Reviews

When Crash Bandicoot debuted in a PlayStation game, he became (albeit temporarily) Sony's mascot just as Sonic is for Sega, and Mario is for Nintendo. But if there's a character who rivaled Crash's popularity in the PlayStation scene better than anyone else, it's Spyro the Dragon.

Despite appearing in numerous games like Crash, I honestly can't say Spyro is at Crash's level of star power. I mean I've been knowing Crash since the late 1990s. As for Spyro, I didn't know the dragon was a thing until I saw a cover of his first game at a website just a year ago. So why is that? Perhaps Crash's adventurous yet goofy personality made the bandicoot more appealing to game fans than Spyro who is daring, serious, and a little sadistic.

When stores began retailing Spyro plushes and a compilation of the character's first three games, that was when my curiosity for Spyro grew. Thus I ask my sis to find a PS1 copy of this game which I played in my PS3.

Spyro is a 3D platform game released during the 3D craze of the 1990s kickstarted by games like Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot, and a PS1 game featuring an orange tabby which was lackluster but involved some respectable effort. Although the character can be controlled with the analog stick, I decided to stick with the d-pad. Why? Because analog sticks were new at the time of the game's release, I bet a lot of gamers who played this game only had the original controller which only had a d-pad. Therefore, I got interested in getting a more authentic feel of what those gamers of the day experienced.

Spyro attacks his enemies by letting out flames which spread but are short-ranged. With this, playing this game is like playing a third-person shooter with a soldier armed with a shotgun.

In most games, the character has a life bar which tells the player how much damage the character sustains before dying. But in this game, Spyro has a firefly that flies around him. Each time Spyro gets hit, the firefly changes its color until it disappears. If Spyro is struck without the firefly around, he'll lose a life.

To move to the next world in most games, you have to defeat the boss of the world you're in. While there are bosses in Spyro, defeating them is for other purposes, and they are not the keys to the later worlds. To reach the later worlds, the player has to collect a certain number jewels or free a number of dragons trapped in statues.

When it comes to taking on the final boss, this act is more of a game of tag rather than a boss fight. I mean the boss is often running away from Spyro in the fortress. Yes, the boss would stop sometimes and shoot projectiles at Spyro. But as Spyro comes close, the boss would start running. I imagined a lot of players getting frustrated and giving up because of how difficult it is to land a hit on the boss. But in my case, I just kept trying until I figured how to have a better chance scoring a hit. Once Spyro lands that first hit, the boss runs into multiple passageways in the fortress where Spyro has to jump on several platforms and avoid falling into the lava below. After the chase, the boss will stop to fight the approaching Spyro. And once Spyro lands that second hit, the boss is down for good. With this, I understand why the final boss was running a lot.

What can I say about this game? Well, the graphics are detailed, the controls are fine as in any decent 3D platformer, and the voices fit the characters. Fun fact, Spyro is voiced by Carlos Alazraqui who would later voiced Lazlo, the monkey in the Cartoon Network series Camp Lazlo.

While he may remain being second fiddle to Crash in the list of famous mascots in the PS1 scene, Spyro is certainly a household name in video games.

The United Kingdom has produced a lot of animated TV series over the decades. And this series is one of their cutest and well-made.

The show centers on a young bilby named Boj who lives with his parents. He also has friends who are a mouse, a goat, and a dog. All characters in the show wear garments but Boj is an exception.

Each story starts with Boj and the other characters in a fine situation until a problem occurs. And when a problem occurs, Boj will dig into the ground, tunnel underneath, and reach his home where he'll get props to solve the problem.

The graphics of the show are well done. The characters are cute, and are voiced by the appropriate people.

When voicing a boy character, a child actor is always best. Ziggy Badans did a good job in playing Boj.

In this game, the player controls a possum who's vocal and kinda cute. In fact his cuteness make me wonder how he'd look if he use some sneakers. Anyway, the possum in on a quest to take on a nefarious scientist whose activates are causing environmental problems.

Before we go further in this stuff, I'd like you to know that certain parts of the game will be mentioned. So unless you seen the game completely, I so don't recommend you read this review.

I can never imagine a character trickier to control than Awesome Possum. When I say tricky, I mean he's a little slippery, and therefore overshooting enemies and platforms is likely for inexperienced players. Because I'm accustomed to these type of games, I only had little problems. If you start out slowly in orienting yourself to how the character does, getting adept shouldn't take long.

If you complete the game, like what the title says, Awesome Possum will literally kick the scientist in the rear, sending that villain flying away. Best of all, Awesome will have a face on Mt. Rushmore, alongside those presidents.

As with the game itself, music and graphics are as good as any fine Genesis game. Because of how the game's outcome goes, I would say it's worth playing.

Following the successes of the Looney Tunes cartoons from the 1940s to the 1960s, Steven Spielberg in 1990s decided to create a TV series featuring younger and more colorful characters based on the ones from those short animated films. As a result, Tiny Toon Adventures was born. The series had a good run as it lasted from 1990 to 1995. Video games based on the series were also made.

Although the TV series' run ended in 1995, the video game adaptations continue to be created for a few more years. And in this game Tiny Toon Adventures: Scary Dreams, which was released in 2002 for the Game Boy Advanced, we say one final farewell to those cute colorful critters.

As with a lot of Tiny Toons video games, the player controls that blue rabbit Buster Bunny. Buster goes through perilous levels where has to defeat enemies by punching them. Buster is also accompanied by a partner which the player gets to choose before playing the game. That partner could either attack enemies also or assist Buster somehow. The game itself is fine to play.

