New Art Piece

This is a new piece entitled, " DaBlues."

The Definition of Plain- "Castle of Heart" Review

  I was very skeptical about writing this review, especially with projects and obligations on my plate at this time, including my novel, which is finally picking up speed. The reason mainly, is because, this was a piece of work that was so unremarkable and short at a glance. Yet, I can't say it isn't something I'll remember fondly. This is the game, "Castle of Heart," for the Nintendo Switch, produced by the company 7 Levels. The game was released on March 23, 2018, yet you have reviews on the game from March 22nd. This is the age of an impatient speedrun society. It received pretty bad reviews generally, but I didn't look at any when I decided to buy it. I was just intrigued by the advertisement as a throwback, oldschool difficult side-scrolling platformer.


   The game didn't disappoint completely, but it didn't completely deliver either. I started playing the game quite a while ago, in summer of 2018. I took a couple of breaks, and usually worked on 1 or 2 levels at a time. In this game, you play as a knight who has been cursed and turned to stone. The sorcerer who destroyed the kingdom and inflicted the curse on him, has kidnapped his love- the princess. It was her tears that kept him from meeting his demise in the first place. On his quest, he follows the trail of the fleeing sorcerer, and meets foes, who are either controlled by the sorcerer, or at times cohorts of his. The story is simple, but it is never told forcefully enough in my opinion, and so it remains very forgettable throughout. The game is split into 4 chapters, each containing about 7 levels. Usually, the last level will have a major boss to fight.

  The game was boasted as having super difficult platforming and enemies. However, I didn't notice anything remotely special about this, save for a few platforming sequences, and some of the enemies in the last few levels. In fact, the end of the game really crept up on me. Out of nowhere, I was confronted by the last boss, who I must say, did engage in some decent dialogue before squaring off with me. Even that fight wasn't as memorable as it should  have been. None of the boss fights lasted long, and there were a few long levels, but usually they were just rushes of difficult enemy packs and short platforming sequences. Occasionally, you had to jump on moving wagons, and platform along a ride down a perilous cliff. A few of these were somewhat breathtaking and cool, with a feeling of accomplishment when making it through, but there just wasn't enough by far. I did like how there were well placed and hidden secrets in the levels with useful items like bombs and special weapons like a Frost mace, which you could use against some difficult enemies.

  I will say that the game did deliver more often when it came to combating enemies. I wasn't a huge fan of the sluggish combat system, but the difficulty in some of the later levels was high at some times, and slightly rage inducing. In the game, you have a regular attack button, and the left bumper button is an attack modifier that allows a slow, but powerful attack, mainly good for breaking secret walls. The right bumper button throws the selected projectile in your inventory, or the X button will fire shots from a bow which is auto-aimed. Your character, in his stone state, is slowly dying without gathering energy from foes, and loses life constantly. You must defeat enemies to stay alive, reminiscent of Shinobi on Playstation, or Otogi on Xbox. There are healing items scattered throughout the worlds that you will constantly be looking for. If you lose too much health one of your arms will fall off, and you will no longer be able to wield 2 weapons. The left trigger blocks, and has a bunch of recovery frames to it. The right trigger does a roll, with is extremely slow to execute. You have no invincibility frames in any action, on top of the slow speed, so a simple action like rolling out of danger can result in a huge amount of lost health. Luckily, there are checkpoints at various places in each level, which restore your health, when you first reach them, and become respawn points.

  I really want to find something great to say about this one. Even the graphics, while good, lacked variety to the point where they were stale and annoying to look at after a while. The level design was almost lazy. There wasn't any memorable music I can recall. The song at the title screen, along with the opening monologue was decent at best. I did enjoy how the storytelling followed up from that and concluded very poetically at the end of the game. It was short, but sweet. There was one page of credits. Then, just like that, it was all over.

  The thing is that the game wasn't even memorably difficult. I would have given points for that. This game was even more underwhelming that Vulgar the Viking, which also boasted retro-difficulty. None of the bosses were milestones to defeat at all. The last boss took me about 2 tries, and lasted about 30 seconds. That was as long as those fights got. A few areas in the last couple of levels had so many difficult enemies with so little resources, that I had to bolt through them to the next checkpoint. That's about as climatic as it got. In the game, later on, you have to have a second weapon with some power, or you simply won't be able to defeat the hordes of enemies. Each of them has extremely high defense and attack, even taking a bit of damage to kill with strong dual swords. This was more broken than legitimately difficult. It also happened very seldom.

