Friday, May 24, 2019

Mobile Game Review: Slayin'

In an age where smart phones are in nearly everyone's hands (and almost definitely in the hands of people under a certain age range), mobile games are big business; Konami, Capcom, Sega and Nintendo all have a mobile game division in their companies, and they were some of the biggest game developers in the 80s and 90s.

However, if you've been playing video games as long as I have (since 1989), mobile games have a bad reputation, and for good reason.  You see, mobile games have one major obstacle to sucking in people like myself; control. Touch screens lack the precision control that a keyboard, mouse or controller have, so certain types of games are difficult on mobile devices unless they offer Bluetooth controller support.

And that's where this new series comes in; I download a game, play it for at least a week, and let you know if they're worth your time.  I'll be judging on a few criteria; control, graphical fidelity, sound, and frequency of ads, if any, and fun factor. And then, I'll round it up to whether it's worth your time and money. And with that, welcome to Mobile Game Reviews.

Today's review is on a game that I saw on youtube, Slayin'. Slayin' is a game built around a touchscreen control scheme, with a left button, a right button, a pause button and an action button. The action button is determinant on which of 6 classes you can choose for combat. Each class has something different to bring to the table; the Knight, for example, has a one directional weapon, but has the most defense, but the Knave has a bidirectional weapon, and the highest luck, and the mage has the highest attack, but can't jump, and so on for the other three classes.  All bring something distinct to the gameplay in your attempt to last long enough to face the dragon at the end.  It has a retro aesthetic in sound, and music; it would have fit in perfectly on the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis.



This game has plenty of unlocks, and all can be bought with in game currency, fame. All the characters, different background music, interface borders, gravestone styles for to display your high score, all of it purchased with in game currency. Yes, you can buy the currency with real money, but you don't have to; fame is easy to get so long as you know what you're doing.

Control: Slayin' is built around around touch screen controls. Things are precise, and when you hit a button, it does what you tell it to. Though, if you're like me and used to a controller with this kind of game, you may find yourself taking damage unintentionally when you try to rock the dpad, since touchscreens don't work that way. 

Graphical Fidelity: Slayin' looks like it came right out of the 90s in terms of graphics, and it fits the screen perfectly.  Sprites are colorful and easy to make out against the backgrounds, so you're never confusing your character with an enemy.

Sound: Slayin' sounds like a game for the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis.  Sound effects and music are sound like they were made with a 16 bit sound chip.

Ads: Slayin' is very good about ads.  When you boot up the game, you get a static ad, and if you want to revive after your character dies, you can watch an additional ad.

Fun Factor: Slayin' is mindless fun for when you've got nothing else to do.  It's simple, easy to understand, and can fill up a few minutes here and there when you're waiting on something.

Final Analysis: Slayin' is fun.  It's simple to learn, but difficult to master. There's plenty of challenges for you to complete with each character, some more fun than others, but Slayin' can be a game you play for a LONG time.

Monday, May 20, 2019

Mobile Game Review: Sonic Dash

In an age where smart phones are in nearly everyone's hands (and almost definitely in the hands of people under a certain age range), mobile games are big business; Konami, Capcom, Sega and Nintendo all have a mobile game division in their companies, and they were some of the biggest game developers in the 80s and 90s.

However, if you've been playing video games as long as I have (since 1989), mobile games have a bad reputation, and for good reason.  You see, mobile games have one major obstacle to sucking in people like myself; control. Touch screens lack the precision control that a keyboard, mouse or controller have, so certain types of games are difficult on mobile devices unless they offer Bluetooth controller support.

And that's where this new series comes in; I download a game, play it for at least a week, and let you know if they're worth your time.  I'll be judging on a few criteria; control, graphical fidelity, sound, and frequency of ads, if any, and fun factor. And then, I'll round it up to whether it's worth your time and money. And with that, welcome to Mobile Game Reviews.

