Changing shedules

Ugh, again, life throws me a curveball. Thanks to my job, as well as some future projects I've been working on, there won't be a new review every week. As of now, I'll be posting reviews every other week, at least until I can get my life in some order.

However, I do have plans for upcoming reviews. Since the Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions review, I've decided to dedicate the next few months to different video game series.

Here's a sneak peek at what to expect next...

Until next time...

Review: Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions

Hello and welcome to a new review (finally) on 'Stories of Entertainment'.

Its not too surprising to find video games based off of popular TV shows, movies or even comic books. It is, however, more surprising to find video games based off of popular TV shows, movies, or comic books that turn out to be actually good. There are those games that go above and beyond what we could expect, the most prominent being the Batman: Arkham games. In this case, its the game's story, characters, and action that help make up for some of its weaker aspects. Ladies and gentlemen, its Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions!

(So yeah, this entire game could've been avoided if Spider-Man was more careful)

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions  was developed by Beenox for the Xbox360, PS3, Wii and PC, with Activision publishing it. Its a game that features Spider-Men from across time and space to fight the forces of evil to save all of reality. The gameplay is rather enjoyable, with a story and characters that just grab people's attention. 

As seen in the intro, Spider-Man breaks an artifact known as the Tablet of Order and Chaos, which happens to control reality and what-not, in a fight with the illusionist Mysterio. Prompted by Madame Web, a old, blind psychic, Spider-Man works with 3 other alternate universes of himself to reunite the scattered pieces of the tablet before villains of their universes can get a hold of them.

To get this out of the way before hand, the developers really took the idea of alternate universe Spider-Men and ran with it, creating the enemies and backdrops to fit with that universe. Of course, there are 4 universes in this game: Amazing(which represents the regular Marvel universe of sorts), Noir(which is based on a Marvel storyline that takes place in the early 20th century), 2099(a storyline set into the far future), and Ultimate(which is based off of the Ultimate Marvel series). Also, each Spider-Man has their own set of abilities and voice actors, too.

Amazing Spider-Man has is webbing enhanced, allowing him to create giant web hammers and tearing up the ground around him. He is voiced by Neil Patrick Harris who, while played Barney in How I Met Your Mother..., voiced Spider-Man in the animated series Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, which began as a sort of sequel series from the first Spider-Man movie. I'll get to that series later, since it does have a few interesting points that I would like to talk about.

Noir Spider-Man focus more on stealth, being more akin to the Batman: Arkham series, using webbing to tie up bad guys and sneak up on them. He's voice by Christopher Daniel Barnes, who voiced Spider Man in the 90s Spider-Man animated series. He brings a more lower and gritter style to the voice, fitting with this Spider-Man's more darker nature compared to the other 3.

2099 Spider-Man is more agility based, with a time slowing mechanic and flying sequences sprinkled through each mission. He's voiced by Dan Gilvezan, who voiced Spider-Man in the 80s Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends show. Its interesting, since the 2099 Spider-Man isn't even Peter Parker; its Miguel O'Hara, with Gilvezan's voice acting doing a good job making him stand out as a different character.

Finally, Ultimate Spider-Man has the symbiote black suit, giving him tendrils to use and a 'rage mode' that increases his attacking power. His voice is provided by Josh Keaton, who also played Spider-Man in The Spectacular Spider-Man. Unfortunately, Josh Keaton's portrayal of Spider-Man ends up being the resident 'butt monkey' of the 4, as will be seen later in the review.

(It also helps that each universe has a different look and feel to it, making each one stand out in their own way. Kudos to the developers for this)

Anyway, after a tutorial, Madame Web goes on to explain how the villains are also seeking out the power of the shattered tablet pieces and intend to use them for their own dark deeds. From here, the game is split into three sections, with a mission in each universe (meaning 4 missions in one part, 12 overall).

Onto the first mission with the Amazing Spider-Man...

(Near the end, Kraven needed to have a Troll face just photoshop on there. It fits so well.)

