Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money

Longtime readers of this blog may recall how big a fan I am of indie comedy wrestler, Colt Cabana and his pair of self-produced documentaries, The Wrestling Road Diaries (WRD). For those unaware, they are about life in the ring and behind-the-scenes at the arena and on the road as Colt and two guest wrestlers tour a string of indie wrestling shows. The first WRD guest starred Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan and Sal Rinauro and had the theme of hard work paying off while having good, clean fun on the road. The sequel does a 180 and it features Big LG/Luke Gallows and Cliff Compton/Domino, who have a darker sense of humor, and it features a edgier take of life on the indie scene.

That brings us to Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money (trailer). This installment has Colt more in his wheelhouse as the notorious comedy wrestler of RoH teams up with a comedy wrestler from TNA, Grado along with a fellow comedy wrestler from Japan, Kikutaro. I have always been bummed out about how Colt never took off in WWE after being a fan of his comedy in RoH for several years prior. He had bad timing as Colt made his way into WWE developmental the around the same time Santino Marella and Hornswoggle started on the main roster, and by the time Colt got called up, Santino and Hornswoggle proved themselves as WWE’s go to comedy acts and there was no room for Colt’s shtick, which I felt was always more original and better than what Santino and ‘Swoggle brought to the table.

I have only seen just a little bit of Grado in TNA before since I do not watch nearly as much of that promotion as I use to, and I have never seen Kikutaro in action before. WRD3 makes sure to give proper introductions to Colt’s travel buddies to bring everyone up to speed on the duo. Grado’s entrance is pretty memorable and it instantly won me over as I could not get it out of my head for days. I also quickly grew to like Kikutaro’s brand of comedy slow-motion antics that are part of his matches. I dug an early scene of Colt’s apartment/warehouse/podcast studio, which is jam packed with wrestling memorabilia while Kikutaro and Grado record promos into Colt’s soundproof booth/mini-fridge.

WRD3 follows the trio to three indie shows for the promotions of AIW, PWC and Freelance Wrestling. At the Freelance Wrestling event, the gang is joined by other indie sensations Joey Ryan and Dick Justice. When this was filmed, Joey Ryan was in the midst of a modicum of viral fame with anew move in his repertoire gaining nationwide attention. They make sure to touch on that here and build off of it in this indie show in one of the standout scenes from the documentary.

Highlights of the matches are shown as they tour while Colt, Grado and Kikutaro reflect back on the match on what did and did not work. With the art of comedy in wrestling being a central theme here I got a lot out of the three breaking down their matches and how they are constantly trying to work in improv into the matches based on spontaneous chants and callouts from the crowd. Some of their improv works really well, like when Grado gets a girl to upstage Tracy Smothers in an impromptu singing competition to the crowd’s delight. However, there is also the opposite shown when it does not work out in one case where Colt got irked at a pair of fans who were being obnoxious and ruining the show for everyone else despite Colt’s attempts to silence them. Hearing Colt after the show visibly pissed at how the match went down is a potent scene that I do not catch too often of the talent letting loose when things do not go as planned.

Like the previous WRD films, I enjoy the road traveling scenes in between shows where the guys tell stories and justify what their style of humor and how comedy will always have a place in wrestling. It is obvious these three care about their craft, and are not only there for a paycheck or to fill a slot on a show. WRD3 does not overstay its welcome and is the shortest of the three films clocking in at one hour and 22 minutes.

If I only had one qualm about WRD3 it is that the road traveling scenes seem dialed back a little bit compared to the first two films, and I would have liked to see a little bit more stops and scenes of the trio in between shows. If you pay the extra $5 for the bonus disc, that gripe is resolved with 30 minutes of additional scenes that consist of mostly stories and anecdotes from Colt, Grado and Kikutaro in the car. There is a lot of good tales to indulge in such as Grado’s love of flying, Kikutaro recalling his stint in XPW and Colt dissecting his feud with Tye Dillenger in OVW and how his TNA tryout was a flop. There is also a gem with Colt filming a promo with a security guard hyping up a mysterious wrestler known as “Fireman Chris” that you just have to see to believe.

