Tag Archives: Spring Into Gaming and Pop Culture 2023

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie: Great, Good, Decent

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Introduction

I wrote in my previous article, a review of the Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves move, that young me crelebrated the release of the movie and current me enjoyed the viewing immensely. It bears repeating. We grew up in a time when nerd culture got no respect from television and movie producers. They thought, just as with cartoons, that stuff is for kids and we should gear it towards kids. Granted, the animated entertainment provided us with something at least. Nothing at the time, though, came close to the production value of Honor Among Thieves or The Super Mario Bros Movie (click the “?” box).

It’s a me, a sexy smolder.

I know that other web sites surely have gone into the how and why this happened now. I’m not all that interested in any of that. I just enjoy the fact that they gave us good, quality entertainment that we can share with our kids. Ah, there it is. That just triggered something cynical in me. But, you know what? I’m going to ignore it and bring the usual (possibly toxic) positivity that we’re know for here at 2 Generations Gaming.

Decent

Training Montage: When Mario agrees to embark on the journey with Peach, she trains him in the ways of the Mushroom Kingdom. I appreciated the nod to other action movies and the tongue in cheek treatment. Even though it made little sense in the context of lore, I hope I proved in the D&D movie article that matters little to me.

Peaches, Peaches: All most people talked about (at least according to the article that stated, “After the Mario movie, this is all anyone is talking about!”) after the movie is the Jack Black song peaches. I heard about it before the movie because of just such an article. However, I saved the song until I actually saw the movie. It didn’t disappoint. After the movie, I made my family laugh by mentioning that it hit the top 100 and, therefore, qualified for Grammy status.

Good

Lumalee: This movie introduced us to nihilist Lumalee, the star companion from the Super Mario Galaxy series. I laughed and laughed with every line that came out of the adorable Nietzsche wannabe. Granted, I have a dark sense of humor as a optimistic pessimist. But, I think everyone can find something lovable in the darkness that is Lumalee’s attitude towards it all.

I know that! I also wrote about this phenomenon in the Honor Among Thieves article. However, being able to catch even a fraction of the easter eggs in the movie made me very happy. What brought me more joy was that my kids were all there to point them out either during the movie or after we left the theater.

Great

Donkey Kong: All of the characters lived up to expectations. I know some (probably literally nobody other than douche bags trying to make money with “content”) derided the movie as “woke” because they portrayed peach as a “strong independent woman who don’t need no man”. Other than that, every time a character appeared on screen, it put a smile on my face. In my opinion, one voice actor went above and beyond to bring his character to life. And, he basically just played himself like he does in nearly every movie. Like Robert Downey Jr. before as Iron Man before him, Seth Rogan was born to play DK.

Kids/Nostalgia: More and more I admit to being bit by the nostalgia bug. More and more I realize that it bites me because of my kids. We went to see this one while on vacation in the Berkshires for Quinn’s birthday. Unlike many family outings lately, every single one of our boys chose to join us without a fight. During the movie, Liam wore a smile on his face that indicated that some of his greatest memories came to life on that screen. I think I wrote in an earlier article that sometimes brings me pause that fictional characters mean so much to us. But, then I shut up that part of my brain and enjoy what I enjoy. Helping to bring that same joy to our kids makes everything else feel small by comparison.

The Verdict

Great super hero movies? For the most part, check. I give DC a pass and often turn off my brain enough to enjoy them even if I know they’re not very good. Plus, James Gunn? We’ll see. Live action (and CGI, of course) Dungeons and Dragons that delivers? Check. Amazing video game movies? Well, it remains to be seen if Nintendo can do it with other franchises, but they delivered with The Super Mario Bros movie.

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Honor Among Thieves: Great, Good, Decent

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Introduction

I said it before. If you told 11 year old me that within my lifetime, they’d make comic book, video game, and Dungeons and Dragons movies respectable and profitable, I’d never have believed you. Sure, I’d want to time travel into this magical future. But, I’d also scoff in my usual teenage way. We grew up in a time where super hero movies got barely B-level treatment and the best cinematic version of Dungeons and Dragons was animated. Certainly nothing on par with the movie, Honor Among Thieves.

