Seriously, this site has a bunch of lingering issues which need fixing!

- This text is on the top of the screen on every page in Tendo City:

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This seems like what Amiibo and other toys to life should have been from the start.  It's a toy you actually play with to play the video game, and its a cardboard kit you can probably just make yourself if you don't want to pay for Nintendo's own kit (excluding the needed software of course).

May it be a better year than 2017 was...

Warning: Unmarked spoilers!



So I saw this movie last night, and I've got very mixed feelings on it.

In its style, writing, plot, and more, I saw this as the least Star Wars movie ever. This shows throughout, such as in the acting and composition. Even more than The Force Awakens, this is clearly a movie by a different person, not George Lucas, making a very different film. It also shows in the writing, as the central "kill the past" theme is a major divergence from Star Wars' past. It also ignores or very weakly answers the major unanswered questions from the last movie, The Force Awakens, which is kind of annoying.

All of that stuff is understandably divisive. As a big fan of all of George Lucas's Star Wars movies, but a critic of the post-Lucas ones, I was expecting to not exactly love this movie, and that is the case for the most part. I love the Lucas movies, "bad" acting or no, and this extremely different style was offputting. Even I didn't think it was all bad, though; I liked it sometimes and disliked it other times. Like the style or not it is, for the most part, a well-made movie which tells an interesting story. I think that story has some critical flaws, but still, it was interesting and tense. The space battle scenes are probably the highlight, I think.


Here's the thing, though. Beyond any complaints about some other details of the plot, and I could get into that, I think there is a central, crippling irony behind this movie. While on the one hand The Last Jedi goes against Star Wars convention in many ways, on the other hand it continues on one element of The Force Awakens: it is dedicated to the terrible idea that they must recreate the universe of the original trilogy, whether or not it makes any sense whatsoever.

So, in The Force Awakens, the New Republic was a thing... but then, seemingly out of nowhere, a massive force appeared called the First Order. It is not explained how they got so strong so quickly. They have a giant superweapon which can blow up multiple planets at once, and during TFA it fires, destroying the New Republic's capitol world and some of their fleet or something, as if it would all be in one place or something. The Last Jedi continues on this theme; now the Republic is dead, the Order has taken over the galaxy, and the movie cuts the good guys, the Resistance, down more and more until it's like a couple dozen people by the end, max.

Now, two problems: first, none of the First Order's rise makes any sense at all, and none is explained in either film to any degree worth mentioning. And second, this basic concept, that a secret army appears out of nowhere and crushes the actually weak known armies of the world/universe in a single stroke, in order to set up an 'underdog' arc in a series where it does not make any sense at all, is REALLY REALLY BAD writing. It's terrible conspiracy-theory stuff, and I pretty much hate it. This is not an uncommon trope in fiction, and it is both always terrible and makes absolutely no sense almost all of the time. I am not one to believe in conspiracy theories, I want things to be plausible within their world's rules. This kind of story fails on that level. It's one thing if it is a literal alien invasion out of nowhere, but in a known world you can't do this and get away with it, not if you want to have written an actual credible story! And yet, the plots of both TFA and TLJ ONLY work if you accept this, without almost anything in the movies themselves that makes me believe for a second that any of that could ever have happened.

Now, part of my dislike is of course also about the old Expanded Universe, about all of those Star Wars books I read in the '90s and '00s. The EU had its ups and downs for sure, much more downs than ups in its later years, but to distill the difference between the EU and TFA/TLJ, the EU's version is "safer" and more positive. Lots of really bad stuff happens, more and more in the books from the '00s on, but it never gets anywhere near as bad as it does in these new movies, and in retrospect I appreciate it for that. This is not my main reason for disliking this kind of story, but seriously, I know that sci-fi is often quite dark, but this movie is a bit much.

So overall, considering all of that, how can I take this movie seriously at all? The whole plot of The Last Jedi is about the chase, about how this unstoppable, galaxy-controlling First Order has the last remnants of hope on the run, dying one by one. It's a dark and sometimes interesting film, and I like parts, such as the settings, the space battles, the segment with Rey in the cave, and more. It has other issues as well, such as how its version of Luke goes. I think that this Luke made for a good story, but does not fit well at all with the Luke of the original trilogy, or with how the Jedi work. Or how about Leia? Even ignoring the silly flying-through-space bit, she's reduced back to her ESB-ish role of "base commander of the rebellion", which is certainly not what an older Leia should be. The politician Leia of the Expanded Universe was a much better character I think... but behind all of that, the whole setup only happens because of an idiotic and impossible to believe piece of badly written nonsense! The rest of that stuff matters, and I might address that in another post, but this is the most important problem with both of the new, post-Lucas Star Wars movies: that they felt the need to recreate the "rebels versus empire" setup of the original trilogy, in a setting where you cannot do that.


