I Visited My Old Stomping Grounds

It has been over 15 years since my family and I moved from Michigan City, my old stomping grounds in Indiana. It was the State that became my birthplace where I used to live. To add on to all of this, because of how my life in Indiana got the best of me as a kid, I did various agendas like going to the bowling alley, having cousins, enrolling schools, meeting my pals near me, going to the most charming mall on the street that is the very heart of the town I moved from, watching the basketball and football games my brother played in person, experiencing white girls wearing skinny light blue jeans and a white hoodie at middle school and white women with big butts?! Yeah, I know. I like big butts and I cannot lie. Heh, I find it so funny.

Rewind back to 2009, my family and I moved to Arizona. And it's not just because I couldn't handle the unbearable level of coldness created by the snow. It's also because of the things I have been put through. I even got suspended for an untimely violence I shouldn't have done at middle school like holy crap, things have gone to heck in a handbasket. I was 13 years old at the time. But I have learned that everything I was put through was because of my bad behavior and outburst, not the system within my nostalgic bias.

You have to realize that I am happy that I moved to Arizona to get away from the snow, not because of everything they put me through as I learned that it was my behavior. But the only exception would be my teacher getting angry and yelling at me after I threw that tantrum as I was able to tell from her bloodshot eyes. One day, I can reminisce those days. And another day, I may also remember the bad times I had back in the day. Yes, I know you're trying to say, "Why the desired live action Spyro the Dragon movie should take place in Indiana?" Don't worry, I'll get to that later.

Originally, I didn't want to visit my old stomping grounds. But fast forward to 2020, I suddenly felt a mild urge to visit Michigan City because I was thinking of what few things that driven me to do so, like visting schools I enrolled, going bowling at the City Lanes bowling alley, seeing my old friends other than the ones who are a part of my family, looking at my old house, colorful houses and stores and fast food places that are not seen in Arizona, the style of houses and more importantly, forests.

There are forests out there and the fun thing about them is that during the spring and summer times, they make me think of one of the best girls in the Spyro franchise. And that's Elora the Faun. But how is it that the forests make me think of her? Why is that special? Well, Elora is one with the forest. Leaf dress, goat legs with the same color as the tree bark, healing powers and collectibles of Avalarian Leaves in Crash Team Rumble to collect to unlock her during her Early Access.

I wanted to visit there, but I need to go on an airplane because it's the fastest way. I am afraid of heights for that. I have been having dreams that take place at my old stomping grounds, like visiting my elementary school and its hallways' peanut smell, sitting near the forest at the park of my elementary school, visting my old house, etc.

Fast forward to 2024, I have finally visited my old stomping grounds. When I arrived at my old stomping grounds for the first time since I moved to Arizona 15 years ago, I experienced a lot of changes. Hollywood Video is now American Mattress, which I already told you about, Walmart has moved to a new location to pave the way for three stores I am not quite familiar with in the plaza, there are food places that I thought they were exclusive to the mountain states like Panda Express, Raising Cane's and Chipotle, there is a Franklin St. Family Restaurant that was Lindo's Mexican Restaurant, Big Lots was moved to a building that was Toys "R" Us, Holiday Inn was rebranded into Baymont by Wyndham Michigan City, Citgo was rebranded to Golo and St. Anthony was rebranded and restructured into Franciscan Health. The last two changes aren't related to the places located in Franklin St., but kind of figured that I would classify them as honorable mentions.

Among Mideastern States, Indiana is known for having places that Arizona doesn't have like Menards, Meijer, Schoop's, Holly's, Rio's, Albino's... And these places remained open for years despite economy changes even at a distance. If any of these places that remain alive get affected by the economy changes, then they would take off. But that will not be the case. Heck, I never had Schoop's or went to Holly's in my life. And personally, I am glad that these respective places remained open. But what I'm not glad is that the mall on Franklin St. has closed because of the economy changes. It was the only mall that was so charming that I explored there. I even threw a coin in the fountain and wished for something amazing. There was an arcade joint that had a lot of fighting games from back in the day. That mall shouldn't close, especially when it was charming and I wanted to play in the arcade.

My feelings of finally visiting my old stomping grounds became the definition of positive overall, with me praising my visit to the bowling alley and the casino, attendance at the wedding to bring my family together, looking at my old house and the elementary school I have enrolled at, coming across a lot of people in places I have been to in search of my old friends, going through Tilden Ave. and its cemetery that is more charming than the other one, my part to pick up my tux, having hot dogs at Carlson's and forests making me think of Elora, which I had to tell that purple-haired lady who works at the tux shop about it when I was explaning the Spyro the Dragon franchise, but my brother told me that she doesn't even know what the heck am I talking about! But the only thing I am criticizing is the part where I had to attend at my father's funeral, but I am praising the way my monologue of losing my father touched their hearts at the funeral, though.

2024 became a nostalgic year for me and my family. Even the font on the text that reads "Putting the Magic Back Into Software" on the Silicon Knights logo made me think of the fact that a quality Chinese restaurant like Fortune House Chinese Cuisine is no longer there when I booted up Blood Omen. I kind of glued in to holding on to places that were taken out when we arrived. Places like Fortune House may no longer exist and I may not be able to visit schools I enrolled, but what matters the most is when I finally visited my old stomping grounds to explore what changes and that filled out the Indiana-shaped sadness in my heart.

The first time was better, and it's not the fact that I attended at my brother's wedding. It's the road trip me and my family had and it's considered the best road trip because of three things below.

The first thing was going through the highway between forests. They have been a staple during our road trip that they produce oxygen. We went through the road between forests when we arrived at Missouri on the way to Indiana and until we arrived at Oklahoma on the way back home. And I started thinking of Elora when we go through the road between the forests when we arrived at Missouri and until we arrived at Oklahoma. That was effective during the spring and summer.

The second thing was stopping at gas stations. It is the most important thing to do when you're running low on gas and without fuel, your vehicle can't move. That's why it's important to fill up when you're running low on fuel. And to be honest, this is actually interesting because of sightseeing.

And the third and final thing, Checkers. And I'm not taking about a board game. I'm taking about an American fast food restaurant chain that has the same menu as Rally's, but different name, like Hardee's and Carl's Jr. have the same menu. When we were at Illinois, I stopped by to get me some Checkers. The quality there is off the chain and I was astonished at it. Hearing 1smash18's story about the part where he went crazy on the boneless wings from Checkers driven me to have it.

