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At first, Wolf  seems like a standard issue 90s drama. . A film directed by Mike Nichols starring Jack Nicholson as Will Randall, an aging Editor in Chief who's publishing house is being taken over; Michele Phifer as Laura, the daughter of the tycoon who is doing the take over and ends up in a situationship with Will; and James Spader as Stewart, Will’s protege who is sleeping with wills wife and is taking over his position. That seems swell, but toss in a werewolf and you got yourself one if the most interesting oddities of the 90s. The film plays everything as straight as can be. Will gets bitten by a wolf after accidentally hitting it, sending his life down the path of heightened senses, enhanced endurance, and a personality change that makes him all the more savage. It plays out like you'd expect a werewolf movie to play out, but with the 90s couples drama as the backdrop.  The acting throughout is superb, Spader and Nicholson are known for chewing the scenery, but both are surprisingly subdued (until things get hairy that is). Phifer is fantastic as well, playing a realistic younger foil to Nicholson's aging publishing EiC.  Given how films about everyday adults have seemingly gone the way of the dodo, Wolf is a satisfying throwback. The whole fantastical element of the werewolf is treated with maturity that is rarely seen nowadays. Honesty, its as refreshing as the big fight in the film's third act, which gets silly but never falls over the “too much” edge.     So if you're looking for a 90s as hell movie with a fun plot, excellent acting, and just enough scares to justify being in the series, then give Wolf a try! Wolf is currently available to watch for FREE on Pluto TV!

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’re going to be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 4 DOOM The seminal first person shooter. Not exactly a horror game, per se, but it's one that definitely reveled in its horror themes. Imps, demons and reanimated corpses fight alongside horrific cybernetic amalgamations of flesh and machine. While playing DOOM  you will often find yourself low on ammo, in dark corridors with unsettling flashing lights and monster growls coming from somewhere you can’t see. It’s only because of our overwhelming firepower do these monsters not feel as dangerous. DOOM isn’t just a game, it’s an entire phenomenon. Not only is it a series that is ongoing (thanks to 2016’s DOOM ) but it has been one of the faces of the video game industry–and not always in a good way. Inciting moral panic it sits alongside games like Mortal Kombat or Vice City’s “Hot Coffee” mod. But it left a lasting impression in the games industry beyond the controversy it garnered on release: it was one of the most played games of its time, partly in thanks to its shareware distribution. It was also lightning fast and incredibly addictive thanks to id software’s design team and the brilliant programming by John Carmack. People are still getting DOOM to run on various bits of hardware in an ongoing effort to answer the question, “can it run DOOM?” Due to its popularity DOOM has lept from its humble PC origins and ported to almost every game console that has come since its release. There were some truly impressive ports in the early days of Doom popularity, like the Super Nintendo version that seems almost magical in its ability to almost pull off a playable version of DOOM with its limited hardware. DOOM 64 added more to the story while completely changing the tone and atmosphere by changing the game’s visuals and removing the upbeat metal soundtrack and replacing it with one that is more ambient and gloomy. Then there’s the notoriously bad ports, like the 3DO version that runs at a less than tolerable framerate–but with a soundtrack that has been completely redone by a metal band. So at least that’s pretty cool. If you want to play DOOM today it’s not too hard–you can even Google “play doom in my browser” and you can probably find a way to play it in moments. There are official ways, too, however, like the recently released DOOM + DOOM II  pack by Bethesda. Not only does it offer both of the DOOM games, it gives you access to all of the expansions as well as community mods. And its available to play almost everywhere on modern systems, from Steam to Switch. Playing DOOM 64 is also pretty easy, as it was also recently rereleased for modern consoles. You have no excuse not to play DOOM.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’re going to be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 3 The House of the Dead Released on arcades back in 1997, The House of the Dead was released about a year after Resident Evil . And even though they both take place in a house full of zombies and science gone awry, they’re vastly different experiences.  Resident Evil is known as an incredibly influential game that helped bring zombies into the modern zeitgeist. The House of the Dead and its sequels did a lot to push zombies into the mainstream too, but it's not brought up nearly as often. It doesn’t help that famed director Uwe Boll made an absolutely terrible adaptation of the arcade shooter. The House of the Dead is an on-rails light gun shooter by Sega and Wow Entertainment (as Sega Research and Development was named at the time). It used the Virtua Cop engine, with the developers originally wanting an ambitious branching story. And while The House of the Dead is known for its branching paths and three separate endings, apparently the developers had to back down from some of their more ambitious goals to meet a tight development timeline.  You might think that The House of the Dead is basically ripping off Resident Evil , and I’d forgive you, because that was the impression I had. But apparently the developers only settled on the game’s name because the arrangement of the english words The House of the Dead  was the most visually appealing.  The gameplay consists of frantic shooting as zombies and other creatures pop-out at you. You have to defeat all of the enemies on screen before the action progresses to the next area. Sometimes shooting crates and saving civilians can yield healing items, while shooting civilians takes away precious health.  At the time, The House of the Dead was received well by critics. It even spawned five mainline sequels, with the latest The House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn releasing in 2018. It also spawned a bunch of spin-offs, like Zombie Rampage for the Dreamcast, The Typing of the Dead for Dreamcast and PC, and The Pinball of the Dead among others.  It would be hard to play The House of the Dead  nowadays, unless you have access to an arcade that has it. The Sega Saturn port is prohibitively expensive (unless you buy the Japanese version, but that requires a Japanese Saturn or an Action Replay, etc.) You can also download the PC port from myabandonware.com , but that would probably take some finagling to work on modern systems. Luckily for those who absolutely have to experience this zombie shooter, there was a remake released in 2022 that brought The House of the Dead into the modern era with enhanced graphics. But there’s something lost when the game goes from pixelated 3D to HD.

