Reviews by Kyle Ellis

Warning: Spoilers
This is by far the best Stealth game ever created. Not only does it have excellent game-play, but it explains the Origins of The Big Boss A.K.A "Snake". It's not only a Steath game, but a survival game as well. In order to stay alive you have to find food. And what better food in the Jungle than Animals. You can eat a variety of creatures such as Fish, snakes, birds, toads, and basically anything you can get your hands that breaths(except people). But keep it to long it expires and if snake eats it, you can get sick and die. HOW COOL IS THAT?!

Another thing I really dig in this amazing game is the variety of Camoflauge you can wear. Everything from Treebark(which is my favorite), to Tigerstripe, to moss, and to White Kubuki masks! Its best if you choose the Cameo that fits the environment. There's even down loadable camos. If you have a game adapter, just pop the game in, plug the adapter into your PC and find a site that you can download from. I think there is a Mummy cameo, your life goes down slower and you can take more damage, Grenade cameo, it gives you infinite grenades, and a Santa suit that keeps you warm in cold environments.

This game has the best storie line in the entire Metal Gear series. The bosses are incredible. There's a spider type guy, a dead eye sharp shooter, and even a GHOST! There are tones of other bosses to face too.

All in All, one of my favorite video games and an incredible installment to the Metal Gear Solid series. 10 stars out of 10 all the way.

Warning: Spoilers
Save yourself the cost of snacks, gas and tickets and just rewatch the original on VHS, DVD, Blue Ray or Disney+. If I could give it 0 stars I would have.

The acting is subpar. I was intrigued and interested in the choices of Javier Bardem as King Triton and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, however they let me down. Bailey sings through her nose and doesn't use her full voice and diaphragm to help sustain the notes in the songs. She is also singing at least an octave below the original musical written text. This creates a lack of connection to the character, it's hard to believe that she wants to be a human when she's not giving emotion in the singing. In the original Jodi Benson sang "Part of Your World" in a dark room with only the light for her music to help her achieve the effect that shows in the final product of the film.

The orchestration has also been changed from the 1989 original, presumably because they actors chosen cannot sing the original orchestration and therefore shouldn't have been chosen for the role.

There are 3 new songs that add nothing to the story, and are unnecessary.

If you're looking for Chef Louis and Les Poissons, both have been removed. As has "You'll have your looks, your pretty face. And don't underestimate the importance of body language" from Poor Unfortunate Souls, and "Possible she wants you to, there is one way to ask her. It don't take a word, not a single word, go on and kiss the girl" from Kiss the Girl.

The characters in this film are soulless. You cannot connect to them the way you do in the original. Ariel no longer has her red hair, or her fierce independence. Part of what makes her an interesting character, other than being the first read haired princess, was that she broke the mold, instead of sitting around waiting to be saved Ariel did the main amount of saving and didn't sit around waiting for things to happen. She's an active, charming and inquisitive character who goes after what she wants and accepts the consequences that follow. This is all lost in the remake.

The side characters, who are interesting and charming in the original, are extremely creepy looking and unlikeable in the remake. For example, in the original, King Triton is a sympathetic character who wants what's best for his daughters and he is concerned with their safety. He's a conflicted in how he disciplines Ariel, asking Sebastian "You don't think I was too hard on her?" There's also his reaction to Ariel being a upset after he's destroyed the grotto, you see he regrets it and that he has hurt his daughter. But even after Ariel has stricken a deal with the "devil" he willing sacrifices himself to save her. As good as an actor as Bardem is, he's just going through the motions in the film. You don't connect with Triton (or any of the characters for that matter) because you don't believe them!

McCarthy has a similar issue. She's unfortunately not a believable Ursula, which is sad cause she seems to be really trying, but it turns into hamming it up or pretending to be one of her other characters.

Sebastian, Flounder, Scuttle and the fish are really creepy. I get Disney's trying to make them look real, but that effect doesn't work. There's no emotion and again no connection to the characters who were once charming in the original. The Lion King remake also had this issue where there was no emotion from the characters. The characters are much more emotive in the original film than this one. You'd think that the animators could have done a better job considering the backlash that came from The Lion King characters having no emotion.

