Marble Madness (1989) (NES) Review

January 27, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

A NES game about marbles?

Marble Madness may be one of the most bizarre video games that I own, you play as a marble and the objective of the game is to roll the marble through six different obstacle courses.

You may think that this seems really easy, but believe me it’s not because the controls are very sensitive, one tap on the d-pad can get your marble rolling and then its up to you to carefully traverse past any obstacles,it genuinely feels like you are controlling a marble and because of that reason the game is immensely difficult, anything can happen you can fall into a dip in the course and then you will need to roll around to build up momentum and speed in order to push yourself back to the flat area, you can roll into acid and melt, you can be eaten by a snake, you can be blown off of the course by powerful gusts of air and you can even spin out of control and smash, and while all of this madness is happening you have a time limit!!

depending on how quickly you finish a course will determine how much time you will be given for the next course and once you hit zero seconds its game over and back to course 1.

You have six courses to get through and each course has its own specific design and theme.

Course 1 Practise

This is literally the practise stage, no obstacles just a good way to get used to the controls by rolling to the goal while trying to avoid falling off of the course.

Course 2 Beginner

Things start to get a little more challenging here, you will now need to travel through a bigger course than before while avoiding those green snakes who will eat you and also staying clear of the mean black marble that will try to knock you off of the edge.

Course 3 Intermediate

This course isn’t too difficult but it does introduce a new hazard, puddles of acid are now in the game and if your marble touches any of these puddles it will immediately melt, also introduced is a really tough section of the course that requires you to avoid a green wave that will push you off of the edge of the map.

This course also brings back those annoying green snakes and the course in general has many high slopes for you to climb in order for you to reach the goal.

Course 4 Aerial

This is where the game gets really tough, in the aerial course you will need to use fast speeds and patience in order to survive, while trying to build up speed to jump large gaps you will be greeted by many air blowers, the air blowers will blast heavy gusts of air at the marble attempting to knock it off course, also some areas of this course will have floors that will raise very quickly often throwing your marble into the depths below

Course 5 Silly

When you first start the silly course you are made to traverse up some rather steep hills, this is not too difficult to do but it can cause you to lose quite a lot of seconds if your not quick, you are again having to deal with the green snakes and the black marbles but now they are tiny and because of this they are much less dangerous and you shouldn’t have any trouble avoiding them, a new enemy introduced here is the purple birds, these birds are a pain they show up in a flock right at the end of the course and it is your job to try to avoid them while quickly making your way to the goal, it took me lots of practise before I could finish this level.

Course 6 Ultimate

This is the final level of the game and so as you may expect it is really hard, you need to patience, good timing, fast reflexes and constant movement in order to make it to the goal. You will need to get past puddles of acid, the black marble, and an extremely annoying final section that requires you to carefully travel across many disappearing and reappearing sections of a dangerous path and if you fall your marble will smash.

Marble Madness does in fact have a multiplayer mode, if 2 player mode is selected on the main menu, you will need to go through the same six courses from the single player mode, the only difference is that now there are two marbles on the screen instead of just one, Player one (Blue Marble) will need to race Player two (Pink Marble) to the goal, both players will be given the usual time bonus upon starting each course but whoever wins the race will be given extra time on top of the usual starting bonus.

The overall winner is whoever makes the most points at the end of the game

Once you select either singleplayer or multiplayer you will be given a choice of either playing the game in 90 degrees mode or 45 degrees mode.

In 90 degrees mode you hold the NES game pad vertically and you control the marble with all four of the D-PAD buttons

In 45 degrees mode you use all four of the D-PAD buttons but in this mode you need to rotate the NES controller so that the D-PAD looks like an X, some players find this mode easier because while playing the game you will be moving diagonally more often than you will be moving horizontally or vertically.

When I played through the game I realised just how brilliant the soundtrack is not only because the music if super fun to listen too but because of how it evolves throughout each course. In the early stages of the game the music is really fun and happy but when you go to the later stages the music starts to get more intense and crazy as if its warning you of the dangers lurking in the later sections of the game.

Final Verdict

Due to the sensitive controls this game can prove to be very difficult, I see this as positive thing because in reality marbles are round which means that they are very difficult to have control over once they start rolling and also due to their round shape the slightest touch can get marbles moving quite a distance before they come to stop, Marble Madness follows these rules and so it may surprise you that this game is actually quite realistic, its not just the physics based game play that’s impressive its also the way that the music changes with the atmosphere it really helps you feel immersed in the experience and it only goes to show just how special this little game about marbles really is.

Marble Madness is literally Madness, its a fantastic little game which uses realistic physics, has a surprisingly immerserive soundtrack, the game is challenging but still really fun to play I only wish there was a few more levels and maybe some more options such as changing the colour of your marble and being able to play with more than 2 players on multiplayer mode.

Marbles have never been so much fun 8.9/10

Thank you for reading my review of Marble Madness for the NES

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) (Genesis/Megadrive) Review

January 24, 2015January 24, 2015 ragglefragglereviews2 Comments

The blue blur is back and this time he’s brought a friend

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is very similar to the first game and there is a high possibility that it’s a direct sequel.

