Games
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VIVA LUCHA!
On the Table
Alright, I liked Luchador more than I let on. It’s really good, definitely a very fun, very well-executed dice game. But you do have to play it with people who get that you have to use bad language and get really invested in winning one of those little belts. I think I may actually like it better than King of Tokyo, which would be something because I usually cite that as my favorite dice game. But this one has just a little more, I think, and it avoids the piles of ability cards that can over-complicate KoT.
I would LOVE to see this game get licensed up with something like the AAA Lucha Libre promotion or even some of the independent ones in the US. I’m sure WWE is out of the question, but if their product department is somehow listening- this would be a GREAT game to slap John Cena or whoever on and put in Target. Even with just the basic rules.
More Super Fantasy, which I absolutely adore…I’m kind of wondering about the point of traps in it…I mean, if you see it there…don’t step on it! I do kind of fear that Temple of Elemental Evil will push it to the side though.
More Doombad too, just solo on it though…it is such a weird game…but I think there’s actually some genius in it, I’m really hooked on this idea it has to thread the needle between specific, positional miniatures play and abstracted “melee or ranged” proximities. I also really like this notion of tooling up to get into the three big approaching fights, I think that’s a cool idea.
My top secret project is about to be revealed, stay tuned.
On the Consoles
Bloodborne, practically religiously. It is one of the best games I’ve ever played, and I think it is the best of all of the From Software titles. The refinement on display is remarkable, the design work is quite literally the best in the business. And the production design is up there with Metal Gear and Bayonetta. So many aspects of this game just blow me away.
I’ve also been hitting Link’s Awakening on the DS. It was originally a Game Boy title, later released for the Game Boy Color. The interesting thing is that it was done by the same team that did A Link to the Past, which is tied for best Zelda game ever with Wind Waker. So it has some of the same qualities, but it also gets a little weird. There’s no time-jumping, dimension-shifting or anything like that…it’s weird in a different way. One way is that is has all of these references to Mario games. You go into this side-scrolling area and there are Goombas. You deliver a photograph to this guy and it’s Princess Peach (signed, “Christine”?!) Then there’s these random houses with phones in them that let you talk to this unseen guy that tells you what to do next.
Overall, it’s really good and it definitely sates that 2D Zelda craving I was having.
Picking up Xenoblade Chronicles on the 3DS tomorrow…it’ll be my third go at starting it, I think I’ll get further into it with a handheld than a console.
On IOS
I’m telling you, that Star Wars Rebels game is awesome. It is the best action platformer on IOS. It’s definitely influenced by Super Star Wars (although not as punitively difficult) and it’s a blast to play. It is kind of weird that Zeb is just the guy you go to in the hideout to build stuff, he really should have been playable. Maybe DLC later on, I dunno.
Also, Duck Tales! Well worth ten bucks…again.
On the Screen
Six episodes into Mushishi…I just absolutely adore it. There’s a sense of naturalism about it that is both pastoral and vaguely menacing. This is a great series to show to people who think that anime is just a bunch of childish jibber-jabber, schoolgirls, and incomprehensible sci-fi. It’s quite sophisticated, intelligent, gentle and lyrical.
I watched Metropolis, the 2002 picture directed by Rintaro, written by Katsuhiro Otomo and based on manga by Osamu Tezuka. Talk about bringing together generations! That makes the film somewhat more interesting than it actually is, to some degree…it’s pretty good, but not great. Tezuka’s character designs are intact, so they have that more cartoony, almost Seegar-ish quality to them, but the scope and scale of the story and backgrounds is way bigger. It’s kinda-sorta based on the classic Lang film, but definitely in a more anime context. There’s some really cool scenes in it and some beautiful animation, but it kind of feels hollow. The jazz score is something only the Japanese would do, but it gives the whole thing a very Gilded Age feel- which is kind of cool.
More Tezuka- showed the kids the first Unico movie, which is still weird as balls. Not as much as the second one, Unico and the Island of Magic, but there’s still some strange things in it. I actually liked it better than I remembered, which is probably in part due to the fact that the DVD is really nicely transferred, unlike the bootleg-ass tapes I had 20 years ago where the whole thing looked like a messy blur. Bonus points for it actually having Japanese language and subs as well as a pretty decent dub that seems like it’s better than the old one I remember. I actually didn’t realize that Sanrio produced them, so that finally explained why Hello Kitty has a cameo in it. Scarlett loved it.
On Spotify
Totally coming up dry lately, not really wanting to listen to anything after my whirlwind love affair with Sparks. Need something new. Thinking about finally breaking down and listening to Faith No More.
