Could Power Rangers work without Sentai Footage? - News & Rambles

 

Over the past few months, there have been reports that the current owners of Power Rangers, Habro, are cutting ties with Toei, as in they will no longer use Sentai footage. Supposedly, their contract with both Toei and Nickelodeon is expiring which would mean that Power Rangers Dino Fury, (which is set to air in 2021) would be the last traditional encarnacion. While I have no way to confirm or not if this will happen, if raised a good question about how Power Rangers could work as a stand alone. So, click "read more" and I will give my take.

Pepper's Puzzles (Steam) Review.

There's a lot of puzzle games out there on Steam.  A lot of them are crappy, a lot of them are pornographic, and a lot of them are both.  There are quite a few good ones on there too, but sifting though the crap to get to one can be a difficult task.  However, Pepper's Puzzles could be one of those diamonds in the rough.  Then again, that bar is set so low on Steam, even roadkill can jump over it.  (Click on "Read More" to read the full review.)

Saints Row II - PC/Xbox 360 Game Review

The Saints Row series is a timeless classic that has done a great job filling the void in the very long gap between Grand Theft Auto games. The second in the series is the earliest game available on multi platforms, so most PC gamers start here unless you are ready to dust off that X-Box 360 and order a copy of the original game.

Green Phoenix - Let's Talk...The West Wing

Hey everybody!

I hope that you have managed to keep yourselves in high spirits and good health given all the anxiety and stress that this last week has likely given quite a few of you. I know that I personally had some serious anxiety attacks as thoughts of the election have continued to pervade the back of my mind. Thankfully, some R&R and loved ones has ensured that I am in decent mental form for you all and enabled me to focus on providing you all with a different kind of article this time around.

Up until now, my style of articles have been of four general varieties: Reviews, Countdowns, Editorials, and Literary Recommendations. Today's article is going to be a variation of Editorials that I'm calling "Let's Talks". Whereas my editorial articles are usually me trying to discuss a specific point or debate a topic that I'm focusing on in that article, Let's Talks will be much lighter in tone and more free-form. Let's Talks have no objective or point beyond me talking about some topic on my mind, be it a review or a rant, etc.

And for my very first Let's Talk, the recent election drama has brought my mind to one of television's greatest Presidents. So we are going to talk about just how great of a show The West Wing was and what I liked and missed about it.

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Win the White House - Flash Game Review

In "celebration" of the 2020 election, I have decided to play a presidential election flash game. Free to play HERE. This game has nothing to do with Biden or Trump, which is fitting because I am in no position to write a proper political article. Anyway, let's click "read more" and see what this quick little game has to offer.

Kamen Rider SD: Shutsugeki!! Rider Machine! (Super Famicom) Review.

When it comes to getting Kamen Rider game released in English back in the day, we got the short end of the stick.  Out of the many Kamen Rider games released in Japan, we only saw so few.  We got a pretty decent arcade game (which you can read my review of that right here) and a very lousy Sega Mega CD game.  Oddly enough, the Sega Mega CD game got rated T in America.  Sure, most of the Kamen Rider games are lousy and I've reviewed a few of those stinkers here.  Some of them are surprisingly decent and should've been released outside of Japan.  This is one of those Kamen Rider games.  This is your captain speaking!  Today's gaming cruise ship voyage takes us to Kamen Rider SD: Shutugeki!! Rider Machine! A game released for the Nintendo Super Famicom.  (Click on "Read More" to read the full review.)

Green Phoenix - The Nightmare Before Christmas Review

Happy Halloween everybody!

I was struggling to figure out what would be the best film to review for the season. While I absolutely could have done your standard horror film, those films have never really been my thing. I can certainly appreciate the nuances and subtext and many classic horror films but for this particular Halloween, I think I will go for a more light-hearted fare.

First developed as a poem by Tim Burton in 1982, The Nightmare Before Christmas would stew at the back of Burton's mind throughout the 1980s; the director slowly developing a name for himself with films like Batman (1989) and Beetlejuice (1988). In 1990, Burton approached Disney, slowly coming into its own with its animation department, with the idea to adapt his poem into a stop-motion animated movie, inspired by animated shorts like the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials. Disney accepted the idea under their Touchstone Pictures production company, which catered to those films which were considered more "grown-up" than was appropriate for the Disney brand.

As Burton was busy with the production of his sequel to Batman, Batman Returns, he got his friend Henry Selick to direct The Nightmare Before Christmas, which released in 1993 as an enormous financial and critical success. And in the decades have followed, the popularity of this movie has only gotten stronger, with The Nightmare Before Christmas now being considered a cult classic. the film helped to not only solidify Burton's unique visual aesthetic but paved the way for future high-budget stop-motion animated feature films. Films like Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Paranorman owe so very much to their spiritual ancestor.

But how good is this movie? Does its influence on the modern zeitgeist far out shadow its standalone presence?

Let's take a look and find out.

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