Today's review is on a game that I picked up when my brother started pushing me into mobile games, Sonic Dash.  Sonic Dash is a game where you run endlessly forward, collecting rings and power ups, dodging obstacles and destroying enemies, with a couple of boss fights thrown in for good measure.  You have a total of 16 characters from the Sonic console games, though a few require you to pay real money to get access.  You have seven stages to run through, though 6 of them have requirements to unlock them.  And you unlock them through gathering little animals from the robot enemies, and paying them gems, one of the three currencies this game has, to complete objectives and unlock new stages and characters.  You also have a multiplier that determines how quickly you accumulate points for your high score.

Control: Sonic Dash is perfect for a mobile device; swipe up, swipe down, swipe left and right, and tap to choose things. Tap to dash, tap to use stage starting power ups. No precision required.

Graphical Fidelity: Sonic Dash looks like a modern Sonic game.  All the characters look like they're supposed to, all the stages look like they were taken right out of a modern Sonic title. All the text is large and easy to read.

Sound: Sonic Dash sounds like a Sonic game.  The music feels like it was taken from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and this is no more evident than in both the Green Hill and Sky Sanctuary zones.  They sound like an updated version of their original stage music.

Ads: This is the first game that I'm reviewing that has unavoidable ads.  You get them after every stage before they bring you back to the title screen, and you can get extra ads for things like a revive, doubling your end of run ring count, and for an extra spin on the prize wheel.  But there is no way to avoid the ads so long as your device is connected to the internet.  Unfortunately, I've had instances where the ads crash the entire game, freezing it up and not letting me do anything else and forcing me to quit the game entirely.

Fun Factor: Sonic Dash is mindless fun for when you've got nothing else to do.  It's simple, easy to understand, and can fill up a few minutes here and there when you're waiting on something.

Final Analysis: Sonic Dash is a great game that is unfortunately held back by the ad policy.  If they would let you pay for a way to remove them, I'd say this is a must download for any Sonic fan, but if you find in game advertising intrusive, especially when the ads have a tendency to crash the game, you might want to look elsewhere.  But if ads don't bother you, you'll have a good time. I know I do, despite my issues with the ad policy.

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Mobile Game Review: Plague Inc

In an age where smart phones are in nearly everyone's hands (and almost definitely in the hands of people under a certain age range), mobile games are big business; Konami, Capcom, Sega and Nintendo all have a mobile game division in their companies, and they were some of the biggest game developers in the 80s and 90s.

However, if you've been playing video games as long as I have (since 1989), mobile games have a bad reputation, and for good reason.  You see, mobile games have one major obstacle to sucking in people like myself; control. Touch screens lack the precision control that a keyboard, mouse or controller have, so certain types of games are difficult on mobile devices unless they offer Bluetooth controller support.

And that's where this new series comes in; I download a game, play it for at least a week, and let you know if they're worth your time.  I'll be judging on a few criteria; control, graphical fidelity, sound, and frequency of ads, if any, and fun factor. And then, I'll round it up to whether it's worth your time and money. And with that, welcome to Mobile Game Reviews.

Today's review is on a game that I've had on my phones for a while, Plague Inc. The premise of Plague Inc. is simple; you take control of a pathogen in an attempt to eradicate humanity, though it's far tamer than the premise makes it, I promise.  You play as one of 7 plagues, plus 4 additional plagues that modify the premise of the game.  It is your job to modify your plague to protect itself from humanity's efforts to eradicate you, create means of infection, and finally, use symptoms in order to kill your targets.  You win by eradicating humanity (or achieving another objective, if you're playing as one of the special plagues), and you lose if there are any humans left alive or otherwise not under your control.

Control: Plague Inc is perfect for touchscreen controls.  It is built around taping the screen to pop bubbles in order to gain currency to spend on upgrades. Sometimes, you need to tap and drag, and that can be iffy, but thankfully, Plague Inc now has the ability to zoom in on the map, giving you precision to get to small countries easier.

Graphical Fidelity: Plague Inc is basic; they use a basic Equirectangular projection of a map, without any real detail, but they don't need any.  The bubbles are easy to easily what they are; whether it's a cure bubble or currency bubble, and which type of currency bubble, it's easy to see and know right from the bad.  All text is legible, and all symbols are easy to recognize.

