Now, I will say straight up front that I don’t consider myself to be a die hard fan of Five Nights At Freddy’s. I’ve barely played the games and have only watched a handful of playthroughs on YouTube of them. I know some of the very basic stuff but that’s about it. That in of itself might make plenty of you want to click off of this review immediately but I don’t think that should be enough to hamper my enjoyment of the film. You shouldn’t have to be a hardcore fan of a video game to like a video game adaption. For example, I have never played a single League of Legends game but I absolutely ADORE Arcane, the Netflix series which is based off of LoL, and it’s one of my favorite shows in recent memory. So, I’m only looking at this at it’s own thing and not going by how faithful it is to the games.
It’s definitely shouldn’t act as a surprise to see Five Nights At Freddy’s getting it’s own movie. Even if I don’t care much for the series, it’s hard to deny it’s popularity as one of the more iconic gaming franchises for this generation of pre-teens, teens and young adults. And with the games putting an emphasis on survival and horror along with being told through a first or third person perspective, it could make for an interesting spin of other successful horror movie franchises out there. As we approach the 10 year anniversary of the very first game, we now have a movie adaption of Five Nights At Freddy’s. Can this game work as being a love letter to fans of the game along with being it’s own self-contained and enjoyable film? While fans of the games might argue yes, as a non-fan of the games, I unfortunately have to say no.
Plot Synopsis: We follow a mall security guard named Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), a man who is who is struggling to take care of his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio) after their younger brother, Garrett (Lucas Grant) was abducted as a child and both of their parents passed away. After a mishap on his mall duty, Mike is fired from it and must find a new job somewhere else. Mike’s career counselor Steve Raglan (Matthew Lillard) offers him a job to be a night guard at an abandoned family diner known as Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Mike initially refuses but accepts it once social services threaten to take custody of Abby and pass his younger sister over to his estranged aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson).
Of course, once Mike arrives with his new job, it’s not what he suspects. This lead to multiple dreams where he constantly witness the kidnapping of his brother and suspecting that the restaurant’s animatronic mascots known as Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Foxy, and Bonnie might actually be alive. He meets up with a police officer named Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) who knows a good deal about the restaurant herself and perhaps might even have a connection to it. With multiple other circumstances thrown into the mix such as Jane trying to get her nephew fired from her job by vandalizing the entertainment center along with Abby forming a strange bond with these animatronic mascots, Mike must find the means to handle the job and the five nights at Freddy’s or else it could lead to himself and those he cares for dying.
Five Nights at Freddy’s by design set itself up to be another “critic proof” kind of movie. The kind of ones that mostly apply to these video game movies. The kind of movies where story and characters are irrelevant and what really matters is the easter eggs, fan service, and being able to deliver the “good enough” portion of the gaming material which the movie is based on. While I’m perfect all for that, I don’t think Five Nights at Freddy’s goes far enough with playing with it’s own premise. If anything, I would argue the movie gets too wrapped up in it’s own story, characters, and lore that the survival horror trope elements and the animatronics themselves basically take a back seat and hardly get any time to play out.
If the story and lore was there to set up the set pieces and animatronics themselves, then it could work. The problem is that not enough time or effort is put into any of that. The film is too wrapped up in the characterization and human drama with Mike and his sister that is about as generic and barebone as it gets. While it’s certainly not the worst example of this that I’ve ever seen in a video game adaption, it bogs down the entire thing because it seems to think that it’s audiences are just as invested with events outside of Five Nights at Freddy’s as they are inside of it. While I can’t speak for the fans in general, I’m willing to believe that is not true whatsoever.
That’s honestly a big reason why is that despite having a runtime of just 109 minutes, the film still feels too long. It moves at a snail pace to take it’s time to set up it’s characters and lore that you don’t even get to see the Five Nights at Freddy’s crew until over a half an hour into the movie. And even when the spotlight is focused on, all the animatronics feel interchangeable and hardly get any moments to stand out as their own frightening animatronic. So, even if you are someone that wants to use the argument about the story and characters not mattering because all that matters is the animatronics and scary moments themselves, you will likely not feel as satisfied as you should.
Once the majority of the focus goes into the restaurant itself, the movie certainly gets better but even then, the moments in it themselves are nothing to write home about. There’s obnoxious jump scares that feel like they are only in there just for the sake of having jump scares, the tension is non-existent because most of these sequences play constantly on repeat, and all of the kill scenes are incredibly tame with nothing that will get under your skin in the best ways. I understand this is a PG-13 movie and that the main core audience of Five Night at Freddy’s mostly centers on teens to young adults but even I know that PG-13 and these kind of films are capable of much better than this. Aside from one kill scene where a certain character gets cut in half (which did admittedly caught me off guard), there’s nothing much I got out of it.
In terms of acting, the performances are……odd. While I totally this movie is going for a more creepy vibe to match with the games, much of the acting feels stilted and over-the-top in ways that I don’t believe was intentional. Josh Hutcherson is able to stand out as the best of the lot as the main character of Mike Schmidt. He holds the movie together and helps make it not completely unwatchable. About every other performance feels like they are trying too hard or barely trying at all. Sometimes they can be fun like Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa but other times it’s just obnoxious like Mary Stuart Masterson as Aunt Jane. Also, why is Matthew Lillard only in ten minutes of this movie? Why in the world would you cast an actor as charismatic and entertaining as him but barley have him in the damn movie?
Production wise, the movie is pretty solid overall. Aside from some strange directing choices, Emma Tammi does what she can with capturing the world of Five Nights at Freddy’s proper on camera and making it look exactly how it’s suppose to look in film form. The work with the animatronics is great and looks like they are ripped straight out of the games. And of course, I’m sure there are enough callbacks, references, easter eggs, and service from the games that will make longtime fans of the franchise feel rewarded. Because of that, I’m sure there will at least be some folks that will get something worthwhile out of their experience with this film.
While Five Nights at Freddy’s is far from the worst video game movie ever made, it’s not one I can say I enjoyed that much. Despite not being a big fan of the series, I was all for a movie that puts a big emphasis on the kind of horror survival tropes that the games are well known. It’s just unfortunate that those elements are not implemented very well and feel like a second thought to everything else going on. There’s too much emphasis on the human drama and everything outside of Five Nights at Freddy’s that you never get a true sense of dread to the animatronics or anything going in the movie. It’s just hopes that the property being a feature film itself is enough to justify it’s existence. While there are plenty of fans out there that feel that’s good enough, I can not agree.
Say what you will about The Super Mario Bros. Movie but that film was able to deliver the Mario goods when it matter the most and never got too wrapped up in it’s own story or lore to make an enjoyable film out of it. And even if you didn’t care about any of that stuff, there was still a solid story present about being an underdog and the importance of brotherhood. Five Nights at Freddy’s fails at basically any one of those things mentioned and relies on the little things that the franchise is known for without putting enough effort into the big things of it.
If you are a die hard fan of Five Nights at Freddy’s and just want to see a movie that at least has the bare minimum of goods from the games, you might be satisfied here. To everyone else though, I really can’t recommend it. It’s just a shame that in an era where video game adaptions have been constantly good to great with the likes of Arcane, The Last of Us, Mario, Sonic, and Gran Turismo, we have something like Five Nights at Freddy’s that reminds us all why these kind of adaptions still get a bad rep to this very day. Maybe the next one will be better but I can’t be bother to drink the Kool-Aid here. I’ll stick with Capri Sun.
Also, this movie is available on Peacock for those who still don’t care to go to the theaters.
Sonic Superstars is a much stranger game than it may look on the surface. On the surface, it looks like yet another nostalgia throwback to the classic 2D Sonic games, including the characters in their original classic forms along with visuals and level designs that’s meant to replicate the good old days of the SEGA Genesis. However, it would be able to succeed in ways that Sonic Mania did and not suffer the way that both episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 did. There’s also the assumption that it’s trying to stand out as it’s own unique 2D adventure in the ways that the Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush series did. While there are certainly different bits and pieces here of about every 2D Sonic game I just mentioned, I wouldn’t call Sonic Superstars as a direct replication of any of those games. It’s not the superbly well-executed nostalgic remix that is Sonic Mania, the poor man’s versions of the classic games the way that Sonic 4 was, nor even standing on it’s own two firm feet the way that Advance and Rush did. Sonic Superstars is about the most different feeling Sonic game that I’ve played in quite some time, and I mean that in both the best and worst ways possible.
Sonic Superstars marks the return of the co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog himself in Naoto Ohshima, his first contribution to the series since the original Sonic Adventure. With Sonic Mania being a success in the eyes of fans and critics, Takashi Iizuka felt that was proof that fans still had interest of Sonic games in this “classic” style and was compelled to make a new 2D game in similar veins. He didn’t want to make a sequel to Mania because he felt casual audiences would dismiss it as being a rehash, looking to abandon the pixel hard style of that game and create a more original 2D game that would appeal to a broader audience. Sonic Team and Evening Star, the studio behind Mania, worked together on a new game until the two sides separated when Evening Star felt more compelled to work on another game titled, Penny’s Big Breakaway, which is set to come out some time next year.
During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, Iizuka and Ohshima had a drinking party over Zoom, where the latter expressed interest in a brand new 2D Sonic game and the pair began to discuss a collaboration. The two agreed and went to work on a new Sonic game as soon as they could, with ideas from Evening Star included with the project, which is why the received a special thanks mention at the end of the game’s credits. Two and a half years of development later, we now have Sonic Superstars, the game that is basically the follow-up to Sonic Mania even if it technically isn’t. Is this able to be the enjoyable triumph that the marketing let it to be or is it best to just put Classic Sonic to sleep already?
Plot:
Yeah…there’s not much to say here. Like most 2D classic Sonic games, the plot is relatively straight forward and basically non-existent but I’ll explain it briefly anyway.
We see the main core group of the series with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy along with a brand new character named Trip going on an adventure together through the mystical Northstar islands. As usual, Dr. Eggman is up to no good but he has new associates this time around with the return of forgotten fan favorite Fang and a mysterious new enemy that is responsible for converting the island’s giant animals into Badniks. It’s up to Sonic and the gang to find all seven Chaos Emeralds, stop the bad guys of old and new, and save the day once again!
As I just said, there’s not much to the story other than being a simple heroes vs villains kind of story in the most straightforward way imaginable. There is more effort put into cutscenes than other classic 2D Sonic games with parts that are strictly animated to form their own scenes despite no voice work included. And as usual, there is also the traditional very first and very last cutscenes of every story being animated in it’s own cartoon-like form. That in of itself is pretty neat but it doesn’t stop the story from being something that just exists to make things happen and not much else. However, that’s all well and fine here because, honestly, who really plays a classic Sonic game for the story?
Gameplay:
Sonic Superstars is a side-scrolling 2.5D platformer that is meant to be played similar to the Sonic Games released on the Sega Genesis in the 90s. However, this time around, there are three different story modes that are included. You have the main story mode which includes the main four characters of the series with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, you have a story mode involving the new character named Trip the Sungazer, and there’s also one last story mode where you face off against the final boss of the game. You’re able to unlock Trip’s story after completing the main one and the last story mode is available after both story modes are complete.
Similar to prior 2D Sonic games, each character is meant to play similarly to Sonic but with their own unique ability attached to it. Sonic can spin dash after he jumps, Tails can fly, Knuckles can glide and climb on walls, Amy can attack enemies with her hammer and a double jump, and Trip has a move set that’s a combination of Amy’s double jump and Knuckles’ climbing. There’s no level gimmicks that are attached to any of these characters such as mech shooting or treasure hunting, just getting through each act of each zone while also trying to collect the Chaos Emeralds asap.
There are a total of 12 zones and 26 levels that take place on the North Star Island. The number of acts in each zone varies between one to three. Each one contains traditional Sonic elements such as springs, loops, rings, and shield power-ups. Each zone had some unique features of it’s own such as the jungle with vines which you can grind on and a futuristic zone where they transform into a voxel creature. There’s also certain acts that strictly exclusive to a specific character. Each acts ends with a boss that the player must defeat while dodging the attacks from the enemy. And of course, between levels, there’s a 2D hub world where the player can select a zone and change or customize their character.
From the sound of that, Sonic Superstars does sound like your typical 2D Sonic game. You got all the characters in their “classic” forms, it involves all the 2D action of those games with similar elements and power-ups thrown in there, and it’s art style and animation just screams of a more modern update on the very first few Sonic adventures. However, there’s also the new features that are included that make Superstars more than your grandpa’s Sonic.
First, there’s the features that were removed from previous 2D Sonic games. There are no lives included in this game nor is there any game over featured here. The only purpose of collecting rings is basically just to keep yourself alive and not have to go back to a specific checkpoint. It’s quite odd for a game that mostly gets harder the more it goes on doesn’t bother to give itself any lives to increase the tension from the players or having rings serve a purpose other than to avoid dying.
There’s the special stages, which features two different ones to speak off. With the first, you have to access your character through giant rings hidden in each act. Once you find it, you have to swing your character from bubbles in a 3D environment to obtain one of the seven Chaos Emeralds. With the second, which is accessed by passing check checking points, the player navigates through a rotating maze, similar to the special stages in Sonic 1, to collect medals which you can use for the shop to buy items or customize your characters.
Each emerald grants the player a power-up ability such as being able to swing up waterfalls, create clones of your chosen character, and slowing down time for at least 20 to 30 seconds. The seventh one in particular provides a character-specific ability. Of course, collecting all seven chaos emeralds allows the player to transform into the super form of their character, granting them speed and invincibility at the cost or ring depletion. Trip, in particular, gain a super form that transforms here into a freaking DRAGON! I don’t know how or why she does but it’s pretty awesome! Getting these chaos emeralds along with completing both the main story and Trip’s is required to unlock the final boss of the game.
