New Pokémon Snap (Part 2)

In Part 1, I covered a part of the plot and went over many of the game’s features. Well, there’s more to say today!

Fantastic Photo Features

Yes, Corsola! Get to the apple!

This new Snap game takes full advantage of the abilities of the current consoles, and takes cues from all the ways people have gained to edit their own pictures on smartphones. The photo edit feature is accessible from the Photodex in the Lab.

Cel-shaded is great. I would play a cel-shaded Pokémon game.

First is filters; at time of writing, I had found 15 out of 20, from classic black-and-white and sepia to greater changes like cel-shaded, a comic style, a fish-eye lens, or pixelated. Second is stickers, which can be added to the picture: Symbols, facial expressions, effects and speech bubbles. Finally, special frames can be added for extra flair. Filters, stickers and frames are unlocked through gameplay, by earning research titles and by completing pages of the Photodex.

Still not enough? You can use this menu to add your own caption to the picture, upload it online to your New Pokémon Snap page, or download it to your console’s photo album, if you like it enough for that.

Most of these settings make changes so minute that only a
photographer with real experience would be able to tell.
The biggest exception is the brightness, of course.

Another feature added is the Re-Snap, which you can access after your run through a course has been scored by Mirror. You can take any of your pictures (doesn’t need to be one that the Professor scored this round), re-frame it, and change the brightness, blur, focus size, or focal point; you can even put new filters or change the caption! However, since this can only happen after the scoring’s been done, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just a pleasant extra that allows you to do the perfect shot out of a photo that wasn’t perfect to start with. It’s not pointless, but if you’re playing for scores and exploration and not for the creativity aspect, it won’t be what you’ll gravitate to.

New Pokémon Snap (Part 1)

Through the years, I’ve seen a lot of franchises attempt ideas outside of their usual perimeters – as a result, I’ve seen both crashes and burns, and massive, unexpected successes. I don’t think it’s any surprise to say that Pokémon Snap is in the latter category. Released on July 26th, 1999, the Nintendo 64 game featured Todd Snap, a young photographer tasked by Professor Oak with taking pictures of all 63 Pokémon species found on an island.

For a franchise still in its early days, this came out of left field! The game, while short, had everything going for itself. It tickled that desire for gamers to hunt for better scores. It had unlockable tools and mechanics to get different reactions from the photography subjects. And there were plenty of secrets that could be found by just trying things and seeing what happens.

Catching the three 'puff on film is fun. Pissing
them off by playing the flute is even better.

This idea took a long time to return, which always felt odd to me; just make one at every Generation, add new Pokémon and locations, and that should be it, right? Imagine the possibilities! And yet, despite many attempts, several plans for a second Snap game didn’t make it far. Photography didn’t truly return to the franchise till Pokémon Sun/Moon; that side-quest felt like Game Freak testing the grounds. Even though their fans had been asking for this for 17 years by that point! Finally, our prayers were answered, with New Pokémon Snap releasing on April 30th, 2021, on the Nintendo Switch.

With all this time between installments, surely the system has been massively updated, right? Let’s take a look.

Welcome to the Lentil Region

This time, our character is an avatar representing a child. He is greeted on the first island of the Lentil Region by Professor Mirror and his assistant Rita. They direct the Laboratory of Ecological and Natural Sciences, or L.E.N.S., on Florio Island.

A Prof in Pokémon without a tree name? That's rare!
Also, neat pun for the name of the laboratory!
P.S. These screenshots come from the playthrough by
MunchingOrange. Go check it out!

Disney Illusion Island

One of my mistakes in 2025 was that I bought too many games. The only solution is to keep clearing the backlog, by going through the quicker ones first. Gotta start somewhere!

Disney Illusion Island, developed by Dlala Studios, was first released on the Nintendo Switch on July 28th, 2023. It was then released to other platforms (PS5, PC, Xbox) on May 30th, 2025. I found the Switch version in the wild, it looked fun, and there I was, with one more game. I’m incorrigible. But hey, it’s Disney and it’s got a cool art style, so why not. The game’s name is a reference to Mickey Mouse’s Castle of Illusion on SEGA systems and its follow-ups. But this time, we can play as Mickey, Minnie, Donald or Goofy – or up to all four at once!