Sound: Plague Inc has an appropriately depressing sound design; the music is depressing, cries of the people, which are done for comedic effect, are depressing, and the sounds of the popping bubbles are appropriate for what they are; a breaking glass sound for a cure bubble and a pop for a currency bubble. Everything works.

Ads: There are no ads in Plague Inc. All money they make are from micro-transactions, none of which are necessary to progress.

Fun Factor: Plague Inc offers a lot of content. It is the full PC game, complete with scenerios and special plagues.  You can download custom scenerios from fans, too.  There's a lot of fun to be had with Plague Inc.

Final Analysis: Plague Inc is a near perfect mobile game.  There's a lot there for a low price, and it is well suited for the mobile market.

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Guide to the Current DC Landscape: So you want to read DC Comics


So, you’ve seen the good DC movies like Wonder Woman, Aqua Man and Shazam, and you’re thinking “Wow, I’d like to read the comics about these characters!”, but soon realize that some of them have been around since the 1930s, and several have confusing histories! Well, today, I’m going to give you a beginner’s guide to getting into DC comic.

First off, start with 2011’s New 52 reboot. It was intended as a line wide reboot to open things to new readers, current landscape notwithstanding. The New 52 is a great place to see the origins of these characters you’re seeing on the screen.  Once there, the Justice League is the place that carries the main storyline of the DC Universe and introduces 6 of the major players of the DC Landscape, and, during many of the Justice League books, Shazam is a back up feature.  

From there, you’re going to want to pick one or two characters out of the Justice League and follow their books. You don’t need to follow ALL the stories of the League members, and if you’re curious, there are resources like Comicstorian, Comics Explained, and many other places to help you catch up with certain characters and storylines when they perform crossovers and tie into Justice League storylines. However, beware of a couple of characters, since they require more reading than you may desire to do.

When it comes to characters, Wonder Woman, Aqua Man, Superman, and the Flash are all easy to get into.They are full reboots into the New 52, although Superman has a caveat that I’ll get into later.  Batman gets a partial New 52 reboot, but a few stories that came before are not retold into the New 52. Those stories are the origin story of Damian Wayne, the current Robin, Under the Red Hood, which are both retold in the New 52 movies, The Killing Joke and Tower of Babel, which are not retold as movies.  These all happen between Batman Zero Year and the five-year time skip that happens after the first story arc told in Justice League, save for Tower of Babel, which is just a character piece for Batman.  

As for Green Lantern? Well, that series treats the New 52 reboot like it never happened. It just continues on with the storyline started with Green Lantern Rebirth from October 2004 to May 2005.  Don’t get me wrong, the Geoff Johns Green Lantern Mythos is really, REALLY good, and if you still want to get into it, you can. But there’s a faster way to get caught up on the mythos that I’ll get to momentarily.

Now, the New 52 ran from August 2011 to June 2016.  In June 2016, they revealed that, in universe, the New 52 reboot wasn’t a reboot at all. In universe, what happened was that time was stolen from these characters caused by the events of the Flashpoint storyline that kicked off the New 52, which, like the Batman stories that I previously mentioned, is retold in an animated movie, so you don’t need to hunt down the books for it. More importantly, the Flashpoint event becomes a plot point in the DC Rebirth issue.  

With that in mind, there are a couple of books that you should pick up from the end of the New 52 run to help ease you into a few plot points. First is Superman: Lois and Clark from 2016.  This series introduces the Superman we’re going forward with from Rebirth onward.  This is the classic Superman, who happened to be outside space and time at the moment of the Flashpoint, the man who married Lois Lane and had a child with her, and who experienced all the events from Crisis on Infinite Earths(the first linewide DC reboot from 1985, I might add) onward.  This is the Superman that we think of when we think of Superman.

The next book is Titans Hunt.  Long story short, the New 52 version of the Teen Titans wasn’t well liked, and this is the introduction of the original Teen Titans, who had their memories removed of their time as the Teen Titans.  They’re full grown at this point and are facing down the ghosts of their past.  This team is where another important character, the original Wally West, will make his home for the first phase of the DC Rebirth.

