January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
Story Title: “The Thing (from Another World)” Published: 1991 to 1992
The Review: The Thing from Another World is set twenty-four hours after the team at United States Antarctic Research Outpost #31 discovered an aggressive, parasitic alien organism (the titular “Thing”) that drove them to paranoia and violence through its ability to gruesomely mimic living creatures. The comic immediately answers the question about whether or not the final survivors from Outpost #13 lived or died by showing that Childs carried the unconscious R.J. “Mac” MacReady through a bitter snowstorm and out onto the ice fields and left him to be rescued by the Misaki Maru, a passing whaling vessel. The confused and disoriented Mac is horrified to learn that Childs returned to Outpost #13 to look for more survivors, leading to him being sedated to keep him calm. When he awakens again, Mac quickly cuts himself free and dresses, pondering why Childs would save him if he (as in Childs) was infected by the Thing. Suddenly paranoid that he may be the one that’s infected, Mac quickly replicates the blood test depicted in John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and is relieved when he gets the all-clear, lending some credibility to the notion that the infected don’t know they’re a Thing until they’re threatened. Easily snaking around the ship, Mac (being a fully qualified pilot) commandeers their helicopter and quickly picks up Childs’ trail, which heads East rather than North towards Outpost #13. Although Mac’s forced to ditch the helicopter when he runs out of fuel, he successfully makes it back to the remains of Outpost #13, where he quickly gets to work burning the brutalised remains of his former friends.
The paranoid Mac is so determined to eradicate the Thing that he seems willing to die to do it!
Mac discovers the mangled, monstrous hibernating form of another mishmash of lifeforms and promptly blows it to pieces. However, he’s stopped from destroying the separate chunks by United States Sea, Air, and Land troops (SEALs). The SEALs were dispatched to investigate Outpost #13 but appear to have no idea of what really happened there and believe Mac murdered everyone and destroyed the base. Despite being cuffed, Mac leashes out when one of the SEALs, Pybus, curiously touches a piece of the Thing, leading to him taking a rifle butt to the head and the oblivious Lieutenant Commander Les Erskine to order that the mutilated remains be left for the bio-team. Just as the SEALs are boarding their evacuation helicopter, Pybus sprouts tentacles and mutates, firing on his stunned teammates, gunning most of them down and destroying the helicopter. Freed from his cuffs, Mac blasts the Pybus-Thing with a pistol, only for its corpse to birth a bizarre, tentacled alien that finally makes a believer out of Erskine before Mac blows it up with a grenade. After tending to their wounded, Mac and Erskine explore their options, only to find they’re out of fuel and with no hope of rescue. Erskine’s aghast when Mac reveals his plan to eradicate all traces of the Thing, including the both of them, to ensure there’s no chance of even a small part of it reaching civilisation. Erskine offers an alternative solution by holding Mac at gunpoint and ordering him to help get the wounded soldiers to a nearby research station, though they continue to clash regarding their chances and one man dies from his wounds (or the severe cold) on the way. Erskine is livid when he discovers Mac intentionally led them in the wrong direction, leading to another brief scuffle in which Erskine suspects Mac wants them to freeze to death because he’s the Thing!
Mac and Childs must set aside their differences to stop the Thing from reaching civilisation.
Their scuffle is interrupted by Childs and some Argentinians from the base, though the paranoid Mac immediately attacks Childs. After Mac is subdued, Childs confirms that he left Mac to be rescued and went back to destroy the others, though Mac remains suspicious. Mac’s horror only increases when they reach Campo Del Sur and see how many people could get infected, though Childs assures him that the Argentinians are conducting routine blood tests to stay safe. While Mac’s still hostile even after he and Childs are tested negative, he’s startled when Erskine’s unconscious trooper bursts into a bloody mass of tentacles and teeth! Though injured, the Thing quickly escapes, forcing the others to pursue and discover the gruesome remains of its latest victim. Despite Mac’s protests, Childs insists on proceeding further before the Thing can freeze and ends up almost devoured by the gigantic, cephalopod-like Thing before it’s destroyed with a grenade. Erskine urges them to return to Campo Del Sur so he can radio for assistance, leaving Mac to share his concerns about the commander to Childs. While Childs has his doubts since Erskine was so “gung-ho” about destroying the Thing, Mac’s fears are soon proven when they find three men dead in the trashed radio room. Realising that the Erskine-Thing radioed for a submarine, Mac and Childs race to intercept it, riddling the Erskine-Thing with bullets and causing it to wildly mutate. The Thing slaughters its way onto the submarine and goes on a rampage, with the sub performing an emergency dive and eventually crashing after the Thing wrecks the controls. With the submarine quickly flooding and the Thing heading for the escape capsule, Mac quickly catches the survivors up to speed and forms a hunting party and finds it in the torpedo bay. Despite Mac being ready to die to end the Thing’s threat, he objects when Childs goes to blow the hatch and end the nightmare once and for all. Childs thus destroys the submarine and all onboard except Mac, who’s inexplicably blasted from the wreckage and emerges on the frigid surface, passing out on an ice float despite his determination to stay alive…
Final Thoughts: John Carpenter’s The Thing ends with perhaps one of the greatest cliff-hangers in all of cinema and fans have debated for years about whether Mac or Childs have been infected or not. One of the reasons it’s such an intriguing debate is that it’s presented as a stalemate between the two. Both are equally suspicious of each other and likely to be either human or the Thing, but both are too exhausted and paranoid to do much about it but “wait and see” what happens. The Thing from Another World isn’t the only piece of ancillary media to provide a definitive answer to this long-debated cliff-hanger, but it’s equally questionable about whether these answers work or not and may come down to personal preference. On the one hand, it’s cool to continue Mac’s nightmare and to see him hunt down and destroy the Thing, and to see how he and Childs react to each other when reunited. On the other hand, it feels like a disservice to the film to provide a definitive answer and it’s possible this story could’ve been just as effective if it followed a researcher or soldier investigating Outpost #13 and perhaps working from the remains of Blair’s notes. The fact that subsequent issues double-down and continue Mac’s story only compounds the issue, though I liked that Mac was even more proactive than ever and used his traumatic experiences and first-hand knowledge of the Thing to his advantage against the shape-shifting alien. I was also intrigued by the twist that he was ready to die to ensure the alien is destroyed. However, it’s bizarre that he so vehemently objects when Childs sacrifices himself and the others on the submarine at the end, especially as Mac was ready to sacrifice Erskine in the mountains. At the same time, Mac was hesitant to murder Erskine so maybe this is just a poorly executed expansion of the fear and paranoia that have so tightly gripped Mac’s heart.
If nothing else, the comic perfectly captures the paranoia and horror of John Carpenter’s movie.
Overall, I’d have to say the artwork was very impressive, perfectly capturing the dark, desolate atmosphere of Antarctica and bringing the gore to life with intricate brushwork. It was a little difficult to make out what was going on at times, especially when the Thing reveals itself, but this may have been intentional to replicate the “less is more” approach of the movie and emphasise how chaotic it is when the infected suddenly sprout tentacles and gnashing teeth. Indeed, the art is at its best when depicting the Thing and its victims, recreating the memorable special effects of the movie and playing upon the reader’s familiarity with the film to depict the remains of Outpost #13 and the mangled corpses of its inhabitants. Mac blows up a hibernating mass of flesh and teeth that closely resembles the Thing’s final form in the film, the defibrillator scene is evoked when Erskine’s soldier suddenly explodes with tentacles and dangerous alien appendages, and we get a better idea of how capable the infected are as we see them using rifles and having the wherewithal to signal for help. The Thing from Another World also introduces a couple of additional forms for the Thing, ones possibly too outrageous and ambitious to be brought to life by John Carpenter’s paltry budget. These include a bug-like Thing, a larger one out in the snow, and the strange, bipedal mess of meat that Erskine devolves into to tear through the submarine. The only real downside is that the Things are dispatched quite easily each time, with a single grenade being enough to destroy or at least subdue them long enough for their pieces to be incinerated. The Thing still slaughters a bunch of people, to be fair, but they’re largely nameless, faceless SEALs whose deaths mean little compared to those of Outpost #13. Ultimately, this was a decent enough epilogue to The Thing, but I think it would’ve been better, overall, to avoid answering what happened to Mac and/or Childs and instead follow wholly original characters as they encounter the Thing.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Have you ever read The Thing from Another World? Were you happy to see the film’s cliff-hanger answered here or would you have preferred the story to focus on original characters? What did you think of the art work and the call-backs to John Carpenter’s movie? Did you guess that Erskine was infected? Can you explain why Mac suddenly abandoned his suicidal crusade at the end? How are you celebrating the sci-fi genre this month? Whatever your thoughts on The Thing from Another World, drop a comment down below and send me some love on Ko-Fi if you want me to review more Thing comic books.
January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
Released: 8 August 2017 Originally Released: 24 March 1995 Developer: Capcom MobyGames Score: 7.4
Also Available For: GameCube, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Series S
Gameplay and Power-Ups: Mega Man 7 brings the classic, 2D, sidescrolling run-and-gun action platforming of the 8-bit and portable games to the SNES for the first time. Fundamentally, very little has changed from Mega Man’s NES glory days, though Mega Man 7 does a far better job of translating and updating the classic formula than his previous 16-bit outing. As ever, Mega Man tackles four initial stages and one of Doctor Albert Wily’s new “Robot Masters” before challenging four further stages and Robot Masters and then finally storming Dr. Wily’s latest hi-tech base. While you’re free to choose which stage and Robot Master to take on, each Robot Master has a specific weakness that’ll make short(er) work of them. Unlike previous Mega Man games, Mega Man 7 opens with a tutorial to instinctively teach the game’s basics in a simple platforming challenge. By default, A and Y see you jump, B fires Mega Man’s patented “Mega Buster” arm cannon, and you can hold X to auto-fire in short bursts. You hold B to charge the Mega Buster for a stronger shot, jump higher when underwater, and Mega Man can slide beneath jumping enemies, some projectiles, and through narrow passages by pressing down and A. The Left and Right Bumper cycle through the “Special Weapons” you obtain from Robot Masters, though you can manually do this from the in-game menu with the “View” button. While you get unlimited ammo for the basic Mega Buster, the Special Weapons drain individual meters, so you need Weapon capsules to replenish these. You can also review your stock of lives and bolts (the game’s currency), activate health or weapon energy restoring Energy and Weapon Tanks, or utilise special items and Mega Man’s robotic allies from the game’s menu.
Mega Man’s new, but extremely familiar abilities are put to the test in striking 16-bit stages.
Mega Man’s mysterious “brother”, Proto Man, offers hints and you can visit Auto’s shop from the stage select screen, where bolts are traded for extra lives and E- and W-Tanks. These are also found in stages and dropped by enemies, of course, but Auto also sells Super Tanks to fully restore both health and Special Weapon energy, an “Exit Part” to exit any stage, and lets you call robotic bird helper Beat to rescue you from bottomless pits. However, you must first find Beat in Slash Man’s stage and, similarly, you’ll find extra abilities for Mega Man and his robot canine, Rush, by either exploring or shopping. Rush can again be summoned to spring you higher, fly you across areas for as long as the meter lasts, or find hidden goodies. Rush’s search ability is required to access the Energy Equalizer and Hyper Rocket Buster, though you must use your own abilities to find the hidden R-U-S-H letters to fully upgrade Mega Man like in Mega Man 6. Mega Man again gains powerful new abilities from each Robot Master that can be used to defeat others or further explore stages, such as powering up generators or burning objects. Some are very similar to previous Special Weapons (the Junk Shield is essentially just the Leaf Shield, for example, and Scorch Wheel is like Fire Storm). Thunder Bolt and Freeze Cracker are two of the best Special Weapons as they splinter on impact to damage multiple targets (the latter even freeze some enemies) and the Noise Crush can be powered up by absorbing the sound wave as it ricochets back. I found the Wind Coil erratic and unwieldy, however, and especially dangerous as it makes you a sitting duck, and the Slash Claw is powerful but hazardous as it’s only effective up close. Like my previous Mega Man experiences, I largely saved the Special Weapons for the Robot Masters unless I needed to activate machinery with the Thunder Bolt or utilise Rush’s abilities.
Despite some fun and unique stage elements, it’s all business as usual for the Blue Bomber.
Mega Man 7 sticks very closely to the classic Mega Man formula, throwing bottomless pits, disappearing and reappearing platforms, and insta-kill hazards like various spikes and flame turrets at you. You’ll do as much vertical progression as horizontal thanks to the many ladders and rising or moving platforms, timed explosive platforms threaten to drop you, and conveyer belts push you towards enemies or pits. While enemies still respawn, they don’t clutter the screen as much as before, though they’re still placed in the worst positions to screw up your jumps. Wall, ceiling, and floor turrets and spikes are commonplace, some platforms crumble or spin beneath you, and you can ride or hop to other temporary platforms to cross chasms (or just use Rush Jet for a slightly easier time). Burst Man’s stage incorporates underwater sections that see you perfectly timing hops into the predictable tide to bypass spikes, Cloud Man’s stage has you riding cloud platforms and even fighting against torrential rain, Junk Man’s stage features insta-kill molten steel, crushing hazards, and overhead magnets you can power up, and Freeze Man’s stage sees you losing traction on icy surfaces and sliding into hazards. Prior to facing the Robot Museum, you’re presented with four additional, shorter stages. You’ll be hopping to log platforms as they fall down waterfalls and using Technodons to cross spike beds in Slash Man’s stage, bouncing around Spring Man’s funhouse, lighting up dark caverns in Shade Man’s dilapidated castle, and avoiding overheard tyres in Turbo Man’s stage. This stage also features a panic inducing drop past insta-kill flame bursts not unlike the lasers seen in Quick Man’s stage, while Dr. Wily’s first stage includes a blackout gimmick where the stage turns dark when you jump or land on certain platforms. More (and often smaller) conveyers are in the doctor’s second stage, as are flame burst blocks you must precariously scale, while his third stage includes platforms that only become visible when you’re on them and a risky underwater drop past some insta-kill spikes.
Presentation: Mega Man 7 is obviously a massive graphical upgrade from the Blue Bomber’s 8-bit days, featuring gorgeous, vibrant 16-bit graphics that put Mega Man: The Wily Wars (Minakuchi Engineering, 1994) to shame. Mega Man is a big, chunky sprite with more expression than ever thanks to the SNES hardware. While he only blinks or looks about when idle and still can’t look up or crouch, he has a determined look on his chubby cheeks and showcases his personality in sprite-based cutscenes with Auto, new rival Bass, and Dr. Light. Mega Man changes colour with each Special Weapon, now sporting two colour schemes for every weapon, and is far more detailed so you really feel it when he cries out in pain and explodes upon dying. The game incorporates partially animated, anime-style sprite art and in-game sprites for its story, which is emphasised far more here as interactions happen in some stages and after beating each Robot Master, with Mega Man and Dr. Light discussing his new abilities. I was a bit annoyed to find the story still shied away from answering lingering questions about Proto Man and instead introduced a new robotic rival for Mega Man, Bass, who has a cool look and his own robot dog, but appears out of nowhere with no explanation yet everyone acts like he’s been around forever. I was therefore nonplussed when Bass went rogue thanks to Dr. Wily’s influence, though I did enjoy encountering and battling this dark mirror of Mega Man. Mega Man 7 also includes a jaunty and bombastic soundtrack and much improved performance. While screen transitions can be a touch awkward, I never encountered any slowdown or sprite flickering like in the old games, even when lots of enemies or bigger foes appeared. Everything just popped with colour and little details, from Mega Man’s hair fluttering in the wind, to robotic Pterodactyls in the background of Slash Man’s stage, which has a fun Jurassic Park(Various, 1990 to present) aesthetic.
Mega Man 7 pops with its visuals, which emphasise story and gameplay performance.
