Year Plans 2024: What I've Missed

Last year, I made a list like this, going over all the games I had planned to cover during the year but didn’t; that meant playing roughly an hour of each of them, and collecting my “first impressions” (by default of not having enough time to play through their entirety, like I try to for regular reviews) into a single article.

I thought I had done poorly this year, but no – when compared to 2023, where I had 14 games I hadn’t played through, this time around I have 17, which… yeah, it’s more, but it’s not that much more. It’s unfortunate that I couldn’t hit my goals, but then again – I did overshoot while setting up my Year Plans. I won’t explain my method in depth, but it’s more than just “roll for a random number”. As usual, I’ll be setting this up in time for my retrospective, next week.

One thing I noticed when going back over the titles I didn’t play this year: I had a lot of RPGs in there. When I was picking these games, I also stumbled on a few two-game franchises and put the whole franchise in there to make it simple. So yeah, I had a lot of stuff to check out. Opening with…

The variety

Wait till they toss in bugs! And fire! And MORE!

Starting with a funny puzzle game (that I had almost forgotten about!), Girls Like Robots is a creation of Popcannibal. In this game from 2014, we seat girls, robots, nerds and various other characters (with the loadout changing at every chapter) to reach as much happiness as possible. Girls love to sit next to robots, but a robot cannot stand being surrounded by four girls. Nerds like edges, corners, and robots, but girls don’t like them. Girls and nerds like pie, but robots don’t! New requests, character interactions, and rules get added regularly to shake things up. It’s fun, and gets surprisingly tricky even an hour in.

Movie Review: Sonic the Hedgehog 3

I have now seen Sonic 3. The one with Shadow voiced by Keanu Reeves. Well, I went there on Friday night, and I'm only reporting on it now because I got busy during the weekend. Family reunions because of the Holidays, all that. Hey, you've still got two days if you want to see it before Christmas! I'll keep light on the spoilers, as usual - well, aside from the stuff confirmed in trailers.

The story

We're continuing from the previous movie, with Sonic (Ben Schwartz) now living with Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey), Knuckles (Idris Elba), Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter). They're even celebrating Sonic's first year on Earth... Okay, no, that's incorrect, it's either "Sonic's first year of being found by Tom", or "Sonic's first year of joining the Wachowski household".

This outdoors party is interrupted by the arrival of a G.U.N. helicopter, with agents enlisting the aid of the three friends against a new threat. For the last 50 years they had been hiding another alien, the mysterious Shadow. The hedgehog broke out of his containment from a prison by the coast of Japan, and has been wreaking havoc in Tokyo as a result. Team Sonic lands and gets beat up pretty badly by this new threat. Even Sonic can't match the similarly speedy hedgehog.

After Shadow has left to who knows where, Team Sonic recovers at a close-by place, where they meet with Commander Walters of G.U.N. (Tom Butler). Walters begins to explain Shadow's story, but the discussion is interrupted by a surprise attack by Robotnik's robots. A mysterious masked motorcyclist barges into the fight and incapacitates the robots. Walters gives Sonic a special key card, telling him to keep it hidden. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles then chase down the motorcyclist, whom they find out is Agent Stone (Lee Madjoub). Robotnik's lackey them to the mad scientist's lair.

Robotnik (Jim Carrey, of course) has been in a heavy funk since his previous defeat, and spends his days eating crap and watching soaps. He's put on quite a bit of weight. Hey, he's Eggman fully realized, he's just missing the suit! Once everybody realizes that someone else is using Robotnik's robots for nefarious purposes, the heroes strike up an unlikely alliance with their greatest enemy.

This takes the whole group to a military base, where the culprit is found: Gerald Robotnik (also Jim Carrey), a grandfather Ivo didn't know he had. Gerald is the one who freed Shadow from confinement, and intends to use him to enact revenge on G.U.N. for everything that happened fifty years prior. And since he's as evil as his grandson, the two Robotniks team up for another ploy that threatens all of Planet Earth. And with Shadow still under their control, they're nearly unstoppable...

The review

Even more action-packed than the previous two films, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is intended as a (rather loose) adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2. Not a game I've played in full yet, but I know the general details of that story. Not that this is very relevant; like I said, rather loose. What matters is whether the new characters in the film are respectful of their original game versions, and whether the end result is cohesive.

The Sonic movies so far have had action, sure, that comes with the territory. However, they tend to veer a lot more into comedy, owing to being a family film. Sonic and Robotnik can't spend 2 minutes on-screen without tossing banter. The Sonic franchise in general, especially in the games, tends to oscillate between serious stories and more lighthearted ones. The action is still great; and in fact, this might be the most action-packed entry in the film franchise yet. It is to be expected, with Shadow proving to be much stronger, and a lot more dangerous, than any previous opponents.

