Saturday, March 21, 2009

The Shadow Thieves

Unlike most books this book title is literally what it says.It's actually about shadow thieves but it's not quite that simple and I'll explain why soon

I came across this book when I was bored,Asm had told me about this book so i thought I'd give it a go,so I asked Asm if I could borrow it much to her delight. Now onto the review


The Shadow Thieves (Ursu)

Year: 2007
Publisher:Antheum

Plot: 20/20 (Basically you have a sarcastic,smooth talking girl who has things turn on her when a cat appears out of nowhere,then her long lost cousin from England comes over,and then everybody gets some weird sickness which is believed to be a problem from the Underworld oh yes that's right Greek Mythology isn't Greek Mythology in this book.It turns out some demi god has made an army of clay henchmen who then steal shadows to build an army to overthrow none other than Hades who rules the underworld)

Characters: 19/20 (I liked all the characters in the books, we have smooth talking,sarcastic,nerdy Charlotte Mielswetzky and a polite,calm goody-goody who goes by the name of Zee.Mr.Metos is kind of creepy though.My least favorite character is easily Hades becuase he's too lazy and he doesn't seem to care much about what happens all he cares about is keeping the throne and Persephonie. I pity Charon most of all though and maybe you'll agree when you actually read the book)

Settings: 20/20 (I love how the Underworld is depicted as a gray drabby town rather than hell or a land of ice,and the River Styx in which Charon has to ferry the dead over to underworld very nice,it's not really hot lasva like it's been usually depicted as)

Writing: 20/20 (Only a goddess could write like this,until now! OK,ok a little over-the-top but it's quite amazing style how ell everythings described and the sense of humor left in)

Final:20/20 (If all books were this good I wouldn't be able to hold a job for more than a minute. It's not my favorite book but it's certainly a good book with allusions to mythology certainly more fun than say The Odyssey)

Up Next:

Chronologically:
Time Bandits (Movies)
Books:
Warriorcats:The Original Set

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Star War: Shadows of the Empire

It's been a while since I've done a review of any sorts at all let alone a video game review.But since it's time for a video game review here I go

Most love the movies,some love the video games,some only like Princess Leia's hair do,and some only like the famous lines "Luke,I'm am your faaather" (I fit in all those categories).Either way it's still Star Wars.If there was ever a franchise that had too many video games for it's own good it would be Star Wars. However with that bad there is good I am going to review one of the good.

This game takes places somewhere in between episodes 5-6,............I think.This was one of the many jewels for the Nintendo 64 and one of the many good games actually made by LucasArts.I came across this game when I randomly went through a drawer of cartridges at Leffler's house.Naturally I put it turned th system on and started playing here's my outlook

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (Nintendo 64)

Developer: LucasArts
Publisher: Nintendo
Year:1996

Plot: 5/20 (The plot is pretty weird,unecessary and it's more like just another weird chink in Star Wars,in a way it's like a bad fanfic plot,in a way. It starts off after the battle on Hoth in The Empire Strikes back,then stuff happens after The Empire Strikes back I don't care anymore)

Graphics: 20/20 (This game though was an early game actually did not suffer from blurriness. Somehow LucasArts managed to make a game with graphics quality that it seemed only Nintendo could do)

Concept: 15/20 (A pretty straightforward concept,use the lightsaber,use it some more and more.Pretty nice and simple)

Levels: 14/20 (Above average levels yes but they got worse and worse as time went by,I preferred the Hoth stage the most)

Challenge: 20/20 (This game offers something most games really don't have any more,CHALLENGE.The first stage was tremendously hard and you can tell it's a perfect 20 and a good game when it's easy=to-learn,hard-to-master)

Music: 20/20 (I love the music in this game,and it was actually orchestrated which was quite rare back in 1996 plus the music is beyond good and evil [not close to Mario but still beyond good and evil]

Final:13/20 ( While it's not good,it's still one of the best Star Wars games out there and still a very solid N64 game and video game for that matter.Wouldn't recommend playing it all the way through more than once though)

Up Next:

Chronologically:
The Shadow Thieves (Books)
Video Games:
Sonic Game Gear Collection