Lastly, the campaign supports local multiplayer that can go up to four players max that can join or leave at any time. It also includes a player vs player component that can be played locally or online with support of cross-platforming play. With this, players can create robots to partake in competitions that includes the likes of races, battles, collection competitions, and last man standing (No, not the show starting Buzz Lightyear!). The medals you collected throughout the game can be used to purchase parts for these customizing robots. I’ll admit I haven’t played much of it myself but I guess it’s there for anyone that is interested.
When describing the gameplay of Sonic Superstars as a whole, it can be seen as very fun along with being very frustrating. The fun parts comes from most of the main levels themselves while being able to play as any one of your favorite characters that are present here. Most of them control rather well with their own unique ability that don’t feel as clunky to handle as say The Final Horizon DLC in Frontiers. While I did mostly play as Sonic this time around, I had no problem with switching to any one of the characters whenever I wanted to. Flying with Tails helped get to higher reaches I couldn’t quite get to before, gliding and climbing walls with Knuckles was able to go certain pathways I wasn’t able to before, and Amy’s hammer and double jump was able to save my butt on multiple occasions from dying in ways that I couldn’t with Sonic. This is the kind of gameplay style I would like to see with other characters going forward, have them all play similarly to Sonic but with their own unique abilities that make the experience fresher and even sometimes better.
I like how each level is able to provide it’s own unique idea or element to it that feel like their own thing than just modernizing classic Sonic levels. There’s a bit of those every now and then, but for the most part, Superstars does aim to provide fresh level designs to the players for a new 2D Sonic game to release in 2023. My particular favorites one include Sky Temple, Frozen Base, and Cyber Station. They not only look great but their design is up there with among the very best of the Advance and Rush series. There are times where the levels get too wrapped up in their own gimmicks but for the most part, I definitely admired the creativity of the better levels and I found myself enjoying different way to complete certain levels. Those feel like the kind of levels I want from a new 2D Sonic game.
I also quite like the addition of Trip and the way she plays. Although her story is infinitely much harder than that of the main campaign (ESPECIALLY with the bosses which we will get to later), the character herself stands out quite well with the rest of the cast. She’s not only absolutely adorable but she is very smooth to control and is probably the main new feature that stands out quite well in the game. As I mention, the two move sets she has involving Amy’s double jump and Knuckles’ climbing ability fit very well with the character and those moves control even better with her than it does with Amy or Knuckles. And as I said before, SHE CAN TURN INTO A DRAGON IN HER SUPER FORM! If that’s not the coolest thing ever, than I don’t know what is. It’s as broken and OP as you might think but I can’t help but love it.
Unfortunately, the frustrating parts of the gameplay of Superstars can pretty much be contributed to everything else. As I mentioned, I don’t understand the features that were taking out such as lives, game overs, a timed clock, or even not having a ranking system. It makes the game much less rewarding to complete and doesn’t provide the necessary stakes needed to make sure you complete each level while dying as less as possible. Even when the game gets more and more challenging, you don’t feel pressured to complete as fast or clean as possible because you know you are giving all the time and opportunities in the world to complete it. Unless you are a trophies whore or love to speed run through levels and published videos of those on YouTube, you won’t feel as persuaded to finish each level the way you do in games prior.
You also have the special stages which aren’t necessarily bad but they are quite confusing with the way they are structured. For example, the main special stages where you go through them to collect the Chaos Emeralds can also be special stages used to collect more medals depending on which wormhole you find and go through. I don’t know why having those special stages with the medals where also included with the ones with finding the chaos emeralds when there already existed special stages that are played to collect more medals. I also don’t understand why they felt the need to remake the special stages from Sonic 1 to collect the medals when those initially stages for collecting chaos emeralds. I think the two different special stages from Sonic Mania was the way to go, you have the special stages inspired from CD to gain the chao emeralds and the special stages inspired by 3 & Knuckles to gain special medals to unlock other things. It’s baffling how Mania was able to get that aspect so right where as Superstars gets it so wrong.
There is also the absolute WORST element of the game, the boss fights. Without exaggeration, these might just be the worst boss fights in any Sonic game. They are all either way too hard, way too tedious, and way too long to beat. Most of it consists of staying around in scripted sections and waiting for the enemies to open it’s weak spots without getting caught in a surprise attack. Even if you are in your super form, these bosses will really test your patience, especially the final ones involving each story. Trip’s final boss in particular is DREADFUL, taking the difficulty spikes and tediousness from each prior boss fight and multiplying it 10 fold to make for an INCREDIBLY frustration and overlong boss fight that had no business being this hard! The final boss of the last story isn’t as bad once you know what you are doing but the boss fights overall just stink and are easily the worst part of the game.
When Superstars is able to exceed at doing it’s own thing while feeling like a logical progression of the characters and level designs of prior Sonic games, it’s super fun, which is thankfully most of the game. When it drops the ball in those aspects, then it’s super frustrating, which mostly consists of the removed elements, special stages, and ESPECIALLY the boss fights. Despite how enjoyable the game can be, it lacks the cohesions and stellar execution of those ideas that Sonic Mania was able to provide greatly, even if it’s technically a more “original” game.
Graphics:
Graphically, this game looks really good. The bright colors and backgrounds blend together incredibly well with the cartoon style that the game provides. It’s looks like the character models and aesthetics that Sonic Origins provided with it’s menu screens but put into game form. I don’t know if that was done intentionally in Origins to give a sneak preview of what was to come for Superstars but regardless, it works quite well.
There were times at the beginning where the visuals felt too distracting and blended too well with the level design that I lost track of my character for a second or two but other than that, this is quite a gorgeous game to look at. The framerate moved rather smooth for me on the PlayStation 5 and I definitely wouldn’t be oppose to see this art style return in future 2D games.
Sound:
Surprisingly, the soundtrack for this game is rather underwhelming. Despite being composed by Jun Senoue, who has done plenty of great Sonic toons in the past, the music for Superstars is quite lackluster and not very memorable. I can’t really think of any tracks that stuck with me or ones that I felt compelled to listen to on my own time. Much like with Sonic 4, it’s like they were trying to do their own spins of the classic music while also making tracks that stand on their own but fail miserably on both accounts. Which is a shame because the music always tends to be a consistent good quality of Sonic games but here, it misses the mark.
Also, I know that voice work isn’t really an element that’s required for classic 2D Sonic games but it’s a shame there is no voice work to speak off here involving some of the background characters or enemies. Maybe it’s because I’ve also been playing through Super Mario Wonder, which found plenty of room for voice work involving the main cast of characters and folks that are just in the background, but I found that could really add to the gameplay and make the game stand out as it’s own thing. It’s not necessarily a knock against the game but it still feels like voice work should be a feature for about every main 2D or 3D Sonic game.
Bonus Content:
If you are someone that pre-ordered Sonic Superstars, purchased the digital deluxe edition, or were at least signed up for a Sega newsletter prior to January 31st, 2024, you were able to gain some extra items with your purchase. For those that signed up for a Sega newsletter, you are rewarded with a DLC code that unlocks Amy’s modern outfit first seen in Sonic Adventure and has been a main feature of the character since. For those that pre-ordered the game, they received a reversible cover, an acrylic display stand, and a Lego-themed Eggman Skin. For the Digital Deluxe edition, the DLC included additional Lego skins, a rabbit skin, robot parts for the multiplayer mode, an artbook, a soundtrack, and menu wallpapers. For everyone, a Lego Sonic Skin is available as free DLC.
Speaking as someone that pre-ordered Sonic Superstars and own the digital deluxe edition, these new features are nice but they honestly feel like items that were purposely taking out of the main game and only added in as bonus features for DLC just to squeeze a few extra bucks from the player. If it wasn’t for the fact that I used the money I gained from this blog to buy this game, I would have felt quite ripped off. If you are someone that really wants the bonus features I just mentioned, you are better off just waiting a few months from now until there is a price drop on the game that will likely included all the features I just mentioned for free.
Speaking of which, this game in no way, shape, or form deserves to be priced at a full 60 dollars, 70 if you are counting the digital deluxe edition. If anything, this should have been 40 to 50 dollars at most, especially after Sonic Mania had a similar price despite having more content and replay value than this game and is just better overall. If there is any upcoming game that you should wait for the typical Black Friday sale and price drop if you are interested in it, it’s this game.
Conclusion:
Sonic Superstars is a much more complicated game than I was expecting. Despite promising itself to be another classic 2D Sonic adventure that evokes the earlier days of Sonic, there are new gameplay styles and features that are included here to try to make the game stand out more as it’s own thing without feeling like a remake or remix. However, where as other standalone 2D features such as Advance and Rush were able to enhance their values with their own features, Superstars gets quite muddled down in them. It’s like it’s trying to be it’s own thing but at the same time, not go too far from the traditional Sonic roots.
There is still plenty of enjoyment to be had here. Most of the levels are fun and creative, getting to play as multiple characters in any way you want is awesome, and Trip is a neat new addition to a cast with a super dragon mode that is so broken that I can’t help but love it. However, the boss fights are needlessly cruel, tedious, and overlong, most of the new features are rather half-baked, and it doesn’t do enough to justify it’s 60 dollar price tag.
I can admire the risks it takes and it’s desire to be more than just being another back-to-basics 2D Sonic game but much like with last year’s Sonic Frontiers, while the game flirts with greatness on multiple occasions, it never quite gets there fully due to it’s bizarre choices and designs. Sure, you can definitely make a strong argument of this being a more “original” game than say Sonic Mania, but Mania was still able to thrive at being what it was because it knew exactly how to strike the right balance between old and new along with adding features of it’s own to the classic Sonic gameplay that not only felt appropriate but made the game stand out as it’s own thing. While Superstars tries to take that a step further, it lacks with the new features it adds that serves more to hinder the experience rather than enhance it.
If the trailers for Sonic Superstars looked good to you and you like it when Sonic games are at their most challenging, then I would say give this a shot once it comes out at a reasonable price. For those that are not on board the Classic Sonic train or just want to get off of it, I’m not sure this will win you over. I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing this style returning for future games because if done well, this could be the start of the next series of great standalone 2D Sonic games alongside the Advance and Rush series (Advance 2 can suck it tho).
I’m not gonna say that Superstars is an absolute failure overall nor the infamous “step in the right direction” that folks have claimed it to be because it’s not either one of those. It’s just a game that sets itself off to be a new 2D Sonic game in ways that no other 2D Sonic game has up to this point. While it’s an enjoyable experience overall, it’s not quite as super as the title of the game would suggest.
Congrats to The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, you are officially the best Sonic game of 2023!
It’s now been 10 (!!) years since the release of Batman: Arkham Origins. This is the installment of the Arkham franchise that tends to be looked at as the black sheep of the series and the forgotten step child of the group. On the surface, it’s easy to see why. This is the only one of the main four Arkham games to NOT be developed by Rocksteady, it doesn’t have the legendary Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill in their roles as Batman and Joker respectively, and was basically the one that acted the most as a “filler” game that was basically made to buy time between the releases of Arkham City and Arkham Knight. There were also multiple reports of bugs and glitches that plagued the game for most people, which I was NOT one of them. However, when looking at the game itself, Arkham Origins actually a really damn good game in it’s own right and is highly underrated.
With the way that fans and especially Rocksteady like to disregard this game as being just a worthless prequel, you would think that Arkham Origins is to the Arkham series what X-Men: Origins Wolverine was to the X-Men film franchise. The kind of prequel that makes everything that comes after it look even worse. Not only if NONE of that the case whatsoever, but I truly believe Arkham Origins does enough good things in it’s own right and some even better than the Rocksteady games that it’s more than worthy of being an entry to the Arkham franchise. To prove it, I’m gonna name seven features of the game that make it greatly standout as it’s own unique thing!
The Shock Gloves
As Arkham Origins became the third game in this series, everyone had basically become aware and accustomed to the way these games play out in terms of combat. You can add as many different moves and combo sets as you would like but at the end of the day, there really wasn’t much room left to grow with it’s overall combat. So how does Arkham Origins follow the combat style that Arkham Asylum and Arkham City started, by having more fun and throwing shock gloves in the mix!
Not only are these shock gloves the main highlight of the combat but it just makes fighting the bad guys all the more fun. It’s so satisfying to be able to use this new ability to take down enemies that are really pissing off! What better way to take down a big new baddie that’s kicking your ass the whole time by being able to shock them with your gloves to near death. It also fits really perfectly for a Batman that is still in his early stages of being the Caped Crusader, where he’s more brutal and reckless, something which will be discussed later.
As much as the game was criticized at the time for being more of the same, I believe that the shock gloves were a nice change of pace and a great way to advance the already established combat system. This was also a feature that was included in the Wii U port of Arkham City a year before this game came out, a nice way to gives us a glimpse of things to come.
Our First Look At Gotham City In The ArkhamVerse
It’s interesting how it took until the third game of the main four-game series to actually let players roam around Gotham City itself. Arkham Asylum was only set in the Asylum itself and Arkham City was only set in the Arkham City itself. However, Arkham Origins is the first time in the series to let us give a glimpse of Gotham City itself, the city that Batman has sworn to protect at all cost.
I don’t think there could have been a better scenario for the first look at Gotham City in the Arkhamverse than having it takes place on Christmas on a dark, cold, and snowy night in Gotham. It’s a perfect showcase on how even on a holiday that’s suppose to be about joy and giving, Gotham City is still a toxic wasteland full of crime and scum. I definitely enjoyed seeing how the city itself basically still operates like any other day where criminals undergrounds and gangs leaders are at it’s worst and will do anything to get their business done.
While it’s definitely not as wide and expansive as the Gotham City in Arkham Knight, it definitely made for a good first look at one of the most infamous settings in any superhero universe. In this case, WB Games Montreal was able to beat Rocksteady to the push!
Bane Is Just…..Awesome
One of the minor complaints I had with Arkham Asylum and Arkham City was with the way that Bane was portrayed. Despite his overall design being spot on and fitting for the character, he was mostly treated as a joke and not as much of a threat as he is suppose to be. With him pulling the exact same tricks repeatedly and mounting the same form of dialogue, I just find it hard to believe that Bane was the one to break Batman’s back.
