I'm a faithful nintendo fan.
Mario and Zelda are my favourite games.
Miyamoto is my greatest hero.

Wii Number: 2421 1211 6187 5409
Mario Kart Wii: 1418-6832-9823

• 1Jan 10

  Review: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

  By the way, I did finish Spirit Tracks last night, so the review for that game will probably be posted soon enough. But first I want to talk about a film I saw last night (from 1.30 to 3.00 or something).

  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

  

  If I had to describe this movie in one word, I think I would have to come up with a top five list.

  5. Funny
  4. Strange
  3. Beautiful
  2. Demanding
  1. Special

  I love number one since it sais nothing specific about the film, yet it describes the film perfectly. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is indeed special - almost special enough to make it to my Something Special list. The title sounds poetic, and in many ways it feels to me like a poem in movie form. In that case it would be the kind of poem that is hard to read because of tough structure and strange vocabulary and a poem that many won't understand, but poetry critics will heartily praise. Getting through the first third of the movie feels very much like a struggle, and it is hard to tell what is going on. The two people I saw it with gave up after 45 minutes and didn't want to watch it any more. The movie complicates things by having many short scenes and explain nothing along the way, not even the chronology.

  

  When the movie finally starts making sense, the movie has a very intriguing plot. However it is still rather hard to follow - the people I watched it with left after it started making sense because they still couldn't get it. It might be the kind of movie that 80, maybe even 90 percent will not understand, but the remaining 10 to 20 percent will love it. I certainly love it, and I would even call it a masterpiece in its own unpretentious way. It is very unpretentious, particularily the filming, which looks very much like it would if you saw it in real life. This is not a movie were make-up is used to make the characters look overly attractive, not at all. When it comes to dialogue, the dialogue is very limited and leaves a lot to be said by the body language, which I would say is a brilliant way to go for a movie like this. What can be more tiring though, is how much silence it is and how little background music. As much as I would have loved music, though, not having background music is more true to the movie itself.

  What kind of movie it is? Well, at the bottom I think you might call it a romantic film, but although it has some funny scenes I wouldn't call it a comedy (which is surprising when Jim Carry is starring). If you think the first 30 minutes of struggling doesn't have to be a part of the experience, I can tell you the plot right away.

  Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) are a couple, but one day Clementine has a new boyfriend and it is as though Joel has been erased from her memory. Joel is heartbroken, but then he discover a group that is doing some experimental brain operations. Using personal items they make a map of memories, and then they can eraise a person from someone's memory. Joel finds that Clementine has gone through the treatment, and he decides to remove her from his brain as well. Most of the movie actually takes place inside Joel's head as his memories are being erased. He start to regret his decision, but since he is unconcious and won't wake up until the prodecure is over, he can't do much about. Still he tries everything to escape the erasing and keep at least a few memories of Clementine in his head. At the same time

  

  The theme of the movie is memories. And the theme mostly stays in the background - the way I love it. The movie is a masterpiece in a wrapping that leaves a lot to be desired aestetically. However the wrapping isn't all bad, because the movie nails the one thing it needs to show off all the emotion that makes it so beautiful - good acting. While you wouldn't think Jim Carrey is fitting to play a troubled guy who doesn't talk much and seem to have problems interacting with people, it works. And Kate Winslet plays very well as an extremely impulsive woman who is not that socially intelligent either. Elijah Wood plays brilliant and Kirsten Dunst is the only one I think doesn't quite work, but luckily she has a small role.

  I am glad that I don't give scores to movies when I review them, because I wouldn't be sure whether to give ESotSM 5.5 or 9.5. It is si beautiful and sweet when you see past the surface, but it can also be very tiring and demanding. Still, if you think you are among the few percent that will understand and enjoy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I hope you give it a try.

  

  • Posted Jan 1, 2010 2:15 am PT
  • 7 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 27Dec 09

  Review: Castle of Magic

  Castle of Magic (DSiWare)

  

  Just plain fun

  A fairly good game considering the low prize, and that there is only one programmer on the credits.

  While spending time on the beach, two children suddenly find a treasure chest. When they open it, they are sucked into a vortex and suddenly find themselves in a fortress - or rather the caste of magic - where Jenny is kidnapped by an evil wizard and you will play as the other kid in order to save her.

