ゲームを楽しもう!

this is another very late article, i actually watched this movie during it's theatrical run last year but i never got around to actually covering it until now. it's a bad habit of mine but it's one I'm trying to correct. it's taken me so long to cover it that the movie has even came out on DVD by now, a DVD i actually nabbed a while back! i do love this movie though and it got me much more into a game I'd been neglecting something bad. the movie is a musical based mainly on the project sekai mobage, the gatcha vocaloid game. it's a really cute game with a really fun original cast and a pretty amazing OST full of original vocaloid stuff and some really cool covers from other games (like persona 5 and touhou). I'm not going to talk much about the game though since i'd like to cover it on its own another time, i like it a lot! sadly the game is almost required for the movie, though. if you aren't familiar with the games pretty huge cast then the movie doesn't really make a lot of sense and i don't know how much there would be for you here. the appeal is seeing miku and the different bands all coming together and giving you fun scenes and music, it's made for the fans and if you're only familiar with miku from MV's and niconico douga videos then you'll probably just end up confused and not have a good time. it doesn't spend a ton of time giving them depth because that's what the game is for and i like that, it avoids overly complicated setups and filling its runtime with stuff the intended audience already knows.

the story is good, though, even if you aren't that into the game. miku is just inherently cute and likable and seeing her sad here is heartbreaking. with how vocaloid has been a path for so many artists to get into the industry, the story being about overcoming creative blocks and pushing through to achieve your dreams actually feels real and honest. it's so easy for stories like this to feel pandering and cynical but i don't know, when it's miku it just works. especially in an age when people would rather put a prompt into some AI program to generate a song over making their own, miku feels like the right person to come out and speak out about the merits of putting yourself out there and really achieving something creatively. seeing miku sad at people not being able to creatively express themselves was so heartbreaking. the movie does a good job with telling a story with as big of a cast as it has, you do get to see everyone shine at least a little and you even have the other vocaloids showing up for a little too :) it's just nice seeing these characters animated and hanging out with them. though your oshi might not get as much screentime as you would like. i know i would have loved more kanade and rui screentime.

the movie does very much feel like it's focus is on ichika and miku and i think that's fine, it works for the story they want to tell and it's not like any groups really get neglected. the movie is also super pretty, i loved seeing all of the different sekai's represented and the normal Tokyo town looks really nice too. the lighting here was the standout thing for me, scenes set during dusk and night always looks so damn cool. the movies original miku looks great too, her hoodie looks really cool! the movie even has a cool action sequence involving sand which is really neat, though the musical numbers are steal the show Moreso.

Being what is basically a miku musical the music is just as good as you would expect. each group gets their own chance to shine with a song, though the focus is on miku herself and leo/need with ichika as the focus. the opening track "はじまりの未来" is amazing, "君恋クエスト" is really cute and I love the chiptune in it. the leo/need song "story" is really great, one of their better tracks. the more more jump! track "fun!" is a top 3 song in the movie to me, I love it. idol pop is what I've been the most into recently so listening to it again made me really happy. the vivid bad squad track "ファイアダンス" is just okay, though they were always my least favourite group musically. "スマイル*シンフォニー " is amazing just like the rest of the tracks from wonderlandsxshowtime, it's catchy and funny! nightcord at 25 were always my favourite group and "そこに在る、光。" is also similarly probably the best song on the OST alongside "fun!". "ハローセカイ" is probably going to be the standout song from the movie for most people and it's the other best track on the OST. I cried when it came up. the track "Glow" got me emotional too, slow and sad guitar songs always do that. "群青讃歌" had me smiling so much, I love these kinds of big group songs and it's probably the movies best fanservice moment, the track "worlders" too was similarly :) . "快晴" is pretty great, same with the last few covers of "ハローセカイ" that round off the tracklist. to top it all off most of the tracks also have vocaloid covers too! they're all just as good. there was even a post credits dance number too, it used the hologram look really well and even on a theatre screen it looked like a real hologram concert, it was super cool!

