PAD #35: Still on the Fence About Echo

Went and saw 22 Jump Street today.  Partially for a lack of anything better being released the past week or so, partially because I enjoyed the first one and heard that this one was also really good.  Well, it didn't disappoint.  I'm honestly not sure if I want to do a Spoilerific on it because it's the kind of sitcom where I go specifically so I can just switch-off my brain and have a good laugh for a while.  Part of what makes the movies work is that they both take 4th-wall-breaking jabs at their own existence, and thus at movies in general.  The first one taking a jab at the entire concept of remakes, with this one making a gag about Hollywood's tendency to make sequels because "Hey!  The first one was good, right?  Let's just do it again and it should make more money.  Right?"

The movies were written by the same minds that took the idea of a movie about Legos and turned it into one of the greatest movies this year (or maybe it was last year?  I forget off-hand), as well as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (which I've personally never seen, but have heard is pretty damn good).  Both movies that no one really expected to be all that great, along with the Jump Street movies, but that all managed to deliver.  Apparently they're going to be directing a TV show called Last Man on Earth, so it'll be interesting to see if their legacy continues.  Admittedly I don't often like Television as much.  Outside of acclaimed hits, I tend to find that TV shows tend to have a very samey feel to them.  It's not that they're poorly written per se, it's just that when I know how I'm supposed to feel about a specific character because they fall very directly into their archetype, it's hard to care.  "Whelp, I guess I'm gonna have to hate him, because he's the obvious jack ass who's going to be the obvious jack ass in any scene that has him, and they'll never explain his character well enough to have us know why he's a jackass (or they'll give a very shallow reason for it) because then we might feel conflicted about hating the jackasses in our own lives."  Bleh...

I started playing One Way Heroics the other day, and it's pretty fun little game.  It's an RPG with a little bit of Roguelike sprinkled on top.  You explore a world that's generated Minecraft style (which is to say that it's random, but you can specify the seed for the same world over and over if you want), with the gimmick being that the world is being eaten by an ominous darkness that's creeping over the world from west to east.  There-in lies the gimmick for which the game is named.  Every turn you take (walking, attacking, whatever), the darkness creeps a little closer, so you have to keep moving gradually East lest it consume you.  The game ends when the end boss spawns and you kill him, when you reach the end of the world, or when you die.  All-in-all, for a game that only costs $3.50 (and I got it during Steam's summer sale, so it was cheaper still) it's a pretty fun little RPG.

On that note, I think I'm gonna give it another run or two.  Thanks for joining me on today's PAD, and I hope to see you next time.  Until then, game well.