-The End of Flok Factory-

You have reached the Ending of my Online Diary.

I have written more than enough in the last 10 years at Flok Factory, and now it is time to close down and move on. It's pleasant to write, self-reflect and learn. Not just about video games and movies, but also about traveling, non-fiction and miscellaneous topics too.

After I put this blog of mine under the archives, it's time for me to go communicate online elsewhere, and share my thoughts, feelings and opinion. I will explore Twitter, Reddit and other social media, but perhaps I will also become active on traditional forums again, just like I was 18 years ago.

What's next regarding my own projects though? After streaming for 6 months now, I expect to continue doing so, and somehow, hopefully grow an audience in order to make it more exciting. I am also freewheeling about writing my own horror novella, and to finally, finally make time in order to develop a proper video game on my own.

By no means are these easy projects to become successful with, but I will try them out, seriously, but also with large portions of fun. Because distractions and escapism are good ways to spend leisure time with, and if I can entertain others, that would be an honorable privilege.

It's time to wrap this up and let go. For any reader who bothered to read my life at Flok Factory, thank you, whoever you are.

Signing out, Flok/Flow_Rush/Floris

Top 12 Favorite Flok Factory Blog Posts

These are the 12 blog posts that had the biggest personal impact on me over the last 10 years, and impressed me the most to either experience or write about, for different reasons standing out. This is purely my own selfish subjective opinion!

1.Killer7: The Game Screaming for Originalism(2010)

2.Retro Blog: Super Smash Bros. Melee(2011)

3.What Makes a Great Horror(2012)

4.North Korea(2013)

5.The Best That Money Can't Buy(2014)

6.Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain(2015) 

7.The Journey of Martial Arts(2016)

8.Xmas and 2017 Review(2017)

9.Get Equipped With: Flok's 3rd Generation PC(2018)

10.Top 30 Favorite Movies(2018)

11.Cooking(2019)

12.Fear of the Unknown(2020)

The Problems of Philosophy

For my final formal review, let's take a look at The Problems of Philosophy, published in 1912 by Bertrand Russell. It attempts to briefly introduce and guide as to what this body of knowledge is primarily about.

Rather than concentrating on metaphysics, the philosopher focuses on what is defined or meant by knowledge, and the different ways they are perceived or formed. Such as the nature of idea, things, and truths, but also universals, the mind, matter, and more.

Explaining the difference between knowledge by acquaintance(I know that gold can melt) and knowledge by description(I know that there is an Emperor of China), Russell briefly further references previous great philosophers such as Kant and Hegel to bring up the general argument that the same great questions have been asked too often, with failed unclear results.

Fallacies, falsehoods, the biological way of memories having several layers of self-evidence, empirical experiences, demonstrably methods, rational thoughts, questionable existences, objective morality and more give cause for philosophy to act with doubt and inquiry.

Bertrand also writes that philosophy can be used as critical examination towards the body of sciences, of the grounds of convictions, prejudices and beliefs, to ascertain what is to be determined as the truth or truths.

Finally, he argues about the value of philosophy, and why it should be studied and stay relevant;

Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.

The Problems of Philosophy is a thought provoking book about epistemology and skepticism, that can still be used today in the modern current world and timeline, and it encourages to think deeper about not only major topics, but common sense too.

Rating: ***

Cyberpunk 2077

A very ambitious video game developed over 8 years, but ultimately a flawed and, depending on which launch you witnessed, a broken experience.

Cyberpunk 2077 was the most hyped game of the year, the only one left that could give 2020 somehow a bang to end with, but no. The hype was not met in the end, and after beating it just now, the reputation of CD Projekt Red has been damaged for good.

Having purchased my digital copy on Steam for the PC, using my high end PC without an RTX video card, I was able to still play it with high settings and enough performance, but even when all the early patches were installed, I still encountered numerous bugs and glitches, which have been talked to death on the internet.