Heroes Wanted

Our game begins as Mickey makes his way to a picnic destination on an island, indicated by a map sent by Minnie. Or so he thinks. After he’s found the spot, he’s joined by Minnie, who says HE sent her a map to this spot. Donald and Goofy, who were also sent maps, show up. All four are puzzled, so they investigate a twinkling sound coming from a nearby area.

Someone wanted all four of them there, but why?
(Thanks to Gamer's Little Playground for the playthrough,
which I am picking my screenshots from.)

Ah yes! Toku, the benevolent quest giver! Disregard the
eye twitch, totally normal benevolent response to annoyance.

They trace the sound to a red bush, and after crossing it they find a large library with an open bookcase. They are greeted by furred creatures known as the Hokuns and their leader, Toku, who welcomes them to the magical world of Monoth. Toku is the one who sent the maps, as he needs their help. Donald is enraged to find out there won’t be a picnic, but the team stays and listens. Toku explains that the three magical tomes of their bookcase have gone missing, stolen by three thieves inhabiting the three biomes of Monoth, and this could endanger their world. The Hokun doesn’t seem to know that the Mickey cartoons are in-universe fictions, in which the group only pretends to be heroes – but Mickey and his friends agree to try and be real heroes for once.

VGFlicks: Free Guy (Part 4)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Guy VS Dude

God damn, that section title alone is making me crack up.

The bridge is built, all the player characters are gone, and Guy will be free to cross the water towards the island of Life Itself. Keys, on his way out of Soonami, activates a program on his laptop that activates livestreaming to every screen that was playing Free City. The whole world will be watching this climax.

Dude, (I can call him that, that's literally his name),
your face doesn't fit your body.

The world, including the game's biggest streamers, are
watching the Reynolds VS Reynolds battle.

Meanwhile, Dude’s upload has completed. He is introduced punching Guy in the face. Dude was the work of Antwan, when he was remaking Blue Shirt Guy so Free City 2 could capitalize on the bank teller’s sudden popularity. The end result is, of course, not Guy at all. A buff bodybuilder (the body of Aaron W. Reed) with a blue shirt tattoo on the left pec, blond hair, and Guy’s face shoved where a face should be. Like a deepfake that doesn’t quite convince. And it looks like Antwan put all his efforts into the looks, because Dude is a complete dummy. His catchphrase is “Catchphrase!” and his speech lines are incomplete. He’s ridiculous and scary at the same time. In short, he fits right in within a movie that stars Ryan Reynolds.

We see plenty of scenes from the game itself. Especially
as the climax is livestreamed to the world. We are, however,
never explained how the game, with nobody playing it, has
camera angles that change so the world can watch properly.

A quick thing I haven’t mentioned yet: Not only are we getting the live-action movie, but anytime we’re watching through a real-life player’s screen, we ARE seeing the same events in CGI, with the same level of detail as we’ve gotten accustomed to with stuff like GTA or Fortnite – these scenes had to be animated too! It’s one of the things we don’t quite think about when watching it, because in the story, these scenes are from a video game – but there had to be a TON of work to make all the players and NPCs look exactly like they do when the inside of the game is shown to us in live-action.

Dude punches Guy away, causing our hero to lose his glasses. However, Buddy comes by to help Guy! But Buddy is suddenly very interested in Dude. And starts playing with the Dude’s pecs, causing the latter to punch Buddy to the ground. He falls next to Guy, and then Dude picks him up again to toss him away, before giving his doppelganger Guy a beating. …Yes, I am using these characters’ silly basic names repeatedly on purpose.

I try to imagine Shawn Levy directing this bit. "Okay Aaron,
you gotta let Lil Rey Howery play with your pecs while he
acts like he has never seen anything like them. For an
uncomfortable twenty seconds. 3... 2..."

Hulk Arm VS Captain America's Shield. Sure, why not.

A key element is that Free City contains tons of nods to other franchises and video games. The hidden signification is that Antwan is incapable of creating something himself, so he takes whatever he can and shoves those things in his games. Who cares if they don’t fit. However, we are never told why all these things are still allowed to appear in the game; is Soonami striking deals with other studios and franchise owners to get the rights to add these things in? I mean, what’s next, a game that has characters from literally everything out there, like KPop Demon Hunters, Regular Show, The Office, Adventure Time, South Park, Harry Potter (AGAIN!!), Danny Phantom, The Simpsons, Scooby-Doo, Gorillaz- I’mma stop the joke there, we all know I’m talking about Fortnite by now. In hindsight, the numerous additions to Fortnite feel like they were predicted by Free Guy and the number of video game references that make their way into the film. Earlier, Guy is seen using a Mega Buster from Mega Man.

