SNES review 129: The Great Circus Mystery/ Disneys Magical Quest 2

So The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minnie also known as Disney's Magical Quest 2 Starring Mickey and Minnie, and Mickey to Minnie Magical Adventure 2 is a Capcom developed Disney game for the Super Nintendo. Well as some of the above titles have clearly given away it is the sequel to another game I reviewed quite some time ago, I am obviously talking about Disney's Magical Quest. I owned the original Magical Quest as a kid but I have to be honest and admit that back then I didn't even know the game got a sequel, I never saw it, never played it and as far as I can remember I never even heard of it. When I did start hearing bits about it as an adult thanks to the internet I incorrectly assumed that it never got released over here. 

The game is very much one of those well if you enjoyed the last game here is more of the same sequels, it doesn't really bring much of anything new to the table. The story is a simple one Mickey and Minnie arrive at the circus to find that something has happened, and everything has gone wrong and they set out to uncover the Great Circus Mystery. Its hardly a Shakespearian work of wonder but its not like it has to be if people brought this back in the day it would most likely have either been for the mouse or because they enjoyed the original.

The first thing I thought when starting this game up was that the graphics looked a bit like Magical Quest but I thought they were just a little bit more colourful and sharper, so I did what you might expect and popped the cart out and quickly looked at Magical Quest and yes I do think there is a slight improvement in this area. Playing it though it feels very similar, I am not complaining I loved the first one, and they have tried to keep it fresh to a degree because despite jumping and grabbing and throwing objects in the same way as well as keeping a suit power up based mechanic but to try and keep it fresh they have changed the suits. Each suit has an ability and they are the Sweeper suit which can suck up enemies. A ranger suit which helps you to climb walls. Then there is a Cowboy/Cowgirl costume which lets you ride a horse. The neat thing about the costumes is that although they provide the same power up for both Minnie and Mickey they look different on them, this is both a neat touch and stops you from getting confused when playing this game in two player. Yep that's right I said Two player, this is the main thing this game brings to the table over its predecessor and its a pretty darn good thing to.

I find the music in the game pretty darn enjoyable, there are not only different tunes for different levels but there's that thing where the music gets tense when your fighting a boss and the sound effects although at times a little plinky plonky suit the game and what's happening perfectly well.

OK so the most important thing the gameplay, well I think it controls well and is reasonably fresh at least for a me too sequel. I think overall the game controls well and is for the most part rather easy however I did notice that sometimes the enemies bosses in particular can get a little cheap towards the end of the game, in fact the difficulty does seem to spike at certain points but that's sort of a spike from super easy to more normal so unless its a kid playing or someone who doesn't usually play this kind of thing it should provide too much of a problem.

OK so I guess now its time for me to give this game a score, If you remember I scored the original 7.5 out of 10, well I think despite having gained a two player mode and a slight increase in graphics this game actually just feels a tiny bit worse, its strange all the bits are there and it should be better but it just doesn't quiet click together so I am going to give this game a 6.5 out of 10. If your interested in this game but haven't played the first one then go for that first it will be much cheaper and if your anything like me your likely to enjoy it more. If you need this game then loose pal carts seem to go online from £20 and up, if you can play imports then a Japanese cart will cost you around £10 which is much closer to what I personally would want to pay for this game.

Megadrive Box art, my love of the Japanese art?: World of Illusion

Ok so everyone knows I love looking at Megadrive box art, its also quiet clear that I am a pretty big fan of Disney based games and also that I most often prefer the Japanese case art. There is a good reason I tend to like the Japanese art and its because they usually try to make the case really flashy on the front the back and the sides and as long as it has the right logo's in a few select places they feel free to just go with it. Our games and those released in America seem more to focus on the idea of sticking to a very set format with art on the front and mostly information on the back. Its like they tried to make it so if you had all your games on a shelf they would look uniform and like part of a collection. Sure I can see what they were trying but I prefer to have excellent art no matter the cost.

