Getting Jumped Across Platforms- Ratchet and Clank Review

 Ratchet and Clank is a action platformer series by Insomniac, that has been a mainstay on Playstation consoles for well over a decade. I recall not really paying much attention to the series in the past, as I was formerly anti-Sony consoles for a bit in the early 2000's. That was a brief period of time, as I did own a PS2 for a short while. I didn't, however, appreciate the genre of Action Platform games at that time, or the series itself. One thing I recall, was that my friend's father was a huge fan of the series, and at times would bloviate about his exploits in it. One thing I must admit, was that I immensely respected my friend's father, because he was a very cerebral and fun loving dude, who seemed to have good taste in things. I knew the game had to be solid for him to like it so much, but I was anywhere near a Sony console at that time.

 Years later, I got my first Ratchet and Clank game on the PSP. It was the Size Matters game. That game was extremely solid and fun, with stiff difficulty. In fact, if I recall correctly, I reviewed it when I completed the game. One thing I must say off of the top is that I still feel as strongly as ever, that the disparity between the console and handheld experience is highly overrated, if not flat out wrong. I played the New Ratchet and Clank game, which is a Grand Tour game, taking the gamer along the overall story arc. While I am going to compliment this game, I must say that if I had to hold both the PSP Ratchet and Clank game against the new PS4 game, there is absolutely not a world of difference in either quality, fun factor, or content. That is totally wrong. In fact, the PSP game may have actually been slightly longer and more cinematic, believe it or not.

  Ratchet and Clank on the PS4 is a typical millenial title of today, with no fancy artwork, or creative manual differentiating it. However, the ingame quality is awesome. You start the game at your home base on planet Veldin, where you work in a garage for Grimoth, a bulky elephant looking alien. Ratchet is a Lombax, who is unassuming, but aspiring to become a space Ranger, and work with the famous captain Quark. This game covers the events that lead to Ratchet meeting Clank, and the exploits they go on, becoming a team.

  Captain Quark is telling the story to a fellow inmate, as he is the prisoner in a jail for crimes he has committed after falling from grace as the Rangers' leader. He tells the story along with funny banter throughout the entire game, and the humor keeps the game light, which helps when the difficulty gets annoying. After competing in a hoverboard competition, and going through a Ranger training course, Ratchet finds himself being a candidate to join the team. Clank, who is a defective robot that escaped the villains factory, lands on Ratchet's planet, seeking assistance in toppling the evil regime.

 The levels are well designed, and the graphics are lush and beautiful. You have a weapon wheel to select your weapon, and a quick menu mapped to the control pad. You get so many different weapons, that do essential and different things, that it can get hard switching in combat, especially as you run out of ammo. Each weapon can be leveled up with usage, and expanded using currency with the merchant, across several factors, including blast radius, damage, range, ammo capacity, and coin generation. The game is so loaded with options, that you really have to settle down to choose what weapons suite your play style. I liked the Sniper rifle. It requires aim, but gives a good damage bonus, and allowed me to pick off enemies before entering a room, which helped in levels where they clearly set you up to get jumped.

  Ratchet has a double jump, Clank as his gliding jetpack, a grappling hook, and even an oxygen mask you can get if you meet certain requirements. I got it, so I could swim and explore the depths of some water planets without drowning after 3 seconds. It's one of those games that it feels good to find the secrets in. The only thing is that you can get so close to getting a secret item, but be unable to find the last few required pieces. It was so much fun exploring the huge planets, taking in the scenery, and engaging in intense gun fights with the forces of Dr. Nefarious. Ratchet even has sequences where he can glide on rails to access parts of levels. Those are so much fun! And you get a jetpack at a point in certain levels, and can literally fly around the entire planet, as long as you recharge the battery.