Doctor Robotnik (Egg man) has again turned the wildlife inhabitants of South Island into to robot’s and it’s up to Sonic and his friend Miles (Tails) Prowler to adventure across some new areas of South Island in order to find and Defeat Dr Robotnik and to save the Island from his Evil Antics.

the only really big change in game play is the introduction of Tails, a two tailed fox who has the ability to fly which makes up for his lack in speed.

Tails is a very useful mechanic in the game not only because he can fly but also because he can defeat enemies, collect rings and he can even help by dealing damage during boss fights.

Tails biggest downfall is his lack in speed, the problem is that because Sonic is so fast Tails will often get left behind leaving Sonic to get through the the majority of the stages alone, this isn’t as much of an issue during single player because as much as Tails can help with rings and boss fights it is possible to beat the game without him, but on the other hand if you want to play the single player with a friend, Player 2 (Tails) wont be able to keep up with Player 1 (Sonic), this makes playing the single player with a friend pointless which is a shame because they could have fixed this by making single player split screen when a second player joins.

On the bright side Sonic 2 does have another Multiplayer mode, if you select 2 players from the main menu, you will be able to select specific levels from the game which Player 1 (sonic) and Player 2 (Tails) will be able to race each other to the goal and the best part is that this mode does use split screen which makes the game fair for both players to have a good time.

The games visuals are stunning, again everything is animated amazingly well the environments and backgrounds scroll with the player and some background objects such as clouds, lava and water move by themselves. The only complaint I have regarding the level design is that sometimes its really difficult to tell what is in the background and what will hurt you.

For example it may seem that the flames here can hurt you but they are actually harmless.

Every zone in the game has its own unique theme, level design and enemies for Sonic and Tails to defeat.

Sonic 2 has 11 zones and provides a total of 22 levels

Emerald Hill Zone

Very similar to Green Hill Zone, Emerald Hill Zone has a tropical theme and provides plenty of loops, slopes and multiple pathways for Sonic and Tails to run through. This zone is super fun and super easy so you shouldn’t have much trouble with it.

Chemical Plant Zone

Going straight from a nice tropical vacation spot to the dangers of a factory filled with lots of enemies and toxic water which can kill you very quickly, this zone has multiple pathways and high speed game play which makes it very challenging and it shows that Sonic Team isn’t messing around.

Aquatic Ruins Zone

A fun little zone based around some ancient ruins surrounded by a lake, this zone is one of my favorites because you are able to change how to traverse through the zone every time you play it, for example if you stay near the top of the level you will have to adventure across the top of the ruins to reach the goal, but if you head downwards you will have to adventure across the bottom of the ruins and through the lake in order to reach the goal.

Casino Night Zone

A definite upgrade to Spring Yard Zone from the first game, Casino Night is awesome Sonic and Tails will need to run, fling themselves, shoot themselves and gamble in order to survive this crazy stage, Casino Nights is loads of fun.

Hill Top Zone

Sonic and Tails will be running above the clouds in this zone, Hill top zone requires you to take your time as you will have hills to climb, lava to avoid and lots of caves to explore, this zone is definitely for the explorative types.

Mystic Cave Zone

Sonic and Tails will need to explore some dark caves filled with old abandoned mine cart tracks, but don’t relax just yet because it is also filled with lots of traps, spikes and switches, this zone will definitely keep you on your toes.

Oil Ocean Zone

Literally an Ocean of Oil, this zone is very difficult as it has a lot of environmental hazards and obstacles, players will need to try to avoid falling off of oily slides and will need to use Green furnace flames to help propel themselves onto small platforms in order for them to traverse further through the zone.

Metropolis Zone

In my opinion the most difficult zone in the game, this Giant factory is filled to the brim with enemies, environmental hazards, large pits of boiling chemicals and the worst part is that the entire zone is like one big maze, this is one maze that I never want to get lost in again

Sky Chase Zone

During a short plane ride Sonic and Tails need to chase down Dr Robotnik while he retreats to his air ship, during this stage players will need to avoid robotic flying turtles and collect rings, at the end of the stage Sonic needs to jump out of the plane to take on the air ship solo.

Wing Fortress Zone

Based in Dr Robotnik’s air ship there are plenty of opportunities for you to fall to your doom due to the many platforms and thin ledges. While avoiding Dr Robotnik’s most dangerous robots yet players will need lots of patience and good timing in order to survive.

Death Egg Zone

Again similar to Sonic 1 this is just the final boss and get ready for one tough final boss battle because unlike the first game now you have to face two bosses in a row. You will need to defeat Metal Sonic and once you beat him you then need to beat Dr Robotnik in his giant space armour, but if you die you will need to take on Metal Sonic again and you will need to keep repeating this pattern until you can defeat both bosses in a row without dying.

Players have the ability to choose to play the single player mode as Sonic with Tails, Sonic alone or Tails Alone.

Beating the game with different characters does very slightly change the ending of the game but it so slight that it does not really count as an alternative ending as the final outcome is the same.

Bonus Stages are back but with a big difference, this time Sonic and Tails will need to collect 50 rings and once they reach a checkpoint they need to jump into the sparkly portal that appears above.

Once they enter the Bonus Stage the player will see Sonic and Tails looking slightly 3D, they will be running through a tunnel filled with rings that they need to collect, if they collect enough rings they will be rewarded with a Chaos Emerald. This may sound easy but it can be very difficult because this time Sonic and Tails are running forward with the camera following behind, also there are many obstacles such as bombs and spikes that if Sonic or Tails hit they will lose some rings.