Character-wise, I love the energy that has settled within Sonic Team, and even with Sonic's "adoptive parents" Tom and Maddie. Tails and Knuckles have adapted well, and even Knuckles seems to have loosened up a tad. Guess it helps that Knux had an entire miniseries all to himself on Paramount+ in 2024... it's not really mandatory watching before Sonic 3, the only thing that ties the two is a one-minute gag.

But let's get to the centerstage character: Shadow. I haven't seen the film in English, but I've read that Keanu Reeves went above and beyond to respect the core of the character in his performance, and I 100% believe it. (Guess it helps that this hedgehog shares many traits with a certain John Wick...) Shadow wouldn't be who he is without his traumatic backstory, and... well, I won't spoil for anyone who doesn't know it yet, but I'll say: There's a couple differences with game canon, but it's ultimately faithful.

Which brings me to the Robotniks. Ivo is the same as ever, evil but hilariously so, with Jim Carrey once more bringing his pure chaotic energy to the performance. You could say he steals the show, as usual. However, this time there's twice the Carrey to chew the scenery. Gerald Robotnik was a way for director Jeff Fowler to carry the themes of family that permeated the previous  films, this time by exploring it on Robotnik's side, he who normaly treats everyone as idiots. This time, he is not only facing someone just as smart (if not smarter!), but someone with similar spite.

Barring a few specific moments, Gerald Robotnik is played with the exact same energy as Ivo. It's very cool that both of them appear all the time on-screen together, despite being played by the same actor - there's some impressive special effect work here, be it in the use of body doubles and other tricks to have them next to each other.

My biggest issue with the film lies in Gerald Robotnik, actually. Yeah, he's as zany as his grandson, as we get to see in several scenes I won't spoil. The original Gerald Robotnik is a part of Shadow's backstory and is, as a result, a much more tragic character. Yes, Jim Carrey is capable of dramatic acting, and some of it peeks through in the relevant flashbacks involving Gerald, obviously, but also when his true motivations are revealed. (Again, not telling.) But that's the thing; no matter how hilarious Carrey's interpretation is, I can't seem to reconcile the overtly silly and the genuinely tragic sides of this Gerald. They don't... fit together, at least not as well as I suspect Fowler wished.

And while most of the film is great, there's often this tonal clash: This attempt at telling a serious, mature story, that gets often chort-circuited by the silliness. Honestly, that's my biggest gripe with the film, and the more I think about it the harder it gets to ignore. I think I would have preferred if Gerald got played a little more seriously, if only during his final scenes.

But honestly, that's not that big of an issue when it's such a good ride for most of the film. If we put that little hiccup aside, emotion's there where it needs to be, the action is great, and the story does take some turns that are a little more intense than in the previous two, so while comedy is still a core tenet, there is indeed a bit more of a serious element this time around. Definitely a recommendation, if you've seen the other two you'll enjoy this one as well.

Sonic 4 was already announced. Stick around to the end of the credits - the previous films both showed new characters, so you can expect that here as well.

12 MORE Worst Video Game Marketing Campaigns (Part 2)

Read Part 1 if you haven't seen #12 to #7! Ready for more?

6. Your mom hates Dead Space 2

Scaring women in the name of advertising! Yeah, that's
one Hell of a low-hanging fruit.

Studios are likely to cater directly to the target audience of the game they’re about to release. It only makes sense to do so. And since a lot of video games are horror or shooter types, who is the audience? Teenagers! And what is the stereotype of teenagers? That they hate their parents, or that they think their folks aren’t cool! Therefore, if their parents – or someone similar – object to their product, that product will instantly look cool to these teens! Sound logic there!

In 2011, Visceral Games and Electronic Arts made big plans for their latest survival horror shooter, Dead Space 2. Heavy stuff, hunting down monstrous aliens on a space station and dealing with mental illness. My brain who has never played this franchise immediately went, “that sounds like Aliens meets Resident Evil”. Anyone versed in the franchise can correct me. This combo says exactly what you can expect: Blood and guts galore.

That rating at the bottom couldn't be clearer!

The ad helpfully informs us that the women presented in its 32 seconds were part of an “actual focus group”, not actresses. So, we can assume their reactions are genuine. Grandmothers, moms, older women, you know, exactly the kind of person unlikely to enjoy what is being shown. Beyond the ad, the official Dead Space channel included full versions of some of the interviews. Hammering in these women’s outrage and anger at what they’re shown.