 All in all, I expected more, and I'm reviewing this as a completionist. I don't only want to review stellar titles that I play, but I have to acknowledge games that I invested time in, that were not so great, just to be honest. I can't recommend this game beyond a mindless splurge. If you have money burning a hole in your pocket and want a game to move your thumbs or test your buttons, pick it up. It won't be one that beckons a replay. It wasn't memorable, and it's hard to even keep it occupying space on my memory card. A very flat game, with nothing whatsoever that stood out about it. 5.5/10

National Poetry Month- "It's My Turn"

Today, February the 8th, marks the annual commemoration of "Day of the Free." Don't recall what that is? Check out my song, February on the record, "Coming of Age." In honor of that, as well as Black History Month, and National Poetry Month, here is a poem from your Ferbruarian Poet, "It's My Turn." This is the working title of a musical project I am working on right now, and it is also included in the novel that is being written now by myself titled, "The Man."  :



It’s a new cycle, a new age- a transition.
For this, our breath was held,
Which I will not be by these chains.
Space is my captain.
I explode with creativity after so much silence.
The things that make me great,
Are the things that make me savage.
I’ll be honest with you…
I can’t say how I feel.
What’s unfolding is still raw,
And much too big for the stage now,
Or planned venues that might play out.
Here we are, at an empass,
But you won’t be present.
Your mind is frayed, cracking the fabrics of your own reality,
Because you never believed we would be here.
With tradition, I always shrunk back,
Wasting and abusing mercy.
But not this time.
The moment doesn’t have an emotion.
It never really does, but especially now and here.
Conclusions are a culmination of all that has been for long enough.
Phases and movements, like in a song,
Are the special things giving conclusions meaning and life
All over again.

Jokatech Podcast: Episode 27- Legend Killer (Adesanya vs. Silva) (Jokatech vs. Malignaggi)

This is the latest podcast episode where I discuss the politics that I believe is ruining sports, the matchup of Anderson Silva vs. Israel Adesanya, and how I will debate Paulie Malignaggi over his errors in analysis any day.

The Punch- Fitness Boxing - Game Review

This past Thursday marked the end of my month long training program with the new title, "Fitness Boxing," for the Nintendo Switch. I've also kicked off a new diet with my regimen. The fact that you can take this with you anywhere is amazing, and the system really benefits from having this title. It was launched on the Eshop, published by Nintendo at the beginning of January. I preordered it after seeing how impressive the content looked in the preview videos.

  In fitness boxing, you  are trained and guided by an avatar of your choosing, that you can unlock and style with custom gear. It is mostly girl characters, which, when I think about it, probably means that the title was aimed moreso at female gamers. There are 2 male trainers as well, and they do a good job of motivating you during each exercise. It feels good to slowly reach milestones in the game and overcome harder workouts. You burn a lot of calories along the way.

  This game does make me wish that the Switch had the ability to utilize the camera as an additional input source with gaming, to have a more accurate mapping of your movements, and allow more intricacy. I'm not sure if that is a possibility, but if so, I would love to see that done one day, as well as on the PS4. I utilized a few training apparatuses that made a difference as well- a weighted vest, and a boxing resistance belt. I recommend both. All in all, the experiment was a success, and I had a great time. I highly rate this game, with my only gripe being that the music selection felt a bit stale due to the songs not being that fleshed out, and the choice of songs being a bit suspect. Due to that, they fail to aid in motivation. There are slight discrepancies in registration of movements that happens rarely, but it could just be due to fatigue affecting the player. Excellent game!  9/10

Unsung- Mowgli- Movie Review

  Rohan Chand is the name I start this with. The lead role and titular character of a Netflix original film, that as I will review here, was far more than expected. The main star was actually born in NYC and played little league baseball before catching the eye of casting directors. And sadly, you have to scroll almost to the bottom of the casting list to even see his name. This is more of the overt racism that still exists in the entertainment field. The movie is listed as starring Christian Bale, who I do love immensely as an actor, but there is no mention of the star's name, and as you will see, that is a true shame.