And don’t even get me started on Mario and Luigi at the theater. Mama Mia!

I started watching the movie a week or so ago while visiting a small Twitch streamer. For some reason, I switched to Ready Player One in the middle of the movie. I remember Aiden saying that he enjoyed Ready Player One and my ADHD pushed me in that direction. Then I got the idea to make this month’s theme (with no banner again!) Spring into Gaming and Pop Culture. My trademark honesty incoming. I played so little games recently, that I made up for it with pop culture to keep the page running. Comic books took a week. Hearthstone filled in nicely with the new BG update and a post about buying a new Switch. I think that last one maybe gave away that I ran out of ideas this month. But, Ready Player One lifted me out of the funk with a discussion of Tomb of Horrors. Then two of my kids saw GotG 3 without me and I remembered Mario and Dungeons and Dragons. May wheezes to the finish line with some pop culture reviews.

The Decent

Owlbear – Relax, I haven’t gone full purist on you here. I refuse to complain about anything when it comes to this movie. Are there things I enjoyed more than others? Sure. But, I already spoke of the horrors of nerd pop culture from my youth. The fact that they made this movie and brought Dungeons and Dragons to life for me is enough. And, yes, technically, even though it technically goes against the rules of the game, it fits with the spirit of the story. The first rule I learned about D&D is have fun. Well, a druid that can wild shape into an Owlbear is hella fun.

Roll for initiative.

Fat Dragon: I love that in a movie called Dungeons and Dragons, we get both a dungeon and a couple of dragons. But, more on that in the “Great” section. With most of the stuff I didn’t understand because of my unfamiliarity with the source material, I Googled and one of the first results answered my question, “Why is that dragon so fat?” I wanted a murderous hell machine bent on death and destruction of entire villages. Not some chonk too fat to leave his own lair. But, I searched and got some satisfaction from the back story I found.

Forgotten Realms: Look, I get that the Realms are D&D and that most people get their introduction to the game through them. But, I’m not about that life. Dragonlance introduced me to the game and that still resides at the top of my list of what I consider pure and true D&D. So, feel a little let down by the choice of setting. Nevertheless, I also understand that Forgotten Realms lends itself better to generic protagonists, too.

Good

Backstory: I put this one first because I went back and forth between putting this one here or in “Decent”. I ultimately decided that I liked having the stories repeatedly told in Honor Among Thieves so that I didn’t need to Google more than I already did.

I Googled Honor Among Thieves so hard, it took me back in time.

Forge: Look, I understand that some DMs enjoy the double cross and big twist reveal towards the end of the adventure to blow everyone’s mind. Honestly, some like it so much that they always go that route when designing and telling an adventure. I also respect that choice. However, I also rolled my eyes pretty hard when it became apparent that Forge double crossed everyone (spoiler alert) and I thought they set him up as the “boss” of the encounter. They redeemed themselves somewhat by making the evil red mage (spoiler alert) the actual final encounter.

Humor: Some fans, especially MCU fans recently despair at the amount of humor in the movies. I rarely understand these criticisms by purists, but I especially find this one confusing. First, an aside. Chris went to play Old School Magic the Gathering with a friend. He told me a story about a guy he played against that got so offended by seeing “new” lands that he gave him a set of old Swamps to play with. I replied, “You’re a more patient person than me. I’d have told him to shut up and play.” Now, aside from showing what a rotten person I am, this illustrates that I just believe that life is too short to waste it worrying about such nonsense. I like to laugh. The humor in these movies never feels “forced” as the nerds like to say. It just makes me laugh and enjoy the movie more.

