Fairy Tail: the Movie Phoenix Priestess Review

If at any point you were interested in watching Fairy Tail but were like, “ZOMG there’s soooo many episodes” or “I’m not picking up what you’re putting down,” then never fear…that’s what movies are for!

Just like many long-running anime, Fairy Tail has a movie of its own and it is very indicative of what you would see normally in the show. Is it a good movie? Yeah, I’d say. Do you have to have seen the show to know what the heck is going on?

October is coming...

Summer movies have been long gone, the students are back in school, and in most parts of the world not named Florida the weather is beginning to cool and the leaves are changing colors. Fall is officially here! But, you know what else is just around the corner?

The month of October!

Now, I am biased, considering how I was born in the month of October. But that’s not the main reason why I’m stoked for October. No, instead I’m stoked for what October tends to bring around every year, particularly recently, I’ve noticed.

First, on the sports side of things (sports, I know, I’m talking about sports for once!) we get football coming into the full swing of things, as in now is going to be the time where the College Football Playoff committee has to get serious and start picking teams to go into the Final Four. Granted the tournament won’t start until New Year, but most of the cupcake games are done now, the real schedules start now.

I would talk about the baseball playoffs but since the Yankees are out what’s the point, you know? In regards to baseball October is pretty much dead to me.

But enough about sports, let’s move onto more fun topics. Like Green Arrow. Just, Green Arrow in general. The first week of October features his next big storyline kicking up with the writers of the show Arrow to be the new creative team, and they have promised us the introduction of Felicity Smoak. Given how great she is on the show I’m looking forward to seeing her on the page, especially with hothead Emiko running around trying to become the new Green Arrow. Not only that, but the latest Green Arrow arc, “The Outsiders War,” is also coming out in trade form on the fourteenth. It’s cheap on Amazon, I definitely recommend buying it. And finally, season 3 of Arrow starts back up on October 8^th and you best believe I’m excited as heck for it to be coming back!

Speaking of comic book TV shows, though, we’re not nearly done. The Flash debuts the day before Arrow to give us a speedster to go along with our archer. The show is going to delve more into the supernatural and have it make sense for us to see actually super villains in the DC television universe of the CW. Another DC supernatural show is kicking off later on in the month, on the twenty-fourth, Constantine. I don’t much about the guy except that he deals with like…demons and stuff. But I do know that Jim Corrigan is gonna be on it. Justice League Dark maybe? Who knows!

Finally rounding off the comic book TV shows is AMC’s The Walking Dead kicking off its fifth season! That’s crazy! I’m very much excited for the return of Rick’s stuff and thangs as our group takes on Terminus…for apparently only the pilot. I’m gonna guess that what we all thought was going to take up the majority of the season is going to just be a quick part of the premier and then they’ll jump to a new storyline. Either way, it looks very promising.

To round off the side of TV shows, The 100 is coming off a surprisingly amazing first season on the CW and is premiering it’s second season on the twenty-second, so if you haven’t already watch it, definitely check it out. It was one of those sleeper shows that turned out to be amazing. But, the month of October will also feature the end of a beloved franchise: Legend of Korra is debuting its fourth and final season on the third, meaning this will be the final time we see an iteration of Team Avatar. Set three years in the future, I’m actually very intrigued where this can go, as the time skip provides us with hopefully more interesting characterization…and maybe even…the return of Amon. Probably not, but, I can dream.

However there is another great thing that happens on October 3^rd: Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS is coming out! I am so pumped for this as now I don’t have to actually invest in a Nintendo console to play a game from one of their best franchises. I’ve gotten the chance to play the demo for a little bit and I’m super stoked to get to play it. From what I’ve seen on live streams (the JWittz livestream, which everyone should tune into if you’re a Nintendo fan, follow him on Twitch!) it looks like it’ll be days worth of fun. I’ll have trouble switching between that and Soul Calibur 4, without a doubt.

