PixlBit

If you don’t get the reference to my title, then you’re either too young or maybe a little too old.  Anyway, here’s another batch of games I’ve reviewed over at GamerDad.com lately.  Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe even post a comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  This batch is a little more kid-centric, but that’s what you get when you write on a site like the one I’m at!

The Legend of Korra (360)

I’m a little surprised this was a downloadable title only.  I thought Legend of Korra was a really popular show. But then, maybe I think it’s more popular than it is, as some of my brothers are big fans of it and talk about it all the time.  I’ve never watched it or its predecessor Avatar, but I have respect for those shows because they are one of the few well-made action adventure cartoons, and it’s nice to have those for kids.  I grew up on cartoons like that, myself, although they weren’t near as good (He-Man, Thundarr the Barbarian, Transformers, etc.). 

Anyway, the Legend of Korra game was made by Platinum, and you can tell by the style.  It’s a 3-D beat ‘em up, and kind of reminds me of God Hand in some places (Platinum made that when they were called Clover).  I don’t think the game is as bad as other reviewers have said, but it is certainly not up to the quality that Platinum games usually are.  Plus I found the game rather difficult, even on the ‘casual’ setting. 

You have to be a fan of the show to understand the game, though.  I’ve never watched the cartoon, but it does look like it would be a good show.  But I had no idea what was going on in the game.  From what I’ve played of the game, here’s what I can gather what the cartoon is about.  Once upon a time, there was a girl named Korra who played a sport that was kind of like dodgeball.  She could also control the elements for some reason.  One day a bad guy took away all her elemental powers so she set out to get them back!  But I don’t understand why she would even need those powers because in the game, she could already punch and kick bad guys and make them fly into the sky.  What is this, Legend of Korra or Legend of Popeye?  Not only that, but she could punch and kick cars and trucks and make them explode!  So don’t mess with her!  Also, she sometimes rides a polar bear dog thing.  The End.

Anyway, the show comes on Nickelodeon, and playing the game got me to thinking about the cable channel.  There’s not a whole lot on Nick that I would even want to watch anymore.  Only cartoon I regularly watch now is Gravity Falls on Disney XD.  The last Nick show I watched was Penguins of Madagascar (I love that cartoon and can’t wait for the movie).  But even though they don’t have anything I like right now, I still have a lot of respect for Nickelodeon because the channel has been entertaining kids since, well, I was a kid!  And they certainly know what kids like.  So I can’t bash them too much for anything because of that.

Big Hero 6: Battle in the Bay (3DS)

I saw the movie this weekend and thought it was pretty fun.  It’s just one big two-hour long Saturday morning cartoon, really.  Plus it felt like Disney was saying, “OK little boys, we know you had to sit through Frozen all year and its girly two-princess double whammy, so here’s a cartoon for you.”  Girls would like this cartoon as well, but you can tell it’s definitely a ‘boy movie’ as one little girl in the audience put it.  And it has some involvement with Marvel as well, although I couldn’t tell you how, what, or why.  Anyway, the game isn’t based on the plot of the film, but rather a continuation with a new story.  The game is just a 2-D platformer/brawler, though.  Not awful, but not bad either.  I’m surprised you can’t play as Baymax either (he’s the inflatable robot and the star of the film).  I wish Capcom were still doing Disney games like what they did back on the NES and SNES.  They really knew how to make good Disney games in those days.

Power Rangers: Super Megaforce (3DS)

I can’t believe this show is still on TV, but apparently it is if there’s another game about it!  It’s just a standard beat ‘em up with light platforming elements.  Not great, but not bad either.  One neat thing is that you can unlock and play as nearly all the other Power Rangers in the other series, including the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers (you know, the ones with the dinosaur robots). 

My brothers loved Power Rangers when they were kids, and they were at the right age to soak in its popularity.  I would sometimes watch it with them, because it reminded me of the Godzilla and Ultraman shows I used to watch as a kid.  And I was well aware of Japanese super hero Sentai shows well before this because I used to watch one on USA Night Flight called Dynaman.  Look it up, it was funny.  Back in the day, I could probably recite the script to the first Power Rangers movie because my brothers watched it so much.  When one of my brothers was going through potty training, we told him the blue Power Ranger uses the potty and he never had an accident after that.  Another time, my brother Jeff was getting ready to go to sleep, and he had a Power Rangers poster above his bed.  He pointed to the red Ranger and said, “Daddy,” the pink one was “Mommy,” and Jeff said he was the green Ranger.  I asked him which one I was and he said, “Um, you’re the robot!”  I don’t know what to think of that.  One year Jeff was the Green Power Ranger for Halloween, but everyone though he was an elf because he was so little.  That made Jeff mad!  Anyway, that’s all the stories I have about Power Rangers!

Petz Beach & Petz Countryside (3DS)

One of the reasons why I like reviewing kids games is because big sites like IGN won’t even touch most of them, so many assume that most are bad.  But sometimes there are good kid’s games that come out, and this is one of them.  It’s like a cross between Nintendogs and Animal Crossing.  You take care of a pet like Nintendogs, but you build up a village like Animal Crossing.  You can even have your dog help you fish or dig for fossils!  So it’s not really that bad of a kid’s game at all.

Poptropica:  Forgotten Islands (3DS)

This is supposedly based on a popular online kid’s game, but I’ve never heard of it.  I read that the guy who wrote the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books helped make the game, so that’s kind of interesting I guess.  The game is just a simple 2-D platformer where you do a bunch of fetch quests, and it’s not that engaging of a game.  You can’t die, so I guess kids wouldn’t get too frustrated with it, though.

Felllice (iPad)

Yeah this game has three L’s in the title for some reason.  Not sure why.  Last and definitely least, this is a take on the ‘big fish eats the littler fish’ games, except with simple circles representing cells.  The main game isn’t too interesting, but there is an arena mode where you can absorb bigger cells bit by bit.  Kind of reminds me of the arcade game Phozon. 

Conclusions

And that’s all for now!  Thanks for reading my reviews and blogs and posting comments on them!  Last time on my blog I wrote about my favorite Saturday morning cartoons, so I think next time on my blog, I’ll talk about my favorite weekday afternoon cartoons.  Later!  --Cary