Great

I Know That! To be expected in such a movie, but they put all sorts of Easter Eggs in Honor Among Thieves for those of us who play the game. You know I like a good lore rabbit hole and this one had me in one of those the entire time. In addition, I found myself smiling when the red mage case meteor swarm or I realized that Simon has a bag of holding. I love when the creators love the thing that they’re creating.

Arena Battle: Along those same lines, I thought I might not enjoy the arena battle towards the end of the movie. As a DM, I dread running large scale battles like that. However, since playing Warhammer and getting a better sense for how they handle large armies, I think that will be less of an issue going forward. In any event, I liked the battle because they made it more of a corridor crawl and because of what I just said. Oh, that’ s a displacer beast. Hey! A gelatinous cube!

Dungeons and Dragons: I already mentioned this, but it bears repeating. In a movie named Dungeons and Dragons, I appreciate that they kept true to the title and gave us both a dungeon and some dragons. I see another dimension where they tried to make the movie more appealing to wider audiences and I’m glad they kept the movie for the fans.

The Verdict

Honor Among Thieves met my expectations. I won’t say it exceeded them. Because I heard good things going in, I expected good things. And, they gave me good things. Hell, I liked it so much, I’m not even going to give you the old, “Sure, it had flaws…” speech. I just want to finish this article by telling you again how much I enjoyed it. If you haven’t already, watch it. You will have fun.

On the Tabletop

Tomb of Horrors First Impression: Great, Good, Decent

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Introduction

I know what you’re thinking. How have I played Dungeons and Dragons for literally over 30 years and only now be giving my Tomb of Horrors First Impression? Well, let me explain, Judgy McJudgyPants. I started playing with 2nd edition of AD&D. Sure, I bought the release of the “Rules Cyclopedia” with the Dungeons and Dragons brand on it, but I never actually played any of the original content.

So, when Wade finds out that Halliday hid the first key in the actual Tomb of Horrors from Dungeons and Dragons, I started to feel the germination of an idea in the recesses of my brain. It took another couple of chapters for that idea to fully bake and grow, but eventually I came away with what I thought might be a great idea. So, I went on a search for the module.

Surprisingly, I found it easier than expected. Seeing that Gary Gygax first wrote the module in 1975, I thought I might have to pay an exorbitant amount on eBay. Either that or pirate a PDF via one of the file sharing web pages out there. My respect for the game and Mr. Gygax is too great for the latter and my respect for myself is…hold up, let me check eBay to see what I’d have to sell my respect for…69.65? On second thought, maybe I don’t have that much respect for myself. Relax, I resisted buying it, for now. But, that’s only because I discovered that, because 5e represents a renaissance for the game, they republished the module in one of their recent collections.

Structure of the Review

I plan to split the review into three sections; right out of the box, the nitty gritty, and where next? In the first section, I plan to cover the title, setting, hook, and map layout. The second section gets into the plot, encounters, and creatures. Finally, after a discussion of loot and resolution, I intend to talk about paths forward after finishing the module.

Tomb of Horrors First Impression: Right Out of the Box

Title: At first glance, simple and effective. You know exactly what to expect from the module from that title. It follows unwritten (?) D&D convention of naming things “something” of “something else”. Hall of the Storm Giants. Shadow of the Dragon Queen. Tales of the Outer Planes. That kind of thing. Looking at a list of the modules, I guess fewer titles actually adhered to that standard. But, I’m keeping it in. In short, solid title. Rating: Good, but only because I prefer flashier titles.

Setting: As I said with the title, it tells you exactly where you will be spending your time. In a Tomb of Horrors. Expect whatever your mind’s eye conjures when you hear such a thing. Undead? Yep. Potentially deadly traps? Check. Dungeon Crawling one square at a time because the next may bring doom to your party? That’s there, too. Rating: Great, but like most Dungeons and Dragons adventures, it depends on the story telling skill of your Dungeon Master.