  You can probably tell that the story is not the biggest sell point for this 500 points DSiWare title by GameLoft. Although it does have some mildly funny dialogue, it reallys mostly on its gameplay.

  It is rather easy to see where the developers get their inspiration from when they were to create this game. It is clearly inspired by Mario and Sonic (and maybe Rayman, I don't know). There are five zones to play through - Forest, Ocean, Cake (No, it's not a lie), Ice and Space and some of the bosses are similar to certain Eggman battles. There is also a type of ground pound, there are some spinning flames and some of the enemies look suspiciously similar to bullet bills. The diamonds that you collect are an imitation of both the coins in Mario and the rings in Sonic because if you don't have a power-up and you are hit, you will lose diamonds, and you can't die as long as you have some, but collect a hundred and you will get an extra life and start from zero again. There is of course a point system in play.

  

  Still, CoM manages to seem "inspired by" rather than "copied from". It does have some points that separates them from the two franchises, for instance that you have a double jump (no, not like Mario games, you can take an extra jump while in the air) and using your cape you can float, making it a lot easier. Also, in the game you cast a spell (although you must be very close to cast it) that turn your enemies into boxes, which you can send at your other enemies like a Koopa shell. Oh wait, that was somehow similar to Mario wasn't it.

  Anyways, the biggest innovation in this game, is the use of the DSi camera. The annoying use of it, is when you are in a photo booth and must take a picture of something red to get one type of power-up, something green to get another and something blue to get a third type. I suggest having something red, blue and green near you when you start playing. The funnier thing, though, is that you can edit how stuff looks. You can give the hero your own head, make one of the bosses look like a giant tea pot, make the small diamonds look like chocolate and so on. All the bosses, the hero and some items and enemies can be edited by taking a picture with the camera, then use the stylus to erase the edges. This is probably the most charming part of the game, though it is a little bugging that your head will be the same whether you walk to the left or right.

  

  The design, music and dificulty leaves little doubt that this is a game for children and unlike many nintendo games, I think that most "veterans" (which in the gaming community means 15 years +) will not find it worth their while. Still, if you are a fan of platformers, you might like it. There is nothing wrong with the control sceme or the level design.

  The tough part about reviewing CoM, is that there are nearly no flaws in the gameplay, but nearly nothing that makes it truly special. I can name one of each though. The flaw is that the filming is close-up and when you are going downwards, there are times when you can't tell if there is a platform below you or just a big pit. The special part is that in the space zone there will be times when you are upside down, which will test your coordination.

  All in all, Castle of Magic is a charming and good but not great children game. It was twenty levels plus six boss fights, which leaves you with about four or five hours, which must be consider a fair amount when you take into account that most WiiWare games at the same length costs twice as much.

  Score 7.5/10

  Go here for thumbing

  • Posted Dec 27, 2009 1:29 am PT
  • 4 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 25Dec 09

  What i got for christmas this year

  In Norway we open our gifts at the night of the 24th, so here is the list of what I got.

  New Super Mario bros Wii

  Nokia 3720 grey

  4GB SD card

  6 t-shirts

  2 pair of gloves

  2 pair of socks

  Monthy Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail

  A Disney movie I don't remember the name of and don't bother to check, but it was from 1945 and had a Mexican theme going on.

  The top three were on my wish list (and they were the entire wishlist).

  It seems that this year, t-shirts is what books were last year. I don't really understand why my relatives think I need t-shirts. I have never ever bought my own t-shirt, because I always feel like I have enough of them, and when I get new ones, it is always mom that comes home saying "Hey, I thought you needed some new t-shirts, will you try these on?" Now I have over twenty t-shirts.

  Well, anyways, Merry Christmas again.

  Oh, right, first impressions on NSMBW. Well, I've just played till the first tower - and just singleplayer, so that will have to wait for later. I'll only say that Mario feels a little slow, and that I don't quite like that you have to shake the controler to do a lot of things, but I'm sure it will pick up.

  • Posted Dec 25, 2009 2:23 am PT
  • 5 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg

See Previous Blog Posts »