Iron Man in Homecoming! (#182)

It has been confirmed that Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man will be making an appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming, releasing in 2017. This will most likely be a follow up to the events in Captain America: Civil War (releasing in less than a week by way! ...At least in the UK whereas in America there are still like two weeks left. Sorry, US citizens...), where Spider-Man will be siding with Tony Stark's team (at least initially). In the comic books, Tony designs an 'Iron Spider' suit for Peter Parker/Spidey, so perhaps something like that could come into play in Homecoming. I'm sure there'll at least be a nod to it though. In similar news, Michael Keaton, who was rumoured to be playing a villain in Homecoming, will apparently not be in the film. We'll just have to see who the villain will be, though personally I'm hoping for somebody we haven't seen before. The Green Goblin's been done in both the original Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, so I'd love to see somebody like the Vulture, the Hobgoblin, or even a more obscure one like the Shocker, I like that guy. I would be fine with seeing a villain we've had before in a Spider-Man movie though, like Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus or Electro, as I'm sure Marvel Studios would nail the performance as usual.

Speaking of which though, aren't Sony still making a Venom spin-off movie even though The Amazing Spider-Man series kinda flopped? And I even heard that they're making a separate animated film of Spidey that will be in cinema, but that sounds really weird. Speaking of which though, there are supposed to be plans for a live action Sonic movie in two or three years, I hear! Honestly, it'll probably be a bit sucky, but who knows, it could be great. I'll definitely be watching it either way :)

Thomas

List of 3D Sonic Games (#181)

Not much needs to be explained here, but because I talk too much, I will do some explaining anyway. This is a list of all the mainstream 3D console Sonic games (not including Sonic 3D Blast, and if there are any others that aren't this list, it's because I chose to leave them out). Nothing much more to say, so here we go. Gotta go fast!

1) Sonic Adventure (1999)

2) Sonic Adventure 2 (2001)

3) Sonic Heroes (2003)

4) Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)

5) Sonic the Hedgehog (2006, usually called Sonic 06)

6) Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007)

7) Sonic Unleashed (2008)

8) Sonic and the Black Knight (2009)

9) Sonic Colours (2010)

10) Sonic Generations (2011)

11) Sonic Lost World (2013)

12) Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

So yeah, those are all the main 3D Sonic games, not including any handheld or spin-off games (well, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is technically a spin-off game, but it's still a major 3D Sonic game). I've played and own most of these in different versions, but will definitely be completing my collection soon. My birthday is on Monday so I'm gonna be uploading a special post to celebrate, to do with something I mentioned a while ago.

Thomas

Wreck-It-Ralph Review (#180)

So a really great cartoon Disney movie that I haven't really mentioned before on AFN is a little gem called Wreck-It-Ralph. The film came out in late 2012 (or early 2013 for us living in the UK) and back when I first watched it (in fact I'm pretty sure it was on the exact same day that I watched it) I actually made a review. Now, this review was not on my second blog, Hedgehog Reviews, which I talked about in post... wait, let me check it... #104. Yeah, so this review wasn't on that blog, but my first blog I made about three to four years ago when I was like 11, which I will never be linking here because the things I wrote on there make me cringe to the moon and back. But the Wreck-It-Ralph review was actually alright, so I am actually going to copy and paste it here, completely unchanged. Now, let me go find that old blog... Ah, I remember now, I took it down. But I do still have the few posts I made on it somewhere, so let me just locate the Wreck-It-Ralph one. Okay, here we go. I originally published this on March 2nd 2013, which, as I said, was the day I watched the film, I think.

'Hey again! So my first post got a couple views, and I’m making another. This time the post is going to be a review of a recent Disney movie, called Wreck-It-Ralph.

 First of all, it’s rare for me to be talking about a Disney movie, because I never really liked Disney to tell the truth. Most of it seemed to be love stories, which was kind of boring (my opinion, its fine to disagree). In fact, the only Disney movies I ever really liked were Finding Nemo, Up and The Jungle Book.

