It's amazing to me how quickly this summer has passed. Well, to be honest, it's amazing to me how quickly summers tend to pass in general.
It feels like one day, we're anticipating the warm weather and sun, and the next...we're getting ready for fall.
The thing I love about summers is mainly the sunny days. It's great seeing the bright blue sky and the sun shining brightly in the sky. The birds chirp, the trees are a brilliant green, there's a general feeling of enjoyment.
Where I live, we have very humid summers, which I admit, I am not a fan of. However, we also do get some wonderful rain to break up the humidity on occasion, which is always appreciated, as far as I'm concerned. For some reason, I love thunderstorms at night. They're very nice to listen to, if you ask me.
The fall is coming fast, but I do like the fall. The air cools down a bit, and it doesn't make my allergies act up so much. The second thing I hate about the summer, my seasonal allergies return with a vengeance, although I will admit, they haven't acted up as bad as they normally have.
Even though the summer has gone fast, I have enjoyed it. I will continue to enjoy what's left, and I anticipate Summer 2016!
Monday, August 31, 2015
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Skull the Slayer #1 (August 1975) Review
The 1970s were a time of experimentation at Marvel. The House of Ideas was expanding their comic book line beyond the standard superhero tales. They had grown into horror with Tomb of Dracula, satire with Howard the Duck, science fiction with Star Wars, and even sword-and-sorcery with Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja. It seemed at the time, any crazy concept would be given a shot in the comics. Recently, I have managed to obtain a trade paperback collecting one of the crazier concepts of the 1970s: Skull the Slayer. And since it's the 40th anniversary of Skull's debut on the newsstands, let's take a look at the first issue.
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: Steve Gan
Letterer: Marcos
Editor: Len Wein
I actually learned of Skull the Slayer thanks to the wonderful website known as the Appendix of the Marvel Universe. Dedicated to the lesser known denizens of the Marvel Universe, the Appendix gives out lots of information about lots of little-known characters, and quite a few I think could use a little more love. Skull the Slayer is one such character. I'd love to see him in a cartoon or an MCU movie. You could tell some real genre-bending stories with this guy.
The back of the trade paperback collecting the series describes Skull the Slayer as "Lost meets the Land that Time Forgot", and that description is indeed very apt for this series. Funny enough, there was a film made of the Edgar Rice Burroughs story released that very year. Maybe the film provided some inspiration for the series. Either way, this concept was incredibly brilliant, and I think it was criminal that it only got eight issues. Ah well.
We begin our little adventure with a group of people on an Army airplane. One is a man with two soldiers, and what appears to be three civilians: A blonde woman, a black man, and a teenager. Quite a diverse group for a military flight, almost like the people who put together the passenger list for this flight expected something interesting to happen.
We learn a bit more about the man, named Jim Scully. A former US Army soldier...and wanted killer. Scully had recently served in Vietnam (Keep in mind, the war there had recently ended when the comic was originally published), enduring quite a bit of nasty torture at the hands of the Viet Cong.
When he came home, he found that his wife had decided to go hook up with another man, his parents worried themselves to death, and his brother became a junkie. Scully and his bro got into a brawl, which resulted in the brother accidentally dying (he had a knife).
Mrs. Scully is a jerk. And shouldn't Scully have just told the police what happened to his brother? He wasn't a wanted criminal when he came home. Not to mention fleeing would've only increased the police's suspicions...but wouldn't an autopsy and evidence indicate that Scully's brother ended up killing himself? He was clearly high, wouldn't the stuff still be in his bloodstream? I get it was the 1970s, but I do think forensic science could tell what was in bloodstreams back then!
Scully fled and lived as a fugitive for a while, until he was caught in Bermuda working as a lifeguard (Scully cursed his weakness for Bermudan beach bunnies).
Anyway, that's how Scully ended up on the plane. The other passengers have their own reasons for being on the flight. The black man is Dr. Raymond Corey, an embittered government-employed physicist who blames racism for his being unable to be employed by private firms. The blonde woman is his assistant, Ann Farrow. The teenager is Jeff Turner, a rebellious senator's son who was being brought home by the military after running away. I wonder how the taxpayers would react to that usage of their tax dollars, huh? Sadly, we learn this in subsequent issues.