This Bane on the other hand……oh man! THIS is the Bane I could buy breaking Batman’s back! Bane in this game feels like every bit of a threat as the character should feel! He’s scary, intimating, and poses perfectly as Batman’s match. No matter if he’s in his titan form or “normal” form, Bane feels like a complete menace from beginning to end here. So much so that I honestly thought Bane was going to break Batman in this game despite it being a prequel.
While some might argue he was in the game a bit too much and felt more like a “side” villain, Bane is at his absolute best in the series in this game. Batman really has to have balls of steel to want to fight thing thing every chance he is able to. I know if I was Batman, I would be running from my lives whenever I see him!
Batman Is At His More Interesting And Human
As awesome and badass as Batman was in the Rocksteady games, I can’t help but feel like they made him too awesome and badass. It’s like Rocksteady was caught up in the hype of Batman that they felt the need to make him as flawless and OP as possible in the games. So much so, it often at times robbed the character of his humanity, a key defining trait of Bruce Wayne. The sense of humanity was still there every now and then with moments such as the flashbacks sequences with Scarecrow but for the most part, Batman basically stayed as the straight and stoic material artist, gadget-filled badass from beginning to end with not much change or growth.
Arkham Origins definitely changes that as it’s the one game in the series that really shows off the cracks in the armor that is Batman. This Batman feels the most human and interesting out of all the games. Because this takes place in his sophomore year as the Caped Crusader, we see Batman in his much younger phase where he’s angrier, bitter, and more reckless. Although he has mastered the material arts and gadgets up to this point, we still see Bruce making countless mistakes with the decisions that he makes that nearly gets himself and the ones he cares about killed. It makes for an incredibly compelling story of Bruce learning to not take ALL matters into his own hands and that he must form allies in his duty as the Batman. Not only does it make for a perfect way to introduce the likes of Commissioner Jim Gordon and his daughter but it also makes room for some incredible dramatic scenes between Bruce and Alfred. The scenes between those two are easily some of the very best moments in the entire Arkham series, showing how Batman himself is more than just a man in a cape, he’s something else entirely.
While Batman being as skilled and kick ass as he was in the Rocksteady games did feel warranted because the games took place in the middle of Bruce’s prime as the dark knight, it did feel nice to at least have a game where it’s not afraid to showcase Batman as being perfect and flawless. He also felt quite reminiscence of the way that Robert Pattinson’s version of the character was handled in The Batman. That makes me wonder if Matt Reeves and even Pattinson himself are fans of Arkham Origins. That would make the pair even more awesome than they already are!
The Batman and Joker Rivalry Is Born
Perhaps the biggest controversy of Arkham Origins is the misleading marketing of it. It made it seems liked it was gonna shift the focus away from the Joker and put the spotlight solely on Black Mask. However, there’s a twist about halfway through the game that reveals that the man who has been impersonating Black Mask the whole time was no other than the Joker himself. This pretty much confirmed the meaning of the title of the game involves the origins of when Batman and Joker first meet.
While I can definitely understand being underwhelmed by this reveal as it was during a time where the Joker had become greatly overexposed, the story of the rivalry being born with the Batman and Joker is still very compelling stuff. Every dialogue exchange between the two is so masterfully done, showing two polar opposite sides of now they handle the criminal underworld. The two might be one of the same but that doesn’t mean they have to turn into each other to get their point across.
Even if folks are getting sick and tired of the Joker, Arkham Origins does greatly set up the internal conflict with Joker that he would have throughout the rest of the series. That no matter what he does or where he is, the Joker will always be there for Batman whether he likes it or not. Batman can dread it and run from it but destiny will still arrive all the same!
Roger Craig Smith and Troy Baker Are Great Here
Another big controversy with Arkham Origins was that Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill did not reprise their roles as Batman and Joker respectively. This time around, we have Roger Craig Smith and Troy Baker taking over as the younger versions of the Caped Crusader and the Clown Prince of Crime. I love Conroy’s Batman and Hamill’s Joker as much as the next person but that shouldn’t discredited the great work that Roger and Troy do here.
Roger Craig Smith’s performance as Batman feels like a good mix of Kevin Conroy and Christian Bale. He’s able to play a Batman that feels more unhinged and isn’t afraid to let his emotions loose, brilliantly showcasing the humanity that is within Bruce Wayne as Batman. Troy Baker does feel like a younger version of Mark Hamill but he’s able to sell it so well that it’s really hard to care. With a game that took place in the early days of Batman and Joker, having younger voice actors felt appropriate and both Smith and Baker are able to make the best use of it.
No one is ever gonna replicated what Conroy and Hamill brought to their characters but I still feel like Smith and Baker deserve all the credit in the world for what they are able to bring to their roles here. As a matter of fact, I could easily see them being worthy successors for Batman and Joker as a whole now that Kevin Conroy as died (May he RIP!) and Mark Hamill is likely never gonna voice the character again. If that’s the case, then I completely open to it.
The Boss Fights Are The Best In The Series
If there’s any point mentioned here that the majority HAS to agree with, it’s this one right here! Arkham Origins easily has the best and most enjoyable boss fights in the entire series. The ones in Arkham Asylum were rather weak, the ones in Arkham City were decent but nothing special, and the ones in Arkham Knight were practically non-existent other than Batmobile chases and tank battles. Arkham Origins, on the other hand, have the best boss fights by a country mile.
From the opening duel with Killer Croc to the multiple encounters with Bane along with the AWESOME confrontation with Deathstroke (better than the one in Arkham Knight in EVERY way), nearly every single boss fight in Arkham Origins is a winner. None of them are repetitive, none of them feel like fighting any other bad guy, and none of them feel like a waste of time. These boss fights have a great amount of enjoyment and challenge without being too easy or too unfair. These are honestly the only bosses in the entire series that felt like I was fighting one of Batman’s true equals and sequences that would fit perfectly in any one of the Batman movies.
Even if you are someone that really hates Arkham Origins for whatever reason, you can’t deny how much better the boss fights are in this game compared to the rest of the series. I will certainly take this over the constant tank battles in Arkham Knight or whatever the hell that Killer Croc section was suppose to be in Arkham Asylum. These just felt like proper boss fights for not only a Batman game but any video game in general.
In Conclusion
Arkham Origins easily remains the most underappreciated game in the Arkhamverse. To this day, I don’t understand the scorn that fans have with this game or even why both Rocksteady and WB Games Montreal feels so obligated to pretend this game never happened. I understand being critical of this game when looking at it from a business and commercial standpoint but looking at it’s own thing and the amount of time that WB Games Montreal was given, Arkham Origins is a really solid game with gameplay features and story elements that are among the very best of the Arkham games. I remember playing the hell out of this game when I got in on Christmas Day back in 2013 and enjoying it all the same.
If you hate the game, then there’s not much I can do to change your mind but I hope this piece at least convinced you why this game is worth regarding as part of the Arkham canon. I really hope one day that WB Games Montreal is able to make a remaster version of this game because I would definitely buy it on day one! I’ll certainly take more of Arkham Origins than say more of Gotham Knights.
Looks like I now have a new idea for a future piece!
In an age where obsessions with social media discourse is at an all time high, I don’t think there’s been a conversation more obnoxious and repetitive than that of Martin Scorsese’s take on the superhero movie subgenre. I’m not gonna go into that because I already did my own piece on it but that tends to be where most of the conversations involving Martin Scorsese is at nowadays. Not so much on his actual released films but everything OUTSIDE of that. I don’t understand why in a time where every out of context quote is blown out of proportion that this is the one to break the camel’s back but it is what it is I guess.
What makes it even more fascinating is the kind of films that has come out from Scorsese in the middle of all that anti-comic book movie talk. Four years ago, there was The Irishman, a gangster film that took place in the 1950s about how evil white people are. Now, we have Killers of the Flower Moon, a Western crime drama that takes place in the 1920s about how evil white people are. Of course, there is more to those films than that but it’s worth mentioning because of how much discourse those comments I just mentioned about evil white people can be taken just as much out of context as Scorsese’s chattered about superhero films. Even many years later after the timelines which Scorsese’s prior two films are set in, things don’t seem to change.
As with everything I review, I always tend to look at things that can stand on their own. In the case of Killers of the Flower Moon, this is once again another winner from the great Martin Scorsese. It’s an exceptionally well crafted and brilliantly acted picture that goes to show why Martin might just be the best when it comes to making these period pieces. It’s as every bit of gripping, emotional, and impeccable as you heard, the 3.5 hour longtime while excessive is (mostly) put to good use, and it’s another reminder why films like this are worth experiencing on the biggest of screens possible. I don’t know where this ranks among his very best but it’s certainly a film that will leave an impact on you, one way or the other.
Killers of the Flower Moon is based off a true story and the 2017 book of the same name, written by David Grann. In the 1920s, oil has been discovered in Oklahoma under Osage Nation Land. However, Osage people are being murdered one by one as a result of that. The FBI must step in to investigate this crime spree and find out whose murdering who and how to respond to oil now being a main thing that exists.
I won’t go into too much of the main plot because I would rather have you experience it all yourself but again, this is based off a true story and you will likely see events coming from a mile away because of it.
The premise alone does seem to be perfect bait for discourse in the year 2023, with angry white people going out of their way to slaughter folks of color. Even with a film that literally is suppose to be based off of a true story where the events that happen in this film does in fact happen in real life, it’s still the cinematic equivalent of lighting a match. However, as he has proven many different times, Scorsese proves himself to be a smarter filmmaker by not going completely that route with no purpose.
It’s not so much about how white people can be bad that is painted in a very black-and-white way but it’s more about the true evil that human beings will feel among themselves in response to a grand discovery. It’s not just the white folks that is presented throughout the story that can commit terrible crimes, it can literally be anyone if they lack the heart and soul that good individuals have. It’s easy to hate Robert De Niro’s William Hale and feel so much sympathy for Lily Gladstone’s Molly Burkhart because well…..Hale is a s*itty human being and Burkhart is an innocent one.
The main character of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart perfectly displays that sense of literacy that the film itself present. Burkhart is at his heart a despicable human being but he’s not bright enough to understand just HOW despicable he really is. He believes that the harm and torture he is causing is for the great good and something that just has to be done because…..he thinks that’s just how it’s suppose to be. He might love his wife Molly but he doesn’t love in a way that a husband is suppose to do. Even when his wife is literally sick and dying, he’s still doing what he does best because….it’s just who he is.
De Niro’s William Hale makes for the perfect counterpart to DiCaprio’s Burkhart. Just like the main protagonist we are following, Hale is a man that is equally as sick and vicious. He’s basically a big influence with the way Burkhart acts and does a great job in getting inside everyone’s head, making them all feel his presence everywhere they go. It would have been easy and simple to play this character up as a caricature, which on the surface would have an insult to the Osage Nation itself. However, as stated before, Scorsese proves that he is much smarter than that. De Niro makes for the right dual figure of the picture and the film would simple not work without his presence.
Another element that the film wouldn’t work without is Lily Galdstone’s Molly Burkhart, Ernest Buckhart’s wife. She acts as the heart and soul of the picture, the perfect resemblance to what all the Osage Nation suffers through in the film and what they suffered through in real life back in the 1920s. Folks that were so sick, powerless, and hopeless that they couldn’t defend themselves from the sick folks that threatened to wipe them out. Even if you aren’t somehow able to buy the events of this film happening in real life, you will certainly feel it in the performance of Lily Galdstone, which is as every bit as heartfelt and authentic as the character she is playing. This was certainly the most difficult performance to pull off in the film by Galdstone is absolutely perfect here.
Speaking of which, as with most Martin Scorsese motion pictures, the acting is top notch all around. Despite certain folks claim of him not being on the same level as others in the film, Leonardo DiCaprio is reliably excellent here as Burkhart and makes for one of his finer performances in his skillful acting filled career. Even after many films, the man is still able to find new ways to impress on the big screen. Robert De Niro is delightfully hateful as Hale and never comes off as a complete cartoon bad guy but one that can really get under the skin of it’s audience, in the best way. Lily Gladstone is extraordinary as Molly as previously stated, making you feel as every bit of empathy as you should to the character and the Osage Nation as a whole. The rest of the cast doesn’t shine as much as the main three or get as much screen time but they all do fine work here, even if there’s one or two casting that might be slightly questionable.
From a technical standpoint, Killers of the Flower Moon is also quite marvelous (No pun intended! I swear!). Scorsese teams up once again with his frequent collaborators such as Thelma Schoomaker, Rodrigo Prieto, and the late great Robbie Roberston (May he rest in peace!). They are able to accompany Scorsese’s vision incredibly well without breaking a sweat. Schoonmaker’s editing is Oscar-caliber that helps the pacing of the film, Prieto’s cinematography is inspired and fits perfectly in the period where this film is set in, and Robertson’s score is riveting as it is engrossing.
When it comes to the 3.5 hour long runtime as a whole, I wasn’t bother by it at all because I was so captivated by the filmmaking and performances on display here. However, there definitely were moments in the second and third act that did drag and parts towards the climax where it was hard to tell when the film was reaching it’s resolution. Almost as if Scorsese is approaching the Tarantino level of not knowing when to quit. And while a performance by a certain actor is being blown WAY out of proportion by certain folks out there, it was the one main performance that made me questioned whether or not it should have been that person casted for that role. That’s not to hate on that one actor but it was the one performance that stood out in the way that I do NOT think was intended.
While there will certainly be discussions on things outside of the film itself whether that involves the question of Scorsese being the right main to handle this subject matter or is he right or not about comic book films, the film we got in cinema in Killers of the Flower Moon is an excellent motion picture that will likely be an instant Oscar nominee for about every notable category. As we reach Scorsese’s final chapter of his 80-year old life, this plays out as the proper beginning of the end of one of our finest filmmakers who has ever lived. If only we can all celebrate that and STOP asking the man of his opinions on Marvel movies! Please and thank you!
