My Opinion on George Lucas Commenting on The Force Awakens (Spoiler free)

So George Lucas has just stated that he doesn't really like The Force Awakens and that its not the way he would have gone with things and that he wouldn't have done something so retro, so rehashed and unoriginal. This seems to have caused a certain fuss in some circles of the internet with a mix of pro Disney, Pro Lucas and open minded people arguing it out so I thought I would throw my 2 cents in to it. Now I am not going to spoil the new film, I do agree with Lucas that the new film does to some extent rehash elements of the old films in particular the original Star Wars or as we now refer to it A New Hope, however I dont see this as an issue. There are enough new characters and original ideas that I just find the similarities with the old to not be a problem. If you do then its your opinion and you are of course fully entitled to it.

I think the big thing people forget about Star Wars is that although it began with George Lucas with ideas written down it soon felt the touch of far more people, George didn't design every single prop on his own he didn't build every single set with his own two hands, sure he would have given guidelines but he would also trust people, he would trust that if he gave the job to the right person and let them put there heart and soul into it then he would get something worthwhile out of the other side. The longer Star Wars existed the more people have been involved with it thousands of artists must have been involved with Star Wars when you sit and think about it, first with the original trilogy, then through the Expanded Universe books, the comics the animated shows, the video games.

The main thing Lucas should be given credit with is for starting the ball rolling, he had the ideas which formed the original frame work of the universe, on his own though these ideas would not have given us everything Star Wars related we now have. Lucas was smart enough to allow lots of other people to help shape these ideas into a successful film, then a successful trilogy and finally a very large beloved franchise which spread in to pretty much every possible area. There was a long time between the release of the first and second Star Wars trilogy. I could talk about a great many people who I feel have kept the Star Wars universe relevant and alive between the release of the two trilogies, I could talk about Comic Strip artists or games designers but instead I will focus on one of the individuals who I feel was of the most importance and this is Timothy Zahn.

Timothy Zahn is a science fiction author who happens to be responsible for writing what is known as The Thrawn Trilogy a set of 3 books which served as a new Star Wars Trilogy this time in novel form, the books in this trilogy are Heir to the Empire (1991), Dark Force Rising (1992) and The Last Command (1993). These novels reignited interest in the Star Wars universe and pretty much paved the way for a whole plethora of novels by numerous authors, including some very interesting short story collections. Now we find that most of this stuff has ended up being somewhat pushed to the side and no longer considered cannon, now it all seems to exist under a sort of parallel universe banner called ''Legends''.

In the past George Lucas owned the rights to Star Wars and to at least some extent this meant that he got all of the credit both good & bad for products carrying the Star Wars name, when he sold his company and the rights to Star Wars though this was something that also went with it, now Disney has the ball and they will pass it on to whoever they hire to do a film or carry the legacy on in some other way. Star Wars was always bigger than just George Lucas and even he saw that as can be seen in the following quote"After Star Wars was released, it became apparent that my story—however many films it took to tell—was only one of thousands that could be told about the characters who inhabit its galaxy. But these were not stories I was destined to tell. Instead they would spring from the imagination of other writers, inspired by the glimpse of a galaxy that Star Wars provided. Today it is an amazing, if unexpected, legacy of Star Wars that so many gifted writers are contributing new stories to the Saga."

How is all of the above connected well it shows that others have previously taken hold of the ball and ran without the involvement of George Lucas and done more than a fine Job of handling Star Wars, in fact I think my favourite Star Wars story ever is not one of the films it is the video game Knights of the Old Republic.

You told your story Mr Lucas and now the ball has passed on to another, yes your as free to have an opinion as any of us but remember if they copy elements of some of the previous films, your previous work remember these two points one imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and two there was clearly something worth while in those original films or they wouldn't be as popular and as beloved as they are.