When I got back to Arizona, I couldn't stop thinking about the new stuff I haven't done on the time before I moved out, like telling the purple haired woman who works at the place where I got my tuxedo for my oldest brother's wedding about my opinion about how I think of Elora every time look at the forests, even while on the road when I get to Missouri on the way to Indiana and until I get to Oklahoma on the way back home to Arizona, experiencing Lerner and Rowe's 222-2222 Chicago phone number on TV when I was at Blue Chip Casino and had Rio's for the first time. When I was astonished at how they handled the taco meat, I pulled a Palamena. In fact, the taco meat is a bit higher in quality there than Taco Bell's. My visit to Indiana sank in to thinking of Elora when near the forest while doing something new and productive, which is listening to the Cave Stage theme from Marvel vs. Capcom 2, which is considered to be the best theme along with the Clock Tower Stage theme and thank God we have Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics...

It also sank in to doing nostalgic and old things that I have done at the time before I moved to Arizona. I went to Menards, but to look for a portable air conditioner, had hot dogs at Carlson's, went through areas my bus driver has taken me through and had a look at my old house and my local elementary school. But I did not visit Meijer or any of my schools I enrolled back in the day. But at least I went through Tilden Ave. and it's considered a charming and familiar thing because it's where you find the cemetery, which is considered more charming than the one where my father was buried at, and the head start school where I enrolled at back in the day and where my bus driver has taken me through when I was in high school to pick up more students. I may not be able to visit my schools I enrolled or Meijer while a quality Chinese restaurant like Fortune House may no longer exist, but I finally visited my old stomping grounds and that filled the Indiana-shaped sadness in my heart.

And to visiting big places with a lot of people to bolster coming across people I'm not familiar that resembles the quality of my old friends I have not come across other than my cousins. Big places I have visited were Franciscan Health, formerly St. Anthony Hospital, City Lanes and Blue Chip Casino. Accepted places were City Lanes and Blue Chip Casino, with Franciscan Health trailing behind due to them not changing a bit.

Now, what's really cool is that I came across someone who looked like Hinna from Visions of Mana. Wow, I can't believe that an Alm of Fire would be in my old stomping grounds. That filled the sadness in my heart even more and that deserves a praise hands down.

Now, I want to breakdown the places in the two States, so let's start with White Castle. White Castle is apparently in both states, so this a nationwide fast food place. Next, Schoop's Hamburgers. The restaurant is in Indiana, but not in Arizona. Schoop's was established in Indiana and was never franchised, so it is not in Arizona as it's an Indiana-exclusive fast food place. Meijer, located in Indiana, but not in Arizona. Menards, located in Indiana, but not in Arizona. Aldi, located in both states.

If I am planning to visit there now that I conquered my fear of flying in a plane on the time I attended at my father's funeral to do a nostalgic experience, it's gonna be during the spring and summer times because of the warmth. It is gonna be my preference for when I plan to visit my old stomping grounds. That's why the first time was better that it was during the summer time when the trees have fully grown leaves and the weather was nice.

But that's not the only thing that comes to mind. First off, I felt comfortable peeing, pooping and taking a shower at my nephew's apartment, but I felt uncomfortable peeing, pooping and taking a shower at my brother's house. It's because their bathroom was so nasty that I saw toothpaste stains on the tube of toothpaste and I was right to spend a couple of nights at Blue Chip. I felt comfortable using the bathroom there and they have a nice walk-in shower. And when I saw the Lerner and Rowe commercial with the 222-2222 phone number on TV at Blue Chip, it applied to seeking my old friends from back in the day and going past the Lerner and Rowe billboard with the 977-1900 phone number when I arrived home and that's the phone number for Arizona.

Now let's go on to something even further. Back in the day, a TV series that aired on Cartoon Network every weekday at 6:30 AM was Pokémon: Advanced Battle. It's an anime TV series based on Pokémon that aired every weekday at 6:30 AM on Cartoon Network. When it goes off, I woke up and get ready for school every day, except for days off from school. I was in middle school on that time and I was at my old house. And to be honest, that part was interesting to experience, even on a Monday when people had to get up and go to school once the weekend is over. Neat stuff. But today, I am no longer getting ready for school because I have graduated 12 years ago.

See, my life in middle school there does sting a bit because of the fact that I committed violence when I was in the 6th and 7th grades, gotten suspended for such violence and couldn't make friends because of the violence I have committed that got me suspended from school and that labelled me as the unforgiven, especially with what bad thing Yasuo did to label him that. Nothing has ever got as close as it did with my life in school being better in Arizona that I made friends and avoided committing violence despite a couple of setbacks I have experienced.

However, they were going to set me a room when I visit my old stomping grounds and announced that I'm gonna be staying there for the rest of my life when the time comes. But I am here with a strong opinion. I talked about this in private many times, but it's finally high time that I put my foot down and get my markdown on how I feel about all this and explain why. I AM NOT moving back to Indiana. Not one bit. And I believe setting me up to live in Indiana again would literally be the worst practice they can do. The days in Indiana during the fall and winter times; not one, is becoming nice as the days in Arizona, so in the objective sense possible, the best times to visit Indiana are the spring and summer times, and they have nice days in both of these times. Not just by a little bit, but by a landslide.

And instead of me telling you, let's take a look at the temperature on both States. I will be using WeatherBug to state the degrees. It is an app that has the period of ten days with highs and lows. I'll be comparing the temperature for both states. If you don't like the lows, it's fine. Just refer to the highs.

Here's a look at the temperature of the two States. It is currently winter and will soon be spring. None of the days in Indiana are coming close to how nice the days are in Arizona during the fall and winter times. In fact, none of the days in Indiana passed the ideal temperature of 70°. They all averaged on 39°. So with no nostalgia goggles on, no bias. Looking at the numbers, the days in Arizona during the fall and winter times are nice and they're reigning supreme. Why would they want me to move back to Indiana for the rest of my life? They should know that there is a good chance of a snow storm to happen even during the fall.

I loved visiting my old stomping grounds and I've familiarized myself with areas I have remember going to preciously and holding it to my heart today, but I know in the back of my mind that I will never be moving back there or shoudn't be moving back there to live there, especially because of the unbearable level of coolness and after experiencing the part where my brother yells at his kids to cause chaos and fear. Plus, why would they pitch to themselves that I can live in Indiana for the rest of my life when there is snow to drive anyone to turn on their fireplace? When a snow storm comes, it will be dire and it won't be as nice because we stayed back for so long.