Coping with the incompetence of the development, it's an open world first person shooter with main and side quests, dialogue options with little impact, a cyberpunk and trans-humanism setting with an impressive graphical and artistic vision in mind but crumbling here and there too, and inventory management, skill trees and equipment.

The main story was interesting enough to follow, but the characters most of the time not so much. Exceptions are Johnny Silverhand played by handsome Keanu Reeves, and to a lesser extent Jackie Welles and Panam Palmer. Expect to be immersed by it, especially with Johnny pulling a Joker as a plot narrative.

At first I was playing Hard mode, but after I grew tired of the bullet sponges having to hit enemies over 6 times in the head to kill them, I switched to Normal with no regrets. Aside from the regular modern gun play, expect to drive around GTA style, and to also play little hacking and detective mini games, which all have been executed better in other games.

Content wise, there is enough to do even after beating the game, but I am told that other promised has been either cut, or I hope not, prepared for future DLC. That would break CD Projekt Red's great reputation of The Witcher 3's DLC expansion packs to a lesser extent too.

But as far as ambition, hype, optimization, performance and gameplay goes, Cyberpunk 2077 does not deliver in the end on those, and instead, we are left in my opinion with a regular open world first person shooter that tried to be something much, much more.

It's certainly not innovative, and it's launch event was a disaster, so many people have refunded it already, and some lawyers have already started a lawsuit against them for delivering false marketing and promises, especially for last generation console gamers.

I prefer to replay the first Deus Ex, or Human Revolution, instead of playing this again. Only if CD Projekt Red is able to fix so much about Cyberpunk 2077, and release exciting post-content, perhaps somewhere in the future, they will be forgiven.

Or, a sequel could be much better, now that a new IP has been established.

Rating: 7.5

A Christmas Carol

Okay, so I lied. It's time for 1 more traditional Christmas blog post :)

I decided to read the original 1843 novel by Charles Dickens about A Christmas Carol, the timeless story about Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, and the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.

Of course, having seen many film adaptations about it already, such as Scrooge from 1951 and The Muppet Christmas Carol, this public domain story is widely known and portrays Scrooge's current love of money, while throughout the plot, will remember what Christmas means, and he then transforms into a kinder, sympathetic man.

The ghosts of the past, the present and the future portray with melancholic and beauty, typical events of family, but also how the poor are treated, and how Scrooge remembers joyful moments from himself and others.

Reading and finishing this for the first time, at the end of it, I just had to cry, reflecting back upon my life so far. Where has the time gone? I was such an innocent boy long ago, just like any other child. I suppose the tears meant ultimately that I am thankful for my virtues, those around me, and my life.

Merry Christmas, and a much healthier and happier New Year!

Die Hard

It's official, I have officially run out of Christmas related blog posts, so I will be giving Die Hard the spot light for this year!

I figure that everyone knows about this movie when talking about movies in general. And ironically and funny enough, the action movie has many Christmas related elements, that it adds an extra layer towards it. Some fans even go far-fetched with some of it.

Die Hard is an impeccable action oriented movie with movements, negotiations, clever tricks and actions. And that's about it. This is a movie you watch to unfold and then see it through the end through tension and action. Calm and professional thinking cop versus terrorists, even if they claim not to be.

The title also stands out for me, Die Hard sounds great. In overall, it's an iconic late 80's movie, well beloved by many. Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman shine and give great performance with memorable quotes, and it has spawned a franchise. There might be another entry releasing called McClane, kind of similar in title towards Sylvester Stallone's Rocky and Rambo series.

Rating: 8.0

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

The first portable Zelda game, Link’s Awakening takes place ultimately on a dream island, similar to Super Mario Bros. 2’s dream ending. 

 

8 dungeons await Link, and Koholint Island was for me, a confusing maze most of the time. Traversing around wasn’t as fun or as mystifying than it is in its three earlier brethren. It also uses plenty of cameos towards Super Mario’s world most of the time, which was odd, but perhaps adds to the dreamlike experience.