Anyway, their plane goes crazy, and crashes in a strange land, where they find themselves in a strange new world.
Dr. Corey, being the Omnidisciplinary Scientist of this tale, deduces that the plane flew over the Bermuda Triangle, and it somehow may have taken them back in time to the Age of the Dinosaurs. The group debate what to do, when Jeff finds some bones, which Dr. Corey is able to identify as human. The group puzzles over them, not realizing they are being watched...
Meanwhile, Scully fights a T-Rex, which is easily the most awesome moment of the book.
However, the issue ends with Scully getting knocked out by mysterious shadows.
One of the biggest strengths of this comic is the concept, really. A group of people trapped in a crazy world, where science, magic, dinosaurs, monsters, and even aliens all are jammed in a crazy land beyond time and space. The first issue also does a fine job telling us about who the title character is and showing how he ended up in the mess he was in. However, the rest of the major supporting cast don't really get that much development, we only learn the names of two of the other three major passengers, and not even full names. Gan's artwork is very good.
The major weakness of the comic is really one that is not really its fault: Age. It's a product of the 1970s, and it screams it in many ways. The clothes the characters wear, and the references to the Vietnam War, and all that.
Do I recommend picking up this issue? Well, based on the concept alone, I do recommend picking it up. Get the trade if you can find it. Just keep in mind that it does show its age in places, being a forty-year-old series, so it can be a bit clunky. It's still fun, though.
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: Steve Gan
Letterer: Marcos
Editor: Len Wein
I actually learned of Skull the Slayer thanks to the wonderful website known as the Appendix of the Marvel Universe. Dedicated to the lesser known denizens of the Marvel Universe, the Appendix gives out lots of information about lots of little-known characters, and quite a few I think could use a little more love. Skull the Slayer is one such character. I'd love to see him in a cartoon or an MCU movie. You could tell some real genre-bending stories with this guy.
The back of the trade paperback collecting the series describes Skull the Slayer as "Lost meets the Land that Time Forgot", and that description is indeed very apt for this series. Funny enough, there was a film made of the Edgar Rice Burroughs story released that very year. Maybe the film provided some inspiration for the series. Either way, this concept was incredibly brilliant, and I think it was criminal that it only got eight issues. Ah well.
We begin our little adventure with a group of people on an Army airplane. One is a man with two soldiers, and what appears to be three civilians: A blonde woman, a black man, and a teenager. Quite a diverse group for a military flight, almost like the people who put together the passenger list for this flight expected something interesting to happen.
We learn a bit more about the man, named Jim Scully. A former US Army soldier...and wanted killer. Scully had recently served in Vietnam (Keep in mind, the war there had recently ended when the comic was originally published), enduring quite a bit of nasty torture at the hands of the Viet Cong.
When he came home, he found that his wife had decided to go hook up with another man, his parents worried themselves to death, and his brother became a junkie. Scully and his bro got into a brawl, which resulted in the brother accidentally dying (he had a knife).
Mrs. Scully is a jerk. And shouldn't Scully have just told the police what happened to his brother? He wasn't a wanted criminal when he came home. Not to mention fleeing would've only increased the police's suspicions...but wouldn't an autopsy and evidence indicate that Scully's brother ended up killing himself? He was clearly high, wouldn't the stuff still be in his bloodstream? I get it was the 1970s, but I do think forensic science could tell what was in bloodstreams back then!
