Sonic & Knuckles: Mushroom Hill Zone REMASTERED

It's fair to say this has become a clear case of Student surpassing the Master. Except in this senario the Master is Sonic Team and the Student are it's fans.

The way I see it, there are four classes of Sonic Fan (Platformer Fan, Racing Fan, Series Fan, and New Fan) and the above video, made by Youtubber BlobVanDam, caters to all four of them.

Platformer Fans are those of us who loved the quick and fluid platforming aspects of the original games, something that has been missing from the current generation Sonic titles yet is in full presentation here; I'm not sure where Sonic Team went wrong on this aspect. Platforming always played a huge role in the original titles, it was probably the only thing keeping everyone from "holding-right-to-win." Though that wouldn't of stopped the Speed Fans

Speed Fans are the players of the older titles that couldn't rest until we beat the clock to the ground. We'd play a level hundreds of times to find the quickest path, which has become easier in modern days because that's all the Sonic games feature now. One of the crutches of this has always been the way the screen moves to match, sometimes it can barely keep up with us. Which is what I like about the above video, it doesn't do that. The older games were slower then their modern day counterparts, but like this video shows; so long as you have nice and smooth motion blurs you don't need to go crazy with the speed.

And I'm not going to say Speeders ruined it for the Platformers, but I would really like to go back to when I didn't have to finish a level by Trial and Error.

Series Fans are fans that weren't pulled by the games as much as they were the concept, usually meaning they'd be fans of the Cartoons as well. For them all I can say is that if this was to happen, if this was a real game, Series Fans would have a reason to celebrate. Sonic has been needing an A+ title for some time now; While graphics are no guarantee of a good game, I think just the fact that this proposed game retains everything that made Sonic & Knuckles good plus a shiny new paint job makes it a title worth playing.

Which leaves us with New Fans, who probably wouldn't be as excited as the older generation but would still exert an audible aww at the glorious, pre-rendered graphics in the above video. It almost makes Sonic 4 look like the Fan Project in comparison.

Personally I'd love to see a nice Hand-Drawn Sonic 2D title in the future, same vein as the tragically underrated Wario Land: Shake It, with proper platforming integrated with a more manageable speed so I'm not careening down a bottomless pit every half second. It's like a game of Dragons Lair at 300mph, there's no hope of winning on your first go. Would be even worse if the lives system was still as important as it was back in the day, but that's a different subject all together.

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One last note, if I may, as a plea to all Sonic fans like myself; please choose your words carefully when Sonic Team is listening, I want to play as other characters besides Sonic. I know the complaints; A new ancillary character every year gets old without an interesting personality to go with it and Giant Mechs schlepping across floating platforms is not what we want from a Sonic game, nor is diverging too far and too staggeringly away from the core gameplay. The last thing you want to do, fans, is to blame the characters themselves and spout "I just want to play as Sonic and Sonic alone."

One of the best things about the old titles was that after one play through as Sonic I could revisit all the levels as Tails or Knuckles, each with their own unique method of transversing the stage. This is what we want! That and likable characters and interesting plots, but I think that's a given in any storytelling medium. Haven't seen much of that though since Sonic Heros.

Scott Pilgrim vs. My Expectations

I've got to say, when I first saw the Scott Pilgrim books there was something that kept me away and at the same time attracted my eye; It's hard to explain. Then I heard about the Movie and the plot, it was still not enough to get me to check it out. Then I heard the buzz around it in Video Game Land... and I looked in to it. After the trailer, I got interested in the book, after issue one I was hooked.

Before I get too far in to this, I'd like to start by saying you should all go see the movie. The box office is too content with blockbuster popcorn flicks like The Expendables that movies like Scott Pilgrim vs The World are getting glazed over. So everyone make it a point to go see Scott Pilgrim in theaters; I'll try to keep this review as spoiler free as possible.

Scott Pilgrim is a book series turned movie by Bryan Lee O'Malley that centers around the romantic trials of title character Scott Pilgrim. Scott represents one of the more positive examples of the indie culture; The Slacker in a Garage Band. He's confident, lazy, and aside from a lax sensibility towards relationships is always able to charm a girl into liking him. I don't know what it is about us artists, but we always seem to write this type of quirky yet charming character at some point in our life. The difference here is that while most writers tend to force the two characters together, the writing in Scott Pilgrim manages to make it all seem natural. Scott really is a charming individual and doesn't just get by on quirkiness, this ties in well with the fact that he's also a jerk; seems to me like the two go hand in hand in real life.