This version has basically changed what didn't need to be changed and added things that didn't need to be added. Ariel and her sisters are now defenders of the 7 seas, which you don't need, Triton is king of the seas. We're introduced to Eric's Adoptive mother, again not needed, she adds nothing to the story and only worries about Eric getting married. Instead of Eric destroying Ursula at the end, Ariel does it. This didn't need to be done, this was the one time that Ariel needed saving after saving Eric from drowning, breaking Ursula's spell over him, and saving him again when Ursula was about to shoot him with the Trident. Instead she's on the ship and Eric is trapped at the bottom of the Whirlpool. Again an unneeded and unnecessary change. Eric is supposed to save Ariel that one time to prove to King Triton that not all humans are bad, this swap destroys that. There's also no wedding, instead Ariel and Eric go exploring together. Again not needed or necessary.

Overall, just watch the original. Save yourself over 2 hours of boredom, gas, money for tickets and snacks. Disney has failed to realize that remaking these classic movies ruins the nostalgia. If they want to introduce these classic movies to newer generations, just rerelease them in theaters like they've done in the past. In 1997 Disney rereleased The Little Mermaid in theaters, I remember going, even though I had it on VHS cause I wanted to experience it on the big screen. It was as wonderful on the big screen as it had been when I first watched it when I was 3 years old when my dad brought the VHS tape home. 33 years later the '89 original is my favorite movie and Ariel my favorite Disney Character.

Disney would be wise to no longer have Rob Marshal direct their films. The last films, including this one, that he has directed for Disney have been horrible. Lin Manuel-Miranda, has and success with Hamilton, Moana and Encanto, but he was not helpful here. If anything he hurt this project with the 3 new songs and his involvement in production.

Disney should seriously stop remaking their films. Beauty and the Beast, Maleficent, Cinderella, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, etc have all been awful. They don't bring anything interesting to the table, they just waste 2+ hours of your life that you cannot get back. Watch the originals, yes some have some MAJOR issues, but they are classic films that people have connected with and carry nostalgia, whereas the remakes/"reimagining a" don't.

Warning: Spoilers
After several adaptations of the famous board game, "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" arrives, an excellent production that with a fun and well-run script takes us to a world of fantasy and heroism. The special effects are good, although in some scenes they look a bit fake, the soundtrack with a touch of medieval music is incredible and the costume design is totally realistic. The characters are endearing and well acted, especially those of Michelle Rodriguez and Sophia Lillis, who was never a promising actor, she is a complete actress and she shows it in every movie in which she acts. A fantasy movie with an old school style that manages to stand out.

Warning: Spoilers
This is probably my favourite of the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies. James Gunn toned it down in the comedy department with this one to give us a more complex, intriguing and serious story. The film kept all the charm of the crew in it and still had the unique style that the guardians movies have. Mostly to do with the music, always look forward to music in these movies and the soundtrack was fantastic! Emotional and energetic! I loved it! It managed to give us a really emotional story for Rocket whilst having time for everyone else in the film, it was very well written to do that with so many cast members involved. The Rocket storyline is absolutely tragic, and it was really upsetting to hear and watch, even made me cry. The things they did and hearing him cry and squeal as he was ripped apart was really sad and to have what happened to his friends too was the bit that made me cry, the pain of rocket is really heartbreaking as all he wanted to do was free his friends and live with them. There was a lot of shock in the film as things happened that I wouldn't expect and that was great too. Drax who we have had glimpses of has been fully fleshed out in this one with talking about his daughter again which is a big part of the character and him being told he was made to be a dad. Star Lord got more of his Earth story being told and going back to see his grandpa was really cool. Everyone else was really cool too and more Cosmo was awesome! Adam Warlock was good and I can't wait to see more of him but he was a side character for now. It was quite dark for a marvel film with bloody scenes and even the F word was in there! Really enjoyed a more gritty tone in marvel. It was an emotional journey with our characters for one last time and it was one that was awesome but made me cry. Can't wait to see the new guardians of the galaxy at play as they have really cool characters in that roster. Fantastic movie! Loved it to bits!

