Tag: Raggle Fraggle Reviews

Pet Sematary 1989 Review

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Spooky Season is finally here and this year I have no theme, instead I am going to be discussing various horror movies and if I get time a game or two, the first film I want to take a look at is the 1989 film Pet Sematary.

Directed by Mary Lambert and with a screenplay by the books original author Stephen King, Pet Semetary is a movie that after watching I can’t seem to keep off my mind due to its creepy nature.

The Creed family Louis, his wife Rachel and their two children Ellie and Gage are moving to Maine so that Louis can accept his new job as a Physician in the local university.

Upon arriving the dangerous main road with fast lorry drivers passing regularly is shown to be a serious issue, the one neighbour Jud, a kind old man from across the street warns the Creed family to keep an eye on the cat Church as many animals have been killed in the road causing a massive Pet Sematary to built just behind their new home.

Jud takes the family to this sematary and begins explaining to Ellie about death but Rachel reacts negatively to this due to how she witnessed her disabled sister Zelda choking to death after Rachel decided to not help her, Rachel still has PTSD for this and feels guilty for letting her sister die.

When the family cat Church is hit by a truck and dies, Jud takes Louis to bury the cat in an ancient Indian burial ground, everything that is buried here comes back to life which is proven true when Church walks back to the house although seeming a little bit grumpier.

With the burial ground being the main cause of misery in this film then you can technically call this a zombie flick and its one not to disappoint in its creepiness.

The comic relief of the film is the spirit of a young man named Victor Pascal, Louis was a jogger who was killed during his run, before he dies he warns Louis about the pet sematary and even calls him by name even though they have never met.

Throughout the film his ghost comes to Louis and his family multiple times to try and prevent the inevitable but his efforts end up being in vain.

If you thought the death of a cat would be the only major loss in this film then I am afraid that what comes next is truly bone chilling. The family toddler Gage is eventually the next victim of the busy road and after Jud’s many warnings that humans should never be buried in the Pet Sematary and even telling a horrifying tale of a young man who was brought back as a monster, Louis lets his grief get the better of him and he buries Gage hoping to see his son again.

Gage is the second antagonist of the movie after Church the cat although he is most definitely much more dangerous, he is the part of the movie that has stuck with me for so long, I think its the creepy taunts in his childlike voice and the part where he walks with the cane while giggling just gives me the shivers every time I see it ! This is probably the most memorable part of the film but I think that it is also in part that the majority of cast performances are not really that great, its not bad or anything but the main family is quite boring to watch but Brad Greenquist and Fred Gwynne who played Pascal and Jud were very good in their respective roles. Brad was a lot of fun as the comic relief and took a little bit of the edge away from this very dark tale, Fred Gwynne has a very grandfatherly nature to him in this and I very quickly recognised him from his work on the Munster’s playing Herman Munster.

Worth mentioning is the opening of the film, it perfectly sets up the film that comes after it, with the chilling child choir mixed in with the final words children said to their dead pets is actually a good message that saying goodbye should be goodbye, a lesson clearly not learned by Louis Creed who eventually sets up his own demise by not following the rules of life.

Pet Sematary is a pretty messed up movie with an extremely dark premise that I think some people will find a little bit too much at times. I would however recommend it if you enjoy movies with a creepy atmosphere or if you want to see a Stephen King movie as this is one of the better ones in my opinion.

After seeing this I do want to check out the book one day just see if it is just as eerie on paper.

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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011/2021) Review

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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the sixteenth main entry in Nintendo’s popular action-adventure videogame series, it is easily the second most controversial game in the series due to its emphasis on motion controls a feature many players dislike, A HD version of the game released in 2021 which promised to fix these issues. I have had experience with both versions of the game and I have a lot of opinions on this so called HD improvement so without further ado lets get straight into it.

Taking place at the very beginning of the timeline the three goddesses Farore, Din and Nayru created the triforce (a magical artifact able to grant the wishes of who ever possesses it. The Demon King Demise causes destruction and wrath in a desperate search for such power eventually being defeated by the great goddess Hylia and the few survivors of the world.

Many years later, the survivors future kin live on an island of the sky name Skyloft, here a young knight name Link has just passed his final exam to become a knight, at the same time as passing the test the Princess Zelda is taken into the skies by Dark clouds leaving Link to leave Skyloft to rescue her not yet realising the massive quest that he has coming his way.

Before discussing the gameplay I want it clear that most of the images I am using from this point forward are from the HD version due to how much cleaner they look compared to the original (see the image above). Although both are very impressive for the hardware they are played on the HD is generally better for seeing the finer details.

The main new mechanic of this game is how to traverse the skies, you are given a bird which you can use to fly to the different islands of the skies and to access the different parts of the world beneath the clouds. The motion controls for flying while not great do work well enough that once you get the hang of things you can eventually travel with ease. I thought the idea of flying was really ambitious but the lack of real areas to explore outside of the main quest doesn’t give players much incentive to try and find secrets which is a shame as that was originally the whole point of the series. There are some fun minigames to play and chests to find but apart from this there is nothing much here.

By far the best area of the game is Skyloft because not only is it the most diverse and interesting but almost all of the side quests start here. The three areas you can visit beneath the clouds are all very visually appealing and creative but they are linear and again do not really encourage players to explore freely.

Taking a positive spin I actually really like the temples in this game, Zelda games are known for themed dungeons which are packed full of puzzles and challenges, this is no exception and to top it off not only are only are these some of the most creative in the series and on par with Twilight Princesses but they are the most visually appealing as well.