Also on the bonus disc is a half hour episode of Colt’s podcast, The Art of Wrestling, where Colt brings on Grado, Kikutaro, Dick Justice and Joey Ryan throughout the episode to talk about their time on WRD3. Finally, there are two matches in their entirety as extras that were filmed while the gang was on tour for this documentary. The first is Colt & Grado teaming up against the Four Star Heroes while Kikutaro faces off against Dick Justice and Darin Corbin in a triple threat encounter. For $5 the extra hour and a half of content the bonus disc contains is well worth it and gave me a lot more value out of my purchase.

I think I would rank Wrestling Road Diaries Three in the middle of the pack, with the first one being my favorite. I appreciate the lighthearted theme this time around as it is much needed after witnessing some of the sick shenanigans that Compton and Gallows brought into the fold in the previous film. I like most of WWE’s documentaries, but if you are only accustomed to those style of wrestling documentaries, than I highly suggest trying out Colt’s trio of films as it is a much needed change of pace and shows you what it is like for wrestlers who are trying or just are not meant for the WWE and why they still perform their craft.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor V
RoH Supercard of Honor VI
RoH Supercard of Honor VII
RoH Supercard of Honor VIII
RoH Supercard of Honor IX
RoH Supercard of Honor X
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28
Wrestlemania 29
Wrestlemania 30
Wrestlemania 31
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016

OJ: Made in America 30 for 30

The 89th Oscars were last weekend, and aside from its flub of a Best Picture announcement, I was also surprised at one of its winners that I will be covering here today. I always give ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series some love each year in my annual TV recap blogs. 2016 saw ESPN go with their most ambitious 30 for 30 project yet: a five part series covering the entire life of OJ Simpson. The bulk of the feature is dedicated to the controversial murders of Ron Goldman and OJ’s ex-wife Nicole Simpson. This documentary also covers the many racial injustices on the streets and in the courtrooms of Los Angeles from the prior decades and how they ultimately proved to be a major factor in the outcome of the Simpson/Goldman murder case in what many dubbed as “The Trial of the Century.” This documentary had the catchy, but effective name of OJ Simpson: Made in America (trailer).

Each part of this five part series is just over an hour and a half. So add it up and it is nearly eight hours all together! I watched the first two parts around Christmas, and blitzed through the final three a few days ago. Part one is all about OJ growing up and his football career in USC and for the Buffalo Bills. Once OJ exploded into success for the Bills, Made in America made sure to point out how OJ was one of the first athletes to transcend race with his use of the line, “I’m not black, I’m not white, I’m OJ.” Part one went on to cover all his successful endorsement deal he had with Hertz and other companies and how he pursued films in the NFL offseason. Part one definitely made it come across how much of a superstar OJ was in the 70s. Part one also gave some time to the civil rights movement and race riots of the 60s and 70s that was a prelude of things to come later in the series.

Part two is about life after football for Simpson. A fair amount of time is covered here showing his post-football endeavors such as carrying the Olympic Torch, Monday Night Football announcing and his middling acting career until finally getting a hit with the Naked Gun films. The feature shows around this time how he lost his two year old by drowning and friends interviewed stating how he was never the same afterwards and it was catalyst for his first divorce. Made in America then focuses on his marriage with Nicole Simpson and chronicles how it quickly devolved with many domestic disturbance 911calls played from Nicole and interviews officers on the scene from the incidents. A lot of part two has scenes covering more and more examples of racial injustices from this time, with the Rodney King beating of 1992 being the most prevalent example and how a lot of racial tension was building from the past few decades until this point.

Part three kicks off with police officers describing the crime scene with the bodies of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. Adequate time is shown how evidence quickly leads to OJ being the prime suspect and the infamous Bronco chase that transpired about a week after the deaths. For those not up to speed on one of the world’s most notorious car chases, ESPN did another masterful 30 for 30 on that event and other noteworthy events in sports happening simultaneously. That 30 for 30 is called June 17th 1994 and is available on Netflix streaming which I highly recommend giving a viewing.

Part three then proceeds to cover the early stages of the near year-long trial by introducing the key players for the prosecution and defense legal teams, many (but not all) who are on hand here 22 years later to be interviewed for Made in America. Having their insight and reflections added a lot to the documentary. I understand why Cochran and Shapiro did not appear here, but to still get the thoughts here from Marcia Clark, Mark Furman and others all these years later added a lot to the film. Made in America stressed how difficult it was to find an impartial jury due to the nature of events leading up to the trial, OJ’s superstar nature and because of the aforementioned decades of racial tension in LA.