Episode 3 of Agatha All Along was killer. Literally. Unfortunately for our hapless housewife Sharon, the cure for the poison didn’t reach her in time, and after only one trial, we’re also down a coven mate. This makes for a somber start back down the Witches’ Road. In the aftermath, there’s some trauma bonding among the women who remain (sans Agatha) and everyone starts to open up, including Alice, who reveals that “the road” her mom died on was actually NOT the Witches’ Road. Instead, her mom died in a hotel fire when she was out on the road on a tour.  Trials and tribulations aside, you can see the ties that might bind the group into a bonafide coven forming…until Agatha comes along and ruins the moment with a callous RIP to “Mrs. Hart” and tries to flip it into a positive by saying there’s more power to go around now. The witches ask Agatha how many people finished the road with her, and when she holds up one single finger, it’s clear the rest of the coven is going to have a hard time trusting Agatha “Coven Killer” Harkness in this journey. The argument continues,this time over whether they need all 5 witches in order to even finish. Agatha insists that based on the lyrics to the Witches Road, they only need two, while no one else agrees with her. They finally decide to summon a replacement green witch…but she’s not what anyone expected. But even Agatha is thrown for a loop when the powers that be send Rio Vidal to fill the vacancy. And it seems pretty evident that they likely had a past that might not be so much in the past. Plaza plays it subtle and absolutely nails her role as who we think may be more than meets the eye- perhaps Lady Death herself, or at least that’s a pet theory. She’s certainly something, or as she puts it “THE green witch.” Vidal is one of the few things that shakes Agatha’s confidence or even outright scares her, and that makes her integral to finding out where this is going. The comic and dramatic tension between Hahn and Plaza is absolutely perfect, and one of my favorite things about the show so far. As horrible and obnoxious as Agatha is, even she can be outdone with her own tricks. Teen’s taken to following Agatha around and her history with Rio has certainly piqued his curiosity. He asks if she wants to talk about her obvious discomfort with Rio being summoned into the fold, but she declines, and the group moves on down the road, entering the house that is hosting the second trial. This one’s for Alice, and as a set piece, it’s groovy as hell. Everyone’s gone 70’s glam, flower crowns, sequins, sunglasses and all. Hahn’s channeling Cher and Teen’s lookin’ rather Sonny, while Alice is giving Yoko. The Witches’ Road has given the set designers and wardrobe a whole lot of neat things to work with, and they’re absolutely taking advantage of it, as the second house is an homage to all things tacky and 70’s, from stone walls to bead curtains, shag carpet and privacy screens.  This trial is all about Alice, and her mother. Teen proves the unifying voice once again as he gets the gang exploring, but when things really unfold is when Alice finds her mom’s picture and starts to recall the details of her childhood and her mom’s tragic death. As we know from before, Alice’s mother recorded the most popular version of the ballad of the Witches Road. Not only that, her version was different from the “original” and that difference turns out to be the key to everything.As it turns out, Alice’s mom was trying to open the road with her concerts, using the audience/fan base as her coven. While that detail isn’t particularly important, I thought it was an interesting concept and a different spin on the “power of music.” In the midst of this flashback, Lillia jolts out of the moment and into another, suddenly urging Alice “Don’t!” but before Alice can get any answers as to what she means, she’s back and missing all memory of her brief mental departure. It seems like Lillia’s abilities might just include involuntary time jumps, and this seems like it’ll be an important piece of the puzzle down the road. For now though, the table’s set for the second trial. Teen suggests exploring the place for a riddle or clue to get them started, and everyone goes their own way, with Agatha taking a very pregnant pause with Rio in the soundbooth. At this point their former intimate relationship is more or less confirmed, as well as Rio’s power over Agatha, and the fear she can instill in her. And while Agatha’s usually the one at the controls, this time it’s Rio, broadcasting a warning to the rest of the coven that Agatha isn’t to be trusted - which is already fairly apparent, honestly. Agatha notices and tries to spin the message, but she has no time when the record player starts playing the ballad - backward, and things go bad quickly. Lillia jumps back and forth again, warning that the group is cursed as a metronome starts ticking on its own. Trial begin! At first, the mood remains semi-giddy, but then Lillia catches fire. As she