But let’s not forget the classic collection we’re gonna be receiving on the twenty-third. I love America as much as the next patriot, and I love Assassin’s Creed as much as the next nerd. Put the two together and you get hours and hours of taking down Templar and standing up for good old AMERICA! Well, good old Ubisoft decided to make Assassin’s Creed: America Edition for I believe all consoles, and it will collect all the main America games out so far, so AC3, AC3: Liberation, and the groundbreaking AC4: Black Flag. Even if you have all the games, I would so pick this up just because it’s Assassin’s Creed and come on. You know you want to.

I almost forgot to mention the rest of the comics coming out this month! Avengers and X-Men: AXIS, Marvel’s next big event comic, is kicking off. I’ve really got no idea what it’s supposed to be about besides the fact that Dr. Doom, Loki, Red Onslaught (Red Skull), Carnage, Hob Goblin, and Sabretooth are gonna be heavily featured, and the new-look Avengers, along with some other dudes of course, are gonna be taking them on. And in a post-“Original Sin” world, there is no help from the Watcher. Ruh-ro. (Also “Original Sin” might be coming out in a trade this month, featuring Original Sin #0-8 and Original Sins #1-5 but don’t quote me on that). Spider-Man also continues to set up for Spider-Verse in his seventh and eighth issues, but sadly, no more Superior Spider-Man for the time being…And my final news in comics is more of a manga thing but hey…I don’t care. Attack on Titan: No Regrets gets it second volume, in which Levi and Erwin have met and now it’s a matter of taming the young Levi and seeing if he is worthy of wearing the Wings of Freedom. Plus, Levi origins are cool, right?

Finally, and this is probably more for just me but if you like it to then you are awesome, Konami FINALLY decided to release a Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Legendary Collection coming out on the twenty-fourth with guaranteed cards such as Shooting Quasar Dragon and Black Rose Dragon! Undoubtedly we’ll be seeing some other great Synchros like Trishula and Dark Strike Fighter, so, I’m so getting that.

There is probably a butt-load of stuff I’m missing from October but as it comes I’ll be sure to tweet about it. Based off of all this, though, I am most definitely excited for what October is bringing to us, like I am every year. Because October is the best month, period.

If you liked this post and wanna read more, be sure to leave a follow! And if you want to see random tweets from me or know when posts go up, follow me on Twitter @seanovan13 or on Instagram @seanovan10!

Backyard Hockey review

I don't know how seriously you could take a review of one of the "Backyard" games but hey, I figured I would talk about it anyway. Why?

BECAUSE IT'S A "BACKYARD" GAME MAN!

The "Backyard" series were pretty much the must-have games for kids back in my day...you know like ten years ago or whatever. There was one for every major sport: football, baseball, basketball, hockey. There may have been others but I never heard of them. I played Backyard Soccer and Backyard Hockey the most.

I believe Hockey was the latest installment to the franchise. Pretty much every game has the same mechanics and way of playing, but this one was kind of interesting in that there was far more freedom in how you controlled the game rather than just relying on the A.I. to do a lot of the things for you.

Unlike Backyard Soccer, though, there isn't a mode where you can make up your own team. Of course you can still pick your own players (Pablo Sanchez for the win, by the way), but you have to pick from one of the professional NHL teams. But just like the other Backyard games, there are pro players in kid form that you can choose from, such as the great Wayne Gretzky and Jarome Iginla. There's no limit to how many pros you can take but this is where the game gets interesting.

Each player has a certain amount of skill points for a skill. For example, Marty Brodeur is maxed out in goalie skills but has lesser in shooting and skating. Thus, you can't really overload your team with a certain skill unless you want no defense or offense. It's all about balance. And if you want balance, you need one player to rule them all...


PABLO SANCHEZ

Another cool part of creating your team is the create-a-character option. You can make their name, their handedness, and even pick from a pre-determined set of nicknames. The whole point of this mode is to make a certain character a certain way. You're given a certain amount of skill-points for the character, so you have to spend them wisely. Spending too much on shooting and skating will take away from your player's defending abilities. Of course, that's where the whole thing of balancing the team comes into play. Having a good amount of shooters is good to have a good amount of defenders.