Warning: If you enter a Bonus stage when you leave your ring count will be Zero.

Getting all 7 Chaos Emeralds will allow Sonic to transform into Super Sonic once he collects 50 rings in a stage you transform by jumping , Super Sonic is invincible, the only downfall is that you lose a ring for every second super sonic is on screen and once you run out of rings you will lose the super sonic ability until you collect some more.

Sonic 2 is an amazing game, it has some really creative levels, the bonus stages are more fun and rewarding, the soundtrack is so good that every time I listen to it I want to dance, the visuals and general game design is beautiful and apart from the pretty bad multiplayer and the fact that sometimes background objects seem dangerous, the game is near perfect.

One of the best games that Sonic Team has ever made 9.3/10

Thank you for reading my review of Sonic the Hedgehog 2

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Anastasia (1997) Review

November 27, 2014May 11, 2016 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

When I was a child I remember visiting my Grandmother and watching a bunch of Animated movies that she had on old VHS tapes, Anastasia just so happens to be one of those movies, as a kid I thought it was amazing and I watched it all of the time but now that I am an adult I haven’t seen the movie in 13 years.

Until now

Was it as good as I remember?

The first thing that caught my eye was that Anastasia was made by Don Bluth who is famous for some of the greatest animated movies of all time such as An American Tail, The Land before time and the Secret of Nimh. I had a strong feeling that Anastasia would be just as amazing as some of his other work especially since I loved the film with a passion when I was a child.

Let me just begin by saying that the animation was incredible, everything in the film was extremely well detailed, the animation moved very smoothly and the use of a mixture of light and dark colours really helped build up the atmosphere for multiple scenes that were shown throughout the movie. The animation blew me away and it can easily compete with the animation of some of the Disney films of the time.

The movies plot was really cool if not a little hard to follow.

A party is being thrown to celebrate 300 years of ruling of the Romanov Family, The Dowager Empress Marie is leaving for Paris and a very young Anastasia is sad that Marie is leaving.

Marie gives Anastasia a music box so that she will always remember her, at this point the films villain Rasputin enters the palace and is immediately told to leave, Rasputin says that he will not stop until the entire Romanov Family are dead.

Rasputin sells his soul so that he has the power to for-fill his dark purpose. With his new Dark powers Rasputin Controls the Civilians of the town to charge the palace, with little choice left the Romanov family flee Russia to find safety.

Anastasia and Marie are saved by a servant boy called Dmitri, Marie and Anastasia are about to board a train.

Marie manages to to board the train but Anastasia does not, they grab eachothers hand but they slip from each other and Anastasia falls unconscious.

We cut to 10 years later and Anastasia is leaving an orphanage to try and find her real family and to learn about herself and her past.

The films plot is really well structured and it allows enough time for the audience to be able to understand and sympathise with all the main characters that are introduced throughout the movie.

The music is really hit and miss with me because I love all of the instrumental music used to help build the atmosphere of certain scenes, its really well conducted and the final result being a combination of Choir and Orchestra is something really beautiful to listen too.

I cant say the same for the voice acting or any of the songs that are performed vocally, all vocal performances seemed really emotionless it felt as if the actors and actresses didn’t really want to be lending their voices to the film and because of this it really makes the whole experience a little boring and hard to watch with the exception of Christopher Lloyd who voices Rasputin because he did a remarkable job voicing the films main antagonist, you could really tell that Christopher Lloyd loved playing this role in the film.

I also did not enjoy the majority of the vocal songs for the exact same reasons as I previously stated again with the exception of the movies villain song which was catchy but I wont be adding it to my I-pod any time soon.

Watching Anastasia again really reminded me of a lot of warm childhood memories but it deeply saddens me that I found so many issues with such an important movie from my past.

I may not have enjoyed it as much as I had hoped that I would, but Anastasia will always be a very important film to me as it helps me remember what it was like being a little kid and visiting my Grandmother and even though my grandmother has not yet passed on, this movie will always be one of my fondest memories of her.

I hope you enjoyed my review of Anastasia

Have you got any films from your childhood which are very dear to you?

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

It’s the great pumpkin Charlie Brown (1966) Review

October 12, 2014October 12, 2014 ragglefragglereviews4 Comments

I think everyone has a tradition when they come to decide what scary movies or shows they will watch during the October Month, Personally I watch John Carpenters Halloween and I also enjoy sitting down and watching some of my favourite episodes of the Twilight Zone which was created by the Fantastic Rod Sterling.

A popular tradition in the USA is to watch the Peanuts Halloween Special from 1966, I have seen a lot of peanuts episodes over the years but I always managed to skip this one. I have finally sat down and watched it and I am ready to share my thoughts on It’s the great pumpkin Charlie Brown.

I absolutely loved this it was hilarious and it really carried that charm of the original peanuts animated TV series. The special stars the majority of the main cast of the show but it really focuses on three characters in particular who are each spending Halloween in different ways, you have Charlie Brown who goes trick or treating, Snoopy who spends Halloween pretending that he is an aeroplane pilot and the Linus who stays up all night waiting for the arrival of the Great Pumpkin and all of these are very well written and cleverly directed. I will now give a brief summary of all three of these characters stories of the Halloween special.