I was most impressed by Shade Man’s stage. As if featuring a hidden track wasn’t enough, the entire stage is modelled after the Ghosts ’n Goblins games (Capcom/Various, 1985 to 2021). Astro Zombie’s emerge from coffins and hop in from open windows in the background as you ride a platform to a castle roof, and the stage even starts in pitch black and illuminates when the full moon rises. Slash Man’s stage is a close second, with its dinosaur fences and thick jungle, but the game impresses from the start with a ruined city aesthetic, a visual treat only doubled with you visit the Robot Museum and see all the old Robot Masters in the background. Burst Man’s stage is a hi-tech mad scientist’s lab, filled with gigantic test tubes and lab equipment and murky water, while Cloud Man’s stage is up in the heavens, with windmills in the background, big fluffy clouds blocking platforms in the foreground, and an impressive rain (or snow) effect when Tel Tels appear. Junk Man’s fittingly holed up in a junk yard full of girders, blinking lights, and piles of junk that hide worm-like Dust Crushers. Freeze Man’s stage starts pretty basic, with just a snowy landscape in the background, but you’re soon venturing into a frigid cave full of frozen fossils and dinosaur skeletons. After fighting through Slash Man’s thick, prehistoric jungle, you’ll be knocked about in Spring Man’s funhouse. This is a colourful, circus-themed stage full of springs and flashing neon lights, while Turbo Man’s stage is set in a garage. After battling past tyres and tricky platforming, you drop to a giant, sentient semi-trailer truck for a mini boss fight. As ever, Dr. Wily’s stages are mostly just hi-tech facilities and robot factories, but the first one is modelled after a flying battleship, the second has a green metallic and turtle theme, and the third is geared more towards machinery.
Enemies and Bosses: Some familiar robot baddies pop up in Mega Man 7, respawning when you leave the screen and randomly dropping pick-ups. Naturally, the series staple Metall is back, hiding beneath its helmet, swimming underwater with a snorkel, and floating from above thanks to propellers. Sniper Joe also returns, thankfully far less cheap than before and easily dispatched with timed jumps or shots, as does a revised version Tom Boy and new versions of the always-annoying Shield Attacker and sentient fan Matasaburo, with the latter both sucking you in and pushing you back in Cloud Man’s stage. We’ve got little spherical bombs riding sleighs, slender tanks whose heads detach upon defeat, hopping traffic cones, robotic bats, crows, and fish, and birds that drop eggs filled with little chicks. Similarly, Derusu Bee hives near-endlessly spawn robot bees, a jouster-like knight rushes at you on a single wheel, robotic cockroaches continuously scurry about until you destroy their nest, and robots walk on the ceiling and drop icicles. There are hopping frogs, detached helmets, grinning rockets, large robot Stegosauruses that fire their fins and homing missiles, and a little sphere robot flings spiked tyres at you. Some stages also include mini bosses, such as the steamroller-like Mad Grinder in the prologue and the similarly themed forklift contraptions encountered in Turbo Man’s stage. You’ll easily take down a giant stationary polar bear that can only attack by flinging ice projectiles across the ground, blast the eyes of the large, grinning Sissi Truck while avoiding its minions, and pummel the core of the VAN Pookin to access new areas of Shade Man’s castle. While you battle the crab-like Kanigance twice, the Tyrannosaurus rex-like King Gojulus was the most visually impressive mini boss as it chases you down and attacks with flaming breath.
It’ll take a lot of skill and the right Special Weapons to best these Robot Masters.
Each stage culminates in a battle against one of the eight Robot Masters, with each vulnerable to a specific Special Weapon and fought again in Dr. Wily’s final stage as part of the final boss gauntlet. I tackled Burst Man first as the regular Mega Buster easily pops his bubbles and damages him. Indeed, he’s little threat even when he uses Danger Warp to spawn bubbles with mines; just keep firing and you’ll escape his bubbles and put him down. His Danger Warp is great against Cloud Man, who hovers above and summons a thunderbolt to strike you and send an electrical current through the ground. Be sure to dash under him to avoid being blown to your death when he summons a rainstorm, and position yourself to hit him with your Special Weapon. His Thunder Bolt annihilates Junk Man, who leaps about flinging junk and causing it to rain down. He can attract a bigger ball of junk to throw, but he’ll probably be dead before he gets a chance. The Junk Shield tears through the nimble Freeze Man, who can flash-freeze the ground, freeze you with a shot, and drop icicles, though it’s much tougher landing clear shots on the rotund, clown-like Mash, whose head you must detach to pummel with Danger Warp. The Freeze Cracker quickly ends Slash Man, though he’s a fast target and loves to hop offscreen, rain goop into the arena, and pounce with his claws. Rather than electrifying Spring Man with the Thunder Bolt, jump and slash him with the Slash Claw, quickly sliding away from his extendable punches, to finish him off. I fought Shade Man next and he was by far the toughest of the regular bosses as he swoops in and drains your energy to replenish his own, freezes you with his energy waves, and is most vulnerable to the unreliable Wind Coil. Finally, I fought Turbo Man, who transforms into car to charge you, saps your health with Scorch Wheel, and sucks you towards him. The Noise Crush is your best bet, but he’s a pretty big target to hit.
Tackling Dr. Wily’s final machines is no joke as Mega Man 7 is notorious for its late-game difficulty.
Mega Man’s new rival, Bass, is fought three times. The first fight is a sparring session where he jumps about firing regular shots, but he adds charged shots in the second bout and joins with Treble for the third. In this fight, he flies about, jets towards you, fires a homing punch, and is a much tricker target to hit. Dr. Wily gives Guts Man an upgrade in his fortress, forcing you to pepper him with shots and trick him into dropping giant stones for you to hit at him with the Slash Claw. You must keep him at bay with your shots to avoid his pincers tossing you into the ceiling, and work fast to avoid being crushed. The giant, turtle-like Gamerizer guards Dr. Wily’s second stage and is best damaged with the Wind Coil. You must time your shots to hit his head and avoid being immolated, slide under his rocket charge, and fend off his minions when he flies off-screen. While this was a pain, it was nothing compared to the HannyaNED2, which chases you across a platform, fires a piercing laser, spits bombs, and shoots high and low missiles. Its only weak spot are its eyes, which are extremely difficult to hit with Noise Crush, to say nothing of its massive hit box! Things take a turn for the ridiculous in Dr. Wily’s final stage, where you must defeat all eight Robot Masters and endure a two-stage battle against his latest mech with no checkpoints in between! You must slide under the Wily Machine 7 to avoid being crushed and attack its smaller doubles to clear the ground, though landing shots on Dr. Wily’s cockpit is easier said than done as the hit box is very small and your attacks do minimal damage. Dr. Wily’s last-ditch attack comes in his latest capsule, which teleports in and out and fires homing orbs that damage, stun, freeze, or immolate you. He also shoots a lightning bolt that travels across the ground and is often out of reach of most Special Weapons, making for a ridiculous tough final boss that broke me.
Additional Features: There are twenty-one Achievements available in Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 (Capcom, 2017), with one awarded specifically for beating this game. Alongside different display options (screen size, borders, and screen filters), Legacy Collection 2 allows you to view a character database and production art, enable “Extra Armour Mode” to half the damage you take, and tackle additional challenges. These see you playing through remixed stages, enduring boss rushes and time attacks, and defeating certain bosses with only the Mega Buster. Mega Man 7 uses a password feature so you can skip ahead to later stages and gain some helpful extra items, which you may need as, for some bizarre reason, Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 removes the rewind function! Sure, you can enable auto- and utilise manual saves, but these aren’t like save states. When you reload, you reload from the last checkpoint, meaning you have to endure the final boss gauntlet every time if when you fail! There are a lot of secrets in Mega Man 7, with even Rush’s abilities hidden in stages or needing to be purchased. You’ll need all the R-U-S-H letters to access Mega Man’s most powerful form and must collect a lot of bolts or search all over for additional upgrades. The Hyper Bolt will reduce Auto’s prices, and you can gain Proto Man’s overpowered shield if you track him down and defeat him in battle!
Final Thoughts: I was really excited to get stuck into Mega Man 7 after largely enjoying my playthrough of the first Legacy Collection (Digital Eclipse, 2015). The game makes a fantastic first impression, utilising the greater processing power of the SNES to bring more life, detail, and colour to Mega Man and his unique world than ever before. The game is everything The Wily Wars wishes it was, featuring tight controls, fantastic use of space, and essentially being a 16-bit do-over of the 8-bit classics. The challenge on offer is immediately familiar, with the game’s difficulty being dictated by the player as much as the many hazards and bizarre enemies. While I remain disappointed that the Special Weapons aren’t more innovative, the Robot Masters had a lot of personality and put up quite a fight at times. I was disappointed to see Bass steal Proto Man’s spotlight, but Bass has a bad-ass look and offered some fun bouts, to say nothing of the anime-like visuals evoked by the sprites. The stages also provided some enjoyable (if often safe and recycled) gimmicks, with the game outpacing its 8-bit counterparts at every turn and hiding some cheeky secrets that greatly reward you. Unfortunately, Mega Man 7 is let down by Mega Man Legacy Collection 2’s lack of a rewind or proper save state feature. Without these, the difficulty spikes dramatically and unfairly for the finale, forcing you into a boss gauntlet that’s practically unwinnable and sucking a lot of the fun out of the game. I get that this is how games were played back in the day, but it makes no sense to remove these features when they were included previously. Just allowing players to use save states rather than just manually saving to the latest checkpoint would’ve helped but, as is, Mega Man 7 is made for hardcore gamers only with its brutal difficulty curve.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Were you excited to see Mega Man come to the SNES back in the day? Which order did you tackle the game’s stages in and did you ever fully upgrade Mega Man? Which of the new Robot Masters and Mega Man’s Special Weapons was your favourite? What did you think to the late-game difficulty spike and lack of quality of life features? Which of Mega Man’s SNES games is your favourite and would you like to see more titles released in the franchise? How are you celebrating all things science-fiction this month? Whatever your thoughts and memories of Mega Man7, drop them below, check out my other Mega Man reviews, and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest more Mega Man content you’d like to see me cover.
January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
Released: 25 June 1982 Director: John Carpenter Distributor: Universal Pictures
Quick Facts: The second big screen adaptation of John W. Campbell’s iconic 1928 novella Who Goes There?, The Thing was almost helmed by horror maestro Tobe Hooper before John Carpenter got involved and pushed for a story closer to the source material. Bill Lancaster modernised the story to focus on paranoia and fear while Rob Bottin delivered the gruesome practical effects to meld numerous bizarre and horrific alien aspects into the titular “Thing”. A critical and commercial failure at the time, John Carpenter’s The Thing is now widely regarded as a sci-fi/horror classic and spawned comic books, videogames, and a divisive2011 prequel.
The Review: Life within the remote, frigid United States Outpost 31 is suddenly turned upside down when a couple of Norwegian researchers suddenly circle their snowed-in facility, where the isolated inhabitants wile away in the rec room or, in pilot R. J. “Mac” MacReady’s (Kurt Russell) case, swigging whiskey and being beaten at computer chess. The Norwegians are chasing a sled dog (Jed) through the snow and, when they fail to shoot it, land to try explosives. The commotion alerts Mac and his cohorts, who rush into the snow to see what’s up and unknowingly shield the dog, leading to the desperate and ranting Norwegian (Norbert Weisser) to threaten them at gunpoint after accidentally blowing up his helicopter and co-pilot. Startled, the Americans open fire, with station commander M. T. Garry (Donald Moffat) executing the Norwegian with his prized revolver. Confused by all this, Mac takes station physician Doctor Copper (Richard Dysart) to the Norwegian base, despite the inclement weather, and finds it a burned out, frozen wreck full of gruesome bodies. While Dr. Copper gathers the Norwegians’ notes to try and understand what happened, Mac discovers the frozen remains of a mysterious ice-like tomb and a charred, inhuman corpse that’s hideously malformed. They transport the remains back to base for analysis, only for microbiologist Doctor Blair (A. Wilford Brimley) to be bemused by the Thing’s malformed, misshapen biology. Still puzzled by whatever fate befell the Norwegians and the bizarre, steaming corpse sitting in their medical room, the team return to their games, pondering the day’s events and niggling each other, unaware that the sled dog has snuck into one of their rooms.
Mac and the others discover a horrifying alien parasite that assimilates anything it touches.
Sombre dog handler Clark (Richard Masur) later takes the adopted dog to the kennels, where it suddenly and violently erupts into a writhing, thrashing, screaming alien creature! Ensnaring the other dogs and spraying them with goop, it assaults the panicked dogs, drawing Clark and the others. Horrified, Mac and Garry blast the Dog-Thing and the other dogs, much to Clark’s dismay, and surly mechanic Childs (Keith David) incinerates the creature with a flamethrower. Dr. Blair’s subsequent autopsy reveals that the burned corpse isn’t a dog, but an “imitation” of one that was attempting to absorb and imitate the other dogs. Reviewing the Norwegians’ data, which includes video footage similar to the 1951 film, the crew discovers that the Norwegians discovered an alien space craft buried deep in the ice. They risk another helicopter ride to the site and find the craft, which is estimated to have crashed thousands of years ago and which was uncovered when the Norwegians used explosives, leading them to recover a frozen occupant who subsequently overran their base. Shaken by the implications, Dr. Blair runs some tests and determines that the parasitic organism aggressively latches onto and absorbs living cells, perfectly imitating any living creature it samples and sprouting teeth, tentacles, and other appendages from potentially thousands of other worlds. Realising that the Thing could overtake the entire world within three years if it reaches civilisation, Dr. Blair snaps and wrecks the outpost’s communications array and much of their equipment before he’s subdued and isolated. This leaves out of his depth assistant biologist Fuchs (Joel Polis) to pour over Dr. Blair’s mad ramblings for a solution and Garry shell-shocked when the Dog-Thing’s remains slither to life and absorb his friend, meteorologist George Bennings (Peter Maloney), forcing the others to set his half-transformed form alive and burn every trace of the alien from the outpost.
Paranoia and fear run rampant as the Thing assimilates those around it and feeds their distrust.
With radio operator Windows (Thomas Waites) unable to call for help and their vehicles trashed during Dr. Blair’s breakdown, the survivors prepare to weather an incoming storm, tensions flare when soiled long johns appear in cook Nauls’ (T. K. Carter) kitchen and the shredded remains of Mac’s clothing are found out in the snow. Dr. Copper suggests they use the blood bank to test who’s human and who’s the Thing, but this is scuppered when someone destroys the blood bank and they descend into arguments and finger pointing when this is discovered, accusing Garry since he’s the only one with the keys and Dr. Copper since he regularly accesses the blood. The distrust being thrown around knocks Garry’s confidence and, after a tense showdown with Windows when he frantically grabs a shotgun, Garry relinquishes his revolver and command to Mac. While Mac tries to hold the group together, being the coolest and most logical head despite his growing fear and paranoia, the others descend into anger and distrust after Fuchs is mysteriously burned alive and any chance of employing Dr. Copper’s blood test. However, but soon decide Mac is the most untrustworthy and strand him in the blizzard. They’re even more convinced he’s the Thing when he stumbles back to base without a guideline and, enraged by their betrayal and wracked by the cold, Mac threatens to blow them all up with dynamite if they don’t listen to reason. The tense standoff sees Mac and Childs clash and Clark, also a chief suspect due to his close proximity to the dogs, ready to shank Mac at the first opportunity. During the scuffle to disarm Mac, terrified geologist Norris (Charles Hallahan) is tossed aside and seemingly dies from a heart attack, only to be shockingly revealed to be the Thing! This revelation does little to allay Mac’s suspicions and, after the ghastly Norris-Thing and its offspring are incinerated, Mac forces those he begrudgingly trusts to tie up those he doesn’t and ventures that their blood with violently react to a hit needle if they’ve been assimilated.
