I thought the Cars Toons were fun when they first came out, but they started to wear on me because the set-ups were all the same (Mater makes a tall tale, McQueen doesn’t believe him, Mater says “you remember, you were there”, repeat ad nauseum).

This one keeps the basic formula, but it comes with a much appreciated lack of the series catchphrases. It also has a cute, interesting story, and we get some back story on Radiator Springs’ oldest inhabitant to boot!

I once thought they should retire the Cars Toons in favor of the Toy Story Toons, but if they keep up the quality of this short, they’re certainly welcome to stay in my book. :)

(On a side note, this one’s basic premise comes from a turned down story idea seen on the DVD. I wished they had made this one when I saw the storyboard, and with the re-write it’s even better).

I went to Connecticut for the first time last month. As I was looking for a place to sleep for the night, I saw a billboard advertising Maggie McFly’s. The name caught my eye as I’m a big Back to the Future fan and Maggie McFly is the name of Marty’s great great grandmother, so I thought I’d give it a try the next day after I got some sleep.

I’m very glad I did decide to go. I went for the novelty of the name, but fell in love with the food there. I had the chicken and seafood paella, and it was amazing. It tasted delicious, it was spiced just right, and the pot they brought it in was huge. I had some leftovers to enjoy on my trip back home. If I ever go back to Connecticut, I’m definitely going back to Maggie McFly’s.

Bone: Out From Boneville was the first adventure game from Telltale Games. They had just set up shop one year prior, immediately following the news of the cancellation of Sam & Max: Freelance Police at LucasArts. The original Telltale staff was comprised of mainly those who had worked on Freelance Police at LucasArts, and they had a lot to prove in their new venture.

While the crew had proven themselves to be capable of producing well-received adventures under the LucasArts umbrella, they had not had to run the whole show themselves. They had a much lower budget than they had at LucasArts, so they had to find a way to work within that budget. They also had formed their company on the premise of episodic gaming, a concept that, in 2005, was still in its infancy. No one had yet come up with a business model that made episodic gaming a viable commercial endeavor. Despite the legacy behind the team, the odds were not in favor of the small upstart.

They had released one game before Bone, a casual poker game that was originally a test for their in-house Telltale Tool engine. The game came out better than had been expected, and the team decided to make the game a commercial release. The game, despite not being an adventure, did alleviate a few fears. The voice acting was good, the writing was funny, the banter between the computer players was enjoyable, and the music fit the game. Even before their first adventure game release, Telltale had shown that they could do a fine job in the sound and writing departments.

But writing a small casual game was much different than writing a full adventure game, so no one knew what to expect from Out from Boneville. When the game was released, the result was a good adventure game that didn’t quite reach the heights of the LucasArts adventures but was a step in the right direction.

The game was a very faithful adaptation of the first book of Jeff Smith’s popular Bone comic. The characters were faithfully rendered in a 3D look that looked like the comic characters. The storyline was in-tact and just a few elements were changed to make it flow better as a game. The major change is that the snow scene is not here. The game seems to take place over the course of one day, as opposed to several in the comic. But, that change does not make the game any less enjoyable, and is really a nit-pick more than anything. I was new to the series when I first played the game, and only read the Boneville comic a few months ago. I enjoyed the game despite having no previous knowledge of the characters, and obviously the lack of the snow scene did not even enter my conciousness. Probably only the most diehard Bone fans would care about the change.

The characters are all voiced well, and the music is wonderful. The music here is by Telltale standard musician Jared-Emerson Johnson of Bay Area Sound, who has provided the music in almost all of Telltale’s games.

There are a few drawbacks to the game, which are a result from this being Telltale’s first adventure game. They hadn’t yet mastered the concept of episodic gaming, so the game seems a bit desolate in places, and is quite short. The scene with Fone Bone traveling the mountain at the beginning looks nice, and is very faithful to the book, but as a game it feels a bit drawn out. The middle is the most fleshed out of the bunch, and, although the game is aimed at a younger audience, it includes puzzles that are pretty fun even to an adult.

Another problem that arose from this being Telltale’s first adventure game is that some of the puzzles require you to do something exactly as the programmers wrote it, and what seems to be a natural solution to a puzzle won’t work. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen often, and when it does happen the programmer’s intentions to the puzzles are pretty easy to figure out.

The game was later released in a director’s cut which was created with input by Bone creator Jeff Smith. The director’s cut version has since replaced the original on the site. All orders that are placed now will receive the director’s cut version. The directors cut version improves on the original in many ways. The model of Thorn has been improved to more closely resemble the comic, and the actress has been changed as well. The new actress does a great job and sounds like the you’d expect Thorn to sound based on her appearance. The game has also been lengthened a little bit, since more story set-up has been added thanks to a wonderful cut-scene at the beginning and a more concise ending of the game.