The are only a few in the game but they are very large and again very creative, one dungeon takes place inside of an active Volcano, another on top of an invisible pirate ship, the final dungeon has you rotating the rooms and even the water dungeon is really fun and was actually one my favourites which is saying a lot considering how much I disliked the water dungeons in Ocarina and Twilight.

Apart from its characters and puzzle, one of the best of a parts of a Zelda game is the combat, unfortunately the motion control issues I never saw any improvement in the HD version but thankfully a new control method was optionable allowing you to flick the joysticks to imitate motion swings and this did work much better, its still has some issues with pulling off finisher moves and some times it is difficult to get the perfect angle for an attack but it is doable and a good addition to the new version.

A character named Fi is introduced here as the spirit of the goddess sword or the master sword as it is more commonly known, this is its origin story and explains how the sword has its godly powers in all future installments, the character is fine but interrupts the player with hints far too often in the original version, in the HD version these hints were optional and is another point in the remakes favour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rEielqyAZ0&list=PLC5AE6E1EEA630D30
The music for the game does not disappoint, it uses a mix of new music which can be calming in most areas but in the more adventurous sections the tracks really pick up and get you in the mood for a really epic time, older Zelda tracks are also remixed into this game played using different instruments and music styles to make these recognisable tracks feel fresh and fit into Skyward Sword very nicely.

Skyward Sword is a game that I do actually really like but I just cant look past the issues with its controls and linear gameplay. Its really hard for me to judge it to harshly because I really like the dungeons, the music, visuals and the story but its lack of really memorable side content does make it feel a little lackluster compared to what came before it and while this is a really fun game it just really needed more explorable areas, they could have had larger sky area with lots of little secrets and islands, similar to the ocean in Wind Waker instead of the empty rocks you can land on here often only holding one or two chests.

So thats my opinion of Skyward Sword it is a really weird one for me to rank because from a gameplay perspective I really like this but I just don’t get excited to replay it again, it fails to have that feel of adventure that you get from games such as a Link to the Past, Ocarina of time, Majoras Mask and Windwaker but as controversial as this may be I do think its better than Twilight Princess as the world is less boring and I do really like the vibrant colours and visuals here much more as well as its plot and characters so I think the fairest scores I can give these games are

Skyward Sword 6.2/10

Skywards Sword HD 6.5/10 (mostly due to more control options and less Fi interruptions!)

I skipped a few games to cover this one since the remake just released however I do plan of finishing and reviewing those last few games so next time we do Zelda it will be Phantom Hourglass.

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Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest (1995) Review

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After the massive success of Donkey Kong County a sequel starring his nephew Diddy was put straight into development, a choice to remove Donkey Kong as a playable character may seem odd but it is a decision that helped expand the DKC universe and the Kong Family Tree. The game was created by Rare Ware for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and was released in 1995.

After the events of Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong is relaxing on a beach while Funky Kong is surfing the waves. Cranky Kong is not happy with Donkey Kong Keeping his guard down when he should be working, stating that he never stopped throwing barrels or kidnapping maidens back in his day. Donkey ignores Cranky’s words and falls asleep on his chair deep into the night.

Diddy Kong in the mean time has gained a love interest in another young Monkey named Dixie Kong, later on they both head to the beach where they discover a broken chair and a note which reads “Hah-arrrrh! We have got the big monkey! If you want him back, you scurvy dogs, you’ll have to hand over the banana hoard! Kaptain K. Rool”. Cranky does actually suggest handing over the Banana horde but after himself and Donkey worked so hard to get it back last time Diddy decides to take on K. Rool again alongside his new girlfriend Dixie.

The gameplay here is quite different when compared the original, the standard 2.5d platforming is the same, the goal is still to get from start to finish in each stage. There are still Kong letters and Banana’s you can collect to gain more lives and apart from some new enemies the platforming is very much the same as before.

The animal companions are different, the only returning animals are the Rhino and the Sword Fish, we now also get a parrot who can fly and shoot eggs, a spider who can shoot webs and build platforms and a snake who can bounce really high.

Out of all of these the parrot is by far the animal companion needed the most and the game has sections dedicated to the parrot. The spider was very useful as well especially for climbing up inaccessible areas, unfortunately I didn’t really enjoy using the snake and he was mostly useless minus two stages.

Apart from the companions, the actual stages do have new challenges mixed into them to make this game much more difficult than the first, the barrels now allow you to fully rotate them to allow more freedom in where they fire you and other segments such as the hot air balloons in the image above need to be traversed very carefully to make sure you don’t get hurt, this becomes particularly challenging when the lava below is not the only obstacle you need to avoid.

The bonus areas are completely different here as they act as either small challenges unlocked by finding secrets in levels or entire new stages which can bought by a brutish Kremling named Klubba using Kong Coins.

The challenges are a lot of fun and its cool to see different missions that have to be taken on with various skills. if you finish one of these you will unlock a Kong Coin.

The secret area I never got to see because unfortunately I didn’t perform all to well in my playthrough and by the time that I beat the final boss I had to managed to collect only one measly coin which wasn’t even enough to unlock the first secret level but none the less it is pretty amazing to see such attention to detail and replay value in a game from 1995.

The boss fights in the game are all fantastic and some of the best I have seen in any of the DKC games so far, I really liked that they were all different in how they attacked and took damage, it was also really challenging for some fights which required some platforming alongside the battle. The new backgrounds for each fight are a really nice touch as well instead of just using the same background like they did in the original game.

As I have mentioned this game is five times more difficult than its predecessor, you now can only save your game in an area for free once so simply saving between levels is not really an option, because of this the developers added a pretty challenging quiz area in some worlds, here you pay a fee to answer questions about the game and if you are correct you will gain lives, if not you just wind up losing coins so you do need to be careful.

