Scenes Out Of Context: Phineas and Ferb (Part 2)

Hooray I'm back on schedule!  So, we're back with Phineas and Ferb.  It's amazing the mileage I am getting out of this show.  Don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel here to see these episodes and more first.

Scenes Out Of Context: Power Rangers

 So Scenes Out of Context is back and about the same as ever but hey you didn't actually think I'd be improved or anything did you?  Anyway, here's the video I hope you like it and please subscribe to my youtube channel here.

And Now For Something Entirely Different

First of all I would like to thank all of you loyal readers for sticking with me all of this time.  Sometimes working on a blog on a regular basis can feel just like that, WORK.  And it can feel thankless if you don't get a lot of views on something you really liked and cared about and put a lot of time into... So I am happy to announce that I am starting a secondary blog in addition to this blog!  It is an ongoing fictional dramady set in Green Acre High School.  It can be read at greenacreschoolpaper.BlogSpot.com or you can just click here.  I have a lot of ideas for this so hopefully this school paper will be going on for years to come.  Please join me on this journey and continue to visit the old coffin chronicle as well.

Batman: Arkham Origins

 

Well as you may have guessed I still do not have the software required to make Scenes Out of Context.  I will still be doing the show it is just on hiatus for the moment.  This review has been a long time coming, I've just been avoiding everything about it.  When Arkham Origins came out, I was so young and naïve that I was actually excited for it.  As time went on I realized that there was just absolutely no need for this game.

 

Arkham City was the perfect Batman game.  I worded that sentence very carefully.  Arkham City was not without its faults but it was as close as you could get to being Batman without putting on a cowl and attempting to fight crime.  Arkham City also had one of the greatest endings to any game I've ever had the pleasure of playing.  It was emotionally taxing and brilliant at the same time; even more so when you take into account that this was the last time Mark Hamill would be voicing the Joker.

 

 

Arkham Origins takes place at an unspecified time before Arkham Asylum at a very early point in Batman's career.  Black Mask has placed a 10,000,000 dollar bounty on the Bat's head and eight assassins have come out of the darkness to claim it.  The eight assassins are Bane, Deathstroke, Dead Shot, Fire-Fly, Copperhead, Killer Croc, Shiva, and last and certainly least the Electrocutioner.  It is unclear why Black Mask decided to put the bounty on Batman's head but if you ignore that fact long enough it gets explained.

 

The controls are the same as the previous two games but unlike the previous two games, they just feel shitty.  Often times if you press the attack button multiple times in order to perform a combo but then try to counter an oncoming attack, Batman will instead finish his combo.  This will usually lead to him getting beat up and some very frustrating battles.

 

 



One of the reasons I was so excited about Arkham Origins is because the plot was about Black Mask and a bunch of B-list villains.  This series told their Joker story, it was genius and they did not need to do it again.  Unfortunately, Arkham Origins is a Joker game in disguise.  Yes, it turns out Black Mask never put the bounty on Batman's head at all.  It was the Joker wearing a Black Mask... well mask.  He has some stupid plan to blow up the GCPD or something I don't care.  At this point, I was so angry that it was the Joker I was just playing to finish the damn game.

 

At some point, the Joker gets blown out of a window of a skyscraper and begins falling to his death.  Batman saves him much to the Joker's surprise.  He gets sent to Blackgate Prison where he meets his doctor Harlene Quinzelle.  This scene was actually really great.  Joker is talking to Harley about how he met someone who really surprised him and changed his life tonight.  The entire time he is thinking back to his origin story when he was the Red Hood.  As he is speaking, Harley thinks he is talking about her when he is actually talking about Batman.  It was really well put together and it could have only been better if my game was not constantly SKIPPING AND GLITCHING DURING THIS SCENE!  Luckily the audio still worked fine and I was able to make out what was happening.  This is where the game should have ended.  Unfortunately, there was still about three hours left.  Believe it or not nothing of note really happens so I'm just going to end my summary here.

 

I realized that these games are essentially Zelda games.  You roam around doing quests and helping people until you unlock a dungeon.  Inside the dungeon you will inevitably find a new gadget that you will need to fight that dungeon's boss.  The only real difference is that the dungeons in Gotham are just large buildings.  Also, unlike The Legend of Zelda series, all of the Arkham series of games take place along the same time-line.  The reason that that is significant is that when Batman acquires gadgets such as glue grenades and shock gloves in one game, it makes no fucking sense when he doesn't have them in the games that take place after!