writes in agony on the floor, Alice jumps to her aid, drawing a circle of protection around her. Before they have much time to recover from that sizzler, another of the group catches fire, this time, Jen. It’s clear they’re going to have to heed Lillia’s jump advice and face the curse to break it. At the same time, the pieces are coming together for Alice - as it turns out, the ballad was for her - a variation of the original that served as a protection spell for Alice. Not a second later they’re face to face with a demon, and it’s a musical interlude. I’ve got to congratulate a show that can keep the action and tension high while also interjecting with a musical number. It’s a feat. The song’s the thing, it turns out, and though everyone takes a turn to burn, save Rio, who mostly hangs around to read magazines, complain about the lack of murder, and play drums. So, I guess she helped?  Just when everyone’s sighing in relief, they notice Teen’s been gravely injured with a piece of glass to the gut. Back on the road, the coven is scrambling to save him. Agatha is far more invested in helping Teen than she was about saving Sharon, and shares a very loaded glance with Rio who’s lurking in the background observing rather than joining the others in trying to heal him. Agatha’s actually hysterical, breathing heavy and pleading for things to be different. Luckily for all of us who love Teen (who doesn’t?) he pulls through. While the coven regroups and starts to bond again, Agatha and Teen once again meet up for a chat. They talk about the sigil, and why it was placed. Agatha tells Teen that even the witch who placed the sigil will have no memory of it, and that the sigil will break when it’s no longer needed. So much is revealed and the two seem to be bonding, but when Teen asks about Agatha’s son, the moment’s gone, and so is Agatha. She’s back to the bonfire with the rest of the crew, and the group shares war stories - more specifically stories of how they got their scars. Rio explains that her scar is a person who she loves that she shouldn’t, but can’t avoid. Before there’s any doubt, reader, it’s Agatha, and the two finally embrace, though there’s still some venom, as Rio tells Agatha ‘the boy isn’t yours.’ Fade to black. This recap might seem long but there’s a lot to unpack in this week’s episode. Why’d Rio take the place of the green witch? Who exactly is Rio? Who placed the sigil and why? Is Lillia jumping around in time? And what cool theme will next week’s trial house have? I just started the series in time to take over these recaps and let me tell you, I’m hooked. Same bat time, same bat channel next week, and let’s see what’s on the road ahead.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’re going to be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 2 : F.E.A.R. F.E.A.R. is a classic, and a game that had lasting effects on the first person shooter genre, not only for its horror elements, but also because of its great gunplay. It’s a game that doesn’t come up in conversations much anymore, but it’s still fun to play. It manages to blend psychological horror, first person shooting, and bullet-time combat seamlessly–which is something that would sound like a horrible game to my contemporary ears.  Despite the fact that F.E.A.R. is an action game, it’s great at creating atmosphere–even when you have the ability to mow down rooms full of people. Many modern games take away the player’s ability to fight back to create fear, while F.E.A.R. scared you despite your hefty arsenal and “reflex” abilities. . There aren’t that many games that blend psychological horror with action, especially to the degree that F.E.A.R. does. It’s a corridor shooter, sure, but they’re more like hallways in a haunted house–you don’t know if you’re going to get into a firefight, or get jump scared. And any meeting with Alma is usually scary, and often exciting. If there was a list of iconic video game monsters, I would argue that Alma should be on it. The shooting in F.E.A.R. is still visceral and fun. It isn’t quite modern, as even when you “aim” your weapon it doesn’t also aim down iron sights. But F.E.A.R. has an arsenal of well designed weapons, most of which were viscerally brutal because of the game’s particle effects and semi-destructible environments. If you shoot at a wall it’ll leave huge holes behind. Quaint to today’s standards, but impressive back then–and it’s still effective. One of the best parts of F.E.A.R. is that it can be played pretty easily today. It’s available to download on Steam, and can be played on most modern computers. You might need to download a user mod to deal with a framerate drop that has to do with Logitech devices, but for a game that’s almost 20 years old it’s pretty easy to get going. Too bad it’s not available digitally on the Xbox store anymore, but F.E.A.R. 2  and F.E.A.R. 3 are–both of which are flawed but worthy sequels. Even so, neither comes close to the greatness and influence of the first game.