Scully fled and lived as a fugitive for a while, until he was caught in Bermuda working as a lifeguard (Scully cursed his weakness for Bermudan beach bunnies).
 |
| "I always knew those beach bunnies would get me in trouble one day..." |
 |
| Dr. Raymond Corey: Blaxploitation Scientist! |
 |
| "Somebody call Arthur Conan Doyle! Oh, it's the 1970s. Somebody call the Kroffts!" |
 |
| Jeff Turner makes himself useful. |
 |
| Linkara made being a man famous, but Jim Scully did it first. |
One of the biggest strengths of this comic is the concept, really. A group of people trapped in a crazy world, where science, magic, dinosaurs, monsters, and even aliens all are jammed in a crazy land beyond time and space. The first issue also does a fine job telling us about who the title character is and showing how he ended up in the mess he was in. However, the rest of the major supporting cast don't really get that much development, we only learn the names of two of the other three major passengers, and not even full names. Gan's artwork is very good.
The major weakness of the comic is really one that is not really its fault: Age. It's a product of the 1970s, and it screams it in many ways. The clothes the characters wear, and the references to the Vietnam War, and all that.
Do I recommend picking up this issue? Well, based on the concept alone, I do recommend picking it up. Get the trade if you can find it. Just keep in mind that it does show its age in places, being a forty-year-old series, so it can be a bit clunky. It's still fun, though.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Why the Wasp needs a Netflix series.
WARNING: This entry will contain minor spoilers for Ant-Man, so keep that in mind before reading this.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a vast, epic universe, encompassing many heroes and worlds. However, it does have its flaws. One big flaw that many critics have noted was a lack of female superheroes. Marvel does seem to be attempting to address this with Jessica Jones getting her own Netflix series and the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel getting a movie.
There is something else they can do as well, based on something in Ant-Man. In that film, Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp, went subatomic to stop a missile and save the world, ending up trapped in the Quantum Realm. Scott Lang would nearly suffer the same fate, but his return gave hope that Janet could be retrieved and restored to the regular world one day.
But what happened to Janet? What if in the Quantum Realm, she had her own adventures? What if she helped liberate a subatomic world from the iron grip of a mad tyrant? Maybe she possibly got to team up with...the Micronauts?
Yes, the Micronauts! Who are the Micronauts? Well, in 1979, Marvel Comics got the license to publish comics based on the Micronauts toy line, a series of toys based on a Japanese toyline that was centered around the concept of heroes from a subatomic world, that disguised themselves as toys on Earth, due to their small size. The toyline lasted from 1976 to 1980, the line ending a couple years before the producer of the toys went bankrupt and dissolved.
Written primarily by Bill Mantlo, who also wrote another toy tie-in called ROM, the Micronauts had two Marvel series, and like ROM, outlasted the toyline, going until 1986. In fact, Mantlo was inspired to write their adventures thanks to his son getting some Micronaut toys on Christmas. He convinced Jim Shooter, the editor in chief of Marvel at the time, to get the license, and the rest is history.
Hmm, between this and ROM, it seemed that Mantlo was a master at bringing depth and epic adventures to toyline tie-ins.
The series used a mixture of established toy characters and new characters, and it told an epic adventure with, in the Mantlo style, had lots of adventure, tragedy, and an epic mythology.
Which would make a great foundation for a new Netflix series centered around Janet Van Dyne. After shrinking down to subatomic, Janet finds herself in the Quantum Realm, the MCU's version of the Microverse. While exploring this new world, hoping to find her way home, she discovers she is on a world that is under the grip of a mad tyrant. She finds herself joining a resistance force, led by astronaut Arcturus Rann, to take on the tyrant, and save the Quantum Realm from his iron grip. As a nod to her naming the Avengers and the Vision in the comics, she can be the one to give the resistance group its name. I'm thinking of a couple possibilities: The Microns, the Enigma Force, or the Quantum Rangers.
The series would be a great opportunity to tell stories in the science fantasy genre, combining advanced technology with ancient magic. Think about it. One of the characters, Arcturus Rann, was an astronaut who used a magic sword. The series can help further show something that I think the MCU should show, like the comic Marvel Universe that inspired it: that it can tell a variety of stories in a variety of genres. Daredevil is a gritty crime drama, Avengers was an epic superhero film, Captain America: The First Avenger told a war story, etc.