The music was once again composed by David Wise and is very good but it not quite as great as it was before, the original game has such iconic music and it works so well, I won’t go into too much details as I have already reviewed that game but the tracks are recognisable and memorable. I’m not saying they aren’t in DKC 2 but none of them have got that great hook nor are any of them really that fantastic that you could listen to them and say “yeah that’s from DKC 2” maybe you feel different but for me while this soundtrack is good it is also lacking when compared to what came before.

Donkey Kong Country 2 is a game I have wanted to play for a very long time, I guess the idea of not playing as Donkey Kong put me off but now I realise that I was stupid because I think I like this one a little bit better than the first.

This game took Donkey Kong Country and expanded upon it in the best ways possible, you now have the return of Diddy Kong who plays the same as before but now you can also play as Dixie who has the ability glide making some gaps much easier for her to cross, she was particularly useful for avoiding the canon fire of K.Rool’s final form as well.

The new bonus stages were a nice addition and the overall challenge of the game while difficult is still fair, the soundtrack while not as good is still really well composed and the only real issues with this game are some of the controls being a bit sensitive especially during the flying and trickier platforming sections also having to pay to save the game while adding to the challenge was going a little overboard as the game would have still been difficult without that extra barrier.

DKC 2 was a lot of fun even though I did tear my hair out a little bit but it is definitely a game I will play again and deserves a rating of 9.6/10 … bring on DKC 3 whenever I get my hands on that one as I cant wait to dig deeper into this bananarific franchise !

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2018 Review

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a 2018 action-adventure game developed by Eidos-Monteral and published by Square Enix.

The game is technically the twelfth entry to the series but is only the third game in the reboot franchise, from what I understand this is also the game that is meant to catch us up to the plot of the original tomb raider from 1996.

Two months after the events of Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft and her best friend Jonah have dedicated them selves to destroying the terrorist organisation Trinity.

They head to Mexico to track Trinity’s high council leader Pedro Dominguez, while in Mexico Lara finds a temple which holds the Dagger of Chak Chel as well as hints of a hidden city within the country.

There are also warnings of a silver box of Ix Chel which is used to perform a ritual called the cleansing which is a Mayan apocalypse which will cause a permanent solar eclipse.

On top of stopping Dominquez Lara wants to find this box for studying momentarily unaware that Dominquez wants the box for much more sinister reasons.

The main gameplay style of the new trilogy is very similar in style to the older Assassin’s creed games and of course Uncharted, you will have to figure out how to traverse environments and sometimes this can be really tricky because there isn’t many visual evidence of the best way to do something but if you do get stuck you can activate a vision mode which does highlight clues to help you on your way through out these areas.

The same can be done in tombs which are handled differently in this trilogy because in all of the games they are more side content than something which needs to be done. I did all of the challenge tombs in the game and not once did they feel like they were getting stale and each of them had a different theme and various challenges for players to figure out.

There was a lot of moments in this game that were on rails stealth segments normally it was either flooding water or Lara running away from something, These were developed very well and I had no issue with the controls but I do feel there was just a few too many of them.

This game is gorgeous graphically with vast and beautiful environments, due to the locations and theme of the game a lot of the areas you explore are very old fashioned there is a village in the game that still looks the same way it did thousands of years ago its very captivating and generally feels like something out of a documentary due to how realistic it is portrayed.

Other styles in the game are pretty rare but one that stands out and I really wish we could have seen more of is Day of the Dead in Mexico.

I really enjoyed the colours they used here and how they genuinely set up the atmosphere with the music, it was fun to do the first mission here but I wish we could have explored the festival a little bit more as it really was the most interesting part of the game in my opinion.

A nice arsenal of weapons are back for this game and none of them were new but I don’t feel they needed to add anything else to what we already had in Rise. Very similarly I mostly used the bow and arrow and pistol in this one trying to get as many headshots as I could. The Bow and Arrow is by far the best weapon in all of these games because it has multiple uses, It can be used to kill people but it can also use fire arrows and poison arrows, another great use is the rope arrow that can bring down small barricades and of course help you get across wide gaps or get to lower areas very quickly.

The soundtrack composed by Brian D’Oliveira is breathtaking and that can be said for the music in the entire trilogy, while playing these games it often surprises me that me that the music is videogame music and not from a motion picture because as I have stated before it is so well composed that it rivals work from major composers like John Williams or Danny Elfman. The music here is perfect and is probably the best part of the game and that is not to put the rest of the experience down but a perfect soundtrack is hard to come by and this entire trilogy pulls it off extremely well.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is often considered the worst of the reboot series but I disagree this game is so close to being as good as Rise and it wouldn’t surprise me if for some people they like it more.

This game explores Lara’s childhood and her becoming more mature, in the game we actually see a lot of flaws in her character which are often confronted by Jonah this is never in a malicious way but more out of care.

I thought it was good that we got see problems in her character for her to work on because I don’t feel the two previous games explored these aspects enough.

I really enjoyed the areas of the game and I genuinely found the mystery very interesting. I thought the characters were some of the best we have had yet, the moments that happen in the hidden village were specifically effective due to how well they wrote the characters and their relationships.

I don’t really understand why people thinks this is a weaker game than the first one, I thought it was outstanding, I feel they did the story well, the environments were gorgeous, the soundtrack is phenomenal and the side content was just as good as the main game. Personally I do prefer Rise for reasons I explain in that review but I think a solid 9/10 is a really fair score for this one.

