Toronto Thumbs

I Heart The Transformers But
No, I Don’t Like The Michael Bay Movies

When Michael Bay’s Transformers was released in 2007, I was initially quite excited about seeing my favourite cartoon being brought to life through the magic of modern technology. Big explosions, cool cars, and crazy fights were just about guaranteed to give me my giant robot fix of that summer. But I was immensely disappointed upon seeing it. I remember the experience quite vividly. As the movie started, I was incredibly thrilled. The opening scene was excellent and seemed to set what I was expecting to be the pace for the remainder of the film.

Unfortunately all the special effects in the world can’t compensate for poor acting, a convoluted plot, and stiff, unlikable characters. It couldn’t even justify the creative liberties taken with the characters of The Transformers’ universe. Having Bumblebee, the most humble and gentle of Transformers, urinate on a character was just about the low point of the movie. That, however, is arguable; there was far too much that was far too horrible in that movie for a longtime fan like me to possibly forgive. For instance, why such a huge unnecessary emphasis on the humans who have zero redeeming qualities whatsoever?

This year the world was gifted with Bay’s follow-up to the original crapfest and, in true fashion, the sequel just took everything about the first movie and cranked it all to 11. Sadly this meant out of place comedic sequences were even more out of place, racist jokes and characterizations were even more offensive, the story made even less sense, and the battles were even more confusing. Two years after the first blockbuster raked in millions of dollars, the sequel did the same despite not doing anything differently – or well, for that matter.

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Posted in Blast From the Past, Cartoons, Editorial, Film | 5 Comments »

Literary Droppings #144: Xbox LIVE

The other day, before work, I decided to play a quick game of NHL 09 over Xbox LIVE. So I picked my team (Habs), and a random dude logged in and picked his (Sharks). Cool.

Now I didn’t have my headset connected because I’m not that committed - I’m just playing a game of hockey, after all. But this guy was talking away: “Oh!” and “Shit!” at every missed chance. Then I scored. All I heard after that was “Gay!” and “You’re Gay!” So I was thinking, “Whatever, sore loser.”

But wait, there’s more. He then tried to start fights with my players, while I wanted nothing to do with it. So he continued to get penalties, and I was scoring on each power play - one goal after another. He started screaming, “FIGHT ME!” and also sent me messages to fight him. I didn’t because what’s the point? So you can beat up my player in a hockey video game. Is that really a victory? Then he quit out, like the loser he is.

So I pose this to you, faithful readers: Should I have fought this guy? Why?

Posted in Commentary | 3 Comments »

Looking Back On Luigi’s Mansion

Luigi’s Mansion was a launch title for Nintendo’s previous home console, the GameCube. It was also one of the first GameCube games I owned. True to form, I had selected my next console based on which one had the coolest-looking Star Wars title. Back when the Nintendo 64 was released, I had purchased Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire weeks before actually being able to get a hold of the system (as an unemployed high school student with no reliable means of transportation, this was harder than you would think).

But of course with the Nintendo 64, there was also the promise of the arcade hits Killer Instinct and Cruisin’ USA making their home debut, and although these titles haven’t aged well, they were pretty freaking groundbreaking at the time. Nintendo 64 served me well through college, where I was much too busy to game. I only had five games for it, and for me it was my Star Wars system (SOTE and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron would take turns being the go-to game).

When the GameCube was released, I initially sought after it as a successor to my Star Wars-playing console. After all, Star Wars: Rogue Leader looked amazing. I actually bought that game before even owning a GameCube. I didn’t know it at the time of its release, but the GameCube would ultimately become the console that brought me back into gaming after a casual absence. To think: it was actually just part of my ever-growing Star Wars collection at the time.

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Posted in Blast From the Past, Editorial, GameCube | 5 Comments »

The Ups and Downs of FanExpo - Digest 1

In 1999, I attended my first-ever comic convention. I can’t remember what it was called at the time, but it would eventually evolve into what FanExpo is today. Back then the event was much smaller and while it did have a few science fiction guests and a retail booth devoted to Star Trek, its emphasis was on comics. Artist’s Alley took up a small portion of the showroom floor and it was here that I spent most of my first convention.