Now, there has been some arguments that if I consolidate my living by doing a spring forward, fall back initiative, like I spring forward to Indiana when spring comes and fall back to Arizona when fall comes to consolidate my living. So what if we do a spring forward, fall back initiative to consolidate my living? This doesn't seem like a good idea to me. See, we're giving us a hard time and combining our lives.

I want to point out that spring and summer are the best times to visit because of the nice level of crispness and forests having new green leaves. If we attempt to visit Indiana during the fall and winter times, then the nice level of crispness will not be present on these times. Think about this. Would you risk getting the flu? Do you understand what I'm saying?

Now let's talk about what I want in this post. And that's a live action Spyro movie. So why is it that the live action film adaptation of Spyro the Dragon should take place in Indiana and its fictional city? There are three reasons.

The first reason is my birthplace. This is a State I was born 30 years ago. I made a lot of cousins and friends and enrolled at schools there. I lived there for 15 years and I moved to Arizona 15 years ago, and it's considered emotional. Except that I was actually born in South Bend.

The second reason is a padding that I had during my visit to Indiana is that I like to look for a woman as my movie girlfriend for the live action Spyro movie. To my knowledge, the Sonic movies featured a white man named Tom Wachowski and a black woman named Maddie Wachowski, so I intend to look for a white woman as my movie girlfriend for the live action Spyro the Dragon movie there. It might be the one who I saw working at Carlson's.

Third and final reason, forests are there and it is perfect for the post credits scene for Spyro Movie 1 to entail Spyro meeting Elora. Forests are common of the environment today and it's largely applied to the Mana franchise with its entry of the Tree of Mana. To have forests in our environment is a very smart and important practice as during the spring and summer times, they produce healthy oxygen and Mana, especially for living.

One last point to make. My family and I moved to Arizona for one reason.

It's to get away from the snow. We want to have a new life there without the involvement of much snow and the unbearable level of coolness We want to live in a nice weather. Also, the spring and summer times are the best times to visit because of the warmth. We had to visit Indiana during the fall for my father's funeral to risk getting the flu and get the fireplace ready.

Why I'm telling you about this is because I want to express my feelings and opinions about my experience in my old stomping grounds, especially coming across people I am not familiar with and places that were rebranded and restructured into. 2024 became a crazy year when I visited Indiana twice. It's no fun staying in Arizona all my life because of the nice weather, but it's gonna be a matter of time before my third visit to Indiana since I conquered my fear of flying in an airplane. And to make it exciting, I will be bringing my Switch with me if I bought Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics before then.

What I Want for miHoYo's Next Project

If miHoYo is planning their next project, I am thinking of a free-to-play open world action RPG that is basically a hybrid between Genshin Impact and Visions of Mana. And I believe a game like that could work. But can it actually work? Let's jump right in.

And man, I am back with another fun and creative post. Now, probably one of the most interesting things is that what would I think of an action RPG that is a hybrid between miHoYo's popular open world action RPG Genshin Impact and Square Enix's critically acclaimed Visions of Mana. I am going to use this post to tell you how I feel about wanting it as miHoYo's next game and tell you how it works.

When making a game that is a hybrid between two games in terms of gameplay and world, the first thing you must do is to find common denominators for both games you're taking their core DNA from and combining them to make a hybrid game. And what falls into common denominator should be a straightforward transition to a game drawing inspiration from other multiple games, so let's take a look.

Genshin Impact and Visions of Mana are both anime-style open world action RPGs. They involve two attack buttons. They have a marker to represent your next destination. The characters have Elemental powers to wield. There are dungeons and towns on the world map. There are side quests to partake and completing them gives you rewards. There are enemies located outside of every town.

And that's it. Those are the common denominators between Genshin Impact and Visions of Mana. They are both charming open world action RPGs, but they have different mindsets.

The Visions of Mana mindset is about the player character being followed by their two companion characters and a non-playable support character and having characters outside of battle and the story mainly involving the Soul Guard gathering Alms to go on a pilgrimage to the Mana Tree. There are eight Elementals to wield and they cost MP. The Class Strikes are cinematic, but only the player character can use them. During combat, there is a border that appears when you confront monsters and can run against it to escape, but not in certain battles where the border is red. You'll only earn EXP, Lucre and items until you either defeated all enemies in the area or escaped from battle after defeating one enemt. There are Elemental Vessels to use and they can change their playstyle. Each character has up to three classes depending on the Elemental Vessel they are equipped with. There's even collectibles scattered across the world and they are spent on items at the Dugbear's shop. There are even elemental Aeries to partake and Elementites to absorb energy from with Elemental Vessels.

Then you have the Genshin Impact mindset. While the game does has Elementals, they are also used as classes for each character. There is no companion characters. You can only see the player character the player can switch and they can defeat enemies alone outside of town. The Traveller is the main character. The world doesn't have any segmented areas when exiting or entering a part of town that there is no loading screen. It's just has great scaling and freedom with a day and night cycle. And there's no damage when you fall down on the ground from greater heights. The story gets new segments every major update.

I like to say that the hybrid action RPG I want from miHoYo would be a Genshin Impact-style world with a Visions of Mana-style gameplay and combat. Making an action RPG hybrid between two games is easy, so here's what I think will work for a hybrid between Genshin Impact and Visions of Mana by miHoYo.

First off, in Genshin Impact, the main character is a Traveller while in Honkai Star Rail, the main character is a Trailblazer, so in a Genshin Impact meets Visions of Mana action RPG, the main character would be called the Guider. The Guider would be the main character for an action RPG I want for their next project. But like other games, they can be both a male and a female and you would give the Guider a name. It is easy to give them a name. That is the first thing to do when you're playing a gacha game for the first time.

There would be eight elemental classes of Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Moon, Wood, Light and Darkness. The male Guider would be a Light type character, like Val, who is both the Alm of Light and a Soul Guard and the female Guider would be an Earth type character, like Liza, who was both the Alm of Earth and a Soul Guard. Sure, the Mana franchise has these Elementals, but they can be used as classes. Each character would have ultimate attacks that are cinematically faithful to both how Visions of Mana handled cinematic Class Strikes and Honkai Star Rail handled ultimate attacks.