the movie was directed by one Hiroyuki Hata. he's done a lot in the industry, working on lapis re:lights, girls & panzer, another, shirobako, happy go lily and squid girl. a solid track record. the animation was done by PA works, who you probably know from canaan, angel beats, the eccentric family, shirobako, sakura quest, akiba maid war, and A3! all great stuff. the movie had a theatrical run that i saw it in but it has since been released on DVD and blu ray. i can confirm the DVD release is solid, if maybe not the prettiest. it doesn't come with the little bonuses the theatre version gave you for the game though, those are long gone. i reccomend watching the movie if you like the game, but if you haven't played it then it's going to be a harder sell unless you're super into miku, though if you're that into miku then i question why you haven't gotten into prosekai yet. regardless i really enjoyed it and i think if you like prosekai then you'll have a great time with it, it's hard to go wrong with a vocaloid musical

bloom and rage is one of the most disappointing games i think I've ever played. i don't outright hate the game but i found myself pretty upset with how much i just wasn't enjoying my time with it. i had such high hopes and the game delivered on almost none of them. it has a great setup and a lot of potential that just all feels wasted with some poor design decisions, bad signposting for endings and one of the most insufferable characters I've ever had the displeasure of interacting with in a game. it's a shame too since usually i love dontnod's work. the original life is strange is one of my favourite games and i love 2 as well, i loved remember me and i think vampyr looks like it'd be a great time but this is the first time I've ever felt that one of their games was a huge miss. I'll throw out some positives first though. i think the games setup is great! going back and fourth between the past and the present and finding out the story slowly through firsthand accounts and conversations decades later is really cool! i like things like how the perspective changes from first to third person depending on the era, i like how the characters change over the years and i think the original setting of late 90's Michigan is really nice looking, even if it can feel a little bit too "Nostalgia bait'y" at times and it feels a little inauthentic to me. i love the video camera system and i think it's well implemented. some of the levels look really nice and are a ton of fun to explore and take video of, the forests especially are some of the best I've seen in a game and i love the bar you spend the modern segments in, walking around and filming these beautiful environments was the closest i came to having a good time with it. the game in general looks really good and the OST isn't bad either.

but none of it really amounts to much. the characters changing so much means that the game has some set ways it wants things to go down and it makes some of the romance options feel entirely pointless. 2 of the 3 romances amount to nothing and the 3rd is with the games worst character. the cast are really hit and miss and i think they're mostly misses. i like kat and nora a lot and i think both have interesting stories, though the latter the game does fumble with her modern version. swann is fine but can be a little annoying and then autumn is. i really wanted to be mean about it when i originally beat the game, but i just don't have that in me. i really dislike her, she's a total stick in the mud that always ruins any fun the group has, it always seems like she's just a tag-along that never wants to be there and she has no real chemistry with the rest of the group, she brings the mood down in almost every scene she's in and i found her totally miserable to be around with how she constantly fights back at the main characters wanting to do anything remotely fun. she's a pretty big blight on the games cast and i honestly think the game would be better off without her. her modern version isn't even much better and you spend a lot of the modern segments with just her, she was clearly the favourite of the writing staff which does make me feel a little bad for disliking her so much. the gameplay is mostly pretty standard but there is some attempts at variety like with the video tapes, the switches to first person and a very, very bad stealth sequence later on which very nearly caused me to quit the game. there's a few basic puzzles, some choices to make and a few item hunts, but it's not really a gameplay focused game and i think that works in its favour. it's a very chill experience outside of that one stealth sequence and a final spooky segment.

it's also very difficult, which is weird to say for a game like this, but it's really buggy and it's very finnicky with how to get certain better outcomes. one wrong dialogue choice near the start can embitter a character enough towards you that it can lock you out of the true ending. the game also runs a little too long for what it is. you could handle a length like this easier in something like life is strange because it was split into those 5 episodes which all had natural starting and ending points but here it's split into two, so if you decide to play them like that in the way they intended the game can really start to drag. it already kind of does even with breaks because the game is a lot slower paced than any of the other dontnod games. at times it can be cozy but so much of it just feels a little pointless and meandering, it's very poorly paced. the mystery at the core of it also just isn't all that interesting. i think the stuff with kat is a highlight but the supernatural stuff doesn't feel like it goes anywhere and it's a lot of buildup for very little payoff. it feels entirely superfluous, which i guess is probably the point.

