Another year, another series of Power Rangers gets retired. This year, it is the retirement of Power Rangers Samurai. The finale of the season "Samurai Forever" was great in terms of wrapping up the story and nostalgia for older fans.
As to how it wraps up the story, it does not start out with a "previously on" segment. The episode begins in media res with an unmorphed fighting sequences. I like this purely for the fact that it is a strong throwback to MMPR, including the fact that they played the theme for the show during the fight. Moving on, Mentor shows up and gives Jayden a replacement Shiba Disk to fight Xandred. Jayden also gets the Double Disk to amplify his power. So they find Xandred and a bunch of Moogers and fight them unmorphed. Then, after the Moogers are defeated they fight Xandred. He gets held in place by a combination of Symbol Power and Jayden attacks him with two Fire Smashers. Jayden gets knocked back and, in a random act of epicness, Kevin uses the Shiba Disk to do massive damage to Xandred. Jayden finishes him off with Shogun Mode. Xandred activates his second life and the rangers become the Samurai Gigazord. They unmorph in the cockpit and attack head on. Xandred keeps knocking off zords until they are down to the Samurai Megazord. They combine all their Symbol Power for one final strike with the sacrifice of their zords and their powers. They do their victory call with hands in and jumping in the air, similarly to the end of every multi-part MMPR episode. The show ends with Spike going back home with Skull (Jason Narvy returns for a cameo and some slapstick with Bulk), Kevin goes to train for the Olympics (Setting up for him meeting Kimberly in Megaforce I believe), Mike goes home with Emily, something that anyone with two brain cells called months ago, Mia goes to culinary school, Lauren returns to where she came from, and Mentor decides to teach Jayden the guitar. The episode ends with the portion of the MMPR theme that everyone knows.
As for the season as a whole, people overreacted to the quality of the series. It was not one of the best, but it was definitely not the worst. Also, people complain about the writing on forums and such but what these people don't realize is that it is not written for them. It was written for the children. It served its purpose to keep the franchise relevant during the transition between ownership by Disney and Saban Brands. The best thing that could be done by the series is not to move to Vortexx but to Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network allows the TV-PG rating, something that the franchise could take full of advantage of.
Final Rating for the Episode: 9.5/10
Final Rating for the Season: 8.5/10
Two final notes: one, the Power Rangers/Super Sentai Fandom is probably the worst in existence in terms of accepting the Canon, complaining about what the series is doing and complaining about the future. Two, next week on Nickelodeon, the Christmas episode airs and looks to be...interesting to say the least. In terms of Christmas episodes, I would rank it up there with "A Season to Remember" from Power Rangers Zeo.
Tune in Saturday at 1 on Nickelodeon for next weeks episode, "Stuck on Christmas."
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Review: Kingdom Hearts I
I decided it was time for me to begin reviewing the Kingdom Hearts games one by one. First, obviously will be Kingdom Hearts I. This decision came as the original "trilogy" of games is wrapping up. Next year, at some point, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix comes out with Kingdom Hearts I, Kingdom Hearts RE:Chain of Memories, and cutscenes in theater mode for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.
So, now for the review. The game is an RPG made by (at the time) Square Soft. It is a crossover of Disney, Final Fantasy, and it's own characters. The game follows Sora, a boy who's home is destroyed by creatures known as the heartless, as he searches for his friends. For this (and all subsequent video game reviews) I will break down the review.
Story: 9/10. The story itself is great, it has great moments and heroic monologues that make the game's message get through. I take off the one point because it begs for a sequel at the end and the dialogue, especially with Donald and Goofy, gets painful to listen to at times.
Graphics: 10/10. In its time, the graphics are the best they can. Load times are at a minimum and there are few, if any discontinuities in graphics.
Sounds: 9/10. The soundtrack is great as it helps to illustrate the mood. It also premiers Utada's "Simple and Clean" to America, a song that I know I will never get tired of hearing no matter how many games they put it in. However, I hope that Kingdom Hearts III will use "Passion" or another song.
Gameplay: 9.5/10. The game is well balanced with physical attacks, magic, and summons. To be honest, summons were not used much by me. The only one I actually used regularly was Tinker Bell because she restores HP and offers an extra life. The only issue was the one segment in Hollow Bastion where Sora loses his Keyblade and Donald and Goofy leave and, if you aren't reliant on magic, you are screwed at this point because physical attacks do nothing against heartless.
The major drawback of the game was traveling between worlds. The Gummi system is flawed, mainly because, in order to get to a new world, you need to warp to a nearby world and then travel there. On the same track, the fact that Gummi Parts are located in the worlds in chests is a waste because, in this game, there is very little purpose in doing Gummi battles. Also, the Gummi battles are too easy because you can easily win by just firing straight and dodging. It requires little skill to do.
Final Rating 9/10. A good way to start the series. Next week, I will review Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories.
So, now for the review. The game is an RPG made by (at the time) Square Soft. It is a crossover of Disney, Final Fantasy, and it's own characters. The game follows Sora, a boy who's home is destroyed by creatures known as the heartless, as he searches for his friends. For this (and all subsequent video game reviews) I will break down the review.
Story: 9/10. The story itself is great, it has great moments and heroic monologues that make the game's message get through. I take off the one point because it begs for a sequel at the end and the dialogue, especially with Donald and Goofy, gets painful to listen to at times.
Graphics: 10/10. In its time, the graphics are the best they can. Load times are at a minimum and there are few, if any discontinuities in graphics.
Sounds: 9/10. The soundtrack is great as it helps to illustrate the mood. It also premiers Utada's "Simple and Clean" to America, a song that I know I will never get tired of hearing no matter how many games they put it in. However, I hope that Kingdom Hearts III will use "Passion" or another song.
Gameplay: 9.5/10. The game is well balanced with physical attacks, magic, and summons. To be honest, summons were not used much by me. The only one I actually used regularly was Tinker Bell because she restores HP and offers an extra life. The only issue was the one segment in Hollow Bastion where Sora loses his Keyblade and Donald and Goofy leave and, if you aren't reliant on magic, you are screwed at this point because physical attacks do nothing against heartless.
The major drawback of the game was traveling between worlds. The Gummi system is flawed, mainly because, in order to get to a new world, you need to warp to a nearby world and then travel there. On the same track, the fact that Gummi Parts are located in the worlds in chests is a waste because, in this game, there is very little purpose in doing Gummi battles. Also, the Gummi battles are too easy because you can easily win by just firing straight and dodging. It requires little skill to do.
Final Rating 9/10. A good way to start the series. Next week, I will review Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Review: All the Little People
As finals bear down, I continue to review episodes of Adventure Time. This week's episode was another comedic random episode called "All the Little People." In this episode, Finn finds a bag of toy figurines of everyone in Ooo that have their own lives. Like The Sims however, Finn and Jake have the power to manipulate and influence their lives. Jake wants Finn to stop playing with them, but Finn keeps on playing, destroying the relationships of everyone in the Mini World and having everyone hate Little Finn.
This episode is cute and has it's funny moments (a few at the expense of players of The Sims). The Magic Man makes an appearance in the beginning of the episode which leads me to believe that this is not the last we will see of the Mini People.
This episode gets an 8/10 purely for its comedic value. Next week (as per production code order) should be "Bad Little Boy" but it could be pushed back again.
This episode is cute and has it's funny moments (a few at the expense of players of The Sims). The Magic Man makes an appearance in the beginning of the episode which leads me to believe that this is not the last we will see of the Mini People.
This episode gets an 8/10 purely for its comedic value. Next week (as per production code order) should be "Bad Little Boy" but it could be pushed back again.
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