  When I first saw the TV commercials, as a huge fan of the original Jungle Book movie, I somewhat dismissed this movie half-way. What I mean by that, is that it looked to be a continuation of events from the last real action movie, which intrigued me, and then with the presence of the original movie's villain- Shere Khan, I began to find that it was more of a retelling of events, which I was turned off to at this point. In all honesty, the last live action film from a few years ago gained my respect, and there were a few nuances that I had wished were more accentuated in the film, like the focus on real life issues with poachers and deforestation. There was a slight curiosity as to whether or not this film would explore that. Eventually, I decided to look into it since it cost me nothing. In fact, I really do like how Netflix is aggressively competing with movie theaters for blockbuster titles. It feels good to have high level production films available that you can look forward to seeing, that are available at your convenience at home or out and about.

  What I noticed right away, was that the film was not as short as I expected being around 2 hours. Also, I noticed a different type of animation being used from the last film. I didn't know what to make of it at first, since the textures looked extremely lifelike, however the animations at first seemed stiffer. You are introduced at the start of the film to a much more dangerous and grisly looking version of Baloo the Bear. I was a bit put off by this, as he did not appear cuddly at all. In fact, he looked like he was a threat to maul Mowgli to death viciously in the outset. Bagera also looked quite fearsome. I usually appreciate more life-like models in films like this, but they looked more like horror costumes at first. As the film progressed, I started to appreciate the direction that they took with the animations. You are eventually introduced to the villainous tiger- Shere Khan and the monkey kingdom ruled by King Louis. This film was not as musical as the traditional Jungle Book movies, but it didn't really aim to be. It was a completely different angle.

   There is much more of the back story of Mowgli and the events that transpired in the jungle prior, expounded upon. I really appreciated that. After the first half of the movie, I started to feel that it was dying off energy-wise, and then something amazing happened. The storytelling and acting suddenly hit a spike. The last half of the movie feels like they took and energy shot. Rohan's acting is nothing short of magnificent. He truly deserves praise for his work. And the storytelling by Kaa, the snake is also very well done, which I had wanted more of in the last film. Mowgli is eventually taken into captivity by a hunter/poacher, who obsesses with killing animals. He is hired by the human village to take down the tiger, but he enjoys killing other animals as well, including the childhood friend of Mowgli.

  The emotion in the film, and the realism of the gap between Mowgli and the jungle, and humanity, was so palpable and believable, it gave me goosebumps. He truly conveys the spirit of a boy raised believing, no, Knowing that he is a wolf. The jungle is truly his home, and the pain he feels in being taken away is very real. He is urged to stay among man and adapt in order to survive, by Bagera, in what was one of the best speeches and scenes of the movie. You learn more about the back story of the supporting cast of characters as well. Eventually, Mowgli has to return to the jungle to fight for, as save it from the threat of man, not just the tiger, in what I really thought was a noteworthy and interesting twist.

  Every tear and angry emotional outburst in this film from the star, felt extremely real. It never once felt like acting. To do something like that, is truly worthy of praise. The film in total, was very well cast, and Mowgli is worthy of the role. He has a truly authentic and yet very distinguished look that keeps your attention. His acting, as well as the costume design and cinematography are so well done, that every moment, particularly after the first half of the film, is captivating. And as I mentioned, the animation makes more and more sense. Shere Khan has a damaged right front paw in this movie, that seems weird, but more of the back story of his encounters with man are explained. And in this movie, he isn't the only danger. The danger of the competitive pack of wolves that Mowgli grows up with, is also conveyed, as Shere Khan is manipulative and uses it to his advantage at times. Akeela is the patriarch of the pack of wolves in the original story, and he is an aged wolf who leads the pack. In this film, you get to see the law of the pack which says that if the leader misses a hunt, he can be challenged by the pack for leadership, or something of that nature. The battle that occurs is quite real and jarring.
 

  The film is not gory, but they make no qualms about full take downs, and convey the real sense of the laws of the jungle. It commands your respect in every way. This was a necessary telling of the story, and I highly recommend it. It is also the display of a truly unsung young actor's talents. If it only got rolling quicker. I give this a solid 9.4/10