Our other Main Character, Ramona Flowers, turns our to be the one girl who completely changes Scott and how he deals with his life. Ramona herself is a really complicated character until the end of the series, very secretive about key parts of her past; especially when it comes to her exes whom all seem to hold a grudge against her for reasons she's not ready to admit until late in the story. It's this mysterious nature that captures Scott's interest; he pretty much falls for her the moment she starts using his dreams as a Hyperspace shortcut to make deliveries.

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Confused yet? If there's anyone I wouldn't suggest this movie to it would be those without hands on the pulse of the modern world. If you still can't work a cell phone and Pac-Man still perplexes you then this movie will be a solid 2 hours of "What on earth is going on?!" For the rest of us, almost every moment is a callback to some aspect of our younger years playing video games and listening to rock music; using the aesthetics and laws of retro style games to contextualize the rocky road of a relationship far better then your standard romance movie could. See, Ramona's past involved her being a bit of a bitch to her former lovers; In a fit of rage her most recent ex assembles 6 of the broken hearts she's left in her wake in a vain attempt to control her future love life. Once they get wind of Scott's interest in her they start coming after him one at a time in a tournament fashion akin to Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. As long as Scott dates Ramona they'll be after his head, which only proves to be a motivator for Scott and fixes his assurance that if he's willing to fight for this girl, then she is most assuredly the one.

This series is simply ripe with lovable characters and great humor. While the feel of the movie is catering to the heart of indie culture and trying to explain the plot in a single sentence makes it sound like an after school Nickelodeon special; The series pants a more realistic word just in the way characters react to their emotions and environment then Avatar could with their multimillion doller equipment. It's a key trait that really separates movies like The Expendables, a movie destined to fade away in to obscurity in time, from a movie like Scott Pilgrim vs The World, which is sure to become a cult classic. Scott Pilgrim vs The World is not only a great example of fantastic character writing, which is expanded upon in the Graphic Novel original, but it's also a great example of how Movie Interpretations should be done; Which is funny, because usually when people change the ending, even partially, people start fuming. Not the case here, even though a couple key aspects were dropped or changed the movie and the ending still felt like the same story.

Nothing's perfect though; If you want to get the full Scott Pilgrim experience you really need to check out the books. There are 6 volumes in print, each one containing one evil ex battle and chapters and chapters of character development not easily squashed into one 2hr movie. In turn, the movie feels very rushed and some of the characters are grazed over to leave time for Scott, Ramona, and a few of the Ancillary characters. This goes the same for a couple of the evil exes who's histories with Ramona are outright ignored to save on time.

So while not the perfect movie, it's more worth a view then the blockbuster 3D films out there. The effects and writing makes it all worth the time.

Needless to say, Scott Pilgrim will take what ever your Expectations are and turn them in to a pile of coins; maybe even an extra life if you score high enough.

All Images are pulled from the Scott Pilgrim Graphic Novels published by Oni Press.


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One last note, to make a comment about the Video Game tie in; I've haven't played it yet, but that's because it's only available on PSN and XBOX Arcade. While I'm willing to shell out $10 for the game... I'm not as willing to spend $200 - $300+.

To the developers of the game, please release this for the PC via download or Steam. If you do, I'd be eternally grateful.

Long Line of Events Preceding

It's been an interesting string of events this past month; My Tablet failed on me and then came back to life, I attended the Star Wars Celebration V (pictured above), my old phone up and died on me (right before the convention) and so I had it replaced; it's hard to tell if things are looking up or down for me at this moment. Past week's been shining well on me and the weekend ahead doesn't show signs of getting any less adventurous; after a month or two in Florida I'm taking the drive up North back to NJ to decide wether or not I'm able to sign up for a Masters Degree course or if securing a job is more important at the moment. Big decision, I've done it once before when going for my Bachelors. No offense working world but I think I'd rather enjoy the classroom for another year.

Ever hear of Con-Drop? It's the unnerving feeling of wanting to be extra social you get after attending a convention. Symptoms include: Going to more social events then can fit in your schedule, a vested interest in conventions you normally wouldn't be interested in (Car Show? Really? Might be fun!), and more hours clocked on Twitter and Facebook searching for new friends you met at the con. It's a real ailment that effects many on-occasion con goers; I had it, that whole week following the convention. There's no way around it, the best course of action is to just attend local events and hold firm your wallet. No Car Show for me thank you.

Shouldn't be completely ignored though; This increase in social behaviors results in an increase of mood and motivation. Talk to anyone on a Con-Drop and you'll realize that not only are they up for anything, but they'll be more then happy to do it. They are some of the greatest people to hang around with.

Speaking of motivation, I'm practically Brimming with it. Con-Drop plus a new 3G phone means more content to share; so I say, time to start on the right foot this time with the blog. Hope all you reading will stick with me on this, it's going to be a fun ride.