When you enter a town, you would only see the player character and you can't attack until you leave town. You would earn EXP from using materials in the characters menu and earn money and get items after defeating all enemies in an area in combat. Each character would have up to five tiers, so if they make it to level 20, they would be able to go up a tier to learn new moves and increase their max stats. Every 20 levels go up a tier. There would be three weapons depending on the class each character would have and they would switch between weapons on the fly and during their combos like in Tower of Fantasy.

Instead of me telling you, let's take a look at the elemental classes and their three weapons. I went to Google Spreadsheets to determine what elemental classes that have three weapons and they leave less room for error. Now, let's take a look at the three weapons on each class.

Among the Fire, Earth and Darkness classes, characters of these classes can have their own performance and they won't be non playable like Hinna, Liza or Aesh. What this means is that the Water, Wind, Moon, Wood and Light type characters are gonna be faithful to the performance of the playable characters in Visions of Mana's party among these classes, so you will expect every Water-type character to have an arsenal of a scythe, boots and flail to be faithful to Palamena's performance in this game. The funny thing about this is that if we get a waifu that resembles Palamena in this game, it may either alienate fans and ruffle people's feathers, which means spark backlash and/or a Mightykeef-style controversy or attract fans into playing this game and spark excitement.

We know that we can switch characters in Genshin Impact by pressing the D-pad buttons and you can only see the player character. I believe that we can amp it up a bit for this Genshin Impact meets Visions of Mana action RPG, by having the player character being followed by their two teammate characters and a non-playable assist character in game outside of town, and they can be capable of switching weapons on the fly like the player character, but not using their ultimate attack. Only the player character can. And because there is an endless cast of playable characters, there would be multiple team slots that hold up to four characters. Wuthering Waves handled that, except that it has team slots that hold up to three characters.

What about Elemental Vessels? Are they gonna be acquired as we progress through the story? I don't think so because Elemental Vessels would vary by class. A Light-type character for example would automatically be given a Vessel of Light.

One more thing to make regarding the situation in Genshin Impact and it's a gambling issue. Since Genshin Impact came out, players were addicted to gambling on that game. They spent real money trying to get the character they desire and it failed because of their bad luck. It's technically gambling. Like for instance, in the Mightykeef video, Keef was trying to get Diluc, but his chance of getting the character remained slim and spent real money trying to get it. That's what happens if you play games with gambling mechanics. That's why you must gamble responsibly. This means that if you run out of in game currency trying to get the desired character, just move on and get some more by playing through the game. That's what a Gacha game is.

But we can alleviate the gambling issue and frustration for this hybrid of a Genshin Impact and Visions of Mana action RPG game so that players can get their desired characters without spending a dime. Free pulls. They are earned when you complete daily side quests and missions. They contain characters, weapons, items and gear. Every ten free pulls would guarantee you a five star character and every five free pulls would guarantee you a four star character.

Now, if miHoYo is planning their next project, this I what I want from them. If it comes into fruition, will people want this? I think they do because they like action RPGs as much as I do. Besides, there are action RPGs that are inspired by Genshin Impact, so I believe that a Genshin Impact and Visions of Mana inspired action RPG from them could work for their next project and it must be completely profanity free like others. In fact, miHoYo doesn't have to plan this if they want to because any other company can develop this game.

Now, I originally planned to tell you how would a Genshin Impact and Trials of Mana hybrid action RPG work, but since Genshin Impact has elemental classes and Visions of Mana has characters that were appointed as Alms to be a part of the pilgrimage to the Mana Tree, it's better off being a hybrid between these games.

Sonic Movie Changed Everything in the Video Game Movie Department

I think the Sonic Movie franchise has changed everything in the video game movie department. No, I am serious. I know that there are some naysayers that would say that it did not. But it's okay, because I am going to explain on how did it change everything from a plot and development perspective, so let's jump right in.

Now, there are some people that Sonic Movie did not change everything in the video game movie database, but the Super Mario Bros. Movie did. Sure, the movie made over a billion dollars in box office in a way, but it is a CGI animated movie.

Since the inception, live action film adaptions based on video games from back in the day started kicking in. And it pretty much flopped with the live action Mario Bros. Then Mortal Kombat came along, but rated PG-13 to have watered down violence instead of R. But it has special moves seen in the games. Then a sequel came to become an absolute garbage due to its crappy design on characters. Then the department shifted to Street Fighter. The live action film was was okay, but lacked fireball moves. And then comes the absolute dumpster fire of a movie called Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Don't watch it. The design on characters is terrible. And finally, Tekken got its movie, but the design looked so abmysal.

These mentioned movies weren't critically successful. They all fell short and they bombed because of their poor quality on the plot and characters. Companies couldn't be able to figure out how to make a decent video game movie without alienating fans.

But here's another issue. The mentioned video game movies from back in the day have created plotholes. For example, did you know that in a live action Street Fighter movie by Jean-Claude Van Damme, Ryu and Ken wear their gi, but they don't have Hadoukens? That is a prime example of a plothole. Another one involves the fight between Chun-Li and Vega turning out to be an abysmal fight because Vega doesn't have a claw and Chun-Li doesn't have her Kikoken. That created yet another plothole.

The plotholes in the sequel to the 1996 film for Mortal Kombat are even more obvious. The dragon is CGI animated and Raiden relented, but allowed Shao Kahn to snap Johnny Cage's neck. And there are a few characters that are very low and subpar in quality.

The department had backfired because none of the companies knew how to make a decent live action film adaptation based on a video game on that time. Now, how do we make a high quality video game movie that caters the best quality for fans without alienating them?

Sonic Movie director, Jeff Fowler had a perfect example on how they make a great live action video game movie. They laser-focused on what made video game movies so low in quality. And instead of rushing and bringing low quality video game movies to theaters, they take their time to make them high quality. When the first trailer for Sonic Movie 1 came out, the trailer received negativity over Sonic's ugly design and it convinced Paramount to redesign him to make him on-par with his game counterpart. So they did and the second trailer received positivity.

Right off the hop, I will be going over the events in each iteration that are faithful to the events in the games' events in order. This is the movie that started it all for a live action Sonic X. The events of the first movie entails Sonic, voiced by Ben Schwartz, visiting Earth to team up with an officer in Green Hills named Thomas Wachowski to stop Robotnik, voiced by Jim Carrey, from using Sonic's powers for world domination. In the first movie, Dr. Robotnik's design isn't faithful to his design used in the games. But there is one event in Sonic Movie 1 faithful to one of the games. It's Sonic defeating Robotnik. This movie became the final movie to play in cinemas before the pandemic hit to close cinemas everywhere.