Charlie Brown

If it wasn’t obvious enough Charlie Brown does play a big role in the special, Charlie Brown and the rest of the peanuts have been invited to a Halloween party, but before they go to the party all of the peanuts (apart from Linus and Sally) decide to go trick or treating.

Charlie Brown decides to go as a ghost for Halloween but he has a little trouble cutting out the holes for the eyes and ends up just wearing a holey sheet over his head. This leads to one of the most famous running gags in any TV special ever, while trick or treating all of the children are given candy and chocolate bars apart from Charlie brown who is just given rocks.

Eventually they all go to the party and Charlie Browns head is used as a drawing board for the design on pumpkin, Charlie Brown is used due to his big round head and his baldness.

Snoopy

Snoopy decides that he wou lucy-and-snoopy ld like to be a world war 1 fighter pilot for Halloween this year. Snoopy’s story line in this special really isn’t anything to get excited about. Snoopy sits on top of his dog house and pretends that he is a fighter pilot in world war one and he is gunning down planes, eventually his plane is shot down and he has to walk to the Halloween party, this part is very well directed as it seems that snoopy is in world war 1 trying to find safety but he eventually walks through a river and rises out of the punch bowl at the party showing that this was all his imagination.

Linus

This is Linus Great Pumpkin where The Great Pumpkin comes in, Linus is first seen writing a letter to The Great Pumpkin who he believes flies over all of the houses of the good boys and girls and delivers them presents. Every Halloween Linus sits alone in a pumpkin patch waiting for The Great Pumpkin to rise from the soil. This year he isn’t alone because he manages to convince Sally (Charlie Brown’s little sister) to wait for The Great Pumpkin with him. The final outcome really surprised me because The Great Pumpkin doesn’t appear and most likely does not exist, This leaves Linus having to deal with a very angry and upset Sally who missed Halloween due to his ridiculous beliefs

The final part of the episode is Charlie brown and Linus talking about how crummy Halloween was and I promise the outcome of this conversation is hilarious.

To sum it all up It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is a fantastic Halloween special, It is very well animated, it has that wonderful peanuts charm and it is absolutely hilarious. I have a strong feeling that this will become part of my Halloween Tradition for years to come and I highly suggest that everyone should sit down and watch this.

Thank you for reading my review of It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

If you respect my opinion I will respect yours

Any suggestions on other Halloween specials I should check out?

By Padawan

Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2,GC,XBOX) Review

September 21, 2014January 9, 2016 ragglefragglereviews4 Comments

Shadow the Hedgehog is one of the most hated games in the entire Sonic franchise, almost everyone I spoke to told me to avoid it like the plague, but very few people said that the game was a fun experience and that they think the game is underrated, so I had no idea what to expect when playing this game, a Sonic game with guns? This is either going to be awesome or its going to be extremely stupid. Now that I have played through the entire game I am ready to share my opinion with all of you in the style of a review. Could it really be that bad?

There are 22 levels in Shadow the Hedgehog Unlike traditional 3D Sonic games which have individual character stories, Shadow the Hedgehog uses a path system allowing the player to create their own story. Depending on what path you take you will either end up being a Hero or a villain at end of the game.

Almost every stage in the game will give the players three objectives one dark objective, one neutral objective and one hero objective depending on which objective the player finishes will determine which stage they will get to next. If the player finishes a dark mission they will move up on the path system, if they finish a neutral mission they will move forward on path system and if they finish a hero mission they will move down on the path system.

During one play through of the story mode, the player will play six stages depending on whether they do the dark or hero mission on stage six they will have to fight one of two final boss fights for the path they are on, earning the player one of ten endings.

The path system could have worked out really well if Sega didn’t mess it up, the problem with the path system and my biggest issue with game is that in order to unlock the final story you need to get each ending, which means playing through the majority of stages a number of times and yes you need to beat the game TEN TIMES!!!!. I didn’t mind the first few runs of the game but after a while I got sick of seeing the same stages over and over again especially Westopolis because with it being stage one I had to play this stage during every single play through of the game.

On a lighter note the game controls were perfect I didn’t have a problem with game once even when Shadow was moving really fast I was still able to have really smooth control over him, this is something that I don’t often find in 3D sonic games so it was nice to play a game that when I died it was my fault and not game glitches or bad controls.

Let’s talk about guns

For some reason Sega thought that giving Shadow the ability to use guns to kill his enemies would help the game appeal to the older demographic, but it just looks really silly and ridiculous, seriously no one wants to run around shooting aliens with an AK-47 in a Sonic the Hedgehog game. As silly as the guns are, they are not my issue with this gameplay style, the problem is that the game auto aims once Shadow gets close enough to an enemy which is great but it becomes an issue when you get surronded by enemies and you cant shoot them all usually resulting in your death. If Sega gave the player the ability to aim they could take out enemies using clever strategy and skill and in my opinion the use of guns would have been a lot more constructive and would work a lot better to the players advantage.

Shadow the hedgehog does have a pretty good sound track, it does lack in vocal tracks but some of the level themes are really catchy, my personal favourite level theme is Circus Park.

Circus Park theme

All of the vocal tracks in the game are really good, I love All of me by Crush 40 (intro music), credits music for beating an ingame path is ok at best, but Never turn back by Crush 40 (the credits music for the final story) is by far the best track in the game and is one of my personal favourite vocal tracks in any game ever.

