My Little Pony Friendship is Magic IDW Comics Review

As I look at the covers of the two MLP comic compilations, I immediately lament the fact of being a fan of a franchise meant for little girls. “Why is the logo covered in glitter?” I wonder as I inspect the cover art and the back. This seems like something an eight-year-old girl would do to girlify my comic collection. As I further inspect the outer layer of the comics, I see that both the books have no subtitle and the covers of both of them do not convey at all what the story within the pages will hold. Without removing the plastic covering, the only way you can tell that you didn’t buy the same book twice with different covers is that they are numbered on the spine and have a different summary and authors. As I opened the book and quickly flip through the pages, I glance at the last pages of the book at the art gallery. Most of the art in the gallery would have made a more superior choice for the main cover. I guess instead of having some cool art with some cool villain on the cover, they opted for something less offensive to better catch the eye of their target demographic, the eight year old girls of the world, instead of the real people who will buy it. The Bronies.

Let’s get away from judging the book by its cover and get into the nitty gritty.

Volume 1 is titled “ The Return of Queen Chrysalis “ which compiles the first four issues of the IDW My Little Pony Friendship is Magic comics. In this volume, Queen Chrysalis returns after her defeat at the end of season 2 to enact revenge on Twilight Sparkle by kidnapping Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. The main six knowingly adventure off to what they know is a trap to save the three fillies.

Volume 2 doesn’t have a title, but I’ll call it “Nightmare’s Revenge” for now which compiles issues five to eight of the comics. After the main six are all having insomnia from constant nightmares, Rarity gets kidnapped by the dark powers that once corrupted Princess Luna. It’s up to the main six five, spike, and Princess Luna to travel the moon to rescue Rarity.

The one I chose to read first was “The Return of Queen Chrysalis” which I chose based solely on the fact it had better art. Sure it doesn’t quite get Princess Celestia’s hair right but I do love how the line work venture’s away from the cold, perfectly drawn lines of the TV show to make something that looks more natural and better suited to the comic book format. Facial expressions are drawn really well, especially when you see Queen Chrysalis’ evil face in a few panels. The backgrounds are really well done, with lots of details and little things here and there which demands you to stop looking at the word bubbles to view the wonderful art. Although, this volume did have a lot of issues, little things like dialogue does fit the characters but in some sentences it’s like if the added or subtracted one word it would fit the characters better. Another one is what is up with all the crappy onomatopoeias? “JUMP”, “BETTER KICK”, “CRASH” etc? Seriously, was that on purpose or were they just feeling lazy? My biggest gripes are that background and fan favorite ponies show up in too many panels and too many references to pop culture. There’s even a troll who is such an obvious metaphor for bronies that I was kinda insulted. Mostly because it hits too close to home. All of these little details of references, fan favorites, nods to the fans feels like pandering basically. In the show, they knew that having some references and nods to the fans spaced out in between a few episodes was a good idea. Too much of that gets old and which is basically what Family Guy gets wrong. It ruins the flow of the story when you gotta stop now and again to look at art to get the reference. All of this just seems like something to distract you at how $#!* the story is. Characters don’t act seriously in serious situations in this story which is basically The Hobbit with ponies. They encounter a troll, fend off spiders in a cave, fend off the dangers of the forest as the travel through a landscape to reach their destination. They even have a map which resembles the journey Bilbo Baggins took to The Lonely Mountain. And it ends with what I consider the worst parts of the MLP FiM TV series. When Twilight defeats the big meanie by lecturing them about the power of fwendship. I guess Twilight always succeeds cause the villains willingly submit cause they’ll die from vomiting or audibly groaning too loud.

