Archive for September, 2007
Zero no Tsukaima (The Familiar of Zero)
It’s hard to know where to begin with Zero no Tsukaima: whether to start by gutting the laughable excuse for a plot, perhaps castigating the clockwork collection of characters, or perhaps even starting on the atrociously simplistic animation and aesthetics. From all of this one could be certain that it is a show without merit, and while critically that is true, there are several aspects which I’m sure could make this a guilty pleasure for a select few. (more…)
Claymore
Claymore’s hook is the presence of blonde, nubile young ladies with the titular, impossibly large swords set in a fantastical, medieval world. Being able to move past this premise is the first of many things that this series manages to do well, unfortunately it is marred by a plethora of other niggling problems which turn what could have been a great series into one that, overall, is lamentably mediocre. (more…)
School Days
I’m sure like many others I was enthralled by the story that the final episode of School Days had been indefinitely postponed due to a supposedly violent ending and its likeness to a real-world killing. Not one to pass up on controversy, I queued up the series expecting it to be a fluffy, real-world version of Shuffle! or perhaps akin to Kimi ga Nozomu Eien; what I didn’t expect was an unflinching, overly-dramatic portrayal of the depths of teenage decrepitude. (more…)
Lucky Star
It’s hard to describe Lucky Star without using words such as “meta” or “proto”, or comparing it to similar all-female high-school comedies such as Azumanga Daioh or School Rumble or perhaps drifting into expletives about the circular Suzumiya Haruhi references by Koyoto Animation. The concept to take away from Lucky Star is that it is relevant to compare it to all of these things, and brutally unfair. (more…)
Kiss me, Hold me, Strangle me
Stranglehold is without a doubt one of the best adaptations of Space Invaders I have ever played. Beyond the John Woo licensing, the gameplay has changed little with the same cover-shoot-onslaught mentality but with added touches such as smart-bombs, rapid fire and precision shooting. Its high-definition, time-dilating, dual-pistol wielding veneer aside, Stranglehold is as much a retro shooter as Cheesy Invaders was before it. (more…)
Shockingly Bio
Bioshock isn’t a game which polarises, it galvanises. The marketing machine was subtle and deft in dropping nuggets of information which whipped all but the most ardent of gamers into a furore: a sequel to System Shock 2 in all but name, an immersive narrative, a previously unheard of amount of choice. All were promised, and so it was that I surgically removed myself from the hype: no reviews, no videos, no interviews, only the whispered portents of “Game of the Year” and universally high scores. It’s a shame that Bioshock failed me on so many different points, both marketed and otherwise. (more…)
