April 27, 2017
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Video Games, Review
Curses 'n Chaos, HLV, Hugh Likes Video Games, Playstation, review, Tribute Games
Curses ‘n Chaos
Tribute Games
Played on PS4 and PS Vita
Curses and Chaos is a single-screen brawler with old-school charm and difficulty to match. The 1-2 Player game stars Lea and Leo, a tiny pair of mach-punching, booty-shaking adventurers under a curse. They are constantly under attack by monsters, and even Death itself! Their only ally, is an alchemist. She can cure them with the Elixir of Life, but she’ll need the ingredients to make it. And there’s only one way to get them: Fight the horde of monsters on their tail!
The game is played out on a single screen in a series of waves. Players fight ten waves of monsters, then the boss to unlock the next stage. Enemies enter from the right or left side of the screen on the ground or in the air. Each enemy drops either money or items that can be saved to make new items using alchemy between levels. Players can only save one or two items, so the money collected in each stage can be used to buy more ingredients.
Curses and Chaos works because it rides the line between quarter-eating old-school challenge and modern free-play styles. Initially only one stage is unlocked, but once the player completes it they can choose any one to start from with three lives. And they will need them because this game is HARD. It isn’t unfair, though. Each enemy has consistent movement and item drops. They key to success is learning how they move and what they give you so that you can build a chain. The higher your chain, or luck, the better items and more money you get.
The pixel art in the game is gorgeous and detailed, if a bit blandly colored. This is good, because as a single-screen beat ’em up that relies on replaying levels over and over for more loot, you’ll be seeing a lot of them. The music is catchy and nostalgic 8-bit tunes that fit the game well.
Curses ‘n’ Chaos is a synthesis of old and new gameplay that will fit very well in your game library alongside games like ‘Shovel Knight.’ The gameplay is heart-pumping and addictive, often leaving you defeated, but ready to try one more time. PS Plus members can try it for Vita and PS 4 free until May 2nd. I highly recommend you do, but it is worth paying full price for.
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April 12, 2017
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Fiction, Review
HLF, Hugh Likes Fiction, Kelly Robson, Tor, Waters of Versailles
The Waters of Versailles
Written by Kelly Robson
Published by Tor
In the court of Louis XV, any luxury can be had, for a price. But the one thing no member of the court can be without is one of Sylvain de Guilherand’s toilets. His remarkable engineering skills have restored the fountains, transformed the palace, and even added new conveniences to the pampered lives of the French aristocracy.
But his marvel isn’t just the result of hard work or genius. He’s keeping a secret; a nixie hidden in the palace cisterns. When the nixie’s keeper dies suddenly, the ambitious, self-centered Sylvain must learn to care for the little creature. Otherwise, the whole palace could flood.
Robson’s novella is a delightful romp. A look at the excess and inhumanity of the pre-revolution French nobility, woven expertly with Sylvain’s own growing concern for the creature he first only sees as a tool for his own advancement.
Waters of Versailles is a quick read, but is eloquently and expertly constructed. You can find it on tor.com, or buy the ebook on Amazon.
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March 29, 2017
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Review
Coffee, Comics, Dystopia, Fabian Rangel Jr, Helena Crash, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, IDW, Warwick Johnson Cadwell
Helena Crash #1
Written by Fabian Rangel Jr.
Drawn by Warwick Johnson Cadwell
Published by IDW
In the future, coffee is illegal. Highly skilled courier Helena Crash has the goods, but will a delivery to Rojo, the city’s second most powerful mob boss, cost her her life?
Helena Crash is a weird and wonderful Sci-Fi adventure comic for fans of Samurai Jack and Tank Girl. It’s a fast and breezy look into a smog-choked future filled with delightfully designed robots and mutants. Building this grim pulp future with coffee as the macguffin is a brilliant choice for an all-ages take on the sub-genre.
Rangel’s script is spot on and does just enough to let the art do the talking. Cadwell’s style is sketchy and has the perfect middle-school-notebook tone to match the action. The designs are all real winners, from a mutant punk with a blowfish for a head, to Rojo’s wolfman bodyguard. There’s always something cool to look at on the page.
