Surprise! Minecraft Story Mode Episode 7: Access Denied Review!

Before I begin my review of Minecraft Story Mode, I have a public announcement to make. Episode 5 did this as well, but when you buy Episode 7 on the PS3 version, it sometimes causes a game-breaking glitch to occur where it "locks" you into the character select screen. By that I mean, any save file you have will forget what version of Jesse you picked and will make you pick again, but when you pick, instead of continuing to the actual game, just dumps you back at the character select screen. A glitch that big should have been noticed but apparently I am the only person to experience this glitch. Do not worry if it DOES happen to you, since all you have to do is wait a day or two and it will go back to normal. Although it might do the same thing again in the near future. Thank you for reading my public service announcement since we cannot let a mistake on Telltale's end ruin our fun, can we? Now onto the actual review.



So what's so special about Minecraft Story Mode? It's the second-to-last episode in the series. That's right. Episode 8 will be the Big Finale of Minecraft Story Mode as a whole... Unless Telltale makes a "Minecraft Story Mode: Season 2" or something.


Introducing GlaDOS- Oops I mean- PAMA!!!

The premise of Episode 7 is that since the White Pumpkin fiasco, Jesse and friends have been exploring every portal in the portal hall haphazardly. Which brings me to something I like about this episode. It's opening, while lacking the awesome music of Episode 3, and the incredible action of Episode 6, makes up for it by being the funniest. From the gang (not mobster gang, TEAM GANG!!!) getting chased by bats, Ivor being pushed from one portal to the next by a geyser, to Lukas' pants getting caught on fire, this opening is really funny.

Speaking of previous episodes, about 3/4's into the Episode Jesse has to clear a path with some TNT. What's so special about that scene? The fact they were playing the Episode 3 Opening theme - my favorite song in the whole series - during the whole thing. Yay for bringing back the best song in the series!


JESSE IS NOW A *VR TROOPER!!!

Anyway, back to the swing of things. After going through a dozen portals, Petra gets ticked off due to always landing in the wrong portal (remember, the end game goal is to find Jesse and Friends' home world). Which leads to something worth mentioning; The teams' increasing frustration with each other. We saw a glimpse of it back in Episode 6 when Petra had a massive rage-quit (being locked in a spooky mansion with a masked serial killer and 7 or so possible suspects - all of whom are clearly paranoid and stir crazy - will do that to a mercenary-turned-world-saving-hero). Although, I think Petra has a point with this line. Quote: "Maybe I am [going to go through the portal]. Maybe I'm just sick and tired of Jesse getting to call the shots. Every. Single! TIME!". I know Jesse is the team leader, but I swear everyone makes jokes about how everyone listens to Jesse no matter what with complete obedience.

After chasing after a very cheesed-off Petra (or going through her portal of choice to appease her, based on your actions), Jesse and friends find themselves in what I have nicknamed **Mad Max land. Even though it's not actually related to Mad Max at all, it reminds me of it. A lot. Just replace "Nuclear Apocalypse" with "Evil Computer taking over the planet" and they are basically the same thing.

This is where we meet two new characters. PAMA, a psychotic computer obsessed with making everything (and everyone) "useful". And Harper, who built PAMA in the first place. And I got to say, PAMA is a surprisingly creepy villain. Or maybe it's because he reminds me of GlaDOS from Portal. Only, GlaDOS is worse because while PAMA brainwashes and "possesses" people, GlaDOS experiments on her prisoners, and then kills them once they become useless. All while delivering some of the most hilarious insults in the history of video games (GlaDOS: "I was studying sharks for an upcoming test. Can you guess what kills everyone, even though they are only trying to help them? Did you guess 'sharks?' If you did, you're wrong. Only YOU can be that pointlessly cruel.").

Now what do I think about this episode? Well the music is good because they brought back my favorite song (as well as the "Armor Select" music from episode 4). Game still looks Minecraft-y. Voice acting is still good and whoever (can't remember the name of the actress off the top of my head) voiced Harper not only did a good job, but also sounds vaguely familiar...

So what did I not like about this episode? Well, there was that game-breaking glitch I mentioned. Because of said glitch I had to wait a full day before I could play the game. Aside from that, there is nothing immediately wrong about this episode that comes to mind. Is it the best episode in the series? No. It's far from the worst. So I give a 7/10.

