Review: Pokemon Ultra Moon

Ever since we were first introduced to the Alola Region in 2016, it's been a largely beloved addition the Pokemon world. From the tropical scenery backed by a gorgeous new gameplay engine to the score of new faces and Pokemon that quickly became fan favorites, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon reinvigorated the franchise with a lovely combination of elements both old and new. 

However, after launch, many wondered what their next step into the world of Alola would look like. Many speculated a Switch follow-up called Stars and even more weren't quite sure. The answer was finally given right before E3 2017 when Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon were announced via a Pokemon Direct presentation. Billed as an alternate take on your previous adventure in Alola, many with Switch-happy brains were underwhelmed. Months later, the game released and here we are today. How does Pokemon Ultra Moon stack up to the previous game? What's new to experience? All these questions and more I aim to answer in this review.

Pokemon Ultra Moon (or Sun, but I bought Moon, so yeah) begins just as the previous title did. You're a young trainer just starting out having moved to the Alola Region. You quickly meet both friends and foes, obtain a starter Pokemon, and get on your way to fulfilling an Alolan right of passage called the Island Challenge. While there are odd changes here and there, as far as the game's opening hours go, you'll have a hard time noticing much in the way of differences. However, things start to get more interesting when you're introduced to the mysterious Ultra Recon Squad and become tangled in a situation involving the Legendary Pokemon Necrozma.

As far as the story goes, Ultra Moon is a very interesting beast. While it builds upon the same elements and characters as the original games, you might see a very different amount of focus given to certain characters versus others. For example, while Sun and Moon put a TON of focus on Lillie's family and her growth as a person, in Ultra Moon, even though some of that stuff is still here, it feels overshadowed by the Necrozma plot. On the other hand, while Hau didn't receive much story focus in Sun and Moon due to the game really being Lillie's story, here he's a lot more noticeable and has a nice character arc. As soon as I finished the story, I got what the developers meant by this being an alternate take, as it truly feels like another universe's version of the same events.

My team. Can you guess what my naming theme was?

Moving on to gameplay, it's the same world and great battle system from Sun and Moon, only with some added areas, NPCs, mini-games, and additional little quality-of-life improvements. For example, while the unrelenting SOS Battles were one of the worst points about the original games in my eye, Ultra Moon completely fixes that issue by making it so a Wild Pokemon can only call for help ONCE. This makes encounters MUCH more bearable and makes the hunt for new team members all the more fun because of it.

Some of the most interesting additions are the Episode RR post-game scenario and a couple of brand new Ultra Beasts. Episode RR takes place directly following the main story as an interdimensional legion made up of previous evil team bosses from Pokemon games past called Team Rainbow Rocket seize the Aether Foundation for their own purposes. Being the upstanding young champion that you are, it's up to you to venture through their nutso base and beat each boss while squashing scores of identical grunts along the way. Episode RR was honestly a blast with all the fan service, the numerous puzzles, Guzma being a BOSS, and it overall feeling a lot meatier than the previous post-game from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Episode Delta. As for the additional Ultra Beasts, it's really cool to see a "third version" introduce entirely new Pokemon and a few are really cool like Naganadel, buuuuuuut that also transitions into my biggest disappointment with this game...

There are no additional Alolan forms. Despite it being an extremely cool concept and a big part of the original Sun and Moon's marketing, all you have are the ones from the last games, which is a bummer, especially after having most of them revealed pre-launch for the original games and having so few "surprises" left to discover. Here's hoping form variation isn't a concept Game Freak puts back in the closet for Gen 8, as it'd be an INCREDIBLE shame to see an amazing concept's potential used so poorly.

My only other real gripe about the game is the RotomDex being so needy. While RotomDex just served as an adorable companion to you in the original Sun and Moon, here you can interact with him to gain some neat extra powers that'll help certain parts of your journey along. However, the problem with it is HOW OFTEN he seems to want input from you. If you only ever chat with him a couple times every once and a while, he just sits there with sad eyes on your bottom screen, making you feel bad. I appreciate the added functionality to RotomDex's role in the game, but DON'T GUILT-TRIP ME BY MAKING IT SEEM LIKE I'M MAKING A POKEMON SAD TO PUSH YOUR EXTRA FEATURE. It's silly.

In conclusion, while Pokemon Ultra Moon features a TON of familiar stuff and story beats, it also features a nice bit of unique content in it's own right. While the amount of new stuff doesn't touch the likes of Black 2 and White 2, it's perfectly serviceable as far as a usual Pokemon "third version" game goes. Plus, just getting away from all the talk of "new stuff," it's still built off of the amazing Sun and Moon, so it's still a quality game regardless.