Despite spending more on health care than any other country in the world, Americans rank last compared to citizens in peer nations in healthcare, according to a new report  from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that advocates for better healthcare in the United States.  “The U.S. continues to be in a class by itself in the underperformance of its health care sector,” reads the report. “While the other nine countries differ in the details of their systems and in their performance on domains, unlike the U.S., they all have found a way to meet their residents’ most basic health care needs, including universal coverage.” The Commonwealth Fund has compared healthcare systems among 10 high-income countries since 2004 according to access to care, care process, administrative efficiency, equity, and health outcomes. In the eight reports issued since then, the US has ranked last overall every time. According to the report released Thursday, Americans have the shortest lives and most avoidable deaths, face the most barriers to obtaining and affording healthcare, and experience some of the “greatest burdens” in billing and payment. The United States is ranked lowest alongside New Zealand when it comes to health equity. “I see the human toll of these shortcomings on a daily basis,” Dr Joseph Betancourt, the president of the Commonwealth Fund, told The Guardian . “I see patients who cannot afford their medications…I see older patients arrive sicker than they should because they spent the majority of their lives uninsured. It’s time we finally build a health system that delivers quality affordable healthcare for all Americans.” While it might appear that for some time during the 2024 election cycle, healthcare took something of a backseat to hotter button issues such as immigration or the economy, aspects are still near the forefront of the minds of voters. According to a Pew Research poll  conducted near the beginning of September, 65 percent of voters overall consider health care a “very important issue.” Some 51 percent of voters overall consider abortion - an integral part of healthcare - a “very important issue.” There does not appear, however, to be much movement electorally to further move forward from the poor position the American healthcare system is in overall. Instead it seems we merely have a choice between protecting the little access to affordable healthcare people currently have or dismantling it completely.  Since it was first passed, Republicans swore they would dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which helped provide insurance coverage for tens of millions of Americans. Former President Donald Trump made it a core campaign issue in 2016, spent plenty of time during his presidency aiding congressional efforts to repeal it, and has continued to promise to “repeal and replace” it. Despite having nearly a decade to tell Americans exactly what he means by replacing the ACA with “something terrific,” the most detail Trump has been able to muster is that he has “concepts of a plan.”  Trump’s running mate JD Vance gave a small window into what could be part of Trump’s “concept of a plan” over the weekend. On Meet the Press, Vance said that the best way to make sure Americans are covered is to “promote some more choice in our health-care system and not have a one-size-fits-all approach.” According to Washington Post  columnist Catherine Rampell, that word salad is pretty much code for upending the current system we have and allowing insurance companies to once again discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.  “Higher-risk people require more medical care, which is expensive. Segregating these people into their own separate pool would drive up their premiums. This would lead to some less sick people in that pool dropping their coverage, while the very sick people would remain. This in turn would drive premiums even higher, prompting even more people to drop out.” The Harris campaign has continually said it would protect the current system in place from Republican attacks. The campaign’s rapid response director Ammar Moussa recently tweeted  that “healthcare is back on the ballot,” adding that Harris would “protect and expand the ACA.” Merely protecting or even expanding the ACA though, won’t be enough to dig the United States out of the healthcare hole it’s been in for decades. There are still more than 26 million Americans without health insurance, and millions more have insurance they can barely afford that barely covers the most minimal of care. According to the report from Commonwealth: “In the U.S., lack of affordability is a pervasive problem. With a fragmented insurance system, a near majority of Americans receive their health coverage through their employer.10 While the ACA’s Medicaid expansions and subsidized private coverage have helped fill the gap, 26 million Americans are still uninsured, leaving them fully exposed to the cost drivers in the system. Cost has also fueled growth of private plan deductibles, leaving about a quarter of the working-age population underinsured. In other words, extensive cost-sharing requirements render many patients unable to visit a doctor when medical issues arise, causing them to skip medical tests, treatments, or follow-up visits, and avoid filling prescriptions or skip doses of their medications. In terms of care availability, U.S. patients are more likely than their peers in most other countries to report they don’t have a regular doctor or place of care and face limited options for getting treatment after regular office hours. Shortages of primary care services add to these availability problems.” Backsliding from where we are currently on healthcare or fully dismantling it would be a disaster for most Americans, and that’s despite our current system being an unmitigated disaster for most Americans.  “The U.S. is failing one of its principal obligations as a nation: to protect the health and welfare of its people,” Betancourt said in a press release. “The status quo — continually spending the most and getting the least for our health care dollars — is not sustainable. It isn’t about lack of resources — it’s clearly about how they are being spent. Too many Americans are living shorter, sicker lives because of this failure. We need to build a health system that is affordable and that works for everyone. It’s past time that we step up to this challenge.” We would do well to learn from our peer countries in the Commonwealth report and build a system based on providing the most equitable care for the most people possible in the nearest possible future. Ping-ponging from complete disaster to near disaster is literally killing us.