*- VR Troopers is a very old TV show I watched when I was younger through the power of Netflix. If you knew what VR Troopers was before reading this, then congrats!

**Mad Max is a post-apocalyptic movie franchise. Last time I checked, it was rated "R" because of violence. Why do I, a 16-year-old gamer, know what Mad Max is? Me and my step-dad were having a conversation about the Apocalypse, which then spiraled into a conversation about Mad Max, which then spiraled into a conversation about a Mad Max video game I read about in my GameInformer magazine. The More You Know! *twinkle*

BEST DISNEY MOVIE EVER MADE!? Zootopia Review!

You remember back when I did that preview post for a movie called Zootopia, right? Good, because I finally got to watch it myself and I can review!! Whoop whoop!



And I am just going to admit something very important about this movie. Zootopia is THE BEST DISNEY MOVIE EVER MADE!!!!!!! Why? For starters, they did NOT - I repeat did NOT - kill off the main hero's parents. That fact alone makes it better than 90% of Disney movies. Don't get me wrong, I like Disney, but it gets kind of annoying when they use that plot trick ALL. THE. TIME.


*Cave Johnson, but as a Lion!!! :D

So let's start with the opening. Yes, the opening. The movie opens up with a bunny girl named Judy Hopps (yes, her name is a rabbit pun) putting on a play that does a good job explaining the core concept of the movie: In the Zootopia universe, animals have evolved to become more civilized. However, all animals are divided into two groups; Predators (carnivores and omnivores), and Prey (herbivores). Said groups live in harmony in the titular city. Only problem is...



Judy meets this guy called Nick early on in the movie. Nick is a con-man (You know what they were doing making a fox a con-artist! :P ) who, as revealed later on in the movie, has some good reasons to view the world pessimistically. As an example; Judy Logic is "I'm going to move to Zootopia so I can fulfill my childhood dream of being a police officer!" while Nick logic is "Eh, if the world is just gonna hate me because of my species, might as well become a con-man and cheat people out of their money". I actually like how they explain the reason for Nick's attitude. #BlameRacism. And while on the subject of Nick, I must give praise to the wonderful actor that voiced him, Jason Bateman. The voice acting for Nick was amazing. Bateman did an amazing job breathing life into this fox. Well, actually, to be fair ALL the actors/actresses did a fantastic job at their roles. There wasn't any bad voice work at all in this movie, which is a good thing, since one of the three things a movie needs to be good is decent acting. The other two are graphics and story.



Oh, and if you thought I was joking about the whole #BlameRacism thing, I wasn't. One of the central themes of this movie is racism and prejudice towards race minorities, in Zootopia's case, Predators. But not in a in-your-face way. Don't get me wrong, it's still obvious, but the term is never used in-film.



Anyway, moving on from a surprisingly mature note, this film is hilarious. And slightly sad. And has jump-scares (Vincent approved; 10 outta 10. Wood Jump-scare again). Basically, Zootopia has everything. Except reptiles. And birds. And fish. Am I the only one who finds it weird that ALL of the residents of Zootopia are mammals? If they make a sequel, it needs reptiles and birds. I WANT MY CG TURTLES IN A MOVIE, DANG IT!!!

Anyway, another thing I like about this movie is a small little thing but definitely worth mentioning.



When Judy first joins the Police force, but is forced to work as a meter maid and begs Police Chief Bogo to let be "a real cop", He says (quote) "Life is not a cartoon musical where you sing a little song and your insipid dreams magically come true! So let. It. Go." (end-quote). Is Bogo mocking almost every major Disney film ever? Or is he mocking Frozen specifically? Either way, somebody noticed the trope patterns in Disney movies, so they decided to poke fun at themselves with this quote. I like it when movies are extremely meta like that.



Moving on, let's get to the actual story. Zootopia's story is really well written. But I am kind of biased since I love detective stories and this movie is equal parts detective story and buddy story. What do I mean by buddy story? It's that kind of movie with not one but two main heroes who initially despise one another but something in the story forces them to work together, which causes said characters to eventually become best buds. In Zootopia's case, Judy Hopps - A rabbit police officer - and Nick Wilde - a fox con-man - have to work together to solve a missing otter case (well, in a twist of this trope, Nick isn't forced to work with Judy, he's actually blackmailed into helping her since Judy threatened to arrest Nick for felony tax evasion).