When it comes to whether or not you should pick it up, it's really a question of how HUGE a Pokemon fan you are. If you're a Pokemon nut, of COURSE you'll pick it up, wanting to experience the alternate story and new Pokemon and areas and stuff. If you adored Sun and Moon? Sure, I'd say it's worth a look, especially for getting kind of a different viewpoint on the plot and it works as a neat way to kind of "replay" the region without erasing your game or owning both versions. If you still play a lot of 3DS titles? Can't think of many better library additions than the latest Pokemon game. If you're looking for a totally new experience and mostly play Switch these days, however, I'd probably recommend just waiting for Gen 8.

27th Birthday Haul

Yesterday was my 27th Birthday and maaaaaaan, was it one for the books. Day started out with receiving money (From my Grandma and Sister) to order more silly stuff at my leisure as well as finally pick up some Mario + Rabbids and Sonic Mania DLC, then escalated a bit with some very nice greetings through Facebook as well as one through Twitter (Love ya, Dosm), ended strong with Pizza and one of the coolest gifts I've ever gotten (My Sister bought me a custom Birthday shout-out from GREG CIPES), and then to top it all off, the Smash Ultimate site update for the day confirmed yet ANOTHER returning stage, bringing the total to a whopping 80, not counting the new ones. (This might seem unrelated, but new Smash info FUELS ME.) It was all in all a fantastic day and I'd like to thank everyone who made it possible.

However, somewhere in all that fun was what you're probably here to read about, my gifts. So without further ado, let's get on with The Lazy Shell's very first Birthday haul post!

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch)

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition 

Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 + 2 (Switch)

Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2 (Switch)

If you know me at all, you know that I'm big on video games, so I try to get a couple of them every Birthday and Christmas. This year just happened to turn out to be the year of the ports, with enhanced versions of titles that have been around for a while, all for Switch. 

I absolutely ADORED the original Wii U version of Tropical Freeze (I still consider it my favorite game of the past decade), so of course I had to grab a portable version of it with extra Funky. 

I'm notoriously slow with Zelda games because of the timesink and brain commitment, but I rented Hyrule Warriors back in 2016 and enjoyed the crazy crossover combat, so a portable version with ALL of the content seemed like the perfect way to finally own it.

As for the Mega Men, 11 has me all sorts of hype (In fact, it was one of the things I pre-ordered with my Birthday cash) plus I only owned the outdated PS2 collections, so it was the perfect chance to update. (Having all of them on the go plus X7 and X8, games I've never actually played, were the cherry on top.)

Gravity Falls: The Complete Series Collector's Edition + Exclusive Lithograph (Blu-ray)

Gravity Falls is one of my absolute favorite shows EVER, so when I heard that Shout! Factory, through some bizarre magic, had convinced Disney to pass the home video rights on to them to create a set loaded with special features truly worthy of the show's amazingness, needless to say, this became a very easy want. 

Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated: The Complete First Season

Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated: The Complete Second Season

Gravity Falls: Lost Legends

Gravity Falls gets some more love with the brand new Lost Legends graphic novel, complete with four new stories penned by the creator himself, Alex Hirsch. Haven't read it yet, but I am absolutely jazzed for more adventures of the Mystery Shack crew. 

Regarding the DVDs, I've been meaning to pick up the excellent Mystery Incorporated series for a while, and with all the Gravity Falls goodness, it seemed like the perfect time. (Seriously, if you have ANY positive feelings for Scooby-Doo, CHECK THIS OUT. It's the first Scooby show to have a legit mystery happening throughout it.)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 17: Desperate Measures

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 18: The Trial of Krang

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe Volume 2: The New Strangeness

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Dimension X

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters 2

Wrapping things up, we have my yearly comic fix of my favorite boys in green. IDW TMNT comics have been a constant of my Birthday hauls for a long while and I'm looking forward to tearing into these puppies. (Especially since THIS batch promises Ace Duck, Jagwar, Wyrm, and the Dark Turtles.)

That brings this year's haul to an end. Quite a nice one, I have to say. Not too excessive while still having a good variety of fun stuff on hand. Thanks for reading about my blatant materialism and stay tuned to the blog for future hauls and maybe even a game review or two. (Once I get over my laziness and get around to it.)

June Hauls

Got a bit behind on posting the stuff I picked up in both late May and June in general (in addition to just neglecting the blog as a whole), so let's play catch up! Starting off, a lucky amiibo restock at Amazon landed THIS pump in my hands at last:

       
                          Bowser (Wedding) amiibo

Might come in handy should I ever get around to rounding up the rest of the Kingdom Coins in Odyssey!