Back in July, movie goers everywhere got to experience the cultural phenomenon that was Barbenheimer. This was a major event where two of the most highly anticipated films of 2023 with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer opened on the exact same weekend of July 21st. It’s very rare for two studio to release both of their biggest films of the year during the exact same weekend since they don’t want to hurt their box office numbers as a result of releasing their films so close to one another but Barbenheimer was a huge exception. It was undoubtedly a risk for both Warner Bros and Universal to release these films back-to-back in the same weekend but it paid off tremendously, grossing over a combined 2.3 billion dollars worldwide at the box office and being two of the most successful films of 2023 if not all time!
This was a big deal for cinema everywhere! Not only because this was during a summer that saw so many big films underperforming or flat out bombing at the box office spectacularly but it also came around the time which saw multiple strikes in Hollywood going on at the exact same time. It made for a great distraction to everything that is going on right now in Hollywood and even just the real world in general. While it initially started off as traditional internet meme, Barbenheimer showed that there are still plenty of folks who will go to see a film in cinema if they feel it’s worth the price of admission. For the first time in a while, going to the theaters actually felt like an event you just needed to experience on the big screen instead of just waiting for it to hit streaming.
Which makes it all the more fascinating in how there’s a strong argument to be made that gamers are about to experience their own Barbenheimer, with the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 exclusively for the PlayStation 5 and Super Mario Bros Wonder for the Nintendo Switch. Just like with Barbenheimer, both of these are set to come out on the same day and both games are highly anticipated games that are being released during an era where there’s a strike in the making with SAG-AFTRA that makes the future of the entertainment industry questionable at best. Even during a time where things are looking dire, we will at least have two great excuses to take our mind off the real world and enjoy these games in the ways that are to be intended.
Of course, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros Wonder aren’t the only notable games that are coming out next week. A big shout-out should also go to Mario’s friend/rival in Sonic the Hedgehog with the release of Sonic Superstars, set to release on October 17th on pretty much every available console out there. While it may not be the pitch-perfect follow-up to Sonic Mania that I imagine many fans would have wanted, it still looks like a lot of fun with the feeling of a very fresh and enjoyable 2D Sonic game in all the ways that both episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 were not. That is a game that I’m looking to cover a review on as well. However, the main focus for next week that most gamers around the world have drawn their attention to is with Spider-Man and Mario.
When talking about Super Mario Bros Wonder, this is probably the biggest Mario game to come around in quite some time. It’s coming off the high of the incredibly successful movie, it’s the first full-on 2D adventure in the main series since New Super Mario Bros U, and even the first full-on original Mario game that is not a remake or re-creation of other games since Super Mario Odyssey. And of course, this will also be the first main Mario game to not have the iconic Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario. The man that has just been reported to take over the mantle for Mario and Luigi respectively for Wonder is Kevin Afghani. Mario and Nintendo fans everywhere are clearly excited for this game and it’s easy to say why.
That’s not even worth mentioning that Nintendo has allowed demos of the game to come out before release at any available Walmart or Target near you. I recently played the demo for myself at my nearest Wal-Mart. For the 30 minutes of play time I had, Wonder seems like another winner for Mario and set to be a highly enjoyable game. The expansions of all the Mario characters such as Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Toad, Yoshi, and even Nabbit is cool, there’s more variety and detail to the backgrounds than ever before, and the new power-ups, most notably the elephant, are looking to be an instant fan favorite and will likely be a staple for future games. And as for the new voices, while you can definitely tell they are different voices, it’s not too far out of the ballpark where they sound like completely different characters and should work well once everyone is used to them. I really enjoyed what I played thus far and look forward to getting my hands on the full game next week. If you want to try it out yourself, go to your nearest Walmart and Target and see if the demo is available to play at the electronics section.
As for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, this is the game I have been waiting to get my hands on for the last five years! I was a big fan of the first game and Miles Morales (both which I did my own retrospectives on which I will leave links for at the end of the post) and look forward to see where Insomniac takes the story. From what I’ve seen of it, it’s looking to be a darker and more personal story for both Peter and Miles with both styles of gameplay seem to be expanded on in the best ways possible. And I just know that the soundtrack for it is going to be living in my head rent free, especially Kraven’s chilling theme from the gameplay that was released back in May. Heck, I can even see the new designs of the characters growing on me if it’s able to deliver on all of my expectations that I have for it.
The only cause for concern is the way that Insomniac will attempt to tackle the storyline with Venom and the symbiote. It’s been confirmed that Venom in the game will NOT be Eddie Brock and the whole symbiote story will be completely different compared to other forms of Spider-Man media. I can’t say I didn’t see this coming since the first game basically hinted at Insomniac going in a new direction with this storyline but I just know that will likely cause debates among hardcore Spider-Man fans, especially the die-hard comic book fans, since that will be a big change from the source material. I guess we will all just have to wait and see how it plays out but this will definitely be a big risk that hopefully pays off.
There’s definitely a lot to be excited about when it comes to gaming for next week. Whether you are a fan of 2D platformers or action adventure games, there should be something for anybody who’s a fan of well made and quality games. Just like with Barbenheimer, this all seems to be happening at the right time during a period where things are looking dire for everything around these releases. I don’t know if this will be the best week for gaming of all time but it certainly does feel like the first one in a while that will feel like a major event. The kind that makes you long for the good old days of showing up in line on the first night and being one of the first people outside of professional critics and game developers to be able to get the full game for yourself. And if both of these games are able to meet expectations from both a commercial and reception point of view, then maybe those kind of days will be resurrected and more gaming releases will feel like true events rather than just distractions. That’s what been missing with movies nowadays and with games. But with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros Wonder, get ready for Barbenheimer 2.0 to take the world by storm!
RIP to wallets of gamers everywhere! Gone but never forgotten!
Sonic Superstars will be released on October 17th while both Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros Wonder will be released on October 20th!
Here are links to several posts I wrote that relate to this one such as what Charles Martinet retiring as Mario means going forward along with my own retrospectives/reviews on the first two Spider-Man games from Insomniac:
Postseason in baseball tends to always be chaos! It’s always a month that consists of upsets, shocking/heartbreaking defeats, and the least likely teams facing the most likely outcomes. It doesn’t matter how many games you win in a season! Whether it’s 100 wins or 85 wins, the World Series title will always go to the team that is the hottest and the most competitive throughout the entire playoff run. In recent years, however, the way that Major League Baseball has constructed it’s playoffs has caused several debates on whether or not it causes too much chaos, most notably for top seeded teams that get more days off than the wild card teams.
This postseason has seen the elimination of 75% of the top seed teams and only one division winning team has moved on to the league championship series. The top-seeded Baltimore Orioles, who won 101 games in the regular season, got swept in the division series rather easily by the wild card Texas Rangers. The top-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers, who won 100 games in the regular season, also got swept in the division series rather easily by the wild card Arizona Diamondbacks, who had just 84 wins and finished 16 games behind the Dodgers in the standings. And, just yesterday, the top-seeded Atlanta Braves, who won the most games in the regular season with 103 victories, got ousted out of the division series yet again by their daddy in the Philadelphia Phillies by three games to one, which would have been a sweep if it wasn’t for some poor defense/baserunning from Philadelphian along with some miraculously timed clutch hits/catches from Atlanta. Only the Houston Astros have been able to advance to the next round while being one of the top two seeded teams and winning their own division respectively, something which they also did last year.
There has been a call for MLB to change the playoff format because of the way top-seeded and 100-win teams are getting knocked out of the playoffs rather easily. Many believe it has to do with the top teams getting five extra days offs when compared to their wild-card opponents, which always causes the team to go into their own series rather rusty with their opponents who are coming high off a playoff series victory. Some have suggested to make the playoff format in a way that the NHL or NFL does it, some have suggested to make it like it was back in the days where divisional opponents weren’t allowed to face each other in the division series and ONLY in the championship series, and some have even called to have the one-game playoff back because that supposedly feels more like playoff baseball than whatever the wild card rounds have been thus far. If you ask me, it’s all complicated.
I will admit straight up that I’m not fond of these wild card rounds and the way it’s structured. Thus far, the wild card rounds don’t so much feel like playoff baseball but more of just one extra series in the regular season just tacked on. Since last year, there has been eight wild card match ups with seven of them resulting in sweeps and just one going into a third game. Just like that, for seven teams thus far, their season ended with a complete whimper just like that.
It’s just very anti-climatic that a team who has had a lot of success in the regular season such as winning 90+ games and winning their division, could potentially get knocked out in a best-of-3 series just because they are required to play another series which can always go either way. Say what you will about the one Wild Card game, that took place from 2012 to 2021, but those always feel like playoff games by heart because there’s ALWAYS a sense of tension and intensity because it was always in fact an elimination game. The wild card rounds, on the other hand, never give off that impression because it just feels like any other ordinary series because it’s not just one victory that turns the tide, it’s two.
Of course, you might claimed that I’m speaking from experience because I too had to witness my team last year getting knocked out in the playoffs in the wild card round because they were forced to play a tacked on series despite winning their own respective division (The pic above should give a hint on who it is!). But, I think most people will admit that a team that finished 1st place in their own division being forced to play a wild card round despite not technically being a wild card team is ridiculous. What’s even the point of winning the division anymore if a team has to play in these rounds anyway and could have their season end in a heart beat because of one or two things that went wrong from them in one of these games? In a best-of-3 series, literally ANYTHING can happen and that is exactly what has happened thus far. Wild Card rounds should go to simply that, WILD CARD teams. Otherwise, it just makes the regular season even more meaningless to a division winner unless they happen to claim one of the top seeded teams.
To make matters even worse is what’s going on with teams that aren’t require to play these wild card rounds because of how they were in the regular season. The way that so many 100-win teams getting knocked off early can send the wrong message to the rest of the league! Should you really bust your butt off to gain a top seed if the five day layoff is going to kill any momentum that you will have? Why even bother trying to build a juggernaut if just a mere 84-win wild card team can make it to at least the League Championship Series? Is it better to aim for the division crown to make sure your playoff appearance is secured or should you just let a few losses slight to sneak into a wild card spot because that will get you to play with more urgency? Those are all the kind of questions that everyone has been asking for the past two years and it’s only going to continue with the results of the postseason in recent memory. For as much flack that Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto got recently for his comments about doing the bare minimum to get in the playoffs, the playoff results of these last two years basically back up his points, and that quite stinks.
And that’s not even going into other little things. You have a team like the Rays could literally finish with the second most wins in the league with 99 but not get the second seed just because they are in the same division as their top-seeded division rival. Or for whatever reason, there is a day off in between games one and two just for the sake of not cramming in too many division series games in the same day. Or how the MLB is STILL hosting playoff games in the afternoon when the kids are still in school and the adults are still at work? There is a lot you can pick apart about the current playoff format and deservedly so. On the other hand, there’s also another counter argument to go with that!
As flawed as the postseason structure is, that shouldn’t be an excuse for top seeded and favored teams getting knocked out early. If a team firmly believes they are the best of the best, then October is their time to prove it, no matter how well they did in the regular season. Playoff baseball is always a different animal compared to regular season baseball. It’s when the skills of all 26 men on the roster is put to the test! The pitching must be lights out, the hitting must come in clutch, the fielding must be as clean as it goes, and there is very little room for error. That’s how it always has been in the playoffs and that still remains in 2023.
Even so, there are plenty of other reasons as to why top seeded teams this year got knocked out early instead of just more time at home. The Orioles were a very young team with no playoff experience and a flawed pitching staff, especially after Bautista’s injury. The Dodgers had a starting rotation that was beaten to hell and went into the playoffs with basically no legit or healthy starters. The Braves had only one reliable pitcher that showed up along with going into the series with a very elitist and cocky mindset that ended up coming back to bite them in the ass. The Astros……um actually they brought their A game as always in the playoffs and made slapping the Twins around as easy as the Yankees always do despite having the five-day layoff. If it’s not able to bother Houston, then what excuses does everyone else have?
It should be common sense by now that what you are able to do in the regular season does NOT factor into what you will in the postseason in any way, shape, or form. Unless you are an absolute LOADED team with basically no notable flaws to speak off heading into the playoffs (2009 Yankees, 2016 Cubs, 2018 Red Sox, 2022 Astros, etc..), you are never guarantee to win the whole thing. And even then, there will always be plenty of obstacles to complete and adversity to overcome on the way through that you have to basically earn to win a ring. Since the expansion era of baseball started, there have only been two seasons which the teams with the best record in the league were able to make it to the World Series. There was the 2013 World Series with the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals and the 2020 World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays. Every other World Series either have one team with the best record from either league or none at all. It’s what you do in October that counts the most in the playoffs, not what you did from spring training to when September ends. Winners understand that, losers will just find excuses.
Don’t take this post critiquing both sides of the argument take away the fact that the teams that have advance to the LCS don’t deserve all the credit in the world for what they’ve done in the playoffs thus far OR that the playoff format is heavily flawed. Both of those can be true. The Diamondbacks, Phillies, and Rangers are to be congratulated for making it to the league championship series and have completely earn their right to do so. The playoff format is an absolute crapshoot and is clearly only design this way to get more teams into the postseason to increase revenue. I’m not oppose to any of this. But, at the end of the day, teams gotta play the games and win the majority of them if they want to win a World Series title. No amount of change to the playoff format is going to change that!
If it were up to me, I would structure the playoffs the way that the NHL does it. Have two different divisions in each league, with eight teams in each division, have the top four seeded teams from each division qualify for the playoffs, and structure the playoff rounds in the traditional #8 vs #1, #7 vs #2, #6 vs #3, and #5 vs #4. That way, if those lower seeded teams are able to win those rounds and make for a deep playoff run, then they will have deserved it every step of the way and it proves that the top seeded teams just didn’t have it in them. Then again, I don’t work for MLB or come up with these ideas so what do I know?