Thalia Hall was originally designed and built in 1892 as an opera venue, but in 2013, was repurposed for medium crowds and the bands that come through Chicago. On Saturday September 14th and 15th were strictly reserved for two sold out shows of the synth pop stylings of Magdalena Bay. Originally from Miami Florida, Mica and Matthew, two high school friends who have found success in the electronic pop scene. Now coming to Chicago, hot off their second album  Imaginal Disk, their live show was a technicolor spectacle full of costume changes and intricate story telling.  Before Magdalena Bay hit the stage though, the psychedelic indie electronica pop group Valgur, out of Mexico, got the crowd warmed up with their hypnotic and cryptic beats. While now blowing the crowd away, we definitely left being very intrigued for more Valgur in the future. Once it was time, the Florida duo entered the stage along with a few backing musicians to help with the more technical songs. The stage was set with an armchair and a sheet tightened around a loop with angel wings, mimicking a mirror. As the new album has a lot to do with mirror portals to other dimensions, this would make sense.  Once the band got going, it was a full on dance party. The mirror now had varying hypnotic imagery and copies of the band for some real mind-bending visuals to go with each song. The set was an impressive mix of tracks off their multiple EPs and albums that had the crowd jumping to the beat. Some of the crowd favorites were such songs as Chaeri, Death & Romance, Secrets and closing out the night with an encore performance of The Beginning.  Along with the music, there was a story element with the light visuals, and roughly 5-6 costume changes, with Mica herself, going into a chrysalis to reappear with wings and Matthew adorning the villainous star face from their music videos. They even found time to play an instrumental version of Feeling DiskInserted? Between costume changes. Magdalena Bay definitely rocked some great performances in Thalia hall those two nights. If you haven’t checked this band out, we’d highly recommend them, especially for their live performances.  Were you at the show? What’d you guys think? Imaginal Disk album of the year? Sound off in the comments!

Drinking a warm cup of coffee while surveying my frosty domain feels almost cruel. But that’s the world of Frostpunk 2 , where the cold is your enemy. To combat it requires careful planning and resource management–but even then, sacrifices must be made. I never played the original Frostpunk . I knew it made a few waves back when it was released, but despite it being in my Steam library, it just sits unplayed. So this review will come from the perspective of someone who hasn’t played the first game. I did have knowledge of its setting, but sadly, I never committed time to playing it.  When I got Frostpunk 2 , I was eager to jump into my role as steward to these struggling people, but it was a rough start: the UI is supremely unintuitive. It’s like the devs are so into their own design that they can’t take a step back and see what it looks like to virgin eyes. I seriously struggled to figure out what I had to do in the first few hours. Tutorials did little to answer my questions. And it's not like I”m new to games like this.  There are two ways to play Frostpunk 2 : in story mode, where I spent most of my time, or in “Utopia builder” which is the sandbox mode. It’s a little limited. There are only 7 maps, and each map has a predetermined condition. For instance, Fractured Gorge has randomized resources, frostland, and geothermal deposits ,but limited fuel in a small area. There is no option to add more resources to make it easier or harder. To do that, you’d have to build on another map. And without a level editor, Utopia mode feels very restrictive. In the story mode you are in charge of New London, which has been prosperous for years, but is now facing a coal shortage. Your goal is to expand outwards looking for more resources to ensure a future for your people. Even if that future is a bleak and horrible one. The frozen wasteland of Frostpunk 2  has useful things buried in its ice. To do anything at all, you have to send out icebreaking crews, which takes up resources. After you clear away the ice, you can then exploit whatever is underneath: coal, construction material, etc. But to do so takes up more resources, uses part of your workforce, etc. Any bad decision can cascade into failure. In fact, failure almost seems inevitable as you try to squeeze just a little more time out of your citizen’s miserable lives.  There is no real connectivity to the city. Each of its citizens are an abstract number on the UI–another stat to keep within a nominal range. You can zoom in on a district and see tiny people going about their miserable lives, but I never felt connected to them in their plight. I was just a floating entity, so detached from the frozen hellscape that I didn’t care much about it. Sure, my decisions sometimes led to dire consequences, but “did not survive” felt just as disconnected as the gameplay. The key art shows the clouse up of a grimy person covered in teh industrial result of the machines required for survival–and I can barely comprehend what that means. Sometimes you’ll get a quip from a citizen in the form a chat bubble, but it’s all so disconnected from the player.  And I think that’s Frostpunk 2’s biggest weakness.  Frostpunk 2 is truly on a macro scale. In fact, as you expand out into new regions to conquer the frozen wastelands you will find new opportunities and new problems.  You have multiple factions of people that represent the citizens of New London, each with their own ideas on how to survive. You will have to balance priorities to attempt to make everyone happy, or you can blatantly favor certain groups over others. Frostpunk 2 wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. Its scale makes it feel almost like a 4X game such as Civilization than a city builder. I would have liked a little bit more connection to my subjects, outside of council meetings, that is. However, Frost Punk 2 is a warm spot in an otherwise icy landscape of new citybuilders. Frostpunk 2 will be available Sept 20 on Steam  and  Epic Games Store  for PC and on Xbox Series S|X  and PlayStation 5 .