 Yep, Kraven the Hunter decided to steal a tablet piece, drug Spider-Men and send him off onto a jungle island. All for the sake of proving himself to being a mighty hunter. He also trained some guys in 'the ways of the hunt' to better test Spider-Man. Course, Kraven doesn't have too much loyalty to his men, willing to shoot them when trying to target Spider-Man through a sniper rifle.

About midway through, Spider-Man confronts Kraven in a bamboo cage fight, managing to overcome the villain with his greater speed and strength. Believing that he has nothing more to lose, Kraven decides to use the power of the tablet piece, giving him powers equivalent to the big cats of the world, like the lion and tiger. Though, I think he's got his animal knowledge mixed up somewhere. Anyway, Kraven confronts Spider-Man once more near the end, fighting much harder thanks to the tablet's power. However, that increase in might doesn't stop Spider-Man and our hero manages to defeat Kraven once and for all.

Now, onto Noir's first mission...

(Surprisingly, Hammerhead fits in well with Noir universe, since his motif is that of a gangster)

 To make a long story short, Hammerhead is part of a gang run by the Goblin (aka Norman Osborn) and was once a sideshow freak. He used his head to smash through solid rock and now wields twin 'tommy' guns as a high ranking individual in the gang. Course, Noir Spider Man has no problem with going through Hammerhead to get the stone.

After saving some captured citizens and beating up some thugs, Spider-Man confronts Hammerhead, who managed to mount a machine-gun on a rotating train track. This forces Spider-Man to hide in the shadows in order to sneak up on Hammerhead. While Spider-Man succeeds, Hammerhead feigns defeat and delivers a nasty headbutt to Spider-Man before running off. Give credit where credit is due, since Hammerhead managed to out-smart Spider-Man for the moment.

With the loss of more mooks and his patience running thin, Hammerhead decides to use the power of the tablet piece he has to fight one on one with Spider-Man. With a machine gun and rocket launcher now fused with his hands, Hammerhead does his best to blast Spider-Man to kingdom come. However, some clever smokescreen and fancy footwork helps Spider-Man defeat Hammerhead and reclaim the tablet piece.

Now, onto the 2099 universe...

(Wow, the future villains are rather shiny...and creepy)

 Hobgoblin is definetly a crazy S.O.B., but thankfully, he doesn't have a crazy group of mooks working with him. No, we have the Public Eye, a corrupt police force working with Alchemax, a fore-running science company who is actually evil. Oh joy.

Anyway, the Spider-Man of 2099 gives chase to Hobgoblin while fighting the men of the Public Eye. As the fights go on, Spider-Man realizes that Hobgoblin's tech is very familiar, but can't quite put a finger to where he remembers it from. The fighting continues to escalate, with Spider-Man soaring through the sky in order to bring the mad Hobgoblin down.

Eventually, the fighting reaches a power station, with Hobgoblin combining the power of the tablet with his own 'psychic powers'. This causes reality to warp in a way, creating Hobgoblin duplicates. Fortunately, Spider-Man manages to pin down the real Hobgoblin and sends him crashing into the power station. After retrieving the tablet piece, Spider-Man examines Hobgoblin's tech, realizing that the tech is similar to what Alchemax is making. This would mean that someone from Alchemax is trying to get ahold of the other pieces of the tablet. But who...

Well, enough of that. Onto the Ultimate Universe...

(Look out, its a Full Frontal Assault!)

 Yeah, here is where to start as to why Ultimate Spider-Man is considered the 'butt monkey' of the other Spider-Man. The symbiote is apparently vulnerable to electricity. Guess what Electro does? It only seems to go downhill from here for the poor Spider-Man.

Not only that, the fighting takes place at a dam and the power from the tablet piece drastically increases Electro's power, allowing him to create electric minions of sorts. Its crazy on how you're supposed to fight a being of pure energy (without pants), though punching a lot helps. Course, as the mission goes on, Electro keeps absorbing more and more power, becoming even bigger and stronger.

