Dual Blades (2002):

Dual Blades (2002):

Dual Blades (2002):

"Dual Blades is a fighting video game published by Metro3D, Inc. for the Game Boy Advance. It is a fighting game with single player and player versus player modes. It features a "power combining system" which was very new for the genre at that time. This system allows players to create their own fighting style.”

Fighters throughout time come to fight for the Dual Blades, a weapon that will grant immortality. First off, despite the power combining system, you pretty much just have light attack (thrust) and heavy attack. (Slash.) So, it all comes down to your weapon and character, as this is a weapon-based fighting game. My favorite character so far is Shin, the feudal Japanese magician who uses a spear. He gets an ending where he challenges the best fighters throughout time again, essentially just relaunching the tournament.

Others include Brandon an American vagabond with a sword, Efe, an Ottoman warrior with a scimitar, a female ninja named Kunonichi, a beastman, a sorcerer, a Russian witch, and the last boss who is unplayable. He's an immortal Roman named Alpe Ren, who can move super fast and switch instantly between “weapon mode” and “armor mode”. The only thing comparable that you as a player can do is choose between a defensive or offensive fighting style before the fight.

For a Game Boy Advance title, it does some advanced things for the time in 2002. I don't really think there's much reason to go back to it. It is super violent, which is unusual for even a weapon-based fighting game back then. But, even watching characters get sliced in half as the final heavy attack lands gets boring after a while. There are updated modern versions and sequels on Steam, but the original is pretty one-note (i.e. the power-combining system.) and stale by now.

My favorite ending to the game though, is Duke the English knight's ending, who uses the Dual Blades to umm...stop the Viking invasions of England? It's an interesting idea. It's ultimately how I feel about Dual Blades. It's an interesting idea. But, it doesn't really follow through, even though it could've completely changed things.

Frosty Kiss (2015):

Frosty Kiss (2015):

“It's been a year since Seymon returned from "Sovyonok" and met the girls from the camp in the real world. But it's New Year at hand! And it needs to be celebrated!”

Well, I reviewed a non-canon sequel to Katawa Shoujo, so I might as well do the same for Everlasting Summer. I can't really recommend it, but here I go. Seymon returns from the magic bus that found him back in the USSR. The same girls are there, except for one. Miku the Japanese girl has been replaced by Masha the Russian. I don't know why. Maybe Miku only existed on the magic bus.

Most of the girls retain their original personalities. Slavya has short hair. Ulyana is still the wild child. I guess that makes her my favorite. This novel involves him starting a romance with one (and only one.) of them. Which one is up to the player. Playtime is reportedly very short. Only about an hour for a full play-through.

Unlike the first game, this non-canon sequel was made by 2Chance Projects, not the aptly named Soviet Games. It's a very short game designed specifically for New Year's 2015. That said, it's okay for what it is, but doesn't bother developing the characters. Frosty Kiss assumes you played Everlasting Summer, plops you in modern Russia, and gets right to the romance...it's very Russian that way.

Speaking of Russian, a final word of warning. When you download this game from Steam, you have to manually set the language from Russian to English, rather than downloading a separate English release, as with Everlasting Summer. I had to re-install it, while searching for an English version, because I thought I downloaded the wrong language version. But, after Googling the problem, I discovered the language settings are in the game's main menu.

Like Katawa's side-story, I can only recommend it if you liked the original game. Except unlike Summer's Clover, Frosty Kiss doesn't add much, and is mostly characters commenting on the last game and the new year. Give it a look, if you're interested. Make sure you play Everlasting Summer first. I can't really recommend it on its own. Otherwise, you'll have no idea what's going on.

Everlasting Summer (2013):

Everlasting Summer (2013):

“Everlasting Summer is a visual novel that tells the story of a man living in modern Russia who finds himself mysteriously transported to a summer camp somewhere in the Soviet Union.”