1/5 stars. I have all of the She-Hulk comic runs from Savage She-Hulk #1 to the present day run currently sold in your comic shops at the time this Disney+ show released. She is one of my favorite Marvel women and ought to be treated with high respect while having a lot of fun. But the MCU failed to capture the charm, fun, and heart of the lovely green lawyer from the comics. This show suffers from the same problems that the MCU Phase 4 has...it doesn't know what it wants to be, it has rejected its former audience that made it an epic success for an entirely imagined one instead, and it doesn't know where it is going. Specifically in She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law's case, it did not flesh out the characters well-enough to make the audience care. Who are these supporting cast members? Why are they so one-dimensional? Why should I care? Where are all the actual jokes? The parts where Jen is actually trying to be a lawyer for superheroes or talking in a court scene are the funniest, but in too many other areas it tries too hard to be funny. Some people will watch this show and never laugh even where it is trying to tell a joke, which is rough because this is supposed to be a comedy. It is too bad the insecurities of the writers were projected into Jen Walters. While the pot shots and zingers may make them feel vindicated in this world, it will most likely turn off audience members or just make them roll their eyes. The best advice I could give is remember and respect your audience, respect your characters, make things interesting, know where to start, go, and stop, and finally have some fun. This could've been great but sadly it is forgettable. Most people will struggle to watch through all the episodes once, and very few will ever re-watch them.

I'm a 37-year-old man who grew up with the Castlevania video game franchise, from the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis - Castlevania Bloodlines - and the first PlayStation with Symphony of the Night. Hearing that Netflix is going to make adaptation of this beloved game franchise, I knew I was going to watch this.

And watched it I have.

While I haven't finished the final fourth season, I love this series. Beautifully animated, the violence is on par with the brutality of the video games, and the storytelling is *chef's kiss* excellent. Graham McTavish's mellifluous voice fits Dracula well, and Richard Armitage's Devil-may-care performance as Trevor Belmont...he sounds like the kind of guy who's tired of BS.

Highly recommended. If you like the video games, you'll like this series. 22 episodes of bliss.

Forspoken is the definition of a mediocre game. Far better than the previous live service hot garbage Square Enix has been pushing lately, such as Marvel's Avengers, but that's not saying much. $70 is laughably overpriced for a mostly bland and wasteful experience that offers little beyond whatever your definition of a mediocre game is.

The main character, Frey Holland, is poorly written and just really irritating. Her personality is essentially what you'd expect from a real life whiny teenage girl. Whiny, rude, stuck-up, and immature, it's especially repugnant if you know what she's dealing with in her hometown, New York. She literally mocks her companion Cuff for zero reason. But she constantly tries to crack these really unfunny jokes while swearing, during both the cutscenes and gameplay. It's as if the writers couldn't figure out how to make a character funny and likable that isn't Eric Cartman or Deadpool. For a 21 year old, she acts like a 12 year old. She looks like one, too. Some people have said she's why silent protagonists in games are better, I personally have to disagree with that. I prefer protagonists in games that talk, it gives them personality. Making them mute makes them self inserts and bland characters. I would just make Frey actually act like a 21 year old.

It's not the voice actresses fault, it's the horrendous writing. I'm all in for a witty and less serious story, but here, it just doesn't work. Also, the game loves to have it so you activate a cutscene after walking every so thirty feet, and it's especially irritating when they've could've just cut the gameplay and made clumped the cutscenes together for one large cutscene. I mainly play most games for the story, but I don't want a cutscene to be interrupted by gameplay and vice versa.

This is a game that could've been delayed for another year or so. It desperately could use some rework. The combat is fine, gameplay is also pretty solid, but man, the story and writing kills the entire experience. This game is wasted potential. Because the gameplay is sadly the only saving grace here, and I feel most of the development time went into that.

I feel critics were a bit too nice on this game, this game is definitely a 4/10. I wouldn't recommend this to a gamer even if it was only a dollar.

Warning: Spoilers
It is a bad game, top to bottom.

Story: The story would've been more coherent and consistent if it was written at a toddlers daycare group.

The game opens with shinnok telling raiden that elder gods "cannot" be killed, yet an entire plot point is that cetrion kills the other elder gods to complete her betrayal and help kronika.