Hook: The edition I have (5e) gives a Legend of the Tomb, which explains all of what I talked about up above. It also tells some of the story of the final encounter including the set up that he is nigh invincible. They also write the truth behind the legend as some background information. Finally, they offer some examples of where to place the tomb depending on your campaign and a guide to run the adventure including a prologue on how to start. Rating: Good, but I like to fill in with my own story when I run these things. I like the additional information even if I don’t plan to use most of it.

Map Layout: Like the title, the map layout follows a simple yet effective dungeon design. Unlike some of the dungeons I’ve seen, it doesn’t have a ton of four way intersections or unnecessary rooms. It gives false entrances, and dead ends, though, so not everything is as it seems. But, at the heart of the layout, you get long corridors and rooms that serve a purpose. Rating: Great, but I like a simple dungeon that still brings mystery and intrigue.

Tomb of Horrors First Impression: Nitty Gritty

Plot (with synopsis): The tomb lies buried beneath a hill. It is filled with deadly traps and various monsters. It also offers great treasure to adventurers brave and witty enough to survive the traps and monsters. The dread lich Acererak guards the crypt and the treasure at the heart of the tomb. As a man, he studied ways to extend his life beyond that of even unnatural means. The lich dwelled with the horrors in the halls of the tomb under the hill. Even so, his life force began to wane, so he commanded the servants to rig the traps in the tomb. After that, he destroyed them all and went to rest so that his soul may roam the various planes without being disturbed. Rating: Great, but I’m a sucker for a good lich story. I think I first learned of the creature from the monster manual and actually played a character with a friend to the realm of Raveloft and she achieved the unlife of a lich.

Encounters: Traps galore (ceiling trap, sliding block trap, poison needle trap, covered pit trap, sphere of annihilation, spike trap, and a phasing pit) wait for unsuspecting parties to trigger them and cause a mass reroll. Keep in mind that those are just the ones I saw by scanning through the module for the word trap. The module also boasts secret doors, false entrances, a chamber with three chests to choose, hidden messages, and magical effects. If it exists within the game, Gygax found a place for it in the Tomb of Horrors. Rating: Good, but bump it up to great if you’re a trap player. I’m more of a puzzle guy and there are some puzzles, but I want all the puzzles.

Creatures: Gargoyle. Poisonous (Venomous?) snakes. Greater zombie. Vrock. Flying Swords. Ochre Jelly. Wights. Demilich. For the length of the module, surprisingly low amount of combat. But, those early Dungeons and Dragons modules relied more on the traps and puzzles to keep people interested. At least the ones that I remember kept the hack and slash to a minimum. Rating: Decent. Even as someone who appreciates the more subtle side of Dungeons and Dragons, I’d find myself looking forward to the demilich during every combat.

Tomb of Horrors First Impression: Where Next?

Loot: Alongside the loot from combat and the various chambers, the tomb boasts a hoard of gems worth hundreds of thousands of gold, four magic weapons, twelve potions, six scroll spells of 5th level or lower, a magic ring, magic rod, magic staff, and three wondrous items. Rating: Decent. Those who triumph are rewarded well. However, based on my limited reading of the module, it feels like the level of loot isn’t quite to the level of challenge. Then again, we are the snowflake trophy generation, so maybe my idea of fair is warped.

Resolution: I like that the final encounter can basically only be won (unless you come in loaded for lich) if you refrain from combat instead of going into there with all of your firepower. It puts a nice little bow on top of the module that savvy players will figure out based on the overall theme of the dungeon. Rating: Great. In a time where twists like this ruled the pages of Dungeons and Dragons, Gygax proves again that he is literally one of the two dads of D&D.

Where Next? I came up with this idea because generally when I lead a party through something as a DM, I want to have some sort of idea where they go next. Sometimes you can use it to weave something into the story as a foreshadow. Most of the time, you use the information for yourself to set things up later on down the road. However, I admit now that I painted myself into a corner. Because the adventure plays so great, how do you follow it up?