One big obstacle to this series is that two significant characters in the series, the heroic Acroyear and the villainous Baron Karza (the main villain of the Micronauts series), were characters from the original toyline, and as such, Marvel does not have the rights to them. There are ways around it, though. They can always create new characters in their place, and also, Baron Karza was not the only villainous character running around the Microverse.
Another big problem may be the budget. I'm not sure how much of a budget these Netflix series get, but this series may not get a lot of money. Of course, many series in the sci-fi genres managed to become classics with out massive budgets, like most notably the original Star Trek series. However, considering the power and quality of the Marvel brand, I think the series will get the money it needs.
Why a Netflix series and not a film? Well, to be honest...I enjoyed Daredevil on Netflix, mainly. And considering Marvel seems to want to I also feel you can do more with a series than with a film. With a film, you only have so much time to set things up and get to where you want the story to go. With a series, you can take your time telling the story. You can have your characters grow and change and become much fuller and three-dimensional.
You can take the time to show off the Microverse and its various worlds, show its many peoples. The Microverse can be portrayed as a living dynamic universe hidden within our own. Wasp can be our eyes in this wild new world, experiencing its wonders alongside us.
As for actual episodes, I actually have to admit, I don't really have any ideas for episodes. But I have a basic idea for how the season ends. Wasp and the Micronauts battle the Big Bad of the series, who has found a way to come to our world. During this, Janet is able to contact Hank Pym (for a bit of a bittersweet thing, it can be revealed that due to the way time passes between our world and the Microverse, Hank Pym is now an aged old man, but Janet is still relatively young), and she tells him she is alright, but has to destroy the MacGuffin to prevent an invasion, if it means she'll be trapped in the Microverse. Janet destroys the MacGuffin, willing to make that sacrifice to save her home. It would be in character for her to do so.
For those reasons, The Wasp and the Micronauts would make a great addition to the Netflix MCU lineup alongside Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a vast, epic universe, encompassing many heroes and worlds. However, it does have its flaws. One big flaw that many critics have noted was a lack of female superheroes. Marvel does seem to be attempting to address this with Jessica Jones getting her own Netflix series and the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel getting a movie.
There is something else they can do as well, based on something in Ant-Man. In that film, Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp, went subatomic to stop a missile and save the world, ending up trapped in the Quantum Realm. Scott Lang would nearly suffer the same fate, but his return gave hope that Janet could be retrieved and restored to the regular world one day.
But what happened to Janet? What if in the Quantum Realm, she had her own adventures? What if she helped liberate a subatomic world from the iron grip of a mad tyrant? Maybe she possibly got to team up with...the Micronauts?
Yes, the Micronauts! Who are the Micronauts? Well, in 1979, Marvel Comics got the license to publish comics based on the Micronauts toy line, a series of toys based on a Japanese toyline that was centered around the concept of heroes from a subatomic world, that disguised themselves as toys on Earth, due to their small size. The toyline lasted from 1976 to 1980, the line ending a couple years before the producer of the toys went bankrupt and dissolved.
Written primarily by Bill Mantlo, who also wrote another toy tie-in called ROM, the Micronauts had two Marvel series, and like ROM, outlasted the toyline, going until 1986. In fact, Mantlo was inspired to write their adventures thanks to his son getting some Micronaut toys on Christmas. He convinced Jim Shooter, the editor in chief of Marvel at the time, to get the license, and the rest is history.
Hmm, between this and ROM, it seemed that Mantlo was a master at bringing depth and epic adventures to toyline tie-ins.
The series used a mixture of established toy characters and new characters, and it told an epic adventure with, in the Mantlo style, had lots of adventure, tragedy, and an epic mythology.
Which would make a great foundation for a new Netflix series centered around Janet Van Dyne. After shrinking down to subatomic, Janet finds herself in the Quantum Realm, the MCU's version of the Microverse. While exploring this new world, hoping to find her way home, she discovers she is on a world that is under the grip of a mad tyrant. She finds herself joining a resistance force, led by astronaut Arcturus Rann, to take on the tyrant, and save the Quantum Realm from his iron grip. As a nod to her naming the Avengers and the Vision in the comics, she can be the one to give the resistance group its name. I'm thinking of a couple possibilities: The Microns, the Enigma Force, or the Quantum Rangers.