 

Switching around the tools, accidentally touching certain rocks, re-reading the use of the compass and other things were issues that grew annoying to experience. Other than that, Link’s Awakening does not come up with other new features from what I can remember, but its length and dungeons were entertaining. 

 

There are underground platform sections, improved from the original NES title, which were also fun to play through, despite their simplicity.

 

Rating: 7.5

This is the colored remake of the former, making it a more graphical experience on the Game Boy Color, adding a new Color Dungeon with some nifty elements, and also a Photographer NPC that takes pictures throughout Link's adventure, similar to Earthbound.

Stone Slabs have also been replaced by Owl Statues which is a quality of life improvement. Also, Link's Awakening introduced the traditional Trading Sequence, and Roc's Feather combined with Pegasus Boots meant that you could traverse swiftly around.

Rating: 7.7

A recent remake, suitably released on the Nintendo Switch. The graphics have dramatically changed, but the overworld map and the gameplay are largely identical. The Legend of Zelda has experimented with different art styles many times, and this one is no different!

Most of the time, the game's performance is fine, but there are scenes where the frames drop. More quantity of certain items have gone up, there are more quality of life improvements in the user interface, and more shortcuts are available.

Chamber Dungeons are also a new feature which basically toys with assets of featured dungeons asking what if, Zelda Maker was real? It's as if Nintendo is looking at the response in order to release this in a complete full fledged edition, similar to Mario.

Before I forget and stop talking about Link's Awakening, people remember the dreamlike ending, where it turns out that the island is manifested by the Wind Fish. Also, Eagle Tower and Turtle Rock are some of the most challenging and confusing Zelda dungeons out there, but it's a fine victory if you can overcome them.

Rating: 7.9

The Direction of Paper Mario

This is basically Sticker Star 2.0, but a tad better.

In Paper Mario Color Splash, everything looks like paper aesthetically, which is visually pleasing. The lack of a fine story and unique characters makes this not as much fun as I really wanted it to be, but at least it isn't as soulless as the previous game.

Paint Scraps are used as incentive to make regular battles have a purpose, which can increase your max paint supply, but it’s still unnecessary to battle most of the time, as they still remain convoluted, and if you escape battles, the enemies literally disappear! This felt cheap and fundamentally wrong.

As the pain mechanic is used for progression and powering up on the overworld, the same battle system is used, and the card system used with it is a bit better, but also soon becomes a chore, as you constantly have to use it before you can attack, delaying the battles.

 

Resource management and rewards don't mean much, as the game throws so much cards and coins at you at every spot. Things also return as stationary objects, and are used for puzzle solving, but also for obtuse obnoxious moments of having to defeat certain bosses.

Koopalings also return, and the humor is witty and intact, referencing pop culture and memes, like Super Paper Mario for instance did too. Again, the world map consists of smaller parts, and isn't interconnected.

Also, Color Splash is ridiculously easy, even for Nintendo standards, and combined with the shallow battles, that is one awful combination. Despite all of the negativity and disappointment, it's still worth playing once if you are a Paper Mario fan in general or not, but it could had been so much more!

Rating: 7.4 

Paper Mario’s latest adventure on the Nintendo Switch. Once new entities known as origami invade and convert the paper figures into their ranks, it's up to Mario and his new companion Olivia to stop her brother from turning everything into origami.

The battle system is quite unique and a departure. It's still turn-based, but Mario is now confronted with a ring system, where he can either spin or slide enemies in rows or next to each other in order to attack them in the best way.

As for boss battles, the stationary (office supply)enemy is put in the center, and Mario will have to figure out through a bit of puzzle solving from outside using arrows and other special buttons in order to defeat each one of them. From elemental creatures to normal tools such as tape and hole punch being bosses, their appearance and personalities were something else.

While the normal battles quickly became redundant and repetitive, because you could only collect coins, defeating it's purpose similar to Sticker Star and Color Splash, the boss battles turned out to be entertaining and memorable.

The origami and confetti themes are fitting and work well in the paper universe, and the dialogue plus writing was spot on. The soundtrack was also noteworthy, and perhaps the desert theme during the yellow streamer episode is my favorite.