When I think of publisher Devolver Digital, I think of games that are unique in some outstanding way–and, most of the time, games that also happen to be full of violence and blood. So, it was a surprise when The Plucky Squire came across my desk. Developed by All Possible Futures, The Lucky Squire is a decidedly non-bloody game. In fact, I would even argue that it’s a great game to play with your kids.  The Plucky Squire is an action adventure game that mixes perspective and art styles to blend 2D and 3D worlds. It’s told in a storybook format – and in fact, during the course of the journey, the villain of the story discovers his predicament and the true nature of his reality. Using magic, he is able to remove the book’s hero, Jot, and exile him to the real world. Luckily, with some help from a book worm and magic portals, Jot is able to go between the 3D world and the book world to put an end to the evil Humgrump’s plan. When I say that The Plucky Squire is something you can play with your kids, I definitely mean it. It almost seems like it was made for kids. It’s not a very challenging game, even if you don’t use any of the assists to get through it. You can even skip any of The Plucky Squire’s minigames if you don’t enjoy them. There’s also a “story” difficulty that makes the game even easier, for a stress-free experience.  As Jot, you have to travel across the storybook world, the real world, and even other stories as you try to stop Humgrump. Along the way you’ll use Jot’s trusty sword to dispatch foes, along with a few other story specific weapons. The sword, however, stays a constant companion. It can be upgraded with lightbulbs that are collected through cutting down bushes, and sometimes defeating foes. These light bulbs allow you to buy new moves, too, like the spin attack and the jump attack.  Combat isn’t the only activity in The Plucky Squire though. Jot has a few abilities that allow him to manipulate his story on a meta level. Using the aforementioned portals, he can leave the storybook. Eventually, he gets gloves that allow him to turn pages – letting Jot go backwards and forwards to solve puzzles or otherwise bypass an obstacle. Puzzles in The Plucky Squire tend to be on the easy side, and I feel like if you poke at it enough, the solution is inevitable.  Jot can also find himself in platforming type situations. These side scrolling sections are competent, but never feel as fleshed out as the isometric sections.  While the idea of jumping between the storybook world and the real world sounds like something that’s been done dozens of times, The Plucky Squire is exceptional in its presentation–for the most part. The hand drawn art, despite being simplistic, is delightfully whimsical and charming. However, the 3D world that Jot finds himself in is a bit generic. I understand that the developers were probably going for “realism” but it ends up falling flat and looking boring. I would have preferred a stylized “real” world as opposed to an attempt at realism. The Plucky Squire even throws in a few retro game references without making them out to be a big deal.  The Plucky Squire is a cute, fun game that is worth picking up if you want something light and cheerful. That said, it does have a pretty short playtime, which might put off those who are looking to buy it for its full retail price.  The Plucky Squire  is out today on Steam , Xbox Series S|X , PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch . A Steam key was provided to us for this review.

