Kid Icarus Uprising Review

Let's start this review with a history lesson.

Kid Icarus was an NES game about an angel named Pit who had to fight against the evil forces of Medusa. It got a sequel on the original Game Boy that has been forgotten by time. Several years later, Pit became a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. And now this.

Kid Icarus Uprising is the latest effort from Kirby and Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai. I love Sakurai's work. Each of his games I have played has been fantastic.

However, this could possibly be his best.

Hear me out-Kirby Super Star was a great, great game. However, at times it could be frustrating, The Great Cave Offensive for example. On the other hand, any frustration to be had in Kid Icarus Uprising is made insignificant in comparison to what it does right.

Kid Icarus Uprising doesn't have any Game Overs, and that's important, because you will die. A lot. One major complaint of the game is that the controls are flawed. However, once you get used to them, you are treated to one of Nintendo's finest handheld games to date. Maybe it's hard to coordinate flying with the enemies' attacks. Maybe the camera and ground controls are a tad fidgety. Maybe it's hard to keep up with the pace of the rail-shooter segments. It doesn't matter. In the face of all that's good about this game, you can and will put up with it's flaws.

Kid Icarus Uprising is one of Nintendo's first games since Super Smash Bros. Brawl to have a functional achievement system. You have to beat the level to gain the achievements, however, so they can be hard to gain. This system gives the game humongous replay values. One downside you may notice about the game's style is that it borrows from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The menu is virtually identical, some enemies are lifted, and some features are copied over as well, not all of which seem immediately useful. Again, it doesn't matter.

Hold on, though. I haven't talked about the best part of Kid Icarus Uprising. The banter. Throughout the game, the characters will be bickering nearly constantly. Instead of having long talk sequences, the talking happens during gameplay. The script is written so well, however, that it becomes truly exhilarating. These arguments are so hilarious you may actually want to die just to hear them again. Unfortunately, if the game has one flaw that does matter, it's that the bosses are too easy. Instead of hearing all of their dialogue, you will find yourself beating them before they even get halfway through their lines. This can be frustrating if you want to know what they were going to say.

In short, this is an awesome game. I declare it worthy of buying the system for. A 10/10? Not quite, but close. Is it Sakurai's best work? Perhaps. Is it the best game of the year? We'll see.

My final score for Kid Icarus Uprising is a 9/10. Buy this game. If you don't have a 3DS, buy one of those too. You won't regret it.

The Avengers review

The Avengers is one of the most anticipated films of the year. Does it meet our expectations?

In a word: Yes. This movie was awesome. Every single second is worth it. The greatest parts of the movie are The Hulk, who has a scene where he smashes Loki around like some sort of toy, and the master of swag himself, Tony Stark. There is no such thing as too much Robert Downey Jr., and his Stark is fantastic. Bruce Banner's explanation for how he controls the Hulk? Brilliant. 

Details aside, let's discuss some of the other features of The Avengers. Visually, this movie is a great blend of CGI and live actors. Each scene is presented such a way that it seems as impressive as possible. An interesting thing about the film is it's ability to build suspense. When the scenes aren't blissfully action-packed, they're filled with suspense that will have you on the edge of your seat. The characters are well developed, with the new characters getting enough focus to reach the same levels as the established characters, and even those characters getting their own scenes of development.

Of course, the greatest part of The Avengers is the action. As mentioned previously, the movie has a simple wow factor that will give you the greatest enjoyment possible. You have Iron Man blasting things while delivering his deliciously snarky dialogue, Captain America being a badass and smashing invaders alongside new character Black Widow, with Thor smashing his own invaders elsewhere, and Hawkeye sitting on the roof of a building shooting arrows, and Hulk doing what he does best-smashing.

Awesome. I extend my greatest recommendations to this movie. Watch it. You won't be disappointed.

My final rating for The Avengers is a perfect 10/10.

21 Jump Street review

Wow. This has got to be one of the best comedies of the year. I swear that I was laughing the whole way through.

21 Jump Street is about two young men, Morton Schmidt and Greg Jenko who met when going to school to become police officers. They pass, and display typical enthusiasm about their new job. Cut to them on park duty, riding their police bikes. They see members of a drug cartel, and decide to make their first bust. Hilarity ensues, and I mean that in the best way possible. They manage to catch one of the dealers, but he gets away because our protagonists forgot to read him his rights.

Frustrated, their chief decides to send them to a special division called 21 Jump Street. The base is in a Korean church, complete with a Korean Jesus. It is there that they meet the leader of Jump Street, Capt. Dickson, who is an angry black man played by Ice Cube. I am not making this up. He assigns them to investigate a mysterious new drug that he found out about through a YouTube video, complete with legitimate-looking comments. In order to investigate this drug, they go undercover in High School, only to find that things have changed since they were there...

21 Jump Street looks and feels great. The comedy is brilliant, the action is exhilarating, and the story is very well written. However, the best part of the film is the fact that even after all of the amazingly silly comedy, the dramatic scenes still work. That is truly the sign of a great film. I can recommend this movie to anybody over the age of 13. Don't pass it up.

My final rating for this movie is a 9/10.

It is a great film, with almost every joke working perfectly, and somehow still manages to have functioning drama. Check it out.