Finding and rescuing Toads can be fun to discover them, and filling out Toad Town the more you play is also a nice touch of reward. However, creativity and variety for characters are still missing. We all want unique ones, not generic ones. This design philosophy/policy remains awful and 99% of other video games don’t have this prohibition.

Origami King's new features and directions are welcomed, but the incentive for battling remains low in general. Like many other hardcore fans, I also hate the development’s strict Nintendo policy of not being able to use original NPC characters traditionally anymore, and most of us want a true sequel in the light of 64 and TTYD by now, now with Mario & Luigi's fate also being bleak.

Rating: 7.7

The spiritual successor towards Paper Mario we have been waiting for! and by we I mean the oldest Paper Mario fans around. That doesn't mean that the new Paper Mario titles are bad games with their new themes, but they did become a identity and creativity crisis for the series itself.

Hence why Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling truly is what the old fans have been waiting for since 16 or 13 years, depending on if you look at it from TTYD or SPM's release date. Developed by only 4 people from Panama of all countries, I am truly blazed away by the love and charm how this game got created!

It's not just a clone of PM 64 and TTYD's overall concepts, but it certainly has it's own identity, lore, charm and much more, plus it has quality of life improvements upon the established gameplay, it really feels like an evolution.

In combat, you can switch turns and even positions between characters, using relay functionality so that 1 of the characters can get another turn, which can sometimes be more tactical. Whoever is in front will be hit the most but they will also deal extra damage. Action Commands are back!

Kabbu, Vi and Leif are the protagonist trio of Bugaria, and the game has great writing in general for them and the NPC's in the overworld. There is great chemistry, backgrounds, lore and humor to be found, and the tattle and spy options have improved here in quantity and arguably quality.

Multiple abilities per character allow for fun puzzles and platforming moments to happen in the overworld, and the game is split up between chapters. The Cooking and Badge systems(hereby named Medal) return here, and I really, really missed them over all these years. Well, Hollow Knight also kind of has a badge system.

Hard mode is a real challenge for Paper Mario veterans, some of the bosses will eat you up, you will need to use precise movements and the right strategy to beat them. But while I was playing Hard Mode, I would also be getting more Exploration Points, and get rare Medals as rewards.

But alas, after chapter 4, I decided to turn it off, as Normal mode is a bit more fun in order to experience it all even better. Aside from a well done main storyline, the game has numerous side quests to undertake, not just fetch quests, but also unique battles and more.

With a card mini game and an arcade being present, as well as plenty of secrets to be found around, Bug Fables is a true sequel towards the turn based Paper Mario RPG's of the past, and it redeems so much, that it has filled up the void.

Rating: 8.5

Internet Movie Database

The Internet Movie Database, or IMDb, has been my best partner into discovering movies/television series. For reasons such as recommendations being shown, and being able to click on directors and actors, and discover more movies.

Launching over 30 years ago, I myself started using it when I was 18 years old, when I somehow also decided to start writing short reviews of each movie I have seen inside documents, and I have been doing that for almost 15 years now, that's crazy!

Obviously I haven't shared the majority of those reviews, as I just write them offline. I have shared some of them on my blog in the past, expanding my thoughts and opinion with each of them. And as I will reach 5000 movie reviews soon, I wonder what happens next.

With IMDb, I have also rated each of these. As I tend to look at movies, I read the summaries, the cast, the overall rating score and the reviews others have left behind. Trivial stuff and bloopers can also be interesting, and I miss the message boards, which closed down because I think that they could not moderate so many movies anymore primarily.

Since last year, I have also started to use Letterbox, as I like the way it categorizes lists with movies, it's visually different and striking, and the community is different. After importing IMDb data towards that, I started using both databases, although IMDb remains my favorite.

It's fulfilling and entertaining to not only watch good movies, but look them up too, and if possible discuss and talk with others about them. I am grateful with databases such as IMDb, because I would have never discovered a large potion of movies, especially foreign, were it not for that website.