Kronika has the power over time itself, as we see she can reverse time, resurrect the dead, freely move people and even entire locations to different points in time at her whim yet for some reason she doesnt revive shinnok after raiden beheads him, nor does she bring shinnok from a point in time before his beheading to help her, she could technically do both of these and have 2 shinnoks, but instead there isnt even one playing a role in this game because reasons.

Within the first hour of the game we have a scene where kronika messes up time, moving characters throughout time to help her yet for some reason she also moves the "good" guys who will inevitably fight against her, no reason is ever given for this and it isnt even mentioned but an all powerful being with free control over time decides to bring her own worst enemies in their peak conditions to the perfect point in time to stop her.

On top of that when the time merger happens current raiden is wiped from existence, proving that kronika has the power to remove raiden from the timeline, yet the next 3+ hours of the "story" revolve around kronika convincing other villians to work with her because all of a sudden she needs their help to summon the "immense power" to remove raiden from the timeline, despite already having done so single handedly once before.

Later in the story we learn that it is not the first time kronika has reset time, that she has pulled off this exact same plan countless times before, which opens up about a million questions, a few of the most obvious ones.

Why has she never before created a timeline without raiden? Why keep resetting the board only to put the exact same pieces in the exact same place that will inevitably interfer with her plans?


Why did she not simply stop Liu Kang from being born? It is Liu Kang combined with Raiden that poses her biggest threat yet after spending eons watching different timelines unfold it didnt once occur to her that simply stopping the birth of one human who is a consistent thorn in her side would allow her to do as she pleases?


If she has gone through with that plan countless times before how is she still so bad at controlling her power that as mentioned above she brings her own enemies to the exact point in time to allow them to stop her plans?


If she has experienced countless timelines how is she still caught off guard by the actions of the "good" guys?


If she has experienced countless timelines how is she surprised when her characters lose? And how is she compeltely unprepared with no contingencies or backups?


It's just horrendous, there are more plotholes than plot, things happen with no rhyme or reason, nothing is ever explained, nothing adds up and Kronika who is now the most powerful named being in the entire MK lore is so painfully stupid that a comatose chipmunk could do a better job than her.

Gameplay: The gameplay is awful, not in the way you might think, in simplest terms it is the singular most poorly balanced fighting game ever created. I know its a substantial task to create a fighting game roster where the characters are individual but equal but NRS didnt even try here, nobody can honestly say that NRS put any effort whatsoever in. I will use a few characters for examples

The following characters are so broken that using them is one tiny step away from running cheat engine Liu kang- easiest inputs in the game, highest damage output in the game, moves literally ignore the "frame data" that the tutorials tell you are "essential" to understand, fastest animations in the game, has skills that make him dangerous at any range

Noob saibot- easy inputs, insanely high damage, every single attack in his entire moveset is safe ( meaning nothing puts him at a frame disadavantage), has skills that make him dangerous at any range.

Scorpion- easy inputs, high damage, fast animations, safe on everything, good mix ups, dangerous at any range.

Scrub zero- easy inputs, high damage, more mix ups than the entire remaining roster combined, safe on everything.

In contract these characters are so broken that using them is playing with a severe handicap

Skarlet - slowest attacks in the game, minimal damage, only 1 combo, special skills are tailored for zoning but they are terrible at zoning, zero mix ups

Rain - slow attacks, minimal damage, only 2 potential combos which also have the most difficult and frame perfect inputs in the entire game, no mix ups, doesnt have a single overhead attack meaning someone can duck block and be immune to rains entire move list, one of the only characters who canonically has always been able to teleport for some reason has no teleport skill whereas Liu kang has 3, 3! Different teleports.

Mileena- slow attacks, no damage, no combos, no mix ups, almost entirely useless special moves.

It is ridiculous, you could pick Liu, Noob or Scorpion, put your controller on the floor, shine a laser pointer on it so that your cat/dog paws at the controller and they would beat the remaining 34 characters in the roster 9/10 times, that is how overpowered the top 3 are and how pitiful the rest are in comparison.

