Yesterday, I picked up three lil' babies: Justice League of America #8, The Mighty Avengers #2, and Civil War: Battle Damage Report. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to snatch up the new War Journal or Nightwing Annual, but hey. I find more.

Justice League of America #8 - This issue marks the premiere of the much-anticipated (I suppose) crossover between Justice League and Justice Society of America, which hopefully means that the latter's quality will seep into the pages of Brad Meltzer's ailing run on the former. Based on my limited experience with Brad Meltzer, I can honestly say that he's a fabulous writer; Identity Crisis was a great story that managed widespread critical acclaim and attention even outside of the niche world of comics, and I thought the first arc of Justice League involving the Red Tornado was solid (though why the first six issues brought such focus to him instead of getting a jump start on the League itself is a mystery to me). At this point, though, Justice League feels a bit rocky. For a series that's a reboot, I can tell that it's targeted at those who already know a good deal about Solomon Grundy, Starro, Red Arrow and the like. That's sort of a misstep as far as being accessible is concerned. More disconcerting than that is the narrative itself; it's jumpy and pretty confusing, especially as far as the narration bubbles are concerned (different colors for each character really doesn't work). I am super excited about where things are going, especially with Batman and Sandman storming Arkham Asylum in the next Justice Society, but as it stands, Justice League is just a bit too awkward right now to recommend to the uninitiated. Justice Society of America is really the place to be right now.



Mighty Avengers #2 - This is a fantastic book. Though it lacks the fan-favorite characters of New Avengers, Bendis is doing such a great job with the writing that it doesn't even matter. Hilarious, action-packed, clever, and tight, this is simply the best place for comic fans to be at this point, especially after Civil War. Though one might expect a monthly based around the dickwads of Civil War to be stale and bitter, Bendis seems determined to make Mighty Avengers a sweet, sweet dessert after the bitter dish that was Marvel's most recent crossover. Simply put, it's a rollicking time that fans casual and hardcore will be able to enjoy. Looking for a place to dive into the chaotic world of the post-Super Human Registration Act Marvel? This is it.

Civil War: Battle Damage Report - Not so much a book as a reference guide to the events of the recently-closed crossover event, Civil War: Battle Damage Report isn't the sort of thing that's going to appeal to the uninitiated. It's just as well, as the product itself seems kind of rushed; there is no cohesion whatsoever to the images, and a lot of the writing is somewhat casual and also feels a bit disjointed. That said, what it lacks in substance it more than makes up for in quantity. There's a ton of stuff in this $4 book, and though none of it is close to the level of detail one might find even on Wikipedia, it is nice to have all of this information in one place. This seems more like something that'll be worth picking up for those that have dozens of tie-in issues strewn about.

God of War II is the 300 of games, and Guitar Hero II is the most addicting rhythm-based game I've ever played, which says a lot, as they're all extremely addicting.

Thoughts

So my school had a Super Smash Bros. Melee tourney the other day, which I won with ease. However, it almost wasn't worth it.

It's interesting how people who are really good at something are really chill (for the most part), and the people who are terrible have to be fags and complain and be really obnoxious all the time. But that topic is a tad too emo for the Haven.

Anyway, I won $60 to Best Buy, which I used to buy God of War II (which I would be playing if my PS2 was available to me right now). But before I bought the game, I had a mini-journey around the store.

I played MotorStorm for PS3. While I was waiting in line behind some little kid, I was watching him play and it looked like the most amazing game I've ever seen. The graphics were so incredible that I had trouble taking in everything on the screen at once. There were very few indicators on the screen, but just looking at the backgrounds and the course the kid was driving on forced me to open my eyes as wide as I could just to be able to see everything at once. I'd be staring at one side of the screen, then see a car flip out and explode on the other side and realize that I'd only been seeing half of the game the entire time. And then I played the game and it was boring. The controls, although probably arcadey on purpose, weren't particularly satisfying, and neither was the gameplay. Going around a turn looked amazing for sure, but it had no creativity or artistic value. Even running full speed into a wall wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped, because the crash was too basic. Burnout had 100x better crashes, even on the original Xbox.

Then I made my way into the PS2 section to look for GoWII, and an Okami demo caught my eye. Now I've been telling myself to buy Okami for quite some time now, starting from about a year before it was released, but I somehow never got around to it. So this was a good opportunity for me. And let me tell you, the game is incredible. Understand that when I like something, I normally dub it "greatest [blank] ever" but this was truly amazing. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but painting the brush, the graphics, the everything was just done in such a smooth way. Everything was extremely professional, while mysteriously giving you the feeling that you were playing a retro game minus the nostalgia (or maybe it actually was there in a subtle manner). Anyway, I considered buying Okami instead of GoW. I considered while standing there, while playing Guitar Hero II on the 360, and while browsing the awfully laid out selections for other platforms. Then I checked to see if GoW was even in stock, and when the employee replied that it was, he immediately offered to go get it for me. And that marked the end of my indecision.

Well, there's not much of a point to this entry, but I figured sharing some of my thoughts would be interesting enough. I will be buying Okami asap.

EDIT: As incredible as God of War II is, it seems like more of the same. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with it though, so keep that in mind.

New Spider-Man 3 trailer, supposedly the last one they're intending to release before the movie's debut:


Link

It's definitely the best one they've released thus far, and we finally get to see Venom in action! I'm beginning to feel like we've sort of seen the whole movie through all of this preview footage, though.

