Donkey Kong Country was a game that always looked great to me, again being a Mega Drive owner. My brother never got it, so I was left with memories of seeing how “amazing the graphics were” when it was reviewed on Bad Influence (old British Gaming TV Show…) So once again, like a lot of these final reviews in the Smash marathon, it’s something I can’t talk about how I liked it back then, but I can tell you how it holds up now! Let’s find out…
Ant-Man, the original film, was one of my favourites from the MCU. It was legitimately funny, had a simple but enjoyable plot and good characters, so when Ant-Man and the Wasp was announced I was looking forward to it… then the trailers drop, and some early reviews came out, and I decided that it sounded fun but probably wasn’t worth the price of a bus and cinema ticket on top of the Blu-ray I’d inevitably buy, and I was right! It was a fun film, but not amazing and lacking in consequence… Let’s take a closer look!
Back when I did the Top 10 games list last year I remarked about missing out of Breath of the Wild due to not having a job in the middle of the year, therefore not buying a Switch until Super Mario Odyssey came out, and that I hoped to play it during the middle-of-the-year lull this year… Well, I did! Also: it’s great! Unsurprisingly. Anyway, rather than put up a second Zelda game I decided to make this the game review for the franchise in the Smash countdown, after all the Link in the game is based off of this one! Let’s take a look then, at Nintendo going proper open world…
It Takes You Away is right up there with the best this series. It was cleverly written, used the companions well and had a really interesting, unique sci-fi plot at its centre. It’s getting rather worrying that the only stories I’m particularly thrilled with come from writers who aren’t showrunner Chris Chibnall, but hey-ho! Let’s take a look at “It Takes You Away”.
This was a tricky decision for me, as I actually played the original Metroid when I was younger, but I didn’t like it (it was too hard, as many games were for me at the time, though to be fair in the case of the original Metroid it’s still extremely difficult for me now!) where as I really wanted to play Super Metroid but never did thanks to that old chestnut (on this blog) of the fact that I owned a Mega Drive while my brother had a SNES, so I was at the mercy of his game choices. I ended up going with Super Metroid because even though I won’t be able to add a “Thoughts Then” part of the review, it’s such a good game that I just wanted to play it again after giving a proper go for the first time a few years ago. So… let’s take a look!
I had the rare pleasure of a secret stream review for Anime UK News, in this case it was a screening of My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, the first film for the franchise that is debuting in UK cinemas this week. The review can be found HERE.
While MHA is very much a Japanese voice kind of series for me (mainly because that’s how I’ve always watched it via Crunchyroll) I didn’t mind that the stream was the dub version only, as it was surprisingly competent given it had so many teen characters in it…
It seems as we get closer and closer to the end of this marathon, we’re hitting key Nintendo franchises I never ended up playing at the time of their release. In the case of Yoshi’s Island it was due to it being released around the same time as the PS1, which had caught my eye early thanks to being featured on Bad Influence (UK Gaming show…) combined with the fact that I had a Mega Drive, my brother had a SNES and he just never brought it (probably for the same reason) Still, I did regret not getting to play it at the time because it’s simply really good, if not great! Let’s take a look…
I’m afraid that while I’d heard of Kirby from somewhere or other before playing the original Smash Bros., I hadn’t ever played any of the games. That continued for quite some time, until my 20s and I got into the shady business of downloading ROMs. So, no retrospective review to be found here, with Kirby Super Star, but I am happy to play and review it even now as it’s packed full of content, chunky sprites and great music. Let’s take a look!
The Star Fox series is one of the few exceptions to my natural rule of using the names of things I grew up with (like using Mega Drive instead of the more common US name of Genesis) as if I just put “Lylat Wars” in the title very few people would know what I’m going on about. So, anyway, I actually didn’t own Lylat Wars anyway, but I did both rent it out and play it around a friends several times (or did they bring it to my house? I can’t remember…) and I do remember enjoying it, especially the branching paths. So let’s take a look and see if it still holds up!
Although they have some big moments between them, OVAs 5 and 6 of Gundam Unicorn is all about setting the stage for the big final battle in the final chapter, but it certainly doesn’t coast its way through. There are plenty of great moments, both character based and some action scenes, but it certainly achieves the goal of making you want to watch OVA 7 right away! Let’s take a look.
Hogan Reviews 