I don’t know if we will get another one after this but if this is all we get for the Tomb Raider Reboots this is one of the best trilogy’s I think gaming has ever had.

Check out my reviews for the first Reboot game and Rise using the links below

Tomb Raider 2013 (PC, 360,PS3) Review
Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015) Review

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Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time (1999) Review

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Bugs Bunny: Lost in time is a ps1 3d platformer starring Bugs Bunny and other popular Looney Tunes characters. It was developed by Behaviour Interactive and Published by Infrogrames. The game was released for both the Ps1 and Microsoft Windows. I played the ps1 version but from what I understand apart from the controls both games are identical.

In the game Bugs Bunny accidently activates a time machine when he mistakes it for a carrot juice dispenser. Due to this he is sent to an area named nowhere, this is the homeland of Merlin the wizard, Merlin tells Bugs that he has been lost in time and will need to explore five different Time periods (Stone Age, Pirate Years, 1930’s, Medieval Period and Dimension X) looking for golden carrots and clock symbols in order to power the time machine and allow him to return to the present day.

I feel the best way to cover this game fairly is for me to give a small opinion of each time period because they do all stand out in their own ways, doing this will also allow me to cover the different gameplay type.

The Stone Age.

The Stone is the first world that you visit and I only half like it, the reason I say this is because the main platforming levels are not very creative, yes the dinosaurs are cool and sneaking around the terrordactyl’s while annoying is creative but the rest of the stages all the look the same and don’t really have anything that is all too memorable.

The main boss fight against Elmer Fudd is one of my favourites in the game, you have to trick Elmer by jumping into a hole and sneaking behind him for an attack, its not anything to crazy but it is surprisingly satisfying and at times can get a little tricky with Elmer figuring out your patterns.

Another level that is really different in this era is the Wabbit Season, Duck Season stage, here you need to change the Bugs signs to Daffy Signs so that when the timer ends Elmer shoots that despicable duck instead of Bugs Bunny. I think liked this one more for the reference to the classic Looney Tunes gag but it does stand out in the game and is on my favourite parts.

The Pirate Years

This is one of my favourite areas in the the whole game and there is almost nothing wrong with the pirate years section. The main levels are all very unique and well designed, the first stage is based around docks and has you avoiding cannon fire and avoiding sharks to reach the first Sam fight. Other stages are either large areas with a fair amount of puzzles and explorative areas such as water falls and caves, One stage is completely based around puzzle solving and I really like it !.

There is even a section with a mine cart on rails reaction test which I love in most games and here it is just as good, there are many paths to take, lots of secrets and tricky collectables to grab that require perfect timing. There is even another Sam fight here which is again really fun and a boss type I have never seen in another game so far.

Speaking of the Sam fights, all of them are great but my absolute favourite is actually based on a cartoon we mentioned in the Daffy Duck Fantastic Island Review that being Captain Hare Blower. In the game you need to destroy the parts of Sam’s Ship by shooting his cannon balls and TNT boats back at him, if he sinks before you do you have successfully beaten the stage. There is a not a single boss fight that is similar to this in the game so this one really stands out and is generally a really well made boss battle.

1930’s

Probably my second least favourite era in the whole game is the 1930’s. The levels are based around the gangsters Mugsy and Rocky and each stage has Bugs trying to prevent them from pulling off a crime. The area stands out for having a lot of levels which are different from each other, one stage might be a standard 3d platformer and another a puzzle solving action stage. The reason I don’t like this world is because while it is very different the levels all feel very similar, nothing about them is really that memorable, I especially hated the carrot factory level because it was complicated to get around and collecting all of the Golden Carrots and Clocks was not as fun here as it is in other stages due to how far apart they were hidden.

One stage I do really like though is the vehicle level, its really fun and is actually quite funny as Bugs keeps losing different vehicles and landing on others, a common gag in cartoons. The vehicles all feel different and each offers a different challenge with how it can be used to avoid obstacles.

The boss fights in this time period are ok, they are not as fun as the pirate period but I feel there is enough variety between how you can beat all of them to keep them on the same level as the Stone Age.

The Medieval Period

I really enjoyed the medieval era because it had a lot of variety not only in its levels but in its environments, I noticed that there were two main styles that the era used. The first was the castle and forest regions and I really liked these, the forest specifically because it had references to Witch Hazel and of course robin hood played by Daffy Duck, this was referencing one of Daffy’s best cartoons from 1958. Witch Hazel is the main villain of this era and she is a lot of fun too, I really enjoyed her battle while avoiding the dragons and fireballs.

There was even a secret room is the area with the dragons that you can only enter by returning a flag to a locked door, its very cool and is the only thing like this in the game that isn’t as obvious as the other secrets.

The other theming that the era uses is snow and you guys who read my reviews know how much I love snow themed stages in games and this is no exception, very fun levels, the main snow stage has small puzzle rooms and a hidden slide to mess around with and the other is a really fun on rails skiing level that is quite challenging but does control really well which is something I cant say for a section in the next era.

Dimension X

So this is my least favourite era for a very similar reason to the 1930’s I think the idea of having levels based around the Marvin the Martian cartoons is a fantastic premise, but these levels are so boring and due to how they are maze like in design they can get a little confusing since they all look the same.

I really didn’t like that the first stage would push you back to the beginning every time you got caught by the security robots, I did enjoy the puzzle level a lot more but again it was similar even up to the boss.

There was another vehicle section in this level and unfortunately I really struggled to maintain control here, It was mostly when you would spin around the poles and then had to land on the next platform, I’m sure it can be done a lot easier its just I didn’t really enjoy this because it took me a long time to get to grips with it.