Volume Two “The Nightmare Strikes Back” doesn’t have art as good as volume one. It doesn’t get some colours correct but it does stick closer to the art style of the show and it does get Princess Celestia’s mane right. But some panel’s of the main villain looking menacing in her battle armour does win me over. Volume Two “The Nightmare Menace” does however win me over in where it counts the most, a tighter focus on story. Serious characters act serious in serious situations, no insipid little references to distract you from the story, and when certain background or recurring ponies do show up, it makes more sense and has a bigger impact on the story. The story delves deeper into the characters than volume one especially for Princess Luna. The dialogue even fits better than volume one. Although, this volume does seem to be written like a modern day action movie. You know, the kind of movies released after the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, where the heroes and the villains amass a huge army or a large group to square off at the climax of the film. You know, movies like Breaking Dawn part two, Deathly Hallows part two, Ironman 3, that Tim Burton Alice movie etc. The ending treads the line of friendship is the only reason they won, but the ending is rather more about facing your fears and looking past your own insecurities than the “friendship is magic” that I loath so much about some of the TV series’ episodes. But all in all, a good read.

Besides all my complaining, both these compilations are pretty good, one just okay, the other one better. Even though one of them kinda gets on my nerves and feels like too much fan service, it still has better writing and is more engaging than most MLP FiM episodes. If you’re a fan of the franchise, they are both good companions while you wait for season 4 to come around. And it’s certainly better than that god-awful Equestria Girls movie.

Wander Over Yonder Review

Disney used to have many great animated TV shows. Just ask any 90’s kid and they’ll probably hum you the tune of Ducktales or Chip and Dales Rescue Rangers till you go insane. However, the past decade wasn’t so great for Disney TV animation fans that had to suffer with bad live-action TV comedies especially since there was only one animated TV show I deemed worthy back then. But now things have turned around when a show like Phineas and Ferb showed up and became super popular. After that, how is Disney Channel making new animated TV series to capture that same spark? Why by hiring ex -Cartoon Network employees of course. First they got Maxwell Atoms, CH Greenblatt, and Tom Warburton on Fish Hooks, then Alex Hirsh, Aaron Springer, and Rob Renzetti for Gravity Falls. I think their strategy is working because Gravity Falls is one of my favorite animated TV shows. Now, they got Craig McCracken and Lauren Faust for Wander Over Yonder a new show that just recently premiered on Disney Channel.

Wander Over Yonder is set in a galaxy where space travel is possible but yet it doesn’t feel like a science fiction or science fantasy TV show. There’s baddie who acts like the Robot Chicken version of Skeletor (minus all the swearing) who plots to take over planets and do meanie things just cause of some inferiority complex where he has to be “The Greatest.” But it isn’t an adventure show in the sense where the hero has to save the galaxy from the forces of evil. Instead, it feels like a TV show about the antics of this character and his companions who just so happen to thwart evil whether on purpose or not.

The theme song of Wander Over Yonder probably best captures the essence of the main character. It’s a song that’s both charming and endearing yet funny and annoying at the same time. But it’s the good kind of annoying where you’ll hum it endlessly to annoy the person sitting next to you. Jack McBrayer does a wonderful job as Wander who isn’t annoying in the sense where the audience gets frustrated at him but rather where the audience will laugh when the characters in the show get annoyed at him. Probably the only other shows I know where this kind of “annoy the big meanie” is done successfully are old Warner Bros. cartoons and Animaniacs.

I can best describe the show as having a lot of energy. The show never skips a beat with lots of little jokes to keep you chuckling and some big jokes a few times just to keep you on your toes. Characters always spout lines, funny sounds effects abound, and characters making exaggerated faces. However, It does all this without feeling obnoxious or over bearing which I consider a rare feat. Its got some really fast pacing in some areas even for a ten minute show but each bit is varied enough so as not to feel repetitive.

Craig McCracken last show was Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and while I thought the first few episodes were good, I didn’t really get into it until later seasons. However with Wander Over Yonder, I’ve only seen two ten minute episodes but the show has already won me over. Here’s hoping the show doesn’t lose the momentum of the first two episodes.