What I do know is that if you want to win a World Series, you got to beat every opponent you come up against and perform when it matters the most. As I said before, winners understand that while losers will make excuses. For the Orioles, Dodgers, and Braves, well, it’s in their hands if they want to understand or make excuses.
Regardless, we know have our LCS match-ups which is set to start on Sunday for the AL and Monday for the NL. The National League will have the Diamondbacks take on the Phillies while the American League will have the Astros take on the Rangers. This should be some entertaining series that will hopefully lead to an entertaining World Series! Bring on more chaos!
Miles Morales has always been an interesting figure within the Spider-Man lore. On the surface, he comes across as the typical race/gender swap of well-known characters who don’t really have much of an identity of their own. While that might have been the case at the beginning when he debut in the comics back in 2011, Miles has grown big time over the past decade to being a very compelling take on Spider-Man, one of the best versions of the character outside of Peter Parker himself. When it comes to mainstream appeal, 2018 was the year where Miles was greeted greatly in the eyes of the general public. Just a few months before the groundbreaking Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out, there was Marvel’s Spider-Man, which was just about as good as a Spider-Man game can get. Although the only action you got with Miles in terms of gameplay were with stealth missions, it was clear with the way the game conclude along with the DLC that Miles’ journey in this incarnation had just begun. Fans were anxious to get a taste of Miles Morales as Spider-Man and they were able to get just that two years later with the 2020 release of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was once again developed by Insomniac Games, who also did Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018). This acts as a direct sequel to the 2018 game while action as it’s own stand-alone adventure for Miles Morales. The game features a new story that include new set-pieces, side quests, and villains that weren’t from that original game. It’s smaller in size, scope, and scale than Marvel’s Spider-Man, comparable to that of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. It served as a launching title for the PlayStation 5 while still being included for the PlayStation 4.
The game released on November 12th for the PlayStation 4 and one week later on November 19th for the PlayStation 5, while eventually coming out for Windows two years later. Like it’s predecessor, it received generally positive reviews, with praise for it’s combat, narrative, content, and technical improvements made over it’s predecessor, although criticism was pointed at the game’s rather short length. It was a commercial success, selling 6.5 million copies in it’s first eight months along with being the sixth best-selling game of 2021, a full year after the initial game came out. The game acts as a bridge between Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, the latter which will be released this year on October 20th on the PlayStation 5.
Right before the whole world gets to experience Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, it’s time to take a look back at Miles Morales’s first footing into his own game. Can Miles prove he is worthy of taking up the Spider-Man mantle in a way that feels genuine and earnest or is it better when Peter Parker himself is front and center as Spider-Man? Let’s take a look back at Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales!
Story:
It’s Christmas time and Miles Morales has been Spider-Man for more than a year! He’s been under training by the OG Spider-Man of Peter Parker and the two have been working together as pair web heads to fight crime in New York. Although Miles has mastered his superpowers and established himself well as Spidey’s sidekick, he still has his faults of being a superhero and also just being Miles Morales in general. After the two take down the Rhino and save the day again, no thanks to Miles accidentally freeing him and other inmates from prison, Peter informs Miles that he will be traveling to Symkaria for a few weeks to assist MJ as her photographer as she does her story on the country’s civil war, leaving Miles himself to protect New York on his own as Spider-Man.
After the death of his father, Jefferson Davis, Miles and his mother, Rio now live in their own apartment in Harlem, a neighborhood in upper Manhattan, where Rio is looking to run for Mayor. As Miles celebrates Christmas with his mom and best friend, Ganke, he is reunited with his other longtime friend in Phin, whom he had not spoken to in months. The two have a long history with one another being science buddies before a big disaster that occurred with Phin’s brother Rick. It’s also after Ganke creates an app where citizens can call Spider-Man for help that Miles is connected once again to his uncle, Aaron Davis, who had a fallout with Miles’s father before he died and reveals earlier on of his knowledge that his nephew as Spider-Man.
The absence of Peter and emergence of Miles’s connections to his family and friends could not have come at a worse time. Just as Miles is starting to settle in on his own as Spider-Man, Harlem is threatened by a war between the Roxxon Energy Corporation led by Simon Krieger and a high-tech criminal army called led by a mysterious figure known as the Tinkerer. Also, thrown into the mix is an armored mercenary that is the Prowler. And like with many Spider-Man tales, Miles discovers that some of the foes he is engaging against just might happen to be connected to the ones that he cares about.
Now acting as New York’s only Spider-Man, Miles Morales must do everything in his power to stop the war between Roxon and the Underground from commencing, even if it means standing up against his loved ones. It’s only then that Miles will learn his own definition of “with great power comes great responsibility”.
The story for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was written by Ben Arfmann, Mary Kenney, and Jon Paquette (the lone returning writer of the previous game). Like with the previous game, it acts as it’s own original story while taking the comic book mythos that the title character has always stood for. It was written with the intent of being it’s own self-contained story for Miles Morales with stakes that feel scaled down but still personal all of the same. When putting it through that perspective, that basically gives an excuse for the writers to be lazy and not put that much thought into the plot because they don’t have to aim that high. However, not only does the story of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales work in spite of it’s smaller scale and stakes, it works BECAUSE of it!
The story here at it’s core basically acts as a meta narrative of what Insomniac’s overall goal of this game, making Miles Morales earn his role as Spider-Man. And for the most part, it succeeds very well. In an age where there’s been an increase desire to make heroes in superhero stories as awesome and flawless as possible, it’s a refreshing change of pace to see a protagonist having no choice but to work his way up to build his reputation as a superhero and win the heart of the city that he has sworn to protect. By the time we get to the point where the citizens starts to declare Miles as “their” Spider-Man, it all just feels right in the ways that I’m sure the developers at Insomniac Games were intending.
What’s great about the story is the way we get to explore Miles Morales as his own character and what makes him more than just a diverse Peter Parker. We not only get to see him come to terms as his own version of the web swinger but the role he plays within the community that he’s a part of. Miles is just a good, noble person that’s always trying to find a role in helping others, making a difference, and have himself be a person to count on with any possible situation. The interactions we see with Miles regarding his friends, families, and other individuals in New York really showcases the impact he has had throughout Harlem as both Miles Morales and Spider-Man. While he still retains the characteristics of a typical Spider-Man, most notably the awkward jokes and puns, there is more than enough about Miles Morales to make him stand out as his own interesting character.
If there is a gripe with the overall story, that would have to do with the main villain in The Tinkerer. I won’t get too heavy into spoilers as to who The Tinkerer really is but it just feels too much like a complete 180 as to who the character was established at the very beginning. I do like the idea surrounding the conflict between Miles and the Tinkerer along with the history the two have with one another but the execution of it leaves a bit to be desired. When you get right down to it, the Tinkerer basically comes across as the exact same character as Doc Ock in the first game except not nearly as well done.
It’s also odd how that certain character keeps having a grudge against Miles for lying and keeping secrets from them when they are literally doing the EXACT SAME THING throughout the entire game, basically coming across as a massive hypocrite. Some might argue that’s intentional or shows how consumed our main villain is for vengeance but the Tinkerer constantly rubbing it in our hero’s face with no self-awareness whatsoever they are just as much in the dark gets tiring very quickly. That’s not to say The Tinkerer as a whole is a bad villain or is not sympathetic at all but it’s very clearly the weakest length of what is otherwise a really solid story.
Even so, the narrative of Miles Morales is able to be as strong as the first game. It may not be the most heavy in terms of size and scale or even the first superhero license game to take place around Christmas (Arkham Origins is underrated btw!) but for what is suppose to be a “side game”, it’s much stronger than it has any right to be. If this game along with the Spider-Verse films didn’t convince you that Miles Morales is an engaging character that can in fact carry his own medium, then I highly doubt anything ever will for you because I don’t see how it can get any better than this.
Gameplay:
To be honest, there’s not a ton that’s new that I can say about the gameplay because Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales has basically the exact same core gameplay as it’s predecessor but with more polish and a few new features. It’s still an open-world action adventure game with the same open world as before but this time it’s covered in snow since the game takes place during the holiday season. You of course take control as Miles as Spider-Man as you web swing throughout the entire city, in ways that feel faster and moves at a smoother pace in a way that the original game didn’t have. Whether that’s one of the technical improvements of the game or maybe it’s because Miles is younger than Peter which make him a bit faster is beyond me but this might be the most comfortable web swinging that I have ever felt in any Spider-Man game to date.
Miles control similarly to Peter Parker but with some new animations and abilities, which you gain as you progress through the story. These new powers include Venom Blast, Camouflage, and Mega Venom Blast. The venom blast knocks enemies off their feet with bio-electricity and allows you to charge or drain electronic things, similar to the shock gloves from Batman: Arkham Origins. The camouflage gives Miles temporary invisibility which you can use to sneak around enemies and attack them when they can’t see you. The mega venom blast consists of a massive explosion of bio-electricity that is able to damage all nearby enemies.
There are also new gadgets introduced, which include Remote Mines and Gravity Wells. The remote mines can be attached to enemies or electrical panels. The Gravity Wells can trap multiple enemies and make them easier to hit. And even the device that summons holographic fighters that can help you in combat make for a welcome return here. These new features and gadgets can be upgraded and leveled up with the skill tree system. Also, as mentioned in the story section, Miles has his own Spider-Man app that gives him feedback on crimes happening in New York City and where the crime are located at. It informs the player of any side missions that are available for them to complete, which benefits greatly with leveling up.
Of course, there is the “spider sense”, which warns the player of any upcoming attacks and allows them to dodger and retaliate enemies, and the web-shooters fire lines of webs that can be used during both traversal and combat in many different ways. Miles can also jump large distances, stick to surfaces, and use fast travel with the help of the New York City Subway system. There are several unlockable suits for Miles, some of which are based on existing versions of the character in media, as well as original suits created for the game. Many of these enhance Miles’ abilities, such as allowing him to take more damage, stay invisible for a longer time, or regenerate Venom Power faster. During certain sections of the game, players control Miles in his civilian persona and cannot use any of his abilities or gadgets.
So, yeah! For the most part, it’s basically the same core gameplay last time. From the combat to the web swinging to the gadgets to the skill sets, almost everything you could have done with Peter Parker as Spider-Man in the first game are all things you can pretty much do here. However, it’s all still done incredibly well and with even more polish that it’s really too hard to complain about it.
It’s fun to be able to swing around through New York City during Christmas time with a Spider-Man that feels faster and more loose this time around. The gameplay is more polished this time around with skills and moves that feel more organic to control, the new elements you gain help bring a solid amount of variety of the game, and at it’s heart, it still feels like a proper Spider-Man game. You can definitely argue that it feels like more of the same but there’s enough new elements thrown in and plenty of technical improvements to make the game feel more than just a lazy copy-and-paste job.
The only main downside to the gameplay would be it’s length. Miles Morales only takes about half as long to beat as the campaign to the original game, lasting around seven to eight hours. Yes, there’s plenty of extra side missions and content to go around along with the required new game plus mode but the game should really only take you about one or two sittings to complete if you only desire to beat the main story. To be honest, once I got the notification near the end of the game that I was about to enter the final level, I was caught off guard as I thought I had only reached the halfway mark or so. While I appreciate Insomniac not trying to pad the game with needless filler and pointless gameplay styles (Take a hint, Sonic Team!), the main story is not nearly long enough to justify getting the game at a full 60 to 70 bucks, even if you want to 100% everything.
Plus, while the gameplay is still as fun and fluid, future games in this series will have to continue to find ways to make the games feel fresh and unique. If not, then it’s the type of gameplay that is guarantee to get stale very quick, something which the Batman: Arkham series eventually suffered from later games. There’s plenty of characters with Spider-Man that can work with this kind of gameplay and I hope Insomniac is able to take advantage of that with future installments. However, less stealth missions with MJ would be nice!
Graphics:
Speaking as someone that played both the PS4 and PS5 versions, I can happily say that Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an amazing spectacle no matter what version you are playing it on. Even though the PS5 version has slightly better lighting, frame rate, and faster load times (which is to be expected), the PS4 version still looks so good and polished that you would be hard pressed to believe that this is suppose to be the downgraded version.
The open world of Manhattan still looks as bright, colorful, and full of life as before, character models that fit properly in the world that this game is set in (Yes, even the newer model for Peter has grown on me!), the 60 FPS while swinging through the city is about as smooth as it gets, and just about any slight technical error you could hold a grudge against the original game for is likely completely fixed here. Even for a game that had clearly a shorter production than it’s predecessor, it still is amazing just the sheer amount attention to detail has been put to what is considered to be strictly a spin-off game. Like the first game, it’s not the most revolutionary graphics in the world but it is more than enough.
Sound:
John Paesano returns once again to do the score for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and once again he delivers big time! Unlike the original game’s soundtrack which lean heavily on orchestral-based music, Miles Morales is able to mix it’s orchestral themes with hip hop music. The three original songs for the game consists of “I’m Ready” by Jaden Smith along with “Where We Come From” and “This Is My Time” by Lecrae. Even speaking as someone that’s normally not a fan of hip hop music, it all benefits the music to this game greatly.
Not only does it perfectly fit with the story of Miles, his personality, and his role within the community that he’s a part of but it also helps separate itself from the original Spider-Man by giving us a soundtrack that is unique and heavily inspired. I still have that song that plays at the very beginning and very end stuck in my head as well as plenty of other tracks. By returning to do the soundtrack for this game, Paesano could have chose to play if safe and do generic remixes for a quick paycheck but instead, he once again creates music that fits perfectly with every situation and helps gives the game it’s own identity. If the tracks I’m hearing for the previews of the next one is any indication, I think Paesano might just put himself on the list of composers to watch out for as he is clearly going to places.
The voice acting remains as strong as ever in this game! Nadji Jeter is giving much more time to shine here as Miles Morales! He really helps add to the charm and charisma of Miles Morales, providing the right mix of awkward, snarky, and emotion that has always been traits of the Spider-Man character. I’m glad he’s been able to play the character in other things such as the newest Spider-Man Disney XD series and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order because he’s just good in the role.