A lonely modern Russian kid named Seymon goes to the bus station one day. When he wakes up, he finds himself mysteriously transported to the Soviet Union in a pioneer camp. Think Soviet Scouts! Within the pioneer camp, there's a number of different girls you can pursue, including Alisa, Lena, Ulyana (the party animal.), Miku, (A Japanese girl.) and Slavya. Each girl has 2 endings good and bad. There are also “secret endings” I've heard about where you can discover a nuclear shelter in the camp, or discover evil clones.

There's even an ending where you make a robot cat girl, who will be available to pursue next game. I've never gotten that far. As far as I know, each girl has 2 endings. One where you stay in the USSR and lead a good life. Or one where you find your way back, but something bad happens! (Lena's version has Seymon kill himself.) It's a unique game. Heavy on sci-fi, and alternate realities. I'd say give it a try, if you can stomach the sappy USSR nostalgia! The game was originally released in Russia only in 2006. The 2013 version is the English release.

Astro Boy (2004 series DVD set):

Astro Boy (2004 series DVD set):

I finished watching the 2004 DVD set for Astro Boy recently. It was good. Even though it's a reboot, it followed a lot of Osamu Tezuka's original Pinocchio-type themes from the 1960s series. At its heart, it's about a boy with the power to decide what he wants to do, and who his friends are, even if they appear mean at first. To be honest, I got bored around the 4th DVD when the adventures became more villain-of-the-week episodic, but once it returned to the evil father story from discs 1 and 2, then it was action-packed and really focused.

There are humans who hate robots and humans who wanna be robots, and humans who frame robots for crimes, and robot supremacists. But, Astro Boy fights for everyone. A little cheesy, but good cheese. The last disc is really action-packed too. Robots form their own independent nation, and Astro Boy fights to minimize the damage. Not quite like modern anime violent, but it's on par with something like Avatar: The Last Airbender.

For me, it was refreshing to see something from anime say in effect, that the rules of society are important, but we all have free will. Free will is not a common theme in modern anime, in my opinion. That was nice to see on top of Astro Boy's Good vs. Evil story, with Dr. O'Shay being good and Dr. Tenma being evil. Apart from Good vs. Evil, he learns from having friends, fighting villains (Robot or human.) and playing games (Rocketball and visiting the circus.) that being fair is important. Plus, he has cool powers like an arm cannon, rocket boots, finger lasers, and uh, he can...talk to trees? Anyway, give it a watch if you're itching for some good retro-future cheesiness.

Liberty or Death (1993 SNES):

It's an American Revolutionary War Strategy Game! Well, Calling Liberty or Death a strategy game is a bit generous. It's much more a resource management game with a historical framework. Every move you make takes a certain resource, whether its food, gunpowder, or troops. The battle system is really limited. You move one square at a time, and troops need to be right next to each other to attack. For this reason, it doesn't hold up. I always wanted to like this game more than I actually do.

It's quite literally just whoever has the most things wins. For a historical game, I understand this. It puts the pressure on the players to launch quick and smart attacks, but the one move at a time mechanic really limits your paths to victory. For the British, you want to use your Navy to quickly cut off America from Europe, and capture Philadelphia, or the American General. (Washington)

Now, if you're the Americans, you want to seize Boston to cut off the English Navy immediately, and send delegates to Europe to gain support and allies. Just like Washington did. You can also capture the English General. (Cornwallis.) If you can gain enough support/denial for American independence by running newspapers and delegates to states, they can switch sides from the British to the American army or vice versa.

The resource management and delegate processes can actually be pretty fun, and it's always satisfying to gain support from such-and-such new state. However, the battle system is just tedious and not fun, when it should be the focus of the game, because you'll be doing it a lot. Like I said, everything moves one square, and everything has to be close up to attack. Even the guns. Add to this that you need to manage each resource before battle (Troops run out of food and powder.) and it makes the gameplay very dull...you'll have to use bayonets if you run out of powder, or the battle just ends if you don't have enough food.

In spite of this, I just thought I'd write about this weird historical strategy game because it had so much promise. Some of the resource management is fun! It's always fun to get new troops or new support. But, the part that should be fun, battling, isn't. If you don't end the game before 1800, the game ends with British victory automatically, and Thomas Gage becomes Lord Governor of the 13 Colonies. It's a shame then, that America only has a small path to victory. It's historical, but that also means it's limited.