Future Travel Plans

Traveling this year has almost been impossible without consequences. And that sucked hard, because I really love traveling for many reasons including getting to meet people, knowing the world better, history, new experiences, memorable moments, and so on.

Once this pandemic is over, I expect to return to Panama and re-do my travel plans there alongside Costa Rica. I was also expecting to travel towards Normandy with my father and towards Portugal with my mother, so both have been delayed.

Similarly, I had plans with buddies of mine to discover New York and Russia(Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Wolgograd)this year too. In the case of U.S.A., there is much I would still like to see one day, and I hope that with the new presidency coming up, travel restrictions will be lessened again.

Also, some "horrific" locations are still on my wish list too, including the Catacombs in Paris, Bran Castle in Romania, and Pripyat in Ukraine. Pretty much all these are located in Europe, so that makes things a bit easier.

Of course, there's even more I would like to see, but since I am just a simple man with a middle income, I will have to choose wisely whatever comes after the ones I already listed. Thankfully, I have already seen most countries which once where dreams of mine.

Now, all I can do is wait like the rest of the world. I can imagine that Corona vaccines will be politically used as travel laws in order to visit other countries, so if that opportunity comes up, I will most likely take it.

Until then, memories and dreams will suffice.

One Piece: Third Time's The Charm

This is my third and last appreciation and tribute towards the world famous manga and anime franchise known as One Piece. My first one was back in 2010, my second one was in 2015, and I figured that wrapping up things in 2020 is the way to go.

To be completely honest, I have said everything I wanted to say in the previous two blog posts already. 5 years later, and the story still hasn't ended, and numerous more characters, arcs, lore and plot developments have been shown. Eichiro Oda is keeping true to his words as to when the story ends.

Humor wise, I do notice that this has lessened, I guess because of the ambitious arcs and of jokes running out, but this is just my observation. Once in a while, the Japanese humor about the fictional pirates still can be effective.

Admittedly, I miss that it has been a long time since the Strawhat Pirates were truly re-united, as they have been separated so many times by now while hopping between the islands in the New World of the Grand Line.

That might explain why something is missing from the latest arcs if you ask me, which is for me the personal battles each member undertakes mentally and physically with worthy opponents, and not just Luffy, Zoro and Sanji cleaning up.

But One Piece still manages to uphold it's quality in general. There's always a new interesting and different plot playing out per discovered island, new characters can be interesting, old ones can surprisingly return, and plot twists can still happen now and then, while other characters are plotting.

I will be glad when the story is finally over, but not before Oda manages to end with a huge bang, larger than any Buster Call, giving each of the members one last satisfying battle, making their personal dream come true, and then ending it in the best way possible.

Thanks for this amazing distraction from real life! Perhaps one day, maybe through virtual or augmented reality, we can all role play as pirates again, real or with enhanced super powers, and then see what happens next.

Brutal Boss Battles

This is the final part of this boss battle mini series. Short and sweet, not all of these are truly brutal as a boss battle, but it's another B word, and the ones below are interpreted differently each in their own kind of ways.

Isshin The Sword Saint

An awesome satisfying finale with an opponent technically consisting of 4 phases, switching between swordplay and gunplay. Patience and waiting for the right moment here really is the way to acquire victory and be done with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice!

Yatsu No Kami

I actually hate this snake boss, for it represents the crushing difficulty spike inside Nioh 2, and is the reason I dropped the game last month. By now, I have defeated it, and it most likely isn't the hardest boss in the game, but it did broke me in a way, so yeah, it had an impact.

Giygas

A fascinating final boss with a creepy presence, a unique way of defeating it, and several theories as to what the heck Giygas is all about in terms of motivation, form and it's connection with the rest of Earthbound.

Lavos

Another classic final SNES boss that just exists to consume up worlds literally, bound through different time eras. First you fight it in an unwinnable way, then you fight segments of it, and then you technically fight 3 entirely different phases of it each being  intriguing in their own ways.