So lets say you are riding on the back of a pegasus. You feel mighty cool don't you?
Lets say while you are riding said pegasus, a bunch of Gryphins fly up beside you and start attacking you.

What do you do?


Answer:

You jump off your mount on to the back of your attacker. Then, you rip off both of its wings. As the creature is falling toward the earth, you grab it with one hand and throw it toward the earth for good measure only to land on the back of your Pegasus.





Reason A why you should own God of War 2.

I got Yoshi's Island DS today, and it is hot nasty awesome. In fact, it fueled me to get my thoughts out there about New Super Mario Bros, which I felt was a weaker effort. Consume them, my children.

A surprisingly derivative effort from Nintendo. Though not bad, New Super Mario Bros. certainly isn't the series' best.

Should we be praising Nintendo for releasing a solid Mario title when we know they're capable of going above and beyond?

It is a bit suspicious that New Super Mario Bros. seems to have garnered such voracious acclaim. Though on its most basic level, it feels like a good old Mario title like Mom used to make, it certainly falls short when compared to more recent titles in the series. It lacks the creativity that fueled Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island and the extensive gameplay that was Super Mario 64's trademark. What we have instead is a plain vanilla hybrid of the two that has far more in common with the very first title in the series than it does with any recent entries.

Perhaps it's not fair to bash New Super Mario Bros. because it's something of a nostalgic throwback. In an age where we have 20,000 Mario Party titles released every year, taking the series back to formula was actually something of an innovation. It works on several levels; there's a charm in the comparatively basic gameplay, and gamers aren't subjected to any Mario Sunshine-esque awkward plotlines. Nope, all we have here is sweet 'n sexy Princess Peach getting abducted by Bowser, and that's all we need.

It's the details where New Super Mario Bros. really trips up. The game wastes the DS' touch screen (except in the mini-games, almost wholly ripped off from Mario 64 DS), making gamers wonder why it wasn't just a GBA title with pretty sprite graphics instead of ugly 3D ones. Worse yet, the new power-ups, being the giant and mini mushrooms, seem shoehorned in and have woefully limited use. This leads to some dumb design choices; two of the game's eight worlds are completely closed off until you go back and beat certain bosses in mini mode. It's a pretty lame and cheap way to inject replay value. Even still, perhaps the largest offenders are the level-design and music. Unlike the unique and distinctive locales found in other Mario games, NSMB recycles dull environments like "forest" and "snow land." And it seems like Nintendo bothered only to compose two songs for the entirety of the game. What a letdown.

Of course, despite quibbles and nitpicks, this is still a solid Mario game that at least tries some new things while still feeling old school. The mini-games, stolen as they may be, are fun and will keep players coming back for more, even after they clear all of the levels in the easy single player adventure. Gamers, especially those who haven't been Mario fans all of their lives, will dig the game while it lasts, and some may be able to ignore the flaws.

Those looking for something beefier, though, would probably do better to grab Yoshi's Island DS.

7.5

Fuck. Yes.

School'd in the butt hole. Noted.

There is a fact to the matter which I will now display to you with a sentence of one or more.

If the first title in the comic is "Justice" that means you should be buying it.

If Mark Miller comes up to in public and starts to talk, attach a leopard to his penis.

Buy the hardcover volumes 1 and 2 of the Incredible Hulk.

Also. I need reviews on Ultimate Avengers 2 and Invincible Iron Man (the movies).

Sonic and the Secret Rings

Well. Anyone who rated this game anywhere close to decent doesn't deserve to have more than one testicle.

I don't use pictures like Damon because it takes too long.

The gameplay is insultingly elementary, the music hurts my ears (although the option for Japanese voices does help), the graphics are meh like most Wii games, and I'm scared to try the party games.

The game has a similar control scheme as Kirby Air Ride, which should be enough reason to stop playing right there. You tilt left or right to move to either side of your lane, and from there you can either brake or jump. Jumping gives you the extra option to attack a foe if they're within lock-on range, which doesn't feel very smooth. In fact, none of the controls feel smooth. After playing for about an hour and a half, I still can't accurately control Sonic the way I can with a joystick, which actually says a lot if you remember how often he'd come to a complete stop by touching the walls.

And of course the story sucks. None of the cutscenes are worth watching. They're not even in full motion. Images just slide by and you hear dialogue. It's worse than your average generic Sonic story. Then you finally get to the tutorial bits and it takes forever for them to teach you that pressing the jump button longer allows you to jump higher. Despite its simplicity, the tutorial is actually somewhat of a challenge because of the inaccurate controls. I had to do the lock-on attack mission like 5 times, which is more than any of the main story missions that I did.

Oh yeah, even navigating the main menu is belittling. It's so basic I'm insulted. I can't even talk about this game anymore. 3 out of 10. It passes for a complete game at least.

I just remembered. The opening scene doesn't look too bad. It was almost good enough to believe that I was playing on a next-gen console, but then I remembered the God of War cutscenes and then I was sad again. It did have about 3 seconds of slow motion though, and slow motion always makes things better, even if they focused in on letters. 300 is proof.

Edit: My brother got the game for his birthday. I wasn't really considering it myself. Wario Ware is pretty fun though. Not the best Wario Ware, but still fun.