Early June, I ventured with my sister to our annual nerd out weekend at OMGcon. I picked up quite a lot along the way:

    OMGcon Swag

Marvel Legends Deadpool (Back in Black)

Super Mario Series 9 Blindbag Figure (Mario)

Digimon Tentomon w/ Izzy's Laptop Keychain

Super Mario Series 9 Blindbag Figure (Bowser Jr.)

Funny story about Mario and Jr.: I originally tried for the latter with a random blindbag purchase by just feeling around for spikes. Turns out, my feeling skills

are very much lacking, resulting in my like fifth Mario figure from this series. Afterwards, I found the codes for each figure online and my Sis and I searched the entire box for Bowser Jr. However, we still didn't find him. It turns out that I had misread the method by which you use the codes to determine the figure inside each bag and I didn't realize this until we were back in the hotel room. I actually went RIGHT BACK DOWN to the dealer's hall to claim my Bowz Child. This is the the life of a Bowser fan and Bowser Jr. main in Smash.

Anyway, I also got some stuff signed, courtesy of Bill Rogers! (Who you might know as the voice of Brock in the Pokemon anime from 2006 onward, the voice of Lucario in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and voice of the King of Hyrule in Breath of the Wild! Great guy! Even commented on the Pokemon shirt I was wearing!

That does it for OMGcon, but we're not quite done yet. Finishing things off, I also went to stay with my sister and her husband for a week and did a bit of shopping while there. My first stop was ToysRUs, but it was unfortunately but unsurprisingly picked clean of anything of value. I had better luck at Target, where I purchased two films I've been meaning to pick up on Blu-ray for a while:

The Lion King (Walt Disney Signature Collection)

My Little Pony: The Movie

One last thing: At the end of June, I picked this guy up on a grocery run at Walmart:

Funko Kingdom Hearts Mystery Mini Blindbox (Axel)

That wraps things up! July should be an all-around slower month in terms of me buying crap I don't need, but my Birthday is in August, so look forward to seeing some neat stuff next month. I also plan to publish my first game reviews on the blog soon, so look forward to that as well!

4/28/2018 Haul

Took advantage of a deal on DVDs at FYE's site to finally snag these two out-of-print beauties:

Invader Zim Volume 1: Doom Doom Doom

Invader Zim Volume 2: Progressive Stupidity

SOOOOOOOOOOOO nice to finally complete this collection!

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: The Lost Adventures

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes debuted in the Fall of 2010 and introduced an animated universe somehow just as rich as the comics that inspired it despite only running for two seasons. Chris Yost and Josh Fine used every bit of Marvel knowledge they had at their fingertips to craft a show that was simultaneously awesome, fun, dramatic, and plain beautiful to look at. Things may have taken a dip when Jeph Loeb took over Marvel Animation and decided that showcasing stars of popular movies was more important than a flowing, serialized plot, but the show still found a way to shine despite that. I consider it my absolute favorite super hero show and I HIGHLY recommend picking it up on DVD if you're into Marvel and haven't seen it. It's friggin' GREAT.

However, I'm not here to just sell you on the show. In honor of the forthcoming release of the highly-anticipated Infinity War, I'm here to discuss what even existing fans of EMH might not be aware of. There are more stories from this universe than what exists in the show...

Cartoon tie-in comics can be hit or miss. You can get everything from something based on a show that eventually develops its own universe and cements it as a whole different beast like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures to something based on a show that spends the entirety of its time telling one-off stories as to not contradict the show's continuity like any of the comics based on the Nickelodeon TMNT show. It's a bit of a gamble trying to find the ones that are truly worth reading if you're super into a show and want to engross yourself in even more of a universe's lore. How does EMH fare? Well, it's somewhere in the middle.

Across both the 2011 mini-series celebrating the show's debut and the 2012 regular series tied into the then-new Marvel Universe block on Disney XD, EMH's comic adventures only feature one-off tales like the latter example. However, where this could've had the potential to feature nothing but uninteresting tales of the Avengers punching bad guys plus quips, it instead pleasantly surprises thanks to the efforts of one man: Chris Yost. Yes, the actual story editor for the show contributed stories to both series and they do a great job of enriching the show's universe while maintaining continuity with it. Let's look at a couple of examples of how they did that:

First off, Mr. Yost didn't just play around with what was established in the series. Instead, he introduced a plethora of Marvel characters both classic and obscure into this universe including everyone from the Mandarin and the Elders of the Universe to the Winter Guard and the Micronauts. (Called the Microns in the series, but nowadays known simply as the Enigma Force.) In doing so, more concepts are added to the EMH world such as the Microverse, the Contest of Champions, and even a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Infinity Stone mention. With the one-off format, these rarely if ever get followed up on, but it adds to the sheer scope of the universe. Even everyone's favorite master of magnet makes an appearance alongside two Avengers mainstays that somehow only made brief cameos in the show:

Another way these comics succeeded as supplemental material was by further developing and/or foreshadowing happenings in the show. I'll show you an example through one of the best stories: "King Solomon's Frogs."