Helena Crash has zoomed her way into my heart. You can find her in your local comics shop or on Comixology.
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March 24, 2017
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Fiction, Review
HLF, Hugh Likes Fiction, Legends, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, review
Norse Mythology
Written by Neil Gaiman
Published by W W Norton and Company
From the comics pages of Sandman to the upcoming television production of “American Gods,” Norse mythology suffuses Neil Gaiman’s writing. Which makes a collection of tales written in his signature easy-to-read prose a perfect fit.
In a book that feels neither scholarly nor bowdlerized, Gaiman brings new life to the fragmentary records of Norse mythology that still remain. His choices take us from the beginning of the world to Ragnarok, the end of the cycle, and beyond. Gaiman’s excitement to share these tales is palpable in the writing. The gods and giants that populate the book aren’t figures of superstition or sociological interest. They aren’t big-screen superheroes and villains. The author captures what makes the Aesir living, breathing people. He captures a lost age of monsters and magic, but also beings with incredible power and equally human flaws. From Odin, infinitely wise but also petty and occasionally grasping, to Loki, whose mischief gets the gods out of almost much trouble as it causes.
In an early myth, Loki shaves the goddess Sif’s head. When Thor, in his anger, asks him why, he is honest. He was drunk, and he thought it would be funny. These gods will be familiar to Gaiman’s fans, but newcomers will perhaps see something they hadn’t before in these ancient legends.
In Norse Mythology Gaiman has poured a mighty horn full of the Mead of Poetry. Take a seat on the bench, and have a drink.
February 20, 2017
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Fiction, Review
HLF, Hugh Likes Fiction, Matt Wallace, Novella, review, Sin Du Jour, Tor, Urban Fantasy
Idle Ingredients (Sin du Jour Book 4)
Written by Matt Wallace
Published by Tor
Matt Wallace is back again with the fourth course of his ‘Sin du Jour’ novellas. Each bite-sized course of these epicurean Urban Fantasy series is an utter delight, and I’ve been looking forward to this one. As usual, Wallace doesn’t disappoint.
Still reeling from their last big job in Los Angeles, Sin du Jour line chef Lena Tarr goes on the lamb. Bronko and Nikki bring her back to the kitchen on the very reasonable assumption that the armies of Hell that are after them will kill her without the protection Sin du Jour provides. But there’s a new face at the catering company, ‘Government liaison’ Luciana Monrovio and Lena is immediately suspicious of the hold she seems to suddenly have over all of them, particularly the guys.
This novella is a bit more serious than the last three, but that’s not surprising after the major throw down at the end of “Pride’s Spell.” The thing I did like about this one is that it packs in a lot of character growth for characters we haven’t seen too much of before. Darren gets some nice page time, and really starts to come into his own, even as Lena is shown as more vulnerable than we’ve seen her in the past, and planning assistant Jett gets a cool arc too. Wallace’s strength is in keeping all of his plates spinning so flawlessly. Sin du Jour, as in his previous novella series, Slingers, has a huge cast of characters. Matt manages to breathe life into all of them, and progress their individual stories, in a breathtakingly short amount of pages. Each bite-sized book contains more character growth and personality than your average doorstop fantasy epic.
Sin du Jour book four, Idle Ingredients, is out now from Tor. You can purchase it from Amazon or wherever you get books.
December 12, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Review
Comics, Doctor Aphra, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Marvel, Star Wars
Doctor Aphra #1
Written by Kieron Gillen
Drawn by Kev Walker
Published by Marvel Comics
How do you write a good anti-hero? Put them up against forces larger, and worse than themselves and always, always make the bill come due for their evil deeds, in one way or another. This is just what Kieron Gillen and Kev Walker’s Doctor Aphra sets out in its first issue.
The scheming anthropologist accomplice of Darth Vader is back in her own series, and I couldn’t be happier to see her again. Accompanied by her droids 000 and BT, dark-mirror analogues of C3P0 and R2-D2, she’s still out looking for big scores and outsmarting the Galaxy’s ever-present underworld. Clever, deep in debt, and out to save her own skin rather than the galaxy, she’s the perfect update of all of Han Solo’s tropes. Just don’t call it a redemption arc.