This Months retro Video Game purchases:December 2015

OK so it is that time of the month again, the time when one month is pretty much over and a new one is about to begin, so its is once again time look at the retro purchases I have made in the past 30 odd days. To be honest I have been at work more with it being the whole busy Christmas period and again like last month I have brought more new games that were in crazy sales and such. Also for the first time ever I actually have started my Christmas shopping for next year literally straight after Christmas, now no I am not sad enough to fight and punch in all of the boxing day sales but I have grabbed the odd thing while leaving work and began to fill a box which I will reopen towards the end of next year to give me a great headstart on sorting out next years gifts.

I didn't even so much as look at a retro game up until December the 8th. Also to be honest this was a last moment thing, I was on my way home and decided to stop off at a small town which I know sometimes has a market in the town square. I got all of the following off of one store. I got Konami Krazy Racers for the GBA cart only for £2.50, which was cool as I have wanted this for quiet awhile due to the fact many people have talked about it favourably so l cant wait to give it a bash. Then I grabbed both NBA courtside and Pool Paradise both complete for gamecube for £1 each.

The last thing I got from here was a bit of a strange purchase basically its a Modded/Fake Golden Axe 3 pal cart, I really wanted to look inside it and eventually managed to get it open. Looking at the board its very basic so I am going to guess that its a cheap reproduction, it might be in a pal shaped cart but the first thing I noticed was that it wouldn't play on my English Megadrive, it basically came up with a message saying it wasn't intended for this territory so I tried it in my Japanese Megadrive and it worked great, the whole game is there with everything just the same as it would be if this was a real version.

On the 15th I had something I had ordered a few days previously arrive from ebay and that was 

a Japanese copy of Gain Ground boxed but with no manual, this cost me £8 including postage and is something I was very happy to have gotten myself as I love Gain Ground, also the first ever copy of Gain Ground I owned was a Japanese copy (which also strangely had no manual) so its nice to have this again.

Latter in the day I managed to look in a small pawn store I sometimes visit and was very surprised to find a Raiders of the lost Ark Atari 2600 loose cartridge which I got for £3 and a fully complete boxed version of Haunted House for the Atari 2600 for a further £3, was really surprised to see games this old for sale, never expected this pawn store to buy and sell them.

On the 18th I hit a few charity shops and managed to get, Dancing Stage Euro Mix for the playstation(1) complete for 50pence, Tony Hawks Underground for xbox complete for £1, The Sims for ps2 complete for £1, and Mary Kate and Ashley crush course, for playstation(1) case and disc missing manual for 50pence. Yeah I know the last one is a bit of a weird purchase but I mostly just got it as the case was pure almost new looking and my intention is to swap one of my rarer games into it that happens to have a less well maintained case.

On this day I also received a rather cool bit of tech in the post, I got a NES USA to UK converter/Adaptor for £9 including postage. Now there are two reasons this is really cool, one is that usually these cost a lot more, the other is that I happen to own about 10 American NES games and dont own an American NES, one of these games just happens to be Mega Man 2.

On the 23rd I returned to the pawn store which I had gotten the Atari games from and found that they now had a copy of OutLaw for the Atari 2600 cart and manual in good condition and with a very batted box for only £1.99 which I jumped on, after all its kind of cool that there is any box at all when its made of card and the game came out in 1978

Yesterday I managed to pick up Chili Con Carnage for psp complete 75pence and Ape Academy box and UMD (no manual) for psp for 75pence from a diffrent pawn store. I also recieved a Megadrive game in the post I ahd purchased from Amazon but there was an issue here. I had purchased what was supposed to be a copy of RBI baseball 94 and what arrived was a case with the cover for RBI 94 but an RBI Baseball 3 cart and a very rough batterd RBI 3 manual. Yet I cant moan as when I complained I got a full refund including postage costs and got told to do as I please with the game. So I will keep the cart and proberbly use the case for another game as a replacement for a cracked case., or I might even make my Golden Axe 3 cart a case.