My friend Nuno had created his own independent comic book called Samurai Phil, about a white guy who thought he was a samurai (he even carried around a bokken and called other people “White Devil”). He wasn’t a stand-up comic book hero, and in fact he only picked on juvenile delinquents because those were the only kinds of people he could beat up. I should also note that Nuno’s book came a good two years before Samurai Jack hit the airwaves.

Artist’s Alley has been my favourite part of FanExpo throughout the years, and this year was no exception. There’s something incredible about being able to talk directly to comic creators who actually want to talk to you and aren’t jaded and full of themselves, and this is still a good place to do this. Sometimes, however, the creators can get a little crazy.

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Posted in Editorial, Events | 6 Comments »

Writers Claim Their Site Only Canadian Gaming News Outlet. Hilarity, Then Introspection, Ensues.

On Friday, while I was catching up with Paul Hunter, head honcho of NextGen Player, he mentioned overhearing a bunch of people the previous night boasting about having the only Canadian gaming news site: HUDisplay.ca. He passed along the link to their site, which I immediately had to check out. After all, it’s not every day we hear about another new Canadian gaming news site, let alone one whose owners believe it to be the only one of its kind.

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Posted in Editorial | 17 Comments »

SO WHAT?
Wii Sports Resort Won’t Replace Wii Sports

One of the more popular articles on Toronto Thumbs this week was the interview with Nintendo of Canada’s Matt Ryan about Wii Sports Resort and Wii MotionPlus. A bunch of sites have picked up on the sound bite that there are currently no plans to replace Wii Sports with Wii Sports Resort – which is something I think many were expecting to happen.

What is interesting, however, is some of the reaction I’ve read about this elsewhere. But before I get to that let me chime in with my take on this.

My question to Matt Ryan was that since the Wii MotionPlus accessory is so small, and that the tech inside is also small, whether we might see that tech integrated into future builds of the Wii Remote. I was going to follow this up with the question of whether we’ll see Wii Sports Resort as a pack-in to replace Wii Sports, now about to enter its third year of pack-in service. Ryan, as someone who can tell where a conversation is being led, addressed that question before I got to ask it.

Wii Sports won’t be replaced because it offers an out of the box experience for new Wii Owners. I think this is a fair decision on Nintendo’s part since the point of the Wii is its simplicity. Wii Sports is simple. Wii Sports Resort is a little more complicated and, although you and I as experienced gamers have no problem picking it up and playing it, Wii Sports serves as a better introduction to the Wii than Wii Sports Resort. Ryan mentioned that Nintendo wants every new Wii owner to experience Wii Sports just as current Wii owners have. Again, I think this is fair.

I’ve read some comments that were along the lines of “why would Nintendo pack it in if they can sell it at full price?” and though they were written with blatant sarcasm, these are valid statements. Nintendo has no reason to pack Wii MotionPlus in with the Wii because one of the reasons of running a successful business is to make money. Wii MotionPlus is a good product. It works, and it’s $25. Yeah, it can get expensive if you’re outfitting all four of your Wii Remotes with one, but you can also just have a friend bring over theirs since most of the games are better when played with others. Complaining that Wii MotionPlus should be included with the Wii is also kind of strange because really, who doesn’t own a Wii already? They’ve sold more Wii consoles than there are people in Canada.

It would seemingly make people happy if Nintendo included more of their products with the Wii. Why not go to the extreme? A retail box that included the Wii, four Wii Remotes, four Nunchucks, four Wii MotionPlus attachments, a Wii Balance Board, and the last five Nintendo-published Wii games would be awesome, especially since it would be hundreds of dollars and everyone has that kind of money just floating around. I know I do!

For the record, I would love to have a Wii Remote with MotionPlus integrated into it. But if Nintendo is planning on this, they probably wouldn’t mention it so soon after the release of the stand-alone accessory. It would be like Apple tipping its hand about the next iPod’s features while trying to sell you on the current one. Still, I couldn’t help but ask.

Posted in Editorial, Nintendo | 4 Comments »

The Magic of Animal Crossing

When Animal Crossing was released for the GameCube, I was living in a gaming media blackout situation. All I knew about the game was what was shown in the reality show-style advertisements for it on a GameCube demo disc I got from a friend who worked at Toys R Us. In these humorous ads, people in foam fabric costumes talked about moving into town with their friends and the general presentation made it seem like a spoof of shows like The Real World.