Dr.Weil

My favorite Mega Man villain, I love how hard you can hate this Dr.Wily look a like, the way his psychotic personality and manipulative motives are so messed up, and the buildup towards finally being able to face off in part 4, he really is Zero's arch nemesis. Sure, the battles themselves aren't that special, but the way he reasons and shouts out stuff as ideals being nonsense makes him very memorable.

 

Six More Fun AVGN Episodes

James Rolfe is still doing his fame as his persona Angry Video Game Nerd, continuing to spread out the good news that very bad games are worth bashing for entertainment value!

Pepsiman(PS1) 

A commercial and brand heavy episode with a funny abstract guest character fooling and antagonizing the Nerd. Also, a normal Pepsi fan promoting the game, who turns out to be a guest character 2 decades later! This might be my favorite modern AVGN episode!

Game Boy Accessoires

A familiar episode concept where AVGN goes through the general accessoires of a particular console or handheld. The Game Boy camera plus printer add-on really was something back in the day, and it's funny how he makes up ridiculous other add-ons, while some of them turn out to be true!

Polybius

A thrilling unfolding episode where the Nerd investigates a video game urban legend involving an arcade machine. With a teaser video previewing it beforehand, Polybius had an effective buildup, a scary jump scare, and a satisfying conclusion.

Sonic 06 Part 1 and 2

With deserving determination, the Nerd discovers the atrocious designed Sonic the Hedgehog from 2006, which is notorious for awful game design, endless loading screens and an embarrassing legacy that arguably still plagues 3D entries of Sonic.

The Immortal

Perhaps the most original and most insane concept of all episodes, with The Immortal, the AVGN character goes through a long one take scene, reflecting the way the game is meant to be played; one mistake, and you are done!

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask(N64)

This might be the longest episode shot and developed yet. I don't agree with all of the observations as the Nerd pins out in here, but it's interesting to see his viewpoint on a spin off game he did not play upon release, despite being humorous or not.

Frankly, some of the modern episodes feel forced and aren't as entertaining as these. Still, he manages to keep pushing out interesting episodes that obviously stand out on their own for various reasons such as concept, production values, jokes and information.

Thanks again James, for entertaining so many gamers, making life a bit more happy and enduring.

The Ninth Generation

Let's talk about the future of gaming at Flok Factory, one more time.

As the consoles Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series have just been released this month, they have started the next generation in what might be the last official one before video games and the industry might decide to go digital only next time.

Of course, there is Nintendo in this market to consider too, and traditionally, their consoles and handhelds are left behind with regards to keeping up with current specifications and technologies. Their innovation and first party line-up will continue to make them stand out, and as for this current generation, well, they have made so much money, that they can take their sweet time delivering the next goods.

The PC market has remained the same for years; with digital software distribution services such as Steam, Epic Games, Origin, Uplay and Discord making sure that the amount of games getting released on a daily basis is guaranteeing that since the indie boom of the early 2010's, there will always be something new to play.

Now with streaming services such as Google Stadia making it more exciting to stream all kinds of games including the ones with the highest productions values, and virtual plus augmented reality technologies improving over time too, we are living in interesting times.

Monthly subscriptions such as Microsoft's Game Pass and Sony's similar to be announced variation, cross-platforming multi player, social elements, haptic feedback, high processing power and new buzzwords such as Ray tracing will make sure that it will continue to be interesting to keep gaming.

And there will always be something entertaining or interesting to play, whether you are going back to the past, or playing the latest games at launch day of new consoles. Whether it's a solo campaign, or playing with friends on the couch, voice chatting online, or streaming your gameplay, there will always be something to play.

 

Top 10 PS4 Games

There are so many awesome PS4 games, be it 1st party or 3rd party! Let's try to list down my favorites.

10.Final Fantasy VII Remake

9.Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

8.Resident Evil VII: Biohazard

7.The Witcher 3

6.The Last of Us Part II

5.Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

4.Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

3.Batman: Arkham Knight

2.REmake 2

1.Bloodborne 

There are many honorable mentions, some obvious ones are Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man, God of War, Sekiro, Until Dawn, Horizon Zero Dawn and Dark Souls III. What a great generation it has been, and I can't wait to join the next one, soon.