The Verdict

My Tomb of Horrors first impression is very good to great. I imagine it’s the same for many players. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have endured for so long with such a large following. Maybe one of these days I will even run the module for an actual group. They need someone to advise the Dungeons and Dragons club at my school.

Digital Playground

Hearthstone Battlegrounds May 2023

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Introduction

I learned from my mistake in my previous Hearthstone review. You probably noticed that I never mentioned Battlegrounds once. Previously, I complained that they neglected Battlegrounds in their update. Heck, they lost a chance to add an all new minion type to the pool. Then, they released the Battlegrounds update separately and I wished they forgot to include Undead in the minion pool. After Festival of Legends, they performed a huge overhaul of Hearthstone Battlegrounds May 2023.

They removed, reworked, and added minions to every type. They released a new rewards track and restarted as a new season. Heck, they even put together a plan to roll out certain minion types instead of releasing them all on the same day. Supposedly, that move came in response to not wanting to overwhelm players. I firmly believe that because nobody play tests anymore, they anticipated a large amount of bugs and unintentional interactions and wanted to limit their exposure to support tickets.

New Hero

Hero Power: Passive. At the end of every 3 turns, get a plain copy of the left-most card in your hand.

I played him a few times. I think, as I often do, I became too enamored with greed in trying to triple with his hero power that I lost track of the actual game. If I remember correctly, I shame conceded the first game I played and then went out in 5th the second time. Oh well, plenty of time to figure out the play style and get that first place achievement.

New and Reworked Mechanics

In keeping with the spirit of Voone’s hero power, they added “upbeat” minions. These minions do something after a certain number of turns on the board. Sometimes they add other minions to your hand. They might turn a minion in your hand golden. Still others add stats to the minions in your hand. I don’t know why they called them upbeat. There must be some sort of musical pun in there.

In addition, they reworked poisonous into venomous. As another page said, in addition to being more accurate, it provides an autokill with only the first time a minion deals damage. So, no more losing your big minions to cheap poison boards. A final change, they removed mega-windfury as a mechanic on golden windfury minions. Of the three, I like the venomous change best and find the mega-windfury decision a bit perplexing at best.

New Reward Track

The only reason for me to care at all about this change is the rewards track. Last season I made a minor push to see how high my rank got. Just under 7000 is my peak. Other than that, I saw no reason to play the game mode at the end of the season. Those who follow the page know that I have a bit of a checkered history with Hearthstone.

However, I finally grew up and grew into the same familiar pattern as with MTGA. I play the game to finish quests, gain cosmetic rewards, and not much else. Hell, with the most recent MTG set, I only recently even opened my packs. I mainly wanted the sleeves and avatars. Oh, I also wanted the rewards track.

The Verdict

If you came here for an in depth analysis of the patch, you must be new here. In that case, welcome! Look around and I hope you enjoy your stay and come back soon. However, I promise to come back in a month or so when things slow down for the summer and give my second impressions of Hearthstone Battlegrounds May 2023.

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Marvel Comics April 2023: Great, Good, Decent

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Introduction

I wrote in the most recent episode of Noob’s Book Club that I can keep a deadline when things aren’t so insane busy. I also wrote in my DC Comics review that I needed to go back and read some past issues for homework before next month in order to have a better idea of the quality of the books. Both of those things combine in this Marvel Comics April 2023 review.

Because many of the books this month come as parts of stories already in progress, I need to go back to get caught up on those stories. One of them, The Avengers, I might just ignore until it’s over because it is part of a multi-book event that I don’t want to chase right now. I’m invested in the TMNT Armageddon Game series of books and that’s all I can handle as far as multi book events. So, I removed the Decent section and begrudgingly moved one book from there into Good in order to make room for an “Incomplete” section this time around.

Incomplete

Thor 34

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I only need to read 2 books to get caught up with Thor. Punisher said “Book 2, Part 5”, so I might just wait until the next story for that one. I already said that I plan on skipping Avengers until the next story. By the looks of it, they plan on renumbering with the next one, too. Speaking of homework, I got the insane idea to catch up on all 260+ titles in the Bryan Hitch era of X-Men, so it might be a while before I review them.