VGFlicks: Free Guy (Part 3)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

I’m Not Real??

And he is being told this in the one place where he can see
all the ways in which players are rewarded for mistreating
him. Ouch.

Millie goes to tell Guy everything. She takes him to the multiplayer lounge, which he couldn’t access previously, to explain the artificial nature of this world – and of Guy himself. As an NPC, he’s little more than setpiece decoration, and players are encouraged to mistreat him whenever they can. The weight of the revelation leaves him heartbroken and crushed, and he leaves even after Millie explains about the imminent shutdown of his world.

I guess swimming in that ocean is out of the question, huh.

Not fair! I wanted him to make me laugh, not cry!

Seeking further confirmation, Guy heads off to the beach. He tosses a rock at the ocean and sees it disappears into the out-of-bounds barrier. Failing to get through to any other NPCs, Guy goes to Buddy’s place for a chat. The security guard doesn’t quite grasp the part about not being real, but he says that this moment, where he helps out a friend in a funk, that’s real no matter the circumstances around it. Buddy might be one of the silliest characters, but he’s got all the best moments of emotion in the film.

It is hilarious to me that in this movie, Ryan Reynolds plays
someone who doesn't (or barely) grasp the concept of a
fourth wall.

This helps Guy a lot, and so he enlists Buddy’s help. They sneak into the player safehouse, and get in easily because Buddy is friends with all the security guard NPCs in town. The safehouse’s owner arrives, and Buddy threatens him with his work firearm. The player character, portrayed by Channing Tatum, is ecstatic at meeting Blue Shirt Guy. Tatum is RevenjaminButton, the player followed during the Oners in the intro, and has this lengthy scene as well, so his role is greater than a cameo. The character is played by a streamer who speaks monotonously; the character is more animated than him. Guy easily gets his video just by asking nicely; though he does mention Millie's name in the discussion. The streamer tries to ask for things in return, like having Guy say his stream catchphrase. Or, uh, other awkward stuff.

VGFlicks: Free Guy (Part 2)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Life Itself

Maybe IGN should focus on the game and the development
work instead of inquiring about the relationship status
of the devs.

We get Keys’ backstory with Millie Rusk. Together, they had created the video game Life Itself, which would contain revolutionary AI for its characters – they would learn from each other, grow like people, and branch out to the point where watching them would be almost like watching real humans. Things went awry when they looked for a publisher through which they could sell this “fishbowl game” (a term I have not seen anywhere else, by the way). Soonami Studios took it, but shelved it, claiming it didn’t do well with test audiences. And during interviews about their “revolutionary game”, journalists would pivot to asking whether the two are a couple, which would embarrass them.

This info is given through an old interview airing on Keys’ TV, which was on when he came home. Millie broke in to talk to him. He claims he can’t listen to nor look at her without violating his NDA; but she says that she might be close to finding evidence that their code was stolen by Soonami and used in Free City. She wants him to help, but he needs his job, so he declines.

The shadow of Antwan, Keys' boss and the CEO of Soonami
Studios, looms all over this discussion, and we won't see
him for another 10 more minutes!

Looks beautiful, but what do I do with it aside from watching?

Okay, the concept of a “fishbowl game”. This is one of the small things that kind of bugs me with the idea behind the movie, since so much of the plot hinges on that invented concept. A video game that you can’t interact with sounds… well, I’m gonna be a jerk and agree with Soonami there. If I pick up a video game, it’s to play it. Right? Technically, if it’s just observational, does it even qualify as a game? Because the more I think about it, the more I think that an idea like this would have just needed some tweaks. Some way in which players could impact the NPCs positively. Admittedly, maybe Keys and Millie didn’t have the resources to make something that players could genuinely interact with, using avatars and controls and whatnot; but, had Soonami not decided to go behind their backs, maybe the studio could have whipped up something different.

VGflicks: Free Guy (Part 1)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Moving on to the final VGFlicks review this year, and it’s another big one. I still remember the summer of 2021. The pandemic was still bad, but cinemas had reopened, figuring they could have representations if moviegoers wore masks and practiced safe distancing. Sad times. But! I do remember going to the theater for a few films that summer. One was Space Jam: A New Legacy (reviewed these past two weeks) and another was this one.