If you click right here then you will see the earlier post I did on Disney cases showing of cases for Quackshot and Castle of illusion. Ok if you have already seen that post or your simply not intrested in those games then lets get down to business and look at he cover art for World of Illusion

Ok so this is the European version of World of Illusion and I like it a lot, the main front picture is nice and if I have any issues with this cover its less specific stuff and more regular megadrive European case issues the back is so info heavy and I think the title on the side spine could be bigger. I have a very soft spot for this case art though. I recieved this game one christmas from my Mum and Dad and my mum played it with me in two player mode on frequent occasions it was a game we actually completed togther and it was one of her favourate video games, at one stage she even had her own copy so I couldnt get rid of it. The simple truth is kid or not I would have never traded this game away ever time I looked at it on the shelf it was just a little reminder of the fun I had playing it with her and thats something I will never forget, its a memory I cherish and hold close to my heart even more since she passed away.

Ok so in America they used the same main image but just smaller which I think makes it worse, why shrink such a cool piece of art? The side is also pretty much the same but the back well I like the back of the box a lot more the white area, the cartoon Mikey, the big Caution: This Box Conatains Amazing Magic part all of them just jump out at me. Overall I prefer the European version but this one has its good points.

Now I have to say I adore this Japanese case, its part game case part awesome poster, I actually wish I could get a large print of the picture minus the words just to put on my wall, it screams Disney it also screams Wonder and I dont have a single issue with it. I would happily trade my case for this if not for the emotional connection I have to my own regions

I thought I would knock this case front up so I could let you my reader decide if Europe would have been better off with the Japanese art. I know I was a little lazy and only did the front but some of these custom covers take a lot of time and work and without a plain sample of the case art to work on this one in particular would have taken a very long time to cover all of the Japanese language and logo's up with English. I will return soon to look at more case art but till then ''Be Excellent to each other''.

Nintendo loses lawsuit and has been orderd to pay £7.7 Million.My oppinion on this

So Nintendo have been Ordered to Pay £7.7 Million in a Lawsuit. It all started four years ago when a company called iLife which is based in Texas started proceedings against Nintendo saying that there motion sensing technology in the Wii Remote and later Nintendo products infringed on patents they owned.

At the time it was just one of a whole pile of companies who tried to jump on the bandwagon and sue Nintendo over one aspect or another of the Wii, to be honest this is something that unfortunatly happens someone strikes gold with a great concept or product and other companies crawl out of the woodwork like cockroaches claiming patent infringement and trying to get there hands on some of the cash. Most of these kinds of lawsuits usually end up going nowhere, in honesty most of the time I hear about them and just sort of snort oh great another patent troll and then forget about it however this time things have been a little different. Nintendo have lost this time and have just got ordered to pay iLife $10 million (£7.734 million) by a Texas court, this is not nesciserily the end of the story though as Nintendo have said that they are going to appeal the verdict and that there not done fighting yet.

On Aug. 31, 2017, a jury in Texas found that certain Wii and Wii U video game systems and software bundles infringed a patent belonging to iLife Technologies Inc. This patent which Nintendo apparently infringed upon is one relating to being able to detect if a person has fallen down. The motion sensing technology iLife created and patented was made to detect if an elderly person unexpectedly falls, and also to try to help prevent sudden infant death syndrome. Yes this technology is great in that its trying to help people and increase there quality of life however personally I have issues with the fact that iLife believes their patent covers other uses for the technology. I have read the entire patent and I agree with Nintendo who believe that these other uses are not covered, and that the patent was written in such a way as to be invalid. The patent uses a lot of very open language and terms in a way which I feel it was constructed in an attempt to let it possibly apply to far more than it really should.

