Broken Age Review

Broken Age came via recommendation from some of my fellow gamers due to its witty commentary and innovative puzzle solving and is one of the few video games that features a black female as the lead and focal point of the story-line.

Broken Age is an episodic point click adventure game made by Double Fine Productions. Broken Age's plot involves two teenagers: Vella (left) who is to be sacrificed to protect her home village from a giant monster, and Shay (right) who appears to be the only passenger on a spacecraft monitored by an overly motherly computer. The game's art has been praised, and called "lush and gorgeous, with the feel of an interactive children’s storybook".

The game is as basic as it gets gameplay wise, but what makes the game stand out the most is the voice acting.  The lead characters of Shay and Vella give hilarious yet witty remarks when you fail at solving puzzles or repeat unnecessary steps often. Shay's voice actor is Elijah Wood, and Vella's voice actress is Masasa Moyo.  

I really enjoyed how Broken Age was thought provoking and how it made players question what is right or wrong, what do you know about sacrifice, reality vs comforting lies, feminism, overprotective parenting, and other topics you have to play to find out. 

I mean Vella's storyline alone is worth a play-through. I laughed out of my chair at how Vella tried to point out that her fate is being a sacrificial maiden that must be eaten by a monster for the greater good of the community and no one wants to fight for her life.  

The company really struggled to raise money to get a budget together to make the game, therefore development for Broken Age was episodic.  Fortunately, Act 1 sales were sufficient enough to progress with a project to have Act 2 developed but no date for a release has been given. 

Overall, I will join my peers and give Broken Age a well deserve 9.0/10.  Broken age is a great game that really makes you think to solve puzzles, addresses social stigmas and issues, adolescent fears and expectations, and crosses boundaries.

Bioshock Infinite Easter Eggs

I was playing Bioshock Infinite for the 5th time, and I noticed an Easter eggs that I missed the first few play-throughs that I'm sure you want to know about.

In Monument Tower you can see Elizabeth opening her first tear which shows Paris in 1980s.   In the background there is a poster that says "Revenge of the Jedi".
 

In December of 1982 George Lucas changed the movie title to "Return of the Jedi".  This scene foreshadowed to the player that Elizabeth can open tears into alternate worlds such as in this alternate world where George Lucas did not change the title of the movie.

Legend of Korra Cancelled!

Well if you have been flipping to Nickelodeon every Friday and Wondering where is the Legend of Korra, then you should know the show was cancelled due to low ratings.  I can't believe they cancelled Korra, so that they can show reruns of Full House.

I have to admit the Legend of Korra wasn't as good as the Last Air bender, but I believe that Korra didn't get a fair start from developers.  From the start the show was too adult for its audience.  The show got too political creating an atmosphere that the Avatar was a diplomat more than an authoritative figure.

In Avatar the Last Airbender, the world feared the Avatar rebirth because the Avatar had the power to rule all nations.  In the Legend of Korra, the Avatar was under the control of the political authority. She was always limited and her view points of unfavorable choices often put her on anarchist status.

Then the love triangle with Korra and two brothers was pointless.  Since fans weren't feeling that, the next season a new girl was introduced to steal Korra's boyfriend away.  The effort resulted in all 4 just being friends.  Lots of dumb things like that really challenged the storyline and made the show hard to follow.

Then Korra's battles were always irrational.  The first major villian was a man who wanted to take away all benders elemental powers, so the world would be normal.  Apparently those with elemental powers treated those with no power as lesser counter cultures of society.  The second major villian was her uncle who wanted power to rule the water nation.  The evil uncle even teamed up with a dark spirit that would destroy the world.  I never got how all that connected to the plot of why.  Overall it was a lot poor plot development that was a major anchor to the show.

Then the second problem was the lack of diversity and white washing that the show created.  In the Last Air-bender it was understood that the water tribe were a minority or of a darker skinned race. The show really crossed boundaries when Aang the Avatar fell in in love with Katara a water bender. Aang spoke how he didn't see a difference, and he only liked her heart.

The Legend of Korra gained a lot of momentum because fans thought Korra was of darker skin like Katara, but as the show continued Korra was white-washed until she was no longer considered of darker skin.  After while, you obviously saw a difference in her appearance that made you question why the change?

Overall, the show had some major issues that I felt were never resolved in the first 3 books.  There is a rumor that the fourth book is finished, but it will not be aired since the show was cancelled.  If you want to catch the series finalle then you have to go to nickelodeon online and watch it.  Warning it's a sad episode and a lot of graphic deaths which I thought were very mature for the TV-7 rating.

The episode is called "Change.", and  I felt as a fan by the episode's end that Korra looked like a soldier that returned from war, but her mind was still on the battlefield as a result of all that happened to her.  The final episodes of season 3 including a series finale with controversial death scenes can be view online on Nickelodeons webpage. Get your tissues ready because it's a sad episode.  Good-bye Korra, maybe another developer will give your series a well deserve re-development.

