Continuing with my playthrough of the DS Castlevania games thanks to the Dominus Collection we have “Portrait of Ruin”. Thankfully the game pulls all the way back on the touch screen stuff and it adds some fun new gameplay elements, but it also doubles-down on the lighter tone and anime aesthetics and makes some not-so-fun gameplay decisions! A mixed bag indeed… Let’s take a look!
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The High Republic comics return in the shape of two connected story arcs: “Children of the Storm” and “The Hunted”. Weirdly the story then takes a break for a full cast audio drama before continuing next year, which is fine for me (a quick look on this blog will show I’m not averse to an audio drama!) but might be slightly alienating to a lot of the audience… Ah well, either way, let’s take a look at the first chunk of Phase III comics, shall we?
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Another Doctor Who blu-ray set dropped, so it’s time for another review! Season 25-wise the story that I haven’t watched in the longest time was The Happiness Patrol, a weird bit of political commentary that’s caught between the super-child-friendly Season 24 mood and the more-serious (for Doctor Who) storytelling of Season 26. It… doesn’t entirely work, but there are some really good scenes in it though, especially the ending, so let’s take a look!
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We’ve reached the final story arc in My Hero Academia, but due to its length we’re only getting the first half this year, which is fine. Beats the olds ways of filler, anyway! Due to this being a final battle though there isn’t going to be a lot of plot to talk about, instead a lot of action. There are two good dives into the heads of long-recurring villains though, so that’s always fun. Let’s take a look!
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“The Stuff of Legend” is an odd one in that it was more conceived as a live show experience than a traditional release, though this version I listened to was a simple studio recorded version before they “took it on tour”. That means it doesn’t fit into a range or anything, it’s just a two-hour Eighth Doctor and Charley story featuring the Alex Macqueen Master… which is honestly good enough for me as I love all of those things! It also has the Daleks, which can be good or bad at this point, and some pretty generic supporting characters… So basically the story isn’t breaking any new ground at any point, but it’s fun enough. Let’s take a look!
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It’s time for the next stop on my first play through of the Kingdom Hearts series, and it’s the DS game “358/2 Days”, pronounced “Three-Five-Eight Days over Two” which means really it should’ve been stylised “358 Days/2” but… whatever. Also I was following the main menu of the “Story So Far” PS4 game so played this next (by buying a physical copy! Who’d of thought I’d be buying a DS game in 2024…) then later found out it was released AFTER Kingdom Hearts 2 in order to fill in some gaps. Did it matter? No, in fact I really enjoyed myself here, seeing it as a sequel to Chain of Memories that fleshes out the Organisation plus sets up the prologue of KH2 to boot. I guess I’ll just have a different experience with the series than people who played it at the time! Let’s take a look anyway.
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I’ve said on this blog a few times that I tend to steer away from flat-out comedies because what you find funny is extremely objective. Case and point, while I enjoyed the first Deadpool film I found the second one leaned too heavily in the more crass humour that I don’t really enjoy, but I wouldn’t feel right reviewing it and giving it a low score because it might be right up someone’s alley, unlike more traditional storytelling issues which I feel more comfortable pointing out. Deadpool & Wolverine though is a “canon” entry in the MCU, and I really don’t want to miss one of the films out, so here we are! Thankfully for me the film doesn’t go down the crass route this time and lands some pretty good gags while keeping things gory and verbally explicit. Let’s take a look!
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I remember years ago John Dorney said in an interview that he was practically begging to do a story with the Dominators and that he was “serious” when people thought he was joking. I was intrigued, especially as Mr. Dorney is probably my favourite writer in the Big Finish stable, and finally: here we are, and you know what? It’s an extremely predictable and by-the-numbers “resistance group fighting against invading aliens” story. Huh? Mr. Dorney could’ve written this exact story with any number of other alien races, why did this prove the Dominators “needed” a second go around? Oh well… At least the Fourth Doctor / Naomi / Harry stories are over now, it hasn’t been a great run. Let’s take a look!
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Here I was waiting around for a good break to do the first batch of Egghead Arc reviews and One Piece only goes and stops entirely! … sort of. Yes, after Episode 1122 fresh One Piece anime episodes are on a break until April, a new re-edited version of the Fishman Island arc airing instead (given I just covered the original earlier in the year, I won’t be covering that on this site…) So what better way to find a break in the story than use the break in the story! Let’s take a look at the first chunk of episodes from the first arc of the “Final Saga”, shall we?
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Next up in the Fourth Doctor / Harry / Naomi run of stories is “The Face in the Storm”, where Big Finish go back to the “person meets their relative in the past and can’t risk damaging their own future” trope, complete with a tragic storyline for good measure. I mean, at least it isn’t Helen this time, I guess! Let’s take a look…
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Hogan Reviews 