There’s just one problem: The game isn’t directed at younger teens. The ESRB rated it M for Mature. AKA, for older teens bordering on adults. I'm not saying they must have outgrown "your parents suck" at 17, but at that age, there's no need to involve the parents into the advertising. So, this campaign, on top of traumatizing multiple women, also completely missed the mark as to who it was speaking to. The whole thing was considered in very poor taste. The use of an age-old (pun intended) stereotype also turned away many people outside of the ad’s target demographic. To say nothing of the ESRB, who got a strong talking-to for allowing the ad to be broadcast.

12 MORE Worst Video Game Marketing Campaigns (Part 1)

All natural? Nice. Maybe don't advertise your burgers with
gross pictures of what they'll look like after a month.
That's a quick way to make anyone not feel hungry anymore.

It’s that time of the year again, and instead of thinking up a new idea for a Top 12, I’m going back to a well I began exploring two years ago. As I said at the time, marketing is a fascinating field to study and discuss. Some marketing campaigns have practically changed the world for the better. And on the opposite end of the scale, there have been several embarrassing campaigns; oh well, wipe the slate clean, try again later. That is, unless the marketing campaign bankrupted the damn company; you’d be surprised how often that did happen.

When it comes to video games, it’s as if anything goes. The target audience is kids and teens, sometimes families or adults. Such campaigns were aired as TV spots or as full pages in print magazines for a long time. In the age of the Internet, we see a lot of campaigns thanks to YouTube and on various social media platforms. And although the Web may be great to promote your product, it can become a double-edged sword.

SEGA does what Nintendon't. Like pissing jokes.

In the original two-part article that I wrote on the topic, I overplayed my hand. If you reread it, you’ll notice that I frequently talk about more than one disastrous campaign at a time. Maybe I should have kept some on the side, just in case I wanted to do another of these, right? Well… During my research for this new list, I found several more promotions that went haywire and gave exactly the wrong kind of attention to the product. But hey, you know what they say: Even bad publicity is still publicity.

This time around, I’ll leave more room for types of campaigns and stunts that weren’t as prevalent in the original list. Other than that, everything’s on the table, games and consoles alike. After all, failing to adequately promote a console means that said console’s entire library of games is at risk of underselling.

Be aware that some topics discussed may be heavy, and some images may be disturbing.

12. Bloodvertising

Oh, this is gonna be funny.

Just as they opened my previous list, Acclaim once more find themselves at the front of the line. Some companies have left their mark in the world of crazy advertising, and there are plenty of examples; but few have gotten as tasteless and horrid as some of the ideas that Acclaim’s marketing team came up with.

GemCraft: Frostborn Wrath

This one wasn’t in the Year Plans. However, I didn’t know whether I could start playing a new game while working on a review for another, but I still felt the desire to post an extra before the end of the year. So why not talk about a game that I’ve already played aplenty? It’s a long one, so I can knock it out of the list for good. Plus, it’s a genre that I love.

Just to prove how much time I spent on this game: I am
currently Level 1,100.

I already covered the previous game, Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows (shortened GCS), way back in 2018. At the time, today’s entry was in development; Frostborn Wrath (FW), also made by Game in a Bottle, was released to Steam on January 10th, 2020. I already discussed the franchise in depth in the previous article. Thus, I'll focus my efforts on discussing the differences between this entry and the previous one, and how it helps them feel like new games with different challenges as a result, despite being the same concept of merging gems to beat monsters.

Not gonna lie, I’d love to see an “Early Days” Gemcraft collection (encompassing Chapters 1, 0, and Lost Chapter: Labyrinth). It’s become trendy to do that for browser/Flash games with a strong nostalgic value, and it could help give these three a new life. I spent so much time playing Labyrinth, it’s not even funny. If Chasing Shadows started as a browser game with microtransaction elements before jumping, Frostborn Wrath is exclusively on Steam. What's this one like?

Minimal story? No problem

Points given for the style and the art.

This review is going to be more technical. There is a story that develops as we visit more fields, but it’s inconsequential to gameplay to the point it can be ignored. And I did, too, for a while. It adds flavor, explains some things, that’s about it. Our character was part of a caste of powerful wizards who began dabbling in demon-summoning black magic. The lone wizard rose against their kin, only to be forced to flee to northern lands, and frozen as retribution. One day, they unexpectedly thawed, but centuries had passed – they had to relearn magic. The mysterious recovery is explained by a warmth spell not so far away that got out of control. However, the wizard must now deal with the horrible surprises left behind.