  Difficulty wise, I must say the game was controller tossing at times, but it really wasn't that memory scarring difficult. You will be using your fingers on this one. You have to switch weapons often, and watch your ammo, while jumping and strafing to avoid enemy fire. I love the weapons that spawn helper bots, because they can be powered up, and really help you when you are outnumbered. The battles in the game, require you to be on point, and proactive. In the later portion of the game, they will literally send the kitchen sink at you, and if the enemy gets in on you, with some of them respawning from pods, you can get decimated. I found the last boss to be a pretty classic last boss fight. When you fight Dr. Nefarious, he is in some kind of mech suit, with enemies on several platforms. The weapons he has in his suit are pretty sick, on top of the mech helpers he has, being both powerful and durable. You have to use every ability, and skill you learn over the game to beat him. Be first, be sharp, and be aggressive. He uses these nasty mines that such you in  unless destroyed manually. You have your jetpack, so you can choose to go aerial, or stay grounded and intercept his mine attack as well as the respawning mechs. Ammo becomes an issue in the last battle and throughout the game. In fact, there were times I found myself praying for the merchant station to pop up, as I needed health and ammo.

 After beating the game, the ending was goofy, but funny, and as a typical Ratchet and Clank game, marks only the beginning. I loved the game, and the challenge mode that you unlock upon completion. This is definitely a game to own on PS4. Dive in!!    8.5/10

You Have 10 Seconds and You Give Me 1?!!!- 10 Second Ninja X Review

I completed the game known as 10 Second Ninja X recently. I have been a long time collector of Indie titles from the PSN, and I always look for gems among them, as there are many good Indie companies. This game came up on my radar over a year ago, and originally, I was hesitant to give it a go, when I heard about the concept of 10 second levels. That seemed too short to me. What made me turn around, was discovering that the game not only received great scores from a few sources, but it was lauded for having a huge amount of additional content. I appreciate Indie developers for that, because major companies have little to no desire to please fans, and care only about money, so content is whatever they feel it should be in games.

   The game has a very old school 16 bit era look, with very polished sprites and nicely rendered levels. You are going through rooms in this game moreso than environments, but what it presented is done well. You begin the game as a ninja escaping from a ship controlled by a pirate who seeks to test and understand your abilities and reputation as a super fast ninja. Each portal has about 10 levels that must be completed and graded. The grade ranges from 1-3 stars for the level, and they can be replayed any time. Only be getting a collective amount of stars, will the next portal be accessible. This means you will have to improve your scores on each individual level in order to proceed.

  At the beginning, and throughout the game, you have chirpy dialogue blocks that come from the pirate captain through the monitor. He is know as Red Beard. He sets up the challenges and you lose each level if 10 seconds elapses, or if you are taken out by one of the enemies or traps. On the ship, you meet crew members, who all want to revolt against the captain, for his unstable behavior, and will assist you in some ways, such as revealing unlockables, or giving hits, or the crew member who restores generator power and joins you at times. When he does join you, it doesn't affect gameplay. He is simply flying over your shoulder, talking, and when you die, usually from his distraction, he leaves.

  The ninja controls very well and simply. He moves accurately and fast, and is equipped with a double jump, sword, and 3 ninja stars. You complete each level by taking out the mech guards within 10 seconds. Some will be behind electrical fields, or unereachable platforms, so you have to choose which ones you will throw the stars at. Some mechs are armored, and would take 2 stars to take out, but also have a ninja behind them that will be taken out at the same time. You have to decide when that is worth it. There will be switches in some levels that raise and lower platforms, that can open up enemies, or be used as footholds or launch pads. Then there are grappling  holds, where your ninja can use what is a hidden grappling hook to move towards them if you throw a star in the direction of the hook. It gets pretty deep and causes you to think on some levels.