Recovered from a crashed ship, the Thing is a hideous amalgamation of various organisms.
Rather than being a strange vegetable creature, the titular Thing is a parasitic organism like in the book. Although we see its flying saucer crash to Earth in the pre-title sequence, there’s no way of knowing if the Thing was the pilot or was simply held captive on the ship (though I’d venture to say the ship crash-landed after the Thing broke out). The Thing has no true form and instead hides behind imitation, perfectly replicating living creatures and even mirroring their personalities, to the point where the assimilated seem unaware that they’re the Thing until they’re threatened. Assistant mechanic Palmer (David Clennon), for example, appears completely human until Mac performs his blood test, whereupon Palmer violently explodes into bloody, gnashing jaws. Norris also appears normal, even tackling Mac alongside the others, until he appears to die and Dr. Copper performs CPR and Norris’s chest splits open and rips his arms off! The Thing’s only goal is to assimilate and procreate everything it can, picking off potential threats and fighting to survive when threatened. Although it appears inhumanly strong and durable, shrugging off shotgun blasts and easily manhandling Windows, it’s not invulnerable. Fire is especially effective, as is dynamite, with the creature being most vulnerable mid-transformation, as seen with the Bennings-Thing. Rather than being a singular organism, every cell of the Thing is alive and thinking, allowing it to disgustingly detach part of itself when the main “body” is destroyed and meaning it can infect multiple targets at once. The Thing is also seen to be very shrewd and intelligent, allowing the survivors to waste their energies on paranoia and accusations rather than formulating strategies, and having intelligence enough to cobble together a miniature flying saucer in the case of the Blair-Thing. The Thing is also incredibly patient, happy to let the humans destroy themselves and hibernate in the snow until the rescue team arrives and then assimilate them…and the rest of the world, in short order.
Although Mac destroys the Blair-Thing, there are lingering questions about who can be trusted.
When Mac’s blood test outs Palmers and leads to him and Windows dying, a slither of trust is reignited as the cleared survivors go to test Dr. Blair. However, they find he’s built a small flying saucer and tunnelled his way out, revealing himself to also be a Thing. After the Blair-Thing destroys the outpost’s power generator, Mac realises it’s willing to outlast them in the cold to escape and that they’re unlikely to make it out alive without any heat and rescue far away. Resolving to keep the Thing from reaching civilisation, Mac and the others prepare to bring the whole outpost down by setting dynamite charges. However, paranoia rears its ugly head as Nauls and Childs go missing; the Blair-Thing also ambushes Garry in the tunnels, leaving Mac alone. The Blair-Thing then spectacularly erupts from the floor as a massive, mewling amalgamation of repulsive alien and vaguely animal parts in a fantastic combination of practical effects, stop motion techniques, and puppetry. While the monstrous Blair-Thing is quite lumbering and mainly just stands there roaring, its tentacles whipping about as it emits that disturbing hissing, it devours Mac’s detonator and seems poised to take him. Defiant until the end, the rugged, exhausted Mac tosses a stick of dynamite at the creature and destroys it, along with the entire outpost. Barely escaping the blast, Mac stumbles through the burning debris and finally collapses from fatigue, whiskey in hand. Childs emerges from the blizzard, claiming to have gotten lost while pursuing Dr. Blair, and sits with him, both too tired to argue or to fight. Realising the flames will die out soon and they’re likely to perish from the cold, the two acknowledge the futility of their situation and their mutual distrust and resolve to simple share a drink and wait to see what happens, leaving their ultimate fate up to the audience…
Final Thoughts: John Carpenter’s The Thing is one of the quintessential remakes of all time. While the original film was an ambitious B-movie that took huge liberties with the source material, The Thing stays very close to Who Goes There? in its interpretation of the titular alien parasite and the destructive paranoia that tears the humans apart. There’s a sense that many of the characters barely tolerated each other to begin with, meaning tensions fray very quickly once they realise the Thing can perfectly imitate them down to their memories and behaviour. The film perfectly conveys this by rarely, if ever, showing who’s been assimilated and when, meaning we never really know who to trust as everyone – even rugged protagonist Mac – is a suspect. It’s thus shocking when characters turn out to be human or suddenly explode into a thrashing, shrieking mess of flesh and teeth and even destroying the Thing and performing tests doesn’t stamp out the unease felt by the survivors. Kurt Russell did a great job as reluctant leader Mac, who seems ready to pack it all in at a moment’s notice. I liked his heated rivalry with the immortal Keith David and how easily he took charge, and how physically and emotionally exhausted he was by the whole ordeal. Some aspects, like Dr. Blair’s computer simulation, are rather quaint but they get the job done and the gruesome special effects more than make up for them. The Thing is constantly sprouting new appendages and forms and surprising audiences by springing to the ceiling, becoming a scurrying spider-like head, or clamping down on its prey with its massive teeth. It’s a spectacularly ghastly creature that’s nauseating to look at as you never know what it’s going to do next as it clearly retains knowledge of other alien creatures and is a highly adaptable and versatile parasite. The ending may be one of cinema’s greatest cliff-hangers and the simple story of distrust and desperation remains as palpable as ever, making John Carpenter’s The Thing a timeless sci-fi/horror classic that’s difficult to beat.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Do you agree that John Carpenter’s The Thing is one of the greatest remakes of all time? How do you feel it works as an adaptation? Which character were you most surprised to find out was human (or the Thing)? Did you enjoy Kurt Russell’s performance and his rivalry with Keith David? How amazing were those gruesome special effects? How did you interpret the ending and what sci-fi films are you watching this month? Use the comments below to hap some praise on John Carpenter’s The Thing and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest other sci-fi films you’d like to see me cover.
January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
The Review: We first meet Captain Bucky O’Hare and the fearless crew of the Righteous Indignation in a “seedy section of the universe” and facing an impending attack by a squadron of Toad fighters. Since the freighter has no chance of outrunning the attackers using its standard engines, Bucky orders the crew to prepare for a jump to hyperspace, only to learn from Android First Class (AFC) Blinky that the warp drive is currently being repaired. Things go from bad to worse when a plasma shot from an attacking ship results in the nigh-disintegration of the ship’s chief engineer, Bruce the Berserker Baboon. While Bucky leaves first mate Jenny “temporarily” in charge to try and help, battle-hungry gunner Dead-Eye Duck unloads with the ship’s Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (MASER) cannons, relishing the chance to pick off some Toads even as the Righteous Indignation suffers heavy damage. Although Blinky’s tried his best to repair the warp drive, it’s barely functional and activating it could result in unforeseen risk. However, with the ship in bad shape and the situation desperate, Bucky takes the risk and activates the photon accelerator. The story then jumps to the other side of the galaxy, specifically San Francisco, to find young science whizz Willy DuWitt despairing about being an outcast from his peers and even his parents since his first and only love is science. Retreating to the solace of his bedroom, the boy genius tinkers with his prototype photon accelerator and is confused when his bedroom is suddenly plunged into darkness and his television broadcasts bizarre messages from space-faring Toads.
Child prodigy Willy DuWitt finds himself joining Bucky’s crew ofmisfit space adventurers.
Bucky and his crew are equally puzzled when Willy steps from a door that randomly appeared on their ship, their two malfunctioning photon accelerators apparently creating a dimensional rift to allow Willy to cross space and time. With the Righteous Indignation adrift, but shielded, by a mysterious stasis field, Willy takes a look at their photon accelerator, only to find it damaged beyond repair and warping reality around it at an alarming rate. Willy suggests building a replacement by getting parts from his bedroom. Bucky orders Jenny to keep an eye on things and ensure the doorway stays open and then accompanies Willy alongside Dead-Eye Duck, only for the Toad mothership to arrive and send a Storm-Toad boarding party to ransack the Righteous Indignation. To protect her crew, Jenny deactivates the warp drive and Blinky hides while the Toads captured her. When Blinky reactivates the warp drive to alert Bucky, Willy insists on aiding in the rescue mission, quickly grabbing his stuff and racing from his bedroom – and his universe – for a space adventure. As the Toad mothership is too massive to utilise a warp drive, Dead-Eye guesses that the Toads will head for the nearest planetary system. Amazed and fascinated by this strange corner of the universe, Willy listens with interest as Blinky gives a quick rundown of the Toad Empire, who started as a fairly harmless (if materialistic and greedy) race before their scientists cobbled together a massive computer network, KOMPLEX (or “Feed Me”), to drastically increase their profits. However, KOMPLEX immediately gained sentience and declared itself their supreme dictator, ushering in a century of industrialisation of regimentation as the Toad home world was converted into a planet-sized manufacturing facility built for conquest. KOMPLEX sent the malicious Toad army out into the universe to plunder natural resources from other worlds, leading the United Animals Security Council to Sentient Protoplasm Against Colonial Enrichment (S.P.A.C.E.) to oppose them. However, their budget only allowed for three frigates to combat the threat.
While Bucky learns of the natives, Dead-Eye, Jenny, and Willy battle through the mothership.
After providing Willy with Bruce’s old spacesuit and officially signing him up as a crewman, the Righteous Indignation quickly uses a nearby planetoid to avoid detection from the titanic Behemoth-Class Toad ship, which has stopped to refuel using the planetoid’s magma core. Aboard the mothership, Jenny laughs off the Toad’s threats when interrogated by the bulbous Air Marshall, showcasing her inherent witch-like telepathic and telekinetic powers by detecting her shipmates and subduing the Toads with a burst of psychic energy. Since the planetoid has a native population, Bucky cannot attack the Toad Empire without written permission, so he sends Dead-Eye and Willy ahead to gather some reconnaissance and they are immediately spotted by a nearby maintenance team. With no place to hide, Dead-Eye prepares to go down fighting, only for Willy to suggest taking shelter inside the mothership. This sends the Toads into a frenzy as they can’t risk firing inside the flight deck and, thanks to an assist from Jenny, the two come crashing into the ship. This is all witnessed by Bucky, who stumbles through another dimensional doorway to meet the planetoid’s mouse-like natives, a pacifist, philosophical race with no interest in conflict who allow Bucky to observe his friends through a crystal ball. When Dead-Eye blasts Willy with a fire retardant to extinguish his suit, they manage to fool the incoming Death Kommandos into mistaking Willy for the one thing all Toads fear: a rabid Betelgeusian Berserker Baboon. The angered Air Marshall then unleashes their deadliest weapon: the Void Droid, a heavily armed, tank-like machine designed for destruction! Luckily, despite the machine’s awesome armaments and barrage of plasma shots and missiles, the feared Void Droid proves amusingly susceptible to Willy’s water pistol since, for all its defences, it’s not waterproof! Reuniting with Jenny in the workshop, Dead-Eye and Willy join her in commandeering a Toad fighter and just barely escape from the mothership before the blast doors can crush them.
While the Toad mothership is destroyed, Willy’s left stranded in the Aniverse.
The three are stunned to find Bucky conversing with one of the mice on a floating asteroid, the hippy mouse explaining that his race once thought themselves Gods before being humbled after being tricking into buying what they thought was the secret of the universe. While they have the power to stop the Toad Empire, the mice prefer to make things grow, which their nigh-omnipotent representative demonstrates by conjuring a grassy landing strip for Dead-Eye and the others. Enraged by the humiliation he’s suffered, the maniacal Air Marshall orders the mothership to disengage from the planetoid, intending to use the ship’s plasma cannon batteries to vaporise the entire planet. The mouse isn’t concerned, however, since everything on and in the planetoid is a figment of their imagination, the result of their incredible, God-like powers, and will cease to exist if they will it or if anything is taken too far from their sphere of influence. Thus, as the mothership drifts away, it implodes in spectacular fashion, though the benevolent mouse ensures that all its inhabitants were teleported safely to a place where “the food is bad and taxes are high”. Having had enough adventuring for a while, Willy bids farewell to his friends and prepares to take the dimensional doorway home, only to find his neglectful parents turned off his photon accelerator, barely caring that their son has run away from home and assuming he’ll be back at some point. With the door gone and the mouse vanished, Willy’s surprisingly upset about being stranded in the “crazy animal universe”. However, Bucky offers Willy a place onboard the Righteous Indignation and promise to help find him a way home and Willy grateful accepts the offer, joining the crew as they blast off the “croak […] some Toads!”
Final Thoughts This was my first time reading the original run of Bucky O’Hare and it certainly was an enjoyable experience. It makes me sad that this story is largely lost media these days as reprints are scarce and expensive, and that Bucky O’Hare has largely faded into obscurity, as this was a fun, surprisingly violent story. There’s an amusing quirkiness to this story (which is peppered with the same wit and attitude I’d expect from a British-made comic), which is fully aware that it’s a ridiculous space adventure featuring anthropomorphic mammals battling warmongering space toads and simply runs with that ridiculous premise. Bucky O’Hare had a bit of an edge to him I didn’t expect, with him being extremely protective of the Righteous Indignation and, more specifically, his place as the vessel’s commander. He never gives up his command willingly, even to his trusted first mate, and only pulls the defective warp drive since he has no choice to protect the ship and her crew from harm. Surprisingly loquacious, Bucky is fearless and honourable but also sticks rigidly to the directives as laid out by S.P.A.C.E. This means he won’t attack the Toad mothership without express written permission from the planetoid’s natives and he forces Willy DuWitt to fill out a bunch of paperwork before he can assist the crew since such administration tasks are just as important as blasting Toads. The distinctly Scottish, four-armed Dead-Eye Duck is all about this latter task, happily manning the MASER cannons and seemingly relishing the thought of dying in battle taking out some Toad scum! Even Jenny gets a fair bit of characterisation as she’s not just an unsettlingly alluring rabbit; she’s also a witch from a secretive sisterhood who can erase memories and telekinetically disable machinery. The full extent of her powers is only hinted at here, with even Dead-Eye Duck being somewhat suspicious of her at one point.
Some amazing art, quirky humour, and bizarre characters make this an enjoyable space adventure.
Blinky is largely here for exposition and comic relief, his voice modulator giving him a unique and peculiar way of communicating, while Willy is essentially the audience surrogate. I remember disliking him in the cartoon but he’s not too annoying here, presented as an outcast whose oddball parents barely notice him and whose scientific acumen is so advanced that he can accidentally create rifts in the space/time continuum. It helps that Willy’s not presented as a “Gary Stu” or being taken hostage or acting all obnoxious; he’s intrigued by this new universe and offers some solutions but is mostly just along for the ride. The Toad Empire may be comprised of eccentric soldiers and a blowhard of an Air Marshall, but they’re an extremely formidable force here, easily outgunning the Righteous Indignation and constantly having Bucky and the others on the back foot with their superior numbers. They may be bad shots and easily scared, but their more ferocious warriors aren’t to be trifled with and their Void Droid is clearly an unstoppable death machine whose amusing weakness was an oversight that normally wouldn’t have been exploited. Of course, the allusions to the TMNT and original Star Wars movies (Various, 1977 to 1983) are clear, especially in the depiction of the Righteous Indignation’s damaged warp drive and the Toad mothership (and home world) being gigantic battle stations. Michael Golden’s art is phenomenal here, perfectly marrying these cartoonish animals with intricate, colourful technology and situations and providing a level of detail I honestly didn’t expect from these bizarre, independently published issues. It’s clear that the original comic strip is taking things quite seriously, depicting death and extreme danger for our heroes while still firmly having its tongue in its cheek like in the original TMNT comics. Overall, this was a really enjoyable experience that makes me wish these early stories were more accessible, in addition to the short-lived additional Bucky O’Hare comic books that further explored this rich and fantastical world.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Have you ever read Bucky O’Hare’s comic book debut? What did you think of the bizarre concept and stunning art? Were you surprised by how dark it was compared to the cartoon? What are some of your favourite sci-fi-orientated comic books? Sare your Bucky O’Hare memories below and donate to my Ko-Fi if you’d like to see more Bucky content on the site.