Yuri Lowenthal is always wonderful as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, even if his role here is basically an extended cameo (although the dialogue with his holograms during combat battles is hilarious). Jasmin Savoy Brown (who some may know as Mindy in Scream (2022) and VI) brings enough charm and sympathy to the character of Phin Mason that it’s almost enough to overcome that character’s writing flaws. Griffin Puatu fits well as Ganke and shares great chemistry with Jeter as Miles, playing a better version of Ned from the Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy. Jacqueline Pinol and Ike Amdai are both perfect as Miles’s mother and uncle respectively, both whom share some of the best emotional beats of the entire game. The rest of the cast does a fine job, even tho I seriously wonder if Troy Baker, who plays the antagonist Simon Krieger, ever sleeps because I swear that man is in EVERYTHING nowadays.
Conclusion:
While I don’t think Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is quite as good as it’s predecessor, it still is able to succeed on it’s own merits by being an fun and compelling adventure for it’s own title character, proving he is more than worthy of being his own Spider-Man. If the length wasn’t so brief and the main antagonist was fleshed out more, this might have been right on par with the original. That being said, about everything that worked tremendously well in the first game still works very well here.
The combat is still fun and fluid, the web swinging is at it’s absolute best here, the narrative remains engaging, it looks gorgeous, the soundtrack is unique, and Miles is just an awesome character that is very easy to get behind. I do hope that the Insomniac Spider-Man‘s series continues to add multiple playable characters to an expanding roster, perhaps having Spider-Gwen join in on the fun in the future. If they can keep finding ways to make the gameplay fun and unique while containing to tell engaging tales of not just Peter Parker but other Spider-men, women, and maybe even animals, then I can see this series of games having plenty of staying power.
Nevertheless, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a great game and another worthy addition to what is perhaps the best Spider-Man medium out there. Bring on, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2! Let the goosebumping commence!
Last week, the third and final update of Sonic Frontiers, The Final Horizon, was finally released by SEGA and Sonic Team. This was set to be the DLC that would be entirely story-based and allow fans to at long last play as the other characters in the series with Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose, something which the main series of games hasn’t done for quite some time. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that a Sonic game has offered DLC that acted as either a continuation or extension of the main campaign along with brand new cutscenes. And it’s also free, too!
The main hook of The Final Horizon that it features an alternate climax to the story of the original game. While not officially stated, this was likely done to address some of the main complaints that Sonic fans had when it came to Sonic Frontiers has a whole. Despite Frontiers receiving a mostly positive response from the fanbase, they were not scared to voice their issues with the game. Criticism such as being unable to play as other characters, the major subplot of Sonic being cured from his cyberspace sickness being resolved in a heartbeat, the final boss/ending being underwhelming, and the big one, the game was just too easy. In some respects, you can basically say this is the equivalent of Re Mind DLC from Kingdom Hearts III.
The Final Horizon DLC takes place shortly after Sonic arrives on Ouranos Island, the final area of the game. Once Sonic is able to find and go through the big golden ring, that takes him through an alternate timeline where things will end up playing differently than it did during the main campaign. After Sonic’s friends sacrifice themselves to suppress his cyber corruption, the hedgehog accepts an alternative proposal from Sage to defeat The End by converting his corruption into greater power. As a result, Sage restores the holographic forms of Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, allowing the pair to aid Sonic in his quest to destroy the last remains of the Titans. The three now must complete their duties to finding the chaos emeralds once again while Sonic himself must undergo a series of trials at the five Towers of the Masters, helmed by Master King himself, the leader of the Ancients and overseer of Cyber Sonic, so he can combine the power the king possess with his own to destroy Supreme and The End once and for all.
The first thing that needs to be stated right off the bat is how hard The Final Horizon is. And I mean it is hard as BALLS no matter what difficulty you are playing on! If anything, this perhaps might be the hardest bit of Sonic gameplay that I have ever played. It does not hold your hand in the slightest! This makes Eggmanland from Unleashed look like a cakewalk! It’s like Sonic Team took the complaints of Sonic Frontiers being “too easy” to heart and made the desire to make it as challenging and rage inducing as possible just to to complainers up. Well for those that complained about that, I highly doubt they will ever criticize a Sonic game for being “too easy” ever again!
Having a game be hard isn’t necessarily bad in it’s own right. It’s find for your game to difficult and challenging just as long as it’s rewarding by the end of it and feels like it’s hard by design and not strictly because of insanely flawed game mechanics. Is The Final Horizon the fun kind of hard or cheap kind of hard? It’s…..complicated.
To be sure, the DLC as a whole is designed to be a challenge! There’s the sections where Sonic is supposed to climb up the towers that inserts the design of gameplay that requires the player to do more than just mindless boosting, jumping, and homing attacking. There’s the trials with the king where you have to beat a certain number of enemies that takes many hits to kill with very limited time in order to advance. And of course, there’s the boss rush mode near the end where you are required to beat three of the main bosses of the game back-to-back-to-back with no extra rings or checkpoints in between. However, there are other elements where it feels like it’s only hard because of how awkward the characters control and the cheap mechanics that are thrown in.
The moments where Sonic is climbing up the tower feels needlessly cruel because it inserts gameplay styles that the main game never provided and is designed in a way where it feels like you are suppose to be it in a way that the game never intended. Like, who is really thinking that the only way you are able to get up to some of the towers is by slowly walking through some very easy to slip and fall off platformers. Or how there’s a certain section where you can only advance by Sonic using the spin dash on something that ALWAYS flies you right off the tower and back down to the ground. That doesn’t’ feel right.
There are multiple other sections like that in the DLC. Like how the only way to get from one section to the other with other characters is by flying ridiculously high in the air and skipping past all of the required platforming sections. Or how being unable to perform an attack on an enemy to get to the top of the tower or beat a boss because the camera decided to betray you, make you lose sight of your character, and force you to start over. That’s not challenging, that’s just cheap.
And that’s not even going through some of the insane difficulty spikes for some of the main trails. There is one challenge that will take you forever to beat because it requires you to defeat certain amount of enemies that take forever to kill in a very short amount of time. However, there are other challenges where you are literally given all the time in the world to beat and you are able to do so in just a minute or two. Heck, I was even expecting that those challenges would have like ten more enemies to beat because of all the extra time I was given. There is no way this had to been done by accident, this is Sonic Team literally trolling it’s fanbase.
Don’t even get me started on that final boss rush mode I mentioned earlier. If you played the game on hard mode up to that point, that will be the moment where you will chicken out and go straight to easy mode. And even then, it’s not really easy. Having no extra rings or checkpoints, being requiring to perform pitch perfect parry attacks in order to block attacks from enemies, and knowing all the quickest tricks imaginable to beat every boss is asking a LOT from the player. Even if that was by design, I still couldn’t help but feel like I got screwed over multiple times by the game. If it wasn’t the game failing to respond to a button input at the exact time I pressed it that was killing me, then it was the game being stuck in it’s own loading screen for an eternity which forced me to restart the game. If there is one part of the game that basically shows The Final Horizon‘s thin red line between hard by design and hard by pure bs, it’s this section.
Now, the main selling point of this DLC is being able to play as the other characters that include Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose. This is the first time that these characters have been made playable in a main series 3D game since Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), literally 17 (!) years ago. This is the main element I was anticipating as I said in my piece of things I want for future Sonic games after Frontiers was being able to play as other characters. When it comes to the way they play however? Once again, it’s……..complicated.
At the very start, they all control rather awkwardly. This is mostly due to not being as skilled up as you will likely have with Sonic during the main game and certain skills that are taken away at the start while only being accessible through gaining enough XP points to unlock them. It gives the notion that these characters were not design for this kind of gameplay and Sonic Team still has work to do with making them feel comfortable to play in a modern 3D environment. However, once you are able to unlock certain skills and move sets that you were able to as Sonic along with getting the hang of their own unique tricks, there is some fun to be had with them.
Amy is able to have her own hammer attack and ways to launch herself in the air in ways that Sonic could, Knuckles is able to glide all over the place in ways that feel broken in the best and worst ways, and Tails even gets to use his mech to fly around in. Not gonna lie, that last part was just pure AWESOME to see again and basically makes these characters being playable again worth it. While it’s great to be able to have these characters be playable again, there’s still more work to be done with them to make their gameplay stand out better the next time around, if Sonic Team plan to bring more playable characters.
There are certainly improvements that are made here over the main game. The first one being the Cyberspace levels. There’s much more unlockables and challenges this time around that help increase the replay value along with level designs that feels much wider and open without it being ripped straight from any of the other boost games. These unlockables mostly include the ones that was when prior games though like Lost World and Forces which involves collecting the number coins in the correct order, the five moon tokens, and even rescuing a pair of flickies. The challenges come from the ones that was used in Colors: Ultimate where you are racing against an A.I. that basically cosplays as a hologram version of Tails. The physics still feel off and Sonic feels way too loose when in the air but there definitely was more effort put into Cyberspace levels this time around that I hope carries over in future games.
The main saving grace in all of this is how strongly the DLC concludes with the new and improved final boss. Without going too deep into spoilers, for those that were underwhelmed with how the final boss in the original game turned with inserting the kind of gameplay style that didn’t feel appropriate, you will likely feel the exact opposite this time around. Not only is the final boss here better than the original game in every way, this might be the very best final boss in any Sonic game period.
I was on literal cloud NINE during the majority of this final boss! It’s frustrating at first when you don’t know how to take way The End’s health charger but once you figure out the move to get rid of that, the rest of it is just an amazing triumph. It’s able to feel like a challenge without being unreasonably fair, the spectacle of the fight is incredible, the remix of I’m Here is absolute EARGASM, and my god, Super Sonic has never been more badass than he has been here.
It also does a good job of having Sonic’s cyberspace corruption still feel like a part of him during the final battle and not completely glossed over unlike in the main game. The story itself concludes in a better was as well, with an ending that feels more happy and earnest but still bittersweet. Aside from missing that chilling “I AM INEVITABLE!” monologue from The End, this is the exact kind of final boss that I wanted the first time around which helps make The Final Horizon end on a high note. Also, there’s a pretty cool node to Sonic X that you will know when you see it.
Just like the main game itself, The Final Horizon is….complicated. There are definitely some notable improvements from the main game such as the cyberspace levels and final boss along with getting to play as the other characters in a 3D game once again. However, there are plenty of other sections that feel way more frustrating than it is fun. The difficulty spikes is incredibly inconsistent, the controls to certain characters are awkward as hell, there’s parts where I can’t tell if it’s actually beatable by design or by basically cheating, and those trials with the king and the final boss rush mode is beyond ridiculous.
I still say it’s worth trying out for yourself to see if you are up to the challenge as it is free after all but The Final Horizon is definitely something that will kick your ass in all the best and worst ways possible. Like the original game, there are plenty of seeds planting throughout that show great potential once they are allowed to grow into a fully form plant. We can only hope that Sonic Team can learn the right lessons next time around and able to expand upon it’s promising foundation in the hopes of even greater experiences in the future. Time will tell but there is at least a reason to be hopeful for Sonic again. If anything, that is more than enough as of right now.
October is finally here! That can only mean two things: 1.) it’s Michael Myers month once again and 2.) postseason baseball has arrived! This is when baseball is at it’s absolute best! After an ungodly long marathon of homers, unwritten rules, and hammy pulls, it’s this time of the year to see which team is the most motivated, hungry, and hot to win it all.
I don’t know about anyone else but when it comes to all the professional sports, baseball is easily my favorite when it comes to playoffs. There’s just something so intense and exciting about every big moment that comes your way in October with baseball! This feels like the only sport where you are able to perfectly take in every single goosebump or heartbreaking moment that transpires without it being glossed over. Even if you are that kind of person that hates baseball because it’s “boring”, you can’t deny that postseason baseball is an entirely different story all around. All you have to do is watch one game where the game is most on the line for either opponent and you will understand greatly why there is still so much love for this sport for so long.
When it comes to 2023, there are several teams this season that I don’t think folks were predictions to make the song and dance. In what parallel universe saw the Orioles, Rangers, Marlins, and Diamondbacks making the playoffs this year but NOT the Yankees, Cardinals, Mets, and the Padres? I’m sure some saw a few of those teams as the year where certain teams would step up but I can’t imagine they also thought this would be the year where certain teams absolute crumbled. Regardless, because of plenty of new participations this time around, this sets the stage for one chaotic but incredibly exciting postseason that lies ahead. Because of that, I’m gonna give you all my predictions for how the MLB playoffs this year will play out.
American League Wild Card
Toronto Blue Jays (#6 Seed) vs Minnesota Twins (#3 Seed)
Pick: Toronto Blue Jays
The main question here is not only whether or not the Twins will win a playoff series for once but whether if they even win an actual playoff game for once. Minnesota currently has a 18 game playoff losing streak and there’s a good chance that will continue in this series against Toronto. The Blue Jays just have much more star power and a more balanced rotation than the Twins. However, if Twins can squeeze at least one victory out of this, then they would at least have that to be proud of.
Texas Rangers (#5 Seed) vs Tampa Bay Rays (#4 Seed)
Pick: Tampa Bay Rays
The Rangers came rumbling, bumbling, and stumbling down the stretch due to injuries with the starting rotation and a deeply flawed bullpen. That cause the Rangers to settle for a wild card spot against a very talented Rays team. Manager Bruce Bochy has had plenty of success in the playoffs but he’s really gonna have to push every single button correctly for Texas to have a chance this series. The problem is that they are going up against manager Kevin Cash, the master at correctly pushing buttons, (We don’t need to talk about the 2020 World Series!) Unless the Rangers can rake heavily with their loaded offense for this series, Tampa Bay’s pitching will keep their hitters off balance and knock them out as a result.