Top 10 Nintendo 3DS Games

Everyone loves top 10 lists, right?

10.Super Mario 3D Land

9.Kirby: Planet Robobot

8.Pokemon Y

7.Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice

6.Fire Emblem Awakening

5.Wario Ware Gold

4.The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

3.Metroid: Samus Returns

2.Resident Evil Revelations

1.Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

Yes, shockingly, a 3rd party game is on the number 1 spot, and yes, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS is an honorable mention. But that's just like my opinion, man, and I feel that this top 10 list offers good variety, and all of them are good games.

Tribute to Jackie Chan

I grew up with this Hong Kong super star, I admire and appreciate what he has done as entertainment value in impressive ways for the movie world.

Jackie Chan's martial arts combined with humor, combined with using environmental objects, combined with his insane astonishing stunt work(as he apparently has broken all of his bones by now!), makes him a very outstanding and special man. And let's not forget about his trademark of using failed scenes as out takes during end credits!

His unique way of fighting has captured people's hearts for decades. He has starred in so many good movies, including Drunken Master 1 and 2, Rumble in the Bronx,, Who Am I, the Rush Hours, the Police Stories, Dragons Forever, The Young Master and Wheels on Meals, and I am probably missing a few worthy ones!

And he is still very active with acting. Elsewhere on this blog, under the post Top 10 Martial Arts Cinema Scenes, I already selected two of my favorite Jackie Chan fight scenes, but that can fluctuate opinion wise, and so, there is much to choose.

Of course, the older you get, the slower you become practicing martial arts, but I am sure that even at his current age, he could perform crazy tricks with his body! It's also interesting as trivia to know his connection towards Bruce Lee, and also towards his relationship with Sammo Hung.

Jackie Chan truly is one of a kind.

Retro Overview: Mega Man X

Before wrapping up this blog of mine next month, I suddenly realized I haven't talked much about the Mega Man X games yet! Of course, I have ignored the Legends, Battle Network and Star Force sub series in here too, but X is more special to me and many others, so let's do this.

Boomer Kuwanger

Ah yes, Mega Man X, with its amazing soundtrack, nice difficulty, excellent Mavericks and memorable final stages and end boss. I have played this game lots of times in the past and time after time I kept dying at Sigma's final form until I finally beat him for once, using 4 Sub Tanks and then figuring out his weakness!

Re-branding Mega Man like this for a more "adult" approach was the best thing Capcom decided, because the X sub series is mainly respected because of the very first right here on the SNES.

Rating: 8.7

Magna Centipede

A stellar sequel with another uplifting and kick ass soundtrack, the story continues with 8 new Mavericks, and this time also X Hunters to fight. Once again will you be able to select the stages in any order, and also collect Dr.Light capsules with body upgrades along the way.

With the C4 chip implemented, the graphics also got a boost, and the gameplay remains as blazing and fast paced as it was previously.

Rating: 8.4

Blast Hornet

Somewhat of an underdog, this is the second hardest X game for me. The soundtrack definitely takes a more guitar based approach instead of the bass and the drums being largely present previously, and you get a sneak preview with Zero. 

Anyway, X3 is pretty detailed for a SNES game and it's pretty hard to kill the Mavericks without their weaknesses. In overall, Mega Man X3, which was once very rare to find, will definitely keep you busy with its difficult stages.

Rating: 8.5

Jet Stingray

The first time I played X4 in the early 2000's I was amazed at the graphics and sounds it was making. Playing with X felt very fresh compared to the 3 X games before X4, and I still have a lot of fun with this game even today. 

 

I was very impressed with the Mavericks and the soundtrack this time, Split Mushroom being my favorite Maverick. And X4 even has a very hard and epic end boss for both hunters to defeat as well! This is easily my favorite X game for it's presentation, nostalgia and general gameplay.

