Yearly Archive:: 2019
Dec 13 2019
Aho-Girl’s Over-the-Top Humor Misses the Mark
Think back to your adolescent years for a moment. There was always one person in every middle school: that one student who wanted to be the class clown but just didn’t have the charm, talent, or comedic timing to pull it off. They would stand up in the middle of class and tell a joke that either nobody…
Dec 12 2019
Knives Out Is a Gleefully Sharp-Edged Mystery
Despite being a mystery film that literally shows footage from Murder, She Wrote, Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is more of its own thing than a whimsical dose of whodunit nostalgia. Johnson tinkers and toys with the genre enough to find his own voice within a murder story while also delivering just the right…
Dec 12 2019
Jumanji: The Next Level Is Worth Hitting Continue
In 2017, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle accomplished the feat of reviving the mystical jungle adventure film into a keenly astute video-game format. Two year later, the question is whether the chemistry and theatrics can hold up as well in the sequel—and for the most part, The Next Level finds just enough…
Dec 12 2019
Comparing The Running Man’s Fictional 2019 to Our Present
“It is the year 2019. ‘The Running Man’ is a deadly game no one has ever survived. But . . . Schwarzenegger has yet to play.”
So reads the tagline to the campy cult classic The Running Man, starring Schwarzenegger, directed by Paul Michael Glaser, and based on the 1982 Stephen…
Dec 11 2019
Link’s Awakening Relies on Charm to Make Up for Its Shortcomings
Maybe it’s just me, but it always seemed like the Legend of Zelda games released for handheld consoles went overlooked and underappreciated. The likes of The Minish Cap, Oracle of Seasons, and A Link between Worlds never seem to garner as much praise or attention as their home-console counterparts…
Dec 10 2019
Comics I’m Picking Up the Week of December 11, 2019
Here are the books I’m looking forward to seeing at my local comic store the week of December 11, 2019.Red Mother
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Words/Story: Jeremy Haun
Art/Colors: Danny Luckert
“After losing her eye and the man she loves in a brutal mugging, Daisy McDonough is left trying to put the…
Dec 10 2019
Trade War Is Political Strife for the Whole Family
Ever since the phenomenally successful Cards against Humanity took over the party-gaming genre, a wave of darker and edgier card games have found their way into stores—and onto Kickstarter. One of the latest, Trade War by Tuttifi, takes the number- and color-matching mechanic from Uno, adds an irreverent…
Dec 10 2019
After School Dice Club Is an Anime Series All about Tabletop Gaming
After School Dice Club is one of those series that seems to be breaking new ground in terms of what anime has done and where it’s been. As any anime fan knows, this is no easy task: at this point, there seems to be an anime related to just about anything you could imagine. But while I’ve seen anime…
Dec 09 2019
Limited-Edition Rose Quartz 20-Sided Dice Only Give Critical Outcomes
Back in June 2019, Hyde Goltz, also known as Gerbil, was told by their doctor that there was a very likely chance they had cancer. Unfortunately Gerbil couldn’t see an oncologist to find out for sure until late August. Anticipating major medical bills, Gerbil commissioned 100 special limited-edition…
Dec 09 2019
Despite Its Flaws, The Beast Inside’s Era-Hopping Horror Has Its Merits
Follow the blood trail.
Not the sort of objective you want to see when playing a horror game, especially when it involves going down a creaky staircase into a pitch-black basement. It’s things like these you’ll have to face in the era-jumping The Beast Within, made by Polish developers Illusion Ray Studio,…