Ash Versus Evil Dead Episode 7 reviewed

So this has taken me a lot longer than I intended, thank goodness I didnt decide to review the other 2 shows I have been watching (Dr Who and The Muppets) or I would really have a backlog on my hands here. So I already gave the game away when I reviewed episode 5 and 6 stating that I had watched episode 7 and it was awesome so I might as well get down to business and start talking about why it is awesome. I suppose one more thing needs to be added and that is that these reviews will be very spoiler heavy so if you want to watch the episode without knowing what is going to happen go do that first then come back to this.


Episode 7 Fire In The Hole


Now I have seen Bruce Campbell engage in a little bit of friendly ribbing when it comes to that other very popular horror show ''The Walking Dead''. This episode had a bit of a walking dead feel to it, I saw it sort of as The Evil Dead's answer to The Walking Dead. Now dont get me wrong I enjoy the walking dead, I know I know the graphic novels/comics are better, but the show and the Tell Tale series both are as far as I am concerned both very good on there own merits (just not as a replacement for the graphic novels).Walking Dead at times can be almost as bloody as Evil Dead but its not quiet in the same way, Walking Dead tries to be a little realistic where as the Evil Dead has the whole buckets of blood gushing down the camera to the point its both disgusting and funny.

Now you might think that with Ash Versus Evil Dead being full of both carnage and quips,that this might be all it has going for it and while on the surface it might not feel especially deep there has I believe been a very good effort put into the character development of all the characters on the show. Ash is a brilliant character who Bruce Campbell has always been able to breathe so much life into in a way that many much more higher paid actors could only dream of doing and yet one of the most memorable scenes in this episode comes near the end when Kelly, Pablo and Amanda, have there guns raised, after taking out a Deadite that was threatening the redneck militia. It was on its own merits a pretty darn cool moment but it was also notable for the fact that it did not include Ash, and the fact it let other people take centre stage.

The episode is basically about the Militia not trusting Ash and his team, so they throw a handcuffed Ash and Amanda in to an underground bunker with a dedite on the loose in it, and we end up with a situation where by Ash and Amanda have to think there way out of trouble, while Pablo and Kelly try to both escape from the Militia and try to come back and save Ash. Its cool in how it shows both how Pablo and Kelly cope without Ash present but it also allows for some romantic tension between Ash and Amanda which almost results in a kiss.

At the end of the episode Ash abandons everyone to try and go to the cabin on his own, it is very clearly shown that despite always try to show himself as a loner he has become very attached to those who have been around him, he seems to see Amanda in a romantic light while caring for Pablo and Kelly as friends. I enjoyed this episode a great deal but it also really had me itching to see the cabin again, to return to the start of everything. Every week seems to be getting more exciting than the last and I just cant wait to see where it all leads.

Snes Review 102: The Lawnmower Man.

So it has been a fairly long time since my last SNES review. Some of it is the fact that I got a new job and found myself with less free time than I had before but I guess a big part of it was also because I had review more than 100 games and felt like I had hit some kind of mile stone, it seemed like after reviewing a nice interesting title for review number 100 anything after would be a bit of a step down.  I did consider just letting this whole thing die after all 100 reviews is a lot of reviews and there are other things I wanted to talk about, modern games, the megadrive, politics, philosophy and economics but at the end of the day I said I would review 150 SNES games so I want to review 150 SNES games even if it takes me till this time next year. So here is review 102 and apologies for the long wait.

Now it might have turned up in some of my conversations or in previous blog posts but I am a very big fan of the 1950's Horror comics and beyond that horror in general. This all started with my exposure to several films when young, soon films turned to comics, and comics turned to books and this is how I came to find my self reading the work of several authors including the likes of Richard Matheson and Stephen King. Now days it wouldn't be that huge an issue to find a game being made with the involvement of some kind of horror director or writer but back when I heard that a SNES game was being made based on a film which was apparently based on a sort of horror short which I had read it was actually kind of exciting, sure the very fact it was based on a film should have started my spidey sense tingling but I was less jaded and cynical back then.

