Spaceman

I ended up watching Spaceman on the recommendation of a friend of mine.  Since I quite enjoyed the last movie he suggested (Six-String Samurai, which I may or may not end up writing about sometime in the future), I figured I'd add this one to the Netflix queue as well.

Written, directed, and produced by Scott Dikkers (former editor-in-chief of The Onion), Spaceman is about a man who was abducted by aliens when he was a young boy and returns to Earth twenty-five years later trained to kill and follow orders.  Spaceman has trouble adjusting to life back on Earth and tries to get a job with the FBI and then the army with no success.  He eventually winds up working for a supermarket until he attacks a shoplifter.  Eventually, Spaceman ends up trying to get a job for the Mob.  There's also a romance subplot between Spaceman and his neighbor, Sue.

Ok, so this movie is terrible.  I think it had a budget of about $20, it seemed like every bit of dialog was recorded after the filming and dubbed in rather haphazardly, the picture quality was pretty atrocious (especially on an HDTV), and the acting was... not that great for the most part.  HOWEVER: It was incredibly entertaining!  Spaceman gets into all sorts of poorly choreographed fights that are kind of hilarious.  I think the best was when he blinded a guy using two forks and it looked like the "blood" was actually barbecue sauce.  We are also treated to a cleaning/home improvement montage that includes Spaceman going to the library to research some home improvement ideas.  Any book that promotes library usage is OK in my book!

Bottom line: if you like campy movies, give Spaceman a shot.  Just make sure your expectations are set less "Citizen Kane" on the movie-greatness scale, and more "Plan 9 From Outer Space".  Have any suggestions for other movies I should try?

Bastion

I mentioned last time that I got the latest Humble Indie Bundle and Psychonauts certainly wasn't the only game in the bundle.  Another one of the many games that I got is Bastion, the first game from developer Supergiant Games.

Bastion is an action role-playing game in which your character, known only as "The Kid", awakens after "The Calamity", an event which has destroyed the world, Caelondia.  He makes his way to the Bastion, the place where people were supposed to gather if there was trouble.  As the Kid wanders around, the ground forms paths to follow and a voice narrates all of his actions.  Eventually he makes it to the Bastion, which is also in ruins, and meets another survivor, Rucks, who also happens to be the narrator.  Rucks tell the Kid that he needs to travel to different parts of Caelondia and collect the cores that power it to repair the Bastion which can somehow repair what the Calamity has done to Caelondia.  During his journey, the Kid finds two more survivors and learns about how the Calamity came to have happened.

Taking on some Squirts

Bastion is a pretty neat game and a lot of fun to play.  The story is engaging and the way it unfolds, mostly via the narration that goes on during the regular gameplay, keeps the action moving forward.  The gameplay is pretty simple and linear, but you've got enough options with weapons and buffs to keep things interesting.  Bastion is also fairly short, which keeps the story from getting bogged down and boring, though there are enough optional things to explore as well as a new game+ mode to make playing through more than once appealing.  The two things that really make this game standout, though, are its music and its narration.  The soundtrack was composed by Darren Korb and fits the game absolutely perfectly (you can check it out here; and really you should since it's pretty great) and Logan Cunningham does a phenomenal job with the over three thousand lines of narration, not all of which you'd even hear on your first play-through.  You can check that out in Bastion's game trailers, which you can find here.

So, if this sounds like something you'd like to play, you can purchase Bastion for the PC (Steam has it for $14.99 regularly though at the moment I'm writing this it's on sale for $3.74), Mac for $18.99, or Xbox 360 for 1,200 Microsoft points.  I definitely recommend it and I look forward to seeing what Supergiant comes up with next.

Psychonauts

Several weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to take advantage of the latest Humble Indie Bundle which featured a whole lot of fantastic independent games.  One of those games was Psychonauts, made by Double Fine, which I think might actually be one of the best games I've ever played. 

Psychonauts is an action-adventure platformer game in which you control Raz, a young psychic who's run away from home (which happens to be the circus) to sneak into a summer camp that trains other young psychics.  Throughout the game Raz gains different psychic abilities, such as pyrokinesis, levitation, and invisibility, and goes inside the minds of several other characters.  Each of these mental worlds is very unique.  I think my favorite one of these was Lungfishopolis, an homage to giant-monster movies like Godzilla.

The main thing that really stands out to me about this game is the amount of detail and care that went into it.  All of the dialog is completely voice acted, and voice acted well (which is definitely not always the case in games) and even minor characters have interesting personalities and backgrounds.  In addition, some of the powers you gain are usable on other characters and pretty much all of them have different reactions.  Plus, it looks fantastic.

Raar!  I am the mighty Goggalor!

Oh, hi there, Linda!

It's challenging, too.  Especially if you're looking to get all the collectible things in the game.  For the most part, though, it's not too hard.  At least until you get to the Meat Circus.

Yup, it's exactly what it sounds like.

Though from what I understand, the version I have is actually easier than the original release was, for which I am grateful.  Cuz yeah, that Meat Circus is a giant pain.  It would also probably have been easier if I'd used a game controller rather than the keyboard and mouse to play. 

Really, the only thing I don't like about this game is that there isn't a sequel.  There's been fairly recent talk about one, but who knows if or when it'll actually happen.  In the meantime, though, Double Fine had a ridiculously successful Kickstarter campaign to fund a new adventure game, so at least I have that to be incredibly excited about.

If you're at all interested in getting Psychonauts, you can buy it from Steam (for the PC or Mac) or GOG (PC) for $9.99 and for the XBox 360 for 800 Microsoft points.