January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
Released: 27 April 1951 Director: Christian Nyby Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Quick Facts: Based on celebrated, influential novella, Who Goes There? (Campbell, 1938), The Thing from Another World was loosely adapted by Charles Lederer, Howard Hawks, and Ben Hecht. The titular “Thing” (James Arness) became a plant-like humanoid thanks to extensive make-up later replaced with an asbestos suit for an ambitious fire stunt. Though very different from the novella, The Thing from Another World is considered one of the best movies of the 1950s and inspired one of the greatest remakes ever made in 1982.
The Review: While searching for his next big story in Anchorage, Alaska, “newspaper man” Ned “Scotty” Scott (Douglas Spencer) bumps into old friend, pilot Lieutenant Eddie Dykes (James Young) of a United States Air Force re-supply crew, at an officers’ club and meets his cohorts: gruff Captain Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) and flight navigator Ken “Mac” MacPherson (Robert Nichols). When noted scientist and Nobel laureate Doctor Arthur Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) radios in a vague call for aid at a North Pole research camp, Captain Hendry and his jovial crew are ordered to assist, flying some hands, sled dogs, and the eager Scott out to investigate Dr. Carrington’s ambiguous concerns about a mysterious aircraft. Upon arriving at the Polar Expedition Six outpost, the stern but amicable Captain Hendry bristles to reunite with the gorgeous and playful Nikki Nicholson (Margaret Sheridan), who’d previously humiliated him in a drinking game and turned down his handsy advances. Though flustered by her mischievous nature, Captain Hendry is obviously as attracted to her as she is to him and they enjoy a fun back-and-forth throughout the film that’s as entertaining as the banter between Captain Hendry, Lieutenant Dykes, Mac, and Scotty. The crew are clearly friends as much as co-workers and express their affection through light-hearted banter, teasing Captain Hendry for his drinking habits and past blunders, only for him to jokingly threaten them with guard duty and other empty threats. There’s a unique approach to dialogue and interactions here as characters talk over each other and converse very bluntly, making every scene feel ad-libbed (except for Dr. Carrington, who expresses himself with a theatrical guile) and the relationships between the characters feel far more personable and natural as a result.
A remote outpost discovers a humanoid alien that goes on a rampage once accidentally dethawed.
After meeting with the other scientists and civilians stationed at the outpost, Captain Hendry flies his crew, Dr. Carrington, and others to the crash site, only to discover a genuine flying saucer buried under the ice! Rather than wait for approval from his commanding officer, Captain Hendry orders thermite charges to be placed around the site to melt the ice, accidentally destroying the craft when the explosives react violently to the hull. Though Dr. Carrington is aghast by this, his excitement soon reignites when they discover a large humanoid “Thing” buried nearby. This time, the team dig it out and take it to the outpost, though Dr. Carrington’s frustrated by Captain Hendry’s insistence that they await further orders before defrosting or investigating their strange guest. Scotty is similarly irritated to be barred from reporting what they’ve found, seeing the discovery as the story of the century and eager to share it, as Captain Hendry is anxious to avoid another blunder. As the team hunker down against a blistering storm and take shifts watching the creature, Corporal Barnes (William Self) becomes unnerved by the Thing’s gaze and accidentally thaws it out after covering it with an electric blanket he didn’t realise was plugged in. The Thing awakens, briefly runs amok through the outpost, and flees into the storm, attacking the sled dogs and losing some of its arm before disappearing. Upon investigating the severed limb, the resident scientists conclude that the creature is a bizarre humanoid plant that feeds on blood; the hand even reanimates after absorbing some of the dog’s blood staining it. Dr. Carrington slowly becomes obsessed with the creature, believing it to be intellectually and physically superior to man and wishing to learn its secrets, only for Captain Hendry to repeatedly shoot down his insane requests and prioritise saving lives over reasoning with a mindless creature.
Captain Hendry and Dr. Carrington disagree on how best to handle the bloodthirsty Thing.
The titular “Thing” is seen sparingly, which I was surprised by. After its initial awakening, the creature vanishes and the film focuses on the research into its nature, barricading the outpost against further attacks, and searching for the creature before it can strike again. It’s still active in the background, but we only hear about it from shellshocked survivors and through dialogue. Unlike the shapeshifting, nebulous alien Thing from the book and subsequent outings, the Thing is a towering, humanoid “Martian” more like a vampire than a voracious extraterrestrial. The survivors discover a sled dog drained of its blood and hear from the traumatised Doctor Stern (Eduard Franz) that the creature attacked the outpost greenhouse, killing everyone and hanging them from the rafters to drain their blood, which would’ve been gnarly to see. Captain Hendry is surprisingly calm about the entire situation and there are no instances of paranoia or cabin fever among the survivors. The only conflict comes from the scientists who wish to defend and study the creature and the military who wish to kill it. Captain Hendry is horrified to learn from Nikki that Dr. Carrington, who’s been going without rest since the Thing was discovered, has been feeding blood samples to seeds from the creature’s arm, producing alien plants that has the airmen speculating that the Thing came to conquer the world. Thanks to the storm, communicating with Brigadier General Fogerty (David McMahon) and the outside world is spotty, at best, resulting in Captain Hendry receiving a bunch of one-way messages and orders to fortify the outpost and survive but leave the creature unharmed. Seeing the threat the Thing poses, Captain Hendry naturally disregards these orders, and Dr. Carrington’s mad objections, and has the Thing doused with kerosene and set alight when it next attacks. Despite the Thing going up in flames, it wildly lashes out and almost burns the outpost down before escaping into the snowstorm.
Despite Dr. Carrington’s objections, the Thing is destroyed and Scotty submits a dire warning to the world.
While recovering, the survivors are horrified to learn that Dr. Carrington’s musings about the creature’s intelligence are at least partially true as the Thing sabotages the outpost’s heating system, threatening to freeze them to death within hours. Surmising that the Thing will target the electricity next, Captain Hendry corrals all the survivors into the generator room and the airmen take an offhand suggestion from Nikki (“Boil it, bake it, stew it, fry it”) to heart, rigging a high voltage “fly trap” to electrocute the creature in a narrow corridor. Seemingly sensing their blood, the Thing crashes through their makeshift barricade and stalks its way towards them, noticeably avoiding the wires hidden beneath the pallets on the floor. Although Dr. Carrington attempts to sabotage the plan by shutting the generator off at a crucial moment, he’s easily disarmed and briefly subdued, but Captain Hendry’s forced to wait for the hulking Thing to position itself correctly on their trap. Dr. Carrington rushes to it, pleading for reason and to begin a dialogue, only to be roughly shoved aside and left with a broken collarbone. Despite its immense size, strength, and durability, the Thing blunders into position and is zapped by a few thousand volts in a surprisingly ambitious light show. Captain Hendry keeps the juice poured on until the Thing is reduced to a smouldering pile of ash, though Scotty faints before he can get a clear shot of the creature. The survivors round up all remains of the Thing and burn those, too, before treating their wounds and decompressing as the storm dies down. While Captain Hendry and Nikki tease taking their relationship to the next level, Scotty finally gets to call in his story, eagerly painting a dramatic picture of the pitched battle fought at the outpost and warning his listeners to “Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies…”
Final Thoughts: Although I’m a big fan of John Carpenter’s 1982 remake of Who Goes There?, I’ve never read the book or watched this original adaptation, though I gather it’s a very loose one with only the basic elements of the story being represented. Most notably, the titular Thing is very different from the source material and subsequent adaptations, being more akin to Frankenstein’s Monster than a shape-changing organism. I’m not surprised by this as I doubt the technology existed to bring the creature to life in a more faithful way and it makes sense to reimagine it as a hulking, humanoid alien given where sci-fi was at the time. I liked the twist that it was essentially a walking vegetable and like a vampire, feeding on blood and growing alien plants from its seeds, potentially to overrun the world. I would’ve liked to see this emphasised more, perhaps to see the Thing’s spores spread throughout the outpost and maybe infect those within to bring in some of the paranoia from the book and definitely would’ve liked to see more death and destruction from the disappointingly absent creature. Luckily, the relationships and banter between the characters is more than enough to sustain the film in the Thing’s absence, with Captain Hendry and his men having very enjoyable and realistic interactions. I really liked that the actors kept talking over each other and the banter between the characters, which was nicely contrasted with Dr. Carrington’s objections. He was a very theatrical character but, again, felt somewhat underutilised and I would’ve liked to see him sabotaging their efforts more. Despite all this, and the film being oddly paced and lacking in urgency, The Thing from Another World was still quite enjoyable and somewhat ambitious at times. It’s a great example of a classic, 1950s sci-fi flick that is perhaps a little dated these days, far surpassed by its remake, and arguably lacking compared to some of its peers, but it still has a charm and appeal that make it an entertaining watch.
My Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Could Be Better
Did you enjoy this first adaptation of Who Goes There? If you’ve read the book, what did you think to the changes made to the story? Did you enjoy the banter and interactions between the characters? Do you agree that the Thing should’ve featured a lot more? Do you think Dr. Carrington was right to want to communicate with the Thing? How are you celebrating sci-fi this month? Whatever you thought to The Thing from Another World, comment down below and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest other sci-fi films for me to review.
January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
Writer / Artist: Benimaru Itoh
Story Title: “Chapter 1: Red Alarm!” Published: February 1994
Story Title: “Chapter 2: Zebes Rising” Published: March 1994
Story Title: “Chapter 3: Back to the Nest” Published: April 1994
Story Title: “Chapter 4: Samus’ Story” Published: May 1994
Story Title: “Chapter 5: Red Alarm!” Published: June 1994
Quick Facts: Debuting in the widely acclaimedMetroid(Nintendo R&D1/Intelligent Systems, 1986) and popularising a new sub-genre of gaming, bounty hunter Samus Aran starred in perhaps her greatest outing when the celebratedSuper Metroid(ibid, 1994) released on Nintendo’s ground-breaking Super Nintendo Entertainment Systems (SNES). Like some of her contemporaries, Samus’ adventure was adapted into a comic strip in Nintendo Power (1988 to 2012), a fondly remembered magazine that offered hints, reviews, and information about Nintendo’s games.
The Review: Oddly enough, this story begins with famed bounty hunter Samus Aran suffering a fatal encounter with a bunch of fireball-spewing floating heads! Of course, this is merely a nightmare that awakens Samus to “another day, another battle”. After showering and changing into her bad-ass power suit, Samus hops in her ship and returns to the stars for duty as “protector of the galaxy” (again making me think Nintendo didn’t know what a “bounty hunter” is). While flying through space, Samus recalls her adventures in Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus (Nintendo R&D1, 1991), which saw her tasked by the Galactic Federation to eliminate the Space Pirates of Zebes whose leader, Mother Brain, was creating an army of powerful Metroids to threaten the galaxy. After being handsomely rewarded, Samus was then dispatched to SR388, the Metroid home world, to eliminate the parasitic threat, including their monstrous queen, only to imprint on a Metroid hatchling after she was done. These memories are interrupted by a distress call from the Ceres Space Colony, where Samus had previously delivered the hatchling to the resident scientists. Samus lands to find the colony in flames, badly damaged, bodies strewn everywhere, and her archenemy, the draconian Ridley, stealing the hatchling in Mother Brain’s name. Samus’s urge to kill her enemy takes a backseat when Ridley reveals he’s set the colony to self-destruct, forcing Samus to try and override it via the main computer. Unfortunately, she’s unsuccessful and must be forcibly dragged to safety by fellow bounty hunter Armstrong Houston, narrowly escaping the colony’s destruction but nonetheless determined to hunt down Ridley and retrieve the hatchling. Unfortunately, Samus and Houston’s ships are immediately set upon by Space Pirates, who have rebuilt their forces after their defeat and attempt to blast the bounty hunters from the stars, only to be easily bested by the friendly rivals as they reduce the Space Pirates to flaming debris. Samus and Houston return to Federation bureau headquarters to warn them of the situation, only for the gluttonous and lethargic Chief Hardy to outrageously deny claims that the Space Pirates have returned!
When she’s injured hunting the Space Pirates, Samus turns to her surrogate family for help.
Luckily, Chairman Keaton believes Samus’s story and allows Samus to return to the apparently deserted Zebes to root out the evildoers. On the way, she berates Houston for following her, accusing him of chasing the reward rather than caring about safeguarding the galaxy, and heads there alone to help the planet’s “bird men”. Thus, like Super Metroid, Samus lands in a rainstorm and descends into the ruins of the bird people’s civilisation, only to be ambushed by Space Pirates. Despite claiming her power suit gives her the edge, her experience fighting these enemies, and her determination, Samus is momentarily overpowered and only saved from having her head crushed by Houston, who tosses her an energy ball that briefly engulfs her suit in flames to destroy the creatures. Although still dismissive of Houston, especially as he’s collecting Space Pirate claws for profit, Samus begrudgingly allows Houston to tag along despite him wearing an inferior suit and even calls upon him to help fend off a flock of Skrees, though she still admonishes him for wasting time collecting carcasses rather than focusing on the bigger picture. As Samus races to complete her mission, she triggers a boobytrap and gets impaled through the shoulder on a floor spike. Chastising her recklessness, Samus stubbornly refuses Houston’s help but is in no position to stop him from cutting her loose and carrying her back to her ship. Chairman Keaton is concerned to learn of Samus’s abrupt departure, and that she’s not returning to headquarters, and supersedes Chief Hardy’s incompetence to investigate Zebes himself, only to be summarily apprehended by Ridley. Unfamiliar with the controls of Samus’s ship (despite it appearing exactly the same as his but with a different colour scheme…), Houston crash lands on the mysterious planet Nest, where they’re greeted by “Old Bird”, a wizened member of the bird-like Chozo race who created Samus’s power suit.
Old Bird gives some insight into Samus’s tragic backstory and her drive to defeat the Space Pirates.
As a sceptical Houston watches, Old Bird strips Samus of her power suit and places her in a restorative bubble, revealing that Samus as the “blood of a Chozo” and giving Houston a history lesson. Generations ago, the Chozo were an advanced and enlightened civilisation before the ferocious Space Pirates pillaged and plundered their world, leaving only ruins and the Chozo close to extinction. A passive race with no weapons, the Chozo were powerless to oppose the Space Pirates as they conquered Zebes and attacked a nearby Earth colony. This attack saw the colony left little more than smouldering wreckage and a lone survivor: baby Samus. The Chozo took Samus in and raised her, fostering her warrior instincts and infusing her with Chozo blood to give her their “natural powers” (…whatever they are). Trained in combat and battle strategy, Samus was gifted a power suit purposely build for her and moulded into the “protector of the galaxy”. As Samus’s suit is designed to protect her when she’s fully alert, Old Bird suggests that she may have been distracted by Houston when she was injured…or, more likely, the Metroid hatchling that Ridley abducted. Speaking of which, the hatchling is brought to the grotesque, semi-cybernetic Mother Brain on Tourian, who’s frustrated that the hatchling refuses to obey her commands since it sees Samus as its mother. Ridley offers a solution by bringing her the captive Chairman Keaton and Chief Hardy, suggesting they use them as bait to lure Samus into a trap and kill her in front of the hatchling, thus forcing it to acknowledge Mother Brain as its true matriarch. Despite Chairman Keaton pleading with Chief Hardy to get himself under control, the chief desperately cries for help, playing into Ridley’s handsclaws talons as he amplifies Chief Hardy’s cries with a “psycho-amplifier”. Sure enough, Samus hears Chief Hardy’s torment and begs to be released to help, convincing Old Bird to utilise the “power bombs” to expediate her recovery.
When Ridley flees and the hatchling is killed, Samus turns her rageon Mother Brain.