On the other hand though, I definitely like that this series has a female lead protagonist. Lucas's Star Wars movies are great, but the original trilogy barely has any female characters, and the prequels aren't as much improved as they should be. Apparently the idea of a female lead in this series actually comes from George Lucas, but regardless, seeing in this movie that it's not only Rey, there are a lot of female roles, is a very good thing.


On the whole though, I think that it's kind of unfortunate that The Last Jedi, while making a boldly different kind of Star Wars movie -- in a lot of ways that rub me seriously the wrong way as a longtime Star Wars fan, but also some that I liked -- on the other hand also decided to double down on the previous film's worst element, the devotion to recreating the rebels-versus-overpowering-empire universe of the original trilogy in a setting where you really cannot do that credibly. It's really ironic that this movie which exists to "kill the past" and 'free' Star Wars from its past... is also dedicated to recreating that past in a central, and yet really badly conceived and almost utterly unexplained, way. Too bad.

... So yeah, I thought The Last Jedi was ... okay-ish? Disappointing, but maybe not as awful as I thought it might be, I guess? And yet, it is very disappointing and a waste, in some key elements; it's sad that this movie will be the last time we see Luke and Leia on screen together, because it sure doesn't do well with them in so many ways! The Force Awakens is, in my opinion, the worst Star Wars movie. This one... uh, it might be better, or worse? I'm not sure that I can decide that yet.

So it's game of the year time again, and despite all they have said about what a great year this is for games, the gaming press has a nearly unanimous choice for 2017's best game: Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It's won from IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku, etc, etc; nothing else is remotely close. Games like Mario, Horizon, PUBG, and such don't have many GOTY awards yet, though I'm sure they will get them from somewhere. (Giant Bomb hasn't announced their winner yet, but for some time now PUBG has been the one they're most likely to have picked. I guess we'll see though...)

As for me though, while BotW is a pretty good game, it's certainly not one of my favorites. Sure it's good, and you can do some pretty interesting things as you explore around the world, but the open-world nature of the game loses me. I've never liked open world games much, pretty much ever, and while even I did find wandering around looking for stuff fun for a little while, the game didn't keep me coming back and I haven't played it in months now.

Despite that though, this year, for the first time in a long time, I actually played a lot of modern games. Oh, I still love and played a lot of older games, but I got a new PC, a Wii U, and an Xbox One (S) this year, and played lots of games on them, and on my (New) 3DS as well. Indeed, when I looked at the list of games I have that released in 2017, the 3DS dominates the list as far as quality goes. It's not quite as great as the original DS, but still the 3DS is amazing and one of the best handhelds ever.

That said, I've got two lists this year, one for my favorite games I played that released in 2017, and a second for my favorite games that I bought in 2017 but are older. Neither is really finished yet, but the year isn't over yet so there's still more time to decide!

My Favorite Games of 2017 That Released In 2017 (Preliminary?)
--
1. Starcraft Remastered (PC)
2. Yooka-Laylee (PC)
3?. Etrian Odyssey V (3DS)
4?. Ever Oasis (3DS)
5?. Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)

Honorable Mentions: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U), For Honor (Xbox One), Chicken Wiggle (3DS)

I Also Liked: Snake Pass (PC), Parascientific Escape: Crossing at the Farthest Horizon (3DS)


Second, while it's not a finished list, here are all of the older games that I bought in 2017 and I liked enough to mention. These are all games I think of as being probably at least worth an A- grade, though I have finished few so I wouldn't formally score them of course.

Note: these are not in order at all. Additionally, I do not count games which I bought for one system but previously owned for another platform unless the two games are actually different.
--
Color Zen (3DS)
Shantae (3DS VC - GBC)
R-Type Dimensions (PS3)
Dark Lord (Famicom)* [Game is only good with translation patch though since I don't read Japanese]
Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)
Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)
Super Mario Maker (Wii U)
Splatoon (Wii U)
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS)
Garou: Mark of the Wolves (360 - Neo-Geo rerelease)
Picross 3D Round 2 (3DS)
Rosenkreuzstillette (PC)
Dishonored 2 (PC)
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (Wii U)
Meteos: Disney Magic (DS)
Puzzle Quest 2 (DS)
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U)
Overwatch (PC and Xbox One)
Gravitar (Atari 2600)
Professor Layton and the Last Spectre (DS)
Rare Replay (Xbox One)
TrackMania Turbo (Xbox One)

If I was also mentioning games I got for a system but previously owned for another, I'd mention Ikaruga, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition for the 360, Dead or Alive 5 Last Round and Diablo III for Xbox One, and Geometry Wars 3 for PC and Xbox One, certainly.