Near the end, Electro has grown to the size of a titan. However, the rain in the level shows that with enough water, the big guy would short out. Thankfully, Spider-Man puts the weakness to use, tricking Electro into busting the dam open and shorting the electric villain out. Quick thinking on Spider-Man's part.

And that ends the first part of the game, with a cutscene detailing how Mysterio is getting drunk on the power and intends to seek out more pieces of the tablet, yadda yadda, standard villain speech. 

And now onto the second part of the game, with the Amazing Universe mission up first...

(New meaning to the phrase 'dirt nap')

In my opinion, Sandman is quickly becoming one of my favorite Spider-Man villains, if only because of his involvement in the 3rd Spider-Man movie. To put it shortly: I loved all the parts featuring the Sandman. Anything else felt like wasted potential or just crap. Now back to the review.

Thanks to finding the tablet piece first, Sandman is now capable of absorbing even larger quantities of sand (which is kinda odd in my opinion, since he could already do that before the tablet). It also allows him to create sand creatures to fight Spider-Man and try to kill him. Course, the dig site the two are in has plenty of water for Spider-Man to throw at the Sandman to keep him in a solid state in order to hurt the villain.

As the fighting goes it, it is revealed that this much power is causing the Sandman to talking to himself, literally. His conscious is spread so far that multiple heads of himself keep arguing with one another. As always, Spider-Man does his best to take advantage of the situation and aims to take out the heads to defeat the Sandman. After the last fight, Sandman is defeated and Spider-Man retrieves the tablet, taking some time off to make sure he empties the sand out of his costume.

Now back to the Noir universe, which has taken a darker route for the worse...

(Looks like someone took the 'Arkham' route: turn a normally intimidating villian and make him nightmare fuel. Thanks, guys)

 The Noir Vulture is a sick bird, in more ways than one. He's a circus freak who got the name from biting off the heads of chickens. After becoming an enforcer for the Goblin's mob, he started to crave something more. He wasn't just the guy who killed the Uncle Ben of the Noir universe, he ATE HIM!

As the Noir Spider-Man sees this a personal, he won't stop until Vulture is down for the count. Even after a brief fight with the Vulture (by exposing his vulnerable eyes to bright light), Spider-Man doesn't slow down, even managing to save citizens from being held hostage and from a burning building. What makes the latter even more daring his the fact that its a towering building set aflame by the Vulture himself. Dude's crazy in this universe.

In the last fight, Vulture finally puts that tablet piece to use, using it to grant himself teleportation abilities. The freak is still vulnerable to bright light, even with the tablet's power. Sure enough, Spider-Man channels all that rage against the Vulture into his fists, beating the villain into an unconscious state. With another tablet piece in hand, Spider-Man vows to get the Goblin next.

Now onto the 2099 universe, which hopefully has a happier tune to it...

(...or not. Crap)

 This is a bit of an odd turn, since Scorpion(by that, I mean Kron Stone) has already appeared in the 2099 universe as Venom. Either the developers knew about it and just went ahead, or decided not to care about continuity. Regardless, the creepy design doesn't help me after the second Noir mission.

Like the Hobgoblin mission, this plays out like a chase, with the Public Eye joining in on the fight as well. What's more is that Scorpion has offspring fighting as well, making it into a three way brawl. However, Spider-Man is more concerned with Scorpion, since all the villain wants is to be normal. He believes that by getting the tablet piece to a 'lady with many shiny arms', Scorpion thinks he'll return to normal.

There's a bit of sadness in this mission, where Spider-Man didn't want to fight Scorpion, even saying that he was an asshole when he was human. He even said it himself that he wanted to help Scorpion, but the villain wouldn't listen to reason and a fight erupts. After a massive drop inside a skyscraper, Spider-Man defeats Scorpion by dropping the ceiling right on top of him. Even in victory, Spider-Man laments on defeating a poor soul.

Now I really need something to lighten the mood after those two missions. Please help me, Ultimate Universe...

(Woo-hoo!)

Thank god for Deadpool being in this game, and thank god they decided to give him the personality from the main universe(cause Ultimate Deadpool was a bit bland and uninteresting). There is a lot of funny moments from this mission alone that its hard to list them all cause, hey its Deadpool.Guy somehow became a big hit in the Marvel Universe.