I enjoyed this game despite the technical hiccups and the desolate feeling in the beginning. Once the game gets to the second act, the game becomes quite enjoyable. It’s just a shame the game ends so soon. Thankfully, the length and the sparseness of the surroundings were addressed in the second game, and the price has since been lowered since it’s original release. There is a bundle pack available for both games that definitely makes this relatively game much more worth it for the price.

I just replayed Telltale Texas Hold’Em. When I first played this game, I didn’t know Poker well, so I was never able to win. When Poker Night at the Inventory came out, I forced myself to learn Poker and now I can play Telltale Texas Hold’Em well enough to hear a lot of the comments in one play through (and I actually managed to win a few times! Yay!).

I was actually pleasantly surprised that it’s still fun to play, considering it was Telltale’s first product and it was initially only meant as a test of the Telltale Tool.

I’ll get the bad out of the way first:

I noticed audio problems. Some of the lines of speech would crackle at the end of the sentence, and some lines seemed to cut off prematurely. Although, the latter is barely noticable, and the former doesn’t happen too often.

There isn’t an option in the menu to change your screen resolution. I personally didn’t mind this, but I know some might, especially with a widescreen monitor as the image stretches to fit the screen.

Also, it shows it’s age graphically. The parts of the characters that are supposed to be rounded are somewhat jagged, especially on Harry’s and Boris Krinkle’s bald heads. I don’t mind this personally, since I’ve never worried about graphics in games. I’ve always believed in graphic design over graphic pizazz, and the design of the characters in this game is fittingly cartoony and charming (and besides, the “jaggies” are nowhere near as bad, as say something from the late 90’s or early 2000’s like Escape from Monkey Island), but if you’re the kind that worries about that kind of thing, you can tell it’s an older game (it was released in 2005).

And the good:

It’s really funny. I read the rules for the first time, and was pleasantly surprised at how hilarious they are. I’m glad that Telltale put humor into something that would otherwise be tedious. One sentence in the rules actually made me chuckle out loud. Another funny thing I noticed was that Poker Night at the Inventory make a reference to it’s spiritual predecessor through Telltale Texas Hold’Ems rules section.

The characters were great. Boris Krinkle had some great lines. I also enjoyed Grandma Shakey’s comments about being sadder than when her Nth dead husband died and X (X being everything from something small to something big). Harry Weinhead’s comment was funny too (I love fourth wall breaking jokes). And Ted Theodore Dudebrough (gotta love the Bill & Ted reference) was basically a mellow Max (with a touch of Strong Bad) which was great. Like Ted, Max would usually follow your crazy bets even if he had bad cards. Ted also said some pretty random stuff and he used some pop culture in funny ways.

The music is also wonderful. :) It’s an upbeat Jazz score. I really wish I bought the Jerry Logas and the Pier 23 Reunion Band CD when it was available in Telltale’s store. The voices are also surprisingly done well, considering this was before Bay Area Sound handled Telltale’s games.

While the facial animation was just average, the animation of the characters themselves was great considering this was Telltale’s first product (and was only originally intended as an internal test project). Boris Krinkle, especially, had a lot of fun movement in his arms. And I especially liked one particular animation involving Boris and Ted. It was a great little piece of animation, and I enjoyed watching it every time.

Despite it’s age (and it’s lack of graphic options), it’s still fun to play (it seems to play the same as Poker Night at the Inventory), and it’s still funny (and I’m sure I haven’t heard all of the dialog yet). :)

I finally got a Wii last Christmas. It was the Mario 25th anniversary red Wii with Wii Sports and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I managed to beat Bowser shortly afterward, but I just managed to find all the secrets and complete the game 100% a few days ago.

I have never owned a Nintendo DS, so the only time I ever got to play the original New Super Mario Bros. was in short plays at display kiosks. So the whole New Super Mario Bros. concept was pretty new to me when I first played New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I’ve always liked the 3D Mario games, but it was great to play a new side-scroller again, since the 3D games aren’t the same due to their open-world feel. I liked the inclusion of the 3D moves, such as the wall jumps and the butt stomp. I also liked the homage to Super Mario Bros. 3 with the costumes Mario could wear. The raccoon tail was more fun for flying in Mario 3 than the propeller cap, but the penguin suit in New Super Mario Bros. Wii was much more fun than the frog suit. Mario could still swim really fast with the penguin suit, but he wasn’t slowed down on land, and he could slide on his belly, which was fun. :)

I liked that the blue mushroom from Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels was used again, this time to better effect. In The Lost Levels, the blue mushroom was evil, since it caused you to shrink or die, depending on if you were currently using a power-up. Here, the mushroom caused you to become very, very tiny, and let you access hidden locations, jump really high, and run across water. It was great to see that the blue mushroom seems to have finally found it’s place in the main game series. :)