These were simpler days for me, and the fact that I still lived with my parents meant I had a lot more disposable income. The first time I saw Animal Crossing in a store, I purchased it. The first time I played it, I found it to be overly cute and charming. The game set itself up nicely and everything it presented fit perfectly into place in its small world. Characters in the town had immediately recognizable personality types. Some I instantly loved while others instantly annoyed me. It was a lot like this thing called real life, only cuter.

It was Animal Crossing that eventually prompted me to purchase Nintendo’s poorly supported eReader accessory for the Game Boy Advance. By using it in conjunction with the GBA-to-GameCube connector cable, players could scan in special Animal Crossing cards and those in turn would unlock special items and features in the GameCube game. It was a gimmick that worked on me, as I traded in a few older (and bad) games I had reviewed in return for store credit and more cards. I have all these cards somewhere still.

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Posted in DS, Editorial, GameCube, Wii | 2 Comments »

Nintendo Gives Us Demo Play, Makes Us Uncomfortable

Cue the bellyaching! Oh, wait. You say the bellyaching has begun? Good. This is the Internet, after all, and we will always need and have something to complain about. Take Nintendo, for instance. The company that practically revived videogames from the dead 25 years ago and then re-invigorated the medium to make it more appealing to newcomers just three years ago is once again taking flak, from its fan base, this time for its latest announcement.

Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed Nintendo’s plans to include a “demo play” feature in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and has hinted that this feature will likely be in future games from the company as well. The concept is simple: If gamers are having a hard time completing a particular level, they can go into a menu and choose to have the game finish the level for them while they, presumably, watch along to learn how it’s done. There’s a joke to be made here about Nintendo probably wanting to incidentally cut down on the number of Wii Remote-flinging incidents causing injury and/or property damage, but let’s try to approach this with a more serious mindset.

I’ve certainly had my share of frustration while playing videogames. Although I play them mostly to relax there’s no denying that sometimes games can get so difficult that they make it hard for me to want to go on. Games published by Nintendo are seldom a culprit of this but they’re not excluded, either. However a major part of what makes a videogame fun is the notion that the challenges presented within it are always solvable; it just takes the right approach to get past even the toughest of bosses and platform situations. Upon solving a problem in a game, players tend to feel a sense of accomplishment – in other words, a good feeling.

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Posted in Editorial, Wii | 12 Comments »

E3 - Rediscovering Older Favourites Thanks to New Announcements

Although I have completely finished New Super Mario Bros. three times (once for each save slot), I’ve found myself returning back to it this week due to Nintendo’s announcement of New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Having come into E3 with many naysayers dooming their conference to failure, Nintendo’s presentation was especially strong. Say what you will about the canned delivery of the speeches. I don’t care. I wasn’t watching to see Reggie kick ass and take names. I just wanted to see what games they’d be announcing. As someone who went into the expo with no expectations, I was pleasantly surprised.

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Posted in Commentary, E3, Nintendo | No Comments »

E3 2009 Coverage
Star Wars: The Old Republic

While EA’s press conference started out with a whimper and the discussion on their desire to continue to expand on their tween girl market share, things gradually segued into talk about more hardcore titles. When the Star Wars “Throne Room” composition blared over the speakers towards the end and a collection of cosplayers-as-Jedi took to the stage, complete with shiny toy lightsabers, I knew we were in for a treat.

What followed was discussion on Star Wars: The Old Republic. The MMO, which is a combined BioWare and LucasArts effort makes me yearn for an alternate reality where the prequels didn’t completely destroy my love for Star Wars while at the same time resurrecting that very love. In this trailer, we see beautiful cityscapes destroyed by starfighters and a confrontation between Jedi and Sith — CORRECTION: HUNDREDS OF JEDI AND SITH — and I’m left wondering why the so-called Jedi in Attack of the Clones had such a hard time fighting a clumsy collection of boney droids.

I think what excites me most about The Old Republic is not that it’s Star Wars, but the fact that it seems to be basing its design aesthetics from the movies while expanding upon those designs to create something new. I could go on, but I will settle for watching this trailer again and wishing that Dark Empire was what got made into a trilogy rather than the prequels.

Watch the trailer »

Posted in Awesome, Commentary, E3 | 2 Comments »