National League Wild Card
Arizona Diamondbacks (#6 Seed) vs Milwaukee Brewers (#3 Seed)
Pick: Milwaukee Brewers
When it comes to a best-of-3 series, it usually always comes down to which team has the better pitching overall. When it comes to this match-up, the Brewers have their pitching pretty much locked in and that will likely lead them to victory over Arizona. The Diamondbacks have talent but the amount of inexperience and youth from this roster will likely not get them very far, unless Zac Gallen or Merryll Kelly is able to outduel Corbin Burnes or Brandon Woodruff.
Miami Marlins (#5 Seed) vs Philadelphia Phillies (#4 Seed)
Pick: Philadelphia Phillies
The Marlins have made it back to the playoffs in a full season since the last time they won it all over two decades ago. While that is commendable, this is where they will likely stop. The Phillies have them beat when it comes to both hitting and pitching. And considering they are just coming in as the defending NL champs, there’s no way they will allow themselves to bow out in the first round. While Miami has a lot to be proud for what they have been able to do this season, Philadelphia will reign supreme.
American League Division Series
Toronto Blue Jays (#6 Seed) vs Houston Astros (#2 Seed)
Pick: Houston Astros
I am getting sick and tired of seeing the Astros win in October as much has anybody but no doubt, they know how to take care of business when it matters most. I fully suspect Houston’s pitching will keep Toronto’s often inconsistent bats in check while the usual heroes for the Astros will come on top with clutch hits along with a unlikely new hero. Be prepared for Houston’s seventh trip in a row to the ALCS!
Tampa Bay Rays (#4 Seed) vs Baltimore Orioles (#1 Seed)
Pick: Tampa Bay Rays
As surprisingly good as the Orioles have been in 2023, I just get the sneaky feeling that the Rays will have a slight edge in this series somehow. Maybe it’s due to Tampa Bay having more playoff experience, Baltimore getting a few extra days off, or the Orioles being more middle-in-the-pack in terms of pitching and hitting stats but I know something is going to happen that gives the away team the advantage. Unless the young blood will proof they are up to the test, I see the Rays taking this one as numbers and analytics, their two biggest strengths, will likely favor them.
National League Division Series
Milwaukee Brewers (#3 Seed) vs Los Angeles Dodgers (#2 Seed)
Pick: Los Angeles Dodgers
I expect this to be as one-sided and dominate as the last time these two teams meet in the playoffs. As good as the Brewers pitching has been, the Dodgers is just better. Add to the fact that Milwaukee, outside of William Contreras and Christian Yelich, can’t hit to save their lives while the Dodgers have Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, J.D. Martinez along with several others that can hit the ball well, I don’t see a reality where L.A. does not come on top here. Probably the easiest choice made thus far.
Philadelphia Phillies (#4 Seed) vs Atlanta Braves (#1 Seed)
Pick: Atlanta Braves
A part of me wants to go with the fighting Phils because I know their pitching is still effective and they will do everything in their power to at least make this a competitive series. However, despite the flaws in the pitching staff, the Braves offense is just too good for them to be eliminated by their divisional rivals for the second year in a row. If there is literally any team in baseball that is capable to literally smash their year through the playoffs, it’s the Atlanta Braves. All it takes is one or two good swings of the bats from the Braves to change anything. While I have no doubt the Phillies will be competitive, the Braves will get their revenge this time around and make their way back to the NLCS.
American League Championship Series
Tampa Bay Rays (#4 Seed) vs Houston Astros (#2 Seed)
Pick: Houston Astros
The Astros will make it back to the World Series once again and for the fifth time since 2017 for the same reasons they’ve made it before, they have guys that just know how to win. While the Rays have that to an extent, the Astros just trumps them in all forms of experience. I don’t know how close this series will be as these teams are quite equal in many ways in terms of bats and pitches but Houston will come up this time around against Tampa Bay in the ALCS. They will find a way, they always have.
National League Championship Series
Los Angeles Dodgers (#2 Seed) vs Atlanta Braves (#1 Seed)
Pick: Atlanta Braves
Off all the Braves vs Dodgers playoff series we have gotten over the years, this one has the chance to be the most exciting. It’s gonna come down to which team’s strength will be able to overcome the other’s teams weakness. It’s gonna be a match-up of the Atlanta’s elite offense and L.A.’s elite pitching. However, the Braves hitting isn’t just elite, it’s legit video game numbers. While the Dodgers’ pitching is elite as well, it’s not on the same level of the Braves’ bats. Because of that, the Braves will be making their way back to the World Series for the second time in the last three years.
World Series
Houston Astros (#2 Seed) vs Atlanta Braves (#1 Seed)
Pick: Houston Astros
I don’t care if they looked flat two weeks ago. I don’t care if their core has gotten older and not nearly elite as years prior. I don’t care if they just barely got a division title. There is no other team I trust to repeat as back-to-back year champs than the Houston Astros. Every year since the cheating scandal came out, I have picked Houston for early playoff exits every year, assuming this will be the year where they finally crack. They will always advance much further than that ever year. So, this year, I’m putting the pressure on them. I dare Houston to win it all once again for the second straight year! Whether it will be due to the pitching being dominate over Atlanta’s bats or hitters stepping up when it matters most, the Astros will find a way to win another World Series title. Their vengeance over the rest of the baseball world will continue to be felt and we will likely being having talks about this being the greatest baseball dynasty since the late 90s New York Yankees. I’ve underestimated the Astros in the past but now, I’m taking a leap of faith and deciding to overestimate them. Just win it all and continue to dunk on everyone else! I double dare you!
If there is one thing that I’ve come to realize when getting older, it’s that time tends to go by faster than you can say “with great power comes great responsibility”! In the case of the game we are about to talk about, it’s mind blowing how five years have already passed since Marvel’sSpider-Man made it’s way onto consoles, most notably the PlayStation 4 back in 2018 and eventually ported/remastered to the PlayStation 5 and PC a few years later. I remember being there on the first night at my GameStop to pick this game up. I met with some old friends, recorded a video of myself unboxing the game, and then waited with absolute urgency for the game to download on my PS4 so I can play the game ASAP!
Marvel’s Spider-Man was developed by Insomniac Games, a company mostly known for designing fast-paced platformers and action-adventure style games such as Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet & Clank! This acted as Insomniac’s very first license game, which saw a four-year development cycle that started in 2014 and finished in 2018. Insomniac was approached by Marvel and given the choice to use any character they wanted from their rose gallery; they chose Spider-Man due to the character’s appeal towards the employees at Insomniac and the similarities in traversal gameplay to their previous game, Sunset Overdrive.
The game came out on September 7th 2018 on the PlayStation 4. The game received strong reviews from critics, with high praise in regards to it’s narrative, characterization, combat, and web-swinging traversal mechanics. It was immediately regarded as the best Spider-Man game ever made, with many comparing the game favorably to the Batman: Arkham series. Despite being strictly a console exclusive at the time of it’s release, it was extremely successful commercially, with over 20 million copies sold from the PlayStation 4, making it the best selling game on that console. It would receive a follow-up two years later with the spin-off sequel, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, that put the spotlight on Miles Morales as Spider-Man alongside a remastered version strictly for the PlayStation 5, both which would include a more updated character model for Peter Parker, which caused a bit of controversy when it was first shown.
With the next installment, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, just around the corner, let’s take a look back at the original game to see how it holds up a half decade later! Does it still offer a fun and fresh experience that makes you feel like the web-swinger or is this just a game to get easily burned out by?! Let’s take a look back at Marvel’s Spider-Man!
Plot:
Peter Parker has been Spider-Man for seven years now! Despite becoming an experienced and masterful crime fighter during his career as a web swinger, he has struggled with maintaining a proper superhero and personal life balance. He’s way behind on his rent, struggling to make time with his loved ones, looking to repair broken relationships with previous loved ones, and trying to find the next big step for his future as Peter Parker and Spider-Man.
At the start of the game, we see Spider-Man teaming up with the police force, led by Captain Yuri Watanabe, to stop Wilson Fisk, A.K.A. Kingpin, and his criminal rule on New York City. Despite the capture of Fisk being successful, a masked gang known as the Inner Demons, lead by the superhuman crime lord Mister Negative, emerges and begins seizing Fisk’s illicit assets in hopes of gaining control over the criminal underworld of New York City.
It’s then we see Peter tackle many different roles at the same time as himself and Spider-Man. He has to be the reliable cocky vigilante that assists Yuri and the police force with stopping crime all throughout New York City. He has to be the ex-boyfriend who now wants to remove that ex from the title with Mary Jane Watson, who is a reporter for the Daily Bugle, by having her assist in his crime fighting duties. He has to be the supportive nephew for Aunt May, who works for a special charity/shelter home known as F.E.A.S.T. He has to play the mentor role for Dr. Otto Octavius, as the two research on advanced prosthetic limbs to create four mechanical tenacles that can be of great assistance to anybody. And for the first time, he has to be a teacher towards a younger and more diverse superhero in the making, Miles Morales.
As the game goes on, Peter starts to see how his personal dilemmas collides with his duties as Spider-Man. This all comes to fruition when Mister Negative threatens to release a deadly virus, with the help of Spider-Man most well-known foes along with a few new ones who happen to have similar grudges when it comes to New York’s own major, Norman Osborn. Spider-Man must find a way to stop this sinister plan from commencing with the help of his allies in Yuri, MJ, and Miles before New York City is corrupted as a result, along with his loved ones.
The story for this game was written by a handful of writers from Insomniac Games which include Jon Paquette, Benjamin Arfmann, Kelsey Beachum, and Christos Gage. The group made it a goal to craft an original story from the long-running comic book mythology of Spider-Man that felt new but also truthful to the character. And if you were to ask me, they succeeded spectacularly.
Even with all of the films and television shows that we’ve gotten about Spider-Man over the years, I don’t think I’ve seen a medium that perfectly captures the meaning of the character, the purpose of the source material, and why Spider-Man is as beloved of a superhero as anybody. You really get a great dive into the conflict that Peter as with juggling his superhero life and personal life while also showcasing the impact that Spider-Man has on New York City throughout his past seven years as a hero. The characterization of Peter Parker as Spider-Man throughout the game never comes across as one-note or two-dimensional but fully three. There’s more to Spider-Man here than being a jokester and there’s more to Peter Parker than just being sad and depressed all the time! (Take a f*cking hint, Gavin J. Konop!)
While not every blank is filled or every single character throughout Spidey’s rose gallery is presented here, there’s more than enough players here that serve their purposes well. We get some familiar faces with most Spider-Man media such as MJ, Aunt May, and Norman Osborn, along with others that haven’t been explored as much such as Miles Morales, Yuri Watanabe, and Silver Sable. The main villains of the game include Mister Negative, Doc Ock, and Kingpin while others such as Rhino, Electro, Scorpion, Vulture, Taskmaster, Screwball, and Tombstone act as supporting players. Even if not all of them are introduced strictly for this game, you definitely get the sense of history with these characters and the connection with Peter Parker and Spider-Man that feel fluent and organic.
Even the versions of well-known characters in the game that feel akin to versions portrayed in movie or tv form are done in a way that not only does those versions better but acts more as an expansion of other versions that feel more fleshed out than they originally were. For example, we get to see Peter and Otto’s relationship from Spider-Man 2 but with more history and connection between the two that makes it all of the more emotionally engaging, especially when we get to see how it wraps up by the end. And if the marketing for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is any indication, I wouldn’t be surprised if Insomniac does the Peter and Harry relationship better than The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It’s a wonderful way of paying tribute of the history of Spider-Man without being lazy, derivative, or manipulative.
In terms of flaws with the story, there is the addition of the Sinister Six late in the game that feels a tad rushed and tacked on, arguably the one story element that felt thrown in at the last second. There’s also the relationship dynamics between Peter and MJ. Despite coming off as a better version of their relationship in the Sam Raimi trilogy, the path the game goes with it is quite predictable and comes across as rather redundant. It honestly quite baffling that Spider-Man always has plenty of great women in his life to chose from (Black Cat, Yuri, Silver Sable, etc..) and yet he ALWAYS feels obligated to stick with MJ. I sure hopes there are ladies out there that get a man that is committed to you as Peter is to MJ.
Even so, the storytelling in Marvel’s Spider-Man is wonderful and compelling all around. There’s hardly a character that is wasted, a plot element that is half-assed, a section where the pacing drags, or an emotional beat that doesn’t feel earned. Even the payoffs to certain plot points that you can see coming from a mile away are paid off so well that it feels less predictable and more just being truthful. It’s a story so good that it could easily carry it’s own film or tv series. Heck, if we are comparing it to other Spider-Man medium in film and tv form, this is at least on par if not better than Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, the two Spider-Verse films, and The Spectacular Spider-Man series. And considering the quality of those properties along with the overall history of Spider-Man, that is saying a lot!
Gameplay:
Marvel’s Spider-Man is an open-world action-adventure game that takes place in the city of Manhattan in New York City. The primary playable character of the game is no other than your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. As Spider-Man out in the open world, you are able to web swinging and roam freely exactly the way you please.
You can navigate the world by jumping, using the webs shooters to fire webs that will allow you to swing between buildings, run up walls, and being able to vault over upcoming obstacles automatically. Of course, the webs must be attached to physical objects to make the web swinging even remotely possible (We’ve come a long way since being able to dive the laws of gravity in the first Spider-Man movie game) while speed and momentum can be build up by webbing onto something at the right time to either gain heights or move more quickly. And even for those who would rather just take a bus to get from one destination to the next (If you do, then shame on you!), the game does offer an optional fast travel system where Spider-Man uses the Subway system to get to where ever he needs to go.
The combat mostly consists of three different buttons. There’s one button for dodging, one for physical strikes, and one for attacks using your webbing. Webbing can be used to incapacitate enemies, disarm them of any weaponry, and stick them to any nearby wall or object that they can stick to, which can immediately beat them in battle. Spidey can use the whole environment that he is in to fight, jump off walls, and throw any sort of objects he finds laying around or in the hands of the enemy. And just in case anyone is worried about any bad guy getting knocked off of a building and in favor of Spider-Man unwritten “no kill” policy, anytime any one of the enemies flies off a building, a web attached to them immediately sticks to the walls, preventing them from their death. I guess Spidey got a little Batman in him, after all.