Sunglasses are back in style.

We video game fans have been dining well since the early 2010s when it comes to movies about video games, be they adaptations or original stories with the medium as centerstage. It’s not that there weren’t good video game movies before, but they became far more common afterwards. I covered a lot of movies about video games, both good and bad, so I did witness that shift.

Anyway, without playing my hand too early, I guess I could say that Free Guy is one fine example of a movie that really understands the medium of video games and everything around them, all while hiding a science-fiction plot under the guise of a comedy. And with one of Hollywood’s most famous quippers, too. For what it’s worth, I knew this movie was going to do things right just by seeing its advertising – so many posters parodying famous video game franchises, and mimicking quite faithfully the look of those franchises (or their box arts, at least). Seriously – look at these!

Free Guy was directed by Shawn Levy (who would go on to make more movies with Ryan Reynolds), and was filmed in 2019 – though it wasn’t released to theaters until August 13th, 2021. As someone whose first language wasn’t English, let me start with a little observation: This movie’s title is untranslatable. It works on like three levels, but any translations will only be able to go for one of them. Explaining this would spoil things ahead of time, so why not just look at the plot?

Welcome to Free City

See? Super-cool. Totally justified, not psychopathic at all.

The film opens on narration by our protagonist, who presents Free City: An incredible place to live, where “anything is possible”. In this city, those who wear sunglasses are badass heroes and have access to anything they want; they can parachute, they can use gliders, they can get any girl they want, they can steal cars, they can rob banks, they can kill random people. True heroes! …wait, what? Amazing idea, by the way, to present this all within the first shots of the film, two oners that show and tell so much about the setting in such short time.

VGFlicks: Jumanji: The Next Level (Part 3)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

It’s the final level!

Storming the Stronghold

Always good to get together and plan the last steps.
The campfire is just for comfort, too bad Milo can't enter.

If the group wants to finish the game, they must rescue Eddie (currently using Ming Fleetfoot) and Milo (currently playing as Cyclone, the horse). Spencer (back as Bravestone), Fridge (back as Mouse Finbar), Martha, and Bethany (back as Prof. Sheldon Oberon) are down to one life left. In the latter’s case, her avatar had already lost two, even though it was being played by someone else. Guess lives are non-transferable. Alex still has three. All of them are scared, but must be ready for the final battle. Spencer and Martha, playing action heroes, will climb the mountain using equipment from Fridge’s Backpack of Holding, sneak into the fortress and save Eddie. Meanwhile, Alex, Fridge and Bethany will sneak in.

Pictured: "Augustus" and "Tomatoli Kababik".
Actually a girl in a man's body, and an athlete in a
small guy's body.

Alex inserts himself into the caravan of people walking into the fortress. Fridge and Bethany try the same, but they’re stopped by a guard who asks if they’re the Brothers Kababik. Time to LARP and roll for persuasion. Not only does that work, they even manage to sell the lie that they’re “brothers from different mothers” (since Fridge’s character is Black, and Bethany’s is white). Fridge even ends up having to play along to the guards’ claims that the Brother Kababik he is pretending to be is a eunuch. Geez, that was awkward. And then he still gets offered cake, the very thing that can kill his character. Yup, Jumanji has it out for the guy.

Alex finds his way to the room where Cyclone is held captive. The path is covered in pressure pads that release death traps, and he falls very quickly to one of them. It’s okay, he still has two liv-oh wait, no, just one. Third time’s the charm and he frees the horse, but not without seeing Cyclone’s character sheet first.

Alex has to be extremely careful. He's a family father now.
He has several more reasons not to die in Jumanji.

And since they're basically action heroes, they can have that
entire conversation while taking a break from climbing a
whole damn cliffside.

While Spencer and Martha are climbing up the cliffside, she asks why he never went to see her, and why he ended their relationship. He admits that he felt insecure after seeing just how outgoing and extroverted she had become through university life. She, in turn, admits that it’s been hard for her to keep that image and she’s worried her new social circles will see the shy girl she used to be – and it feels like it’s only with Spencer that she can truly be herself. Huh, guess Jumanji had lessons for the two of them after all, or at least it needed the two of them together to deliver it.

VGFlicks: Jumanji: The Next Level (Part 2)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

The Search for Spencer

Finally, a sign of civilization. It's probably a trap packed
with goons, mooks, and cake-offering merchants.

