Category Reviews

May 20 2023

Why The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the Most Legendary Game on the Switch

It’s no secret that Zelda fans have been waiting for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (TOTK), the sequel to Breath of the Wild (BOTW)  to drop, after all, it won the Game of the Year award in 2017, and is considered to be one of the best Nintendo Switch games you could play. After seven long years of waiting, we finally have the game in our hands to play. Is it any good? Is it worth the wait and money? Is it better than BOTW? To answer all of those questions, I say yes!

Story Synopsis

Tears of the Kingdom starts us off under Hyrule Castle, maybe 3-ish years after the events of the last game, exploring the depths because of a substance called Gloom was making people in Hyrule ill. After a little of exploration, you as Link find murals that depict an ancient civilization called the Zonai, and how they played a major part in the creation of Hyrule.

After reading these murals and traveling the depths, you reach a mysterious room where you see a corpse attached to an arm on its chest. The corpse wakes up, starts talking directly to you, and attacks you, which leaves Link’s right arm swallowed in Gloom and the Master Sword shattered. Then the corpse lifts Hyrule Castle into the sky, which sends the corpse and Zelda plummeting down below. You try to reach out for her to no avail and you are saved by the mysterious arm..

You then wake up on an island in the sky with the arm attached to your right arm to make your arm functional again. The arm belongs to a Zonai named Rauru, and he tells you to explore the sky islands, defeat the awakened Ganondorf, and find Zelda.

Gameplay

The fundamental gameplay in TOTK is (surprise surprise) about the same as it was in BOTW, with major new additions. The physics, weapons, armor, food, sprint, and health bar are all the same. They did, however, throw in a lot of major gameplay mechanics to spice things up.

Ultrahand:  Ultrahand is a fun new upgrade from Magnesis in the previous game, but works with any non-living objects. You can put things together, like logs and wheels, to create basically anything you can think of! I will admit, it does require a little bit of getting used to, but once you master it, you can become as creative as you mind lets you! This is easily one of the most fun gameplay mechanics in this game.

Fuse:  Have you ever wished your weapons would be stronger in a game? Maybe you wanted to get creative and mix together weapons? Well now you can with the Fuse ability! You’re allowed to fuse any weapon or shield to practically everything else! And yes, you can use it on your arrows too, which gives your arrow shots special abilities and deal extra damage.

Ascend:  They may have taken away the champion abilities from the last game, but don’t cry over Revali’s Gale, because Ascend can do just that, but way better! Using Ascend lets you dive straight up into any solid surface, and you emerge on top of it. Have you ever gotten stuck in a cave or room? Just use Ascend to end up on the roof!

Recall:  Last but certainly not least, there is Recall. Recall lets you reverse the direction or movement of basically anything in the click of a button. It can come really handy when you are wanting to return to the sky, because you can use Recall on rocks that have just fallen from the sky to ride them back up!

There is one more ability to use, but it is optional and satisfying to find, so I won’t spoil that just yet. With your abilities you are free to explore and interact with the massive sky, surface, and depths of Hyrule at your own pace! We have only scratched the surface of what this game can offer (pun definitely intended).

Shrines and Dungeons

Shrines are back in this game, with a major design overhaul and creativity surge. Shrines in Tears of the Kingdom can be used to teleport back to places you may want to return to later, but also beating them will give you a Light of Blessing. When you have collected four of them, you can go to a statue and pray to unlock a new heart (max 40) and part of your stamina wheel (max 3). There are 152 shrines in this game to unlock, so you already have plenty to do off the bat!

When you have collected four of Light of Blessings, you can go to a statue and pray to unlock a new heart (max 40) and part of your stamina wheel (max 3). There are 152 shrines in this game to unlock, so you already have plenty to do off the bat!

A major complaint in Breath of the Wild was the lack of traditional Zelda dungeons, which were replaced by mediocre boring puzzles that all had the same design. Well, you may be happy to hear that this game has actual dungeons again, although not traditionally styled. Each dungeon has its own design theme being based on a different element and requires you to solve rather tricky puzzles about 4-6 times to unlock your way to the dungeon boss. The way that its not considered a traditional dungeon design is because its more open and not linear with keys and specific objectives. Each one is so much fun and really requires you to think hard about your next move.