It is interesting to note that this is not the first infringement lawsuit ilife have filled in regard to patents. In 2012 they filled 4 different lawsuits on similar lines to the above. They try to claim they are not patent trolls because of the fact that they have actually researched developed and sold there technology. I would argue though that just because you have made and sold stuff it doesn't automatically mean that you cant do a bit of trolling on the side does it? I also think that they try to hide behind the fact that there technology is made to help children and the elderly but lets remember they don't give it away they sell it there a business not a charity so I don't think this should be allowed to work as a shield for them.

So although Nintendo is appealing the ruling, this might be the first company to successfully take some of Nintendo's sweet Wii money off of them, it might also encourage more companies to jump up and decide they can claim this or that has been stolen from them. I think this story has most definatly become one to watch.

It is important to note that despite being awarded $10 million in damages iLife didn't come to court asking for $10 it was actually seeking $144 million (£113 million). I bet they are more than happy with the outcome though. In an ideal world what would I personally like to see happen? Well I would like to see the verdict overturned and see iLife told to shove there claim up there ass, I would like to see Nintendo paid for there trouble and then I would like Nintendo to do the right thing and give whatever they are awarded to a charity. Nintendo actually do a lot for charity and this is coming from me a writer who quiet often gives Nintendo a darn good kicking for there occasional stupidity. Nintendo support the Starlight Children’s Foundation and the Make-A-Wish Foundation amongst others.

It will be interesting to see this one play itself out.

A little bit on how to get the most bang for your £

So as a Geek I am frequently asked two questions one ''where do you get all those things?'' the other being ''how do you afford them?'' Well I figured that this topic was worth a post on here. I am what some people would consider tight and what others would call thrifty. Now I don't earn very much but then I don't really drink, I don't smoke and I don't do drugs, I also have fairly simple tastes. I think however that there are a few areas where I use my money in the most tactical way possible to try and get the most for my money.

If you’re looking to cut back, then maybe some of my ideas and tactics might be worth thinking about. I think the first thing to do is to look at the things you buy and the things you do and ask do I need this? Do I need it now? Do I need a physical version? Could I wait for it to come down in price? Would a cheap alternative tide me by until the price drops?

I remember back when the GameCube was one of the current consoles I worked with a guy in a very similar role to mine at the time who used to be surprised by how many games I had. While he had around ten games I must have had about fifty but there were two main reasons for this. One of them was simply the fact he went drinking two nights a week spending around £40 a time which was his choice and I am not knocking it but the second reason was that he simply ran out and got the game he thought he wanted most on the day of release from the first place he found himself that stocked it. If I really felt like I needed an upcoming game I would look around and try to preorder it from the cheapest place possible and I would do this with as few titles as possible.

The thing is that games simply don't hold there value half as much as they used to do. If you can wait a few weeks from the release of a game then the price will drop, games which were around £39.99 even at the cheapest places on release can sometimes have dropped to as little as £20 in two weeks time. If you can just wait a little while you can save yourself a whole heap of money (yes there are exceptions to this rule, usually 1st party Nintendo games for example hold there value for quiet some time for example).  It always helps to look around for the cheapest price, I would say always remember to look both online and offline and not to limit yourself to looking at just game shops, look at game shops and sites, toy shops, supermarkets etc. I know some people feel that they need to support this shop or that shop but lets be honest here do any of those shops really support you? The truth is no they are simply out to be a good business to make as much as they can, some of them might have this or that loyalty scheme to try and make you feel like you owe them or there special but to put it simply don't give your loyalty away easily. All of these places are businesses looking out for there own interests so what you should do is look out for your own, buy the game you want from the cheapest place you can find and don't be fooled into paying more than you need to pay.

I also find it helps to try to be flexible, if you decide you need Game X and you go out looking for Game X determined to get it that very day then you will end up paying through the teeth for it. This is something that applies to both modern and retro games and also to most forms of media. If you keep yourself aware of what exists how much your likely to enjoy it or not and then just see what kind of floats your way this is usually much cheaper then going all guns blazing after one particular thing.