Rayman Legends Review

“How do games journalists do it?” I wonder trying to think up a way to write a video game review. How do they write game reviews? Writing game reviews are a lot harder then they seem. Well writing it in an interesting and entertaining way to be more precise. There are much more obstacles than writing a review for a movie. For one, if your stuck reviewing a bad movie you only have to sit through it for a maximum of 3 hours while a bad game may take days. Games are also an interactive medium so it’s more of an experience than a movie. It’s like describing why riding a roller coaster is fun. You just explain what the experience is like rather than critique certain aspects of the experience. I’ve had many difficulties in making game reviews, which is why I’ve only ever put out a handful and only one of them I actually found kind of interesting. I’ve even cancelled a review for “The Last of Us” cause it didn’t fit my standards. So anyway, here’s my best attempt at a game review in a while and it’s for Rayman Legends, a game which I feel deserves more public attention then your Ass Creeds or your CoDs.

So the story, um, from what I can gather from the opening cutscenes, some bearded guy has nightmares and unleashes monsters all over the world and it’s up to our “legendary” heroes to save the day. Please note the use of the word legendary to justify why the game is called Rayman “Legends”. Wait, wasn’t that basically the plot of the previous game? Well anyway, story isn’t really the strong suit of the game but the lack of any story makes more sense in this game then in the previous game, which in my opinion could have used more story, especially since it had the title of “Origins.” It’s like if the movie Batman Begins was more of an origin story for the Joker like the Tim Burton film.

So that brings me to a point where I have to compare the game to its predecessor, Rayman Origins, which was one of my favorite games of the year it released. When that game came out I thought there was no way that Ubisoft could top it. Then I saw the first trailer and boy was I wrong.

The first one had such great art direction with its bright colours and fluid animation. The second game takes that and adds more effects such as lighting, shadows etc. It’s like a really great deviantart artist figuring out Photoshop. When I saw the first trailer, I was a little cautious about the use of 3D models for some enemies cause in my opinion, using cel-shaded 3D models in 2D animated games or TV shows feels like cheating. But it’s got some darn good cel-shading.

It improves so many things of the original like getting rid of those damn awful mosquito levels. Man I hated those. And instead of just remaking the last game with different wallpaper masquerading as new levels, it actually has some new ideas. Probably my favorite themed level is the spy level where you have to stealth through a level avoiding lights and whatnot and sabotaging the security systems.

So now this review brings me to the point to where I say that no, this game is not better than Rayman Origins. Why? Well they got rid of those nymphs from all the levels and replaced them with warrior princesses. I can’t quite put my finger on why I liked the previous game’s nymphs so much. Sure the warrior princesses have the same “appeal” but there’s just something about those nymphs. Maybe if I stare at fanart of the nymphs long enough I’ll figure it out.

Anyway, sexy fairies aside, Rayman Legends has some great ideas and bits but it feels like they ran out of them when they tried to cram in all the Wii U features that aren’t available in the PS3 version. For one, the game is too short. I managed to finish the main “story” in less than 10 hours when compared to Rayman Origins which had much more levels and all of them didn’t feel padded. You can tell they ran out ideas when there’s one section of the game dedicated to “remixes” of the previous game. The Origins levels don’t even feel like they were changed to a significant degree. Sure you can get away with remixing a few levels but Legends just goes too far with it. Heck even Sonic Generations remixed less levels than this game. It feels like they could have spent the time on these Origins levels making new levels. If I wanted to play the old levels, I would pop in my copy of Rayman Origins. It’s not like the game came out ten years ago. And if your going to have the old levels, you should have kept those singing lums. Man, those guys really brightened up my day.

On it’s own, Rayman Legends feels like the best example of what I would call a modern 2D platformer.  These are games that are 2D and play like classic platformers without it feeling like it has to copy the style of those old games or tack on outdated game mechanics like lives and continues. These games even put in features that modern 3D games put in like set pieces that would be home in other games like Uncharted or Call of Duty. Other games like Super Meatboy and splosionman also come into this category for me. It combines the best of new school and old school and is such a blast to play.