After his video game debut was considerably successful, the fanciful bobcat returns to another showing in this game. In this game, Bubsy encounters a house that's divided in two parts. In each part, Bubsy can choose a difficulty which have three settings. Once he enters the house, Bubsy has five stages to play and complete.

Because Bubsy is a slightly slippery character, moving one pace at a time and planning how defeat enemies is very crucial. One of the improvements made in the game is eliminating the way Bubsy says a line every time he loses a life and starts the stage again. Here, he'll only say something once when you begin something.

Whenever I finish the game, the video sequence is okay but the music is the same as when I completed a regular stage. It would be more entertaining if the outcome used a different music.

As an expansion to Bubsy's world, the developers made a nice touch by giving the bobcat a pet armadillo and two younger relatives.

Bonkers started out as a movie star. But when his film career ended somehow, Bonkers turned to being a cop as a new profession, and still going in wacky adventures.

As a cop, Bonkers wears a police hat and uniform but no shoes. Because of that, how he appears sometimes makes me wonder how he'd look if he used some footwear. If you do, this episode gives a good illustration. In the cartoon, Bonkers has a number of dream sequences (which are being disrupted by some mysterious sheep). In one of his dreams, he is a bull fighter who tries to impress his love-interest Fawn Deer. In that event, he wears a bull fighter uniform and some black ballet flats. I guess that was a good illustration even though I have imagined other things. I sometimes imagine, and even thought about making them real.

While reading an online encyclopedia about stuff related to the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, I came across video games featuring the characters. Some time later, I went on to play one of them online.

In the game, Rocky and Bullwinkle are on a quest to find three treasures: one in each of the three themed levels. In the first two levels, the players controls Bullwinkle. In the third level, the player controls Rocky. Talk about saving the more likable character for last. While Rocky is seen flying in the video sequences, I wonder why they didn't make him fly in the game?

Although the video sequences are primitive nowadays as this is a 16-bit game, the colors and adequate graphics still makes them entertaining.

For most gamers, cute video games are too easy, and the player wouldn't break a sweat. But Mr. Nutz is definitely a cute game for experienced players. It is a game that really puts a test to a player's reaction, timing, and planning.

In the game, the player controls a squirrel who dons a cap, a coat, a pair of gloves, and a pair of sneakers. The squirrel defeats foes by pouncing on them, striking them with his tail, or hurling nuts at them.

Certain levels can be challenging at times, and could require expert maneuvering. Thankfully the game uses passwords so the player can continue the level he/she is on.

Besides the challenges featured, the game also uses artistic graphics and suitable music.

I just hope this game would have sequels, especially in 3D.

According to Wikipedia, the 1951 Alice in Wonderland film wasn't well received initially. But decades later, moviegoers somehow learned to like it. And since then, Disney came up with this live-action TV series loosely based on the film.

In the episode, we get to see the Mad Hatter's cousin who happens to be on a wheel chair. Because of her disability, the Hatter advised his friends to be sympathetic toward her. She subsequently doesn't find the sympathy appealing and therefore wishes to treated like a regular person. She then enters a marathon to prove that someone like her can do as good as someone who isn't disabled.

If you are a Dormouse fan, then this is definitely an episode for you. In most episodes, the Dormouse stays in his teapot, only coming out to say something. But in here, he serves as the announcer of the marathon event.

I seen a video of this cartoon online some weeks ago. This silent short is one of the early cartoons of the "Aesop's Fables" started by Paul Terry. Only a handful of shorts in the series are based on the original fables themselves because Paul Terry said he never heard of Aesop at the time.

The cartoon shows a cat and mouse who are good team in losing the cop that goes after them on the highway. But when they take the job of window washing at Farmer Al's home is where they have a fallout. The cat does clean the window but uses the mouse to clean it instead of a sponge. The mouse doesn't take it too kindly, and therefore hurls a pail at the cat, prompting them to go into a chase.

What I really like about the short is the beautiful melody that plays at the opening scene. I cannot imagine a melody more beautiful than that. As for the gags and the story, it's entertaining enough.

Because Krazy Kat shorts were a hit at the time, there's also some influence from those shorts in this. Some time after the fallout, the mouse tosses a brick on the cat's head. Pretty reminiscent.

This cartoon can be found on YouTube being mislabeled as a Felix cartoon. But someone claimed this is actually Rail Rode. I just hope he's right.

In the film, Krazy is a train engineer who wants to give a ride to some friend of his who is a duck. But the trip is far from being a pleasant ride when a black-furred mouse (possibly Ignatz) comes on board. The black-furred mouse pretty much resembles Mickey Mouse (who would debut the following year), except for his lack of garments. Anyway, when Krazy and the mouse meet on the train, they then settle things in a brawl.

The cartoon is fun to watch despite the lack of soundtrack. For me, this thing mysteriously surfaced because there are hardly any articles about it on the web.

I saw this cartoon online several times. Although the soundtrack of the film is a substitute (as said by the up loader because the film was a discovered silent print), it still made the cartoon quite entertaining. I also read from a source that a print of the cartoon with its original soundtrack was recently found. Hope someone would care to show it.

The cartoon shows Toby the Pup in a stage musical show. He conducts musicians as well as do some acts himself. There are also acts performed by other characters. Perhaps the most comical scene is at the beginning where a cat in the middle is being squeeze by two hippos. To solve this inconvenience, the cat pokes them with a claw to deflate them.

If you ever wonder what it's like if Toby were a girl, there's an interesting scene where he wears a tutu and does a little ballet. If he were a girl at the time of his creation, he might have been called Tabitha the Pup. Ha ha. This is probably one of his cutest appearances.