though i can't help but feel dissapointed by it. i will admit though that the true ending is very solid overall and despite how much i did dislike a lot of the game, it did manage to make me tear up a little. if you do want to play the game it's not super expensive, it'll run you around £25-30 which isn't too bad, it comes with both episodes on disc and it's pretty common to find online sealed still. it's also on both PS5, xbox series and PC, though no switch 2 port as of it. i feel like if it was an option that would be the way to go, the game would suit portability well to break up the gameplay chunks better. it's not one i can recommend whole heartedly, but i would still advise looking into it more yourself and considering it if what you see is at all appealing. I've seen people who adore this game and will swear by it and i don't want to hate on something so many people seem to love. it has an audience and i think if you're in that audience then this game could really mean something to you. if it sounds interesting even with the things I'm pointing out then feel free to give it a try, you might like it.

Much like the square enix guardians of the galaxy game i covered a few months back i went into this game with basically no knowledge of the source material and honestly, not a lot of interest in it. To me this was less a spiderman game and more an insomniac game and that's how i treated it for its entire runtime. I'm coming at this entirely from an outsiders perspective, is what I'm trying to say and this is a game that's very much made for people who already like this series. i don't find this character appealing and my time with the game didn't do much to really sell me on him, but if you are then this game is certainly made for you and you shouldn't take my issues with it very seriously since you may not have the same issues i do. I'm just here because i think ratchet and clank is neat and I'm still chasing that high bar that was the movement mechanics in the best insomniac game; sunset overdrive. sadly this is no sunset overdrive, but it's not a bad game and i didn't have a bad time with it. it's a fun sandbox, even if it's one that's way too safe and doesn't really inspire much in me.

the combat is one of the main areas i feel really mixed on, mainly because there is potential here. it's speedy and has some really fun air combos that you can pull off but it's all just hampered by how cinematic the game wants to look and how that interferes with the potential of the combat. you have a basic combo, a web attack that drags you to enemies, things like throws for both enemies and the environment and the ability to punch enemies into the air and combo them there. the air combo also has a cool move where you can swing on a web and kick them a huge distance away, i loved doing this to kick enemies from tall buildings. there's also a ranged shooter attack that can stun enemies and if you're lucky even pin them to a wall, plus some gadgets that use this in various ways. there's a turret that follows you, a stronger burst, electric stun attacks, traps, a push, bombs and a really cool attack that suspends them in the air like the devil trigger mode from DMC:DMC. there's also some cool takedown moves that you trigger with a meter, though these get stale pretty fast and i'd usually rather save my meter for extra health since you can expend it to heal. the last thing is that you do have some ultimate mode attacks which you don't use super often since they're on a cooldown, but some are pretty fun like ground pounds, an alternate battle style with 4 metal spider arms, debilitating your enemies with quips, a mode that sends them flying with every attack and a cool negative wave attack. it's pretty fun at first but very quickly it grows repetitive and you start to notice the issues with it, like how you can't hit multiple enemies with attacks, even when the animation shows that it could happen. you really only have two combo strings and the game never really does much to spice the combat up beyond some shield enemies and the occasional stealth segment.

the stealth is pretty fun when the game lets you loose with it. You swing around and pouch above the stage, pulling enemies up, doing instant takedowns from above or using the environment against them. when the stealth is fun, it's really fun, i just wish the game made better use of it. for some reason it also never even lets you fully clear an area with it, some of the side missions seemed to always auto-alert enemies even if i did come close to clearing them and often times being spotted even once gave you an instant game over. it was really frustrating and it always feels like an afterhtought because of it. during some sections of the game you'll switch perspectives to Mary jane for her own stealth sections. these have some takedowns with a Taser and in one level later on you can use spiderman like a summon, but otherwise they're just basic stealth with the game failing you after being spotted. they make for a nice distraction and beyond that final one they're all generally short, so i like them. they never overstay their welcome and it gives the game the variety it really desperately needs. one involving miles and rhino might even be one of the games bigger highlights.