Gillen’s story ditches the Campbellian melodrama and delivers a story full of double crosses, brawling, badass wookiees, and grimly comic murder droids. Walker’s art is fun, and expressive, with action-oriented layouts. Colorist Antonio Fabela proves you can tell a dark story in comics without over-shading the page.
Aphra was one of my favorite characters from Gillen’s Darth Vader run, and I can’t see what shenanigans she gets up to away from the sith lord’s watchful eye. Doctor Aphra #1 is available digitally from Comixolgoy, or in print at your local comics shop.
October 31, 2016
hughjodonnell
Review
Castlevania, Dracula Season, Halloween, HLV, Hugh Likes Video Games, review
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
Published by Konami
Nintendo DS, 2005
The sequel to 2003’s “Aria of Sorrow,” Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow” was the first installment of the series for the Nintendo DS. A savvy reader might point out that ‘Dawn’ isn’t the best name for a sequel, but since it appeared in the first year of the system, it was one of many games that glommed on to the ‘DS’ suffix.
The game once again follows teen reincarnation of the Lord of Darkness Soma Cruz to a maze-like castle in which he will again come to terms with and try to overcome his destiny. When he is confronted by a cult leader searching for the Lord of Darkness, Soma’s power of Dominance unexpectedly returns, forcing him to confront his past life once again.
On the whole, “Dawn of Sorrow” doesn’t bring much new from its GBA predecessors. The main game puts you back in the shoes of Soma, with the ability to Dominate and use the powers of various monsters to fight and to solve puzzles. You can also collect extra souls to power up your abilities and weapons, which is nice, but mostly this game is more Aria of Sorrow with prettier graphics. The game does have a ‘seal’ system, in which bosses have to be sealed away to be beaten. This involves drawing a symbol on the touch screen after the fight. It is a bit annoying, forcing players to keep a stylus tucked in their hand during the fight, but hardly the most egregious tacked on touch-screen gimmick of its day.
The game also features a return of the standard Castlevania extras such as unlockable characters and Boss Rush modes. The extra mode is a real treat in this version, as it allows the player to switch between characters in a fan-service nod to Castlevania III.
The game still holds up relatively well, with well-designed, highly detailed sprites. The castle feels nice and big, and it isn’t too hard to navigate with plenty of warp and save areas. The game had a little trouble running in my New 3DS, however. It would occasionally freeze or glitch, and the system wouldn’t be able to read the game card. This wasn’t enough of an issue to prevent normal play, however.
“Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow” is an incremental but worthy installment in the Castlevania franchise, and is well worth your time if you’re looking to explore Dracula’s castle this Halloween. It doesn’t break a lot of ground, but it is a fun and challenging adventure. You should be able to find a used copy at your local game store.
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September 28, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Fiction, Review
Emma Thompson, Henry James, HLF, Horror, Hugh Likes Fiction, review, The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw
By Henry James
Read by Emma Thompson with Richard Armitage
The Turn of the Screw is a classic suspense novel and ghost story, but perhaps it suffers from being too firmly rooted in the time of its creation. The short novel is the story of a young governess sent to care for the orphaned niece and nephew of a rich London gentleman. Her employer wants nothing to do with the two small children, but that is only the start of their troubles. The governess is soon convinced that they are haunted by a pair of ghosts.
James’s short novel is preserved as a primary example of Victorian suspense, but the style would be way too wordy and anticlimactic to best-seller readers today. But the nouvelle is both steady and deliberate in the application of suspense as the main character attempts to unwind the layers of mystery surrounding her two charges. The opening section, in which the James claims to have heard this story from a friend one Christmas holiday serves as a statement of purpose to this effect, and also as a sort of carnival barker, stoking the nerves of the reader and daring them to turn the page.