If you told me that a “Power Saber Energy Blade” would be the best lightsaber toy that hit the market, I’d be skeptical. If you then told me that Hasbro had the rights to this technology but never released a product to the public, I definitely wouldn’t believe you. According to reporting by The Verge, it’s true–and an interesting story. But I was more interested in the toy than the process. For years I’ve followed The Verge’s coverage of what they call the “holy grail of Star Wars toys” : a lightsaber that automatically extends and then fully retracts back into its hilt. We’ve all played with sabers that have plastic blades that you have to flick out to create the effect of its blade being extended. And it wasn’t until ten years ago (or so) that they made blades that fully retracted into the hilt.  I remember wielding my plastic saber as a kid and wondering, “Why can’t they make a better lightsaber toy?” I got my hands on both of the Power Sabers–right before my local stores sold out. When I first saw the packaging, I was surprised just how brazenly the makers of the Power Saber were going for that Star Wars  look. The outside of the box touts its automatic extension and retraction feature but also tries to sell its 30” length, motion based sound effects, in-hilt LED and  its ability to “Flash-On Clash.”  According to the back of the box, I only need 4 AA batteries to power this bad boy. - Interestingly, it has instructions on how to unbox the thing printed right on the box . It even has clever little tabs that attach the saber to the packaging–and that attachment also works as a display stand. I loved this–there’s way less wasted plastic. Outside of the box, the Power Saber’s plastic looks and feels a little cheaper than I was hoping. It's obviously aping a  lightsaber so closely, I’m surprised there aren’t any lawsuits yet. It might dodge those lawsuits by looking generic, but that ends up also looking boring. The saber’s controls are simple, with a blade control switch and a power switch. Pushing forward extends the blade, and pushing back retracts it. There’s a small clip you can use to clip to your belt–if your belt is as thin as paper. You can even take the clip off and possibly attach something more robust. As for its heft? This thing is chunky. I have big hands, and while it’s comfortable for me to hold, it’s definitely going to be too big for small kids. It’s marked as aged 6+, but you know smaller kids will want a chance to play with this thing. The Power Saber’s marquee feature is the ability to extend and retract the blade automatically–and it does this just fine. The mechanism is pretty loud, but the sound effect it emits mostly covers up the noise. Even so, hearing that thing extending and retracting repeatedly gets annoying. But sacrifices must be made for something this cool. Because honestly? It is pretty damn cool to have a plastic lightsaber that works so much like the real thing.  While the blade is extended the speakers emit a continuous energy hum that is, again, not quite a lightsaber sound effect -- but it's so close you’d probably guess what it was just from hearing it. Waving the blade around activates its motion sound effects just fine, but contacting objects or another blade doesn’t make the saber clash noise consistently. The blades themselves are pretty sturdy, but I do worry about the mechanism breaking under rough play. However, there are some safeguards in place. If the blade extends into an object, the mechanism doesn’t force the blade out. Instead, it’ll just get pushed back into the previous segment–like the lightsaber toys of yore. In fact, you can push the blade most of the way in without resistance. However, extending the blade into something like a cup of water isn’t enough to stop the blade, and the blade has enough force to easily push small objects off of furniture.  Once powered on, the saber will automatically shut off after it hasn’t been handled for a few minutes–saving battery life. And while it needs 4 AA batteries to power, the battery life seems decent–we were extending and retracting our sabers for hours with no signs of dying batteries. I’d be surprised if Power Sabers didn't turn into a hot holiday item, and a go-to for cosplayers. It really is the Holy Grail of lightsaber toys–and I can only see iterations of this in the future that improve on its design. We’re finally entering a new era of more realistic lightsaber-like toys, and at least to me, that’s exciting. Want to see the Power Saber in action? Check out our video review of this amazing toy!

Taking Tony Hawk Up A Notch When attempting to create a new game, there are several approaches you can take. Do you try something new? Update something old? Or do you blend multiple ideas together into something wholly new? From freshman developer Phantom Coast comes Helskate:  a unique twist combination of genres. Mixing together the roguelike genre with skateboarding, like an indie game peanut butter and jelly sandwich of gameplay mechanics, but does this make for a satisfying recipe for success? Or do these two flavors not quite mix? To break down Helskate’s mechanics  is to talk about two well worn games. First, let’s talk about Tony Hawk Pro Skater. A Playstation 1 era skateboarding game that plays with semi realistic tricks but with unrealistic physics. You Ollie (jump) then can hit different buttons and directions for flip tricks, grabs and grinds/wallrides. You can also double tap a direction on landing for a manual (wheelie) or nose manuals. When grinding or manualling, a balance meter appears for you to feather back and forth to maintain the trick. By stringing all these different moves together you can build up massive combos, but that’s only one part of Helskate.  Initially, there are 3 weapons to choose from with more to unlock with future updates; Quick Sword, Heavy Axe and Long Range Throwing Stars. Each weapon has a basic attack and a special attack. You start a run in a randomized level, with a handful of enemies for you to dispatch. Once the enemies are cleared, there are a handful of Tony Hawk style challenges, such as beat a high score in a single combo, destroy 8 crates strewn about the level or collect the letters in HELSKATE. These challenges reward currency for permanent  upgrades. Within the run itself you can get gear or stickers for your board  that will provide bonus damage or attacks per tricks you perform.  