That's the thing this movie does. It pretty much takes everything Disney is known for doing (killing off the main hero's parents, as an example) and flips it on it's head.

You know that I think about it...



Nick Wilde actually reminds me a little bit of the Doctor from Doctor Who. Especially the 10th Doctor. Actually, now that I'm really thinking about it, Nick is basically the 10th Doctor, Captain Jack Harkness (not to be confused with Captain Jack Sparrow), and the Disney-zed version of Robin Hood rolled into one, bright red package. I think it's fairly obvious who my favorite character is... ;)

The penultimate thing I would like to address is the graphics. This movie is beautiful. They really put a lot of detail in almost everything.



And finally the music. Aside from a song they made just for this movie called "Try Everything" this movie's music is basically standard fare for Disney. In fact, the ONLY "bad" thing about this movie - at least in my eyes - is the music, but the music itself isn't bad per se, just kind of generic (again, not counting "Try Everything"). But it's a movie and nobody cares about the music as long as it is not outright bad.

Overall, this is like I said, the best movie Disney has ever made. So I give this movie a 10/10.

*- Cave Johnson is a character from the video game Portal 2. And since the lion guy and Cave Johnson are voiced by the same actor...

P.S. I don't know if Nick and Judy are a thing (if you know what I mean) since not even the creator of the movie knows lol.

P.P.S. I think someone will find this movie quite "RABBIT-ing"!!

Top Ten Heroes in Gaming!!!

Alright so I am sorry it's been so long since I made a blog post but I've been a little bit busy so I didn't really have any time to write a blog post. So to make up for lost time, let's do a Top Ten because my next video game review is still a work-in-progress.

So what are we counting down today? Spencer's Top Ten Favorite Heroes in Gaming ever (as of this moment). Before we begin, let me explain a few self imposed rules.

1. When I say "Hero" I mean the main protagonist(s) of the story.
2. Only one character per game unless it's a tie.
3. We are ranking these characters on how much I like their personality and powers (if they have any), in case you were wondering.
4. Only characters that originated from a video game (i.e. no Comic Book Super Heroes or characters that first appeared in a movie/TV show).
5. This list is in no order at all, unlike my Top Ten Boss Fights in Gaming post.
6. Only characters from games that I have played.
7. There WILL be spoilers. Just a forewarn.

With all that said, let's get started.

#10!

 

Oliver from Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS3). Oliver is from a RPG game from the early 2010's and has both a tragic back story and awesome magic skills. Why is his back story tragic? His mother DIED OF A HEART ATTACK at the very beginning of the game. However, A fairy named Mr. Drippy told Oliver that through the power of messing with alternate dimensions, Oliver can bring his mother back from the dead by saving her counterpart from a evil wizard called Shadar. And you know what the worst part is? Drippy lied. Not even magic can bring back the souls of the dead. And there is a relatively well known theory about this game that the ENTIRE GAME is just a product of Oliver's imagination. Starting off on a surprisingly dark note, aren't we?

But why do I like Oliver? Because he is surprisingly nice! Seriously, his mother passed away before his very eyes and although he did spend three days mourning her, Oliver quickly had a change of heart when Drippy showed up. And once he learned that death is permanent no matter what, he finally accepted that fact and continued the adventure anyway, not because of some meek hope of bringing his mother back, but because it was the right thing to do. Oliver is a champion people! A CHAMPION!!!! Oh, and being a powerful magic user is a bonus.

#9!

 

 

The Number Nine spot is taken by a game I bought not too long ago at all. Hailing from what might be my new favorite RPG game since Xenoblade Chronicles X, we have Welkin Gunther and Alicia Melchiott from Valkyria Chronicles (PS3, PS4). The reason it's a tie? You can't have one without the other. Let's start with Welkin first. Welkin Gunther is a journalist and scientist, specifically natural science. He possesses a strong love for plants, animals, insects and just about anything about nature. In the game, he enlisted for the Gallian militia and achieved the rank of Lieutenant. In actual gameplay, he is kind of average on foot, but his forte is vehicular combat. His vehicle of choice? An old but serviceable tank called the Edelweiss (pronounced Eh-DOLL-vice) that he inherited from his father, a war hero named Belgen Gunther. In case you could not tell, this game has a very obvious war theme going on. Something I like about Welkin is that he already knows what he is going to do with his life once the war is over (he wants to become a teacher).