Overworld Bosses and Enemies

The enemies in the overworld areas contain the same monsters from last game, but heavily evolved over the time skip, and new enemies entirely. There are also Zonai Constructs lurking in the sky for any intruders. The enemies can also team up with entirely different enemy life. For example, I have seen multiple times that an Aerocuda would carry a Bokoblin or Lizalfos to make for a deadly air-drop combo. This game is also way more challenging than BOTW, and everybody will swing at you and will not pull any punches!

There are also new overworld bosses to fight. Boss Bokoblins lurks with a group of Bokoblins and will act as the ringleader of the bunch. Lynels return and are just as challenging as they were in BOTW, so keep your reflexes sharp, as well as your sword. My favorite new overworld boss has to be the legendary Gleeoks returning from the first Zelda game, but with a massive buff. I always get scared of these giant three-headed terrors!

Overall Thoughts

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is easily the best game you could play on the Nintendo Switch. It has amazing and almost endless gameplay, beautiful graphics as well as a masterful environment, and a very emotional story. I highly recommend that you play it if you loved BOTW, because this game somehow makes it look like a beta version. This game took me a whole week to beat, and it is genuinely impressive how there is always something to do at all times when playing this game! My only complaint would be that there are some parts where the frame rate would get bad, but that is because of the hardware it is on; they actually did an amazing job working around the limits of the Nintendo Switch! Definitely worth the $70 price tag this time around!

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May 5 2023

Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 3 Perfectly Concludes A Classic Trilogy

Filmmaker James Gunn finishes his tenure at Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, the finale of his classic trilogy about misfit cosmic heroes.

Gunn has been able to maintain the same level of heart, humor and action throughout all three Guardians of the Galaxy film with the third film, and in some ways he elevated it with his MCU swan song.

Taking place years after the first two films and the events of the last Avengers films, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 brings back all the loony and loveable heroes. Now the owners of Knowhere, a cosmic mining station made up of a dead Celestial’s skull, the Guardians are more administrators than intergalactic heroes. The film begins with a flashback origin of Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a cybernetically and genetically enhanced raccoon with genius-level intellect. This tragic origin story peppers the film throughout and underscores the emotional and physical pain that Rocket endures in his life. The origin features some of the most gut-wrenching moments in the film and elevates Rocket into a true hero.

After the flashback we are taken to Knowhere where we meet again the other Guardians. Their leader Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) has become a drunk because he is unable to get over the loss of his girlfriend Gamora (Zoë Saldaña), who was killed during Avengers: Infinity War. Adding to his misery is that another version of Gamora from an alternate timeline exists, but she does not have any feelings for him. As his fellow Guardians try to console him, they are attacked by Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), a golden, artificially created super-powered person. Though he is defeated by the Guardians, he gravely injures Rocket before he leaves them. The rest of the film focuses on the efforts of Quill and the other Guardians to find a way to save their friend. The other Guardians include the powerful but dim-witted Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket’s BFF, the tree-like Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), the empath Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and the cyborg Nebula (Karen Gillan). During their intergalactic journey, they soon cross paths with the insane geneticist and Rocket’s creator, the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), who has been hunting Rocket for his own diabolical purposes.

While the film continues the same irreverent tone as the previous entries in the trilogy, it does stand on its own due to its more mature atmosphere. The characters have grown since we first saw them in 2014 and are looking for something more with their lives. This was a rather unexpected and logical thing to do with the characters, because while they have become a family unit, they have to evolve and continue in their own journeys. The core characters, especially Rocket and Peter Quill, each have their own unique arcs and level of development, whether they have to deal with their painful pasts or prove they are much more than what others think of them. Rocket and Quill’s arcs have powerful and engaging arcs that form the heart and soul of the film and elevate it above standard superhero films. These character moments were richly satisfying and came to appropriate conclusions.