But I gotta say, Wreck-It-Ralph could well be my favourite animated movie of all time, although that probably is because I love videogames. =L But yeah. Basically, the movie is based off a videogame villain, who wrecks things (which you probably guessed =P). He and the hero of the game, known as Fix-it-Felix, live in an arcade game called (Yep) Fix-it-Felix, Jr. Ralph doesn’t want to be a villain anymore, and the cast end up travelling through three games: Fix-it-Felix, a pixelated, 2D game. Hero’s Duty, a tense, first person shooter. And Sugar Rush, a Mario-Kart-like racing game in a sweet, candy world.

The film is very clever. There’s a place in the movie called Game Central Station, a large, rectangular room where all the videogame characters hang out while the arcade’s closed. The room, in reality, is just an extension plug socket, and the outlets are the portals to each game. Genius. There are also a few emotional moments as well =’)

And oh my goodness. If you aren’t already convinced that the film’s made especially for gamers, I’d like to say that there a heck load of references, from Sonic the hedgehog to Pacman =V, from Lara Croft to Nintendo, from Super Mario to zombie shooters. And great music.

And even though Fix-it-Felix Jr, Hero’s Duty and Sugar Rush aren’t real games, you can actually play them on the Wreck-it-Ralph Website! http://www.disney.co.uk/wreck-it-ralph/games/

Anywayz, got to go. You really should check this film out though.

-- Tom Tom =)'

Yes, well, as you can see, my, ahem, attitude was slightly different. But not bad for an 11 year old, eh? And most of the stuff I said is still true. I love me some Wreck-It-Ralph. Here's hoping for a sequel.

Thomas

The Importance of Reconciliation (#179)

So today's post will be different than usual. I couldn't think of much to say about video games or movies, and besides, what's wrong with a more personal and deep-thinking post every once in a while? If you're an inhumane monster who doesn't possess the ability to feel love, don't continue reading. No, I'm joking. But seriously, if you don't really care about stuff that's not exciting or, you know, news-like, then you don't need to read this at all. I just want to release some feelings.

So one or two days ago, somebody messaged me that I hadn't talked to for a very long time. This person goes to my school, and I used to be very good friends with them, but a lot of awkward things went down last year and after doing a lot of stupid things and getting annoyed at each other, we just completely gave up with our friendship and stopped talking for a while. I see them almost everyday during the week, but we just tried to avoid any interaction with each other at all except for awkward moments when in a group of friends or forced into situations when we had to say something. In fact, we hadn't properly spoken to each other in over a year, around the time I started this blog. But as I said, this person sent me a message about how they were sorry about how things turned out and it didn't take me long to say that I was sorry too. In fact, I had thought about this person constantly since we stopped talking, and no matter how I tried to act like I didn't care about them anymore, I won't deny that there were times when I felt a deep longing to chat with them again, just joke around with them or have fun, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't pluck up the courage to say anything, and if they hadn't said anything to me first, it's almost certain that we may have never spoken again. They said that they had wanted to repair things for a long time, that the main reason they were trying to avoid me was because they were afraid that I hated them. And the thing is, that's the same reason why I didn't say anything to them. I had basically accepted the fact that we would never be able to be friends again like we once were. But here I am now, and after a long conversation, we seem to be getting back into a proper friendship. There's definitely going to be a lot of awkwardness and shyness in the process of possibly getting back to how we were. But I'm willing to try it.