The original ''The Lawnmower Man" is a short story which was written by Stephen King and originally published in the May 1975 issue of a US magazine called Cavalier, later it was included in King's 1978 short story collection Night Shift, which is where I found it a good ten years latter. I dont want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it but I will simply say this it is a little tale with connections to sort of mythical beings and has no futuristic science to it. Beyond some kind of weird ZX Spectrum game with an RRP of £3.99 or less I dont really see how back then the idea of this story could make a game, at least not a proper game on a 16bit system.

My excitement died pretty much when I saw The Lawnmower Man the film. Sure the film is named after the Stephen King short story of the same name, but it basically has pretty much sod all to do with it. Again I dont want to spoil something you have yet to experience but I will give a brief idea of what the film is about. The film is about a simple minded gardener and a scientist who decides to experiment on him, using a combination of drugs and Virtual Reality exercises/games. The film had some interesting CGI in it and some decent ideas but overall was a very run of the mill average movie. It was no wonder that it was originally titled Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man, but this ended when King managed to successfully sue the producers and have his name removed on the basis that his story and this film basically had sold all in common.

So on the outside of it a man being trained with VR games doesn't sound like a bad set up for a game does it? Well the reviews for it back in the day were kind of all over the place with some claiming it to be absolutely crap while the odd one praised it like it was some kind of proto Mario 64 but I think the general consensus was that it was an incredibly average game.

The game is basically composed of different parts, there is a platformer, then there is a 3-D first-person flying game with a lot of mode 7 thrown into the mix, but there are also some levels where your flying in a sort of ship or driving along on a futuristic bike where it is basically a horizontal or vertical shooter. The main issue is that the platformer is OK if incredibly pedestrian and average where as the 3D mode 7 heavy stuff rather than being the icing on the cake or the jam to separate the layers and mix things up a little is more like the brussel sprouts you were made to eat as a child if you wanted your Christmas pudding, that is if your Christmas pudding was a only just edible none exciting Christmas pudding. The shooter bits are not to bad but nor are they too good, everything is kind of average but you still feel basically grateful that they tried to break things up and mix genres and elements together to keep you entertained.

If you want to know what the platforming bit is like well imagine a sort of amateur run and gun Contra/Turrican kind of thing, you shoot stuff, you jump around, you pick up bigger and better weapons to shoot even more things with

When you first see the mode seven bits you will be a little impressed and be like ''oh wow something different, this doesn't look bad'' but soon this will turn into ''oh great one of these bloody bits again''. These bits basically involve shooting at wire frame enemies avoiding there shots and trying not to crash into stuff, it could potentially be exciting but you realise all to soon that none of the enemies could hit an elephant with a Rocket launcher, there AI is simply more brain dead than almost any you will have faced before, and lets remember in 1977 the Atari 2600 a machine with only a 1.19mhz processor managed to show competitive functional AI in its tanks in the video game cart known as Combat (one of the first 9 games released for that particular system). . Not much of a gameplay rating here, that's for sure. And also, the enemies, even in the last few levels, have the worst AI ever. If anything will get you in these sort of bits its more walls than enemies. I would have scrapped these bits as novel looking as they are and concentrated on doing my best to ensure the other bits were more enjoyable, but I guess they figured this stuff was what would stand out the best when printed in magazines and is what would sell the game.

The sound is pretty basic even if I find the music strangely funky and appealing in a way I cant quiet understand, the controls are decent, there are no real major major bug bears with this game beyond what I have mentioned but the way it feels when you play it you cant find yourself saying anything kinder than either the generic ''yeah its average'' or ''at least they tried something'' So I think it is pretty clear that I would give this game 5 out of 10. Would I recommend a purchase? Only if you can get it for around £5 and really fancy something you dont already own. I have had this knocking around in my collection so long I have no idea when or where I got it but looking online, looking about you can get a cart for around £5 on Amazon and if you like trying new things then give it a shot you might like it more than I do.

Brutal Honesty...School shootings

OK so this is a new piece I am going to do for my blog, its another opinion piece but this time I wont be talking about a current event I will just be taking a statement which is potentially extremely controversial and discussing it. ''You can pretty much understand some school shootings''.

