James and I wrap up our thoughts on this year’s E3 with a quick run-down of everything revealed at Square Enix and Nintendo’s presentations.
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My VG Music Picks #80 – Haunted Castle: Lap Music (Team Sonic Racing)
When it comes to music for spooky or haunted areas, you usually get something slow and ominous. Something atmospheric; not the sort of thing you’d blast out of your radio whilst cruising down a highway. But you can’t have something like that for a racing game, especially one starring Sonic the Hedgehog – a character who’s whole thing is going really fast. Well, that’s where musician Tee Lopes steps in. Continue reading
Let’s Play Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!: Episode 7 – The Tomboyish Mermaid! VS Misty!
After acquiring a new teammate, we arrive in Cerulean City, ready to take on the Water-type Gym Leader, Misty. Will we make a splash or sink like a rock?
The Entertainment Dome Episode 115 – The Phantom E3 Episode Part 1
With E3 officially wrapped up, it’s high time James and I discussed all the games that were shown off during the event! We start off by covering the announcements from Microsoft, Bethesda and Ubisoft.
Team Sonic Racing – Does Teamwork Make the Dream Work?
Back when Team Sonic Racing was first teased with an incredibly vague and short trailer, I wasn’t exactly impressed or excited. At the time, Sonic Forces had left me rather bitter about how Sega was handling the series, and I didn’t think they had earned enough goodwill to only hint at a new title and expect me to be invested. However, as time passed and more info was revealed, I was eventually coaxed back like a badger out of its sett. The fact that Sega had brought Sumo Digital on board to develop it was the primary reason since I really enjoyed their last two Sega-themed racing games, especially Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
But there was still some scepticism, and I wasn’t the only one. The focus was entirely on Sonic and friends this time and, rather than do what every other mascot kart racer did and just copy and paste Mario Kart, Sumo Digital were doing something very different and making a racing game where players would race in teams and have to work together in order to win. It was certainly a unique premise, but after being consistently disappointed by so many Sonic games over the last few years, there was this constant fear that I was setting myself up to be let down again.
So is Team Sonic Racing a worthy Mario Kart alternative? Is it even as good as Sumo Digital’s previous work? Or is it just a gimmicky failure? Continue reading
Favourite Moments in Fiction #21 – VS Lusamine/Mother Beast (Pokémon Sun and Moon)
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Pokémon Sun and Moon
Lusamine is easily my favourite villain in the entire Pokémon series. Aside from having a simple but sleek design, she’s deliciously despicable to boot. She’s able to present herself as a calm, intelligent and caring woman when, in actuality, she’s obsessive, arrogant and emotionally abusive to her own children. This makes her a great antagonist that you enjoy battling, just so you can wipe that smug smirk off her face and prove her wrong. But I want to focus on the second battle with her, mostly because of how unique it is for the series. Continue reading
Let’s Play Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!: Episode 6 – Team Rocket
Our party undergoes some changes as we explore Mt. Moon, where we also deal with an antagonistic group that are plotting to steal fossils.
The Entertainment Dome Episode 114 – You Can’t Gamify Sleep!
Last week on The Entertainment Dome, Attack on Titan prompted me to pull out the conspiracy board once more, James had opinions to share on some new games he played and we weren’t particularly impressed with some of the new Pokémon announcements.
My VG Music Picks #79 – Boss Battle (Learn with Pokémon: Typing Adventure)
There have arguably been much weirder Pokémon spin-offs that have been made, especially at the time of writing (Pokémon Sleep? Really? That’s a thing?), but I distinctly remember raising an eyebrow when this one got announced. At the end of the day, it’s ultimately harmless – an edutainment title packaged with a DS-compatible keyboard and designed to help kids learn how to spell and touch type via catching Pokémon. As big of a Pokémon fan as I am, I passed on it since it didn’t really appeal to me, and I imagine a lot of people felt the same way. But then someone discovered the boss music. Continue reading
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu – An Amazing Adaptation or Shockingly Bad?
When children hear the words “live-action Pokémon movie,” they get excited. When adults hear those words, however, they inwardly cringe. Live-action adaptations of videogames and animated properties both share notorious reputations for being pretty much always bad, so you can’t blame most of us, upon hearing that Hollywood were going to give Nintendo’s most prolific RPG series the same treatment, to place our faces in our hands and groan.
But then that very first trailer dropped and, suddenly, people started to say “Actually, this looks pretty good.” Early impressions indicated that Pokémon: Detective Pikachu would avoid every pitfall that other movies of its ilk had fallen into. Fans’ expectations went from nil to a hundred, but were we right to trust those trailers? Is it even a good adaptation of the game it’s based on? Is it something only the purest of Pokémon fans can enjoy? Continue reading