The game works around this by playing to it's name, "hockey." In hockey there are different line shifts that go in to help their team in a certain situation. The game has four line shifts, "Offense 1," "Offense 2," "Defense 1," "Defense 2." Thus you can carry about that as you will. Helps to have strategy when going into a game.

The game play is, like I said, allowing of freedom. There are four players on the ice per team, a goalie and three skaters. There are two buttons that need to be used--the shooting and passing button. And yes, there is a huge difference. When shooting you can hold down the button on the mouse to add some power to the shot, and you can't do that while passing. Both allow you to aim, though. And the game has a glitch where if you're at a close angle to the goal and take a powerful shot, the puck goes in. Best believe I used that to my advantage almost all the time.

Sadly, though, the A.I. isn't the smartest sometimes. Often when a shot is taken, the goalie (for no reason), will move over to the side and allow the puck to go into the net. It's very frustrating. When it happens for you, it's great. When it's against you, it's stupid. I don't get it.

Also if you love checking out stats during the season, don't worry--the game has leaderboards and stats for almost everything. It helps when evaluating what you're game plan going into the next game is going to be, especially if one of the opposing players is high up on the list.

But at it's core Backyard Hockey isn't too much different from the other "Backyard" games, which is to say that it is a fantastic sports game. It's silly, with all the power-ups, it's creative, but overall it's something where you'll have tons of fun playing nonstop. If you still have a copy, this is my way of saying you should be still playing it. If you find a copy for like two bucks, pick it up because you'll have tons of fun with it.

Heck, I still do!

Blue Nexus #4--Competition

         
          Mira and Kyle headed down to Ernie’s Ice Cream place. For college and older high school students, it was the place to be. When stressed, eat ice cream, they all figured. The place was packed in early spring and fall, where there was a surge in the small town’s numbers. The ice cream place itself wasn’t large, seating only a few people on the inside and granting the patrons not too great a variety of flavors. Most people sat outside so to accommodate for more space, plus it was often pretty nice outside. There were just as many tables outside as there were inside, and since all the inside ones were taken, the duo took a table on the outside, seated directly across from the buzzing “Open” sign.

X-Men First Class #1 Review

No, this comic has nothing to do with the 2011 film, sorry about that if you thought so.

This comic was only exclusive through the toy deal, so, if you missed out on it, chances are you didn't buy the little set it was in that contained small figures of classic Cyclops and Marvel Girl--the latter of whom I did not know until I realized "Duh, it's Jean Grey." I don't like different names in comics, it's weird.

Fairy Tail Seasons 4 & 5 Review

*Disclaimer: I originally thought that this was actually Season 3, but it's really the fourth and seasons. So if I mention them together, than that's why. Some of the wikis listed it wrong, my bad.*

You know last week, before I re-watched the second arc of this season, I strongly felt that this season was the mirror of last season: where Season 2 was slow and then awesome, I felt Season 3 was awesome then slow. But, then I watched from where the Key to the Starry Heavens arc starts, and, you know what, it was actually a little better than I thought it was. I still stand by my argument of it being the standard Fairy Tail formula of lose-win-lose-win but, hey, the action was actually kind of awesome this time around thanks to some newer magic and returning characters that would not usually be sorely missed but used in this circumstance are pretty cool.

Did The Maze Runner help Young Adult films?

The short answer is no, but it's not really as simple as you, or really me, would want to believe. Now that we're in a post-"Harry Potter" world where people are finally done trying to find copycats, it seems we have entered an era in Young Adult fiction in which Katniss Everdeen is queen and we must all be like her:
"The chosen one, who sacrifices body and soul to overthrow the evil empire. Against all odds she will fight for her people, finding new love but also discovering betrayal around every corner. What she doesn't know, is that she is part of a group much larger in the making..." blah blah blah. I know Katniss doesn't necessarily fall into the latter category but with the whole rebellion thing you can see where it's going a mile away.

The Maze Runner (film) Review

SPOILERS FOR MOVIE AND BOOK

I think this movie adaptation just proves that no book is safe from the cogs of what is "working" in Hollywood. Or that no movie is safe from cliches when its source material deviates so far from them.