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Can't Miss Review

I have been dealing with a lot of adversity in the recent months. To deal with the stress, I have relied on my hobbies of writing and playing video games. One game that I recently played was The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Majora's Mask is generally regarded as the darkest entry in the Zelda franchise and was a controversial game for the Nintendo franchise because the content was deemed too mature was it's adolescent audience. The game dealt with concepts such as racism, adultery, black market transactions, organized crime, and death.The game's storyline contains much heavier themes than those seen in prior games of the series, with somber melodies and a myriad of tragic situations. Taking things a step further, enemies Link killed from the Ocarina of Time such as the Sorceress Sisters Twinova  are NPC are living happy in this world.  

In Majora's Mask, the player is faced with the knowledge that the world of Termina will be destroyed within three days, and the only means in which to prevent this from occurring is by playing the Ocarina of Time to restart everything from the dawn of the First Day.  Majora's Mask goes even further by delving into the emotional and psychological state of Termina's denizens, each of whom responds to the circumstance of their impending doom in an idiosyncratic but realistic manner. Link and Termina's denizens are continually confronted with elements of death, loss, and abandonment over and over and over again as the three-day cycle repeats continuously.

Majora's Mask for what it's worth was truly an underrated and under-appreciated game. For decades there has been a lot of game theories or creepy pasta urban legends on the net about the game. The most common myth about Major's Mask was game being a metaphor for Link's death.



In an interview developers tried to make sense of how so many Zelda games exist and are some how connected on a timeline. According developers, Majora's Mask exist as an alternate reality in which Link failed in the previous title "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time".



As a result of Link's failure several NPC's (none playable characters) died including Link himself. Majora's Mask storyline and characters is serves as Kübler-Ross model Five stages of death. The game begins with the mask salesman from the Ocarina of Time game telling Link "You've met with a terrible fate haven't you". Many have interpreted this quote as meaning Link has died.



1. Denial

In the game, Link takes on the remaining life of characters that have died in the realm prior to Link arriving. In 72 hours, the realm of Termina will be destroyed by a fall moon. Despite the pending doom lingering over their heads none of the citizen are fearful of the end. Each NPC claims nothing will happen and continues onward with their daily routines.

2. Anger

The Deku King is mad that his daughter is missing, so he boils a monkey alive for no reason.




3. Bargaining

Darmani is a dead Goron character Link helps. Darmani died but realizes his followers need his help. He remains a ghost to offer advice but makes a deal with Link to cross-over if Link helps his people




4. Depression

Lulu a Zoran singer loses her voice and will to live after her children are kidnapped and assumed as murdered.

5. Acceptance

In the final dungeon, Link climbs a tower similar to the tower of Babel.  Along the way you encounter several ghost and suicidal assassins each with the belief they they control their death.  At the top of the tower, link receives the light arrow which as a symbol of enlightenment.  Thus, with the knowledge Link has accepted he is dead and can move on to the circumstance that must come.

Regardless of how you play the game or who you save in the side quests the game has a foreboding atmosphere of world destruction conveyed largely through the game's soundtrack and artwork. Even the world's name "Termina" is derived from the Latin phrase "terminus", originally applied to the Roman God of boundary markers, which roughly translates into English as "boundary, limit". The desire to rescue the world from certain peril serves as an additional motivation for completing the game.  To say Majora's Mask was just a video game would be to say the bible was just words.  It showed so much of the world I never knew existed until I got older.  I still ponder on a quote by skull kid, "I am right, was I right?"

Some believe the one that dies was Navi.  The legend that once fairies served their purpose they die.  In the end, Link never finds Navi, he rides off into the light shining through the trees ahead.  Some believe that Majora's Mask was a symbol of the death of innocent games itself.  Majora's mask was the last game that Nintendo made for the N64, and game sales were showing that a high demand was coming for more mature, gory and violent games.  This game is said to be an attempt to show children games can deal with adult topics but in a subtle way. 

After you defeat Skull kid and the true demon the Majora's mask, all that we get as a conclusion is a cut scene of those you saved, changed their lives, and a grieving NPC's that regardless of your actions...these characters were dead before you arrived and fate took them away.  A power game to say the least.  I give The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask a well deserved 10 out of 10.

I stand for what is right!

Happy Birthday to my dad. He would have been 61, had everything not went wrong from the late ambulance to do the nothing surgeon. The last memory with my Dad was the cleanest surgeon I've ever seen telling me he died, and the image of a student doctor in glasses on the table still trying to save my dad. To add insult to injury, instead of talking with my family the surgeon was talking to the nurse with 6 piercings in her ear and multi-color about what they were going to do on their date later. It taught me at a young age, if you going take a job...then do it right, have a passion for it.  Also, it taught to fight for what you love and have a voice...never go anywhere that people try to take that away and make you feel unimportant or take your civil rights away!