The level load screens are really great in this game because they are styled after original Looney Tunes title cards, all of them are very well drawn and add a lot of charm to the game.

The soundtrack is pretty good it wasn’t one I wanted to listen to throughout my entire playthrough but what we got works well enough for a licensed video game, the tracks do fit well into the Looney Tunes universe and are well used for the environments they play in.

Bugs Bunny Lost in Time is a game I have always wanted to sit down and play, I actually wanted to cover this one during the first Looney Tunes month but unfortunately the copy I owned back then didn’t work so it took another year, and was it worth the wait?

Yes I would say it was, definitely the second best game we have covered in a Looney Tunes month so far, this is a pretty solid 3D platformer which is well designed and full of references to classic Looney Tunes shorts. I have very few issues with the game, my only real problems were a few areas I didn’t enjoy as much and the fact that the game didn’t have a collection guide that showed all of the stages at once, it was annoying having to find stages just to see if I had all of the Golden Carrots and Clocks instead of having a much easier system like in Super Mario 64 which came out 3 years earlier.

Apart from that this is a great game, it has tight controls, the visuals are fantastic for the PS1, there is a large range of different gameplay styles and even though I couldn’t control that speeder section in Dimension X, I’ve seen other people do it with ease so I’m going to assume its just me.

and with all that said and done I give Bugs Bunny: Lost in a Time a very generous 7.8/10

If you would like to help support the website please use the donation button at the top of the page, your donations will help to improve the website by allowing me to afford products to review and to be able to execute any costly updates and changes, any amount in donations are welcome.

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Acme Antics and Dizzy Driving GBA Review

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Unfortunately I cant get a lot of information about this game, what I have learned from playing it though is that it is a bundle of two short games based around Looney Tunes, one game is reaction based game and the other is a top down kart racer.

It was developed by Way Forward who you might know from the latest Donkey Kong Country Games and was released in 2005.

I’m going to review each game as I play them, I started with Acme Antics mainly because it was first one that was highlighted when I booted the game up.

This is a very beautifully animated game where you play the role of Road Runner escaping the claws of that greedy Wile Coyote.

The game looks amazing and feels very close to one of the cartoons in its animation and well chosen colour palette, the GBA always looked really great when developers put effort into the visuals and this is one of the best I’ve seen.

The only real issue with this is that the whole experience is very repetetive, the backgrounds are mostly the same and the music loops, when Wile shows up it gets a little more creative as he will start using ACME products to try and get the bird, he even has boss fights which again shake up the gameplay enough to keep it enjoyable, the whole thing is only about a half hour long but it is fun, they should have added a points system though so you could try and beat your high scores the next time you played.

Up next is Dizzy Drivers, I feel this will be a fairly short review so hopefully this next game has a bit more meat on its bones.

I actually really enjoyed this one Dizzy Drivers is as expected a kart racer and in the game your goal as your selected character is to come first in the races. I of course picked Foghorn Leghorn my favourite Looney Tunes character and considering he is the fastest in the game it was really quite easy to control. The game is not forgiving if you mess up and the other racers get a good lead on you, you haven’t got a chance in catching up so you really to master the controls to fully enjoy the game.

The music changed here too it wasn’t very good tracks but at least there was variety.

There are weapons in the game but they are not very memorable and most of them are hard to get hits with, I mostly just ignored them in the game but what you could expect was the obvious bombs, rockets and oil spills that come with every Kart Racer, a missed opportunity for some really cool themed things like Marvin the Martians shrink ray, Wile’s inventions, Taz wasn’t playable so he could be thrown at players and so on, none of those were used and I came up with those in about 15 seconds so I don’t really think there is much excuse for the lack of variety here.

So thats really all you get with this GBA title, I couldn’t say much because there wasn’t really much here, this is not a game I would say you have to play but if you did go straight Dizzy Driving because personally I think a more fleshed version of that without the Acme Antics game would have been better.

I think the most fair score I can give this is a 5/10 it controls well, it looks great and for a quick pick me up it is a pretty fun game but there isn’t a lot here and I think most people would get bored after a few play throughs. A good effort from way forward but cramming two tiny games into one cartridge when they could have had a much better fleshed out kart racer really takes away from this one.

That leaves just one more game and more movie for this second edition of Looney Tunes month. stay tuned over the next 10 days and hopefully the month will go out with a bang and with the next game I’m reviewing I really think it might make up for the less than impressive game choices this month !

See you then

Padawan

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Daffy Duck’s Fantastic Island Review

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Fantastic Island is a 1983 Looney Tunes anthology movie, it was the first movie to star Daffy Duck pushing Bugs Bunny to a supporting role, the movie was loosely based on Gilligans Island but with a Looney Tunes twist.

In the film Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzala are both trapped on an island surviving on only coconuts, Daffy happens to accidently find a treasure map and follows it to a magic well that grant the wishes of anyone that throws a penny into its water.

Word of the magic well quickly reaches the other Looney Tunes characters who come to visit the island and have their wishes granted.

Daffy sees an opportunity here to make a lot of money very quickly and begins charging $500 for a single penny, a ridiculous deal but of course the thought of having wishes granted seems worth a gamble, unfortunately no one realises that the well is a bit of a scam artist himself until it is too late.

The most memorable part of the film is obviously the shorts they play, in this movie each wish becomes a short and there a few which happen during other areas of the film but I will make it clear where each short takes place.