Part four is devoted to the trial and all the pivotal moments throughout it. I was in middle school when the trial was in process, and was shocked from how much I remembered of the key moments highlighted here such as the crime scene glove not fitting OJ’s hand, Furman’s controversial testimony and how the TV and tabloid media turned the trial into a circus among itself. A lot of time is dedicated here on how OJ’s defense team picked away at the prosecution’s case, with Furman being the obvious weak link due to his history. I will give Furman credit for defending himself as best as he possibly could in the new interviews he did for the film, and the documentary made sure to get across how he was the weak point of the prosecution’s case that played a big factor in the outcome.

The final part of the documentary opens with the interviewees recalling how surprised they were at how short the jury deliberations lasted. The not guilty verdict clip is shown in its entirety, along with many reaction shot clips from across America that indicated how much of a racial divide there still was (is) in the country. I still vividly recall getting dressed in the locker room of 8th grade gym class when our teacher came in with the news of the verdict. This moment is also why so much time was given in the earlier installments to the many past LA racial injustices because some of the jurors interviewed in this documentary stated their justification for the verdict was payback for those decades of past wrongdoings.

After winning the case, the feature shows life after the trial for OJ as he tried to keep living his life while enduring the countless wrath of America taunting him wherever he went. Only a short time is given to the civil case that OJ lost, but the film made sure to point out how its outcome forced OJ to move out of LA and into South Beach, Florida. The series made it clear at this point that OJ embellished his infamy by this point with a more flamboyant lifestyle to stay in the news with his controversial music videos and the “If I Did It” autobiography. Finally, until this documentary I was never perfectly clear on how the memorabilia theft charges OJ was involved in and how it lead to him being currently incarcerated. Even the interviewees here state it is a very convoluted case, but the film breaks it down and got across OJ’s involvement. People involved in that incident were interviewed to lay how it all went down and why all the charges got piled on OJ and it resulted in a judge sentencing him to the current 33 year prison sentence he is serving. People interviewed state that the sentencing ranged from fitting to ridiculous to “white justice” payback.

There is a little over an hour worth of archived ESPN extras. The primary extra is a 43 minute interview with Chris Meyers and OJ a few years after the trial with Meyers grilling OJ about the criminal and civil trials, the bronco chase and life after the trial. There are several Sports Center montages of the anchors breaking down the latest from the trial, and two segments from The Sports Reporters where their panel dissects the initial murder discovery and then react to the verdict of the trial. Of these extras the only one worth checking out is the Meyers interview as it was very fascinating watching OJ’s responses at the time and standing his ground while Meyers held nothing back.

It should not come as a shocker when I say this documentary is a must-see. Made in America is easily the stud in the entire 30 for 30 catalog, which is saying a lot because it is in very good company with many other standout pieces. Props to filmmaker Ezra Edelman for Made in America’s ‘Best Documentary’ Oscar win last weekend. I highly recommend setting the eight hours aside to watch Made in America. It is available for streaming on Hulu right now and the discs are available on Netflix. If neither of those options works for you, most retailers are selling the entire five-part series as a DVD/BluRay combo pack for around $20.

Past TV/Web Series Blogs

2013-14 TV Season Recap
2014-15 TV Season Recap
2015-16 TV Season Recap
Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series
Angry Videogame Nerd Vol 8
Angry Videogame Nerd Vol 7
Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1
RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13
Roseanne – Seasons 1-9
Seinfeld Final Season
Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle
Superheroes: Pioneers of Television

Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns

On this blog before I have made past references to how my friend Matt and I both have a tradition of intentionally ‘gifting’ each other movies we know we will despise. This past Christmas Matt did not disappoint and delivered big time with WWE’s first DVD dedicated solely to their roster’s biggest douchebag, Roman Reigns. This DVD is not your traditional full blown WWE Home Video release. As you can see in the picture, it is a pack-in with a Roman Reigns action figure and official Roman Reigns biker glove. The DVD is titled Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns (trailer).