Now, the DC Rebirth initiative is the desire to bring back aspects of the pre-52 continuity into the current one. So, events like Crisis on Infinite Earths from 1985, Zero Hour: Crisis in Time, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Blackest Night, and the Death and Return of Superman all happened, but many of the heroes and villains don’t remember them.  In fact, save for the Blackest Night, only the Pre-52 Superman remembers these events happening, thanks to the stolen memories.  Rebirth is kicked off with the named “DC Rebirth” issue, which introduces relationships and characters that have been gone, like the Aquaman and Mera relationship, Green Arrow and Black Canary relationship, and the original, red haired Wally West that was in the Justice League cartoon back in the early 2000s. 

Now, remember how I said that there was an easy way to get into the Green Lantern mythos? Well, that’s what the Green Lanterns Rebirth is all about; the protagonists are brand new, barely trained Green Lanterns, and they’re learning about the Corp and mythos as the audience is.  It is a great crash course in the Green Lantern landscape without having to go back and read 12 years of comics, although I would still recommend going back and reading the Geoff Johns run, which is continued into Hal Jordan and the Green Lanterns series from his Green Lantern Rebirth in 2004-2005. It is THAT good.

And that’s the thing about the rest of Rebirth too.  Yes, going back and reading these crossovers is rewarding in and of itself, but you don’t have to.  All of the Rebirth books do a very good blending of pre-52 continuity and New 52 continuity.  For example, the first arc of Action Comics Rebirth has the reintroduction of Superman’s relationship with Doomsday, the being who killed him during the Death of Superman arc.  And all of the series are like that, blending the past with the New 52 continuity.

Now, the time has come where I’ve got to talk about the books to avoid. First off, Lobo. The Lobo introduced isn’t the Lobo fans of the character liked, nor is he even the current one.  He went from the parody of guys like Wolverine to a leather daddy stereotype, and at some point, between when his book was cancelled and when the classic Lobo returned, he was apparently captured and jarred up by the villain Brainiac.  And that’s where the New 52 Lobo sits, put on the shelf, never to return.
Next book that’s not very good is the New 52 Teen Titans.  This was not well liked by the fans, and two of the New 52 versions of old characters, Conner Kent Superboy and Bart Allen Impulse/Kid Flash, were not well received.  Skip this and go with Titans Hunt if you want to see the Teen Titans.
Third book that’s not considered good by fans is Red Hood and the Outlaws.  Like the New 52 Teen Titans, this versions of the characters, save for the Red Hood himself, were not well received by the fans, Starfire being the most glaring; she is NOTHING like the Starfire from the Cartoon Network Teen Titans series. though DC Rebirth treats her FAR better.  If you really want to follow Red Hood, just skip this and go with the Rebirth version of the team.  

And furthermore, since these books weren’t well received, none of them factor all that much into the greater Rebirth storylines.  That Lobo, those Teen Titans and that Outlaws team don’t really come up, save for a small cameo in Rebirth Outlaws book from Roy Harper and a Starfire AI.

However, I do have a bit of recommended reading. First is Shazam Rebirth. If you liked the movie, you’ll like this series. Second, is Wonder Woman Rebirth. This helps introduce her current version of her origin story, tying it in better with her depiction in the movie. Third is Superman Rebirth. Through his interactions with his son, you get to know the kind of man that this version of Clark Kent is.  Fourth, is Super Sons, the adventures of Jonathan Kent and Damian Wayne, both in and out of their costumes.  And finally, Dark Knights Metal.  The whole thing. Dark Knights Metal does a LOT of important stuff for the future of DC, including making Final Crisis better, explains away the confusing history of Hawkman and Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman, and does a great job of explaining the DC Multiverse.

Don’t think that you can’t continue with the books of characters you’ve been reading since the New 52’s beginning, though. Feel free. These are just a few stand out series that I highly recommend.

Well, that’s it for my primer on DC comics. Check out the resources below for more information on some of the things I referenced and check out the youtube channels of some comic focused youtubers to help you get up to date on characters you’re not familiar with.