A Self-Proclaimed Dreamer

      If you know me, you know that I've always loved crossovers of any kind. I loved the TV specials as a kid where a character from one show just suddenly appears in another show to bond with the different characters of other shows. When I got a bit older, I loved the crossover elements of The Avengers movies and the "Arrowverse" TV shows in the same way. It should come as no surprise, then, that I've always been a huge fan of the Super Smash Bros. Franchise.  Even before I was able to play it because I didn't have a Nintendo 64, I was in love with the idea of all these different brands crossing over to fight each other. It wasn't until a cousin brought their Gamecube to a family reunion that I was able to play a Smash Bros. game, Super Smash Bros. Melee, which even in 2021 is a favorite in the fighting community. This game was incredible, and really introduced me to a lot of my favorite characters from video games period. I will admit that I was one of th...

    When I was a young kid, Nintendo 64 ruled the day, and Playstation, its main opponent, was close on the console's heels. I got a Playstation when I was in first grade, and the next year, Gamecube and PS2 came out, so I ended up never getting a Nintendo 64 until the Wii had already come out. I heard so many things about the different amazing games for the old console, such as Super Mario 64 , Legend of   Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Pokemon Stadium , Banjo Kazooie , etc. Among all of these however, I heard tales of a game called Pokemon Snap , a game where you just drove around in a car and took pictures of Pokemon. As a kid, I was completely baffled by this idea. How could any game like that be fun? On top of that, how was this a game to have a cult following of people who had all played and loved it? Well, I got it for Christmas one year after we got an N64, and I immediately understood the appeal. It wasn't just about getting pictures of these creatures, it was about se...

      Now it's time for a story that is decidedly a bit more dark than some of the previous MCU movies, one that includes domestic and foreign terrorism, PTSD, puppetmasters leading shadow threats, and worst of all... actors? Iron Man 3 is a weird movie, partially because it's the only one directed by someone other than Jon Favreau, and because of that, there is a slightly different feel to the proceedings. It's perceivable in the first moments that there are some real stakes in this movie, and a bit more peril and finality to it than some of the other ones. Pepper has a bigger role in this one, and this time around, for the first time, Tony really seems out of his depth. We get to see him outside of his element as the suit that he has is out of commission for most of the movie, and his house is destroyed. He ends up in Tennessee for a lot of the movie and... let's just get into this adventure that contains maybe the most twists out of any MCU movie. Is he still Iron ...

     I've spoken before here about the Spyro the Dragon series, but I'm here to talk about the little brother, Insomniac's next series after Spyro, Ratchet and Clank . This series began in 2002 on the PS2 and there have been nearly 20 games since then. Though only one came out for the PS4, there are definitely still plans for Insomniac's beloved Lombax and robot team! With the upcoming release of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart , I thought it would be nice to talk about this long running series. As much as I would love to talk about them all individually, there are just so many of them (many of which I have never played) that I feel like it would be better if I discussed the different periods of this series.. There are roughly 5 different time periods as far as I can tell, but we'll get into those in some of the body of this post. Grab the Omniwrench and your favorite robotic companion and let's skydive into this awesome series! A Tale of Unlikely Friends!   ...

     This is the big one, folks. Everything that we've seen so far has led to this movie I'm talking about today. At this time, The Avengers was a monumental achievement, and the culmination of 4 years of standalone movies that could come together to be something greater. The incredible thing about the MCU though, is that it was really just getting started. Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America all had pretty impressive movies which were certainly smash hit blockbusters, but The Avengers put them all to shame, and raised the bar for the movies still to come. Obviously there were some issues and snags along the way, especially considering Edward Norton, who had starred in The Incredible Hulk in 2008 didn't want to return to reprise the role, so Mark Ruffalo jumps in as Bruce Banner here, and does a fantastic job overall. Let's get right to the meat and potatoes of the movie today, there are some serious threats that need to be addressed today, and the only people that ca...

      We're back to covering Marvel movies today, friends. I'll be discussing one of my favorites from Phase one, but one that is seen by many as "pretty boring." I'm talking about Captain America: The First Avenger, and I was honestly surprised by the amount of well known actors that I had completely forgotten about being in this movie. This is a different story from the origins of Thor or Iron Man for sure, as Captain America is a character who wants to do the right thing from the beginning, and he stays with his convictions throughout this movie. Steve Rogers has to be one of my favorite characters from the MCU, and it's very clear as to why even from this first iteration of the character. He is so likable and has so much charisma right off the bat that you really want to root for him. We also get to see how World War II played out in the fictional comic universe, which I always think is kind of interesting, in addition, we see a lot of old cars, uniforms,...

     In the year 2012, rhythm games had already gone out of style. Gone were the days of a new Rock Band game every year, the most recent game in that series as well as  Guitar Hero had come out in 2010. Other than a few weird ones that peeked out every now and then, such as Nintendo's bizarre but incredible series Rhythm Heaven  (which has ascended to be considered a cult classic at this point), the rhythm genre had gone away. I'm here to talk today about a little game that I've actually never heard a single other person talk about in my life. It's a game called Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure . This game is so crazy and fun, I was almost convinced that I had dreamed it up. Surely someone else had played it though, right? Well, after a cursory examination on Youtube as well as the internet as a whole, a lot of people do remember this game, and very fondly at that! This game has a 76 on Metacritic, so clearly the critics weren't all in agreement on thi...