Exploring Stuff That Makes Life Great
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Name a great game show with a less than great video game adaptation.
Let me start off with this: I love game shows. I used to play Wheel of Fortune on my cousin’s NES. After that it was Wheel of Fortune for my Super Nintendo, and one of the best parts of getting cable television was getting the Game Show Network. I still go over to my friend’s house to play Jeopardy! on her NES. I’m even going to be spending a day of my Spring Break to go watch The Price is Right before host Bob Barker retires. I’m not saying no to this game because it’s a game show game. I’m saying no because it’s a terrible adaptation of the show.
The game show is basically a quiz to see if you have your finger the pulse of modern society. And normally, it does so pretty well. However the game pulls it off poorly. Sure, the basic structure of the game is preserved, however, the graphics and execution just turns me off to playing the game any longer then I had to. For one thing, the game lacked the show’s hosts. Richard Karn, Louie Anderson, no one. Instead, we have Todd Newton, who has never hosted Family Feud. Second, even if it had a representation of one of the hosts, he would have been unrecognizable. The human models were horrid. The voice acting was also terrible. It was pretty annoying to hear the same question asked 10 times a row without any variation of banter.
On the bright side, after you get past those things, the gameplay felt alot like watching the show. You were given a topic, and you typed in your answer. Pretty straight forward. And the stage and game-related graphics were true to the show. Sound effects, like the all important buzzer, were perfect.
Overall, I’m sad to give this game a minus. But I certainly hope that another Family Feud game is released that deserves the name.
Three teens discover that their neighbor’s house is really a living monster house.
When one thinks of the genre of animated movies the words ‘kid friendly’ probably pop-up. Apparently these words didn’t pop-up in Sony’s mind. At first Monster House appears to be a movie that could have easily been made with real actors rather than CGI. Then when the story starts to flesh out you realize that this movie isn’t really aimed towards children. Finally the movie becomes what could be a really cool video game.
Now saying all of that doesn’t mean that the movie is bad in anyway. In fact it was pleasantly enjoyable. Nothing about the movie screamed PIXAR perfection, but the story and characters proved to be intriguing.
The story follows a group of kids who spy on their crazy neighbor. When the neighbor has a heart-attack his house comes to life and eats anything that comes onto its yard. And such the adventure of destroying this monster house begins. The already kooky story is brought to life by its vivid characters.
I do have to question why the film was made in CGI. The majority of the film wouldn’t have been impossible to do with real-live actors. The style of the CGI was a little difficult to get used to because while the characters looked relatively realistic yet they were still cartoony. I do commend the cinematography in this film because some of the scenes were outstandingly shot.
Who would think that a house that eats people could be so entertaining? When the kids go to attack the house the visuals are fantastic. The movie becomes more like a video game. There was so much creativity that went into these scenes. Sometimes in movies the story begins to lag when the action occurs, but in Monster House the mystery behind the house becomes solved through these action sequences.
Overall Monster House is a surprisingly delightful movie, which for whatever reason is slightly twisted at some points. So just be forewarned if you have little kids watching it.
It took us a while to get the group back together, but we finally have a new episode. We gave the show a different format to what we thought would improve it. Please let us know what you think!
On this episode we discussed:
Stuff we liked over Winter break
SplitFish Games’ MotionFX Accessory review
Rogue Galaxy review
Japanese versus America Action games
Development of The Divine
A mysterious nanny shows up to help out a widowed father who must remarry before the end of the month or lose custody of his seven children.
It’s hard for me to believe that I enjoyed this movie. It’s clearly a children’s (ahem, I mean “family”) film. A single father needs to find a wife so that his seven, very badly behaved children can remain together. Helping out is the magical Nanny McPhee, whose special tactics not only keep the children in line, but teach them the importance of manners and respect. How could I possibly enjoy a movie like this? They’re teaching etiquette for goodness sakes! There is a babysitter with witch-like power involved. This movie should not be anything I even like.
How did this come to be? Start off with Colin Firth (oh, he’s so dreamy) as Cedric Brown, the likable father trying to keep his family from falling apart. He even keeps his dead wife in the loop by looking to her memory for advice. Emma Thompson is the titular Nanny McPhee, and why the hell not, throw in Angela Lansbury as the evil Great Aunt Adelaide who is trying to split up the family. Their performances, while might not be the greatest of their lives at a critical level, are appropriate for this movie. They bring an air of fairy tale charm that helps to raise my appreciation for what might be an otherwise no enjoyable flick. The children’s acting is acceptable, but you can’t really expect too much from them, because, after all, they’re still just children. But still, totally acceptable.
Just because something is a family movie, it doesn’t mean you should rule it out. You should give this one a shot, I know I don’t regret it.
An exclusive interview with Sean O’ Brien producer of NCAA March Madness 07 for the Xbox 360. An exclusive interview with Sean O’ Brien producer of NCAA March Madness 07 for the Xbox 360.
