Be Back In A Week: The Sequel (#211)

The title is a reference to a post I made around this time last year. So yeah, tomorrow I'm actually going on holiday for one week. Maybe it will be good, maybe it won't. Who knows? But anyway, I'm leaving tomorrow and I should be arriving back next Saturday, on August 6th. This means that unfortunately I will be missing Comic Con, since in the city where I live Comic Con is the 30th and 31st of July which is tomorrow and Sunday. I am pretty sad about this but I suppose there always is a next year. Actually, wasn't the world supposed to end today or something? Oh, who cares. If you're interested, I uploaded a video on my YouTube channel about my little 'break', which you can watch here. It's only a minute or so long.

Since I've not made too many posts lately and I won't be making any for at least a week now, I guess I should use this opportunity to talk about some games I got today! Me and one of my friends have been going to town a lot in the past couple months, mainly to get comic books. We also visit CeX a lot. Last time we were there I saw a copy of New Super Mario Bros for £18, which I think I've mentioned before, but New Super Mario Bros was the first game I ever remember playing, and definitely the first I ever owned, over 8 years ago. I didn't have any money on me at the time but since I had some left over from savings, I went there today by myself because I wanted to get NSMB to play on the car journey and to keep me entertained since I won't have much else to do. Also, I lost the game a good few years ago (I think I had two copies of it for some reason but I guess I lost both) so I wanted to get it again for the pure nostalgia. I went to CeX and unfortunately they didn't have the game. I had lots to spend though and I did find The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for DS! I've been interested in playing that for a while now since it's kind of a sequel to Wind Waker and since I wanted something to play on DS while I'm on holiday, I'm pretty satisfied. Also I can use my mobile data for a guide since I like to use those for Zelda games.

I got three other games as well. For Gamecube, I got Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, a game that seems extremely random but my friend recommended it to me if I ever saw it in a store because apparently it's a good game even though it's not known very well (also it's made by SEGA, specifically Sonic Team so good enough for me). Also, for PS3, I got Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster and Final Fantasy XIII-2. I've never mentioned Final Fantasy on this channel before, and I'm just getting into it now. See, lately I've been wanting to try some big RPG adventure style games, and I've always had a bit of a curious interest in the series. Also, I've been playing Kingdom Hearts 2.5 which I got a few weeks ago, and Kingdom Hearts is kind of a spin-off of the FF series. Last time I was at CeX I got FF XIII, and although I haven't played it yet, I plan to soon, and I also got Batman: Arkham Asylum for PS3 since my friend recommended it and I read a comic related to the more recent Batman: Arkham Knight. So, apart from Phantom Hourglass which I'll start tonight, I have a load of good games to play over the next month, which means I'll have stuff to play for the rest of my Summer holidays and most likely the rest of the year since I'm pretty sure the FF games are pretty damn big.

Anyway, when I get back, I'm planning to make a post about my plans for the FF series and how I'm going to play it. But I should probably actually play one of the games first :) Below I've included a photo of the seven games I talked about in the paragraph above.

My gaming life is lookin' good!

Also I plan to take a big paperback book of the Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day comic book arc that I got recently. It has around 20 issues of Spider-Man to read! And I might take Luigi's Mansion 2 for 3DS. I played through the original again recently with my friend and I've been playing the 3DS sequel quite a bit too.

Sorry for the weird camera angle!

Wait, last thing! I saw this masterpiece at CeX today.

You're not a true gamer if you haven't played this
magnificent piece of art.

Okay guys, see you in a while!

Thomas

Sonic 25th: TWO NEW SONIC GAMES! (#210)

Two days ago, on the 22nd of July, Sega held a four hour livestream celebrating Sonic's 25th anniversary, as a tribute to the greatest hedgehog in gaming who has now been around for a quarter of a century. Sega have been hinting for a long time now that there would be some kind of major Sonic news in the livestream; I know because I follow them on Facebook and Twitter, and they post lots of memes. Seriously. However, I was unable to watch the livestream because I'm pretty sure the time that it started here in the UK was like midnight and I didn't want to stay until like 4am, so I just decided it would be best to wait until the next morning. Well I was so excited to find out that during the stream two new major Sonic games were announced, and they look so great!

First of all is Sonic Mania. It's basically a game in the style of the old Genesis Sonic games like Sonic 1, 2, 3, Sonic and Knuckles, and Sonic CD for the Sega CD. I think some famous zones from these games will be returning, as we can see a little of Green Hill Zone in the trailer, but there will also be completely new zones! I like to think that this will be the true Sonic 4. Not that the official Sonic 4 was that bad but I feel like the physics in that game were weird and this will be much more like the old games. There's also a new move called the drop dash. Sonic Mania will release Spring 2017 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. I'm planning to get a PS4 for Christmas so I can play Kingdom Hearts 2.8 and Kingdom Hearts 3, so I'm good. Check out the trailer here!