one big focus is on set pieces in the missions though and these can generally be pretty fun, none of them really get as exciting or fun as a lot of the ones in other big Sony games like uncharted 4 or the last of us 2, but they can still be pretty fun and technically impressive. the starting fight against kingpin, a fight on a train in the late game, a very cool prison stage that's probably the games level highlight, there's a few cool tag team boss fights and i enjoyed the shocker and scorpion fights a lot, same with the optional tombstone fight. the games most technically impressive scene is pretty easily the helicopter chase, even this long after the games launch i was really impressed by it. it's one of the cooler cinematic moments in any of these kinds of games. the final boss fight and the dream sequences with MR negative and scorpion are great too though.

depth isn't the focus though and i can tell. the focus is on the feel of it, which i guess could appeal to some even with the lack of depth, it's about selling you on that fantasy of the character rather than anything with the depth of a real action game and i think that's fine. it succeeds at what it sets out to do. it also has a super impressive open world. the recreation of new York is huge and fun to explore. you can see landmarks, collect backpacks, do fun challenges with bespoke missions and high five randos in the street after you help with randomly appearing crimes. the world does feel alive and it's seriously beautiful at almost all times of the day, though especially at dawn and night. it's fun to explore and i had a really nice time doing so, it's a seemingly very accurate recreation with some marvel easter eggs and buildings tossed in and it does have some variety to it even though it is just one city. some areas being more cozy and residential, some more industrial and some very buisnessy and they all change over the course of the game.

the traversal with the web slinging is great too, you have to build momentum and speed and when you do it right you really zip across the city at a very impressive pace. the web traversal is honestly so good that it's enough for me to recommend playing the game for that alone, you can even do things like slingshot yourself off of points, run up walls, squeeze through gaps midair, there's a cool dash, you can do tricks and stick to walls upside down, the whole environment feels traversable in a way that almost no other game does and i think that's really cool. there's a lot to do there too! your usual Ubisoft towers and collectables, which are fun enough with the traversal. there's combat and traversal challenges with some enemy bases for stealth and combat thrown in, landmarks and black cat stakeouts to photograph, pigeons to catch, a variety of crimes to solve that randomly pop up, side quests some of which are traversal based like the labs and some are more combat based like with optional bosses and storylines that bring in characters you don't otherwise see in the storyline like tombstone and taskmaster. there's a lot to do and most of it is pretty solid, sure some bits like the pigeons or the bases and combat challenges are a little lame, but i think the more bespoke stuff and photography make up for it. there's also a few cool minigames like a bioshock style pipe dream puzzle chain that i loved doing, though the spectrum one that has you matching lines wasn't quite as fun.

the music isn't much to talk about. it has a cool main theme that it uses a lot as a motif and there's a cool vocal song to start the game but beyond these two tracks basically nothing about it stands out to me. i remember basically nothing from it and i spent around 30 hours in this game 100%ing it. the story is much the same. it has tons of characters and villains from the source material and it seems to characterize them really well, though i just struggled to really connect with it. i didn't like most of the cast and while the game has some stellar voice acting from a lot of my favourite VA's, i just found it difficult to care for much of it. i didn't really enjoy the dialogue and i found the story to be overly long and very meandering, the plot beats just never hit like i feel the game wanted them to for me even down to character deaths and twists. there are some highlights for sure, like a section in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, i loved yuri Watanabe's story, the Alex jones styled j-Jonah jameson radio segments were always hilarious and i liked mister negative as a villain, but this story really feels like one that's made for fans of the source material. I'm just not that. it's a shame because i loved crystal dynamics guardians of the galaxy game and it was in the same vein as this, i had no interest in he source material going in but it has enough charm and heart to endear me by the end of it. that game was really heartfelt and well written and this just feels too focus tested in its writing to do much for me at all, there's just not enough heart here. it's a game that's really desperate for you to like it and in doing so it just comes across as kind of lame.