All of me by Crush 40

Never turn back by Crush 40

So we have determined that the game has good controls, an ok path system that gets repetative and boring after the first few play throughs,terrible gun mechanics and for the most part a pretty kickass sound track but how does it look?

images (1)

Wow this game is ugly, from looking at the pictures you wouldnt think that Shadow the Hedgehog was a PS2, Gamecube and Xbox game, The graphics are flat and blocky, the colours are ugly and bland, when characters talk the lips dont sync to what they are saying, the voice acting is cringeworthy, the enemy and level designs are very basic and not very interesting to look at and I am not kidding but I have played Dreamcast and ps1 games that look better.

Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast)

Croc Legend of the Gobo’s (PS1)

Final Verdict

Shadow the Hedgehog was an ok game, it had really good controls for a 3D Sonic game and a really enjoyable Soundtrack but it fell short due to its bad game design, ugly graphics, and a lame path system which makes you beat the game ten times just to unlock the Final Story. The Final Story has Shadow saving the world in the end of the game and this essentially means that creating your own path was a waste of time making the entire game completely pointless. Shadow the Hedgehog had things going for it, but it wasnt enough to make it a good game

3.8/10 This game sucks.

I hope you enjoyed this review

If you repect my opinion I will respect yours

By Padawan

Why is the Sims Fun?

August 19, 2014September 22, 2014 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

I’ve always wondered why people love The Sims Video games so much, all you do is control a virtual human through mindless everyday tasks like taking a Dump, reading the newspaper, going to work, taking a shower among other things.

Why is this fun?, what about this game makes it so interesting?, What aspect keeps bringing us back game after game?

Well lets begin by discussing the general lifestyle of the average human being, most people live by a routine of how they do things and in what order, for example when I wake up I will use the toilet, have a shower, brush my teeth, get changed, walk my dog, make breakfast, wash the dishes, go to work, come home from work, use toilet again, watch TV, make Food, Play video games then I go to sleep and repeat everything again the next day. That is my routine and I use that routine almost every single day.

As I stated most people have a routine which they use to help them get through life every single day. But here’s the problem life can be pretty depressing, we may live by a routine but what happens when things don’t go to plan one day and something terrible happens for example maybe you will go bankrupt or you may get fired from your job cutting off any income, meaning you cant pay your bills, water rates or rent. If things like this do happen you may need to change your routine to fit around your newer lifestyle and in some cases you can literally be doomed as you will be constantly in debt causing you to live a stressful and depressing life.

The Sims is literally everything I just said but in a video game, you take control of virtual human and you make them perform everyday tasks like go to work, have a shower etc. So why do we play these games? is it the funny language they speak or the fact that you can give them hilarious names and motivations.

I think its because the Sims isn’t really a game , its more of a life simulator. Have you ever noticed that a lot of people who play the Sims create big mansions and buy loads of really cool sound systems, massive TV’s in every room, Arcade machines, a big swimming pool.

A lot of people have dream lives that they want to live and for the most part The Sims allows people to create a virtual reality allowing the player to create their own family, house and lifestyle and they can choose how they want to live it. the best part is that if anything goes wrong you can just start again something which is extremely rare in real life and that is why I think people get so addicted to The Sims, even if they may not realise that they return to the game just so they can live their virtual lives for just a few more hours each day.

The Sims = A virtual Lifestyle without any of the Bullshit !!

Thanks for reading my Theory to why the Sims is fun
Do you agree with my opinion or do you think i’m just a crazy mumbling madman?
By Padawan

Walt Disney’s Frozen (2013) Review

August 10, 2014November 20, 2016 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Lets talk about Disney’s Latest number one hit Frozen

Am I the only person who thinks this movie is overrated?

I’m not saying that Frozen is a bad movie, I actually find it to be very entertaining, but the fact that I really enjoy a movie doesn’t mean that it has no flaws and in my opinion frozen has quite a few.

Ok so lets start by talking about what I like

Frozen is a beautiful movie as the animation is really good, Arendelle is in my opinion one of the best looking towns that Disney has ever had in a movie and the character designs are near perfection.

For the most part it has an amazing soundtrack, the songs in this movie actually helps us understand the characters and the emotions they are feeling for example during “Do you wanna be a snowman” we see Anna’s Desperate attempts to get her sister Elsa to talk and hang out with her during her childhood and teenage years and this shows us the upsetting emotions and the struggling battle that both Anna and Elsa are going through, it also helped the movie progress childhood to their adult life in a well structured manner.

Another Favourite song of mine “First time in Forever” allows the viewer to really connect with Anna by showing us her extroverted and playful personality and also teaching us that Anna is fed up with being separated from the rest of Arendelle and we learn that she wants to find love and she’s excited because she now has the chance to do this because Elsa is going to be crowned Queen.

Frozen is based on the book “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Anderson. I have never read the book but if the story is as good and well structured as the story of Frozen, then I will most definitely be getting the book at some point. Without giving away any major story details Frozen is very well put together, it never really seems rushed and as much as I have issues with this movie none of them are to do with its structure and pacing. Almost all of the characters have good reason to be in this movie and any loose knots are eventually tied bringing the movie to dignified and well put together ending.