The second of the two games is simply titled Project Sonic 2017 as of right now. In the trailer, Sonic is standing in a burning city surrounded by massive robots which I'm assuming Dr Eggman is controlling (but who knows, maybe they'll surprise us?) and Sonic is about to be hit by falling debris when none other than Classic Sonic swoops in to save him! That's right! It's an actual sequel to Sonic Generations, one of my favourite Sonic games! We don't know much so far, but it looks like you'll be able to play as both again in their own levels unless maybe Sega could merge their gameplay and have them play together in levels? This game will release for PC, PS4, Xbox One and the Nintendo NX. Watch the trailer right here.

Also, although I'm not getting LEGO Dimensions, it was still awesome to see a trailer for Sonic's appearance in LEGO Dimensions! Click here to see.

Personally, I'm very excited for both new games because it seems that Sega finally know what us fans want in new Sonic games. I think I'm most excited for Project Sonic 2017 though.

Thomas

Captain America HYDRA Twist Explained (#209)

I have to apologise for uploading posts so rarely in the past few weeks. I know it's kinda ridiculous that there were times when I was uploading several posts a day and now I seem to be struggling to post even every two weeks, it's just that I have had a lot of stuff to do lately as usual and obviously I am focusing a lot on my YouTube channel since I'm really into that now and I've uploaded over 50 videos.

Anyway, this post is basically an answer to the post I made like a month ago about the possibility of Captain America being an agent of HYDRA. So, a couple weeks ago, the second issue of Captain America: Steve Rogers released, and I got it the day it was released because, of course, the first issue got me deeply invested into the series, and I was very interested in how Marvel were going to explain this snake-headed twist. Spoilers, obviously.

So, first of all I want to say, I WAS RIGHT. Kind of. The explanation was that a sentient cosmic cube called Kubik, in the form of a young human girl, was tainted and taught by the Red Skull that HYDRA is basically perfection. Of course, she is a naive child so that would explain why she believes the Red Skull's ideals and doesn't really question the idea that HYDRA is good and the way that things should be. Recently in the comics Steve Rogers' youth was restored by Kubik just before the Captain America: Steve Rogers series started, I believe. Now, when Kubik was restoring Cap's youth and power, since she believed that HYDRA is perfection, she made Cap a HYDRA agent by making it so that all of of Cap's memories involved him being a prominent and faithful member of the terrorist organisation. So this is where it gets a bit confusing; Cap technically isn't an agent since he didn't originally follow HYDRA, but technically he is because he believes himself to have always been a follower and is continuing this lifestyle. It's a little hard for me to explain, but Digital Spy explains it well here. So how do you feel about this, do you think of Cap as an agent or not? I'll definitely be getting the next issue, #3, when it comes out... next week, is it? Wow that went pretty fast.

Also, I know I said this would be probably uploaded in the next three days... oops...

Thomas

My Flowey Impression (#208)

So yesterday/very early this morning I uploaded a voice impression of Flowey from Undertale who is basically the (kinda spoilers?) main antagonist of the game. Anyway, I just wanted to share it with you guys so you could possibly check it out if you have time. Also, don't think that I'm now only using the blog to advertise my YouTube channel; I know I haven't uploaded for nearly two weeks but I am planning another post in the next three or so days hopefully that will be a kind of sequel to my Captain America HYDRA post. Anyway, click here to see my Flowey impression. If you click here you can also see a Papyrus one I made.

Golly!

Thomas

Wreck-It-Ralph 2 Officially Announced! (#207)

In some rather wonderful news yesterday, Disney's amazing Wreck-It-Ralph is finally getting an official sequel, coming out in 2018! The first Wreck-It-Ralph released in late 2012 (although I'm pretty sure it was February 2013 here in the UK, and I remember going to watch it with my friend) and was an animated movie about video games, basically. It's one of my all-time favourite animated movies and I remember wishing for a sequel as soon as I watched it, and now Wreck-It-Ralph 2 will officially be releasing in theatres on March 9th 2018. Hopefully the film will not be delayed by about three months here like with the original, but that may happen. It seems to happen a lot with animated movies, like how Finding Dory will be released by the end of July here whilst its already been out several weeks in the USA. Ralph 2 is supposedly going to explore more modern ideas such as online gaming whereas the original was set in a much more retro arcade environment, and could hopefully feature Mario in a major role. I would really like that. The film will be set six years after the first, which is pretty much the amount of time since numero uno released.

Sonic, Eggman and Bowser actually had cameos in the film. Nice.

You can actually read a review of Wreck-It-Ralph that I wrote right when the original came out. Click here.

Thomas