Then a sequel came to be greenlit. You'll notice that the yellow "2" with two tails symbolized Tails' debut to the franchise. The second iteration has a couple of events faithful to the games, like Sonic teaming up with Tails, voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey, to defeat Robotnik, looking nearly in line to his game counterpart by shaving all of his hair and a wild mustache. It's an event faithful to the event in Sonic 2. And Knuckles, voiced by Idris Elba, is on there to team up with Robotnik to get the Master Emerald at the floating palace until the betrayal. That is an event in the movie faithful to the event in Sonic 3 and Knuckles. But the Master Emerald in the movie is smaller than in the games to have tiny Chaos Emeralds inside it. That brought Super Sonic in the movie. It's first seen in Sonic and Knuckles. This movie became the first to play in theaters since the pandemic.

The third iteration came out in 2024 and it became my first movie of the New Year to see in theaters. The movie featured Shadow the Hedgehog, voiced by Keanu Reaves, being trapped in a tube until he wakes up. Despite Ro The movie has a lot of faithful events to what we saw in Sonic Adventure 2. They include having two Robotniks, Ivo and Gerald, Maria keeping Shadow company in the past, Shadow transforming into Super Shadow, Sonic and Shadow teaming up to destroy the space cannon and the cannon peeing on the moon. Let's not forget about Shadow holding a gun while riding in a motorcycle. That is from his own game. Also, the red "3," though the movie featured Shadow, actually represented Knuckles joining the team to establish the iconic Team Sonic trio on the big screen.

And lo and behold, after the fourth iteration is greenlit to extend beyond the trilogy, the pink "4" appears to symbolize Amy Rose's debut to the big screen to give her more love in the fourth iteration. She is first seen in the post credits scene along with Metal Sonic, who is also confirmed to be in the fourth iteration as well. Amy's voice actress is unknown, but I think Carly Rae Jepsen would be a perfect voice actress for our hammer wielding feminine pink hedgehog, so call her maybe, Paramount. I went to X and came across an article that shows that because Metal Sonic is confirmed and there are pieces of content cut from the theatrical release of Sonic Movie 3, Sonic Movie 4 will feature a time travelling narrative taken directly from Sonic CD.

Instead of me just telling you, let's take a look at the inserts to show you what I want for Sonic Movie 4. I am using screenshots from my Wrapper: Offline career to show you what I want for the fourth iteration.

Instead of Sonic Movie 4 entailing Sonic and Amy going on a time travelling adventure, let's amp it up a bit. Sonic Movie 4 should entail the iconic Sonic quartet going on a time travelling adventure to save the future. They must travel back to the past to fix the future, by destroying the transporters with one butt to kick.

If the transporters remain intact, the bad future created by Dr. Robotnik and Metal Sonic ruling the world will remain.

But destroy the teleporters and the good future will be created to have flowers and animals living in peace with no trace of evil coming. In Sonic CD, you go straight into to the future in Act 3 to fight the boss. And you can be able to fight the boss in the level's good future by travelling back to the past to destroy the transporter in Acts 1 and 2. And to be honest, this is quite interesting.

And since Sonic Movie 4 is gonna feature Amy Rose, I believe that she should join Tom and Maddie Wachowski with her pals before her.

That said, Sonic Movie 4 is going to enter production on February and premiere in cinemas March 19, 2027.

We now have four iterations of the Sonic Movie franchise. The franchise came this far. The sequel numbers in different colors have an interesting touch. There's the yellow "2" with two tails for Tails' debut, the red "3" for Knuckles debut to the team and the pink "4" for Amy Rose's debut. But I like the yellow "2" better because it has two tails at the end, giving it a unique flair.

Also, there has been some speculations about introducing Silver the Hedgehog in the fourth iteration because of the fact that it's gonna be faithful to Sonic CD by having a time travelling narrative. It would be awesome if he gets introduced. But it's likely that Silver is gonna be introduced in the post credits scene of Sonic Movie 4 to set the stage for Sonic Movie 5.

If Sonic Movie 5 is greenlit, maybe the "5" can be white to symbolize Silver's debut. And maybe if Keanu Reaves returns as Shadow, it can have the event faithful to Sonic 06 where the three hedgehogs team up.

If Paramount plans to put the franchise together to establish an ultimate Sonic Movie experience, they can literally cut ending scenes like the baseball part in Sonic Movie 2. However, it will not be in theaters due to its length, but can be put on streaming services, digital and physical releases.

With that said and done, here's a point I want to make. There are so many companies trying to figure out how to make a high quality live action video game movie. However, none of them were critically successful because of their terrible quality on that time. But Paramount has figured out this problem.

They made a video game movie that is high quality, meaning that now other companies can be able to figure out how to make a decent video game movie by learning from what Paramount did to make Sonic a high quality movie. Quality choices and possibilities for future live action video game movies, meaning that if and when Universal plans to make a live action Spyro the Dragon film, they can know how to make it high quality. They can literally learn from Paramount and do that. In fact, there is one company that followed Paramount's footsteps and made a high quality live action video game movie. That is Warner Bros. Pictures.

Warner Bros. went on to develop an R-rated Mortal Kombat movie reboot. It deserved an R rating so that it can be faithful to the games' extreme violence. Not only that. They went from the extra mile to avoid plotholes video game movies from back in the day created. And it's a second critically acclaimed live action video game movie.

Following Paramount's footsteps, Warner Bros. laser-focused in on what is the Mortal Kombat franchise known for. And instead of giving it a PG-13 rating to have toned down violence, they give it an R rating to have an extreme level of violence faithful to the games and of course, strong language. The sequel to it is confirmed and will also receive an R rating to have not just extreme violence and strong language, but also gore that can be done in the style of Gladiator II. Great movie.

Reasons above, Sonic Movie literally changed everything in the video game movie department just by being a high quality video game movie, which was something companies been trying to achieve for years. But that endeavor was achieved by Paramount in a high quality setting.

PlayStation Plus Premium Saved PS2 Games

PlayStation Plus Premium is a service that has saved PS2 games. No, I'm dead serious. I think PlayStation Plus Premium saved PS2 games. I know it is a bold take, but I am going to explain on how did PS Plus Premium save PS2 games. Let's jump right in.