Anyway, Deadpool lures Spider-Man onto his gameshow with a tablet piece. What makes this mission different from any of the others is that this is more of a scavenger hunt. Instead of a linear path, you travel around a big area, trying to smash all the cameras in sit. While beating up crazed fanboys(i'm serious, the mooks are Deadpool fanboys) and dodging flame traps, Spider-Man inches closer into reclaiming the tablet piece.

After the first encounter with Deadpool, Spider-Man continues to destroy ever camera to get Deadpool's attention once more. Their next(and last) fight involves a bit of 'bait-and-switch' with Deadpool using the power of the tablet piece to split into 3 parts of himself. Even more chaos ensues. Course, even the 'Merc with the Mouth' is no match for the ultimate Spider-Man.

After the last mission in part 2, Mysterio pays a visit to the Amazing Spider-Man and Madame Web. There, Mysterio makes his demands: either find the rest of the tablet pieces or Madame Web dies. At this point, Spider-Man is in no position to deny the villain and sets out to reclaim the last pieces.

Now onto the third and final part of the missions, of course starting with the Amazing Universe first...

(Ah, f*ck it)

 For those who might not have known at first, Juggernaut actually appeared in a few Spider-Man comic books in the series titled 'Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut!'. Hence, the developers could use him as a big villain in the Amazing universe. 

A nice bit is the fact that the mooks in this level are mercs lead by the sassy super-mercenary known as Silver Sable, who is trying to collect a bounty on Juggernaut. Good luck with that, ma'am, since the guy gets two buildings dropped on him and isn't even slowed down. How are guns going to be useful against him?

Banter aside, a final battle occurs between Spider-Man and Juggernaut, with the villain apparently using the tablet piece he recently found (no idea how it stuck to him in the first place). However, the magic of the tablet disrupts his own mystical powers, actually leaving him vulnerable. With that in mind, Spider-Man manages to stop the unstoppable and claim the tablet piece. Hurray for writer's convenience!

Now back to the Noir Universe, with that Spider-Man coming face to face with the big gang lord himself; the Goblin.

(Thank you, developers, for making carnivals creepy again)

A though occured to me as I was playing the game. Apparently, the Noir and 2099 universes have a sort of narrative to it, where they pick up little tidbits that lead them to the big bad villain of their universe. In Amazing and Ultimate, its basically a search for the tablets.

Anyway, the carnival setting is very creepy and fits nicely with the Goblin villain, especially since he makes the Noir Vulture looks semi-normal by comparison. In the original story, the Goblin had a horrible face dis-figuration. Thanks to the tablet piece, he is incredible strong and durable, despite a large, red bump on his back. Smooth.

Of course, the Noir Spider-Man manages to fight off the Goblin at every turn, overcoming his traps and his mooks. In the final confrontation in a carnival tent, Spider-Man delivers a finishing blow by firing himself out of a cannon and at Goblin's weakpoint. Talk about going out with a bang!

Past the bad joke and back into the year of 2099, where science has gone mad and shit. So, what else is new?

(Well, she certainly fills out that doctor uniform nicely, if that is an actual uniform)

 This version of Doctor Octopus is a fan of the original and believes that the original Doc Ock also killed the original Spider-Man. Information like that tends to be rather iffy in the future, since apparently 21st century info would be hard to come by due to electronics.

Eliminating the usual chase sequences in the 2099 universe, Spider-Man must nagivate his way through a technologies lab in order to access a large power core. Obstacles include deranged experiments, hostile Public Eye troopers (like there is any other kind but that) and some giant arms. Truly, this is the future.

Throughout it all, Spider-Man manages to continuously mock Doc Ock, saying how her 'fancy power core' isn't too complicated since its powered by a magical artifact. Of course, like most great scientists, she doesn't take it too well and goes ballistic. Pride before the fall, she gets her ass beaten and Spider-Man retrieves the tablet from her.