Surprisingly, I thought the strongest point of the game was also it's biggest weakness...the music. The same 1-minute battle ditty plays on loop for every battle, which gets annoying when you're moving square by square. Now, during the resource management phases you get rousing midis with flute noises and drums, and even “The Star-Spangled Banner". An upbeat continenntal theme which calls America “The Land of Liberty and Justice” plays in the event of an American Victory.

Overall, “Liberty or Death” is a nice educational resource management game. There's sort of an idea of a strategy game there, but it falls flat and the most exciting parts quickly become the most tedious. I'd say unless you really like historical tactics games, you're better off skipping this one. It has some cool ideas though, as sort of a historical “what if?”. Unfortunately, as much as I want to wonder “What if the Spanish had helped American independence instead of France?” I just keep wondering “What if this game were more exciting?”

The Final Countdown (1980):

The Final Countdown (1980):

“A modern aircraft carrier is thrown back in time to 1941 near Hawaii, just hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.”

An aircraft carrier in 1980 gets caught up in a time storm, and ends up in 1941! With the Japanese about to attack, the crew now faces a conundrum. Do they attack, or let the attack happen to them? Well, first, the systems analyst (Warren Lasky, played by Martin Sheen.) is able to determine through records and radio frequencies that they are in 1941. Plus, Senator Samuel Chapman is also nearby on a yacht, so the time storm reality is confirmed. But, before they know who he is, they rescue him from Japanese planes. He was supposed to die in the attack!

Meanwhile, the Japanese pilot who attacked Chapman's yacht sneaks onboard the carrier and takes hostages, now armed with automatic rifles. Having already changed history, they have no choice but to defend themselves now. They communicate with the pilot in Japanese, and he gets scared and starts shooting. They take him out, and arrange for Chapman to be dropped off back at Pearl Harbor.

Chapman overhears this plan, and refuses to be dropped off. But, in order to preserve history, they tell him he won't be at Pearl Harbor. Chapman takes the helicopter crew hostage. Well, then Chapman's secretary falls in love with Wing Commander Owens, and agrees to be dropped off at a nearby island with him and her dog. Chapman kills himself accidentally by setting off a flare gun. Unknowningly, history is preserved.

But, not before Captain Yelland (Kirk Douglas.) gives the order to attack the Japanese planes, not knowing the course of history has just been saved. This opens the time portal back up, and they arrive back in 1980. Of course, who's waiting for Mr. Lasky back in DC, but Mr. Owens himself, his wife, and a miraculously 40+-year-old dog!

This was a great film. I was a bit surprised to find in buried on Tubi. It kind of reminded me of a very high-concept Star Trek episode or something. I haven't watched a good high-concept time travel sci-fi movie in a while. Definitely check it out if you can! I know I basically spoiled it, but half the fun is watching them figure out history and how they change courses. That's fun even if you know what's coming. Even the film synopsis is a huge spoiler!

Erased (2016):

Erased (2016):

“Satoru Fujinuma can travel back in time to save others' lives. When he wakes up 18 years in the past, he has a chance to save his murdered classmates.”

Erased is an anime on Netflix that time travels between 2006 and 1988. It's a murder mystery. Each time somebody is about to be killed, Satoru can use his ability called “Revival” to go back in time and stop it. This results in several timelines being created. A few where he and his friends and family die. A few where he goes back to 1988.

It all starts when his classmate Kayo goes missing. Then, she's being abused. He finds her as a 9-year-old in 1988, and vows to find “Date X” the day she is murdered. He can switch between 1988 and 2006, but never control when he revives. This anime is a roller coaster of emotions. Often a sweet scene like a birthday will be immediately followed by child abuse and murder.

It's a mystery, so I can't give that many spoilers as to who the killer(s) are. I'll say the sci-fi time travel aspect is neat. Soon, more abductions follow Kayo's. There are even a couple timelines where he is framed as the murderer. If you have the hankering for a good mystery, definitely check this one out. But, I'd say be warned, it goes from very light to very dark all the time.