The Wonderful 101

 

Hey look I'm back to actually writing blogs; well don't get used to it.  The sad fact is, I'm sick and have nothing better to do at the moment.  In addition to that, I just got a new computer and haven't got around to loading all the video software I need to make Scenes Out of Context so it may be a bit late this week... But boy is this computer nice!

 

What was I supposed to be talking about?  Oh yeah The Wonderful 101.  This is a game by Platinum Games, creators of titles such as, Madworld, Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance (that's a hard word to spell) and of course The Wonderful 101.  As I understand it, this game came about when Nintendo bought exclusive rights to Bayonetta 2.  When Platinum signed the contract Nintendo gave them free reign to make a passion project and it could be whatever they wanted.  The Wonderful 101 was the result.  And boy you can tell they had a lot of fun with this game.

 

It is a character action game that puts you in control of a colorful super-hero leading a team of up to ninety-nine other similarly named heroes.  The game feels very different than any other game that's like it because... well there really are no other games like it; but when I was playing it I was reminded of games like Lollipop Chainsaw and Bayonetta and what's interesting about that is because in those games you play as an individual character trying to control the crowd.  In The Wonderful 101, you are the crowd trying to survive individual enemies.  The game controls very well considering that you control 100 characters.  It also makes very good use of the Wii U gamepad.  There are sections of the game where you will enter a building and you will need to look back and forth from the television screen and the gamepad screen in order to solve the puzzle.  There was one in particular where the characters entered a spaceship and it went into the two screen mode.  You control the characters on the gamepad screen in order to steer the ship and avoid obstacles on the television screen.  It was not easy.  Also, enemies continually spawned within the ship.

 

 

The Wonderful 101 opens up with a scene of a school bus being attacked by aliens.  You play as the teacher Mr. Wedgewood and you must protect the students before the bus careens off of a bridge that is under construction.  Why was the bus driving towards the unfinished bridge in the first place? Who cares EXPLOSIONS!  At some point Mr. Wedgewood manages to get the children to safety and when it appears that the bus explodes, from out of the ashes appears Wonder-Red!  That's right unassuming grade school teacher William Wedgewood is merely the secret identity of Wonder-Red.  As if you didn't already guess that.  I did put a giant picture of him above this paragraph.

 

 

 

Eventually you are joined by some of the other Wonderful 100 and a tutorial ensues teaching you how to use your powers or "unite morph." Every character has a morph that is unique to them and a unique way to activate it.  Red for example, lifts a giant red fist made up of his teammates morphed into that particular shape whenever you draw a circle on the gamepad.  There is also Wonder-Blue who has a sword, Green who has a gun and so on.  Some of the morphs are great, like Wonder-White's claws that can potentially freeze enemies and allow you to climb on walls.  On the other hand, there is Wonder-Black who throws bombs that slow down time.  It sounds good on paper but it's really only useful in situations that were designed for it.

 

 





It is the duty of The Wonderful 100 to protect the Earth from alien threats and on this day there is no shortage of those.  You go up against everything from aliens the same size as you to three headed hydras the size of skyscrapers and that's just the first level.  Of course the best villain is a character who is similar to your character but just chose to go down a different path.  Someone who has more in common than they do different but we just can't admit it.  The Joker to Batman, Lex Luthor to Superman and now Prince Vorkken to Wonder Red.  Prince Vorkken leads a team of 100 of the worst scoundrels and criminals throughout the galaxy and now they've come to Earth.

 

This game has so much depth to it I could not possibly try to summarize it.  The story is just insanity in the best possible way.  There is so much to it.  Other companies would have stretched this into a trilogy but Platinum shoved it all into this one epic.  There's really no other word to describe it other than epic.  

Scenes Out of Context: Next (Part 2)

That's right folks we are back to one of my favorite films to take scenes from and I expect it will not be long before you see it again.  Please join me on this journey back into the Cage in Next.

Scenes Out of Context: Stolen

Welcome back true believers and today is the beginning of an all Nicholas Cage filled weekend.  Though he is not in this particular clip, it is one of his movies.  I hope you enjoy your time in the Cage.  Please remember to subscribe and enjoy.