You instantly hear the word school shooting and you presume that it has been done by someone who is an utter ass-hole, when you hear speeches about it you often hear the words ''sick'' ''coward'' and various other phrases being parroted again and again. Now I want you to stop and think back for a moment, think back to when you were at school, think about the behaviour of some of the people who were around you or maybe even think of your own behaviour. Think of all the little click's and all of the people who get pushed to the side, the ones who had to face exclusion and insults maybe even threats of violence or actual physical violence on a daily basis, maybe you were one of these people or maybe you were the one who was bullying someone like this or maybe just maybe you were one of those people who just stood there and watched bully's picking on there victims and you just felt glad that it wasn't you. If you were bullied then you will know that it royally sucks ass, it is not a good thing to put up with whatever form it took, if you were a bully then sincerely Fuck You, I hope you at least feel sorry for it now and have done something to make amends for it to at least some level. If you were one of those people who regularly sat on the outside and watched it happen and did nothing then I guess that the kindest thing I can say is I understand, I have a memory of once doing this when I was young and it still hurts me to this day to realise that I watched when I really knew I should have done something. Now I am not saying that anyone should go sticking there face into everything that's happening around them, sometimes it is not clear if someone is really being bullied or if its just banter, or sometimes the person getting shit has actually done something to warrant the negative attention but you know those times when you know what your seeing is wrong when you can feel that it is deep down inside your gut then bloody do something about it. I am not saying that if you see someone at school or work bullying someone you need to walk up and punch someone in the face or make a huge fuss, but you can still do something, maybe ask the person latter if they are OK. I think the age old saying ''if your not part of the solution your part of the problem is very true.''

Now like it or not every single school both here and in America and heck probably in most of the world is made up of bully's, victims and onlookers and if your really really lucky kids who oppose bullies who dont happen to be victims. Now obviously I am saddened by the news of any childs life ending early but when you see these parents of the children who have died in various shootings they are all ''oh my poor little angel was taken too soon by that vile coward'' every one tends to think there own child is the golden one, the one who never does any wrong, the one who has never said an unkind word or pushed another kid but if we follow my above comments on the make up of a school population we know that this can not be true in every case. When did you ever see a parent come on TV and go ''Yeah my kid got his head blown off, but in fairness he was a cocky little shit who always pushed kids smaller than him and tried to flush there heads in the school toilets'' or ''Yeah my girl might have been my baby but at times she was a real prick, she would always tease this kid or that kid for being gay or black or ginger or something else that was beyond there control''. Now dont get me wrong I am not for one second saying that every school shooter is a prior victim turned avenger or that every kid that gets shot is a bully, if you spray a semi automatic machine gun across the room like rambo to try and take a kid down then your going to hit a lot of others for a start. What I am saying is that before you blame the existence of guns or some shit like Rap music or video games you need to stop and challenge the assumption that children are all pure angels because they are not, some children are in fact horrid little shits, and you know what stop kids being horrid little shits? Good socialisation thats what. You see your son or daughter or niece or nephew being a little cunt then call them out on it tell them why it is wrong, explain to them what it would be like to have the shoe on the other foot to be bullied and persecuted, teach them right from wrong and teach them how to socialise correctly and when school phones you up and says they have proof your kid was being a jack ass well listen to that proof and keep an open mind.

Karma baby maybe some of the people out there need to stop and read the definition, I have heard people who bullied me or who stood by and watched me be bullied practically crying that there little Jonny or Johnnie is being persecuted and bullied and that no one wants to help or to stop and listen, that its so wrong and so unfair, well you know what Yes, Yes it is unfair, its just as unfair as it was when you were doing the shit you were doing way back when, maybe you need to stop and take a good luck at yourself in a fucking mirror before you cry all whoa is me why wont someone help my little angel.