Well that was a fun romp into the future, so lets head back to the Ultimate universe. Shouldn't be anything too difficult-

(-aw great, like I really needed more nightmare fuel)

Ultimate Carnage is arguable more insane compared to the standard universe Carnage. In here, its a sort of vampiric organism that absorbs the fluids of people, leaving them mindless husks. With the power of the tablet that was given to him by S.H.I.E.L.D. (apparently, that was a 'good idea' at the time), the husks turned into zombies. Just wonderful.

Overall, the tone is considerably darker for the Ultimate Universe, with mass destruction, fires breaking out through the super prison known as the Triskellion, and even a helicarrier takes a nosedive into the ground. So yeah, its stuff like this that makes the Ultimate Spider-Man the official 'butt monkey' of the quartet of Spider-Men. 

Putting his rage against Carnage to good use, Spider-Man scours the bloody battlegrounds to find Carnage hold up in a massive building. From there, Spider-Man delivers a massive beatdown for all the lives lost against such a deranged monster. As the building collapses on the violent symbiote, Spider-Man triumphs and claims the last tablet piece.

However, things take a turn for the worse, as Mysterio takes the completed Tablet of Order and Chaos and declares himself a god of all reality. As the universes merge, the 4 Spider-Men use their own talents and skills to land powerful blows on Mysterio. With the last blow struck, Mysterio loses his powers and the day is saved once more. In the end, the 4 Spider-Men return to their own universes, each stating that they are the best Spider-Man of all time.

And so ends Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Overall, its a pretty fun video game with some form of replay-ability, if only to find hidden collectables and stuff. The characters stand out and are quite memorable for the most part and it does a good job of celebrating the Spider-Man mythos. If you like seeing the blue-and-red web-slinger in action, go check the game out yourself.

Until next time...

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is owned by Activision and developed by Beenox.

Thanks to FrankNStein for the Youtube videos.

Busy Real Life

Once more, real life is getting to me. Moving from one place to another and working on a job gets very tiring rather quickly. Need to re-establish myself before I can get the next review up.

Sorry for dropping this onto you once more. Real life does that.

Review: Road Rovers

Welcome to another review on 'Stories of Entertainment'!

There have always been that string of shows that feature anthropomorphized main characters for one reason or another. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad, but most of the time, there is a lot of fan-art devoted to them. I don't know how that happens, but it does.

Anyway, this show actually came out of Kids WB, lasted for one season, and then cancelled for rather vague reasons that I never seem to understand. This is Road Rovers!

(Thank God for the WB for having such catchy intros)

'Road Rovers' was a series developed by (of course) Warner Bros. Animation and ran for only one season back in 1996. In short, the series was about a group of anthropomorphic dogs, called the Road Rovers, fight as a team of super dogs (of sorts) against evil and what-not. It was kinda your standard super hero show of the 90s, only without the gore you would know in from the comic books at the time. So, how does the show stand up, despite only staying around for 13 episode?

The start of the series, as well as the first episode, begins at a research center in New Mexico. A scientist named Professor Shepard is being forced by a guy called General Pavro (which is a play on words for a disease that affects dogs) to hand over a device known as the transdogmafier in order to get his own dog, Scout, back. After the device has been moved, Pavro tosses Shepard the keys to the dog's cage and leaves. As the professor opens the cage, it reveals a bomb with  tape recorder mimicking the dog's howling. Then the research center explodes.

(Yes, the joke the absolutely necessary)

Cut to one year later where an old lady's afghan puppy (i think) gets turned into a giant monster after running outside, though the old lady takes it rather well at first. Then cut to the main heroes of the story, with all the dogs start howling in the sky. First up is Exile, the Siberian husky dog, who is apparently sleeping out in the snow. Eh, makes sense in dog terms. Next up is Colleen the rough collie in England, having already displayed some nice footwork as a dog. Then comes Shag, a Swiss sheep dog, who is rather reluctant at accepting the new responsibility. Next up is Blitz, a Doberman working as a police dog in Germany. At that time, Blitz has already stopped a car thief.