   After a while, the game went from being really difficult, to addictively fun. I wanted to improve my time on each level to see how fast I could be. The game is attached to leaderboards accross the world, and my annoyance level jumped a bit when I was reminded of how slimy people are. In a world long dead, people took pride in striving for greatness. Now, they constantly look for ways to fabricate it, and do as little as possible. Some levels in this game will take the bulk of 10 seconds to complete, even at maximum efficiency and speed. When I looked at leader boards, I saw levels that were at least 5-6 seconds long, with record times of 1-2 seconds. There are multiple ways to tackle levels in 10 second ninja, but there can be as many as 10 mechs across the level, along with some platforming required to reach some of them. Very few of the levels in this game's later stages, can be completed in a couple of seconds. In fact, the game has a form of currency that allows you to buy hints for levels. There is a girl on the far side of the ship that has an arcade with a game that nets you coins if you will. These coins can be used to get hints to assist you in each mission. She also has another one of the secrets. If you go around the ship, and collect fragments of a lost CD, she will reconstruct them into a game that is one of the secrets. It is actually a very good arcade game, that is as big as the main game itself. It takes time to get all o the fragments, but it's worth it.

  Each level, you will find has different methods that work. Some levels have a gimmick to them, which is a quick way of getting almost all of the mechs in one move. Those levels can be completed in a couple of seconds, but they are few and far inbetween. People hack the game on their devices and computers, to upload impossible times, just to see their names next to it, which robs the excitement of putting you scores up online. There were some levels where I impressed myself, by exploiting the quick gimmick of a level after finding it. After I would load the leaderboards, I would see that my time wasn't even remotely near the top, as dozens of names would boast times that were clearly impossible for that level.

  In the end, the sound effects were crisp and satisfying, and the levels were very fun and lively. The last part of the game is actually not a boss. In fact, there are no bosses in the game. At the end, you have to complete a quick platforming level in 10 seconds, to make it through a room, to get to the antagonist, who will surprise you in the end. That level wasn't nearly as hard as it should have been, and it made the final moment slightly anticlimatic. I still enjoyed the game, and the many secrets. The humor is constant throughout the game, and the dialogue of the different characters will get a laugh out of you.You have another room on the ship that has secret costumes that you can unlock by meeting certain requirements. The ending was nice as well, with a still image scene of the main characters coming to a peaceful resolve. It's a game that gives more than it takes. I appreciate that. And you will spend quality time on it, so it's worth your money. Check it out. You have 10 seconds!!!!!     9/10

Mayweather vs. McGregor Reveals Mass Ignorance

  I have been chomping at the bid to get into the analytics of the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight. I've listened to both sides of the clash, and there really doesn't seem to be much or any realistic opinions of the matchup. This fight is without a doubt, not on as neutral a ground as it should be, but there are essentials to combat that I'm surprised to see professionals missing.

 Over the last few weeks, I've heard interviews with fighters from the Mayweather gym and camp, talking about how perfect Floyd is in the ring, and how he will easily decimate and KO Conor McGregor. Reporters as well, have all been drilling the same argument, that due to Conor having no known professional experience, he stands no chance against arguably the best professional boxer. Then you have the few concessions of a puncher's chance. Many Mayweather gym boxers believe they would all KO Conor with ease, and smile about it, all based off of the fact that they don't know him to be a boxer at all, or to understand boxing techniques and set ups, as well as traps.

 Many feel that Conor should have been built up from a foundation, to become a "C level" boxer, to stand more of a chance than he does. In fact Pauli Malignaggi, was one such fighter who felt that way, and carried it into McGregor's camp with him to assist. I believe that was part of the fallout between the two that spilled out over 20 rounds of sparring and into the media. I heard one nugget of actual sense from Skip Bayless on First Take yesterday, after the reports were discussed about Paulie leaving Conor's camp. He said, "People have no idea of Conor's fighting IQ." That statement is loaded, and it is the core of this blog article. For years, people have gotten by, being one track and flawed in their thinking, and by being extremely ignorant, not only of things foreign to them, but different aspects of their so-called specialties. And this fight is going to surface that ignorance, if it plays out to its potential.