the DLC is one area where i feel like the game shines a little more. the DLC's are split into 3 separate episodes that all take place at different times of day and weather. each one is an instance with its own collectables and missions to find that's packed entirely separately from the main game, which i think is a good idea. it makes each stand out more and it means you won't get bogged down in the base game activities while you try to make your way through these new ones. it keeps the whole DLC experience fresh. the first DLC is centred around black cat mainly and she's a ton of fun! i love her design and i think that the story they tell with her via the audio tapes you find and her relationship with Pete is really interesting. she's the highlight of any of the DLC's for me and i think the first is worth playing for her alone. the mafia stuff is fairly interesting too this early on, though sadly i think this is really the only episode where they stay interesting as the other episodes take that plotline in a way that i wasn't all that interested in. there's a few fun set pieces in the first chapter at least, i love the museum segment and the big fight at the end and there's a super fun fight at a restaurant that has you fighting alongside black cat that was the highlight of the entire DLC trilogy for me, the final level is pretty cool too, it's another generic dock fight but being able to summon black cat like a stand makes the stealth gameplay at least a little more fun than it usually is. there's also some new side stuff and mechanics to engage with. the spider Bot has you sneaking around with a little robot and looking for clues, it's pretty fun. there's screwball challenges which are just a more charming version of the main games combat challenges with a fun villain goading you on the whole time. there's also new flavours of crimes to take on, collectables that have a fun storyline to them with a character i won't spoil and there's new suits to unlock too if you want them. it's a solid start, though by this point the game was getting very stale for me and it's something the two next DLC's just weren't able to help with.

DLC 2 is focused mainly on the mob and their leader, hammerhead as well as giving more of a spotlight to Yuri. this is a great setup since Yuri was my favourite of the base game characters and i love what they did with her in this and the next DLC, though hammerhead i feel more mixed on. he starts these DLC's being pretty threatening but the direction they go with him becoming a powered up mecha mobster just feels a little boring to me and it doesn't suit the tone the DLC's went for up until then. the missions are generally around the same quality though, but maybe slightly less interesting since you don't have the gimmick of a companion this time around. the starting mission in the abandoned building has a horror vibe to it that i really like, there's a cool crawl through a bar in the spider Bot and that's really it for standouts. the final boss is neat i guess but this has a lot of following escorts and a pretty overtly long mission involving enemies drilling under the map to places around the city. side content is more of the same, more mafia crimes, more screwball challenges but you do get some new mafia bases to take down, it's a shame they're pretty samey from the ones in the base game though. there's also new suits! i don't have anything to really say about those. the rainy new York of this DLC does have a fantastic atmosphere though so i will have to give credit for that. it's the most atmospheric of the 3 in general, i just wish it had better comitted to the mobster noir energy.

the final DLC is somewhere in quality between the second and first in terms of quality. i don't think it matches the heist but it's at least a little better in terms of mission variety and side stuff compared to turf wars. the story is the overall weakest of the three though. i like silver sable and a lot and i think she has a fun chemistry with peter but the overall story feels just kind of nothingy and boring. it doesn't have as much going on and it can't top turf wars' atmosphere and the final boss is very unintentionally funny in a way that really deflates the whole thing. that said i love where it goes with Yuri's story and she's the highlight of the DLC overall, even if she's limited mostly to side stories. the missions are a mixed bag, but i like them more than i don't. there's a cool final mission on a ship, a fun section where you're out of the suit and a sewer level with some very cool platforming. There's more side stuff too! i loved hunting down Yuri's victims and her tapes, there's more crimes, more screwball challenges and some more bases. there's the most to do here of any of the three, oh and there's even more suits!

