Pixels (2015) - Review

I just finished watching Pixels and I must say, it is a very fun movie and even better when you know the gaming references. I don't know why so many people and sites pass it off as a horrible movie. I think its just people just hate Adam Sandler and think he is irrelevant nowadays. I however think he is still a funny guy and I thoroughly enjoy his movies from old favourites The Waterboy to recent films That's My Boy.

So why watch it if so many people hate it and Adam Sandler's regular high school politically incorrect jokes are thrown in for good measure? Well if you like Wreck-It Ralph I would say you would like this too but just be careful about the amount of course language in this film. While this is Happy Madison Production film, it is bankrolled by Sony and man did they manage to get some great actors and video/arcade game stars together in the mix.

People that grew up in the 80s and 90s will absolutely be taken back by just how many arcade game characters there are. We have Donkey Kong from Nintendo, Pac-Man from Namco, Centipede from Atari, the lovable Q*bert and many more! How Nintendo let them licence Donkey Kong and Duck Hunt is beyond me but damn it was good seeing them included in this movie.

Story wise, at first you would think it was straight out from a typical alien invasion movie. Aliens come down and try to take over the world. While that is true, instead you have a movie that starts off with an arcade competition and all the best plays are recorded and sent off into space. Many years pass and aliens have received the recording and thinks its a declaration of war so they arrive at Earth and gives the humans three trials around the world for them to pass. Win two out of three and the aliens will just go scattering home.

This is where Sam (Adam Sandler) and his friends Ludlow, Eddie and President Cooper (Josh Gad, Peter Dinklage and Kevin James respectively) come in and try to save the world by taking on the aliens with their 80s arcade power skills!

I really enjoyed this movie and has some wonderful set pieces (especially the Pac-Man chase through Manhattan). If you are a fan of seeing retro games on the big screen and don't mind some cheesy moments, this is the film for you! Check out the trailer!

Devil's Third (2015) Review

Nintendo surprised us all in their E3 2014 when it was announced that they have partnered up with a MIA third party to publish Devil's Third. This is a game that I have not been looking forward to since its first announcment in 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to its current form on the Wii U. Five years and multiple engine and platform changes certainly didn't help this game feel polished especially from developer Tomonobu Itagaki (Valhalla Game Studios) of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive fame.

I didn't have high expectations for this game but I am a sucker for Wii U exclusives from third parties so I gave it a go. The story isn't much to write about as there wasn't really any presented to players. Pretty much you are a master assassin in a previous life, betrayed by comrades and thrown into Guantanamo Bay but let go by the government when a crisis occurs. Worldwide satellites are taken out of orbit by terrorists so the government sends Ivan to take down his previous comrades who threaten the world.

My wish for this game was that I just go and shoot and slice bad guys up, in the end it was just easier to do the latter. The shooting mechanism are just so rough that aiming has lag and gitters around, It was easier for me just to aim-down-sights all the time to get the reticule auto-aimed at the target rather than use the right stick to adjust my aim.

What Valhalla got right was the transition from shooting to melee combat. It was as smooth as just clicking the melee button and you can start chaining attacks. Each melee weapon has its own strength and combos. However I found it much easier to stick to one melee weapon as there really was no incentive than to change others when the default one works so well!

The graphics aren't much to write about especially it seems to have been stuck in the graphics of pre-five years ago. It seems all the grapic work was put into Ivan while everyone else are just generic character models. As with most FPS games, the enemies are all the same looking for each level. The music has its moments, especially during boss fights but rather forgettable elsewhere

The deal breaker for me came in a boss fight. As much as I wanted to give this game a go, a one-hit kill from a boss really ruined the game for me. As much as I chipped away at the boss, the boss will have no indicators and just throw a one-hit kill move on you and you can't fight back. BAM! Dead and have to start the fight from the beginning.

What I didn't try was the multiplayer as I have no interest in tacked-on online multiplayer in most games.

VERDICT
I now understand why Nintendo US decided not to publish the game at first because it lacked polish and just overall sucked. I would've rathered that Nintendo US didn't give in to Nintendo fans to waste money on this game and just pay attention to what Nintendo Europe and Australia have managed to not achieve with this game.

I was already overlooking the flaws in the gameplay but that one-hit kill boss fight ruined it for me. I reckon the long development time, different console platform changes and constant changing of gaming engines overcooked it and just lost the direction in the end. It was a very interesting game when announced but has since turned out to be a poorly made generic USA vs Terrorists FPS game.

3/10