Now for Alicia. Alicia Melchiott is from the same town that Welkin is from and prior to the events of the game, was captain of the town watch. She enlisted into the Gallian militia much like Welkin, and became a Sergeant (and Welkin's second in command). Similar to Welkin, Alicia also has plans for the future (opening up her own bakery). Alicia also gets bonus points for being the most overpowered party member ever. You can probably beat the entire game using JUST Alicia, if you tried hard enough. That's how good she is in combat. Welkin is nowhere near as overpowered as Alicia, but he mostly spends of his time in a tank so he still packs a punch. I like both of these characters because of their personality and I myself am guilty of abusing the infamous "Alicia/Scout Rush" strategy to power level my team. Speaking of the game, I'll review Valkyria Chronicles once I beat the main story

#8!

 

Wander from Shadow of the Colossus (PS2, PS3). Not to be confused with this guy...

 

Good job Disney. You named a character in your cartoon that you cancelled one day before I even heard of said cartoon the word Wander, which ironically is the name of the main hero of Shadow of the Colossus. When the said characters are nothing alike. Wander over Yonder Wander (the orange one) is best described as a hippie wookie riding what looks like a Tyrannosaurus Rex/Horse hybrid. S.o.t.C. Wander is a archer/swordsman who (going back to the dark note) made a deal with a demigod to bring back the life of the woman he presumably loves (I say presumably because almost the entire story of S.o.t.C. is left to personal interpretation). As such, Wander's status as a "hero" is really vague. On the plus side, Wander has a nice detail going for him since the more Colossi that Wander defeats, the more "corrupted" he gets. His clothes get bloodstains, his skin pales, his eyes fog up, and the most notable thing is that he starts growing horns on his head. Maybe that deal wasn't worth it after all...

#7!

 

Link from pretty much ANY Legend of Zelda game. Even though there are actually multiple Links. Anyway, Link is a adventurer who winds up saving the day from a big bad villain. A tried and true formula! Link, in addition to being a swordsman, has skills with *deep breath* slingshots, bows, ball-and-chains, boomerangs, bombs, grappling hooks, hammers, whips, magic masks, magic rods, horse riding, a thing called the Gust Bellows, a robotic beetle, potions, transforming into a Goron/Zora/Deku Scrub/Wolf. a giant spinning top, and a bubble gun. Also...

 

Am I the only one that likes the new blue outfit from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Surely not. Surely someone else likes the blue outfit. #BlueLink!

#6!

 

 

You probably saw this coming, considering that it's own of my childhood favorites, but it's Spyro and Cynder from the Spyro series. More specifically, pre-Skylanders. I always loved dragons, and the Spyro games were the first game I actually beat as a kid. Also, I opted to use pictures of their Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon designs, since Spyro and Cynder's designs in that game made them look young but powerful, which is how I always imagined teenage dragons would look. Also, purple is my favorite color. However, Skylanders ruined Spyro for me. Speaking of which, Activision announced the SIXTH Skylanders game! The SIXTH!!! Stop making Skylanders and make some regular old Spyro games!! In case you could not tell, I do not like the Skylanders games

Also, How come when Cynder made her playable debut her powers were infinitely cooler than Spyro? Oh sure, Spyro has fire breath, ice breath, thunder magic and earth magic, but what does Cynder get? She gets Poisonous acid, the power to turn into a shadow, tornado magic, and a death scream so loud and so terrifying it can give Freddy Fazbear a run for his money. Speaking of F.n.@.F., I got to admit. Although I avoid horror games like the plague, I respect Scott Cawthon for being able to make 5 whole games in the span of 1 year (F.n.@.F.'s 1 and 2 came out in 2014, F.n.@.F.'s 3, 4, and World came out in 2015, in case you were curious). Oh, and as far as I know, Spyro and Cynder are the only characters on this list that are sweethearts/lovebirds (love-dragons?), but I think that Welkin and Alicia (Valkyria Chronicles) might become a thing. I don't know, I haven't beaten the game yet. I'll let you know in my review.