it's a pretty long game, though. a straight shot to the end with just the base game will run you around 12-15 hours, an extra 2 hours per DLC chapter and then maybe another 10-15 if you want to do all of the side stuff. it's a lot of game and it doesn't really have the variety to sustain all that stuff. i was ready for the game to end long before even the base game ended. it's easy at least, i can't imagine many people won't be able to beat this with pretty minor assists. you have easy access to heals with the meter stuff and there's very little real punishment for dying even if you do. for ports you have a few options. the original PS4 version is cheap and pretty readily available, there's even a release that has all of the DLC with it. I'd recommend this version above the rest, though do know the GOTY version is a code rather than all being on disc. the later remastered version for PS5 does have all of this DLC as standard but there's a new design for peter that i don't think is as good and there's no real physical release, you need to get it via a deluxe edition of the games sequel. the PC version is this remastered version i think, though I'm not sure. the basic PS4 version won't run you much at least, around £10-15 for a complete in box copy.

insomniac went on to make 2 sequels for this, Spider-Man: Miles Morales was a PS5 launch title and it's a pretty impressive looking one with it's snowy rendition of new York, though it's more a spinoff than a real sequel. the big sequel would be Spider-Man 2 which let you play as multiple characters, though it doesn't look as cool as the miles game does. that snowy new York seems really cool. insomniac have been kind of stuck in the marvel factories though, which is a big shame. we got ratchet and clank: a rift apart during the early PS5 days but since then it's been all marvel, all the time with SM2 and the newly released wolverine, I'd also heard about upcoming venom and x-men games from them too. it is a shame to see a dev i really cared for being stuck in a rut like this, i hope they're eventually able to move on to more interesting projects. i long for the days of their old output like sunset overdrive, FUSE and resistance. it's a tough game for me to fully recommend, but its a game i know I'm in the vast minority on. people love this game and I'm happy for them, it is nice to see insomniac get a big hit in but this just isn't something that inspires me like those games do. regardless i would say to give it a try and make your own mind up at least if the game seems even a little interesting, that open world and those movement mechanics are worth the price of admission alone.

when "resident evil (2026)" was first shown off i actually wasn't so sure on this movie, i wasn't a hater like so many people were but i just wasn't sure on the darker direction and the fact it wasn't a direct adaptation. the director being more of a prestige horror guy also set off a few alarm bells for me too. this wasn't fair of me though since the movie actually turned out great! while it's not my favourite movie in the series, it's a pretty close second and i think it's a pretty perfect movie for the source material and one of the better game movies in terms of quality that you can find. the movie isn't a direct adaptation like i said but it manages to capture the spirit of the games pretty impressively well regardless. it's basically the story of some guy who just happens to get caught in racoon city on the night of the outbreak. it's the backstory of some rando who's notes you stumble across in the games, at one point he even leaves a note for whatever protagonist to find and semi-solves some environmental puzzles. it takes its biggest inspirations from the resident evil outbreak games and i love that, there's even a sequence in the sewers that felt like a big reference to the first outbreak's opening. hell the main monster is even heavily inspired by nyx from outbreak file 2! so the inspiration is very direct and noticeable. i love that, outbreak was always one of the coolest games in the series and i think it's the part of it that could easily be expanded the most. I'm just surprised it took them this long to capitalize on it.