Captain Hareblower (intro to the movie)

A very small segment of this movie was shown here, skipping over a lot of the context but what they did keep was the best part, the battle at the end of the short between Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam is very funny and well directed slapstick. It is a shame they cut the battle short though but they really couldn’t have left the ending in otherwise it would not have fitted in well with movie and we did get was good enough.

Stupor Duck (Daffy’s Wish)

Stupor Duck is a parody of the popular comic book series Super Man. In this short bumbling idiot Cluck Trent mistakes a TV show for a police crime radio, this triggers him to put on his Stupor Duck costume and find the bad guys. This leads to Stupor Duck causing all sorts of trouble for the general public and himself. A very funny short which is in full so no complaints with this one, its cool to see Super Man get spoofed by Looney Tunes and I hope more shorts like this are shown in these anthology films.

Greedy for Tweety (Granny’s Wish)

Sylvester, Hector and Tweety are all chasing each other in the streets but are unfortunately hit by a car and sent to an animal hospital. Tweety tries to rest but Sylvester is still eager to eat him while Hector has plans to torment Sylvester meaning that even from hospital beds the three of them are still causing trouble for eachother.

A very fun short but not as funny as the two previous ones, I liked this but I wish they picked a different short for granny.

Banty Raids (Foghorn’s Wish)

I feel a little biased with this one as Foghorn Leghorn is my favourite Looney Tunes character but I absolutely love this cartoon, a charming young rooster has got his eyes set on a set of hens and tries to make his way into their pen, he cant walk in however as Foghorn Leghorn is in charge of security. The young rooster pretends to be a baby to get in and then has to play a mrs doubtfire role of playing an infant and making love to the ladies in this classic Looney Tunes short.

Louvre come back to me (Pepe’s Wish)

Pepe Le Pew is in Paris and looking for Romance, his bad smell is causing him trouble however and the poor fella doesn’t have much luck. A young female cat who accidently gets a white stripe of paint on her back becomes his next target when he mistakes her for another Skunk.

A lot of the same jokes in this and while they do work and is ultimately still a funny short I am not a massive fan of the character, he does only have one short here though and while it is one of the weaker ones its good enough that I would watch it again.

Tree for Two (Chester and Spikes wish)

My second favourite short in the film is Tree for Two its a very funny short about a tough dog named Spike smacking about his chirpy comrade Chester, they both spot Sylvester the cat and Spike decides to teach Chester how to beat up a cat not realising that an escaped panther begins to beat him up instead. The role reversal of the two dogs in the end was very funny as well. Great short.

Curtain Razor (Porky’s Wish)

Porky Pig is a big Hollywood producer looking for fresh talent, lots of great comedy moments especially with all of the crazy auditions but the best part of the original short was the fox character, he keeps pushing in line promising the best act of all time, after many attempts Porky gives him his shot and he accidently kills himself, great Looney tunes humour but the issue here is that the fox and another good chunk was cut from this short in the movie so one of the weaker ones because of this.

A mouse divided (Sylvester’s girlfriends wish)

Another Sylvester Cartoon (he seems popular in this movie !) and a great short at that. A young female cat is desperate for a baby and when a stork accidently delivers a baby mouse to them, she is ready to be a mother but Sylvester doesn’t quite feel the same way and goes out of his way to try and eat the baby. A really fun short and another good pick for the movie.

Of Rice and Hen and Lovelorn Leghorn (Chickens wish)

This one is a combination of scenes from two cartoons but to be honest both are much better as their whole selves.

I will briefly discuss both now

Of Rice and Hen

After preventing a lonely young hen from an attempted suicide, she falls head over heels for Leghorn Foghorn, unfortunately he doesn’t quite feel the same way but she does not give up.

A fun one but lacks in laughs I would say one of the weaker Leghorn cartoons.

Lovelorn Leghorn

This is a great short and is very funny, the same young hen from the last cartoon is looking for a husband, Leghorn convinces her that the dog is a rooster and she tries to capture him but he soon sets her straight and helps her set an elaborate plan to once again get hitched to Leghorn.

Great short and very memorable I don’t know why they didn’t just put this one in the movie instead of combining two, I feel this would have been a better choice and it would have fitted into the film just as well.

From Hare to Heir

Best short in the entire film by far. From Hare to Heir is about Yosemite Sam being left One million dollars by a deceased relative. However the catch is every time he shows signs of anger some of that money is taken away and he is put to the test by none other than Bugs Bunny who cruelly goes out of his way to make Sam furious. Its an hilarious short and one of the best Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam shorts.

I think I like Daffy Duck’s: Fantastic Island more than the Bugs Bunny and Road Runner movie. I think this one stands out because it has a ongoing narrative around the shorts, not many of them were cut down and the ones that were are done in a way that almost benefits the film, the only issue was the combination of those last two Leghorn films and even that wasn’t so bad.

I really enjoyed this movie and I genuinely could recommend it as a film to any one. not just for Looney Tunes fans but generally I think this can be enjoyed as a stand alone film and I can happily say its my favourite so far. I just hope that the next movie Quack Busters surpasses my expectations.

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Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions (SNES) Review

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Daffy Duck: The ‘Marvin Missions is an Action, Maze Platformer for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, a Gameboy version was also made but today we are primarily looking at the Home Console version.

In the game Duck Dodgers (Daffy Duck) is sent on a mission to stop the plans of Marvin the Martian who is causing trouble on the Resort Planet by taking over with an army of meddling Martians.

