At first we’re not sure what his deal end, but it soon becomes very clear that he is indeed a good guy, but his back story is clouding his mind and judgment, making him do things that aren’t exactly good. Like with Akiko, his character starts off a bit strong, and though he is still like that in the end, you also have gotten acquainted with all new sides to him, creating a deeper character whom I liked a lot as well.
He is also a second Kamen Rider, namely Accel. The reasons for his appearance and the story he is involved in I’ll leave for you to find out. Just know that it’s a dark part of the story that certainly would have been watered if it were ever to be Americanized. Which I hope doesn’t. God damn you Jungle Fury. Damn you to hell! 

Coming up on our last two paragraphs here for the characters. First up we have the Sonozaki family. Out of all the Kamen Rider series that I have seen, the character development for these characters is aplenty and phenomenal. Reminded me a lot of the character development in Gekiranger where in the end you actually start to care for a few of these family members. Whilst the overarching plot for this family is pretty basic, it’s the personal stories that bring the juice. And a lot of juice it is.

Lastly we have the side characters. These range from characters in the Futo Police Department to the Futo Irregulars. The Irregulars are denizens of Futo that Shotaro goes to for information and assistance. They do their jobs nicely and not one of them you wish off screen. In fact, you’ll look forward to seeing them again. Very good group of characters that added a lot to the experience.

Kamen Rider Double:

Photobucket

I wanted to devote an entire section on this Kamen Rider as it is the main protagonist after all. W isn’t just a man who can transform in to a Kamen Rider, it’s two men that partner up in to a single rider.
During the events of the movie, Shotaro is given a Double Driver belt and his three GaiaMemories from Philip who has his own belt and three GaiaMemories. Philip and Shotaro transform, using a very cool scene and the transform staple: Henshin. As the W suit forms around Shotaro, Philip’s mind is transferred in to W, effectively controlling one side of the body.
There’s Six GaiaMemories that these men can use, three each. W is split up in to two halves so that when one side switches GaiaMemories, his half is turned. Thus creating a numerous number of combinations that each have various uses in the field.

Shotaro’s Memories include:
Joker - The martial arts enhancing memory
Metal - The strong and defensive memory
Trigger - The pistol carrying memory

Philip’s Memories include:
Cyclone - The fast memory
Heat - the fire memory
Luna - the agile memory

With so many Memories to use, the battles as seen in the series never become dull or “been there seen that”.  To me it always felt rather fresh and exiting each time that Shotaro and Philip battled one of the Dopants.  Everything becomes so strategic that you yourself start thinking what’s best for them to use.
The thing that I fancied the most was that every combination was very strong and very useful. Take for instance LunaTrigger. Shit be going Wanted right there, son. Bending bullets is SERIOUS BUSINESS.

Anyways, Double also has some very cool gadgets by his side like a motorcycle called the HardBoilder, which he can strap a rocket on to, a jet ski or an air glider. Cool stuff, whish I had one of those. But seriously, it’s actually a pretty cool bike, which Shotaro even drives when not W.

Other gadgets include the RevolGarry, a truck/garage that holds the HardBoilder’s other modes and the memory gadgets which are gadgets operated by a GaiaMemory. Now these are pretty nifty. One of these gadgets is a camera that can turn in to a bat and fly on its own to take pictures. Another is a frog that can record voices and alter them. And so on and so on. Cool little trinkets that gives the entire Private Eye thing another edge.

Quite obviously this isn’t it. I mean, what would a Tokusatsu be without an upgrade of some kind. These come in the form of another W GaiaMemory for Philip (which I won’t say anything about) and an upgraded CycloneJoker.

I can’t talk about Double without mentioning the coolest thing that I have ever seen before in my life. When Double is facing an opponent, at one point or another, Shotaro or the two together will suavely raise his hand, point at the Dopant and say: Now, count up your crimes. At first I just thought that was cool as all hell, but in the end I found that to be just plain damn awesome beyond belief, giving me goosebumps every time it happened.

The Tokusatsu part:

This leads me to the final part of this review before I wrap it up. Seeing as it is a Tokusatsu series about a guy in leather and shit fighting guys in rubber suits, there’s going to be action. How does it fair? Well … the effects are blatantly obvious, but too awesome to suck. You know those movies where the effects are blatantly obvious and they suck, well, this isn’t it. For once, the effects are quite cool. Combined with the action sequences, you barely even notice them because of how awesome the shit is that you’re seeing.

The Kamen Riders look amazingly cool, especially the scarf on one side of W. It really has this Private Eye feel to it. Quite cool. The monster look great as well, though sometimes it’s borderline absurd. Like the T-rex monster. That was just embarrassing. Still, it’s forgivable considering it was a great and outstanding episode.

Final words:

Kamen Rider W is a fantastic series with an amazing story, outstanding characters, average effects and great music. It’s a great way to start off Kamen Rider with if you’re new to the series. To me this series deserves a well earned

9.5/10

Sometimes a man who doesn’t do decimals just has to dish it out. A ten is out of the question, as the series is nowhere near perfect, but it’s just so damned good. Let’s just say this, the final two episodes of W made me cry. First of the two made me cry out of sorrow and the last one made me cry out of joy. That is how involved I had gotten with the series.
The only other time that I had that with a Tokusatsu series was with the aforementioned Gekiranger series.

Check it out if you can! This has been Puddle Jumper. Now, count up your crimes!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Tomb Raider Reboot in GI

Photobucket

The Tomb Raider franchise has been less than stellar in it’s last 3D adventure where Lara Croft was continuing the adventure started in Tomb Raider Legend. Between these two installments was a title paying homage to the original game, serving as a remake of the original game and another entry in the Legend universe. However, it became quite clear that the series was going the same route as it’s PS1 brethren. Is Game Informer about to bring information to the world that the fans have been crying out for, for years?

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Jag Special: Green Lantern


A lantern is a member of the Green Lantern Corps, a police organisation of the Guardians, tasked with protecting the known DC universe. Existing for over three billion years, the Corps has grown to have at least 7200 members, known as Green Lanterns. 
The story of the greatest Green Lantern of all time, Hal Jordan, is being put on the big screen. Ryan Reynolds will be picking up the ring of the Green Lantern to grace us with what looks to be a fantastic movie.

Friday, December 3, 2010

LGR: Jak and Daxter series

Photobucket

With the Sly series getting an HD collection on the Playstation 3, I couldn’t help but wonder what other franchise would benefit from having an HD upgrade like that. The first thing that popped to mind is this series. Now, whilst there are many other series that deserve one, which I hope they get, I honestly hope that this series gets it first.
So, how best to portray how I feel about this series and why it deserves this, just read and find out in this completely new episode of:


Last Gen Reviews

Jak and Daxter series