I also think it helps to decide what your thing is. You see I love horror films, science fiction films and comic books, 80's toys and video games. Now if I tried to really follow all of these and collect them with proper gusto then I would be broke in days so I decided that my number one hobby would be games. This doesn't mean I ignore the other hobbies it just means I make sure my investment in them is minimal. I only buy actual comics if they are old and like 50pence or so other than that I rely on digital comics and I only get those via things like humble bundle where you can grab a whole bunch of them to read digitally. I buy all of my actual reading books from charity shops, the same is true with music and a lot of old films I grab them cheap from charity shops or the preowned cleaned up ones sold by poundland. If I want to watch a modern film I will look if I can buy its digital Ultra Violet code from eBay as a cheap way of seeing it because lets be honest how many films do you buy watch once and then never touch again? Why did I decide video games were my thing? Well its a combination of things one of them is that they really hold there value compared to some of the other things I enjoy but the main thing is that they are the thing that takes me back to my childhood the most, they make me feel like I am still young and free from trouble.

Megadrive Box art, my love of the Japanese art: Super VolleyBall

So once again I return to the topic of box art, in fact I am back on to megadrive box art and to be more precise yes once again I am comparing the art from diffrent regions. Today I want to look at Super Volleyball a Megadrive game which was a conversion of an arcade game about Volleyball strangly enough. This is an intresting game for me to pick as it didnt actually receieve a release in my teritoy.

So this is the Genesis American cover, and well to be blunt I hate it, what an awful front cover is this really the best they could come up with? I know its not the easiest task to make a sports game look cool or exciting but this is just painfully dull.

This is the Japenses cover and despite the fact the Shadow in front makes me think of Ivan Drago from Rocky 4 I think its a pretty good cover for the game.

I might be wrong here but according to my research they got a diffrent box in Canada and they got this, its basically an Americanised take on the Japanese art but with several issues, one its been lightend and this actually in my oppinion makes it look worse and on top of this the shadow man now has a sega seal of quality growing out of his face, still I would take it over the top monstrocity any day of the week.

This is the Brazillian cover which is just the awful American art but even bigger. If this game had made it out over here in Europe I fear that this would have been very simmilar to what we would have ended up with.

Ok so once again I prefer the Japanese art, I guess thats not suprising really, I just think that with a few exceptions Japan provides the best video game art.

If we had gotten a release over here I would have liked something like the following

Horror Review: Pin (1988)

Pin was released in 1988 its an 80's horror film hence the reason why I am talking about it on this blog. I also think that its a very interesting film to talk about because it contains some very interesting ideas. To simplify the plot of the film its basically about a family, you have the two children Leon and Ursula, their mother and there father. The mum is very obsessed when it comes to cleanliness she seems to care far more about having a spotless show piece home than she does about her own children. The father is a doctor and he is basically always at work. The dad seems to care about the children in fact you see that he often takes them to work with him. The dad has a medical anatomy dummy and he uses ventriloquism to make it seem like it is talking to the children teaching them and offering words of advice. The kids are quite fond of the dummy who is called Pin and believe he is really alive, the son in particular has a real attachment to the dummy looking to it whenever he is in need of guidance or friendship.

The film is at first glance quiet a strange one but I also think its a very good one, I really like a lot of 80's stuff but some of it can be a little cheesy and a little over the top where as this film feels like something quiet different. This is the point where I would basically say that I recommend you give this film a watch. If I have sold it to you then give it a bash and stop reading right here as I want to talk about the film some more in the next paragraph. I will end up going into spoiler territory but I don't intend to give away every turn and I certainly wont be talking about the ending.

The start of the film is very much focused on the children's early years and showing how they were treated by there parents and by the world around them and the part Pin played in there lives. At about the 30 minute mark the parents die, its at this point that all of the scene setting is done and things really start rolling.