Though hesitant due to the danger, Old Bird places a power bomb into Samus’s healing bubble so she can absorb its energy to heal herself. Following a spectacular explosion, Samus is fully restored and eagerly dons her repaired power suit, passing her everlasting gratitude to Old Bird. Before she leaves, Old Bird warns that the Space Pirates have started employing cloning techniques to expand their army and that Samus must stay focused to avoided by injured again. Ridley delights upon hearing that the renewed Samus and Houston are heading into his trap. When Ridley leaves to inform Mother Brain, Chairman Keaton lures a Space Pirate over with one of Chief Hardy’s sandwiches and dupes him into freeing him right as the alarms go off and Samus rips through the base, blasting and pummelling Space Pirates and other assorted aliens into goo and vapour. Concerned by Samus’s dramatic increase in power, Ridley opts for a tactical retreat, reasoning that Mother Brain can handle the bounty hunter. After ensuring Chairman Keaton and Chief Hardy are safe, Samus pursues the cowardly dragon and runs into Mother Brain’s glass capsule (which is noticeably less defended than in the game!) Though Samus makes short work of Mother Brain, she quickly rises again in her gigantic cybernetic body and is easily tossed aside. However, after seeing the hatchling has been mutated to gargantuan proportions and summarily gunned down by the unsuspecting Chief Hardy, Samus flies into a rage and destroys Mother Brain. This apparently causes a chain reaction that sees Tourian explode in spectacular fashion. Luckily, Samus and the others escape in time. Although Houston offers his condolences to Samus regarding the hatchling, she pointedly refuses to partner with him and returns to her adventures alone.
Final Thoughts: This was a pretty decent read, all things considered. The art was especially eye-catching and did a great job of translating the box art, manual illustrations, and sprite art of the games into a manga-esque style. Samus particularly benefitted from this, portrayed as a bad-ass, hardened fighter who tears through her enemies when at full power and fully focused. I loved that the art would often show Samus’s true visage beneath her helmet and didn’t shy away from showing her as a sexy, but fully capable, woman who’s used to battling alone. Her ship and the likes of Ridley, Mother Brain, and the Space Pirates were all brought to life in colourful and gruesome detail, though there aren’t many recognisable environments from the source material. Well, I mean… they are here but the story doesn’t linger there for very long. It does a great job of adapting the iconic Super Metroid opening and translating the rainswept ruins of Zebes from the videogame, but Tourian just looks like any mechanical facility and no other planets or areas from the videogame are visited. Even iconic bosses like Crocmire and Kraid are missing, which is a shame, though the comic is obviously more focused on detailing some of Samus’s tragic backstory rather than focusing on action. Interestingly, the comic introduces a rival for Samus in Armstrong Houston, who wears less powerful armour and is more focused on profit than safeguarding the galaxy. While Houston denies this (and prioritises Samus’s health over his haul) and Samus is forced to rely on him when she’s hurt, there’s never a sense of who Houston really is or what’s really driving him. It’s hinted that he’s attracted to Samus (and, honestly, who could blame him?) and that he’s more honourable than she thinks, but he’s mostly just kind of there to give Samus someone to bark at and I’d wager the story would’ve worked just as well without him since it’s not like he has a meaningful character arc.
A visually engaging comic that delves into Samus’s origin but skips a lot of the source material.
Luckily, the story largely (and fittingly) focuses on Samus, who’s depicted as a loner who takes her job very seriously. Despite being a bounty hunter, Samus is more of a space hero, trained from an orphaned child to be the “protector of the galaxy” by a race with no interest in fighting and dispatching Space Pirates and Metroids without mercy. It’s thus surprising that she’s so attached to the Metroid hatchling, which distracts her focus and drives her into a vengeful rage, and a bit of a shame that the comic doesn’t delve deeper into her connection to the hatchling. We do get some insight into her past but, oddly, the comic doesn’t use this tragedy as a catalyst for Samus’s hatred of the Space Pirates. Indeed, her antagonism with Ridley is barely touched upon and they don’t even get a proper fight as Ridley flees when Samus storms Tourian, which was an odd choice considering Ridley abducted the Metroid hatchling. Samus’s rage is therefore completely focused on Mother Brain, who’s noticeable and disappointingly far weaker than in the videogame despite being just as ghastly. Samus isn’t obliterated by Mother Brain’s laser, doesn’t get a power-up from the hatchling’s sacrifice, and simply dispatches Moher Brain with her regular weaponry. Luckily, these battles are all rendered beautifully by Benimaru Itoh but I can’t help but be a little disappointed that the comic strays so far from the videogame narrative when there were so many interesting areas and iconic bosses that could’ve bolstered the narrative. Like, Samus could’ve at least battled Kraid while thinking about her tragic past, or gone all-out against Ridley, bouncing off walls and shredding his wings as revenge for killing her parents. Instead, what we’re left with is a visually appealing, heavily truncated story that spotlights some of Samus’s past, rejigs some of the lore, and essentially acts as a teaser for the videogame. This isn’t uncommon for comic adaptations of videogames but it fell a little flat for me as I guess I was just expecting a little more considering the potential of the story.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Did you enjoy Nintendo Power’s adaptation of Super Metroid? Were you disappointed that it cut most of the bosses and environments from the game? Did you like the insight into Samus’s background? Were you a fan of Armstrong Houston and the depiction of Ridley? Did you diligently read and/or collect Nintendo Power back in the day? Which Metroid game is your favourite and what sci-fi videogames are you playing this month? Whatever your thoughts, feel free to leave a comment below and donate to my Ko-Fi to fund more Metroid content.
January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
Released: 26 October 2021 Originally Released: January 1995 Developer: SEGA MobyGames Score: 8.2
Also Available For: GameCube, Game Gear, Mega Drive, Mobile, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portable (PSP), SEGA Mega Drive Mini 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X
Gameplay and Power-Ups: Rister is a surreal and vibrant 2D, sidescrolling platformer that, despite some visual similarities to Sonic, emphasises slow, deliberate platforming. Players control the titular Ristar, a cock-sure shooting star who travels across six worlds (called “Rounds”) to rescue his father from evil space pirate Kaiser Greedy. Each Round has three levels (two platforming challenges and a boss battle) and hidden Bonus Rounds. There’s no timer, no high score table (despite players earning points for defeating enemies and collecting gems), and players can only skip to later Rounds with special trophies that reveal passwords. There are two control schemes available so I mapped jump to the A and Y buttons and grab to the B button. Unlike some mascot platformers, Rister doesn’t defeat enemies by jumping on them or using weapons. Instead, he grabs them with his stretchy arms (extending his reach further the longer you hold the button) and rams into them with a headbutt. While this is effective, it can be quite slow and clunky. Players can grab in different directions, and even diagonally, but you may find you miss your target and take a hit. Ristar’s health is measured, fittingly enough, by stars. You can partially replenish it by smashing treasure chests and collecting either a gold or a blue star, which also gift 1-ups. Other treasure chests contain gems for points and Ristar occasionally grabs items, such as a miniature statue of himself or a gemstone, to bypass traps or activate teleporters. Sadly, the combat isn’t very deep; you just grab and smash everything. Sure, you can cling onto enemies to avoid being sucked into a black hole or to resist the flow of water, but you can slam or throw enemies, which severely hampers Ristar’s abilities. He can also swim and, though he’s a bit slippery underwater, he’ll never have to worry about drowning, so that’s a tick in the plus column.
Use Ristar’s awkward grab to bash enemies, explore environments, and tackle troublesome challenges.
Ristar’s grab can also snag ladders, poles, overhead rails, and various other handholds to allow you to climb, clamber across gaps, and even wall climb…to a degree. This mechanic is very finicky and seems contrary to what the game wants you to do, so it’s good that it isn’t mandatory until Round 6. This Round also sees Ristar use anti-gravity sneakers to clunkily swim/fly about, though this is so limited that it’s more of a handicap. Round 5 sees him slide and ski down a snowy mountain, though this is a glorified cutscene, and ends with him tossing snowballs he builds with his idle pose at the boss, while Round 3 sees him pulling levers to activate or turn off furnaces. Each Round features a special Star Handle that spins Ristar around at high speeds. This ricochets him about to bounce up even spike shafts and clear vast distances, though you must angle him just right to get a “height bonus” and clear the level. Other Star Handles transport you to Bonus Rounds, where you have a strict time limit to navigate a brutal obstacle course and retrieve special treasure. You won’t lose health or lives in these stages, but it can be difficult finding and clearing them. Ristar can also smash certain walls or objects to either break them or topple them, create new paths and bridges, and must bash heavy moving platforms in Round 6 that’ll crush him with their massive hit boxes if he’s not careful. This Round also features multiple teleporters that transport Ristar to hazardous corridors where he either battles a mini boss, tosses missiles at cannons, or rips open the background to uncover gems. Very rarely, players red star power-ups make you temporarily invincible. Ristar also smashes enemy-spawning targets in Round 2, which largely takes place underwater and sees players grabbing bubbles to get higher, dealing with rising and falling tides, and fighting to avoid being blasted into a spike wall by the water current. Sadly, there are no autoscrolling sections where Ristar blasts through space to take out enemies like in its visual counterpart, Rocket Knight Adventures(Konami, 1993) and, while you get score bonuses and congratulatory text after each Round, you don’t appear to earn extra lives or continues and, with no high score table, the points are essentially meaningless.
Sadly, Ristar‘s few unique mechanics and vast potential go underutilised.
Ristar is a very slow game. Ristar plods about very lazily and only gets his ass moving when flying at enemies or bouncing around off a Star Handle. The bulk of the game involves jumping across gaps, spike pits, lava, or other hazards, hopping to platforms and using Ristar’s grab to scramble about. Some jumps can be very tricky since Ristar’s reach will just miss, forcing you to take longer or more dangerous paths or to struggle with his wall climb. In Round 1, you grab floating fluff or passing birds to get higher, reach into tree holes for goodies, and smash trees to light up the woods, though spores stick to you and, like the starfish in Round 2, slow you and then explode if you don’t shake them off. Round 3 sees you tossing Ristar statues into glowing spots to avoid being hurt and trapped by cages, and outrunning rising flames to test your platforming and grabbing skills, and you’ll also hold B to raise a pulley and reach higher ground in the factory section. Round 4 has an odd carry mechanic where you grab metronomes and deliver them to singing birds to open new paths, utilising fans and pincers and conveyer belts and defeating enemies before the can steal your item. This Round features a musical theme, with you being bounced about by drums and timing your grabs just right to navigate narrow spiked chasms, as well as flying along on zip wires and hopping past dancing guitars. Round 5 introduces a slipping gimmick where you must time your jumps off icy platforms to keep from looping around, destroy rocks in the underwater cavern, and again deal with Round 2’s rushing water gimmick. Round 6 is, fittingly, the most dangerous, featuring spiked mincers, the slipping gimmick, poles and handholds that switch positions every time you grab them, and an overhead ray that zaps you to the background and forces you to defeat enemies and grab handholds while obscured. Things get quite challenging quite quickly; Ristar has a big hit box and spikes and other hazards are everywhere, meaning things can get frustrating in later Rounds.
Presentation: Visually, Ristar is one of the most impressive Mega Drive games. The colourful graphics, deep and detailed backgrounds, and vibrant presentation remind me of Knuckles’ Chaotix(SEGA, 1995), as do the wacky Round intro cards, story text, and sprites. Though one of gaming’s oddest characters, Ristar is full of life, sporting a determined frown, gleefully smashing enemies, yelping when hit, and blasting about when launched. Ristar sports a few idle poses that change in Round 4 and Round 5 to show him bopping along to the beat and struggling with the heat, respectively. The game’s story is very simple (and changes depending on your region) but is beautifully brought to life by both text and large, partially animated sprite art. Despite the title screen drawing immediate comparisons to Sonic the Hedgehog, Ristar is like a mish-mash of Sonic, Rocket Knight, Gunstar Heroes (Treasure, 1993), and Disney’s various 16-bit titles with both its gameplay and visuals, though oddly promoting precision platforming rather than fast-paced combat, perhaps to better showcase the stunning, cartoonish visuals and bizarre environments. While there’s no ending cutscene, stills showcase the ending and key moments during the credits and Ristar busts out a fitting victory pose upon defeating each boss and clearing the game. It’s a shame that his enemies aren’t as interesting, with players mostly smashing boring coloured Orblets, Unfortunately, Ristar can’t duck or look up, has no other combat options, forms, or power-ups, and his hit box is quite large. This is compounded by the odd decision the delay between grabbing health-restoring stars and Ristar’s health being restored, meaning you can grab a star and die before it’s added to your tally! As visually impressive as the game is, though, I was disappointed by the less than memorable soundtrack that cheaply recycles sound effects from Sonic 3 & Knuckles(SEGA Technical Institute, 1993/1994) during the final boss battle.
Ristar excels in its colourful, cartoonish visuals, though not in its gameplay.
Though Ristar plays things safe regarding its level themes, each Round is a kaleidoscope of colours and visuals and often depicted as obstacle courses that test your jumping and grabbing, so combat is often secondary. Planet Flora is your typical, grass-themed intro stage, featuring a sprawling valley in the background, bushes you can pass through (and which enemies pop out of), vine-themed handholds, birds flocking by, and Venus fly trap platforms that snap your heels! You venture into the roots of the forest and through a dark wood, with some impressive lighting effects in the boss arena, before heading to the decidedly Atlantis-themed Planet Undertow. You explore (and destroy) ancient ruins and swim through a coral cave (with no fear of falling debris), trashing machines to stop the current. Planet Scorch features a flashing hexagonal floor, an active volcano in the background that rains explosives, and furnaces that you (and enemies) can toggle on. After bypassing the rising flames and outrunning the screen-filling fire wall, you venture into the sweltering furnace and hop across lava pits formed when Orblets activate special bombs. Planet Sonata starts with a fantastic retro sci-fi aesthetic, with Jetsons (1962 to 1963;1985 to 1987)-style futuristic buildings and flying cars, before transforming into a musical-themed stage, featuring flutes, drums, musical sheets, and even a theatre stage for the boss battle. Planet Freon opts for a snow theme, sporting a glowing aurora borealis in the background, sliding Ristar about, and dropping you into a crystal cavern full of waterfalls and frozen frog statues, Planet Automaton is a hazardous robot factory full of spikes, grinders, and teleporters, with robotic nasties being built or guarding each corridor. Finally, Castle Greedy is a surreal alien landscape full of bonkers alien tech where a little spy camera follows you about at the start and you confront the suitable theatrical Kaiser Greedy in his fantastical throne room. There’s a lot to look at in Ristar’s worlds and the colours certainly pop, but I felt a strange absence of gimmicks for each area as the developers relied more on traditional platforming rather than innovative mechanics, best seen when Ristar’s skiing section is relegated to a cutscene rather than being playable.
Enemies and Bosses: There are a handful of oddball enemies to smash your starry head against in Ristar, with the most common being the various coloured Orblets. While many of these are harmless unless you bump into them, floating about and generally acting as a nuisance or a handhold, others hang from branches in cocoons, endlessly spawn from metallic pots, briefly electrify themselves, or are surrounded by spikes or flames. Each Round also features unique enemies; though most simply hop or jump about, like Planet Flora’s weird rabbits and lizards, the chunky birds swoop at you and perform a torpedo attack. Planet Undertow is patrolled by fish, frogs, electric eels, and seahorse that’ll endlessly attack until you destroy the spawn point. Large, squid-like crustaceans also appear, taking a few hits to put down, and the first projectile-firing enemies appear in the form of that large enemy and the aggressive lobsters that pop up. Planet Scorch features a nasty vulture who grabs you and a slug-like enemy that emits flame bursts, while Planet Sonata is populated by robotic enemies themed around birds and musical instruments. There are purple pipes that must be destroyed to stop them spitting projectiles, dancing robot birds that toss minions, and large robotic woodpeckers that peck you with their beaks. Planet Freon sees spiked fish in the waters, strange, bulbous aliens floating about in water rings, and mechanical baddies that drop icicles. Planet Automaton sees these weird, Slinky-like robots on the walls that spit projectiles and duplicate when hit, UFO-like robots that float by and fire a laser spread, and weird robot poles with two large, spiked fists, alongside missile-firing cannons and the biggest assortment of coloured Orblets yet! Sometimes, you’ll battle a mini boss or a wave of enemies to finish the first level of a Round, such as Planet Flora’s giant snake that popes from holes in the background and the literal waves of Orblets that rain down in Round 2. Planet Sonata sees you battling three robot woodpeckers controlled by a bird maestro, Planet Freon pits you in a snowball fight against a strange, rotund little alien, and Planet Automaton forces you to run a gauntlet of robotic bosses, smashing a bouncy trashcan-like mech and forcing a large battle robot back against the wall with precision hits.