The main gameplay style is Action platforming, the game is quite fun as Daffy needs to use various weapons and use some strategy to get through stages and beat the mini boss. The only real issue with the platforming is the Maze style they use, this can be pulled off really well if done correctly, games like Super Metroid or Castle Vania Symphony of night do this phenomenally because the entire game is one large map, there are goals you need to reach but every path you take leads to something and the paths you cant cross can be returned to later on when you find upgrades. The Marvin Missions uses a level system and while the stages are complicated there is only one true path you should take on each level which only makes it frustrating when you go the wrong way. I think this would have been much better if it was just a simple action platformer with guns instead of trying to be a style which does not work unless it is very carefully planned out.

A very impressive aspect to the game is how well animated Daffy Duck, his sprite is very flexible and looks like a cartoon, don’t get me wrong the limitations of the Super Nintendo make it obvious that this is only a video game so your not getting visuals a kin to Hercules on Ps1 but more like Aladdin on Sega Genesis which is definitely a benefit in my book with Aladdin being one of my favourite games.

I do really like the gun system though, you get access to most of these from the get go but with limited ammunition, in the game you earn money and can spend that on upgrading the guns so they can hold more ammunition.

The boss fights are great in this game, none of them feel the same and each has a unique way of defeating them, none of it feels as repetetive as some of the stages do and its nice to have some variety, considering that there is only one Looney Tunes Villain you may think the developers would cut some corners, but with Marvin using robots its about as creative as some of the old Sonic games boss fights and as a big Sonic fan you cant wrong pick a better series to inspire your battles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htztj_FxYBs&list=PLuGdUcbPv0j_l-Utb0Xvb549YuP65ll2E&index=2

The music is awful, I’m sorry because some people praise this soundtrack but honestly to me it’s just noise, I found it annoying and very uncreative, I had to mute the tv at times because the music just got so infuriatingly bad and this sucks because the SNES is home some of the best video game music of all time and I know Sun Soft can do much better than this, their game Batman on the NES has an amazing soundtrack so its not like they couldn’t have done more here.

Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions was disappointing, I think the biggest issue it has is that the developers tried way to hard to make this better than it is, sometimes simplicity is best and this is a great example of how trying to do to many things can really ruin a game, the badly designed maze style levels, the wacky soundtrack which is extremely annoying and the fairly uninspired plot really take away from this one. It does have great animation and very well designed boss fights but that is not enough to redeem this for me. I don’t think its terrible I have reviewed much worse games than this and I feel that with enough practise you could find enjoyment here but from a first playthrough I can only award a a below average score of 4.6/10 because honestly I would rather be playing Porky Pigs: Haunted Holiday and even that game isn’t very good !

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Bugs Bunny’s Third Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales Review

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Welcome to the first Edition of Looney Tunes Month 2, throughout this month I will be looking at the next 3 Looney Tunes films, and 3 more video games.

If you missed the first Looney Tunes Month here are links to each review in their release order

Looney Tunes Month 1

The Origins of the Looney Tunes
Porky Pig’s Haunted Holiday (1995) review
Bugs Bunny: Super Star Review
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie Review
Bugs Bunny’s Birthday Blowout (1990) Review
The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981) Review
Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal (2007) Review

Bugs Bunny’s Third Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales is a 1982 Looney Tunes Anthology film, the movie contained animated shorts which had been abridged with new scenes to help sell the narrative of an original story. It was directed by Friz Freleng who did the new scenes and added in cartoons by Himself, Chuck Jones and Robert McKimson.

The films main plot involves both Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck having been assigned a job selling Story Books for the Rambling House Book Company. Both Characters are sent to different locations but antics from the various animated shorts eventually has them meeting up more than once before they both wind up at the Palace of the Sadistic Yosemiti Sam and his Son Prince Abba Dabba where the Fairytale shorts playout.

The Main plot works well enough and is very cleverly written so that the shorts blend in extremely well, in fact before writing this I actually assumed that most of the film was an original movie.

As for the Animated shorts I will go over each of them briefly and give my thoughts.

Cracked Quack

This a great short from Friz Freleng, it stars Daffy Duck who replaces a stuffed Duck in posh house in order to get free room and board for the winter.

Of course the family dog begins to catch on and tries to kill Daffy but unfortunately his owner Porky Pig still thinks this is his prized Stuffed Duck

Over all this a very funny cartoon with some great gags and is one of the highlights of this movie.

Apes of Wrath

Another Friz Freleng short Apes of Wrath is included here, in this cartoon Bugs is delivered to gorillas in disguise of a baby. Bugs takes advantage of the situation and causes hell for the father who has caught onto him and keeps running to the mother who is none the wiser. Fun short but I didn’t like how this one was shortened here even though it makes sense the original ending is very funny and this doesn’t quite feel right without it.

Wise Quackers

I was bit gutted about this one because the original short about Daffy Duck becoming Elmer Fudd’s slave to avoid being eaten is hilarious and is a classic Looney Tunes short but because the entire middle part was cut out of this it makes this section the most forgettable part of the film which is a shame because I don’t understand why they cut it down so much.

Ali Baba Bunny

Ali Baba Bunny is considered one of the greatest animated shorts of all time so it is only fitting that it was included, in the short Bugs and Daffy accidently take a wrong turn and end up in the Cave of Ali Baba, a treasure room which holds many riches and the Genie of the Lamp, Daffy gets greedy and wants all of the treasure for himself and keeps getting himself in bad situations which Bugs has to help him get out of.

This is a great short but again a good chunk of it is missing and while this is not as bad the previous cuts the most memorable scene is gone and of course the ending had to be cut as well to fit the narrative of this movie. This one is still good though with the few parts they left in so this Chuck Jones Cartoon still has a lot of charm.