Wanting to hurt those who have hurt you is a pretty normal reaction when you stop and think about it. I never personally would have wanted to shoot up a school but I did want revenge on quiet a few people and I even got it on some in far less violent/ permanent ways. I remember this one kid he was 4 years older than me, real big chap and he always used to call me names but more than that he used to regularly both threaten and hit me, in fact I remember one day he picked me up by the throat against a wall and tried to choke the life out of me. I could feel the pressure getting tighter and tighter and my vision getting darker and darker and in desperation I kicked forward and hit him square in the knackers, he dropped me and he doubled over as his head came forward I uppercutted him square in the face and knocked him out. That wasn't revenge though that was pure survival if he had chocked me that bad the first time if I hadn't knocked him out Id hate to think what he would have done the second time. Revenge came about 7 years latter when I met his then Fiancée in a nightclub and made out with her again and again, sometimes its funny the hands that fate can deal you. Was I right or was I wrong well I guess thats down to personal opinion.

The long and short of it is though that as a world we need to learn more empathy and that we need to do a better job of teaching our young to act in a way which is not only good for them but good for the world and the people around them, this wouldn't end all violence but at least then we would know that that people who had pulled the trigger were just nut balls and not simply victims making even more victims.

You can understand some school shootings because we live in a world were people crap on other people and we all know that every single person out there only has a finite amount of tolerance when it comes to being shit on.

Alien Storm for the sega Megadrive/Genesis revisited in celebration of my 100th post

My first ever blog post was made on the 16th of June 2009, now due to the site it was on closing down tommorow this will soon no longer exist at least in its original form, I have done a lot of things since that post including making YouTube Videos, publishing my own books and also spending a lot of time online writing in general. Writing stories, reviews, opinion pieces, basically almost everything you can think of.

I have written about films which were banned, new games, old games in fact but it all started with reviewing a Sega MegaDrive/Genesis game Alien Storm. A lot of people probably wonder why I picked this game, after all its not like it was one of those games that everyone is always talking about but that was exactly the reason I picked it, it was a game I had personally loved as a kid, which I didn't think got talked about enough. I wanted my review to stand out as opposed to it being lost in a sea of millions of reviews all saying the exact same thing about a game which everyone knew about but I also wanted to draw attention to the game itself. Well I have decided that as this is my 100th post on my new blog and my old blog is being taken down it was only right to take a look at my first blog post. in this case I guess I will sort of be reviewing my review.

''I remember when Alien storm first came out most people rather unfairly in my opinion referred to it as Golden Axe with aliens. On the surface Alien storm does share quiet a few similarity's with the Axe both made by Sega both basically of the old side scrolling beat em up mold, a choice of 3 different characters 1 of which is a lady.'' I still do remember Alien Storm being referred to as Golden Axe with aliens in it, in fact someone used this term not to long ago, pointing out the things both games had in common and brining in a game people would know is something I feel was a decent way to get people in to the review but when I see that I tried to be funky and referred to Golden Axe as ''the Axe'' ergh it makes me want to regurgitate what made me think that was a good idea?

''Golden Axe and a lot of games like it suffer from the repetitiveness of the genre. You kill identy-kit enemy after enemy then get to the odd boss who is basically a enemy who looks a bit different hits harder and has a longer health bar. Alien storm stood out at the time for me by trying to add some different styles of game play to the mix to reduce the repetitiveness. Firstly you have Operation Wolf (light gun) inspired bits were you go through TV shops and supermarkets blasting aliens and shooting energy and health to collect them. Then you have sections when you are running along and shooting at enemy's trying to reach the end of the level. For a beat em up it seems quite fast really with skilled players diving across the screen from side to side dodging the hordes'' I still feel that everything I noted here is true, Alien Storm really did try hard to throw a few curve-balls in to the mix to help keep the gameplay fresh and exciting, you can note that both this game and Golden Axe 2 came out in the same year and while this game basically tried new things Golden Axe 2 was a more of the same sequel that really didn't offer anything the first hadn't. Yet Golden Axe would go on to get a second sequel in Japan at least in the form of Golden Axe 3 and would eventually get a modern if poor sequel Golden Axe Beast Rider. In contrast Alien Storm had one original game which has to stand on its own. Is this a good or bad thing? Well if your one of those people who always complain when films which stood well on there own get needles sequels then you will probably think its fantastic and I cant help but feel glad that there wasn't a Alien Storm: Laser shooter sat down beside Golden Axe Beast Rider taking a double shit on my childhood. I however really would like to have seen a Alien Storm 2 back on the megadrive or on a handheld or live arcade store now built using the original Alien Storms engine.