the MC is also just super likable and funny, i didn't like some of his jokes but i thought it was really endearing and he feels like what someone would actually act like if they were stuck in this situation. he's honestly pretty cute too. it's a really pretty time as well. the snowy scenes in the first half when they're out in the countryside are really atmospheric and pretty and i think this winter version of racoon city might just be one of my favourite renditions, even if you don't get to see all that much of it. i was constantly impressed by how it looks and that just doesn't happen with a lot of movies these days, there's a few scenes at the end in a hospital (the skybridge and the maternity ward) that looked just so cool. the environmental work here is amazing. the atmosphere too, it's genuinely scary and some of the scenes really got to me, like the sewer and the aforementioned maternity ward, it does a perfect job of capturing just how hellish racoon city was, that feeling that just around any corner could be some hellish nightmare that'll end you in a second. like seeing *spoilers* the monster try to bait him into the darkness with the key's attached to the body was really horrifying. i liked seeing bryan do well too, he has so many little moments of failure but i always loved when he managed to pull out a win against the monsters, like the roof zombies, the dog and the house scenes or the really cool final kill with the broom and the door, it has those :) optimism moments that the series does so well with, it even has some dumb action with the whole elevator sequence, i won't spoil it but i wanted to cheer at it. he's pretty funny too at times, like in that dog scene and i think his whole story with maturing and dealing with change is really sweet and well done.

that said there are a few things i didn't like as much. the side characters are pretty nothingy, but I'm fine with that since the main character makes up for it. the humour can be a little much, but it never goes so overboard that it ruins the movie, it just took me out of it sometimes even though it did get a few real laughs out of me. *spoilers* i also initially felt mixed on the ending, but in retrospect i think him just being one of the random mini-bosses you meet in any given adventure is a neat way to end things. the game is trying to adapt the story of some rando in a note and those people do sometimes end up going on to be special infected or bosses, so i think it fits that perfectly, even though I'd have loved a happier ending. that's about all there is too it. i enjoyed it a lot! it has some cool easter eggs, some fun throwbacks in design, pretty great monster designs and it's pretty earnest and heartfelt all things considered. i think for most people this will be their favourite of the series and i can see why, i think if i didn't have such a nostalgic soft spot for apocalypse that this would be my favourite. go see it in theatres of you can, it's a great time and I'd love to see it do well enough that we can get more like this.

so I've never actually seen dragon ball, in any form. never the original, or the sequel in any real way. never seen the show or watched the manga. i never really had an interest in it, some of the games seem neat and I'd like to play at least a few of them but on the whole it's just not something that interests me. the tone and character design and style all just radiate "not for me" in a way that really does tell me that i won't be able to get into it. that is to say I'm not the kind of person who would get offended at dragon ball evolution, actually i love it. it's one of my go-to junk food movies and it's one I've seen more times than i can count. i really love it. it's the movie that more than anything else feels like the era i grew up in and watching it always brings me right back there. it's not the most 2000's movie out there but it's the one that feels that way to me. the story and the writing and the characters is just like, every kids action movie from that time all put into one but it also just happens to be based on an anime and have one of my favourite actors in it. it's like catnip for me. it's got funny lines that are super quotable, action scenes that are more funny than anything else and it has chow yun fat in it. i can't be expected to hate a movie with chow yun fat in it.

i love this version of Goku and his the dumb car slide, bulma's weird single strand of blue hair, the random surfer scammer version of yamcha and i think the version of mai here that runs around trying to kill people in a catsuit is cool as hell. sure, i may only feel like this because i have zero attachment to the original characters, but i think there's value to that too. it lets me see this movie and enjoy it on its own merits. the action is super fun and by Hollywood standards i think the kung fu is pretty good. the writing is cheesy in the best way, there's some really good set design and shots here in places like the big cyberpunk city. it even has a majority Asian cast. i think that is commendable alone and it's something that major movies, and major anime movies, still struggle with. it's also got a cool PSP fighting game that I'd love to cover some day, it's a normal dragon ball fighting game but with the cast of the movie thrown in and it has some very funny cutscenes. totally recommend both if you can go in with an open enough mind. i think the hate for this is super overblown and that you can totally have fun with it if you try not to be a total stickler for the source material. i did and i will continue to do so, this is one of my comfort movies and i even own multiple copies of the DVD for it. i hope i was at least able to convince a few people to go into it with fresh eyes, or to consider that some people to find enjoyment in it, it deserves better than what it gets on the net and i always feel a little sad when i see people blindly hate it.

+ A little song reccomendation too for those that stuck around to the very end! I've been playing this non-stop for weeks now. See if you can spot how this influenced the design of the new avatar!