Since this DVD is just a simple pack in, it does not get the standard WWE DVD treatment. Instead of the standard size DVD case, the Ultimate Fan Pack is just a simple cardboard, fold-over sleeve that I have seen other past promotional DVDs or video game demo discs usually come in. The main menu is just a still graphic with only a ‘play all’ option. Most other WWE DVDs have animated menus with background music, the ability to pick a match to instantly jump to and subtitles for the commentary, all three are absent in this budget release. Also absent is the WWE Home Video ID number, which is usually found on the spine of WWE’s BluRays and DVDs. It is like WWE does not want to recognize the Roman Reigns Ultimate Fan Pack DVD as on official release. I do not blame them, after all take a look at that cover art where Reigns has his trademark grimace on his face where he looks like he is about to pop out of your TV, knock you out and steal your girlfriend all while Michael Cole is screaming, “Here comes the Big Dawwwwg” in the background.

The only thing that can be considered a positive is that I did not suffer terribly long as this DVD has a runtime just under 68 minutes. It consists of only five matches from early 2013 to early 2015. The first bout was when people kind of dug Reigns as the heavy for The Shield where him and Seth Rollins won the tag team titles from Daniel Bryan & Kane at Extreme Rules 2013. I forgot how much I enjoyed Team Hell No as this match was near the end of their successful run as a tag team and you could tell they were clicking and having fun out there. The next match was from an episode of Smackdown later that year where Reigns faced off against my favorite big man, Mark Henry. Henry is at that gatekeeper stage of his career to put over other up and coming talent and successfully elevate them up the card. He did that here against Reigns, just like he did against Braun Strowman on RAW a couple weeks ago.

From 2014 there is a battle royal from an episode of RAW, and guess who wins? That aside, what I was more intrigued in was the participants and who is not with the company anymore and how others have significantly changed since then. All three New Day members are in the battle royal in their personas before they started teaming for example. The oddball match of the DVD is from a Smackdown later in 2014 where Reigns goes up against Bray Wyatt and the match is thrown out after Luke Harper & Erik Rowan interfere just a few minutes in. I am guessing Reigns did not handpick this selection of matches, with the exception of this final match just so he could troll us all because it is his 2015 Fast Lane victory against Daniel Bryan. I had to indulge this awful Daniel Bryan loss already on his BluRay, and I had to shake my head just as much again after witnessing this outcome. For what it is worth, it is Reigns’ most watch-able match, but we all know who to thank for that.

Unless you have a kiddo that is a diehard Roman Reigns fan, avoid the Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns DVD at all costs! If I had to make my own ultimate fan one hour Roman Reigns DVD, I would have the only match be Roman getting obliterated by Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 31. The rest of the hour would just be this fun facts video, this Reigns botch montage, and him stumbling over his awful promos that consisted of references to Looney Toones and Jack and the Beanstalk. That one hour DVD would be vastly superior to this pile of trash, believe that!

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor V
RoH Supercard of Honor VI
RoH Supercard of Honor VII
RoH Supercard of Honor VIII
RoH Supercard of Honor IX
RoH Supercard of Honor X
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28
Wrestlemania 29
Wrestlemania 30
Wrestlemania 31
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016

Gravity

I mentioned last month in my blog for Christmas Eve that I am a fan of films that spend a majority of their time in a single setting. I am also a fan of sci-fi. 2013’s Gravity (trailer) is what happens when you have a sci-fi take on that trope, but with the single setting being the deceptively large, vast, darkness of space.

Gravity is about astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) surviving in space after a freak space debris collision knocks out their space shuttle and kills the rest of their crew in the opening minutes. From there, Stone and Kowalski must find a seemingly impossible way out of their predicament and form an exit plan to make it back to earth and overcome all kinds of insurmountable odds that space throws in their way.

This was one of the few films I went out of my way to see twice in theaters. I wish I could say that my reason for doing so was because Gravity broke new walls for state-of-the-art special effects and cinematography. It came as no surprise that nearly all of Gravity’s seven Oscars it won were primarily for technical awards because of how spectacular it looked. No, my reason was because one of the friends I saw it with happened to consume a few too many beverages in anticipation and got a little too excited throughout the film. Buddy, if you are reading this I do not want this to come off as me calling you out, because I still look back at that day and laugh from an unforgettable theatrical experience. That personal anecdote out of the way, part of me still wanted to take it all in again on the big screen alone. I am glad I did because Gravity is a showpiece film that benefits from being on the big screen and having a loaded surround sound setup.