I'll preface this review with this statement: had I never read The Maze Runner novel, I would have thought this merely an "okay" movie. It was, you know, decent, and I'll get into the nitty-gritty in a moment. But having read it, it's two sequels and prequel, I am disgusted at what this film has done. Not only did it ruin the shock value of several moments from it's direct sequel, but very well could have destroyed the ending of its final book and even devalued the entire prequel, making it essentially useless.

Blue Nexus #3: Community

            There was no tunnel that appeared once the air-locked gates opened up, instead it was just a set of long stairs that let down to what definitely was a command center. It was a single room, but it was also humongous. A large tower stood straight up in the back of the room with rings lighting up constantly—the various colors of the rainbow—leading up to a semi-sphere that was, undoubtedly, below a crater, not jutting out of it. In front of that were several other large tubes of what appeared to be metal.

            The center of the room was mostly vacant if not for the circle of computers that were there. There were in five of them, each of them with a twenty-four x twenty-four inch screen, with no keyboard. Touch screen, very interesting. A thick wire ran from those to one of the tubes connected to the cell tower at the back of the room.

Green Arrow #25: Zero-Year Review

Pretty much the beginnings of the New 52 Green Arrow origin, Issue #25 takes a look into Oliver Queen's first mission back in the United States after being stranded on the island and going through all that fun and games, specifically seeing how he plays into the Zero Year arc that Batman was going through.

Most issues like this would just be something of a one-shot, which is confusing as this is still presented as a progression of the story. And, in fact, it is. At one point in the story there is a small preview of what is to come regarding the Outsider's War, which started in the following issue, #26. It also gives us insight into what the heck Diggle was doing in the business with Oliver in the first place, and, of course, Green Arrow-Batman banter.

Fairy Tail Seasons 2 & 3 Review

*Disclaimer: At the time of writing, some wikis listed this all as one season, so if I only make it sound like this is all one thing, that's why. Sorry!*

Having got through the goofiness, but crazy amounts of fun, that was Season 1, the hit-anime Fairy Tail finally gets it's stride as we make our way into Season 2. More filler? Perhaps. But definitely more story, more action, and also my favorite arc so far, and by far.

This season, unlike the last, comprises of only two arcs, something that the show would do, or, actually, does in its later seasons as well. They don't necessarily coincide as fluidly as they should and are separated by rather informative filler regarding Gildarts, Lisanna, and Wendy, but are fun nonetheless. Our voice actors haven't changed, nor have the characters, but we do get a couple of new characters that are added to Fairy Tail's strongest team.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 Video Game) Review

Unless you were a little kid with an original X-Box you probably don't remember this game, but man oh man do I have some fond memories with this game. It's nothing special, it wasn't something to "define a generation." You won't see live-action trailers of it anytime soon...although even those would be better than Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I'll keep it brief today, just to give some thoughts on it and my experiences with it.

Blue Nexus #2: The Phoenix and the Martian

            Kyle’s Nexus bracelet brought with it much more mystery to his friends. Where’d he get it? Why was it kind of glowing? Was it some sort of enhancement for his lacrosse playing? Kip thought it was going to be feeding Kyle energy, so Kyle told him that it was something along those lines. Still, they remained a little curious.

            Kyle left the bracelet on during practice, wary of it not to take any damage. However, when he did get hit by a slap from a random stick, the bracelet was perfectly fine, which relieved Kyle. It seemed that it was pretty well put together, and it was pretty well connected to Kyle, barely moving whenever he moved his arms. It was fitted nicely, as it didn’t suffocate his hand and he barely even remembered he was wearing it.

New Titans/ Nightwing and Supergirl shows?!?!

Alright so this news pretty much just broke but I'll have links at the bottom for you folks to check out but I felt that I had to give my quick thoughts on the news: Apparently, there is development for a TV show based around the 1980s comic book New Titans, which stars a bit of an older cast of the well-known Teen Titans. Basically what that means is that instead of Robin we have Nightwing, and everyone else is a little older. Oh, and probably Wonder Girl. I'm not too well-versed in the New Titans as much as I am the regular, more well-known Teen Titans but I know that the Titans do have a roster almost as big as the Justice League, something that a TV show can really get help from, particularly with cameos it can receive from heroes like Mas y Menos, Aqualad, or Kid Flash.