Though innovative and challenging, the bosses aren’t enough to salvage the game.
Naturally, each Round ends in a boss battle, with bosses changing colour as you deal damage and often spawning Orblets as projectiles or distractions. The mischievous imp Rhio possesses Planet Flora’s elder and compels him to float around conjuring snowflake-like projectiles. You must dodge these and smack him to knock Rhio loose and attack, watching for the miniature tornados he conjures. The aggressive hammerhead shark Ohsat darts in from either side of the screen in Round 2, causing rocks to fall and eventually left floundering when each hit you land drains the arena’s water. The mole-like Adahan attacks in Planet Scorch’s volcanic depths, popping from the ground claws first and kicking up dirt. After a few hits, the fight switches to a freefall section where you must hit him as he bounces off the walls, which can be tricky due to Ristar’s janky grab mechanics. Awaueck rains musical notes that are hard to dodge and is only vulnerable when you knock him from his perch. The strange ice monster Itamor tosses bouncing balls and emits a freezing breath, but the mini boss appears to help you by providing hot soup to toss into Itamor’s maw and melt him from the inside out. The battle robot Uranim tosses junk from offscreen before battling you in an enclosed arena. You must smack him a few times to knock him over and then lure the pincer-like tentacle to hit him to cause damage, watching for his jump and ricocheting projectiles. Kaiser Greedy’s right-hand, Ionis, pilots Eyebar -555, a mechanical snake in Round 6 that boasts a boomerang projectile, machine gun and blaster arm, and ricochet bolts. Dodge all this and hit his shield a few times to dislodge Ionis and deal some real damage. Kaiser Greedy then trumps this by floating and teleporting around his throne room, tossing Orblets, firing a lightning bolt, and conjuring an insta-kill black hole! You must anticipate where he’ll be to grab and attack in a very small window, and hold onto any Orblets to avoid a sudden end, in this ridiculously tough finale.
Additional Features: Ristar offers two difficulty settings, “Normal” and “Hard”, with “Hard” mode reducing your total health to just two stars and “Normal” gifting you four. Beyond that, there isn’t much else on offer here unless you’re playing the Japanese version, which features a different story and some passwords that enable a stage select, time attack, invincibility, and other effects. If you play the Game Gear version, you’ll have a slightly different experience, both graphically and in terms of the bosses and mechanics, while this version allows you to rewind the action and create save states. If you’re playing the version included in the SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection (Backbone Entertainment, 2009), you’ll get an Achievement if you collect five yellow stars, though there are oddly no Achievement specific to Ristar in the SEGA Mega Drive Classics (SEGA/D3T, 2018) collection.
Final Thoughts: I’ve been enamoured by Ristar for years. As a kid, I was always intrigued by screenshots in gaming magazines and I always wanted to own it based on my love of 2D mascot platformers but never saw a copy in the wild and a decent copy can be quite pricey. Thanks to modern re-releases, Ristar is more accessible than ever…but, sadly, that doesn’t mean it’s really worth your time. The game looks absolutely gorgeous and goes a long way to show what the Mega Drive was capable of with cartoonish, vibrant 2D sprites. Ristar looks fantastic and his worlds are unique and colourful, though sadly lacks memorable gimmicks as the developers prioritised platforming and Ristar’s unique grab mechanic. This is an interesting gimmick, but one that doesn’t live up to its potential. I just wanted Ristar to do more, perhaps throw or slam enemies or something a bit more dynamic than just grabbing handholds and bashing enemies. The gimmick is sadly underutilised and Ristar lacks the speed and action to complete with, much less usurp, Sonic, with Ristar being slow, far too big a target, and far more limited compared to his peers. Ristar is also incredibly challenging, with numerous spikes and hazards sapping your health and continues and so much trial and error that I’ve no idea how people beat it without rewinds and save states. It’s only a short game, but later Rounds are almost unforgiving with their obstacles and tough mini bosses, and it’s not like the ending is worth your time. The bosses were a highlight, for sure, being big and well animated and making you use Ristar’s grab in different ways. It’s just a shame this innovation didn’t translate to the core gameplay to let Ristar chain together grabs, swings, and attacks, which we’d see SEGA arguably do better in Sonic Unleashed(Sonic Team, 2008). In the end, while Ristar impresses with its visuals and beautiful stages, there’s just not enough meat on the bones for it to stand alongside other mascot platformers. I’m glad I finally saw it through, but I’d much rather playthrough Rocket Knight Adventures or Sonic 3 & Knuckles than this one, which is a shame as it had so much potential.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Do you think I’m being too hard on Ristar? How do you think it compares to other action platformers? What did you think to the grab mechanic and Ristar’s visuals? Did you also struggle with the late game difficulty curve? Which of the bosses was your favourite and would you like to see Ristar make a comeback? What are some of your favourite sci-fi-orientated videogames? Feel free to share any memories you have of Ristar in the comments, support me on Ko-Fi, and then check out my other sci-fi content.
January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
The Review: The Vanishing Man isn’t quite a then-modern-day update of The Invisible Man in the sense that the plot and characters are very different, except for the presence of an invisible man and an enigmatic, masked figure. Rather than following an ambitious, egotistical scientist who subjects himself to a chemical procedure, this made-for-television movie follows womaniser Nick Cameron (Neil Morrissey), who works as a pilot alongside his brother, Joe (Mark Womack), who arranges the deliveries and acts as his radio man. After a particularly embarrassing morning where he forgets the name of his latest conquest (Elizabeth Jasicki), Nick hurries to Schiphol to collect a high value package that has Joe uncharacteristically on edge. Although the trip is expected to be extremely simple, Nick hits some bad weather and experiences technical issues brought about by a dodgy radio and his golf clubs interfering with his compass, sending him way off-course and causing him to land hours later. When he does touch down, however, Nick’s day goes from bad to worse as the cops arrest him for smuggling in plutonium! Although Joe flees, desperate to save his own hide, Nick refuses to name his brother and suffers the full wrath of the law when his explanations are dismissed as coincidences and contrivances. Branded a terrorist, Nick’s sentenced to twenty-five years in prison despite his protestations that he had no idea what he was carrying or what was going on. Nick’s thrown a lifeline when overworked and undervalued solicitor Alice Grant (Lucy Akhurst) is assigned to work on his appeal by her stuffy, condescending boss, Gordon Wells (William Chubb).
After unwitting smuggler Nick is turned invisible, he turns to his sceptical solicitor for help.
This leaves Alice frustrated as the appeal distracts her from her law firm’s biggest case, investigating an environmental disaster linked to bureaucrat Edward Lawrence (David Hemmings) and caused by harnium nitrate, a destructive chemical manufactured by Lawrence’s company, Solex. Still, Alice meets Nick and, though initially aggravated by his wild claims, she finds his defence has some legs, much to the bizarre objections of Gordon, who suddenly chastises her working on Nick’s appeal in favour of the Lawrence case! Nick’s also given something of a break when the prison warden, Forstater (Peter Eyre), selects him for a clinical trial into “sunburns” run by the Gyges (as in the “Ring of Gyges”) organisation. Though sceptical, Nick agrees, believing his compliance will help his case, and is driven to a far away manor, where he meets the amiable Ms. Jeffries (Barbara Flynn) and learns that Gyges hopes to reverse the harmful effects of UV radiation for the betterment of humankind. However, Nick’s resolve falters when he sees their bizarre medical equipment and is forcibly strapped to a machine and bathed in painful laser beams. Still, Nick returns to prison none the wiser and certainly unaware that the mysterious head of Gyges (Roger Brierley) has become antsy upon learning of Nick’s appeal. Thus, Ms. Jefferies orders Forstater to eliminate Nick, only for the warden and his bullish main guard (Stuart Clark) to be amazed when Nick suddenly disappears while taking a shower and subsequently escapes from prison. Alice is equally stunned when Nick appears, buck naked, in the back of her car, pleading for her help, fearing for his life, and babbling a crazy story about how the Gyges process turned him invisible! Although dubious, Alice reluctantly shelters Nick as he anxiously worries about fading away again and recounts as much of his experience as he can remember, sparking her curiosity when he mentions a canister stamped with “Hanoi” and leading her to discover he was subjected to Ha No.1, or harnium nitrate.
When Alice is kidnapped, Nick and Joe hatch a daring plan to rescue her.
Realising he’s endangering Alice, Nick tries to fly to safety using his brother’s plane, only to suddenly turn invisible and flee to his flat. When Gordon unexpectedly shows up at Alice’s apartment and talks down to her, she’s amazed when he suffers a couple of pratfalls and is sent packing, before realising Gordon was upset by the invisible Nick. Now fully onboard, Alice shares her discovery of a link between Gyges and Solex and helps track down Nick’s worthless brother for help. Joe’s also incredulous about Nick’s story but agrees to help them break into Lawrence’s office out of guilt for setting up and abandoning his brother, placing a threatening call that gives Nick access to Lawrence’s computer and allows him to e-mail evidence of Solex’s wrongdoings to Alice. However, when Alice confronts Lawrence about this, she’s suddenly met by Ms. Jefferies, who kills Lawrence with an invisible gun and takes Alice hostage, threatening her life if Nick doesn’t hand himself over. Believing Nick has been made permanently invisible thanks to the unique radiation he was exposed to from the plutonium, Gyges are desperate to experiment on him to unlock the secret of invisibility as every experiment they’ve run on living tissue has resulted in failure. While stressing over how to rescue Alice and resolve the situation, Nick and Joe realise that water causes Nick’s invisibility and hatch a brave, if bonkers, plan to have Joe masquerade as Nick under layers of clothing and threaten Ms. Jefferies with a fake grenade, all while the invisible Nick hitches a ride to the Gyges facility. Amazingly, Nick stays invisible for the whole drive and therefore rescues Alice, only to fade back in at a crucial moment. Thankfully, Gyges were so caught off-guard by the plan that Nick, Alice, and Joe escape, with Nick acquiring a special suit and even stealing a motorcycle which also turn invisible when exposed to water.
Final Thoughts: Neil Morrissey was pretty popular around this time, having found fame as bungling no-hoper Tony Smart in Men Behaving Badly. Some of that role seeps into his performance here as, while Nick has at least two women on the go at the start and constantly tries to charm women, Nick is somewhat incompetent and easily distracted. Though a capable pilot, Nick’s more focused on his golfing (though we never see him playing…) and chatting up women, and therefore pleads ignorance when he’s arrested for smuggling plutonium. Sticking to his story, Nick’s let down by the system as his only defence is ignorance and tall tales about magnets and misdialled numbers. Still, there’s enough extra meat to this role for Morrissey to play with as Nick is genuinely horrified when he suddenly melts into nothingness in the shower and when he realises that Gyges wants him dead because he knows too much. Returning to visibility brings Nick little comfort as he’s left paranoia about those hunting him and when he’ll next turn invisible, not realising until the final act that water triggers the transformation and thus left anxious about suddenly fading away. Although Alice is naturally sceptical, she’s clearly intrigued by Nick, a man beset by bad luck whose claims end up having some validity. Though enraged at Nick endangering her life and her career, Alice jumps in with him to bring down Lawrence, a slippery devil whose chemicals pollute the environment, and is shown to be a very capable and forthright individual even when men are constantly condescending to her. Joe is primarily here as comic relief and to show the extreme other side to Nick as Joe is a coward and a swindler who constantly runs from responsibility, only to become crucial to Nick’s rescue operation in the end and even put his life at risk to save his brother, despite the two constantly bickering like children.
Some impressive visual effects help this ambitious, if sadly forgotten, show stand out.
The Vanishing Man was quite an ambitious production back in the day and I can’t imagine it was cheap to produce, which makes the subsequent series even more impressive. While traditional techniques like first-person shots, the absence of actors, and wires are employed for many scenes, there’s a fair bit of CGI employed to depict Nick’s invisibility. We see his flesh erased by nothingness, his aghast expression as his hands fade away, and see him semi-translucent when the transformation’s in its infancy, which is all very impressive and arguably up there with some feature film effects. It helps that these effects are used sparingly, and many appear to be simple green screen and shot replacement techniques, and this allows for a fun final shot in which Nick and his motorcycle vanish and leave Alice screaming her head off as she blasts through the countryside! While Nick would eventually succumb to madness from his condition (spoilers…), he’s a far cry from the traditional maniacal Invisible Man. Nick’s initially terrified of his condition but soon embraces it and uses it for good, grappling with armed goons and overcoming the odds with his unique abilities. These make him a clear target for Gyges, who are desperate to figure out what makes Nick so different that he can maintain the invisibility. The head is especially driven to discover this as he’s been left horrifically scarred and injured from the process, seemingly rendered a semi-transparent skeleton beneath his decidedly Claude Rains-esque mask and outfit. The ending with Chief Inspector Moreau (James Laurenson) hinting at further adventures for Nick clearly sets up the following series, which sadly remains as widely unavailable as this TV pilot, which I still remember fondly and regard as one of the better Invisible Man stories that’s made even better by making the most of its surely modest television budget.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Did you ever watch The Vanishing Man back in the day? Were you impressed by the special effects? What did you think of Neil Morrissey’s performance and did you like Nick’s characterisation? Would you like to see the full series get a re-release? What are some of your favourite Invisible Man stories and media? Feel free to share any memories of The Vanishing Man in the comments and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest other sci-fi shows for me to cover.
Released: 29 June 2023 Developer: Yuke’s Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S
The Background: Once Scott Hall showed up on WCW Monday Nitro on 27 May 1996, the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) engaged in a “Monday Night War” that defined a generation of wrestling fans. Things changed forever, however, when WCW went bankrupt and was absorbed by what’s now called World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and, despite some admirable efforts, the WWE has been the top dog of the American wrestling industry ever since. A true competitor arose in 2019, however, when Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, and Matt and Nick Jackson (with financial backing from Tony Khan) launched All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Not only was AEW an indie wrestling fan’s wet dream, but they also signed both undervalued wrestling stars and bona fide legends like “The Icon” Sting, who infamously defeated “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan for the WCW Championship on this day in 1997. AEW quickly established themselves as a true alternative to the WWE with action figures and merchandise, but it was the Jacksons who pushed for an AEW videogame, which immediately turned heads when Yuke’s (the developer behind some of the greatestwrestling games of all time) was brought in to develop the title. With the game engine being directly inspired by the celebratedWWF No Mercy (Asmik Ace Entertainment/AKI Corporation, 2000) and featuring a rare appearance by the late Owen Hart, the game promised to bolster its content with additional materials but quickly came under fire for its long development time. Despite downloadable content (DLC) trying to keep the game relevant, AEW: Fight Forever released with a strangelyout of date roster and was met with mixed reviews. While the arcade-style, throwback gameplay was praised and innovative match types were praised, the main story and wrestler customisation options were criticised for being undercooked. However, the game sold well in the United Kingdom and Tony Khan promised to produce moreAEW videogames in the future, leaving fans hopeful for an improved experience next time around.