But “The Turn of the Screw” is perhaps a bit too steeped in the cultural and social mores of Victorian England to be relevant to modern readers. Class and gender relationships, with a clear hierarchy, are taken for granted throughout the work. The narrator asserts that young Miles is either her equal or superior on the basis of his sex. Also, class consciousness is central to the scandalous behavior of the two ghosts. The novel asserts either a tryst between a common manservant and the well-born governess. It also implies that their contact with the two children was inappropriate, and that their return from beyond the grave is to snatch the children. James doesn’t seem to see any difference between breaking class taboos and pedophilia , which was troubling to my twenty-first century American morals.
I listened to this book on Audible. Emma Thompson’s reading is quite good, and she manages to cut the dense verbiage of James’s style down to a manageable path. Her performance keeps the modern listener invested and upholds the air of gothic suspense that may be lost on a reader unaccustomed to the style. The Turn of the Screw is also available in print and digitally from a number of public domain sources.
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September 26, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Review, Uncategorized
1234, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Image, Jamie McKelvie, Kieron Gillen
The Wicked + The Divine Vol. 1: The Faust Act
Written by Kieron Gillen
Drawn by Jaime McKelvie
Published by Image Comics
Gillen and McKelvie are my all-time favorite team of comics creators. Yes. Even above Stan and Jack. Deal with it. I was impressed with their urban fantasy indie-pop black and white opus “Phonogram,” and their run of “Young Avengers” was my favorite comic of 2013. So when they announced “The Wicked + The Divine,” I knew right away that it was going to be right in my wheelhouse. But I slept on it, knowing that it would be there when I wanted it the most, and that graphic novels would be a better choice than single issues, for me. This week I finally took the plunge. And I was entirely right.
Every ninety years, twelve gods return to earth, incarnated as teenaged pop stars. They spend the next two years inspiring humanity, then they die. And the cycle repeats. It’s called The Recurrence, and it’s happening right now.
Laura is a fanatic. She’s seen every god that has appeared so far. And when Luci, this incarnation of the Prince of Lies as filtered through the Thin White Duke, takes a shine to her and invites her backstage, she becomes enmeshed in the affairs of beings that are equal parts divine being, celebrity, and terminally-ill teenager.
The Wicked + The Divine is another moonshot high concept of a comic from Gillen and McKelvie. A strange mix of pop culture and religious iconography, it is constantly shocking, melancholic, and larger-than-life. McKelvie’s clean, gorgeous line work is once again perfectly suited, with a whole class of post-modern deities to accompany his work on Marvel’s Young Avengers. Matthew Wilson’s colors once again provide a rich partner to McKelvie’s art.
The Wicked + The Divine vol. 1 is available in trade from your local comics shop or digitally from Comixology. It’s a hell of a good read.
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September 14, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Podcasts, Review
Hello From The Magic Tavern, HLP, Hugh Likes Podcasts, review
Hello From the Magic Tavern
Produced by Arnie Niekamp, Evan Jacover, and Ryan DiGiorgi
Hosted by Arnie Niekamp, Adal Rifai, and Matt Young
hellofromthemagictavern.com
Hello From the Magic Tavern is a difficult podcast to explain. It’s kind of like The Lord of the Rings with less wandering and more poop jokes. Half improv, half interview show, the podcast is hosted by Arnie Niekamp, playing himself. The premise is that he fell through a magical portal behind a Chicago Burger King and landed in the magical land of Foon. He still gets wifi through the portal, and hosts a podcast interviewing locals along with his co-hosts, a talking badger/shape-shifter named Chunt, and Usidore, a wizard of less than legendary talents.
The interviews with guests are improvised, but each one becomes canon for the podcast, and episodes build to form a larger story. It’s a neat premise, that has resulted in a lot of pop culture jokes and references becoming ongoing bits.
The producers are also a part of the creative team at Jackbox Games, who create indie party video games like “You Don’t Know Jack” and “Fibbage.” The signature humor of those games is on display here as well, so fans of their video game work will be well at home with “Hello From the Magic Tavern.” The ongoing story line, which involves Arnie’s fervent wish to return home, but utter lack of action, and the land of Foon being menaced by a Dark Lord simply referred to as “The Dark Lord,” get stranger and more complex with every episode, but it is one heck of a trip.
You can stream Hello From the Magic Tavern online, or find it in iTunes or your favorite podcatcher.
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