''Its not inventive in every way its plot is basic Aliens are trying to invade earth and you have to stop them, you have your typical choice of 3 combatants in this case a Man a Woman and a Robot. There not bad they do the job but its the aliens that are truly worthy of praise there's a reasonable number of different types from little goblinesqe things that claw at you to sludgy things that scrape along the floor and try to swallow you whole but the real beauty of it is when you see them hiding in dustbins or dressed as civilians despite having a huge purple melon for a head. The game does have the cloned baddies who are the same as others in the game but different colours but it is not as bad for this as some games.'' Yes this game had a bit of a typical plot but it was awesome B movie cheese and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world, if anything the plot and graphics of this game have simply got under my skin even more and made me love them, I still have a huge amount of love for the Aliens trying to hide in dustbins or trying to pretend to be human, it adds a good pinch of humour to this game. As for the cloned and recoloured baddies issue, well I have actually seen far more modern games do this a hundred times more than Alien Storm did, so I almost feel as if I was nitpicking to even bring it up at all.

''The games style is a sort of what people in the 50s thought about space men and aliens your wearing a sort of shiny boiler suit with a short distance hand laser connected to a back pack fighting evil hideous aliens while objectives are shot up on the screen at the start of every level like ' SAVE THE PEOPLE' . The game comes across as incredibly camp but in a fun amusing way, its like golden axes kooky but cute younger sister you know she is not as well developed as the older one but she has a spark and a cheeky smile that's all her own.'' Again the style of the game is amazing and I love it all it layers of camp included but what the heck was I going on about with younger sisters and stuff? I must have read something which at the time I thought was all hip and cool and in your face and was trying to channel this in some kind of bid to be popular and win the internet. I guess it really is true the older you get the less you care about this kind of thing as I largly just write what pops into my head without over thinking it.

''The whole point of this review then is to help people decide if its worth downloading or hunting down a cart of Alien storm. My answer is a definite yes; simply put, on the face of it the Final Fight and Streets of Rage games may appear to have held up infinitely better than Alien Storm, what with there higher quality soundtracks and more serious tone. But this game has its own spark. It brakes up the action in interesting ways and in doing so tries to tackle some of the weakness's that caused the genres demise, it has a sense of humour and is different enough to the other games of its type to stand on its own and not be considered just another one of those final fight clone games. Is it a streets of rage beater? No is it better than golden axe? Well I guess that would depend on your choice of poison sci fi or fantasy but for me Alien Storm wins.'' The whole honest truth is that the point of this review was that I was commissioned to write something, this review was supposed to end up in print, there are a few occasions when I have nearly ended up writing for a well known site or getting paid for my review work and it has always fallen through, I started my original blog as I didn't want my work in this case to go to waste. I still do consider Alien Storm as a better game than Golden Axe but the honest truth is that there is plenty of room for both games to sit beside each other, as fun as top 10 games on this or that system list can be no one is ever likely to put a gun to your head and order you to decide which game you need to save and which will be burned at the steak.

''So how has the game aged ? To be honest the game has not aged badly at all its still very playable and the graphics and sound although basic to what is achievable now still have enough character to remain endearing. If  I was to give this game a rating out of 10 stars I would give it 7.5 Its interesting, its different and its fun it will make you smile while your playing it but when its finished and you walk away it wont have changed your life.'' Sod it I actually think it deserves an 8 or even a 9, this was years ago I was saying that it wouldn't change your life and yeah maybe Alien Storm is not going to give you some kind of religious epiphany but if I loved it as a kid and then felt drawn back to it again 6 years ago and now feel myself drawn back and playing and loving it yet again then it is clearly doing something tremendously right.