The character of Leon is sort of a Norman Bates type character, the things he went through in his early life have effected him on a psychological level, he has an obsession with Pin, he doesn't see Pin as just a doll he see's him as a friend, as a member of the family. The acting in the film is darn good  David Hewlitt in particular does a great job of playing Leon, he shows a massive range of emotions he can be vulnerable one moment and terrifying the next, he acts with everything he has, its not just in what he says or how he says it, he looks confused or hurt or angry just with the slightest bit of facial movement. Cynthia Preston is also pretty darn good in the role of his sister. 

This film is one of those films that proves that horror movies can be darn creepy and get under your skin without having to be particularly gory or violent. It is one of those movies which pushes its way deep into your  subconscious making you ask questions and making you wonder what is really going on inside the characters head. I didn't initially realize that this film was adapted from a  novel of the same name by author Andrew Neiderman (he also wrote The Devil’s Advocate, which also became a  film). If I listed off all of the things in this film like a creepy medical doll, ventriloquism, a remote house, and a mentally unbalanced individual who is sexually-repressed and has all kinds of strange and dark obsessions then it would probably sound like a whole bunch of other spooky tales but I find the film to be a thing all of its own and well worth a watch. There are a few things I would change, I would have left things a lot more uncertain, I feel that in someways the film plays its own hand a little too soon where as I would have left things much more up to the viewers interpretations, I would have wanted to keep people asking and questioning what they have heard and seen. Still as it stands I rate this film very highly.

The good old days or is it simply rose tinted specs.

The good old days. Stop and ask someone who once was a child but now finds themselves in the position of being a grown up, be they man or woman, be they in there 60's or 50's or 40's or even 30's and they will most likly tell you that a certain point in time that they lived through was a golden age.

I was born in the 1980's but despite the fact I spent a good deal of this time period being too young to know a blooming thing about what was going on I still look back at it with a great fondness. If you would ask me I would tell you that the 1980's was the golden age. I tend to think and feel that the best of everything came from the 80's most of my favourate music, television and films come from that particular time period and proberbly a fair number of games as well. I view the 90's as a less great continuation of the 80's and view pretty much everything from the year 2000 onwards as a let down. I am not saying that nothing good has come out after 1999 but I am saying that in my opinion the treasure to trash ratio has certainly taken a big slide in the wrong direction.

I am more than willing to admit that to some degree maybe I have rose tinted specs when it comes to looking at the things that came from my childhood, and maybe just maybe I have grown up to be a miserable old kit who simple yearns for the things he knew and made him smile when he was young and life was less stressful.

If I look around at kids TV now so little of it impresses me in anyway what so ever, there is very little in recent history that I have seen and thought wow wish that was around when I was a kid. If I was to try to point out something I have really liked and wished I had access to as a kid I would proberbly say The Sarah Jane Adventures. Why? Well in short because it was a really great show it would stop and make you think, you would be worried about the fate of the characters, its biggest strength is that I dont think it treated its audience like a bunch of dribbling morons and it wasnt scared of conflict like most modern kids TV seems to be.

Now you might think that I am looking back at the 80's and seeing nothing but the cream of the crop, that I am thinking about nothing more than Transformers but no lets look at something a bit less mainstream to show just how deep the quality flowed. The Sectaurs, a basically all but forgotten old 80's show with human mutant hybrids with there own pet dog sized insects, I bumped into a commerical for there toys online and I rememberd owning one of them and suddenly all of these amazing memories and feelings seemed to rush back and this was from something which at the time I would have considerd a sort of lower teir show/toy and yet I would argue this could own most of the crap kids have and watch nowdays.

I do wonder at times if I am just full of nostalgia for an old time that is long gone, but I dont think this is the case as there are some rare nuggets here and there that I have appreciated in recent years for example animated shows like Adventure Time and the New Duck Tale. I do think though that maybe the case is that the things we enjoy when we are young help to programme our brains to enjoy certain kinds of content, that I simply dont like that much new stuff because I have had my brain shapped to enjoy a certain style of music or film. I guess this is something one could ponder forever but I guess you need to just keep trying things and just enjoy what you enjoy