So, I suppose the point of this post was to say; if there's anybody in your life that you've been avoiding or not talking to because of things that happened in the past, then maybe just say 'what the hell' and do it. If you would find that impossibly hard to do in real life, just send them a message and who knows? Maybe they'll reply. Don't get me wrong; if there is somebody that you've just not talked to for ages because of awkwardness or past mistakes, but you've fully moved on and don't want to get involved with them at all ever again, then forget it. It's your choice and if you've chosen to forget bad memories then so be it. But if you sometimes find yourself wishing things had gone differently between the two of you, if you feel jealous when you see people talking to somebody in your life that you were once close friends with and you feel you'll never have that opportunity again, go for it, just tell them how you feel. If they'd rather not talk to you, that's okay. It's just something you'll have to learn to live with. But maybe they feel the exact same way as you, but they're just too afraid of saying anything in fear of being rejected or looking stupid or desperate.

Thanks for reading.
Thomas

Star Wars 7: Blu Ray! (#178)

Or should I say... Blu Rey. Heheheheheheheheheh.

Yes, on Monday, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released on Blu Ray here in the UK, and I got it. Duh. I haven't watched it yet since I've been in much more of a video game mood recently (as you might have noticed from my posts) and I just don't feel like watching any movies right now. Well, except for Civil War next Saturday. Very excited for that, heehee. But yes, I'll probably watch the Star Wars Blu Ray in a few weeks. In fact, what I might do is watch it with a friend or somebody who hasn't seen it yet; when I've watched/played a video game or movie a lot of times, I find a lot of fun and enjoyment in watching it or playing it with a friend who hasn't seen/played it before, especially one with a good plot, mainly because I like to see their reactions to cool twists and stuff in the story.

Thomas

Sonic Heroes: Completed (#177)

So if I hadn't mentioned it yet, I got Sonic Heroes for Gamecube last Wednesday, and after playing it almost nonstop for the last week, I finally completed it a little under an hour ago. And I have to say; it's probably the hardest 3D Sonic game I've ever played. The game has four different stories to play through (Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose and Team Chaotix), and each story has its own difficulty level and unique quirks. Team Rose is by far the easiest, and is more designed for younger players, but I think the hardest is definitely Team Dark. Team Dark consists of Shadow, Rouge and E-123 Omega (which makes me very excited to play Shadow the Hedgehog, which I'm starting tomorrow) and the levels have a lot more enemies to fight in them than the other stories. in fact, yesterday, I was stuck on a boss for like three hours. It was so horrible, but I completed it eventually. It's the first time in ages that a video game has made me feel so angry. xD

#squadgoals

But apart from the sometimes frustratingly hard levels and boss fights, I actually really enjoyed playing Sonic Heroes. It's just a bit long. See, there are fourteen levels and seven boss fights, which doesn't sound like a lot, but you have to play through all of them four times because there are four teams. So technically, you have to play through 56 levels and 28 bosses before you can fight the final two bosses... yeah... so I am glad to be done with the game, but I did like it. The music's great (as with all Sonic games) and the levels were definitely fun. The gameplay was different than other Sonic games and it was pretty cool to try something different.

Thomas

Attorney in the Jungle (#176)

Just a quick update post about some stuff I watched over the weekend. On Saturday, I went to watch the new Jungle Book live action remake-type film in IMAX 3D. I haven't watched the original cartoon Jungle Book movie for years since I was young, so it was quite nostalgic for me in some parts. My friend actually watched the cartoon version on the morning before we went to watch the film, but I decided not to, mainly because I wanted some of the parts of the plot to be forgotten to me since I don't remember the story details, just some of the main characters and events. I think some of the best parts of the original were the songs. Anyway, maybe I'll watch the cartoon one in the next few weeks for the memories, but yeah, it was good. Go watch it if you like films with lots of nature and beautiful scenery/animals, or if you've seen the original cartoon version and want some childhood joy.

Secondly, I watched episode 3 of the Ace Attorney anime at about 10pm on Saturday. I'm really getting into the plot now, I hope they make a lot of episodes. I heard that the series will be based off of the first two Ace Attorney games, but hopefully if the anime is successful and popular they'll continue it onto the third game's plot and beyond? You can watch episode 3 here. Again, Japanese subtitles.

Thomas