The team ventures through the desert. On the way, Milo tries to get through to Eddie, who’s too angry at his friend to entertain a conversation. Milo tries to explain that he needed to retire from the business after working so long, but his efforts are in vain. They finally spot a town in the distance, The Oasis, as indicated by the map that only Prof. Oberon can read.

...Does this mean Jumanji: The Next Level counts as a
Christmas movie?

They must have walked all day, because it's the evening when we return to Bethany in the real world. She goes to get Alex Vreeke (Colin Hanks), who knows a lot more about Jumanji. He did remain stuck in the game for 21 years, after all. He’s reticent at first since he now has a family and a daughter, but she manages to convince him to help save the rest of the team.

She's not real, Eddie! Also, I know what you have in mind,
and I doubt Jumanji will let you use Bravestone's, uh,
“equipment” for that, if you see what I mean.

In The Oasis, the players notice Jurgen's army. They enter a bar, the Smoke Stack, where Smolder Bravestone is accosted by a gorgeous woman in a red dress. The archaeologist’s ex says she has a clue for him, but she cannot say it in the bar. She slaps Bravestone to act like she isn’t interested and flees, but in an obvious “follow me” way. Grandpa Eddie, of course, doesn’t make the connection with the “Follow the flame” clue given by Nigel.

The group progresses, encountering Jurgen. The safe containing the Falcon Jewel is there. Jurgen makes a speech while casually tossing pieces of meat to hyenas. A speech about those hyenas’ trainer, whom Jurgen considered a friend. The guy tried to get too close to the Jewel… and now he’s hyena food. Geez, that’s dark. Then, the lights go out, and when they’re back on the key to the safe has disappeared.

What hits the worst about this scene is, after Jurgen throws
the axe and kills Ming (well, Spencer), the avatar's head
literally flies off her shoulders before disappearing.

The warlord yells for the thief, and Eddie, thinking he’s playing right, stops the robber: An Asian woman (Awkwafina), who recognizes Bravestone. But it’s too late, Jurgen’s men pull her aside and shake the key off of her. She tries to explain herself, but sounds more and more like a shy Jewish nerd with breathing issues and no self-esteem. Before the players can rescue the thief, whom they’ve recognized as Spencer, Jurgen throws an axe that disintegrates the player character.

VGFlicks: Jumanji: The Next Level (Part 1)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

I realized I had accumulated far too many video game movies to review, and therefore I decided to knock three this year. Even better, they'll share a common theme: “Trapped in a virtual world”. I would have said “game world”, but that’s not entirely accurate for all three; Heck, I don’t know whether “virtual world” really counts for today’s movie, either. Depends how you see it.

Truly an all-star cast. Pictured: Five teenagers, actually.

Of all the franchises to make a resurgence, I think nobody expected Jumanji to return after the 1990s with a new movie, Welcome to the Jungle, in 2017. Before then, all the franchise had was one movie, one TV show, and an unconnected movie with a similar concept. Then, suddenly, we’ve got a new Jumanji game, in which the board game has morphed into a cartridge to entice modern-age kids. Thus, we followed five new characters: Spencer Gilpin, Anthony “Fridge” Johnson, Bethany Walker and Martha Kaply, who got sucked into the video game the first time and became their characters. They even rescued another player, Alex Vreeke, who had been trapped in the game for 21 years. They overcame the game’s challenges and returned to their world, and Alex went back to 1996.

I covered Welcome to the Jungle in January 2019; that same year, on December 13th, the sequel, The Next Level, came out in theaters. Surely, the only way to make a sequel to this would be to either introduce new characters, or teach the previous characters new lessons they haven’t learned yet. Both? Both is good. Also, the next sequel is coming out this December, so I figured I’d do this one on time before I forget again!

The Longing

Beautiful locales, and she's still on her phone? Well, at least
it's to talk plans with her friends...

The movie opens two years after Welcome to the Jungle, to scenes of our main four characters, and how their previous adventures in Jumanji changed them. Former alpha girl Bethany (Madison Iseman) lives for the great outdoors, doing volunteer work in gorgeous areas of the world. Martha (Morgan Turner) and Spencer (Alex Wolff) graduated and are now attending different universities. Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain) is as athletic as ever, as we see him training before replying to the others' offer for a meetup.