The Plot: When not competing in a series of customisable wrestling bouts, players take either a created wrestler or a member of the AEW roster on a year-long journey through the company’s biggest names and matches.
Gameplay and Power-Ups: AEW: Fight Forever is an arcade-style wrestling title that plays very similar to the classic wrestling games produced by AKI, THQ, and Yuke’s back in the day, utilising a modified game engine and similar features of games such as the immortal WWF No Mercy. After customising their game card with icons, badges, and weapon decals, players are presenting with a laundry list of options befitting a wrestling videogame. You’ll probably want to explore the game’s options and settings first, where you can view various in-game statistics (wins and losses and such) and records, check out the current leaderboards, and toggle various options, such as the blood, entrance effects, casual play, and tutorials. As should be expected, the game offers a training mode where you can test out the initial fifty-strong roster, setting the computer-controlled opponent to different behaviours and positions to test different moves. Unless you disable in-game tutorials and hints, wrestling legends like William Regal, Jim “J.R.” Ross, and Taz chip in with insights into specific game mechanics or match types. Although the game’s controls are fully customisable, I managed fairly well with the default layout, which maps your high strike and kicks to X and Y, your grapples to A, and run to B. By holding A, X, or Y, you execute a strong attack or grapple to deal additional damage, while tapping the strike buttons executes a quick combo. You can also hit A, X, or Y while running for a running strike or takedown, attack enemies when they’re down in the same way, and swing the game’s various colourful weapons with X or Y. The right stick is used for taunting, which builds your momentum bar, allowing you to maintain stamina and execute signature and finisher moves (using the D-pad or the right stick, as prompted). If you’re covered or locked in a submission hold, mash the face buttons to try and kick or wriggle free, and mash them when locking in a submission to wear down your opponent’s body part or score a tap out victory.
The glory days of fast-paced, arcade-style action are nicely evoked in Fight Forever‘s gameplay.
Each wrestler has at least one signature and finisher move, though some have more if they have a certain “Skill” equipped. You must pull off a successful taunt to activate your “Special” status, which allows you to hit as many finishers as you like until the status fades. These are performed from different positions (from a lock up, or the top rope, or when the opponent is down, etc), so be sure to review your wrestler’s moves from the pause menu. Once your opponent is down, press the Left Trigger to pin or the Right Trigger to pick them up. Grappling and pressing RT whips your opponent into the ropes, corner, or ringside equipment, and the Left and Right Bumpers are used for countering. This can be tricky as there’s no onscreen indicator for when to counter. Simply mashing the triggers doesn’t work either, so it’s all about timing. Skills also afford you temporary buffs, such as landing the first strike or doing a taunt, while others increase your versitality, such as adding springboard attacks and a quick kip up to your repertoire. You can increase the amount and strength of your finishers, buff your finisher countering ability, increase your resistance to submissions, power out of pins, and even steal your opponent’s finisher. When tagging with a partner, you can bring them in with LT and perform double-team moves to wear down your opponents. You can also exit the ring and throw your opponent into the steel steps, ring apron, ring posts, and barricade to deal additional damage. When you hit your signature moves or finishers, you’re treated to a replay, and a helpful picture-in-picture feature shows who’s coming out to interfere for or against you. You can assign a manager to even the odds, bust opponents open, and even utilise weapons in some matches. When playing “Road to Elite”, you must watch your health as you’ll be injured if it drops too low or you overexert your workouts, requiring you to visit the hospital. In matches, your wrestler holds damaged body parts and becomes disorientated from eye rakes and eye pokes, screwing up your controls for a short time.
Though light on gimmick matches, Fight Forever has some unique and bloody match types.
There are a decent variety of match types here, from standard one-on-one matches to tag team bouts and multi-man matches. AEW: Fight Forever offers intergender matches, allows you to challenge for or defend AEW Championships, and manually change the champions if you wish. While you can’t alter the settings for every match, you can select additional options from each category, such as the “Lights Out” match (which adds weapons to the ring) and “Falls Count Anywhere” match (where you can pin outside the ring). Weapons are picked up, snatched from the crowd, or retrieved from under the ring with RT and break after a few uses but there are a lot of them here. You can set up and smash opponents through tables, swing baseball bats, steel chairs, and barbed wire implements alongside throwing football helmets, rideable skateboards, and covering the canvas with thumbtacks. Tag team matches can be a bit of a pain, especially if you’re not controlling your partner, as the CPU gets very aggressive when going for a tag and their partner often interrupts pins or hits double team moves. Your best bet is to down your opponent and then knock their partner off the apron or strategically pin your foe near your corner. Similarly, multi-man matches can get extremely chaotic as the game’s targeting is atrocious, either automatically switching to whoever it feels like or messing up your manual aim. “Road to Elite” features gauntlet matches where you battle three opponents in succession, handicap matches, and singles matches where your opponent’s allies will interfere to beat you down, all without a disqualification. Surprisingly, there’s no steel cage match, but you can play a ladder match, setting up a ladder with RT, holding B or LT to climb, and mashing buttons to whittle down a wheel and claim victory. Be careful, though, as the CPU may steal your victory if you get the wheel down to the last section and they make a successful climb.
“Road to Elite” strangely simulates day-to-day activities in a botched attempt at immersion.
AEW: Fight Forever is notable for a couple of fun and unique gimmick matches, with the “Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match” being a particular highlight. In this match, the ring ropes are replaced by barbed wire, barbed wire tables are in each corner, and you have 120 seconds before the ring explodes, causing major damage to anyone near the ropes. You can toss and hit your opponent into the barbed wire to literally flood the canvas with blood, and set off explosions, which was a lot of fun. The “Casino Battle Royale” was less enjoyable for me and far less unique, essentially being a traditional Royal Rumble with a wacky name and having you pick a playing card to determine your position in the match. The goal is to wear down your opponents (up to twenty-one) so you can toss them over the ropes to win, gaining a title shot in “Road to Elite”. This is the game’s story mode, where you take any AEW star (or a custom wrestler) on a year-long story, making friends and enemies and winning championships as you go. Win or lose (and it’s fine to lose matches here), you’ll earn AEW Cash to spend in the in-game shop and Skill Points to spruce up your custom wrestler. AEW Cash can also be spent on better hospital treatment or buying items to boost your health, momentum, or Skill Points. Between matches, you’re given four “turns” to either workout, see the sights, eat, or do other bizarre tasks like press conferences and talk shows. If you work out, you’ll lose energy but gain momentum, but also risk getting injured. Eating restores your health, as do some other tasks, and seeing the sights increases your chances or meeting other wrestlers. There are multiple story paths to experience, all triggered at random, with you forming tag teams, being betrayed, joining or battling against one of AEW’s many factions, and vying for the company’s top prize. It’s a decent mode, but quite short to invite replays and can get repetitive as you have little control over what you’re doing outside of a match (save for a few dialogue choices). You can take selfies with AEW stars for your collection, sometimes endure horrendous gauntlets or fight while injured, and play a bunch of weird mini games for additional points.
Presentation: AEW: Fight Forever generally impresses with its visuals, particularly the wrestler models. Unlike the WWE videogames, AEW: Fight Forever opts for a slightly exaggerated, action figure-like aesthetic not unlike WWE All-Stars (Subdued Software/THQ San Diego, 2011). Each AEW star closely resembles their real-life counterpart, even down to their in-game grunts and taunts (with Sting howling and “The Machine” Brian Cage shouting at the crowd), though the game was noticeably outdated at launch and is even more behind the times now. The women, especially, come off really well, which is nice to see as they often look monstrous in the WWE titles, and each has their accurate entrance music, including “Le Champion” Chris Jericho coming out to “Judas” and CM Punk using “Cult of Personality”. Unfortunately, AEW: Fight Forever opts to use truncated entrances like WWF No Mercy. While you can press buttons to activate pyro and other effects, this may be disappointing to some (not me, though, as I always skip entrances anyway). However, I was disappointed by the lack of commentary, even for signatures and finishers, opting for a customisable soundtrack instead, which was a shame. In fact, voice acting is very sparse, with the odd sound bite or insight cropping up now and then but the game primarily relying on text and dialogue boxes. While it obviously helps make the random story paths more manageable, it does come off as a little cheap, similar to when you visit various landmarks in “Road to Elite” and are met with laughably low quality still images. I occasionally saw some texture warping during these cutscenes as well, and some graphical glitches (such as entrance weapons disappearing). Similarly, there aren’t many options for wrestler customisation and skins, with only a handful of AEW stars having true alternate looks. However, I would say AEW: Fight Forever looks and performs far better than a lot of recent WWE games, likely because it’s a far simpler and stripped back title.
A flawed focus on bizarre gimmicks result in a solid, if barebones, experience.
If the trimmed entrances and lack of commentary didn’t give this away, the barebones arenas sure do. On the one hand, I’m not all that fussed as the arenas are largely superfluous and their presentation does recall the likes of WWF No Mercy. On the other hand, this game came out in 2023, so I’d expect the crowd to look less basic. The audience is seeped in darkness and indistinguishable most of the time, though the fans are very loud and add a lot of ambiance to matches. There are only a handful of arenas here, though, so things can get visually repetitive very quickly. You can build your own custom arenas, but I find these always look stupid and this isn’t helped by the weird fixtures, decals, and colour schemes the game offers. Strangely, AEW: Fight Forever doesn’t allow for backstage brawling, with no backstage areas included, or brawling in the crowd, which is just bizarre. The Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match adds some visual variety, and the “Stadium Stampede” DLC shows what the game could be capable of, but the developers apparently thought it more important to waste resources on weird-ass mini games. These see you playing baseball, participating in quizzes, collecting tokens, shoving opponents from the ring and onto coloured balls, matching Penta El Zero M’s movements, smashing coloured boxes, and running across football fields avoiding hidden holes. These certainly add some visual variety, but they’re so out of place that it’s like the developer’s notes got mixed up. Similarly, you’ll see cutscenes of your wrestler working out, chatting, visiting the hospital, getting beaten up, or meeting fans when playing “Road to Elite”, all things that are certainly different and fitting for a wrestler’s lifestyle but seem out of place. Finally, live-action footage, clips, and voice overs interspersed through “Road to Elite” show key moments in AEW history, which was nice, though you oddly don’t recreate many of these moments as you play.
Enemies and Bosses: Naturally, every wrestler on the roster is your enemy, even your allies. While every wrestler controls and fights the same, with a set number of moves and abilities, your strategies may alter depending on who you fight. As each wrestler has multiple Skills, it’s worth becoming familiar with them as it does impact your play style. Custom wrestlers will set and refine these in the “Road to Elite” story mode, AEW stars have theirs set and cannot change them, and some even have unique Skills, such as “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy’s “Sloth Style” where he fights with his hands in his pockets. “Mr. Mayhem” Wardlow snatches guys out of mid-air, Powerhouse Hobbs briefly becomes immune to strikes, Maxwell Jacob Friedman/MJF bails out of the ring, and “The Bastard” Pac evades strikes and grapples with cartwheels and rolls. Similarly, you must adapt to superheavyweights like “No More B.S.” Paul Wight as undersized wrestlers will struggle to perform their usual moves due to the weight difference. Highfliers like Rey Fenix are smaller and more agile, often striking fast, quickly countering, and flying from the top rope. Jon Moxley lives up to his reputation as an insane brawler by focusing on strikes and excelling in hardcore environments, guys like “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson are more technical, sporting a repertoire of submission holds and take downs, and career tag teams like Matt and Nick Jackson (The Young Bucks) have flashier double team moves to keep you off balance. In many cases, you can simply wait out or fight through your opponent’s unique skills, such as spamming combos on Wardlow until he starts feeling them and avoiding the top rope when facing opponents with the anti-air Skill.
Different matches and wrestler abilities can change the difficulty and complexion of a contest.
Some competitors (particularly custom wrestlers) may surprise you, however, as even smaller wrestlers can counter mid-air attacks or finishers. Generally, your opponents are only as difficult as you set the game and the match type dictates. For example, a 4-Way match pitting Darby Allin against Luchasarus, “The Redeemer” Miro, and John Silver will be an uphill battle for the colourful daredevil. Similarly, tag team matches can be a chore as the opponent’s partner constantly rushes the ring, just like in the old AKI games, and the Casino Battle Royale can end in an instant if you’re jumped from behind. Sometimes, your opponent’s attacks land faster and with more accuracy than yours but, other times, they simply stand there like a goober. The more you beat your opponent, the weaker they become, but the momentum bar charges ridiculously fast, and the match can change on a dime if your opponent gets a few good hits in or activates a buff. Generally, opponents rush you once the bell rings, so be ready to counter their attack…if you can get the timing of the blocking down. When playing “Road to Elite” on “Easy”, I found matches fluctuated. While I easily dominated most opponents, winning with a single finisher or even regular moves, others proved surprisingly aggressive, such as MJF with his dirty tactics and Pac, with his odd combination of speed and strength, yet I absolutely crushed Paul Wight, destroyed Chris Jericho, and easily toppled champions. This is true even in multi-man matches as you can get into a rhythm of wearing down a specific opponent (or keeping an eye on who’s taking a beating) and time your pins to happen as the other opponents are distracted for an easy win. “Road to Elite” got annoying for me simply because many paths push you into tag matches or gauntlets, and due to its random nature. You can access different paths and matches with different wrestlers, even competing in a Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match and battling a shadowy reflection of your wrestler in certain paths, and your opponents seem to be randomised each time to mix things up, though your general strategy of wearing them down to score a win remains the same.
Additional Features: There are thirty-eight Achievements up for grabs here, which sounds like a lot but they’re surprising simplistic. Thankfully (but oddly), none of them are tied to online play. You’ll get an achievement for clearing “Road to Elite” once and then ten times, others for creating a custom wrestlers or competing in a custom arena, and another for winning a championship in an exhibition match. There’s an Achievement for buying an item, another for hitting a signature and finisher and scoring a victory, and another for hitting an opponent with a barbed wire bat in a “Lights Out” match. If you successfully perform certain tasks in “Road to Elite” (such as eating and working out), you’ll get more Achievements, and there are Achievements for utilising certain Skills in matches. Nothing too taxing, which is nice, but the Achievements also lack a lot of creativity and encourage repetition rather than replayability, which are two different things. There are additional “Challenges” too, daily, weekly, and untimed normal challenges. These award AEW Cash for defeating opponents, challenging harder difficulties, and performing a bunch of moves over time (such as 100 running attacks). It’s something to do, I guess, but hardly that innovative compared to other games. As you’d expect, you can go online to play in ranked, casual, and private matches. Sadly, you cannot download custom wrestlers or arenas, which is very surprising but hardly a big loss considering how lacklustre the game’s create-a-wrestler is.
Some expected and bonkers inclusions can’t ease the sting of the barebones creation suite.
The create-a-wrestler mode is so lacking that it’s inferior to even WWF No Mercy, reminding me more of the laughable options seen in WWF WrestleMania X-8 (Yuke’s, 2002). You’re limited to picking set expressions and altering the basics of your wrestler’s appearance rather than changing every aspect, are given a paltry selection of clothes and accessories focused more on patriotic attire than AEW gear, and have so few options that it’s basically impossible to create current AEW stars. While there are a lot of names and moves to pick from and entrance options, it’s all disappointingly barebones, with even the shop offering little extra content. Team entrances are especially limited, it bugged me that I couldn’t even put a vest on my wrestler without picking a body suit, and it’s almost insulting how few options there are for masks and face paint. You can modify the AEW roster, but the options are again incredibly limited, meaning you can’t rejig “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes to look like Goldust. The create an arena is just as pointless, I couldn’t care less about the unlockable badges and such, and there’s little incentive on spending real-world money for the DLC wrestlers unless you simply must have Adam Copeland on your roster. They do add additional skins and moves, to be fair, and the “Stadium Stampede” mode (which is free to download but you need a subscription to play). This is a bizarre free-for-all arena battler where you compete against thirty other players on a football field, utilising horses, golf carts, and abilities, attacking enemies for poker chips to level-up your character. Lastly, you can use AEW Cash to purchase “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes and referee Aubrey Edwards, and unlock Paul Wight, “The Exalted One” Mr. Brodie Lee, and even the legendary Owen Hart by playing specific paths in “Road to Elite” for the former or winning 100 exhibition matches for the latter.
