A Self-Proclaimed Dreamer

     Iron Man did a great job at kicking off this film franchise and shared universe, so of course when it came to the sequel... it didn't go quite as well. Iron Man 2 was not an incredibly popular film, and it especially isn't remembered fondly today. I couldn't tell you why that is, other than maybe having the same issue that Spider-Man 3 had... too many villains or threats. There is a lot going on in this movie to the point where writing this post has actually been one of my hardest. Just deciphering what is important versus what isn't is quite challenging when there are a lot of plot threads that don't go much of anywhere. Fortunately, I've been able to strap on my armor and fly through the fairly dense movie that is Iron Man 2, and have hopefully picked out the parts that are most important . All the stars are here, though S.H.I.E.L.D. has a bigger role to play this time around, as you'd expect now after Nick Fury introduced himself in the post-cred...

     If you know me, or if you've read my blog before, you probably know that I'm not a big fan of Role Playing Games (RPGs) as a whole. I like some concepts, and a lot of the storylines, but most turn-based RPGs like  Final Fantasy  or the like are just a bit too much for me, though I will happily watch someone else play them if I enjoy the story enough. This was the situation for me with Persona 5 . I started the game a long time ago without really knowing what to expect other than just knowing that Joker, the protagonist of the game, was going to be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and he looked like a cool character. After putting a few hours into the actual game that he came from, however, I felt like it wasn't really for me, and filed it away for another time. That time happened to be this past winter break when my brother came home and started flying through it (as he enjoys that type of thing more than I do). I got really interested in the characters and t...

    In the 80's and 90's, arcades were all the rage. They were everywhere and kids would hang out there all the time, waiting to get their hands on the newest game that would come into the shop. Disney saw this trend and decided it wasn't going anywhere, which led them to create an arcade of their own . The idea they came up with was DisneyQuest, which opened in 1998 in Orlando as part of Downtown Disney, right next to where the Cirque de Soleil tent was set up. It was a wild idea and one that was never super successful, but boy did I love it. I think the idea was to get people who didn't even want to go to any of the parks to still be interested in the Downtown Disney shopping area, because for one thing, it was certainly cheaper than a ticket to Disney World, but also it was easier to get through, so it would be a more casual experience than going to a full park. There was even action from the Disney company about making DisneyQuest into a chain with other locations o...

     Back in the Super Nintendo era, Square Soft, creators of the Final Fantasy series, teamed up with Nintendo to create a Role-Playing Game (RPG) based on their most famous property, Super Mario Bros . The aptly titled Super Mario RPG was released in 1996 as the final Mario game to be released on the SNES, and it sold like hot cakes. People loved this game, and to this day, it's held in high regard in the ranks of RPG fans as well as casual players alike. When the Nintendo 64 came out, Nintendo wanted to duplicate the magic of that title, but Square either wasn't able to work on it for whatever reason, or they just weren't interested in making a sequel at the time. Nintendo wanted a game that could fill the hole left by the beautiful mix of platforming and RPG mechanics, and to do this, they turned to Intelligent Systems, an internal Nintendo studio which created the Fire Emblem franchise, which wouldn't come to the West in any form until 2002 when Marth and Roy w...

    I feel like I don't have to tell you all about the huge cultural impact that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had on the landscape of the world as well as the film industry as a whole. This franchise has truly created a genre of superhero film that other studios dreamed of in years past. We've definitely seen many superhero franchises from the early 2000s have a big opening and then fizzle out in the second or third installment, but for slightly more than ten years now, Marvel has cranked out blockbuster after blockbuster. Once this series got going, we sometimes saw two movies cranked out in a year thanks to the several different teams working on the films, and while some have fallen a bit flat due to inopportune pacing, lame villains, or similar storylines, some of these movies have been real gems, being contenders not just in terms of Marvel movies, but genuinely good films overall. I know what you're thinking. Why am I talking about Marvel movies? Avengers Endgame ...

     I've spoken before about my love of the Wii U. Even though it was a commercial failure, there were a lot of amazing games. Pikmin 3 , Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze , and many others come to mind, but none more so than what I am here to talk about today, Super Mario 3D World . This game was really something special, though unfortunately many people didn't get it because it was, as I said before, stuck on a console that didn't sell very well. This past Friday, however, that's changed with a remaster, called Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury , due to the added mode that they included with the original game. I'm so excited for people to get their hands on this title for the first time, and because of that, I'm writing this review-lite of the original game, and comparing it to the rerelease. This game is a great time whether you're by yourself or with friends, and even if you're more of a dog person (it'll make sense in a minute), it...

      In the year 2012, a little console came out that I was excited for, though very few others were. The Wii U was released along with a pack-in game that came with the "Deluxe" edition of the console, called Nintendo Land . The game was a simple technical demo for the Wii U's functionalities, specifically showing off the possibilities that could come from the Wii U Gamepad, the controller with a touch screen on it, that would eventually pave the way for the Switch. Nintendo Land was really well themed, set up as a Nintendo-themed amusement park, having attractions themed after Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing, etc. Even though this game was a relatively short tech demo, it really got me thinking about what I would want if someone were to actually make a theme park out of these classic properties. Fast forward to the year 2015, Universal Studios announced that they were working on a new themed area for Universal Studios Japan in...