Unlike the other films, there is an intense feeling of dread and melancholy that pervades the film as the Guardians face their potential doom at every corner. Without giving anything away, there were many moments where I thought that was it for certain characters. This shows how intensely we’ve become attached to these plucky and quirky heroes. James Gunn skillfully exploits our feelings with each peril he throws at them.  What helps underscore this mood is that Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 is not as goofy as the other films, although it has its fair share of laugh-out scenes. That is alright. This film avoided the missteps of Thor: Love and Thunder where that film got lost in its over-indulgence of silly humor to the detriment of some of its subject matter. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 succeeded where the last Thor film did not in that it treated much of its subject matter seriously and avoided inappropriate silliness.

While the High Evolutionary is the best villain the Guardians have faced in their films, he could have used more nuance, although Iwuji does a fantastic job in his performance as a callous and dismissive scientist with a twisted heart. His cruel actions towards his test subjects, including Rocket during the flashbacks, are a vivid and emotional presentation of one of the film’s themes about animal cruelty and the morality of using animals for scientific research. What the High Evolutionary does to Rocket and others makes us openly hate him. To be honest some of the scenes featuring the High Evolutionary’s test subjects may be too intense for some viewers. So be warned.

The other actors in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 put in some of their best performances. You could tell they are very invested in their characters and knowing this film will be their final time playing the characters, they elevate their craft beautifully. What helps, of course, is that unlike many sequels, the characters are allowed to grow and evolve. Thanks to their performances and how the characters were written, by the time the film comes to its end many viewers will be openly crying, while the rest will pretend they have something in their eyes.

There are a few minor nitpicks with the film that are not really worth mentioning. Maybe Adam Warlock could have used more screentime, but so could have other characters like Kraglin (Sean Gunn), but they do get their moments to contribute and shine, and even give a hint of what is to come.

How does Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 compare to the others in the trilogy? Well, it is much better than the second film and is about on level with the first one, though they are both distinctly different from one another. Given its level of greatness, it is easily one of the finest MCU films, and the best one in recent years, aside from Spider-Man: No Way Home and Avengers: Endgame.  Given the recent missteps in the MCU, it is a joyful relief that the cinematic universe can still deliver a film that emotionally involves us.  

José Soto

Apr 21 2023

Star Trek: Picard Concludes With A Bold New Legacy

The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard just streamed its last episode, titled appropriately enough “The Last Generation”, and it was a brilliant finale to an exceptional season for the TV show.  *Warning: Spoilers will follow.

Star Trek: Picard as a series has been a mixed bag of a Star Trek show. While it was great to see Patrick Stewart reprise his role as retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, some of the episodes in the first season were not as well executed as they should have been. Meanwhile, the second season started strong but soon fell apart and became a big disappointment. So, in the final season of Star Trek: Picard, the showrunners, led by Terry Matalas, pulled out all stops to make this a worthy swan song to the legacy of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG). This included reuniting the core cast of that beloved TV show and numerous Member Berries recalling not just Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the original Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and even other media like Star Trek Online. And you know what? It worked!

The third season of Star Trek: Picard quickly engaged viewers with reunions and beguiling mysteries that threatened the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet. Picard received a plea for help from Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), who he has not spoken to in decades. She and her young adult companion Jack (Ed Speleers) operate independent of the Federation and deliver medical aid to those that need it. They are also pursued by mercenaries led by the mysterious Vadic (Amanda Plummer). The problem is that Crusher is located just outside Federation space and Picard needs to find a way to get to her.

Picard enlists the help of his best friend and former first officer of the Enterprise-D, Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), along with Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), who is the first officer of the Titan-A (a nice nod to Riker’s offscreen adventures as captain of the previous Titan). Together, they commandeer her ship to the edge of Federation space to rescue Crusher and Jack, who turns out to be Picard’s son. Their efforts unveil a vast conspiracy against Starfleet and the Federation itself involving Changelings (last seen in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and their unknown partner.