Successful attacks and combos performed during combat can build towards “Focus”, a set that can be used to heal Spider-Man, while full focus mode allows for special finishing attacks that can take down enemies instantly. We also can’t forget the “spider-sense”, which shows up as a white icon around the character’s head, alerting them of an upcoming attack that can be dodged by pressing the dodge button. As if it would be a Spider-Man game where you didn’t have your own spider-sense, at least when Venom is not around. Some enemies must be overcome using different methods. There’s melee-weapon-wielding enemies that have to be knocked in the air right and the shielded enemies must be attacked from behind before performing the finishing blow. Enemies armed with whips will drag Spider-Man out of the air and require a counterattack to fight effectively. Other types of enemy include heavily armored agents who can take more damage, brutes, and jetpack-wearing enemies who remain airborne. Like with most Spider-Man and superhero games, there a wide variety of enemies that will require you to find different ways to beat as you progress through the game.
Spidey also has a wide variety of gadgets to use throughout the whole game. These include electric webbing, concussive blasts, and impact webbing that launches enemies backwards and can stick them to a nearby surface. Gadgets are unlocked by progressing through the game and can help you greatly during combat. There plenty of unlockable suits, many of which are based off of existing versions of the character from other forms of media while others are completely original suits. Many of these suits offer special abilities that can aid in combat, such as increasing focus gain, reducing gravity, enhancing stealth, and unleashing an electromagnetic pulse that will stun the enemies and disable their weapons. Once these special suits are unlocked, the suits and powers provided for it can be freely combined. Stealth combat involves Spider-Man moving around raised locations using gadgets or webbing to neutralize enemies that are unaware of the web head’s presence. The level up system allows the layer to unlock skills from three different specialties: the ground combat, aerial combat, and traversal. The more you level up, the stronger Spider-Man will be.
The way to perform any kinds of upgrades with the suits, mods, and gadgets are with tokens. Tokens are resources you use to purchase these associated upgrades, which are awarded for completion of specific tasks. Each unlockable item requires different kinds of tokens. The challenge tokens for completing Taskmaster’s time-and-skill missions based on combat, stealth, and traversal. The backpack tokens for locating Peter’s old backpacks scattered across the city, containing mementos from his past. The research tokens for completing research station missions, science minigames, and the collection of pigeons of all things. The crime tokens are for stopping ambient crimes. The base tokens are for clearing out enemy bases. Lastly, the Landmark tokens are for taking pictures of specific locations around the city. There’s also minigames that are rewarded with experience points and research tokens including circuit puzzles that require the arrangement of an electric grid and pattern puzzles that require the recreation of a specific pattern using composite parts.
Of course, there’s also the elephant in the room that are the sections involving Mary Jane and Miles Morales. While the sections where you are just in control of Peter include strictly puzzle-solving missions, MJ’s and Miles’ segments put focus on stealth to avoid enemies. These sections come around during portions of the story where MJ and Miles decide to take matters into their own hands without the assistance of Peter as Spider-Man. All it really amounts to is sneaking past enemies while being detected and collecting info that either one needs to push the story forward.
The game features four modes of difficulty; Friendly (Easy), Amazing (Normal), Spectacular (Hard), and Ultimate (Super Hard). And like most big games nowadays, there is a new game plus mode that allows the player to start a new game using all of the suits, powers, gadgets, and suit mods unlocked in a previous playthrough. These modes are more than welcome for those that are looking for a good challenge or just want to go for that platinum (I always aim for the latter!).
And, you can even take pictures! What’s more than being a crime fighter and taking picks of yourself while doing it?!
While Marvel’s Spider-Man is far from the first game ever made to include these different kinds of play styles, there’s not many games that was able to perfect it the way this game does. Many people have compared this game to that of the Batman: Arkham games, claiming this game is like the equivalent of that. While that’s more than understandable, most folks tend to forget of the Spider-Man games that came before that which this game likely also took cues from, most notably the Spider-Man 2 movie game. In plenty of ways, Marvel’s Spider-Man plays like a spiritual sequel to that.
Being in control of Spider-Man has never felt more right than in this game. Regardless if you are web swinging, running and climbing up the walls, fighting crime, or performing stealth, Marvel’s Spider-Man is able to play the best and most polished versions of a Spider-Man game to date. It’s never been more satisfying swinging across New York city and beating up random thugs or even Spidey’s greatest enemies. There’s not a gameplay element that feels restricted or put to waste. You will always find yourself busy throughout the game no matter if it involves to the main story, side story, or completing side missions. Regardless of what order you play this game in, you will constantly feel eager to perform every single take you can to take back New York City from criminal scum.
It’s like Insomniac took everything that work greatly about prior Spider-Man games and decided to enhance it in a way that it feels like the best possible version of a Spider-Man game. This is game that basically earns the title of being strictly called Marvel’s Spider-Man. For everything that previous Spider-Man game does well, Marvel’s Spider-Man is able to do them all even better.
The one gameplay element that has remain the most controversial are the MJ and Miles’s side missions. While I respect Insomniac’s attempt to have other characters play more or a role to the story than being people to save or motivate Spider-Man, this gameplay style tends to really break the follow of the game. It mostly amounts to five or ten minutes of sneaking around enemies in the most contrived ways and are only done because these characters can’t just bother to wait for Spider-Man to do it all himself in less that time. These sections aren’t unplayable by any means and are all fairly easy but I always feel the urge to finishing it as fast as I can so I can get back to controlling Spidey. I can definitely go without these missions next time around, Insomniac!
Aside from that one slight blemish, the gameplay in Marvel’s Spider-Man is about as fun, polished, and enjoyable to play as you would hope for a Spider-Man game. The web swinging and combat work like wonders and even the boss fights all around are much better then most superhero licensed games out there (Looking at you Arkham Asylum and Knight!) It’s so good that I hope that Insomniac have plans to include other characters with this gameplay style in the future. Black Cat and Spider-Gwen would certainly be nice! (*Hinty hint hint*)
Graphics:
The graphics are incredibly impressive overall! Everything looks bright and colorful while looking exactly the way New York is suppose to look in real life with a very steady framerate throughout the entire game. There has clearly been so much effort put into every single little detail and the overall presentation without a single thing feeling lazy, phoned in, or filled with numerous distracting bugs and pop ups. It’s able to feel real in a way that it never goes bleak and grim in ways of say, The Last of Us or Red Dead Redemption 2! Not that there’s anything wrong with that but for a game that’s clearly meant to be fun and lighthearted while also being dramatic and emotionally impactful, it feels just right and didn’t need dark colors to go along with it!
The characters themselves look proper for the world that this game is inhabited in, even if there’s a few models that has somewhat resemblance to other versions of said characters. Like how Peter’s original design resembled Andrew Garfield and the newer design resembles Tom Holland or how MJ’s design resembles Kirsten Dunst. Even so, I wouldn’t be surprised if these models for the majority of the characters in the game are considered by many to be the “definite” models of their favorite characters. And as for the newer design for Peter, while I hated it at first, it has grown on me now that I’ve played through the whole campaign with it, even if I still feel like it was unnecessary.
While it may not technically be the most impressive looking game ever made nor the most technically advance, Marvel’s Spider-Man is still an absolute treat for the eyes, no matter which system you are playing it on.
Sound:
Another big standout for the game is it’s sound overall! First, there’s the excellent soundtrack done by John Paesano! This is the kind of music that would perfectly in any Marvel movie and even stands out great than the majority of the soundtracks in the MCU. The score just feels like it’s own unique character and perfectly captures the spirit of what the Spider-Man character stands for. Nearly every single track is a stand out and fits perfectly with any screen or mission that it’s included in. My personal favorite tracks are the ones that play during the lab puzzle sections, the score that plays during the final showdown of the game, and who can forget the WONDERFUL music that plays at the starting menu screen. Who doesn’t want to play the whole game after listening to that? At it’s core, the soundtrack of Marvel’s Spider-Man feels as human and layered as it’s central protagonist.
We also can’t forget the strong voice work that is done throughout the game. Yuri Lowenthal might just be the definite Spider-Man voice to date, or at least joins the main tro of definite Spidey voices, alongside Christopher Daniel Barnes and Josh Keaton. He is able to perfectly convey every ounce and trait of the character of Peter Parker and Spider-Man without any of it coming across as forced. When he has to be jokey and wise-cracking, he nails it hard! When he has to be serious, vulnerable, and emotional, he nails that hard too! It’s like when you listen to Kevin Conroy as Batman for the very first time. You immediately buy that voice, never question it, and it just feels right for this iconic character!
While the rest of the cast doesn’t quite measure as much as Lowenthal, they all do fine work! Tara Platt (A.K.A. Yuri Lowenthal’s wife in real life) is great as Yuri Watanabe and has just as much perfect chemistry with Lowenthal’s Spidey as I imagine the two do in real life as a married couple. Laura Bailey is able to make MJ stand out as another addition to her impressive rose gallery of well-known characters she has voiced, playing this new Lois Lane-like MJ as well as she can. Nancy Linari makes for a very good Aunt May and helps makes the character stand out as one of the most engaging versions of that character, (the final moments with her brings me to tears every time). Darin De Paul may be no J.K. Simmons but is still good as J. Jonah Jameson (even if I did get slightly tired of hearing his podcasts towards the end of the game). Nadji Jeter makes for a strong first impressions as this compelling version of Miles Morales, who would later be given plenty of more room to grow in the following game. Stephen Oyoung fits perfectly in the villain role of Martin Li/Mister Negative, even if the character’s villain turn is clearly obvious. Arguably the strongest voice work done in the supporting cast goes to William Slayers as Otto Octavius/Doc Ock, delivering a performance that manages to be menacing but also incredibly sympathetic at the same time.
While I’m not able to go over every single voice actor present for each character, just about every single one of them first their role like a glove and clearly very well picked for their roles. You can just as tell the entire cast was just as invested in their roles as I imagine Insomniac Games was when developing this game.
Downloadable Content:
One last feature that is worth mentioning has to do with the amount of DLC that was added shortly after the release of the game, collectively known as The City that Never Sleeps. This mostly consisted of three DLC packs that acts are story-based and take place shortly after the events of the game. Episode 1 is “The Heist”, Episode 2 is “Turf Wars” and Episode 3 is “Silver Lining”. Each one of these episodes include new story missions, challenges hosted by Screwball, secret criminal hangouts, and trophies.
Story wise, they all are basically a logical progressions of events for the characters, feeling like a proper bridge between the original game and Part Two coming out next month. The first episode, “The Heist” see the return of Spider-Man ex-girlfriend Felicia Hardy, A.K.A. Black Cat to New York for a heist, with introduces the Maggia crime families and gives a hint at a potential new role Peter may or may not have to take in the future. The second episode, “Turf Wars” sees Spider-Man and his ally Yuri Watanabe being pushed beyond their limits to stop Hammerhead and his army from seizing control of crime in New York. The third and last episode, “Silver Lining”, sees Silver Sable returning to New York to reclaim her technology that was stolen from Hammerhead and his army. These all cost money at the time of their releases, except for those that pre-ordered the game, and certainly gives more an impression than being tacked-on content to squeeze a few more dollar signs.
For the most part, I did enjoy all of these DLC packs and felt I got my money’s worth out of it. They definitely aren’t the longest to complete or even to 100% but it’s always entertaining and engaging when playing through it, feeling like a nice way to cap off a nice work day. I’ll admit the way a certain plot thread between Spidey and Cat wrapped up did feel underwhelming, so much so I hope it’s just another “misdirection” and it’s actually for real in the future. And I certainly feel bad for those that didn’t play the DLC and went to next game completely caught off guard with what has happened with Yuri in between games. Unless they are able to watch some cutscenes before the end of October rolls around, they are likely going to be lost when it comes to that character and plot thread.
It’s also worth mentioning that this DLC did too come with new unlockable costumes. These mostly included suits from other various versions of Spider-Man throughout his history along with newly added ones from other Spider-Man content that came out around that time such as Into the Spider-Verse and Far From Home. The one I always find myself wearing is the Raimi costume, I just always love to imagine that the game is some sort of alternate’s version of a Spider-Man 4 that never got made.
If you were underwhelmed of the kind of DLC like Batman: Arkham City, where it felt like a last minute addition and doesn’t really move the plot and characters forward for the next game, then you will certainly find the DLC for Marvel’s Spider-Man much more satisfying.
Conclusion:
Marvel’s Spider-Man is more than deserving of being as loved and celebrated as it was back in 2018. It still stands strongly as the best Spider-Man game to date and arguably the best licensed superhero game out there that doesn’t involve Batman. It’s able to take the kind of Spider-Man gameplay that has been a template from past Spider-Man games while modifying and perfecting it in every way, giving you the most perfect feeling Spidey experience you can possibly imagine. While I definitely could have done without the MJ/Miles sections, almost everything else is done so well that it doesn’t even come close to bringing down the rest of the game.
The web swinging is fun, the combat is a blast, the story is engaging, the characters are well-defined and characterized, the sound is stellar, and it’s able to feel like a complete Spider-Man package in a way that no other Spider-Man game has yet. It’s very rare for a game to come out that feels like it gives you your complete money’s worth, one that you can just pick up and play almost instantly and and overall, just puts you in a good mood every time you play it. Marvel’s Spider-Man is able to do all of that and even more. Even if Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 turns out to be a disappointment, I will never forget the fond memories and enjoyment I was able to gain from Marvel’s Spider-Man. If there is one game out there that I could describe as my “comfort” game, this would likely be the one! Go Spidey go!
And yes, I will be tackling Spider-Man: Miles Morales very soon, hopefully before the next game comes out!
Adam's Blog 