The series would be a great opportunity to tell stories in the science fantasy genre, combining advanced technology with ancient magic. Think about it. One of the characters, Arcturus Rann, was an astronaut who used a magic sword. The series can help further show something that I think the MCU should show, like the comic Marvel Universe that inspired it: that it can tell a variety of stories in a variety of genres. Daredevil is a gritty crime drama, Avengers was an epic superhero film, Captain America: The First Avenger told a war story, etc.
One big obstacle to this series is that two significant characters in the series, the heroic Acroyear and the villainous Baron Karza (the main villain of the Micronauts series), were characters from the original toyline, and as such, Marvel does not have the rights to them. There are ways around it, though. They can always create new characters in their place, and also, Baron Karza was not the only villainous character running around the Microverse.
Another big problem may be the budget. I'm not sure how much of a budget these Netflix series get, but this series may not get a lot of money. Of course, many series in the sci-fi genres managed to become classics with out massive budgets, like most notably the original Star Trek series. However, considering the power and quality of the Marvel brand, I think the series will get the money it needs.
Why a Netflix series and not a film? Well, to be honest...I enjoyed Daredevil on Netflix, mainly. And considering Marvel seems to want to I also feel you can do more with a series than with a film. With a film, you only have so much time to set things up and get to where you want the story to go. With a series, you can take your time telling the story. You can have your characters grow and change and become much fuller and three-dimensional.
You can take the time to show off the Microverse and its various worlds, show its many peoples. The Microverse can be portrayed as a living dynamic universe hidden within our own. Wasp can be our eyes in this wild new world, experiencing its wonders alongside us.
As for actual episodes, I actually have to admit, I don't really have any ideas for episodes. But I have a basic idea for how the season ends. Wasp and the Micronauts battle the Big Bad of the series, who has found a way to come to our world. During this, Janet is able to contact Hank Pym (for a bit of a bittersweet thing, it can be revealed that due to the way time passes between our world and the Microverse, Hank Pym is now an aged old man, but Janet is still relatively young), and she tells him she is alright, but has to destroy the MacGuffin to prevent an invasion, if it means she'll be trapped in the Microverse. Janet destroys the MacGuffin, willing to make that sacrifice to save her home. It would be in character for her to do so.
For those reasons, The Wasp and the Micronauts would make a great addition to the Netflix MCU lineup alongside Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist.
Friday, August 14, 2015
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, My Thoughts
Marvel Comics has announced a variety of new series for their post Secret Wars Marvel universe, some unsurprising (a couple new Avengers titles), and some a bit out of left field, like the Black Knight getting a series. However, the company has recently announced a new series that may be the most surprising of all.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
Who is Moon Girl? Well, according to Marvel, Moon Girl is Lunella Lafayette, a teenage super-genius with dormant Inhuman DNA (Honestly, I don't see why she NEEDS to be Inhuman. Why not just be a super-genius) who stumbles upon some Kree tech and befriends the Devil Dinosaur, a big red Tyrannosaurus Rex. They'll need to work together to stop the Killer-Folk, who are after the tech Lunella encounters.
It is surprising, but also kind of neat they are dusting off the old Devil. Because he is older than one thinks. He first appeared in Devil Dinosaur #1 (April 1978)
A Jack Kirby creation, Devil Dinosaur was a powerful red T-Rex who had incredible intelligence, and was quite a bit stronger and tougher than other members of his species. He had adventures in a prehistoric-era parallel universe alongside Moon-Boy, a furry ape-like humanoid. Over the years, the twosome have made sporadic appearances in the main Marvel Universe, ending up in the Savage Land, and Devil had appeared as a villain in Nextwave, but that was retconned away.