Good

She Hulk 12

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All three of these books lived up to expectations, both good and bad. They read exactly like I remember them reading back when I was an irresponsible teenager buying the books. I mentioned earlier that I begrudgingly moved one from Decent into this category. I wanted to put FF in the decent. The story just felt so disjointed and all over the place. Alas, to keep the article consistent, I moved it here. Strange almost made it into the great. Strange and Clea fighting side by side with Moon Knight making a cameo? Next month against Dormammu, I assure you it will get bumped up to great.

Great

Amazing Spider-Man 24

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A word about Amazing Spider-Man: These only make it here because my love for Spider-Man outweighs my hatred of the current direction of the story. I hate angry Spider-Man. The god makes no sense to me. If this continues, I might need to bump him down a level or two. A note about Guardians of the Galaxy: I love what James Gunn and the MCU did to my beloved Guardians. I also love the original dysfunctional Guardians and this book brings them back to me. A note about Venom: Al Ewing is the best. This book feels very much like his Immortal Hulk. That’s a good thing. I need to read the rest.

The Verdict

Marvel looks to be going back to their roots, at least from what I read in the Marvel Comics April 2023 books. Obviously, I need to do my homework to see if the other books follow suit. I try not to fall for the Marvel vs. DC nonsense. But, if I did, they win this round going away.

Note: Images taken from Marvel page.

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DC Comics April 2023: Great, Good, Decent

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Introduction

With some of the kid activities calming down over the next few weeks, I decided to try to get back to updating the page on a regular basis. This week, I eased into it with some comic reviews. Instead of just Spawn, I reviewed two other independent comics on Monday. Today, I return with DC Comics April 2023.

Before we continue, I need to come clean. I skimmed most of the books this month. Almost all of them are in the middle or close to the end of an arc. Therefore, I need to go back and do a little research before reading next month to get a better idea of the quality of the books. Therefore, and I know you all probably do anyway, take this month’s reviews with a grain of salt.

Decent

Wonder Woman 798

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I came clean a few years ago as not a fan of Superman. I know that probably pains my brother Tim, but the character just never interested me all that much. I like my heroes with flaws and Superman traditionally has none. Let me tell you something else, though. I absolutely hate Superman when they try to humanize him. But, if anyone can make me care about ole Supes, it’s Williamson. Watch these reviews to see if it comes true.

As far as Wonder Woman and Flash this month. Overall, I enjoyed reading through them. As mentioned above, I only flipped through Wonder Woman because I need context before passing final judgement. The only reason I started collecting Flash was for Aiden, but he seems to be out of his comics phase, so at this point I’m just collecting for collection’s sake. I will say, though, that the concept of the “One Minute War” looked interesting and I want to read that story.

Good

Action Comics 1054

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Well, apparently I lied when I said that only Williamson can make me care about Superman. Because, I thoroughly enjoyed the story presented in Action Comics this month. It revolves around Metallo and offered one heck of a cliffhanger at the end of 1054. Can’t wait until next month.

I flipped through both Bats and Cats this month. Both wrap up their current stories soon and I actually wrote under Batman in my notes that I needed more context because maybe it will be great. Zdarsky is writing it and Chris said he liked the story. I promise to update you next month. Plus, I pine for older writers on these books, so I need to get over that first.

Great

Remember those old writers I pined for earlier? Ram V is absolutely one of them. I love everything he does. He just writes such amazing stories and it doesn’t matter what character he writes for. Similar to James Gunn and super hero movies, every book that Ram V touches is gold.

The Verdict

For me, DC Comics April 2023 was a mixed bag. Part of that, admittedly, is my fault. I need to go back and read the previous books for some context in the stories. Who knew that coming back to review comics would give me homework? Oh well, I promise to be more well versed in the stories by next month. Until then….