Everyone involved with the third season was at the top of their game and it was clear they were determined to turn the season into a love letter for fans. It is incredible that they succeeded as the TV show was exciting, full of emotion and great character moments. Some aspects of Star Trek: Picard evoked previous Star Trek tropes and plot points, but they were executed in a respectful and invigorating fashion that felt fresh. The best example of this were with the early episodes where Picard and the crew of the Titan-A played a cat-and-mouse game with Vadic and her ship the Shrike in a nebula that was clearly inspired by Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Then there was the major subplot of Picard getting to know Jack, which was similar to Kirk’s relationship with his son David in that film. But it worked because these moments were not exact duplicates of the famous Trek film but added new wrinkles. Of course, what sold it was the execution with memorable acting and topnotch production values.

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Apr 7 2023

The SUPER Mario Movie We’ve Been Waiting For

(SPOILERS WILL BE FLAGGED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PARAGRPAHS CONTAINING SPOILERS)

It is finally time that the Super Mario Bros. franchise gets an ACTUAL movie (don’t bring up the 1993 live-action one…), but is it any good? Critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic gave the movie a 55% and a 47%. Those are low very low scores compared to the audience scores, which are a high 98% and an 86%. Why are the critic scores so low? This will be discussed later in the article; anyway, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, in my opinion, is a fun and referenced-packed adventure that can be watched by all ages, but is especially more enjoyable for the biggest Mario fans. Of course, it isn’t perfect. As my main issues are with the general pacing which leads to lack of substance in some scenes, as well as other scenes being pushed down to compensate with the little time the movie has.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie begins with out two brothers, Mario and Luigi, living in Brooklyn, New York struggling to get their new plumbing business off the ground and running. Their family do not help them at all, giving them words of scolding rather than encouragement. After seeing on the news that Brooklyn is having a massive plumbing problem, they rush to the scene, desperate to get their names out there. They arrive and pull some shenanigans, which then ends with them underground in a pipe maze. They find our iconic green pipe and get pulled into this warp dimension; Luigi gets sent to the Dark lands, and Mario to the Mushroom Kingdom.

The voice acting in this movie was stellar and I definitely owe everyone on the VA team an apology for my past pessimism when they were announced, especially with Chris Pratt as Mario. He was definitely one of the best performances in this movie, followed by Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, and Anya Talor-Joy as Princess Peach. How could we talk Mario without his original voice actor, Charles Martinet? It was confirmed that he would be in this movie, but I really wish we got to hear more of him, honestly.

The animation in this movie was stellar and groundbreaking compared to what Illumination usually churns out. You could really tell they improved a lot and cared about making this movie the best they could produce. The animation truly compliments the brilliant settings designed for this movie. But there are some parts where you could really tell that this was an Illumination film, not that that’s a bad thing this time around.

(SPOILERS) I will now talk about the number of references that I noticed in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Despite not being a big Mario fan, I was still able to pick out a LOT of fun refences sprinkled into this movie. My favorites being references to other Nintendo games, like Star Fox and Punch-Out, and the worldbuilding and designs in this film. The Mushroom Kingdom was amazing and masterfully crafted with Easter eggs of the past Mario games; the Mushroom Kingdom was definitely my favorite place in the whole movie. Then there were Easter eggs to Super Smash Bros., which keeps the tradition that the Sonic the Hedgehog movies started of referencing the classic games that inspired the films.

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Mar 13 2023

The Last Of Us Is First As A Faithful Adaptation

The television adaptation of the video game The Last of Us concluded its first season on HBO Max. Ever since it premiered this past January, the TV show has received widespread acclaim from critics and fans for being both a faithful adaptation and for its quality.

The Last of Us stands apart from your typical post-apocalyptic fare in many ways. For starters, despite its premise being similar to other post-apocalyptic yarns, it does not involve undead flesh-eaters. It is more contemplative and offers richer character studies as the main characters face moral dilemmas every moment of their fragile existence.

The Last of Us takes place in an alternate world where a fungal infection that started in 2003 destroyed our society as the parasitic fungus, called Cordyceps, altered the brains of its victims and turned them into mindless savages. Their humanity gone, the infected victims ran rampant through society as they infected others though bites and savage attacks. During the outbreak, the world descended into anarchy and the United States basically became lawless as murderous gangs and warlords rule the land except for certain cities that are run by the tyrannical FEDRA (Federal Disaster Response Agency). FEDRA is barely able to maintain some meaure of order through an iron fist and are opposed by a rebel group called the Fireflies. The show picks up twenty years later and stars Pedro Pascal as Joel an embittered survivor who lives a hard existence in the crumbling remains of Boston, which is barely controlled by FEDRA.