The second part of the Helskate experience is best described by referring to Hades by Supergiant Games. Once you’ve completed a level, you are presented with multiple doors that reference currency, single run perks, or gear. Then you can choose which door to go to and customize your run for whatever you think you need next. Once you’re defeated though, you are sent back to the hub world where you can use the currency gained for permanent upgrades such as tattoos which will continue for every subsequent run. The hub world also gives you an opportunity to have conversations with the NPC’s of that world and unlock lore about the story at play.  There’s also a skate competition that unlocks after 3 levels, where you get the opportunity to unlock permanent stat points, so by completing the competition, you can really beef up your character's skating ability. When chained with the gear you find in the levels, can make for an unstoppable combo. The competitions themselves  are all about getting the most points within the time limit, similar to the Tony Hawk series. Phantom Coast Games really wear their inspirations on their sleeves here.  The art, writing and character development do their best jobs to compete with the likes of Hades, and is largely successful, though the humor could stand a little more punching up. Outside of that Helskate is exactly what you’d expect from it. It plays like those games and doesn’t do a ton outside of those two molds. I will say that the two phases of a level feel at odds at times, whereas the beginning focus is entirely on combat, but then it abruptly ends in time for you to do some real skateboarding. It feels disjointed, but also at the same time, I don’t think I necessarily wanted more of either. If the game was entirely combat or just the skating I would definitely feel a lot less enthused on what’s to come but the extreme dichotomy of the gameplay definitely kept me intrigued on what’s to come. Helskate is currently in Early Access on Steam.

We're back after a little break and we're post the Labor Day Sales ready to look into the future and see what new releases are on the way. It's a pretty big month, especially with the Kino Lorber Fall Sale likely coming our way towards the end of the month. So let's see what else will be tempting our hearts and wallets this month! Side note: I acquired a copy of now no longer as insanely priced Chinatown on 4K during the brief period it restocked on Amazon, so a review forthcoming. Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection 4K - September 17 When it comes to 4K, older films that were shot on film and preserved well enough tend to shine the brightest (pun intended). So it's not shocking that these Universal monsters films have aged beautifully and really stun on 4K. This boxset is a collection of the previously released 4K editions of these films and that totally ok with me. Now the price currently is $10 more than the 30 movie Universal Monsters collection on Blu-ray , which also looks incredible. So this is for those craving an upgrade for the main monsters, everyone else can bask in the glory of a very robust 30 film set. Friday the 13th   - September 17 If we're being honest with ourselves, the Friday the 13th series didn't truly find itself until the third (or maybe the 4th?). This 2009 remake aims to change that, really digging into all the over the top kills, excessive sex, and outright offensive characters fright off the bat. While your first instinct may be to write this off as a terrible film that's only attempting to revive a long dead franchise, who wouldn't be entirely wrong or right .  It kind of lies somewhere in between with quality crazy kills, goofy characters, a menacing Jason, and s pretty darn good time. It feels like the last of those sleazy 2000s horror films, but I think that aura still lurks deep in the movie stacks. Hell's Trap  - September 24 In the this day and age of every possible sub-genre of a sub-genre being mined for a physical release, nothing fills my heart more than the Mexican made b-movies that often graced my weekend mornings. Waking up early and sitting around the tiny kitchen TV to watch local car dealer sponsored airings of these grimy and violent movies was a treat! I'm from Chicago so while Svengoolie is heads and tails above all, I do fondly remember the randomness of a used car dealer quickly screaming about used cars. Hell's Trap likely was not one of these films as it goes really off the deep end with a gory murderous tale that feels like Rambo meets a slasher movie. But the spirit is clearly there and honestly all that's missing are the commercials of that used car dealer hawking used cars. Body Double  4K  - September 24 I am a self confessed Brian de Palma heathen, so a US copy of Body Double is exactly what I need. For years Ive been coveting (much like a certain character in this film) a physical copy of this film. Indicator surely had that down for quite a while , but a 4K upgrade is called for (although might want to keep that UK copy for the extras which may not cross over to the US release). The film is as Hitchockian as you'd expect from de Palma, taking the Rear Window route and diving head first into the seedy world of LA acting and pornography scene. It's a wild ride with a utterly fantastic style and soundtrack. Cannot recommend this more. Other films you should check out this month: As always, Criterion has a great month ahead of them with a full 4K lineup The Long Good Friday , All of Us Strangers , Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy , Happiness , and Repo Man plus Tótem from the Janus Contemporaries sub label Support Kevin Costner's risky decision to self finance a Western epic with Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 - September 10 Get ready for Halloween the really fun Late Night With the Devil with steelbook packaging - September 10th Even more spookiness Longlegs - September 24 Let things get a little magical with Matthew Vaughn's Stardust - September 24