In KSF, Black Panther and Hawkeye are flung through time by magical artifacts called King Solomon's Frogs. They have to try to recover said frogs from the thief who stole them while battling through the ages. A simple story concept, but where it truly shines is when you read it with knowledge of the show, namely, the episode "New Avengers" from Season 2:

"New Avengers" sees Kang the Conqueror escaping from his present day prison and trapping the Avengers, forcing Tony to engage a "New Avengers protocol" that calls together a replacement team consisting of Spidey, War Machine, The Thing, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and even Wolverine making his first non-cameo appearance in the show. Now, despite being written by Chris Yost, veteran watchers had one major question about Kang's involvement in this episode. When he breaks out, he just gets back to conquering like usual without attempting to recover anyone or anything that was taken from him upon his defeat...even someone important from his future that he was specially preserving using his technology. Where was Ravonna? Now, one could simply headcanon this by having Kang assume she was already dead or have him come across her preserved by the good guys, but letting her be until he can rebuild his forces, but here's where KSF comes in...

Oh snap!

THIS is what made me pick up these comics. It's an in-canon story that, while being a one-off adventure, further fleshes out the universe and addresses an unanswered question from the show. There are a couple of moments like this in these comics, too. Ever wonder what happened to Grey Gargoyle post-Asgard Invasion? How about how Crimson Dynamo was recruited into the Masters of Evil? There's even a story focusing around the Serpent Crown with the entire team roster from the end of the show present, making you wonder if it wasn't originally a proposed story from the unmade Season 3 that was apparently going to be largely magic-based. These are the kind of things that make a cartoon tie-in comic a worthy read.

Unfortunately, though, it didn't stay that way. (This is where the "somewhere in the middle" bit comes in.) While Chris Yost wrote all four issues of the mini-series and fairly consistently contributed to the regular series through the first seven issues, he disappeared with Issue 8 and we were left with stories that, though decent, didn't come close to the level of legitimacy of his. (The worst one even features a blatant continuity error where Hank Pym is Ant-Man despite Vision being on the team. Why are all errors like that from this universe somehow related to the Vision?) It didn't really matter much in the end, though, as the series only went for five more issues after he left following a...change of format:

Why do comic book companies keep doing these?

Yes, it became a photo comic consisting of screen grabs from the actual show with text bubbles and sound effects. A sad end for a tie-in with SO much potential.

We are not here to grieve, though, but to celebrate an overlooked super hero cartoon spin-off that was more than it first seemed. They could've very easily taken the easy way out with a tie-in (and they eventually DID), but bringing in Chris Yost instead gave us a few more thrills in the EMH world before it was eventually snuffed out by Assemble. Earlier in this post I suggested you pick up the DVDs, but why not give these a shot, too? (Especially if you already love the show but have never read them.) The Digests collecting Chris Yost's contributions to the regular series are even still available for fairly cheap. (Though, the mini-series is a bit harder to come by if you want it physical.) You're definitely in for a treat.

May they always fight as one.

Hello Yello!

Welcome to The Lazy Shell! As the name may not come close to obviously implying, this is where I'll come to dish out the scatterbrained thoughts and opinions on a variety of different nerdy topics swirling around in my head while I come nowhere close to doing anything remotely constructive in my daily life. We're talking video games, comics, TV, movies, reviews, spotlights, current events, and even some random stuff for good measure. I can't promise that I'll be updating that often, but I CAN promise that I'll at least try to make what I DO post a fun or interesting read. You can also be assured that I'm going to do my very best to make this place a very positive space, free of ranting. There's enough of that on the internet as it is and I'm starting this blog to have some fun and entertain, not to spread bad vibes.

Now you might be wondering who exactly I am and why I'm doing this. Well, you can call me Keifer, I'm just some portly American nerd, and I'm doing this to follow in the footsteps of Matt of X-Entertainment, Dinosaur Dracula, and Purple Stuff Podcast fame. His random assortment of posts on topics only the most obscure have entertained me consistently throughout the years and I've built up quite the repertoire of useless knowledge thanks to him, so I thought I'd see if I could apply it the same way he does.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy all that The Lazy Shell has to offer! (Eventually.)