Get ready to hate me, here are my issues with frozen

Prince Hans could have been a really great villain, Disney took the Gaston approach making what seemed to be the town hero or in this case the handsome prince eventually becoming the villain and having to be stopped. The problem I have is that Frozen didn’t need a villain at all and Prince Hans is hardly ever in the movie. First few scenes we see him in he’s a good guy, he’s very charitable and overall a very nice person but then through no character building he just turns out to be the villain.

You could argue that he needed to be in the movie so that Disney could show the morale that love at first sight does not exist and yes I do realise that this was Disney making fun of them selves in the past with Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty, but still they should have done more with Prince Hans maybe they could of shown his character becoming more power hungry in some of the scenes, this would of helped explain the sudden change in his motivations and maybe given his character an actual purpose, I personally feel that the movie would be hardly any different if he wasn’t in the movie at all.

The Duke of Weasel Town actually has a purpose to be in the movie, we learn early on that he is in control of trades between Weasel Town and Arendelle and that all he wants to do is discover the secrets to Arendelle’s Fortune. He may not be in the movie that often but at least he has a dignified reason to be there, unlike Prince Hans who I don’t recall even mentioning why he is in Arendelle in the first place.

As much I love the music in Frozen one song I cant stand is called “Fixer Upper” the Rock trolls for some reason get a song and as much as it is a pretty funny song I do find it annoying, I don’t know why but this song just isn’t really that good, put it this way where as everyone has “let it go” and “do you wanna build a snowman” on their I-pods I don’t know a single person who owns “Fixer Upper”.

Lets talk about “Let it Go” this song has had a huge financial success and is even in the top of the charts. Thats right a Disney song is in the Top 40 and with good reason, “Let It Go” is amazing it may be one of the best songs ever written for a Disney movie and I love it

I do have one small issue unlike most of the other songs in frozen which felt like they were written for a Broadway musical, Let it Go is a pop song and you can tell it was recorded in a studio and in my opinion I find this to be very distracting.

Also the song doesn’t really feel like it needs to be in the movie as they could have just had Elsa run off and then Anna goes to find her. It does seem like the only purpose the song had was so that Elsa could accidentally build Olaf and to be fair I don’t really see how they could have brought him into the movie in a different way. As much as I love frozen I really wanted to talk about some problems I feel the movie has that I feel are getting overlooked.

Of course this is just my opinion and I’m not in any way stating anything that I say as facts. I just really wanted to review Frozen and I could only give a fair review by also pointing out what I feel are some of the movies flaws as well as it’s obvious wonderful and perfect moments.

Thank you for reading my review of Frozen
If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours
By Padawan

Tomb Raider 2013 (PC, 360,PS3) Review

July 7, 2014April 27, 2015 ragglefragglereviews2 Comments

I have wanted a really dark, action filled and serious Tomb Raider game for quite some time now, little did I know that in the year of 2013 my dream Tomb Raider game would become a reality.

A lot of people were sceptical when this game got announced and I am not going to lie I was as well, but can you blame us for being sceptical over a Tomb Raider game with an age rating of 18. The idea of a Tomb Raider game having such a high age recommendation is un-heard of, so how was this new Tomb Raider? lets take a look

You play as Treasure Hunter Lara Croft

Lara and her crew are on a Research Vessel called the Endurance, Lara and the crew are looking for the Lost Fleet of Kublai Khan. When Lara notices an island in the distance she tells her crew that she wants a closer look, upon approaching the Island the Research Vessel is split in half separating Lara from the rest of the crew. Lara goes searching for the rest of her crew and she eventually finds her friend Sam who is sharing the heat of a fire with a man called Mathias.

Lara falls asleep and awakens to find both Sam and Mathias missing. Later on Lara discovers that Mathias and a bunch of other men have Sam captive and plan to use her as a sacrifice to Himiko the sun queen. Himiko’s soul is transferred to different females generation to generation, when one Himiko gets old or dies her soul is then transferred to the last chosen Himiko, Sam is the female chosen to be part of the soul transfer ceremony.

Also some mysterious force is preventing Lara or anyone else from leaving the island. Lara’s new mission is to find the rest of her crew, rescue Sam and to discover the curse preventing them from leaving the Island.

Tomb raider has such awesome game play, Lara will find multiple tools and weapons through out her adventure such as pickaxe which will allow her climb mountains, rope which she can shoot from her bow to bring down doors and to help her get to hard to reach areas.

As well as useful tools Lara is also carries a pretty kickass arsenal of weapons this includes a Bow and Arrow, Hand Gun, Shotgun, Assault Rifle and a Grenade Launcher. Each weapon has its own uses the shot gun can be used to destroy wooden barriers that may be blocking your path, the grenade launcher can be used to blow up metal doors and the bow and arrow has multiple uses such as setting fire to wood and explosives and it also helps Lara to use the rope to more of an advantage.

By far the most useful weapon is the bow and arrow not just because it has multiple uses but it can also be used to take out enemies quietly, if there is a group of enemies Lara can shoot an arrow at a near by wall, this will cause some of the enemies to search away from that area leaving just one poor guy to be killed without anyone else noticing.

When your not sneaking around and killing bad guys, Lara will stumble across some unfortunate environmental hazards these can include Lara falling into a fast flowing river and having to avoid any obstacles in order to survive, or she may be running across a bridge which is quickly falling to pieces beneath her feet. One of my favourite parts of the game is about half way through Lara is using a parachute and has too avoid trees so that she doesn’t get injured.

