There are many movies out there that try to capture the spirit of what makes gaming so great. This is one of those movies, and it blew me away.

Ence suggested we all, (we being myself, Ence, his wife, and my girl), go see Scott Pilgrim, as he said it looked like it was carved from Win. I agreed, having been told about the series by my girl before. From the very opening of the movie, with the Universal Pictures theme done in 8-bit to the introduction of Scott himself, with the Zelda prologue theme playing in the background, this movie completely embraced everything that was great about gaming in the early 90’s.

The movie is funny in a modest kind of way, for anyone who enjoys silly slice of life humor, there is that, but things get over the top as soon as fists start flying, and it’s worth every second of film they used. Video game tropes are abound everywhere, and every time you see one, if you grew up around the 90’s, you are suddenly reminded what it felt like to be 13, mastering split second jumps and attacks to get to the next boss. You laugh as you hear the familiar, “KO!!!” at the end of a fight. When opponents burst into coins you can’t help but smile. This movie really does live up to the hype. And if you enjoy the film, I highly recommend checking out the comic.

Locke

I’ve managed to finish this series in it’s native language, but just to let you know, the ending is pretty epic and very satisfying. The fight-scenes are very well animated, Studio Bones definitely knows their stuff. They did have to stretch some fights due to the show catching up with the manga, but they don’t disappoint. The original series did a nice job of creating a believable world, but this show does that and more with the characters. Many back-stories go out much further than the original, like Ed’s father, Hohenheim. It gets pretty crazy. That said, I’m looking for some new Anime to get the creative juices flowing, anyone know of any good shows?

If you need a few Shonen to watch for the summer, here are my recommendations:

Hajime no Ippo
Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan – I highly recommend this series

Till next week,
Locke

If you guys haven’t already heard, the first competitive season of League of Legends has started. With it came a brand new user interface and it’s shiny as all heck. The music and menu organization has been improved overall, and has breathed fresh life into the client.

Draft mode is a welcome addition to ranked gameplay. Essentially, each team gets to choose two champions that are banned from play, then they take turns drafting which champions they will use. No two champions will ever face off in the same arena, or so I don’t think, so building a balanced team that can handle their counterparts is essential.

The new champion, Xin, is a spear-wielding, chinese pummeling on legs. It could be that, because he’s new, that not many people know how to handle him yet, or it could be that Veigar is just a bad match against him. All I know is that champ has been eating me fairly quickly. Anyone feel like doing some premades?

The creators of Massive Pwnage Volume 1: The Book of Pwnage provide their commentary on the first year’s worth of comics from Massive Pwnage!

You can buy the Book of Pwnage at the official store for all things Massive Pwnage.

Also, if you already own the Book of Pwnage, you can download the mp3 of this video and follow along here.

I’ve always wanted to make Massive Pwnage related podcasts, so making this video was a lot of fun and I learned a ton. Of course, it wasn’t recorded very well, so it needed a lot of editing. As a result, I’ve listened to Locke and myself discussing our book like, three times.

The first time through, I cut out all of the unnecessary pauses, ums, and masculine grunts. The way we recorded it, I ended up being much louder than Locke, so my second run through I tried my best to make our voices even in volume. After the audio was to my liking, I added the slideshow.

I’ve recently been turned on to the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. It’s lore is vast and deep and is by far one of the most engaging series I’ve ever come across. This of course, is no surprise to readers of Gaiman. The man was born to weave stories. The protagonist, Morpheus of the Endless, King of Dreams, is captured by a cult and held in captivity for 70 years, in hopes that he would grant them immortality for freedom. After he is released, he punishes his captors and begins a quest to recover his lost powers and restore the stability of his realm. Many other stories cross and intervene, much like the nature of dreams in itself. Surprisingly, the series has much filler without really being filler. Many stories occur at different points of history, sometimes granting us intimate and sensitive moments of mankind where Morpheus has a hand in the course of our lives. I highly recommend you check it out if you’re a fan of Mirror Mask or Coraline, although its definitely for an older audience.

Locke out.