 If I was John Kavanaugh, I would do exactly as he is doing. I would not feed into the critique of boxing purists too much. The worst thing that a trainer can do to Conor right now, is strip his natural understanding and ability, and turn him into a basic C level boxer, that not only Floyd would tear through, but Conor would as well. That's ignorance, and that stance is solely motivated by passionate patriotism to boxing. Fighting IQ is something that is universal, meaning you have it or you don't, no matter where you are positioned. There are fighters that have been honing their boxing ability for years, namely many in the Mayweather gym, that have little to no IQ, and would get worked in a BOXING match against the likes of Conor McGregor, TJ Dillashaw, and Kevin Lee. Conor has shown a very high fight IQ his whole career. The fact that that's missed, simply because he hasn't done it in the boxing ring, is a hallmark of ignorance.

  You learn a lot about an artist, or a fighter, just by listening to them talk. The game is mental. Conor knows his boxing and combat sport history extremely well, as well as having the ability to break down positioning in combat situations. The boxing gym rats that cling to Mayweather, are a sea of mediocrity, and almost none of them can break down scenarios the way Conor does.

  In combat, there is give and take. It 's about positioning, timing, and setups. Conor does it well, and many boxers do it poorly, after decades in the ring. Floyd talks about walking down Conor, and everyone automatically believes it to be a likelihood, totally disregarding Floyd's style and history, simply because "Conor is not a boxer." That's stupid, and childish thinking. First off, ask yourself how Floyd looks when he opens an assault. He is not an effective volume puncher. And it isn't because of defensive issues. It's the fact that, when he attempts to open up, you have the natural openings that must be there due to physics, and you have his awkward nature in doing so, since he prefers to select 1-3 punches at a time and conserve energy. You all think he is some tank, who can keep going. Regardless of the millions of rounds he spars each camp with "no fatigue," he gets in the ring and takes breathers in his fights against Cotto, Berto, and Pacquiao. If you know what you are looking at, you will see it, without the interviews of the fighters themselves stating how he holds onto them and gasps to catch his breath during middle rounds.

  Floyd opening up with 6-8 punch combos and pressuring is counterintuitive to his style, which is why he doesn't do that. He is either lying, or he is going to make a huge mistake. Floyd Sr. thinks Conor is going to shell up like a deer in headlights, and be there from the opening bell, for Floyd to tee off on. That's putting an awful lot in the bank of hoping that the atmosphere absorbs Conor. That could happen, but with the ability that Conor has inherently, it does not have to happen at all, and that could spell huge trouble for Floyd if he is stupid enough to discount that possibility. Each guaranteed KO of Floyd has traditionally turned into a holding and running fest, where he edges out a decision. He ran from Pacquiao, and was still just about outboxed. He even ran from Berto. Both fights he guaranteed a KO and aggression. What Floyd will do in some early sequences of each fight, is initiate a few random blitz combos, of about 3 sharp hooks, or an uppercut to a straight. He launches this, as a safe version of slight pressure. If he sees that it doesn't overwhelm the opponent, and they don't fall into, or get stopped by the trap, he knows that he'd have to open up more lengthy combinations to have effect, which he won't, and he backs off. Why do you keep falling for the rhetoric? Floyd's flaws in both offense and defense are more revealed when he tries to apply pressure. He is susceptible to the jab, and straight left. His jab is lazy at times. He knows that the minute he opens up, those few little flaws, will split wide open. That's why he will not do that. If he takes the chance with Conor, swearing that Conor is out of his element, he deserves the L he might take.

  Another thing that is key is an experience based technique, which among others can undermine skill. Many of the purists are referring to it indirectly in their interviews. It's about where you are and when. Something that Floyd and GGG do extremely well, is position themselves appropriately to the extreme inside, or outside of their opponents lead leg. If you are orthodox, which GGG and Floyd are, you will lead more to the outside of the lead leg, and throw occasional left hooks, right hand counters over the top of lazy jabs, and rights to the body. With another orthodox fighter, you will split the stances more evenly, and step over to the extreme left with check hooks and uppercuts, or pull them in with feints, and counter over the top stepping to your right. By not standing square in the opponents lane, they apply some pressure and stifle movements without even having to step forward. A novice may not even notice what's happening, while they are getting lit up.