Hello, everyone, and I am back with another post that is gonna be interesting to talk about. So, as we all know, the PS2 became the best selling console by Sony. So what makes the PS2 so special? Well, besides being the best selling console, there are several things on what makes it so special.

The PS2 has platformers that have their charming environment, like Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, which got remastered, but retains the original's charming environment, accompanied by the characters' smooth model evolved from their polygon model from the PS1 and the level design.

The shift to the new direction involved developers launching child-friendly franchises, starting with Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank and Sly Cooper. These franchises were considered child-friendly so that any child can play these games since they are rated E10+. The franchises as a whole became prevalent in the past market. Ratchet and Clank is not a nostalgia-centric franchise, but Jak and Daxter and Sly Cooper are because these franchises haven't got a new game in this generation yet.

But Astro Bot's Game of the Year win at the Game Awards can change everything so that games that were released between the PS1 and PS3 eras that have been dormant for a long time and begging to be brought back into the limelight. However, Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch announced that they have no plans to develop a new Jak and Daxter or a new Sly Cooper since they are pursuing Intergalactic and Ghost of Yotei, so it's likely that 3rd party developers; studios that Sony doesn't own could take a crack of reviving franchises.

You know the part where after Naughty Dog and Insomniac parted ways with the Crash and Spyro franchises, they shifted to the 3rd party era where their games were also released on non-PlayStation consoles? The PS2 era allowed Universal to give passing along to a different studio to continue their franchises a go, and I believe that there is one interesting thing that was created.

Twinsanity and A Hero's Tail came along to be open world to shake up the franchises a bit. And lo and behold, both franchises were shaken up to be beat-em-up games where Crash and Spyro are given the ability to perform combos against enemies after being passed to a different studio. Both franchises were caught into an abyss of confusion just by passing it on to different developers. And to be honest, that was interesting to experience that.

There are Fox Interactive and Radical's two legendary games based on the Simpsons, Road Rage and Hit & Run. These are the two legendary games developed by Radical and they were all polished up on a silver platter. Except that the scoring differed that Road Rage received a mixed reception over poor graphics and bugs while Hit & Run received a positive reception. I'll have a post in regards to going into detail about two of the Simpsons games developed by Radical and what makes them so special to us Simpsons fans in the future, so stay tuned for that.

The PS2 era has top down RPGs with 2D sprites by the hands of Nippon Ichi Software, or NIS for short. We don't deem Disgaea or Atelier as nostalgic because these franchises got iterations on modern generations. But the Atelier series is no longer under the NIS umbrella because it is now under the Koei Tecmo umbrella since Atelier Ayesha. There are PS2 games by NIS that have games in the franchises that are nostalgic, like of course Disgaea 1 and 2 and Atelier Iris, as well as Mana Khemia and Ar Tonelico. The fun thing among them is that they are charmingly nighttime-evident -- remember the phrase? I used that term because the PS2 games by NIS are well playable at night. And it's nothing to do with the fact that the characters in these games say bad words at a mild to moderate level I am not allowed to say.

We don't consider existing 3rd-party companies as a whole, like SEGA, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, Ubisoft, Koei Tecmo, WB Games, EA or Activision nostalgic because these companies that produced PS2 games still exist to produce titles in this generation as they remain relevant in today's market, but there are nostalgic logos in them. No, the ones that are nostalgic were Namco, SquareSoft, Enix, Koei, Tecmo, Midway, Acclaim, Hudson, THQ, Eidos and Universal. These are the nostalgic ones that got defunct before we got to the PS4 and Xbox One era.

And let's not forget about nostalgia-centric elements and middleware PS2 games use, like Renderware, Dolby Pro Logic II, THX, Sofdec and ADX. The ones that aren't nostalgia-centric are Havok, Unreal Engine, Criware, Unity, Wwise and Bink Video.

And that's it. Those are the things that make the PS2 so special. In addition to them comes with browser games from back in the day. Mainly at Candystand and Nabisco World. They involve rollerblade racing, shooting objects in a bar, pinball games, stuff like that. But both websites were discontinued by the PCH for whatever reason in 2016.

There is a bit of a concept that you take the half community who doesn't want to hold on to the past and move on and the other half who likes to revisit the past as in playing mostly retro games while waiting for new games to come out. Unifying them is extremely difficult and quite the balancing act. And sadly, the PS2 database has landed in a very awkward spot.

After consoles of later generations came out, Sony tried offering PS2 games on its digital storefront. And it pretty much flopped with having a small selection of games that doesn't include the ones that I played back in the day on the PS2 Classics library on the PS3. Certain games were taken out from the library due to companies going defunct, like THQ, who are the ones went bankrupt in 2013 and that's why Tak 2 was removed from the library. Then PS Now came to have multiple catalogs. There were PS2 games on there and it only included a few games that I played back in the day. The library is small and it's how PS Now became a terrible service.

Rewind back to 2022, Sony had the blueprints for a new service that can compete with Xbox Game Pass, the beefed up PlayStation Plus. It has three tiers, with the Essential tier offering the same benefits the original PS Plus has, the Extra tier offering PS4 and PS5 games and the Premium offering game trials, cloud streaming and classic games released on PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP. The process of releasing classics turned out well, but there has not been a new PS2 game for two years because their old PS2 emulator backfired.

Starting June 2024, we're finally getting new PS2 games releasing on PS Plus Premium and the process of releasing them is turning out to be smooth and their new PS2 emulator did not backfire so far. Not one bit. Like the PS1 and PSP games, PS2 games have up rendering, rewinds, quick saves, video filtering and the option to switch between the NTSC and PAL versions in most games.

We were wondering if the PS2 games that have the PS Now algorithm are gonna get a patch to give them emulation features. Apparently, despite the fact that PS Plus Premium versions of existing PS2 games are being available, the PS Now versions of them will remain available. It pretty much went well with Siren. Then the first Jak and Daxter came along during the 30th Anniversary celebration.

Now, how did the PS2 games get saved to appease and excite fans that were born in the 90s? Well, the only thing that changed everything is PlayStation Plus Premium. It became the hero to revive retro gaming. PS2 games have been a recurring demand that it became the bestselling Sony console and has games we loved, ranging from NIS' nighttime quality PS2 games to Radical's two Simpsons games, platformers with a charming environment and Crash and Spyro's shift to the 3rd party era.