Needlejuice Records: A Nuclear Bubble Wrap Special

NEEDLEJUICE RECORDS

Mystery Boxes: 2022 – 2023 (Part 1) – 2023 (Part 2)

NBW Special

Other album recommendations

I’m hard at work on the next articles, since I have huge plans for VGFlicks this time around. Plus, I didn’t get a mystery box of music last year, so I figured I’d just go through fewer albums this year.

I’ve done this intro each year since 2024 now: Needlejuice Records is an indie label from Nashville, Tennessee, that I greatly enjoy. I started off knowing just one band from their lineup, then expanded thanks to mystery boxes, and now I’m going as far as to try and at least hear everything their artists have put out. Some bands I’ve discovered this way are now big favorites of mine. Are you into indie rock? Maybe metal? Prog? Techno? Punk? Vaporwave/slushwave? Comedy music? Damn near every genre’s covered in some fashion. The label is very LGBTQ+-friendly, and has both a Bandcamp page and a website. (And a Discord server, too, accessible from Bandcamp.)

This time, I’ll do things differently by focusing on a specific band. This journey of mine began with one musical act: Nuclear Bubble Wrap (shortened NBW), whom I discovered around 2010. Crazy to think that’s been 15 years. Songs from the band were posted to a forum dedicated to “Weird Al” Yankovic by the band’s frontperson (and one of its singers), Jace McLain, which is how I first discovered them. McLain, one of the founders of Needlejuice Records, still puts out music both with this band and as a part of a few side-projects.

I did buy some physical albums from the label in 2024, including an anniversary box set of NBW’s fourth album, Exploding Head Syndrome (shortened EHS), packed with three additional CDs – so instead of bogging down a whole list of 10 albums with constant repetition, I figured I’d just dedicate an article to covering all four discs. Along with the other album of theirs I’ve got that I haven’t covered yet. And maybe throw in another album that felt like foreshadowing towards the existence of the label.

Once again, I rank from my favorite to the least favorite, starting with…

Psycho Delicacy

This was the first NBW, non-EP album to be made up entirely of original songs (zero parodies) that all have either a comedic or psychedelic edge. Sometimes both. At a sprawling 72 minutes and 21 songs, Psycho Delicacy, released on May 13th, 2014, is NBW’s longest official album, funded through Kickstarter. I backed it; along with the physical CD, my reward included a bonus disc containing demos from their next album, Multiverses, and other random songs.

Hylics 2

I’ve covered many bizarre games, yet few caught my interest as much as Hylics. It’s not that complicated; it’s a turn-based RPG made on RPG Maker, nothing special there. What sets it apart is that it was entirely designed in Claymation – there’s been a lot of hand-drawn games, but ones created with clay characters and worlds are rarer (Wikipedia's likely incomplete list of Claymation games has 25 entries).

Even the Wayne bedroom is weird.

The art style you could get used to; but then, there was the bizarre plot, and how it was presented. Most unimportant NPCs’ text bubbles were randomly generated, Mad Libs style, and made no sense. And when something plot-relevant was said, it made sense, but used archaic or uncommon words to convey the message, leading to a whole other kind of confusion. That game is an experience, I swear.

And if the first game is an experience, then Hylics 2, also developed by Mason Lindroth and released on June 22nd, 2020, must surpass it… while also being a good game on its own, a tough tightrope to walk with absurdism. Can it pull it off? We’ll see.

When even the title screen sets the tone...

An interval of renovelled tempestuousness

(…Yes. I’m gonna indulge in that silliness.)

Good boy. I bet you can't wait to have legs.

In the first Hylics, our main character was Wayne, a crescent-headed guy. This game keeps it ambiguous whether we’re following the same Wayne, or one from a new generation of Waynes. In this one, we’re introduced to an Old Wayne, a wise mentor (maybe the previous protagonist?), and to baby-Waynes that are slugs on the ground, which our Wayne can pet like they’re dogs. “Wayne” is just a species in this world, that starts and ends as slugs, and is human-shaped in the middle.

It's only gonna get weirder from here.

Quick Review: Toonstruck

Completely loony!

Toonstruck was developed by Burst Studios, first published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in October 1996, and then re-published to Steam by Interplay Entertainment Corp. on November 15th, 2016. I rarely covered Full Motion Video (FMV) games before, so this could be interesting! Especially since it stars Christopher Lloyd. (The low video quality isn’t great, but it's okay for computers of the time!)