Marvel NOW! Moon Knight #4 Review

Hey so remember how in my review of "The Amazing Spider-Man #4" I totally said I was gonna review "Moon Knight #5?" Well I was just kidding...okay nah I totally got the issues mixed up. I thought issue five was issue four in my mind, but, hey, doesn't matter right now! Unless you were really looking forward to me reviewing "Moon Knight #5" in which case I'll give quick thoughts: It's great, I love the action.

Boom.

Fairy Tail Season 1 Review

I'll be honest: my first impression of Fairy Tail was: not impressed. Since I prefer to watch things in the English Dub, I did not enjoy the voicework (particularly on the side of Natsu, Happy, and even Erza), and I thought some of the premises were silly, the character designs were strange, and it didn't seem to have that grand feeling of adventure.

But, I decided to press on. All of season 1 was (and is, by the way) available on Netflix so I decided I would go ahead and keep watching.

DC Getting Rid of New 52?

The possibility of this happening sometime in the near future is slim, I get that. I thought, for a little while, that this was actually a far greater chance but now I see it as something of a pipe dream for fans of the pre-New 52 format. For those of us who picked up comics during the New 52, like myself, the signs of a retcon aren't too prevalent. The major shakeups in the mainstream story seem to only be that Earth-3 decided to attack us and that Dick Grayson turned into a super spy. Yay.

Lego Star Wars II Review

Before it was cool for pretty much everything in the media to be in LEGO form, there were a couple of simple games that forever changed the mindset of ten year-olds buying videogames. The "Lego Star Wars" videogame franchise.

I'd like to akin the two games to the first two "Assassin's Creed" videogames. Assassin's Creed was a revolutionary game, taking us into a whole new world with relatively new concept and using interesting gameplay and missions to its advantage. Assassin's Creed II took that and multiplied it by like a thousand, still having the same interesting quirks of the first but adding in several more of its own to revolutionize a generation. Similarly, Lego Star Wars II did pretty much the same thing as the original game, but added in multiple new mechanics to make the games feel almost completely different.

Is there too much Batman?

Think of five super-heroes. Obviously, one among them is going to be the Batman himself. Right now, thanks to the success of Christopher Nolan's trilogy, Batman is popular in culture. He's everywhere, even in Lego form. Most of the Batman interpretations now, too, are based off of Bale's Batman of having a throat issue. One could say he's possibly even surpassed Superman in popularity (as Superman is somewhat infamous due to his latest outing in Man of Steel...plus he was just, like, possessed-ish by Doomsday...).

Blue Nexus #1: Into the Nexus!

           

Living up on a hill that was a decent enough distance from light pollution definitely had its perks for a young astronomer. Living alone on a hill with a large backyard had its perks for an athlete who enjoyed practicing their skills, such as lacrosse. Living on a hill away from the noises of surburbia had its perks to let a student do their studying.

The Amazing Spider-Man #4 Review

I don't own any particularly ground-breaking or bad comics, so I figured I would just pick out ones that peaked my interest while reading them. I've already covered the third issue of "Original Sin," and I also feel that outside of the potential eighth issue coming up tomorrow, September 3, it's probably the main one of note. I'll get around to my thoughts as a whole on the series later on.

So to kick off my official reviewing of single-issue comics, why not start with one of the most popular super-heroes ever, Spider-Man? More specifically, the revamped Spider-Man.

Death Note Review (part 1)

It's been a while since I've last seen the mega-ultra-youmustwatchitrightnow-anime series known as Death Note. In terms of the show, I technically read the first thirteen episodes, as I was reading the manga through Volume 4 until bookstores I went to stopped having it so I decided to check on Netflix so lo and behold...it was there and I watched and I loved.

But since I haven't watched it in a while I'm going to keep this review spoiler-free because I don't want to get anything wrong, instead focusing on the main characters, overall story, music, animation, and just how much I enjoyed watching this.

Because I enjoyed it a lot.