Sony was able to release new PS2 games well because of their brand new PS2 emulator after two years since the launch of the new PS Plus. They laser-focused on bringing back their cherished games monthly and allowing the catalog of PS2 games to grow to include many games I have played back in the day, including the ones by defunct video game companies and they don't get taken out when they get defunct. It turned out well with porting titles under the Namco name.

Fast forward into now, this month's lineup of classics have dropped recently. And we're getting two classics this month instead of three. The lineup has MediEvil II, a sequel to the original MediEvil that never got remade despite it being critically acclaimed. And Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, in preparation of the new Indiana Jones game that might be powered by Unreal Engine 5. I believe that one of the games has met my expectations and that's Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. So how did this game meet my expectations?

First off, an existing game developer that was formerly known as their previous name. We now have a retro game developed by a Canadian AAA developer, Artificial Mind and Movement or A2M for short. They are known for developing games based on TV shows and movies under the A2M name, like Monster House, Scooby-Doo!, Happy Feet, Teen Titans, the Ant Bully and more. They still exist, but they are now once again called Behaviour Interactive like they are on that time before they rebranded themselves to A2M.

And next, a good flow of logos. The cinematic LucasArts and A2M logos came first. Then the logos with text below came on each page. There is even the Havok and Bink Video logos on the third page. We got a first PS2 game that uses Havok, but it's the current logo that is yellow and it has the intact circular blade used as an "o". The old one is black and has pieces of the two blades. I think it's possible for us to see a PS2 game that has the old Havok logo, which I like better than the current one.

There are PS2 games on the PS3's storefront and on PS Now. But none of the libraries had that much games I played back in the day. They just fell short that it doesn't have games produced by defunct companies. And not only that. None of the modern PlayStation consoles were fully backwards compatible due to the PS3's architecture being hard to develop for and the Cell processor. But PlayStation Plus Premium has resolved this enigma.

It is on the process of getting a lot of PS2 games endlessly, including the ones I played back in the day because of their brand new PS2 emulator. They were even able to release games produced by defunct companies, like Namco and Eidos, existing PS2 games with emulation features on both PS4 and PS5 like Siren and the first Jak and Daxter and the games in the original Sly Cooper trilogy, indicating that they have the technology to release new PS2 games well, allowing the catalog to be much bigger than PS Now's catalog of PS2 games and the PS3's PS2 Classics.

Possibilities and choices for endlessly releasing new PS2 games, meaning if and when more existing PS2 games with the PS Now algorithm and games produced by Midway and other defunct companies are gonna be released, they can be able to release these PS2 games well. Even Crash and Spyro games, which I am aware that none of them were critically successful as the original trilogies after looking at their Metacritic scores that produced mixed reviews and I know we already have remasters, but along with the original trilogies, they deserve to be on the catalog despite that because I wanted to revisit the charming goodness of them and the original trilogies' polygon models.

I went to CoolROM to look for PS2 games released on the PS Plus Premium so far. The games released so far that are not available to download on the website are the sequels to the first Sly Cooper out the butt, so this indicates that PS2 games that are not on CoolROM's list will be released on PS Plus Premium. It has less room for error that I went on ahead and add a few more of them to my wish list. Now, if February's lineup of classic games is revealed, I'll be expecting at least one retro game to meet my expectations. My expectations include the following below.

-Produced by a defunct video game company and/or an existing video game company that was formerly known as their name (i.e. Behaviour Interactive, formerly known as Artificial Mind and Movement)
-Has at least three logos of existing and/or defunct video game companies, cinematic or not
-Has an old logo of an existing company
-Has a silent copyright screen and logos
-The one I played back in the day when I was a kid
-The one that is in my wish list

On what I said, PlayStation Plus Premium has literally saved PS2 games by having a new PS2 emulator to pave the way for new PS2 games with emulation features. It is something that Sony was struggling to do when the digital library of PS2 games came out on the PS3 and when PS Now came. But this endeavor is finally achieved with PlayStation Plus Premium including many games I played back in the day and 2025 is gonna be a fresh year for the retro titles department now that we're seeing new PS2 games get added, along with PS1 and PSP games. Here's to us gamers that were born in the 90s revisiting more PS2 games we loved as a child.

Joe's Monologues 1/6/2025

Happy 2025, everyone, and welcome to the very first Joe's Monologues of 2025. This one will be special because I will be talking about what things are coming this year I am quite excited for and the one event I have done, so without further ado, let's jump right in.

Revival of PlayStation's Nostalgic IPs:

As we know, Herman Hulst has confirmed that Sony is looking set to revive their back catalog of classic IPs. Not new news, but I just want to mention this again because I am so excited for the nostalgic IPs to make a comeback. It's all because of Astro Bot's wild and wacky performance over its VIP Bots that dress up as PlayStation characters. We are gonna see classic IPs, like Ape Escape, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, the Legend of Dragoon and tons more make a nostalgic comeback with remasters. Crash and Spyro made a comeback with their remastered trilogies, so other nostalgic IPs can follow up. The PlayStation we know and love is coming back for an ultimate experience.

The news from Hulst is indeed hopeful that classic IPs are making a comeback, but the rest of the games of the franchises must be released on PlayStation Plus Premium's back catalog to put them together. January's lineup of classic games is a mystery, so we can be in the know on what this month's lineup of classics soon. We have been begging them to bring the franchises back, but it's finally happening. The Sly Cooper franchise came together, thanks to PS Plus Premium and so will other classic IPs like Ape Escape, Jak and Daxter (not counting the PS Now versions of them in the franchise), Twisted Metal, Wild Arms (the third iteration is the PS Now version) and a lot more.

While this is exciting news, Sucker Punch confirmed that they have no plans to develop a new Sly Cooper since they are working on Ghost of Yotei, the sequel to Ghost of Tsushima. But the thieving raccoon's comeback is inevitable. It's just that it won't be under the Sucker Punch umbrella. Not only that because they were supposed to make a fifth Sly Cooper game to resolve the cliffhanger left off in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, but it was scrapped because Sanzaru has released a statement saying that they are not developing a future title. Fortunately, since Hulst confirmed that PlayStation is reviving their back catalog of IPs after being driven by Astro Bot's wild performance to receive GOTY, it can change everything.

I have loved the series since 2002 when Thievius Raccoonus came out. The games in the original PS2 trilogy are available on the back catalog. Why I'm telling you this is because I beaten Sly 2. I'm glad that I got to revisit this game and its wild moments. I have Sly 3 in my library and I am going to revisit it and its crazy adventures. But some areas are in 3D mode and I gotta get some 3D glasses for them before I get started.