Seriously, who is this game FOR? Shut-in MRAs? That's who it's for, isn't it? Why would the giant Furby be sexually attracted to humans? Is that furby a deviant of his species? Also, I'm pretty sure that robot is built like a child, so, pedophile. This game is intentionally trying to appeal to pedophiles.

There's a LOT of groups handing out awards, but what makes this one stand out? Who are they? What are they? What makes them so "The" that they don't even need a name? Did the king of video games crown them?

(This is definitely not a review, I'm still early in the game. I just want to write about it because it's good!)

So, of the games I've gotten in the past few weeks, the one I've played the most of is probably this one, Ever Oasis for 3DS. Published by Nintendo, produced by Koichi Ishii, creator of the Mana franchise, and his studio Grezzo, the team behind the two N64-to-3DS Zelda ports of OoT and MM, this game should have been a much bigger deal than it seems to be. The quality is there, but the people aren't, unfortunately. Apparently most people don't care about the 3DS anymore, Pokemon perhaps excepted, so this really good 2017 release and new IP got overlooked. The game has gotten mixed but some good reviews -- the game got an 8.9 from IGN, for example -- but I haven't seen it talked about nearly as much as it should. New IPs are hard to sell indeed; with the Mana name I'm sure this would have gotten more attention.

Anyway, Ever Oasis is a third-person action-RPG with two elements, adventuring in an Arabian desert-themed environment and building the town in your oasis. You are a special Seedling, and can partner with an oasis water spirit to build a small town around the waterhole in this dry expanse. Your goal is to try to stop the monsters which have destroyed all of the other oasises, including the one you are from.

Now, in the games' box and packaging, they only show and mention the male playable character, but in the actual game you can play as either a male or female character. I have no idea why they hid the female character option, but it's there. You can't customize your character choice beyond choosing your gender, and both characters are cute little semi-human things, but it works in the games' nice, cartoony art style.

Indeed, the graphics in general here are really nice, particularly in 3D. This game fully supports 3d, and as someone who always uses their 3DS with the 3d slider set to maximum, that's awesome. The 3d effect is really nice and adds to the already good graphics.

As for the gameplay, the Zelda influence is clear. You wander around, attack enemies with your weapon, and such. Enemies and plants will drop materials, which you can use to fulfill quests for people in your town, to build new buildings in town, and more. There are also dungeon areas underneath the overworld, as you might expect. By doing quests for visitors in your town you can get them to stay permanently, so that encourages you to explore. This isn't really a crafting game though, I don't think, you just collect stuff and return it to people. I believe the world is semi-randomized, and dungeons certainly are, so this isn't quite on Zelda's level as dungeons probably will feel similar due to the random generation. There are puzzles

As you progress you will get more party members too, and you can switch between them. Each one has a different weapon and ability too. I haven't gotten to that part yet, but it is in the demo.

So yeah, I'm still fairly early in this game but I'm quite liking it and I hope that more people play the game, it's well worth it. The 3DS is still a great system and while next year might not have much releasing for it (we'll see), 2017 was a good year for the platform and it's got some pretty good games, this one included.

Is the best Pixar movie. Up had the audience in tears in 10 minutes, but the rest of the movie (though good!) didn't ever quite reach those heights again. Inside Out was extremely good, but a few narrative choices (sight gags with the parent's minds that undermined the premise of the movie for example) kept it from being perfect.

I can't find a single fault in Coco though. IN Coco. There's a half hour Olaf Christmas Special you have to sit through (cute on it's own but too long to work as a "short"), but this movie? It starts out good and just gets better, ending on a powerful moment instead of starting with one and never undermining itself (it even takes time to answer geeky "wait what if?" questions about how the world works that not only make sense but are touching all by themselves). I had to sit through the credits, and I recommend you do, because they'll turn on the waterworks one more time at the very end (with the credits themselves, not a post-credit scene). The villain only appears near the very end, and yet already tops it as the best villain in a Pixar movie. Most of the time, Pixar movie villains exist purely because "kids movies need villains, don't they?" (which is something Ghibli movies tend to respond with "No, just something to overcome or learn is enough"), but this villain works, I mean WORKS so well in what he brings that I can say the movie doesn't work as well without him.

I just did a clean up of numerous duplicate forums & purged post edit history. That should make things a bit easier to manage on the good ship Tendo.