  What Floyd will do, as far as aggression, are well timed power shots. What Conor has to watch out for, is the gazelle punch and the check hook that Floyd is adept at. Both punches are similar, but different. The gazelle punch is a straighter punch that can split a guard, while the check hook turns both fighters, does damage, and throws off position for follow up attacks. Floyd is also one of, if not the best at throwing the right uppercut lead from orthodox stance. He can also throw it after a jab, or before a hook, usually a right hook. His right hook is also better than most boxer. The right hook and uppercut from orthodox stance takes exceptional skill, timing, and wisdom to be used effectively. Most boxer don't have the mental acumen to even bother throwing them often, because if not thrown well, you will be sorely out of position. They throw it at a defenseless opponent. Floyd will throw it at a defense. He's that sharp. Yet, I've seen Conor throw the rear hook and uppercut from each stance as well. It's another testament that fight IQ has nothing to do with which combat sport you choose. Conor has mentioned that he is aware of the very techniques of Floyd I just mentioned, which is another feather in his cap.

  Floyd is doing a lot of talking about stopping Conor, and people who don't know combat like they think, are eating it up. His only hope for a stoppage in this contest is either catching Conor early with a buzzing shot in a quick flurry and  jumping on him, if his hands hold up, or throwing a lead hook initiated flurry later in deep waters with Conor fading. He has all of these fools convinced that he will be uncharacteristic and sit in the pocket for a KO, simply because Conor is not a "boxer." Need I remind you all that sitting in the pocket and slugging is the lowest common denominator in boxing, and is not Floyd for that very reason. The most basic MMA striker can comprehend that level of striking. This is not to be confused with in-fighting, which Floyd does not excel at. Staying in the pocket relies on physicality, which is why Floyd never does it, even in fights he promises to. He would do well not to do it here, as it can be his undoing. He dared not against Berto, and he was even hesitant to do it against Pacman, who he actually had physical stats on. When you step into the fire like that, you putting your boxing skills to the side, and making it a clash of might. He will lose that clash. And if you are blind enough to think that MMA fighters aren't physical once they step into a boxing ring, you need help. If there is any seriousness to Floyd's KO aspirations, he better play the stamina or positional game.


  I'm just hoping that Conor can keep preparing well, and keep his head about him. He has the confidence. One thing that I would stress in training from day one, is fatigued defense sequences. You need to be tired at the end of sparring, and in pressure situations, where you work on slips, clinches, turns and inside counters. That seems like a small part, but that is the heart of boxing. Those are the sequences that decide fights, potentially quickly. If you know what to do in those instances, and feel comfortable in them, you can be confident knowing that you will be at your best on fight night. Because I assure you, Floyd will be Floyd, but he will test Conor with rushes, like he did Pacquiao, to see if he can get him out of there with a flash combo. If you study those nuances of boxing, they teach you a lot. Pacquiao, and even Maidana, as boxers, study how to roll and slip out of the back door, when being rushed with violent hooks and right hands, even from a faster fighter. Boxers drill this over and over in the gym. It's one of the differences between boxing and MMA, along with striking volume. Those are the adjustments that Conor needs, as well as hand positioning, getting used to keeping you hands up, even if it isn't your style. Every boxer knows how and when to do it, even if they fight with low hands. I'm not picking a winner, nor do I care. I just want to see education. I want Conor to make a good account of himself and shut up the many purists who don't realize how ignorant they are.

  For the Michael Montero's out there, who think they are pure boxing fans, I look forward to their education. I come from boxing roots. And you have to be stupid to call this fight a waste like Montero and others. This is such a crucial match in the development of MMA striking, and the comparison of conditioning between the sports. And it's the perfect fighter  to do it. One with transcendent skill- Conor. Now we get to see how fight IQ really translates accross combat situations. This is the furthest thing from a waste of a PPV, and if you have any real knowledge, you can see that. Tune in.