Sonic Generations

I know it's been about two weeks or so already since Sonic Generations got released on PS3, Xbox, NDS, and PC... but, hey! I haven't gotten my copy of Sonic Generations yet.

Now, with all the spiffy game releases at the moment, Sonic Generations is probably the last thing on the mind of most gamers. For me, however, I played Sonic platformers way back when I was a young little kid. And I really loved those times as a kid—the little hedgehog leaping around, landing on Badniks, and whizzing away in an a blue ball of awesomeness! That, was childhood.

I wouldn't call myself a die-hard Sonic fan, because honestly, after Sonic graduated from the 2D platform, it just didn't cut it anymore. I remember when I was playing Sonic 3D Blast—sure, the controls were hard, maneuvering was not simple task—at the end of the day, I made it though. Then came Sonic Adventure DX, which wasn't really all a bundle of fun, but seeing the cool hedgehog getting the better out of everyone else was quite satisfying anyway...

Then there was Sonic Riders, and honestly, I really don't like this game, as much of a Sonic fan I am. It doesn't give me the thrill of a racing game, and neither is it satisfying in any way. It just didn't appeal to me in any way.

But hey! I've never really given up on Sonic. I still remain a Sonic fanboy deep within me. If any one of you out there actually played Sonic the Hedgehog 3, you'd probably remember this...

Yeah... that's the Sonic fanboy I am, remembering the little funny things that I really enjoyed as a kid... ;) I'm so looking forward to giving Sonic Generations a go!

Oh, if you haven't checked out OCRemix, do give them a go. Click here to pay them a visit. Basically, they give game soundtracks their own remixed renditions... with all the funk and iffiness to go. It's pretty cool; I mean, just listen to the following track, and you'd understand what I mean.

I'm so looking forward to giving Sonic Generations a go!

Elle me dit

Here's Mika's first French single, entitled "Elle me dit":

I'm sure many of us here has heard of his song Grace Kelly. It's another fun, light-hearted song that gets him sailing breeze-like past his falsetto, and back down. It's nice, actually! just not my cup of tea. All the while I thought he was an English-only singer, but, well, this song proved me wrong.

"Elle me dit" means "She tells me" in French. When I first heard the song, and read the lyrics, I thought it was a song about a naggy girlfriend. After all, the chorus goes "pourquoi tu gâches ta vie", very much like an irritating hoe trying to change her boyfriend's direction in life.

I was wrong though! In his life performance, he said that "it's about all the horrific things a mother could say to her son to get him to fuck out of her house".

Whatever the meaning behind it, it doesn't really matter. This song is great. It has a very colourful melody to it, light-hearted lyrics, accompanied by a dynamic beat. It has so many flavours to it, it's actually hard not to like it! ;)

Real Steel

I just got to watch this show: Real Steel.

Introduced to me by a friend of mine, I have to say that... it's really not a bad show at all! This is just coming from an ordinary cinema-goer, so you don't have to take my review as seriously as a professional movie critic. Well, here's the trailer for the movie:

 

First impression when I took a look at the trailer was this: it looked like Transformers, just not as impressive. I have to say that the Transformers franchise is really very appealing and spectacular, with all their bells and whistles--totally great CGI altogether, coupled with a not-too-bad storyline. Real Steel is unable to top Transformers in any way at all, and I guess the producers knew that from the very beginning, so they decided to take another direction. The movie is sophisticated in its own manner.

While I wouldn't say that this movie is a must-watch, I wouldn't say it's a bad movie altogether. It's the kind of movie where... it's great to watch, fulfilling, you get the bang for buck, but it doesn't leave a profound, lasting impact on you like Christopher Nolan's movies (Inception, Dark Knight), or Avatar (I've not watched that show however). Anyway, from this point onwards, I'll be talking about the movie, so there will be...

Spoilers. Having said that, let's move on. ;)

In this movie, there are two protagonists: Charlie, someone who seems like a good-for-nothing, irresponsible chap yet charming in his own way, and Max, his ballsy son whose mom passed away. Charlie used to be a professional boxer; however, the advent of robot boxing took away his career altogether, and now he's just participating in robot boxing (but he's not too good at it!). His long-lost son comes along, finds a trashed robot at the edge of a cliff, and keeps fighting his way through, together with his dad!

There are times where emotions swell, because you can just feel the desire for the Max's robot, Atom, to win, and Atom does just that. Some matches are very much like those in Hajime no Ippo, I would say, where the robot is about to lose... and yet he returns with a great comeback. Those would be the first and final two matches. The matches in between, however, shows how Atom devours his opponents quickly and skilfully. Unlike other fighting movies, however, Real Steel does not have the same action, thrill, and excitement that you get from martial arts movies (those China ones, where the fights are so well-choreographed it is such an amazement to watch).

Other than that, Real Steel brings to the viewer the emotions of love (fatherly love, mostly), fear (they lose, they lose everything), and justice (especially when beating down Zeus), put together with a subtle tinge of humour (those two make a great team!). This movie might not be a must-watch, but it is certainly not a bad movie. The ending... felt a big lacking, though. In French, I believe the word for it would be manque!