So what happens if you aren’t able to avoid these obstacles? oh dear

As well as this the game controls perfectly, I played on keyboard and mouse and found no difficulty getting use to the controls what so ever, I even played a bit using an Xbox 360 controller and again the game controlled perfectly so no complaints for that. I do however have one complaint about the game play, There are way too many quick time events in this game, I don’t mind a couple but at least 50 percent of the game play requires them and it really gets annoying after having to use the same quick time events for the same things over and over again through out the game.

Now as it is a Tomb Raider game you will be pleased to know that there are loads of hidden tombs that Lara can raid, when in these tombs you will usually be faced with a puzzle or two before you are able to reach any treasure that hidden within the tomb.

As well some awesome game play, tomb raider also has a really awesome soundtrack, the music is all orchestrated and it sounds beautiful a lot of the time the music made me wonder if it was composed by John Williams because the music really sounds like something out of an Indiana Jones film, as you can tell this suited the game quite nicely.

Tomb Raider a Survivor is Born

A beautiful soundtrack needs some beautiful visuals to go with it and let me just say you wont be let down with the way the game looks. Everything in the game looks amazing and you can tell that the developers really went a long way to make this game as breathtaking to look at as it is to play.

First of all Lara’s new character model is so freaking cool, she has this really awesome roughened up look to her that just says “stand in my way, I dare you” but she also doesn’t look like a complete killing machine which allows the player to sympathise with her character.

Here are a few pictures of the Island

Seriously the graphics and visuals in Tomb Raider are amazing, the game would often play a cut scene and when it returned to game play I wouldn’t move for a minute because I thought the cut scene was still playing, yeah the visuals are that good.

Tomb Raider was an incredible game, this is by far my favourite Tomb Raider game ever and it’s also the only Tomb Raider game I have enjoyed enough to actually finish, It has flawless controls, really awesome game play, breathtaking visuals and a beautiful soundtrack, the only problem is the constant quick time events and I really hope they work on those for the sequel.

Tomb Raider was one awesome adventure 9/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Tomb Raider
If you respect my opinion I will respect yours
By Padawan

Metal Gear Solid (PS1) Review

June 28, 2014January 31, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

First of all a big thank you to Martin for sending us this game, Martin never gave us his last name when he sent us the game, but if your reading this Martin and you want to email me your last name to zeroslayer911@gmail.com I will be more than happy to edit the blog and put your last name in this review.

Now with all the thank you’s out of the way lets talk about Metal Gear Solid

I had never played Metal Gear Solid until a few months back, yeah ok you can shoot me.

This is because from what I saw in game magazines and snippets of game footage I thought Metal Gear Solid was just your average shooter. But oh boy was I wrong because Metal Gear Solid is one of the most well directed video games I have ever played. Everything about the game is so well made and pieced together its like that sweater your nan knits you every Christmas.

Your probably wondering what the game is about well I am going to describe the plot to the best of my abilities,
you take the role of Solid Snake fans of the original metal gear games know who I am talking about

Solid Snake is a stealth agent on a mission to stop a nuclear weapon (Metal Gear) from destroying the earth, upon being briefed on the situation by Colonel Roy Campbell a former friend of Snake and retired fox hound member, he sends Snake into the enemy base to find and rescue The DARPA (The Defence Advanced Research Project Agency) Chief and the Armstech President, After finding the Darpa Chief in a jail cell, Snake questions if he gave Fox Hound the Password or not, The chief explains that Fox Hound Member Psycho Mantis has the ability to read minds and got the password from the chief by reading his mind. The Darpa Chief then appears to die from a heart attack, the same happens to the Arms Tech President after snake rescues him after Snake defeats another Fox Hound member called Revolver Ocelot with the help of a mysterious ninja. Before he dies the President explains to Snake that it is not heart attack that he is suffering from but that it is the effects of something called Foxdie. After discovering the truth behind these mysterious deaths and learning that the President also gave Fox Hound his password Snake calls Colonel Campbell and explains the situation. Snake is then told to call the Chiefs Niece Meryl, getting her codec is one of the ways the game breaks the fourth wall by making the player check the back of CD case to get her codec code. Snakes mission now is to defeat all of the remaining members of Fox Hound and to find a way to stop the nuclear weapon from striking the earth.

That’s a brief explanation of the plot, if talked about the whole plot I would giving away too many spoilers and also I would be writing for decades as the plot is very in depth. The plot gets really good towards the end of the game when in delves into Snakes past and the reason for his existence.

Another great aspect to this game is the music, Metal Gear Solid has a beautifully well orchestrated sound track, the music that plays when the Konami logo is Presented, is an extract from a previous game called police Nauts the track is called End of the Dark. Police Nauts is a previous game from metal gear creator Hideo Kojima. Like I said the music in Metal Gear Solid is amazing and it really suits the game and its atmosphere very well

This is an example of some music from Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid Opening Theme

Speaking of Audio the voice acting in Metal Gear Solid is amazing, the English dub of the original Japanese Voice acting is so well done that it honestly makes the game feel like an intense action movie. The voice acting can be heard countless times in the game but it is mostly through codec calls, the codec is what Solid Snake uses to contact his comrades for advice.