Joel is hired by the leader of the Fireflies, Marlene (Merl Dandridge, who is the only actor to reprise the same role from the video game), to transport a young teenage girl called Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the country to a Firefly-operated medical facility. Joel soon learns that Ellie is immune to the Cordyceps and is humanity’s only hope to recover from the pandemic. At first distrustful and hostile towards each other, the two gradually form an intense bond as they travel through the hostile continent.

While it is true the basic premise strongly echoes that of Pedro Pascal’s other popular TV show, The Mandalorian, The Last of Us differs greatly because of its themes and dark nature.

At its core, The Last of Us is a character study of two hardened survivors and the emotional trauma they suffer and how they rely on each other to heal emotionally.

From the very first episode, we see the start of the pandemic and its immediate and devastating effect on our society as we follow Joel, who lost his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker). This event nearly destroys Joe,l who became hard, bitter and even cruel. We get hints that he did evil things in order to survive and his only goal is to reconnect with his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna), who is located in Wyoming. Unlike Joel, Tommy is shown to be more idealistic and was a member of the Fireflies. Joel, who is desperate to connect with a family member agrees to take Ellie with him from Boston to her destination out west.

During their journey, Joel and Ellie encounter different types of people who have fascinating and even tragic stories. One episode (“Long, Long Time”) was nearly devoted entirely to a survivalist named Bill (Nick Offerman) who finds a renewed purpose in life, which is to protect and love Frank (Murray Bartlett), a survivor that made his way to Bill’s fortified territory. While that episode showcased the good in humanity, the penultimate episode “When We are in Need” showed us the worst as Ellie is captured by David (Scott Shepherd), a monster who poses as a pastor and is a would-be savior for a desperate town.

Unlike the video game, which was more devoted to accomplishing tasks (get certain items to enter a room, as an example) or battling the infected or FEDRA, the TV show focuses more on exploring the characters and themes, such as collectivism versus individualism. This theme is very central in the last episode “Look for the Light” as we see that while Joel and Ellie are able to heal from their mental wounds they still deal with ethical and moral issues, especially Joel. The actions taken by the characters are very morally dubious and leave you wondering about their moral centers.

While this more nuanced and layered exploration of characters and themes will be appreciated by many seeking something different from all the recent zombie shoot-em-ups, it may leave fans of the classic video game disappointed. It is very faithful to the video game, with it even lifting entire lines of dialogue, and it has tons of Easter eggs and references to the game. However, at times the TV show is light on action scenes as the infected barely appear in some episodes. They do not feel like a constant threat like in the game or your typical episode of The Walking Dead, nor is it as violent. Instead we see the impact of the Cordyceps infection in the ruined landscape of America and how the pandemic brought out the worst in people.

It goes without saying that Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are the highlights of The Last of Us as the two have a natural chemistry which made their characters so endearing. Bit by bit, we see Joel quietly dropping his emotional barriers and rekindle his humanity as he forms a parental relationship with Ellie. She too, undergoes an emotional transformation as she learns about survival from Joel and looks up to Joel as the father figure she never had and needed. Through their ordeals, the two find a renewed purpose in life. For Joel his goal is to protect this young girl as he transferred his feelings over Sarah to her and in a sense accomplished with Ellie what he could not with Sarah. For Ellie, she becomes a Moses-like figure who is resolved to be able to lead humanity out of darkness with her immunity to the Cordyceps. How well they accomplished their purpose made for a wrenching finale as its emphasized how fragile and flawed the two really are.

The Last of Us is as captivating and intense as the classic video game. It also demonstrates that it is possible to be able to faithfully adapt engrossing video games into live-action media, as by the last seconds of the final episode, we’re left wanting to see more of this world and its characters.