Tweety and the Beanstalk

This cartoon has a really unique take on Jack and the beanstalk, I liked that Tweety was the bigger character here and Sylvester small it was a nice change to the usual flow of these cartoons. Nothing much was changed here apart from the removal of a racist sterotype at the end and in my book that is a change I can support.

Goldimouse and the Three Cats

A retelling of the Goldilocks story with Sylvester and his family, Im not a fan of this one I found the child character annoying and none of the jokes really worked for me so I found this one a little boring and uninspired.

Bewitched Bunny

I adore this short so much, its one of my favourite Chuck Jones Cartoons, its based on Hansel and Gretel and has so many great gags that land flawlessly, the ending was cut out of this version which is a shame because the last line of the cartoon while a little dated had me in stiches.

Red Riding Hoodwinked

A wacky take on the Red Riding Hood story, the main difference here is while the Wolf is chasing down Red, Sylvester the Cat is after her pet Tweety Bird, so the cat and the wolf end up in competition which ultimately ends with a really fun chase sequence at the end, I like this one but it isnt very memorable to me and generally I didn’t find it that funny but it is far from a bad cartoon.

The Pied Piper of Guadalpe and Mexican Borders

This next cartoon is a combination of two Speedy Gonzales Cartoons that were cut up and stitched together creating a very unique telling of both of these, it works surprisingly well and to be honest I prefer watching both of these cartoons this way because while alone they are each excellent, this is another fun way to see some of their best parts without you even knowing they were edited or even separate stories.

One Froggy Evening

Easily one of the best Cartoons ever made, One Froggy Evening is the hilarious tale of a man who finds a singing and dancing frog which only sings when they are alone and remains normal among other people, this gets the man in all sorts of trouble including being sent a mental intuition, the short is very well made with good timing on the jokes, they did cut the ending but it hardly makes much difference and honestly I think this works a little better without it.

Aqua Duck

A very small clip was used from this Cartoon and the rest was not in the movie, I feel it worth mentioning this as it was included but was a such a small part that it doesn’t really count as part of the compilation.

1001 Rabbit Tales is a good movie but its not as good as the likes of the Bugs Bunny/ Road Runner film, I think where this one falls short is all of the cuts it made to otherwise perfect cartoons but If you can appreciate how well Director Friz Freleng did to stitch this all of this together to make one long movie it is honestly quite impressive.

Is this one of my favourite Looney Tunes movies? I want to say no but I can see myself returning to this one again, I liked the majority of it and while I was little upset with the edits as long as you watch the original cartoons as well this movie is one I can definitely recommend.

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New Pokemon Snap (2021) Review

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New Pokemon Snap is the highly anticipated and unexpected sequel to 1999’s Pokemon Snap.

It was developed by Bandai-Namco and was published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch family of systems. In a similar manner to the original this game is an on-rails photography puzzle game where the main goal is to capture photographs on Pokémon in their natural environments with bonus points awarded for special moments such as rare encounters or reactions.

In the game you play as yourself, you pick an avatar and are a Pokemon photographer, I liked this more than the game just giving you a pre designed and named character like they did previously.

This time you are guided by Professor Mirror of the Lental Region and are tasked with photographing Pokemon but now your main goal is to capture images of illumina Pokemon, these are extremely rare Pokemon that are only known from legend and have never been seen or photographed before.

I think this games best feature is its visuals, it is absolutely gorgeous and feels so real because of how naturally the Pokemon AI move and interreact with the environments, this was handled much better than the first game and I really appreciate that because this game is very relaxing and a chill out experience to hop on to when taking breaks during more stress enduring games.

There are way more islands to explore in this game and each one has a day and a night cycle. this is awesome because it means you can get access to Nocturnal Pokemon whish was not possible in the original.

I also really like that you can be awarded stickers and filters to help create unique and funny pictures which you can share with your friends using the online services of the game.

Throughout the game you will unlock new items you can use to interact with Pokemon and the environment, some of these have been carried over from the original game but the majority are new.

All together we have

Fluff Fruit – These can be thrown at Pokemon or used to entice certain Poke creatures to draw closer to your camera.

Illumina Orbs – These can be used to help interact with specific environmental items and to help some Pokemon perform rare actions.

Melody Player – Very similar to Illumina Orbs, the Melody Player can be used to encourage Pokemon to perform calming actions such as sleeping, Dancing or showing genuine happiness.

Neo One Turbo – This is a boost for your vehicle allowing you to speed through courses, great for getting specific shots near the end of courses.

The Soundtrack is not great in my opinion, the original game had a very simple soundtrack that worked well for the game and each section had a theme that seemed to fit in well with its environment, I feel the same here but it doesn’t quite hit the mark for me, I ironically I feel this one is a little too simple, it doesn’t quite have that Nintendo charm and none of these tracks are that memorable, its not bad by any means It’s just not for me.

New Pokemon Snap is a game that I was very excited to play when it got announced, I had not long beat the original game and I did that over a weekend, that first game is very charming, its addictive and full of great puzzles. I really enjoyed this version as well, it looks a lot better and having a compelling story, voice acting and realism adds a whole new experience to the series that works very well.

However I dont like this game quite as much as the first, dont get me wrong I think this is a great new version of Pokemon Snap but it feels different to that first game, I couldn’t bring my self to keep playing this, some times it felt like a chore and other times I just wanted to play something else, I think this game works great in 45 minutes bursts with other games being played in between.

I believe my opinion is purely just a personal thing because the game is very good, it has a lot going for it and if you want a relaxing experience then this just may be the game for you, but personally I will just boot up the N64 again myself.

With all my opinions put aside New Pokemon Snap gets a very good score of 8.8/10

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