The codec calls are also what adds alot of really funny comedy to the game for example later on in the game when you follow Meryl into the ladies bathroom if you get into the bathroom before Meryl and call Mei Ling she calls you pervert and wont allow you to save your game for the rest of the mission.

By far my favourite part of the game is the boss fights, they are very creative and really make the player have to think to figure out the best methods of taking the bosses out. Here are a few of my personal favourites.

Revolver Ocelot

A well known boss in the MGS franchise, he’s a crack shot with his revolver and a hell of a lot of fun to fight

Sniper Wolf

A killer with a love of animals, I love this boss because out of all of the bosses after killing her and hearing her life story, I truly understood why she is killer and what drove her to be the way she is

Vulcan Raven (Second Encounter)

Not so fond of his first encounter but the second time you fight him, he is really challenging but also really fun, also this boss fight is a really good opportunity to use the missile launcher my second favourite weapon in the game, my first being Snakes bare hands

Favourite boss in the game (Psycho Mantis)

This guy is awesome he is so much fun to fight, the game breaks the fourth wall twice in this boss fight, once when Psycho Mantis reads your memory card and talks about previous Konami titles you’ve played and the second time I wont ruin for you as it is needed in order to beat Psycho Mantis but I promise you wont be disappointed.

Final Verdict

Metal Gear Solid is one of the best games I have ever played and currently my favourite PS1 game of all time. It never gets boring I have personally beaten the game a few times now and every time the plot is still very interesting and really makes me want to help Snake save the world. My only minor complaint is that if you skipped all of the cut scenes and codec calls the game is only two to three hours long, but unless your a speed runner you probably wont skip any cut scenes so this wont be much of a problem. I rate Metal Gear Solid a Solid 10/10. A fantastic game which really shows the ability video games have on the media and just how good video games can be, all hail Kojima.

On a final note the game has two endings, during the torture scene if you resist the torture you will get the Good Ending and if you submit you will get the not so good ending but a Comical ending with a reference to 2001 a space odyssey. THIS GAME IS SO AWESOME!!! Highly Recommend it.

Hope you enjoyed this review, if you respect my opinion I will respect yours

By Padawan

The legend of Zelda (NES) review

June 19, 2013January 31, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Before I begin this blog I would like to apologise for my lack of blogs over the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot on my mind recently and this has caused me to really not be in the mood or in a comfortable atmosphere to write decent blogs or reviews.

Over the years we have had a lot of very impressive Nintendo titles especially from my personal favourite series The Legend of Zelda. As much as the series is still really fun I do sometimes feel that the games are losing the sense of adventure the original games had to offer and this really sucks because gamers of our generation are not experiencing the Zelda games the same way a lot of us did when we was younger, due to this I feel that most gamers don’t realise just how far back the Zelda video game series goes. So today I want to share my experiences and adventure I had when I first played The Legend of Zelda for the NES.

First of all I think this is a good time to mention that the Legend of Zelda is one of the very few NES games which allowed players to save their data and trust me in this game having the feature is definitely useful as the game can take a long time to beat the first few times. This is due to the massive size of the over world which I find to be very impressive especially for an NES game.

This game got a lot of advertisement when it first came out but the most noticeable advertisement was a rap, this video is hilarious but take note when the cool kid says “Woah nice graphics”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI3rO3PbYOo

Now don’t get me wrong It think the game looks great, there is plenty of enemies to fight and I can happily say that with the NES having a limited colour palette I think Nintendo did a really good job in the colour department. The graphics actually do look smooth in some areas of the game but as much as I really like the enemy colour palettes, I do wish there more variety on colour in the dungeons and over world because this game does suffer from a similar issue to the original Super Mario Bros where the colours and environments do seem to repeat themselves a lot of the time, but that may be because the game is meant to confuse player in order to give them a bigger sense of adventure.

Speaking of enemies some of my favourites include

Darknuts

Ghini’s

Ghibdo’s

Keese

Ropes

And the creepy but very mysterious Pols Voice

A little fact about Pols voice: Pols voice are afraid of loud noises, in the European and USA version of the game nothing could be done to scare the Pols voice but in the Japanese version the player could make a noise into the Famicoms Microphone to stun the Pols voice.

These are just a few of the enemy names, as you can tell it is all a bit weird but Nintendo obviously liked this Idea because they kept the enemy names for future titles.

The music in this game is very good, but I do feel that just like the original Super Mario bros that it lacks music tracks. I may be being nit picky here but I find the music to get very annoying especially the over world music as this is the music you mostly hear in the game. To my knowledge the game only has three tracks not including the end credits the over world theme, the dungeon theme and Ganons dungeon theme.

Throughout the game the player will need to find specific items in order to proceed throughout the world and these items are not always so easy to find because most of them require link to bomb a wall but there is no indication of what walls to bomb so a lot of time it will be trial and error.

The game consists of 8 dungeons before you can finally take on the final dungeon to face the final boss.

As an old school gamer I have played most of the classic Nintendo games but personally I find this to be one of my favourites to play through time and time again. The sense of adventure this game provides is amazing. I highly recommend this one to any old school gamers but chances are that most of you have already played this game and if so why not boot your old Nintendo’s and play it again.

A little Fun Fact: Did you know that The legend of Zelda was inspired by Walt Disney’s Peter Pan. Pretty cool right

Hope you enjoyed this review

This review was written by Dan (Padawan)

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