Lets all go to the lobby to get ourselves a treat...

I used to go to the cinema a lot as a youngster, largely because we had a single screen local cinema in my home town, in fact it was so close it was pretty much a brisk five minute walk from my front door. The prices were quiet cheap when I was young and they never really went up even up till the day it shut its door. They had a little counter from which you brought your ticket and then the cinema itself was up a flight of stairs, a flight of stairs which often had the usual coming soon posters either side of the wall. Yeah they sold sweets in the lobby but we would always take our own sweets and drinks brought from the corner shop across the road from me. There would be adverts before the film then there would be the cinema related adverts the ones with dancing tubs of popcorn reminding you that you could always go down to the lobby to get yourself a treat. Then the lights would dim and you would watch the first half of the film.

When the film was halfway through then the lights would come up a little and they would play that old music off the cornetto add, the Italian sounding one and a usually oldish Lady would make her way down the aisle with a torch and a large box tray that hung from her neck. You would make your way down to her and you pretty much had two options you could have a cornetto or you could get yourself a small tub of vanilla ice cream with a mini plastic spoon. There was also time for a quick run to the toilet for a wee, and maybe five minutes to stand out in the corridor and turn to your friend and give some brief commentary on the film so far, usually about how good or how crap it had been up until that point, sometimes you would try to guess what was going to happen next or you would sort of straighten out what had happened in your mind. Then after this you would find your seat, the lights would dim again and then you would watch the second half of the film.

I actually miss that intermission. For one the lack of it means if I need to pee, I now need to either hold it to the point that upon the moment of the film ending I am now running to the toilet like a man possessed, followed by me peeing like a fire hydrant that has sprung a vicious leak or I need to wait for what seems like the dullest most boring bit of the film were I can guess and hope that nothing of any real merit will happen in the time it takes to creep out of my chair, and then bolt to the toilet and back. Also there is no way I am leaving a film I have paid for to give the cinema more of my money for its sticky treats, whatever I have taken in to the show will have to be enough, it’s as simple as that. The real truth of why I miss the intermission falls down to the way it breaks up some films. I would seriously argue that some films simply seem to be a much better viewing experience when there has been a pause in the middle of them, a chance for your mind to absorb everything that has happened so far, a chance to be left for a few brief moments to think about everything you have seen and the emotions you have felt upon viewing it.

I have seen certain people argue that an intermission breaks the flow of the film and that the desire for one is just a symptom of ever decreasing attention spans and although I feel that these people are entitled to their opinions with the existence of long ‘’epic movies’’ I feel that an intermission is needed even more so now than it once was in order to allow the viewer to catch their breath.

Some would think that with the ever increasing quality and size of home televisions and the ability to pause the film at will that the cinema would be becoming almost obsolete and yet according to figures Cinema attendance in the UK is currently at the highest it has been in the last 7 years. Yet I can’t help but think that the intermission has been abandoned and in its place we have a copious amount of trailers and adverts before the movie, it has become less about trying to help us enjoy and process the movies we want to see and more about gaining extra money through add revenue while trying to have the maximum number of screenings per day for max profit. There is more to it than this though. When I was young the most you could hope for from a lobby was some popcorn of a bag of sweeties, with the option for a cornetto or tub of ice-cream in the middle. Now you can get various different sizes of pop or any number of fancy combinations of designer label ice-cream treats, you can get hot dogs, or nachos dripping in various sauces, popcorn and picker mix sweets. When I was young we would sneak our corner shop treats in but nowadays you can watch people cue in there droves to spend what must amount to a small fortune on the various treats supplied. Maybe with the death of the intermission there has been a birth in the event of the cinema visit, maybe it’s less about the movie and more about the experience but is this a good thing?