2XKO:

Now let's move on to the next thing I am excited for. 2XKO's first playtest, the Alpha Lab has ended a while ago and the next one is coming in March with the seventh character, Jinx, also known as Powder in Arcane's case, of course. Jinx's forte is all about the bang bang and the explosion her arsenal is known for. She is making her debut to honor Arcane Season 2. The show was godlike as heck that there were a ton of action. The team is returning to work to develop the game and they are giving us an update on February.

I am excited for this and now that I have a gaming laptop, I can be able to join the next playtest on both PC and console. We know that 2XKO is coming out in 2025, which is now this year. But once launched, we don't know if the roster is gonna continue to grow or not. Let's not forget that there will be differences in the official launch and you will be expecting jankiness, which can decrease in the next playtest. That's why they need to polish everything for launch. If they plan to announce the eighth character for the next playtest, we don't know who will it be. Sure, I can hear them say let it be Vi. I strongly agree, because it can make things more canon with Arcane since Jinx is coming in the next playtest.

Additional VO Content:

What is an additional VO content, you asked? The additional VO content I am referring to are Annie's alternative voice pack, the Japanese combat VO for the Season Pass characters' and the English (and hopefully Japanese) Story Mode VO for the Season Pass characters for Skullgirls 2nd Encore.

The devs had originally planned to include them in the Season 1 Pass, but as it turns out, the logistics of them have been a bit more involved than they have originally anticipated. That's why they could not release it in 2024. But they still plan to release it in 2025, and now that 2025 is here, this is the point of time when we can expect news about it. I hope it's soon because I am eager to hear and find out what will Annie's alternative voice pack and what will the Season Pass characters' Japanese VO during combat sound like. It might be early 2025 because the next characters in the Season 1 Pass came out in early stages of previous years.

It is a rightful and wise decision to recalibrate their efforts a bit, by releasing the additional VO content in 2025 first before diving right into a Season 2 Pass in a way to ensure that everything is done to the quality level we expect. Which means future characters' Story Mode will be launched with VO and they will launch with Japanese voices in combat. That's why 2nd Encore is going on a brief hiatus and we had to get Guest Stars news on Mobile. If this content drops, maybe we can hear some intro dialogues. Maybe we can hear some new voice lines. And maybe we can see alternative voice packs for characters that haven't got one yet.

That said, I will take it online on both console and PC either after additional VO content come out or after my new laptop stand comes. We'll see.

Speaking of Guest Stars, Minette and Brain Drain are now available in Mobile. They are only equipped with a Gold or a Diamond fighter. But they are not done with the Guest Stars department yet because they have one more to work on, and that's Roxie. The development of her shouldn't take that long now that Minette and Brain Drain are out.

Nintendo Switch 2:

So, rumors and leaks continue as we hear more about Nintendo's upcoming new system, the Switch 2. I am very excited to get news about the Switch 2. Nintendo has confirmed that they will deliver the info about it by the end of March and that it will be backwards compatible to every Switch game. There has been some speculation about stronger 3rd party support and its integration with Nvidia to handle running big 3rd party games well and in 4K resolution. It is unclear if the Switch 2 is the official name, but they will reveal it by the end of March.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3:

I have went to my local movie theater to see Sonic Movie 3 and I gotta say that it's freaking dope and full of action. Keanu Reaves did a great job voicing Shadow the Hedgehog. Simply shocking. What is really interesting is that Jim Carey is back to have a role of two Robotniks. That is history there. Usually, Carrey plays the villain, but that has things that never experienced in the games. While watching the movie, I felt some Sly Cooper vibes that Tails is the brains like Bentley while Knuckles is the brawn like Murray. The part involved sabotaging the evil plans. I have loved every second of it.

The post credits scene showed a lingering shadow when Sonic was lost in the forest while in the middle of the race and it's none other than Metal Sonic. More Metal Sonics come to corner Sonic, until an object taken them all down, spins and turns pink. It is none other than the one and only baby girl finally making her debut. And that's Amy Rose.

Now, Amy Rose is the character that I wanted since Sonic Movie 2. She looks so freaking dope and her hammer looks so lit, beating Thor's Mjolnir. After seeing Amy on the post credits scene, I wildly reacted to it at the same level of hype Mightykeef has on his reaction to Sora's debut to Smash Ultimate. It's because she is the character I wanted to make her debut since Sonic Movie 2. The golden age is coming as our one and only baby girl is making her debut, along with Metal Sonic, thus setting the stage for Sonic Movie 4, which is greenlit and in production.

The best thing about the Sonic Movie franchise is a padding that we have with them. They like to feature new characters in each sequel to create a Sonic Cinematic Universe, Sonic Movie 2 featured Tails and Knuckles. Sonic Movie 3 featured Shadow, Gerald Robotnik and Maria Robotnik. And Sonic Movie 4 will feature Metal Sonic and Amy Rose. To my knowledge, each sequel featured several new characters.

I can't wait to see Sonic Movie 4. They have confirmed that it is in production and I am already excited for that. We don't know how Sonic Movie 4 would unfold, but we know one thing's for sure that the new characters are going to be featured are Metal Sonic and Amy Rose. But it is coming out in 2027. But no complaining about that, though because there are several video game movies coming out this year. And they are the sequel to the R-rated 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot and the Minecraft Movie.

Also, I heard Jim Carrey is returning as Robotnik for Sonic Movie 4 and beyond to be faithful to his resillence in the games after his power rest. But can Keanu Reeves return as Shadow too? I hope so because in case Sonic Movie 4 is gonna introduce Rouge also, he needs to return.

You would know that video game movies are usually low in quality because of the poor character design, abysmal dialog and terrible plots. That's why they flopped. But one quality video game movie has broken the curse to pave the way for more quality video game movies, and it's Sonic the Hedgehog. Then the Super Mario Bros. Movie came along to change everything in the video game movie department and become the next quality video game movie.

Sonic got his live action film adaptation. But what would be spectacular is if one of the child friendly video game franchises also gets a live action film adaptation. And it's for Spyro. I made a post about how would a live action Spyro unfold, so here's the link.

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2025/01/how-live-action-spyro-dragon-movie-works.html

Conclusion:

And boy, this first Joe's Monologues of 2025 could be enough to ruffle people's feathers. We rang in the New Year and it's gonna be set to be another greatest year. Here's to a wonderful 2025.