The music is always a high point of Mario games, and the animators took it one step further by having the characters in the game react to the music. The creatures in the game would dance or hop when the vocals kicked in with the “da da” refrain. I love cute things, and this really made my experience all the more enjoyable. I stopped playing many times when I encountered an enemy just to see how he’d react to the music. :)

It was great to see the inclusion of both the Koopa Kids from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World and Bowser Jr. from Super Mario Sunshine as bosses. It helped make the games feel like they really were part of the same series, despite being presented in different play styles. The best part about the game for me though, was the end battle with Bowser. It was the most nerve-wracking, adrenaline-pumping boss battle I’ve played yet in a Mario game, and I enjoyed every second of it. :)

I thought I’d try Peanut Butter & Co.‘s mighty maple peanut butter. It’s really good. I’ve always enjoyed honey roasted peanut butter, but I didn’t care for peanut butter sandwiches. I always had to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But the mighty maple was so good, it didn’t need jelly. Now I can actually say that I do like peanut butter sandwiches. :)

I liked the movie when it first came out, but I’ll admit I let my distaste for Disney sequels cloud my enjoyment of the movie at the time when every DVD would have several sequels to the Disney classics advertised in the trailers. Now that I’m older, I appreciate that the movie is actually the pilot episode of the television series, rather than a true sequel. When viewed in that light, rather than put up against the original film, the movie is actually quite enjoyable.

I enjoyed the evilness of Jafar and Iago’s conflict between his loyalty to Jafar and his newfound friendship with Aladdin. I also liked the songs, which while not as memorable as the original film, definitely are catchy and would get stuck in my head for a long time after I watched the movie. I wasn’t too crazy over Gilbert Gottfried’s singing voice though. It was quite overused, and not at all appealing to the ears. I liked it better when it was subdued and used sparingly in the series finale movie, Aladdin and the King of Thieves. I wish they had used one of Disney’s great imitators with singing talent, like Jim Cummings or Bill Farmer. If Bill Farmer could make Goofy sound good singing in A Goofy Movie, I’m sure he could have handled Iago. :)

The thing I was most pleasantly surprised about in this movie was how well Dan Castellaneta performed the voice of the Genie. He really sounded like Robin Williams at times, and I was quite surprised that he was able to quickly switch to voices while singing, and that it sounded so good. He often drifted into the deeper Homer range, but it worked as the Genie since he’s always going all over the place vocally anyway.

The quality of the film is nowhere near that of the Disney classics, but it was never meant to be. The movie was a great set up to the animated series, which I enjoyed a lot.

I just played through the second episode of the Doctor Who adventure games, Blood of the Cybermen. The puzzles in this one were better than the first. They were all something that I would imagine the doctor actually doing. There was a repeat of a puzzle from the first game, but it was one of the better ones. And it only happened once. There was repetition of the puzzles again though, although they did make it more interesting the second time when they added obstacles to it.

The voice acting still seems quite uninspired though. It’s once again decent, and better than a lot of adventure game voice acting, but not that great. There’s one line by Matt Smith where he says a word the same way twice when it’s supposed to be said with enthusiasm the first time. The way it’s said makes it sounds like the voice-track skipped.

But, the story and music are really good, just as they were last time. :)

I enjoyed The City of the Daleks, but there was one thing that kept it from being as good as it could be. They repeated puzzles too many times. Especially the maze puzzle. It was an OK puzzle the first time, but not great. I enjoyed the wire puzzle and the pattern puzzle since they seemed like something the Doctor would actually do. But the maze puzzles seemed a little weird, since I couldn’t imagine the Doctor pushing little circuits through electrified mazes.

If it would have only been done once, I would have let it slide and just chalk my dislike of the puzzle up to fangirl nitpicking. However, they put in three pattern puzzles (but it actually made sense why there would be three of those in the storyline). Then they put in three of the maze puzzles, which were the weakest puzzles.

The rest of it was great though. The storyline was really good, the voice-acting was good, and the music and sound-effects were good. I was surprised that the stealth gameplay actually fits in an adventure game so well. Maybe the suggestion on the Telltale forums that they make a Firefly game would actually work if they made it like this. I’m waiting for the next episode with great anticipation. :)

I played Space Quest II a little bit when I was a little girl, but I wasn’t very good at it. A few years ago, I finally completed the game.

This one had a lot of deaths and points where you could get stuck (although all early Sierra adventure games do, so I won’t hold that against it). The game also lacks much of the humor of the rest of the games in the series, but the storyline is pretty interesting.

It’s really not that bad of a game either, considering the era it was released in, so it is worth playing. Most of all, the events of the rest of the games in the series are tied in directly to the events of this game, so it’s a must play to keep from getting confused.