The Summary: While I generally enjoy the WWE videogames put out by Visual Concepts and 2K, it has to be said that the formula has become very stagnant over the years. The games are great simulations of the televised product, but I miss the fast-paced, action-orientated arcade style of the good old days, when WWF No Mercy captured my attention for hours on end. I’m also a fan of AEW and seeing them try something new, so I was excited to get AEW: Fight Forever despite all the negativity surrounding it. On the surface, it delivers what I wanted: simple, pick-up-and-play arcade action that recalls the AKI/THQ wrestling games of old, updating those mechanics for modern gamers. Playing matches is a lot of fun, with moves being simple to pull off, the game performing really well, and a great deal of satisfaction coming from every victory. I liked that “Road to Elite” was quite varied and encouraged replays with its different, random paths, and that it tried something new by mimicking a wrestler’s lifestyle. Unfortunately, the game is handicapped by barebones options, with perhaps the worst create-a-wrestler I’ve seen for some years and nothing worth unlocking apart from a couple of extra wrestlers. The focus on ridiculous mini games was a bizarre choice that adds confusion and tedium rather than variety, and it was disappointing to have so little control over “Road to Elite”. While the game mirrors WWF No Mercy in many ways, content is not one of them, with key elements omitted from popular game modes for absolutely no reason. The Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match was a great inclusion and this was probably the first time I’ve enjoyed a ladder match in years, but there are surprisingly few match types to pick from, the roster is severely outdated (with basically no way to update it through the creation suite), and some matches and CPU behaviours can be needlessly frustrating. It’s a shame as there’s a lot of potential, but it seems the lengthy development time got strangely side-tracked with unwanted features (those damn mini games) rather than offering a truly memorable alternative to the WWE’s videogames.
My Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Could Be Better
Did you enjoy AEW: Fight Forever? What did you think to the throwback gameplay and arcade-style action? Were you disappointed by the barebones creation suite and strangely limited presentation? Did you enjoy the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match? What did you think to “Road to Elite” and its bizarre mini games? Would you like to see a sequel improve upon the game’s mechanics and potential? Who was your go-to wrestler to play as an why was it Sting? Which of Sting’s eras, personas, and matches are your favourite? Whatever your thoughts on AEW: Fight Forever, and Sting in particular, feel free to voice them below, check out my other wrestling reviews, and donate to my Ko-Fi if you want to see more wrestling content.
Released: 2 December 2022 Director: Tommy Wirkola Distributor: Universal Pictures Budget: $20 million Stars: David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Leah Brady, Alex Hassell, Mike Dopud, and Beverly D’Angelo
The Plot: When the malicious “Mister Scrooge” (Leguizamo) and his mercenaries raid the mansion of disgustingly rich Gertrude Lightstone (D’Angelo) and take her family hostage, it’s up to the embittered, drunken, Santa Claus (Harbour) to save them by rediscovering his warrior roots.
The Review: When Violent Night begins, Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick is downing pints in a British pub and questioning his relevance in a world increasingly swamped by greed and selfishness. Santa Claus has lost sight of why he even started delivering presents to those on his “Good” list and coal to those who have been naughty, especially as kids have become extremely ungrateful over the years. Despite being way over the legal limit, Santa continues on, flying along on a sleigh pulled by eight magical reindeer, while contemplating quitting. While Santa may have lost the spirit of Christmas, young Gertrude “Trudy” Lightstone (Brady) still firmly believes in Santa Claus and the hope for reconciliation between her parents, Jason (Hassell) and Linda (Alexis Louder), who’ve been estranged for some time. This is primarily due to Jason constantly being at the beck and call of his demanding mother, Gertrude, who runs the family business with an iron fist and favours Jason over her daughter, borderline alcoholic sycophant Alva (Edi Patterson). It’s not clear what business the Lightstone family dabbles in beyond a mention of her essentially laundering money for the United States government, but it’s certainly profitable, earning Gertrude an opulent, private mansion and even her own kill squad. Linda watched for years as Jason bowed to his mother’s every whim before she finally had enough and, realising this, Jason secretly raids her vault for a cool £300 million, hoping to entice Linda away with promises of a clean break. First, Jason and his family must endure the obligatory Christmas with Alva’s self-absorbed influencer son, Bertrude/Bert (Alexander Elliot), and her clueless prima donna lover, actor Morgan Steel (Cam Gigandet). While Alva, Bert, and Morgan constantly suck up to Gertrude, desperate for her approval and recognition, Jason hangs back, safe in the knowledge that a new life awaits him by the night’s end.
Mr. Scrooge’s plot to rob the wealthy Lightstones turns to venting his anger on Santa Claus.
However, Jason’s scheme is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Mr. Scrooge and his festively named cohorts, who infiltrated the usually air-tight Lightstone manor by posing as caterers and quickly off Gertrude’s private security, taking the family hostage to gain access to her vault. Gertrude defiantly stands up to Mr. Scrooge at every opportunity, taking a punch and a verbal berating for her arrogance, confident that her family’s reputation and her feared kill squad – led by Commander Thorp (Mike Dopud) – will scare off the intruders. However, thanks to months of planning and having Commander Thorp in his pocket, Mr. Scrooge is well informed of Gertrude’s security measures and has meticulously planned the operation to perfection. While Mr. Scrooge laments that such operations aren’t as simple as the old days, Commander Thorp’s knowledge of the security codes means his team easily break into the vault once the kill team arrives, only to find it empty as Jason already cleaned it out. Before that, Mr. Scrooge relishes tormenting the Lightstones, employing the sadistic “Krampus” (Brendan Fletcher) to intimidate the family and use a large nutcracker on Jason when he learns of an unexpected “gopher” screwing up his plan. Mr. Scrooge is unimpressed by rumours of a Santa Claus offing his team, and even less impressed when he communicates to Santa directly via Trudy’s walkie-talkie and meets the big man face-to-face. While the towering “Gingerbread” (André Eriksen) and, especially, the alluring but vicious “Candy Cane” (Mitra Suri) are awestruck by Santa’s magical presence, Mr. Scrooge remains angrily sceptical about the entire situation until coming across Santa’s “Naughty” list and seeing his name and all his misdeeds listed. From there, Mr. Scrooge’s operation takes a decidedly personal turn and he relishes taking a lifetime of anger and resentment out on the battered and bloody Santa, blaming the festive icon for his troubled childhood as much as disrupting his operation.
Disgruntled Santa’s forced to rediscover his Viking roots to save the Lightstones.
Santa is shown to be at the end of his tether in Violent Night. Old, worn out, and disheartened, he’s ready to call the whole thing quits as more kids ask for cash or videogames and care little for the Christmas spirit. Depicted as an ancient Viking warrior once called “Nicomund the Red”, Santa was once a violent, bloodthirsty barbarian before adopting the hat and suit, though the film actively avoids delving too deeply into Santa’s past or the specifics of his magic, which often fails him and even he doesn’t understand. When gunfire scares off his reindeer, Santa prepares to leave after killing “Tinsel” (Phong Giang) in self-defence but reluctantly opts to return to the mansion to help the Lightstones. Like John McClane, Santa wages a surreptitious hit-and-run battle, using the Naughty list to keep track of his targets and communicating with his sole ally (Trudy) via walkie-talkie. Emboldened by Santa’s presence, Trudy cobbles together boobytraps like in Home Alone(Columbus, 1990) and encourages him to rekindle his old warrior spirit, with him using a nearby sledgehammer as a substitute for his warhammer, “Skullcrusher”. Santa’s a very mysterious figure, utilising a magic sack that always contains the next present and sewing up his wounds like he’s John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) thanks to his warrior background. Having somehow lived for centuries and operating out of the North Pole alongside his unseen wife and elves, Santa unsettles Mr. Scrooge’s minions with his knowledge of their pasts as much as he fucks up their shit with his brutal attacks. Though as vulnerable as any man, ending up a bloodied mess by the finale, Santa’s very adaptable, utilising tinsel and candy canes as much as his sledgehammer to off his targets, relishing the violence and the chance to feel needed once more.
The Nitty-Gritty: Violent Night isn’t the first film to depict Santa Claus as disillusioned and cranky, but it sure is one of the more unique. The Die Hard influences are immediate and much appreciated, with Santa’s cat-and-mouse game with Mr. Scrooge echoing McClane’s campaign against the odds in his film/s, but obviously with a more fantastical slant as this is a worldwhere Santa Claus and Christmas magic are very real. It’s therefore fair to call this “The Santa Clause (Pasquin, 1994) meets Die Hard” as Santa can (sporadically) transform into pixie dust to go in and out of chimneys, carries magical scrolls telling him who’s been good or bad, and has lived for centuries thanks to his magic. However, he’s also alone in a massive structure against a superior, well-armed force and takes a hell of a beating along the way, only succeeding through stubbornness and fortitude. As harrowing as the whole escapade is, it couldn’t have come at a better time for Santa, who’s ready to pack the gig in after this Christmas. Judging by the likes of Bert, it’s easy to see why, but Trudy pulls him back from the brink with her unwavering belief, even after Jason’s forced to reveal that Santa Claus isn’t real. Ironically, Santa finds the strength to persevere not through doubling down on good deeds, but by rediscovering his warrior roots to knock off Mr. Scrooge’s men, reinvigorating his fighting spirit and his commitment to the children of the world in the process. It’s doubly ironic considering Gertrude and Alva are deplorable people who arguably don’t deserve to be saved, Morgan and Bert are selfish in different ways, and even Jason is hinted to have been as ruthless as his mother in the past. Thankfully, their family drama leads to some enjoyable moments as they bicker while being held at gunpoint and find a common threat in the likes of Krampus to vent their frustrations onto.
Some fun, brutal, gory action works alongside the humour to make the film standout from its peers.
This mixture of comedy and brutal action helps Violent Night stand out from other Die Hard clones. The film doesn’t take itself too seriously, and yet also doesn’t skimp on the gore, delivering some enjoyable kills and action sequences, mainly involving the half-drunk and cynical Santa. At first, Santa’s desperate to avoid the situation and only fights Tinsel because his magic fails him. Originally trying (poorly) to hide or talk his way out of the situation, Santa ends up falling through a window with Tinsel in tow, accidentally impaling the mercenary on an icicle that’s part of Gertrude’s many elaborate Christmas displays. Such icicle-based gore is rife in Violent Night, with Santa and Linda using icicles to stab their assailants, usually in the eye. Santa’s fight with “Frosty” (Can Aydin) in the den is a decidedly more gruelling affair, one that ends with Frosty taking a star-shaped Christmas tree topper to the eye and being summarily electrocuted, his face briefly catching fire in the aftermath. Santa takes his fair share of punishment in each fight, which is to be expected given how well armed and capable the mercenaries are, enduring the agony of stitching up a gut wound and getting cut up pretty badly in the finale. Although dismayed when the kill squad shows up to make things worse, Santa grabs a sledgehammer and puts a beating on Commander Throp’s squad after some encouragement from Trudy, breaking bones and skulls with brutal grace. Santa also employs ice skates to cut, stab, and behead his foes and even feeds a couple into a woodchipper and drops a grenade into another’s clothing, stopping for a moment to enjoy the explosion, though he’s clueless about guns. Trudy proves equally sadistic, setting up obvious boobytraps to mask others, leading to Gingerbread being impaled through the mouth, ass, and forehead by nails and Candy Cane to be battered by bowling balls. She also gets partially scalped by sticky glue and ends up having her head smashed in by Santa while Trudy happily distracts herself singing “Jingle Bells”.
Though the brutal fight takes a lot out of Santa, his faith is renewed and he rediscovers himself.
Despite Mr. Scrooge’s well-laid plans, he comes up short thanks to Jason and Santa’s interference. Driven to frustration, he threatens to kill Linda, forcing Jason to come clean and lead him to the cash, which is stored in another of Gertrude’s Christmas displays. After she, Bert, and Alva beat and stab Krampus to death and Santa arms her, Linda provides enough cover fire to scare Mr. Scrooge and Commander Thorp into the woods, leaving Linda and Jason to finally reconcile after working together to kill off Peppermint (Rawleigh Clements-Willis). Santa finally catches up to Mr. Scrooge at a nearby cabin, where the psychotic burglar is first amazed and then enraged to discover that Santa is the real deal. Armed with a baton and an ice axe and maintaining his balance using spiked shoes, Mr. Scrooge vents his anger upon Santa, easily dodging most of his wild wings and enduring his relentless counterattack to stab and beat Santa. Their brawl brings them towards the remains of a chimney, where Mr. Scrooge impales Santa through the hand and prepares to end to Christmas once and for all. However, Santa rips himself free and finally gets his Christmas magic to work, flying them up the chimney and turning Mr. Scrooge into little more than a bloody spray and a mangled torso. Santa’s victory is short-lived as a confused Commander Thorp guns him down, though Thorp gets a bullet to the head courtesy of a slighted Gertrude. Grateful to their mysterious, colourful saviour, Jason and Linda desperately try to keep Santa warm as Trudy weeps by his side and Alva sickeningly begs them to stop burning money to keep Santa alive. Regardless, Santa succumbs to his wounds but makes a miraculous return when Trudy’s steadfast belief in him is echoed by his family, restoring him to life thanks to mysterious Christmas magic. His faith renewed, a grateful Santa says his goodbyes to Trudy and Jason but rages at his reindeer when they return too late to help. However, his anger subsides when he sees they brought him his spare sack and his beloved Skullcrusher and he heads back into the night to continue his deliveries, leaving Bert to livestream a warning to all the kids out there to be stay off the Naughty list.
The Summary: I’m a huge fan of Die Hard and its knockoffs. The formula is very simple and easily translates into many different scenarios, though it can be tough to find many films of this kind with the writing and actors/performances good enough to make them work. Thankfully, Violent Night is one of them thanks to its fantastical hook and surreal premise of pitting an embittered, over the hill Santa Claus against a bunch of well-armed mercenaries. There’s just the right balance of craziness, gore, humour, and action to make Violent Night one of the better Die Hard knockoffs and an enjoyable Christmas romp where a very different version of Santa behaves in ways most kids would never imagine. Although I would’ve loved to find out more about this Santa, his past and his operation, I liked that the film kept these things vague. Even he isn’t sure how his magic works and he can’t rely on it, meaning he’s as vulnerable as any other man and must channel his former warrior spirit to win the day. I enjoyed the resentful Santa’s ramblings about how ungrateful kids are these days and seeing him so broken that he’s ready to quit, especially as it made scenes of him wielding his sledgehammer even more empowering. The family drama between the Lightstones and the bickering and banter between them and Mr. Scrooge and his minions was surprisingly enjoyable, as were the festively named mercenaries, who are completely taken aback when Santa comes at them with a sledgehammer. The action was nice and brutal, with a very meaty, gory feel to every fight and kill, and David Harbour embodied the cantankerous ole with gusto. It’s not perfect and it drags a little in the middle, but Violent Night as a fun film to throw on in the background over the Christmas season with a nice sentimental message about the true meaning of Christmas co-existing with some wonderfully ridiculous action and amusing character beats.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Are you a fan of Violent Night? Did you enjoy the twist on the Die Hard formula? What did you think to Santa Claus and his sorry state? Would you have liked to learn more about Santa’s past and how he came to be or did you like that it was kept vague? Which kill was your favourite and is Violent Night a Christmas tradition for you? What are your plans for Christmas Day today? Whatever your thoughts, leave a comment below and have a great Christmas!
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