A rain player could spend time practicing the most awkard inputs in the game, they could land a 25 hit combo chaining together 4 combos + 3 special attacks and burn through both bars of meter to amplify them and the result is a pathetic 21% damage. In contrast a Liu kang player can press X/Y/A or Square/Triangle/X and that "combo" will deal over 40%

Another comparison, a skarlet player can be a technically good player. They can know the frame data, know the timing, have all the techniques down perfectly but it is utterly meaningless because every single move in Liu,Noob and Scorpions move lists are faster than every single move in Skarlets. So it doesnt matter how good you may be or how well you know the game and the characters, if you are against a character who has such a colossal advantage that they can literally mash any button and their character will be able to out-manouever and/or interrupt your characters animations what are you supposed to do?

One more quick comparison Mileena not only has slow start up animations but also slow recovery frames, in contrast the top 3 have no disadvantageous moves, not one. With mileena a single miss, a single hit is blocked and you are going to take damage, there is no way around it. Even if you play carefully and try to counter your opponent it still wont matter because she is so slow that it is unavoidable that she will be out performed by the opposing character and take hits. Whereas the top 3 can do whatever they want and there is no way to punish them, they can mash or spam, they can use an attack just because they think it looks cool and it is 100% irrelevant, doesn't matter if they miss or their attack is blocked, those characters recover so fast while stunning and/or knocking back other characters leaving the top 3 completely safe regardless of the situation.

Icing on the cake in all of the above mentioned scenarios not only are you playing with a severe and blatant handicap but in addition to that you have to land roughly 5x the amount of hits as your opponent because of how low the damge output for the bottom characters is. A liu kang can do the 1/2/3 combo 3 times and that will take the entire health bar from any character. Rain, Mileena and Skarlet meanwhile will have to land dozens upon dozens upon dozens of attacks just to take 30%

"Matching": For some reason NRS in their infinite "wisdom" decided to include win/loss ratios and predicted odds in "kasual" matchmaking. A "feature" that benefits nobody and makes the experience immeasurably worse because it makes the process of trying to find a match take about 10x times longer than it should. Unless you are getting paid nobody should care about wins/losses in a video game full stop, but who on earth cares about a ratio in "kasual"? A game mode where there are no rewards, no risks, no rank, no ladder, yet evidently there are enough fragile people who play this game who will sit through a matching period only to leave because the game didnt give them a predictive 100% win chance.

The Krypt: How a game developer that has been around for decades thought it was a good idea to force players to have to spend hours running back and forth across a small, unchanging, empty map opening the same chests thousands of times to unlock things is beyond comprehension.

The Towers: Similar to the above, a game mode that forces players to fight the same characters thousands of times, but also has pss poor "modifiers" that do moronic things like have a lazer panning the screen that takes your health in under 3 second. How they thought putting 2 remarkably tedious grinds in this game was a "good" system defies any semblance of logic.

Customisation: 1:Cusomisation doesnt exist, game lists for example 20/80 skins unlocked, in reality there are 4 skins and the rest are identical but have barely noticable colour changes, 1 will have a blue collar, the next royal blue.

2:The only skins that are different were only available if you pre-ordered specific versions of the game, in specific time windows, from specific shops, in specific parts of the world, making them innaccessible to 99.9% of players

I am out of space and I havent even touched on crashes, endless server problems or constant settings resetting and requiring you to run benchmarks everytime you want to play. This review doesnt even dent the list of flaws, all of which could and should've been avoided if they cared enough to do any balance or play testing or bug shooting whatsoever.

Words cannot describe how much this game was worth the wait. Hats off and a standing ovation to the creators and staff of this game! Absolutely out of this world! WHAT A GAME!! Totally lives up to the original. Overwhelmed with the added nostalgia. Made me proud to be a Resident Evil fan for 23+ years. Deserves lots of awards! Well done!

Final Thoughts:

Resident Evil 4: Remake is the best entry to the series to date. It's faithful, fresh, and utterly gorgeous. It makes smart changes that better allow the story and characters to breathe while keeping the pace fluid. Gameplay is unbelievably smooth, crafting a viscerally satisfying punch to both gunplay and melee that showcases Capcom's sharper focus on horror.

Social media is almost always brimming with 'when will we see next-gen?', but, I think we need to take a closer look at what we have now, because if any recent game showcases what next-gen should feel like, Resident Evil 4: Remake is 100% it.

For the full review and more posts like it, visit my site: The Phoenix Project - Read. Watch. Play.