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Hops and Box Office Flops: ‘MORTAL KOMBAT’
A Head Smashing Good Time Mortal Kombat marks the return of the legendary video game franchise to the big screen for the first time in 24 years. Considering its wild success on consoles, the gap is hard to fathom. Certainly Annihilation sort of poisoned the well, but the 1995 original remains popular, as does its techno theme song. The one thing most would agree on, though, is that 95’s lack of an R-rating kept it from truly being a Mortal Kombat film. That is no longer an issue. 2021’s film boats buckets of blood, and gruesome fatalities that are as true to the game as is probably acceptable for theaters. This is the adaptation die…
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Mortal Kombat Review – A Flawless Victory? (Mike and John)
In the latest episode of Mike and John At The Movies, we discuss the new Mortal Kombat film! Is it a flawless victory, or do video game movies suffer from yet another fatality? We have the answers for you in our spoiler-free discussion. Mortal Kombat is in theaters now and available to HBO Max subscribers at no additional cost.
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REVIEW: Persona 5 Strikers (Switch)
As summer break arrives, Joker returns to Tokyo and reunites with friends from his Phantom Thieves days. But when a new threat emerges and puts their vacation plans on hold, The Phantom Thieves of Heart re-enter the stage to save the day and clear their name in the process. When Persona 5 was released, it became a massive success within the RPG genre. And it became even bigger once its main protagonist Joker got announced for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate as the first official DLC character (not counting the Piranha Plant pre-order bonus). Now, two years later, the western market is getting its hold of what is officially a sequel…
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REVIEW: Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
Considering the lackluster sales of the Wii U, it is not surprising that Nintendo thought it was necessary to port the “bigger” titles from that console generation to the Nintendo Switch. Just look at the current best-seller for Switch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and you can see that this legendary company knows what it is doing with its IP. Which made it just a matter of time before Super Mario 3D World joined the fray of games being ported to the Switch. Unlike previous ports, however, this one arrives with an expansion called Bowser’s Fury (something I will go over later in this review). The general basis of Super Mario…
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REVIEW: POKEMON: SWORD & SHIELD – CROWN TUNDRA DLC
Many moons ago, yours truly reviewed the first part of Pokémon: Sword & Shield’s expansion pack the Isle of Armor. And being the completionist that I am, a review of Crown Tundra, the second and supposedly last installment of the 8th generation of Pokémon games DLC, was a must. Now, the first point that I would like to make that deserves our utmost attention is that there are no rival trainers within the confines of the Tundra. This expansion focuses primarily on exploring the environment and the secrets that it holds, which benefits the release greatly. Also, the experience is significantly better when your main companion, Peony, is a more…
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We Played Marvel’s Avengers and Had Fun
For so long, we wondered: “What type of game is Square Enix making?” Marvel’s Avengers is nothing like Insomniac’s Spider-Man or Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham trilogy, or even NetherRealm’s Injustice series. It’s a strange situation. Thankfully, this past weekend we got to beta test the Avengers game and discovered that it’s an entirely new experience. Avengers is not the single-player adventure like the upcoming Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The game is a co-op looter beat ’em up. You drop in with friends and smash the hell out of A.I.M. robots. It’s very much in the same vein as Destiny and Anthem. In the beta, we played the opening A-Day tutorial (seen at E3 2019). The controls for most of the…
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Video Game Review: FAIRY TAIL (2020)
When I saw that Koei Tecmo were assigned on another anime licensed video game, it got my curiosity, due to their Attack on Titan game that I reviewed. But when I found out that it was going to be a game based on the manga Fairy Tail, it certainly got my attention. Unlike the Attack on Titan game, Fairy Tail does not contain a self-inserted Avatar that follows the main characters around. But like the Attack on Titan game, it does not start where the manga does Their game adaptation of Fairy Tail starts with what is arguably its main focus, The Grand Magic games, where you have the characters…
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5 More SPIDER-MAN Video Games We Want to See
When it comes to superhero video games, few characters have had more titles than Spider-Man. The Marvel web-slinger has headlined countless games across multiple generations of consoles. Whether it’s original stories, film tie-ins or guest appearances in other games, Spidey is everywhere. Most recently, the character starred in Marvel’s Spider-Man, a PlayStation 4 exclusive that is one of the genre’s greatest. It has spawned an upcoming spinoff in Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Meanwhile, Peter Parker guest stars in Marvel Ultimate Alliances 3: The Black Order and the upcoming Marvel’s Avengers. Of course, that won’t be the end. Spider-Man is a lucrative video game franchise, and Sony and Marvel will continue to…
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5 More Video Games That Should Get a Live Action Adaptation
Video game adaptations have had a bad rep forever, but in recent years, the subgenre has shown improvement. Films such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Tomb Raider have been solid, while Castlevania has an outstanding anime series on Netflix. Currently, new properties like Uncharted and Monster Hunter are being adapted, with reboots of Mario and Mortal Kombat underway. And those are just the movies. Television adaptations in the works include HBO’s The Last of Us, Showtime’s Halo, and Amazon’s Fallout. We can also talk about Netflix’s The Witcher series, but that is an adaptation of the books, rather than the games. Now, we’re always thinking about the future. As long…
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Review: PAPER MARIO: THE ORIGAMI KING (2020)
Mario’s latest journey makes its way to the Nintendo Switch in Paper Mario: The Origami King. When the evil King Olly ventures to turn the world into an Origami Masterpiece, it is up to our favorite thinly-sliced plumber and Plumber Olivia to save it from the Origami King’s sinister plans. Paper Mario is a franchise that has suffered an identity crisis throughout the years, especially when it comes to its gameplay. Starting out as a simplistic turn-based JRPG reminiscent of SNES’ Super Mario RPG, it has gone all the way to an experimental quagmire that lacks definition and clarity of function. The meat of The Origami King lies within its…
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