You know, it's funny. Marvel has been really going into the idea of their superhero characters being part of legacies. Sure, Marvel has given old identities to new people in the past (Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Rita DeMara/Yellojacket, Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099), but they are really going into it in recent years. Kamala Khan took up the mantle of Ms. Marvel from Carol Danvers. Jane Foster is the new Thor. Sam Wilson/Falcon is the new Captain America. Miles Morales will be sharing the Spider-Man identity with Peter Parker. Marvel has really fallen in love with the idea of legacy, and I think it's fantastic.
Lunella is a legacy character, and since it was announced that Moon-Boy will also appear in the new series, I can't wait to see them meet. I hope they end up friends.
I do love when Marvel gives love to lesser-known characters, so I will definitely be picking this up. I also want to help support diversity at Marvel, both in characters getting titles, and in the people making the books. Plus, it looks like a fun title. I've been really enjoying more fun titles lately, which is why Archie ending its Mega Man title makes me sad.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
Who is Moon Girl? Well, according to Marvel, Moon Girl is Lunella Lafayette, a teenage super-genius with dormant Inhuman DNA (Honestly, I don't see why she NEEDS to be Inhuman. Why not just be a super-genius) who stumbles upon some Kree tech and befriends the Devil Dinosaur, a big red Tyrannosaurus Rex. They'll need to work together to stop the Killer-Folk, who are after the tech Lunella encounters.
It is surprising, but also kind of neat they are dusting off the old Devil. Because he is older than one thinks. He first appeared in Devil Dinosaur #1 (April 1978)
A Jack Kirby creation, Devil Dinosaur was a powerful red T-Rex who had incredible intelligence, and was quite a bit stronger and tougher than other members of his species. He had adventures in a prehistoric-era parallel universe alongside Moon-Boy, a furry ape-like humanoid. Over the years, the twosome have made sporadic appearances in the main Marvel Universe, ending up in the Savage Land, and Devil had appeared as a villain in Nextwave, but that was retconned away.
You know, it's funny. Marvel has been really going into the idea of their superhero characters being part of legacies. Sure, Marvel has given old identities to new people in the past (Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Rita DeMara/Yellojacket, Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099), but they are really going into it in recent years. Kamala Khan took up the mantle of Ms. Marvel from Carol Danvers. Jane Foster is the new Thor. Sam Wilson/Falcon is the new Captain America. Miles Morales will be sharing the Spider-Man identity with Peter Parker. Marvel has really fallen in love with the idea of legacy, and I think it's fantastic.
Lunella is a legacy character, and since it was announced that Moon-Boy will also appear in the new series, I can't wait to see them meet. I hope they end up friends.
I do love when Marvel gives love to lesser-known characters, so I will definitely be picking this up. I also want to help support diversity at Marvel, both in characters getting titles, and in the people making the books. Plus, it looks like a fun title. I've been really enjoying more fun titles lately, which is why Archie ending its Mega Man title makes me sad.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Puzzle + Dragons Z Review
I enjoy puzzle games. They are addictive, fun, and let me use my brain. So, when I found this game, I downloaded a demo for my 3DS. I fell in love with it. So when I went to a GameStop and bought a copy. The game? Puzzle + Dragons Z.
It was two games for the price of one! Savings!
Puzzle + Dragons Z is a spin-off of the series of the same name for mobile devices and tablets. This game is essentially the same as the mobile games, only this version includes elements from RPG games, like towns and sidequests.
In this game, you play a trainee Dragon Tamer from Zed City in the land of Dracomacia. Dracomacia is a land in which humans and monsters, including various dragons, co-exist with one another. The monsters draw their life energy from orbs in the atmosphere of this world. The orbs come in five elements: Fire, Water, Wood, Light, and Dark.
Anyway, what's a Dragon Tamer? Think of it as a mixture of a Pokémon Trainer and a park ranger/police officer, protecting the land from various threats.
You became a Dragon Tamer just in time, because an evil group known as Paradox wants to remake the world in its image, and it does such by capturing the Skydragons of Dracomacia, causing it to break into several pieces. It's up to you to stop Paradox and save the world!