Finally, we have Hunter, the golden retriever mix in America, and apparently in a pound, despite the obvious dog tag around his neck. Apparently, he shared a cell with a Rotweiler named Muzzle, who is really bat-shit insane. Seriously, you know he's crazy considering how they needed to fit him into a straight jacket and muzzle to keep him down, yet he is still capable of hopping around on his own. By God, compared to Hannibal Lecter, Muzzle is the more insane one. At least Lecter would give you a nice conversation before eating you.

(Still, I don't see Lecter as the vision of perfect sanity either)

 

Anyway, the two dogs are about to be euthanized until Hunter makes a break for it. As he is called upon to 'save himself', Hunter heads back to save Muzzle as well, believing that his friend, despite the insanity, deserves a chance to live.

We then cut to a crater somewhere (I'm guessing its left from the professor's place in New Mexico), with a hole that leads to an underground sanctuary where Professor Shepard now resides (doesn't really explain how he survived the explosion or managed to build an entire complex in a year though). Anyway, the dogs (minus Muzzle) get put through a machine that turns them into 'canine-sapiens', which gives them the ability to speak like humans and gain super powers. Apparently, it also grants them shiny new outfits as well.

Anyway, Exile has the standard Russian accent, Blitz sounds like Schwarzenegger(despite Schwarzenegger being Austrian), Colleen has a nice English accent, Shag can't speak clearly (something happened to his device, though I'm not sure what) and  Hunter reveals that his voice sounds similar to Wakko from the Animaniacs (because he's done by the same guy). Anyway, Shepard reveals himself, explaining his plans to use the Road Roves, as he calls them, as a force for good. He lists off how each one has select powers and skills, like Hunter's super speed, Colleen's enhanced martial arts, Blitz's super sharp teeth and claws, Exile's enhanced vision and vision-based powers, and Shag's super bravery (I think he messed up on that last one).

One of the things that has me off-put is the absolute loyalty the Road Rovers show after the transformation. Yeah, I know dogs can be loyal, but this seems way too fast to be happening. I keep thinking that Shepard has them under some mind control and uses them for some evil scheme.

(At least we know that Shepard isn't a raccoon...yet)

Anyway, Shepard reveals to the team that the Afghan from before in the episode (along with a Dalmatian seen now) have been transformed into vicious, intelligent monsters who apparently just hijacked a train. The Road Rovers, rather reluctantly since Shepard said they could potentially die out there, head out to stop the mutated dogs.

They go by care and plane (apparently, Shepard gave them information on how to work each, I hope) and they catch up to the train in no time. As they fight off the mutated dogs, it cuts to General Pavro, who is behind it all, needed a device about the train to stabilize the mutated dogs and created a massive army to conquer the world. Back at the train, the heroes do their best to fight off the dogs and manage to secure the device. However, Hunter gets a call in from Shepard to pull a 'bait-and-switch' maneuver on the enemy, handing them a fake device while keeping a hold of the original one. Once Pavro gets a hold of the fake device, it turns out to be a bomb.

(Unfortunately, Pavro doesn't end up looking like a guy off of a Five Finger Death Punch album cover)

 

 After stopping the bad guy, Shepard reveals that he managed to get homes for the 5 dogs with the main leaders of their respective countries (Hunter with the President of the United States, Colleen with the Prime Minister from England, etc.) Muzzle ends up staying with Shepard, where it is revealed that Muzzle was originally Shepard's dog Scout. Thus ends the first episode of Road Rovers.

And that was Road Rovers, another animated show from the WB. Overall, it was an okay show. The characters had some basic personalities, the plot was alright, if sometimes full of plot holes, the animation was pretty good at the time and the jokes we occasionally hit and miss. I don't really see how it could've ended after one season, since there have been other series where they continued despite its apparently badness. Maybe its a mystery that is best left to be.

Anyway, until next time...

'Road Rovers' is owned by Warner Brothers Animation

Thanks to Youtube accounts fahnix19, amanojyaku69, and IHATESYOUTUBE for the videos.