 

(Just ignore the awful voice acting!)

 

Rating: 9.5

 

 

Dark Necrobat

After reading much of X5's story for quite some years on forums and how much people said that X5 was their favorite X game, I waited with anticipation to play this game some day. But since I have beaten it afterwards, I was only satisfied with the story itself really.

The Mavericks here had less interesting names based on a real life music band, I did not like the level design, some of the music was actually boring(A rare sight to see in a Mega Man game for me)and the game felt unfinished.

Rating: 7.8

Shield Sheldon

The level design in this game however is actually funny, with its many enemies on 1 screen and high HP on many enemies, I actually thank the designers to let me play such a frustrating game on Hard mode. 

 

X6, the hardest X game for me, really challenged me with its absurd hard stages, bosses and the many dangerous ways of dying in just 1 hit. Featuring cool Mavericks and a great soundtrack again, unlike X5, X6 will keep you even longer busy than X3 and some of you will definitely even hate the game. 

 

Definitely a guilty pleasure game.

 

Rating: 8.2 

 

Wind Crowrang

 

Perhaps if you by chance thought X6 was bad, then take a look at this. After finally playing it, there is no doubt that X7 is the worst X game out there. The 3D idea was good, but it miserably is designed here to let you wrestle with the controls, certainly at the beginning when it takes time to adjust.

 

The clunky gameplay is badly done and most of the time, I repeatedly killed everything in front of me while not trying to scout the areas much, I just wanted to be done with the stages. Speaking of, the stages are ugly, the enemies are passable but the boss fights themselves are ridiculous.

 

For example, Flame Hyenard’s ways of attacking and Snipe Anteater’s habit of hiding behind a cylinder. Story is with the exception of Axl’s DNA ability a big excuse for the regular Irregular events to happen, throwing 8 Mavericks at your way.

 

At least the soundtrack is actually pretty good, I like Wind Crowrang’s theme for example. It was annoying that the dialogue could not be sped up, the navigation menus, same thing and the voice acting is some of the worst I have ever heard, for some of the characters. 

 

Zero’s voice sounds like Duke Nukem, Axl has a high pitched voice and the version I was playing happened to sometimes have different audio for the sentences that were being shown as dialogue. Plus, the voice acting would change from English to Japanese at certain scenes, what a strange and bizarre execution. 

 

And then there is the controversial method of unlocking the series main character, X. I understand that X literally stepped out of the spotlight for a while, but I never would had guessed that Capcom would implement this. 

 

As for myself, I have no problem with unlocking him, but it remains an odd decision. X7 really is a huge mistake, luckily the next one fixes up a lot of issues.

 

Rating: 5.9

Gravity Antonion

A vast improvement over its predecessor, but not quite on par with the other titles in the series. My main concern is that the auto scrolling levels although fun, can be quite frustrating as well, plus a certain “cute” enemy was way too much used in like every stage, giving not much enemy variety.

The story goes quite insane with its copy business, but at least it’s more interesting than a stupid duel. The bosses are an improvement, yet it seems almost none of them really stood out for me… with the exception of Gravity Antonion.

The music is vastly different from every other X title, and it has some nice songs, but most of it is largely forgettable and not as outstanding as say, X2. Gameplay is more faithful towards the older games, I’d rather replay those more than this though.Well you know what I mean. An enormous cliffhanger is at the end of X8, but Capcom’s got other cliffhangers to work on as well, including ZX Advent and Legends 2.

Rating: 7.5

 Depth Dragoon

Set over a hundred years later plot wise, Command Mission surprisingly works as a Mega Man RPG. With memorable music and a normal difficulty it's a blast to play, plus lots of extra's like music, videos, sketches, trophies and all kinds of data can be acquired.

The overworld is pretty well done and interesting because the story has gone fast forward in the far future beyond Sigma's returns. I would like to see a sequel to this because honestly nothing felt wrong when playing this, it all made sense. A very fresh take on the series if you ask me.

Rating: 8.6