"Drew?" "Flux? ...I gotta lay off the bourbon."

Hey, it's not every day you get to visit a cartoon castle.

The story: Drew Blanc (Lloyd) is a struggling animator so caught up in his job that he forgets to care for himself, while at the same time being behind on assignments. He hopes to see his wacky creation Flux Wildly get a show of his own someday, but for now, he must draw for an unbearably child-friendly show starring bunnies. One night, while he’s behind on the latest project forced upon him by his boss (played by Ben Stein), he falls asleep on his drawing board and dreams that he gets sucked into a nearby television by a UFO-like device. He lands in Cutopia, a world that combines the show he works for and his own creations. Its monarch, King Hugh, would like to help; but first, Drew will have to defend it from the dangerous overlord Count Nefarious, who plans to make everything in that world ugly and dangerous through his Malevolator.

And yes, Lloyd remains in live action throughout. Like in Cool World. Or maybe Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but reversed. At least, this time around, he’s not talking just… like… this!!!

Every single line of dialogue is voice-acted, by the way.
It's awesome.

We start with one item: Sugar to counter the Count's spice.
What's next? Against the bolts, we need... nuts. Against a
 bow, we need... an arrow. Against a polish, we need...
a spit. It's a very tricky puzzle, especially for those who
aren't native English speakers.

This is a point-and-click; almost everything is done with the mouse (though you can skip dialogues with Space, save with F5, load a game with F6, and turn off the game with alt+F4). Drew and Flux walk around, talk with the varied and bizarre inhabitants of this world, and solve their problems to progress. The plan to restore Cutopia involves creating a machine that counters Nefarious’ Malevolator, which functions with 12 items – thus, we embark on a quest for 12 opposite items. Upon meeting the royal scientist, you receive a blueprint of the Malevolator (to roughly know what to look for) and a bottomless bag to carry anything you’ll find. You can access the bag from the bottom left of the screen. On a few occasions, events during animations still allow you to point and click at items, like when dancing royal guards accidentally drop a key to a locked room in the Castle. Other times, actions can only be done when a character is looking away.

"WACME?" "Sure, if you say so!" *pulls out huge mallet*

Flux travels along Drew for a good part of the game, and the snarky weirdo voiced by Dan Castellaneta can be used to solve puzzles. Click him, then click at something to interact with, and see if something happens. On the topic of roles, we hear several names among the most famous cartoon voice actors of the '90s across this adventure: Jeff Bennett, Corey Burton, Jim Cummings, Tim Curry, Dom DeLuise, Tress MacNeille, David Ogden Stiers, Rob Paulsen, Frank Welker, April Winchell… Now that’s my kind of nostalgia! But don’t mistake this for a child-friendly game; there’s blood here and there, and sooooo many innuendos. All over the place. This game proudly sports its T rating.

Let's see... which of these things could we mix together...
Meat and the poison? Do we need to kill someone?
(The answer is probably yes.)

How many uses can there be for a fly costume?
...Well, at least two or three.

Although this is an excellent point and click with funny moments and many animated cutscenes, I did notice a few issues. Act 2, set entirely within Count Nefarious’ Castle, is a lot shorter than Act 1, as though a lot of elements had to be cut from it. The original plans were for Toonstruck to be double its size and split across four acts, one disc for each, while the finished product only has two, with everything else cut out due to budget constraints. (The game's poor original sales didn't help. A Toonstruck 2 allegedly exists unreleased, but we have yet to see anything about that.) As a result, this game ends on a cliffhanger. And it shows, as even at the end we can think of quite a few unresolved plot threads. There are a few moments where the game shows its age; there’s the use of some stereotypes that are outdated nowadays, like the blatantly gay “carecrow” met during the story. Also the game crashed near the very end when I hadn’t saved in a while, and it took me 30 minutes to get back to that point, but – that’s partly on me, and unlike another game I covered recently, it only happened once.

I doubt this fortune-telling cat lady is to be trusted.

Still, great game with clever puzzles and many memorable characters. Yeah, not every solution makes sense, but that’s common in a point-and-click, plus we’re in a cartoon world so the silliness is entirely excusable. If you like point-and-click games, it’s one you absolutely should try.

Toonstruck is available on Steam for 9.99$ USD. (Also, finish and release Toonstruck 2 dammit! A guy can dream.)