#5!

 

Ratchet and Clank from... well, the Ratchet & Clank series. Ratchet is an alien known as a Lombax, which are very obviously inspired by wildcats, with lynxes being the most obvious comparison. Clank is a robot. Also, forget Batman and Robin, Ratchet and Clank will ALWAYS be the true Dynamic Duo in my eyes. NOTE: I ACTUALLY LIKE BATMAN AND HE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS. DON'T TAKE THIS JOKE SERIOUSLY.

On another note, Ratchet and Clank have saved the galaxy more times than you can count. Something I like about Ratchet and Clank as a team is that although they are friends they sometimes argue with each other. I kind of like it like that because it makes them more believable as characters. 

#4! 

 

Wonder-Red from The Wonderful 101 (Wii U). Also known as Will Wedgewood, Wonder-Red is a teacher-turned-superhero. As the leader of the Wonderful 100, Wonder-Red is definitely the most heroic out of the bunch. While Wonder-Yellow is somewhat cowardly, and Wonder-Pink worries way too much on her appearance, and Wonder-Blue caring about nothing but being a big show off, Wonder-Red is brave, focuses solely on the mission at hand, and encourages the rest of the team to work together. Bonus points for being a genius since he got a perfect 100 score on the written test when he joined the Wonderful 100 (he only got a 98 on the field test due to his over-reliance on standard protocol).

#3!

 

Elma from Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U). Elma is the main hero of a game that lets you create your own character. But your own character is not the main hero, Elma is. But anyway, Elma is a member of BLADE, a private military organization designed to guarantee that the human race survives everything, including the destruction of Earth. Elma gets bonus points for having instant cool points. She literally shot a boss in the face to interrupt said boss's evil boast, and chews said boss out on being a wimp. Also, although the exact quote was "Shut up, you Samaarian witch!" the way she said that line makes it sound an awful lot like a certain curse word. Or maybe that's just me looking way too deep into that one quote.

#2!

 

Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series. Random fun fact! "Sora" means sky in Japanese. Oddly fitting since he has the power of flight. Anyway, Sora is a kid from the Destiny Islands, a small obscure world in the middle of nowhere. When his home gets destroyed by the evil creatures known as the Heartless, Sora goes on a mission to track down his friends Kairi and Riku. Oh, and he meets Disney characters along the way. Why? Because everything is better with Disney! Anyway, he runs into two major problems when rescuing his friends. Riku turned evil, for starters. And Kairi was almost sacrificed to open the door to the very realm the games are named after. Sora has skills in swordsmanship (he's a RPG protagonist, of course he knows how to use a sword) and magic, and the only character I can think of that has both is Robin from Fire Emblem, but I never played any of the Fire Emblem games because I do not own a 3DS. Something interesting is that his weapon of choice is the Key-blade, a sword that looks like a key. And it actually works as a key, since it can un/lock doors, treasure chests, and even entire worlds. Also, what size shoe does this kid wear!? Those shoes are massive!

NUMBER ONE!!!

 

Jesse from Minecraft Story Mode (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U). You know what's better than a hero? A hero whose entire personality is up to the player. Jesse's behavior during cutscenes is entirely up to you. You can be a complete jerk, a Mr. Nice Guy, and everywhere in between. Furthermore, when you create a save file, you can pick which version of Jesse to play as (the one pictured is the default). Six versions, three male and three female.

 

All six versions of Jesse in one place!

And in the fourth episode you can customize Jesse even further with various armor sets (10 sets total, two of which are hand-me-downs from either Ellegaard the Engineer or Magnus the Rogue, based on your choices). Also, Jesse had a pet pig named Reuben. Not to give spoilers or anything, but the key word here is "had".

So what do you think of my Top Ten Heroes in Gaming list? Leave your thoughts in the comments down below.

P.S. I bet you were expecting an Undertale character on this list! The reason why I didn't put one on here is because none of the characters are outright heroic. In fact, the morality of almost everybody in Undertale is so in the middle that it does not even have a hero or a villain, with the most evil character being Flowey. And once you learn Flowey's backstory, his actions make a lot more sense in hindsight.