This game reminds me of Pokémon in many ways. You get to make a team of monsters, and by using match-three puzzle skills, you have them battle against other monsters, different types are strong and weak against others, and if you beat a monster, you may get an egg that you can hatch, so you get a monster of your own. There are a variety of monsters besides dragons. Some are like bugs, some are like mammals, and there are even some that resemble knights.
Different monsters have different abilities and effects in combat, allowing for a lot of strategy in how you want to approach battle. That's a nice little feature.
I don't have any major issues with Puzzle + Dragons Z, but I haven't gotten very far with it yet.
This also had another game, Puzzle + Dragons, Super Mario Bros. Edition. It was essentially a Mario game with match-three RPG elements. The story is the classic Mario story: Bowser kidnaps Peach, and Mario must save her, nothing new there. The thing that amuses me about the game is the idea that Mario and Luigi can create a fighting team composes of classic Mario henchmen, like Goombas and Koopa Troopas.
It's a fun game. The only thing I didn't like was that the choices of Mario henchmen seemed limited, as so far, all I got was variations on the Koopa Troopa and the Goomba. There are a lot of creatures Mario has faced in his long career, like Cheep Cheeps, Bloopers, Bullet Bills, Pirahna Plants, Bob-Ombs, Monty Moles, Mini-Ninjis, Shy-Guys, Birdos, I'm hoping to see more variety in the various creatures Mario can recruit. To be fair, I haven't gotten very far in this version, so maybe there will be more variety.
All in all, I recommend picking this game up, especially if you like puzzle games. It's fun, addicting, and it's two games for the price of one! Can't beat that!
It was two games for the price of one! Savings!
Puzzle + Dragons Z is a spin-off of the series of the same name for mobile devices and tablets. This game is essentially the same as the mobile games, only this version includes elements from RPG games, like towns and sidequests.
In this game, you play a trainee Dragon Tamer from Zed City in the land of Dracomacia. Dracomacia is a land in which humans and monsters, including various dragons, co-exist with one another. The monsters draw their life energy from orbs in the atmosphere of this world. The orbs come in five elements: Fire, Water, Wood, Light, and Dark.
Anyway, what's a Dragon Tamer? Think of it as a mixture of a Pokémon Trainer and a park ranger/police officer, protecting the land from various threats.
You became a Dragon Tamer just in time, because an evil group known as Paradox wants to remake the world in its image, and it does such by capturing the Skydragons of Dracomacia, causing it to break into several pieces. It's up to you to stop Paradox and save the world!
This game reminds me of Pokémon in many ways. You get to make a team of monsters, and by using match-three puzzle skills, you have them battle against other monsters, different types are strong and weak against others, and if you beat a monster, you may get an egg that you can hatch, so you get a monster of your own. There are a variety of monsters besides dragons. Some are like bugs, some are like mammals, and there are even some that resemble knights.
Different monsters have different abilities and effects in combat, allowing for a lot of strategy in how you want to approach battle. That's a nice little feature.
I don't have any major issues with Puzzle + Dragons Z, but I haven't gotten very far with it yet.
This also had another game, Puzzle + Dragons, Super Mario Bros. Edition. It was essentially a Mario game with match-three RPG elements. The story is the classic Mario story: Bowser kidnaps Peach, and Mario must save her, nothing new there. The thing that amuses me about the game is the idea that Mario and Luigi can create a fighting team composes of classic Mario henchmen, like Goombas and Koopa Troopas.
It's a fun game. The only thing I didn't like was that the choices of Mario henchmen seemed limited, as so far, all I got was variations on the Koopa Troopa and the Goomba. There are a lot of creatures Mario has faced in his long career, like Cheep Cheeps, Bloopers, Bullet Bills, Pirahna Plants, Bob-Ombs, Monty Moles, Mini-Ninjis, Shy-Guys, Birdos, I'm hoping to see more variety in the various creatures Mario can recruit. To be fair, I haven't gotten very far in this version, so maybe there will be more variety.
All in all, I recommend picking this game up, especially if you like puzzle games. It's fun, addicting, and it's two games for the price of one! Can't beat that!
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