Author: David Hogan

One Piece – Wano Arc (Episodes 1045 – 1067) Review

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It’s time for the penultimate One Piece Wano Arc review, as I know the series likes to streeeetch things out but what’s left should fit into one single chunk of episodes, so I’m happy to proclaim this as the second to last. With one or two smaller exceptions this chunk ties up the big fights that aren’t Luffy vs. Kaidou, including some very flashy fight sequences, though as per usual watching it one episode a week made the fights feel like they went on forever… Let’s take a look!

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Doctor Who: The Ark (Audio Lost Story) Review

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The Ark is another not-really-lost Lost Story based on an earlier draft of a later revised and filmed Fourth Doctor story, in this case The Ark in Space (and therefore has nothing to do with the First Doctor TV story The Ark, just to make the story’s title even more confusing!) I think The Ark does at least offer a greater difference to the TV story than Return of the Cybermen did but it’s definitely weaker than the TV story we did get (so good job there, Robert Holmes!) begging the question “why did they bother adapting a rejected script?” The answer? I don’t know, but I’ve listened to it now, so I’ll review it one way or another!

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Dynasty Warriors Review

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I’ll admit it’s going to be hard to review this one as while it is an adaptation of a game series I’ve loved since its fifth of currently nine entries it’s also a Chinese film that pulls together an all-star ensemble cast but due to being completely unfamiliar with the country’s films that was completely lost on me, and I can’t compare it to other films of its country-specific subgenre (known as Wu Xia, apparently) either. Still though, I can judge it purely on whether I liked it or not, and after all isn’t that all I normally do anyway? So let’s take a look!

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Dynasty Warriors 5 / XL (PS2) Review

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The Dynasty Warriors film is up next in this marathon, so why I am reviewing Dynasty Warriors 5 and not the first Dynasty Warriors? Well, the first was a pretty poor 1v1 fighting game rather than the series that film is based on that started with DW2, and DW5 was the first game in the franchise (and indeed the first Warriors game in general) I ever played, so it made the most sense. It’s not like they don’t all share the same story anyway! So let’s take a look at Dynasty Warriors 5 as well as its “XL” expansion, given you needed the original game to play it anyway so it’s more like DLC, to use modern terminology…

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The Walking Dead – Vol. 15 & 16: “We Find Ourselves” and “A Larger World” Review

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The final quarter of The Walking Dead’s second Compendium is up next to be reviewed and with it… some pretty chill volumes, it has to be said. In fact Volume 15 barely has any action in it at all as its once again focused on the Alexandria community coming together post-crisis and then a small mutiny. At least 16 introduces the Hilltop community and does something a little different. Still, we all know what Compendium 3 is full of, but that’ll have to wait until later in the year, so let’s finish this chunk of Walking Dead comic first, shall we?

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Doctor Who: Once and Future – The Artist at the End of Time Review

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Big Finish’s 60th Anniversary series reaches part two with Once and Future: The Artist at the End of Time. In case you didn’t catch part 1, the story focuses on The Doctor (most likely his Eighth self, but possibly the War Doctor) “degenerating” into past bodies due to the effects of an unknown weapon, and that’s why this story starring Peter Davison is technically not a Fifth Doctor story. Most importantly though: is it a good story? Well, it’s more focused than the first at least, though at times it feels more like Colin Baker’s episode than Davison’s!

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Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS) Review

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As Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s fifth wave of DLC arrives so does a review of a previous entry! Mario Kart DS was easily the DS game I played the most thanks to my friend having a copy and bringing his DS round so we could play multiplayer. Playing it now I still have to applaud both the level design and graphics for the handheld, plus the amount of modes on offer. It was certainly no throw away effort, that’s for sure! Let’s take a look…

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Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury – Season 2 Review

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I know I said the next Gundam review would be me finishing off my coverage of the Cosmic Era shows, but I do try and get reviews for the seasonal shows out as close as I can to when they aired, so you’ll have to bear-with! That being said I’m always happy to talk more about The Witch from Mercury as although parts of the ending definitely felt rushed the second half / season of the show was once again great, full of fun twists and turns and great visuals and music. Let’s take a closer look!

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Doctor Who: The War Master – Solitary Confinement Review

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The War Master is back, but sadly Solitary Confinement feels extremely safe, touching on all the usual character beats that the character brings but doing nothing new with them. Now, as I always say, Derek Jacobi is amazing in the role and carries the set through all its predictability but this time there really were some stories that I just sat and listened to without any feeling of investment in it. Ah well, let’s take a deeper look.

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Red Dwarf VIII Review

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*sigh*, here we go then. This is the series I’ve been “dreading” rewatching for this run-down of Red Dwarf as I kind of liked it when it aired (though more for discussing new episodes of Red Dwarf with my friends than the episodes themselves) and then it went down in my eyes with each rewatch, to the point where I got to my first DVD watch I thought “I doubt I’ll ever watch that again…” and yet here we are with the Blu-ray version for the sake of this blog. I’d love to say the series has gone up in my estimation in the previous years, but nope. One episode still stands out as fun though flawed, but the series as a whole is definitely the low point of Red Dwarf. Oh well: let’s take a look, then THIS time I really won’t rewatch it again!

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