Clooney and Bullock play off each other tremendously well and the two have an obvious chemistry that is clicking on all fronts. When their mission takes a turn about a third of the way into the feature, Sandra steps up her role going forward as the novice astronaut who has to pull it together in order to get back home. Stone reveals some personal anecdotes about herself throughout the film, and the film succeeds in relating to her survival being a rebirth for herself in a few pivotal moments of the film. If there was a part of the film I would have to nitpick, it is that Bullock has a couple monologue moments that come off cheesy than the inspirational feelings I think she was going for. However, looking back on it I am thinking that is now by design because Bullock’s character was not one I imagined would give those speeches at the beginning of Gravity, but her new initiative dug out new feelings in her that were not quite as polished and resulted in the intentional stiff delivery. Maybe I am over-thinking it, but if that is the case, then count me in and ignore my ramblings in this paragraph!

The high-tension moments when Ryan and Stone have to deal with space debris sailing by them at instant-death speeds, and the duo dodging and weaving from all kinds of explosions that result from the space debris provide many proverbial ‘edge-of-my-seat’ moments that still hold up today four years later. The cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki and the team of composers and sound mixers earned their Oscars here as the scenes are indescribably powerful as a result of their masterful work. The entire film looks simply dazzling on my ancient, 10-year old HDTV on BluRay. If Gravity gets a 4K UHD release, it would easily be one of the first films I pick up on that format whenever I make the jump to a 4KTV.

It comes as no surprise with Gravity having such standout special effects, that there a ton of extra features devoted to it. The primary one is titled, Mission Control which is a nine-part feature totaling an hour and 46 minutes, which is about 18 minutes longer than the actual film itself. Each aspect of effects like cinematography, camera work, costume design, CG and the score receive their own feature dedicated to how the team pulled off their stunning audio and visual milestones. There were a few moments where the interviews here went deep into the nuts and bolts of the process and parts of it went over my head, but I was expecting that to happen a few times given its length and the ground it covers. As comprehensive and well produced Mission Control is, I find it hard to recommend to watch all of it due to its daunting length. It is broken down by nine parts, so you would probably be best by picking the parts of the production process that intrigue you the most.

Shot Breakdown dissects five scenes in the film and explains the special effects for each of them. It clocks in at 37 minutes and probably best applies to only special effect junkies. There is also a 22 minute documentary I would recommend checking out called Collision Point that is about raising the awareness of space debris and what is being done to help reduce it in the future. Finally, there is an eight minute short film, along with a two minute introduction by the filmmakers I highly suggest checking out. If you recall, Bullock’s character has a radio conversation about midway through the film with another party who does not speak English. This short film reveals who that person is and what they were in the middle of when they start talking to Ryan.

Gravity is my favorite film of 2013, and I am kicking myself for waiting this long to finally get around to watching the BluRay. It is unlike any other sci-fi movie before it. If this one went underneath your radar then, by all means please give it a chance and make sure to crank up the volume and be prepared to be stunned.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Creed
Dirty Work
Faster
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Ink
Jobs
Man of Steel
Marine 3 & 4
Mortal Kombat
The Replacements
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
Veronica Mars
Wild
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Roseanne - Season 2

It has been just a few months since my blog covering the first season of the ABC hit sitcom of the 90s, Roseanne, but I finally got around to cranking out the last few episodes of season two yesterday (s2 highlight montage). It wastes no time picking up where season one left off and it carries on the same vibe and feel of the show where the first season settled into. Like I mentioned in the previous blog, I am going to attempt to cover these seasons in a list format bouncing between the noteworthy highlights that stuck out to me. Here we go!

-First and foremost, Roseanne is still primarily about everyday life at home for a blue-collar family with a house full of kids attempting to persevere through hard times. All the episodes have a majority of the scenes transpire in the Connor household, and just like last season there is a few that happen exclusively at the Connor’s. This is a good thing! Something about this show that struck me this season that I do not get a feeling sticks out in most other shows of late is that the family members that are not the focus of a scene are not off to the side twiddling their thumbs, but consistently busy doing random everyday things like combing through the fridge and pantry, rounding up the dishes and taking care of countless loads of laundry. It is those little things that gave Roseanne a more authentic feel to me even all these years later watching the episodes for the first time since I was a kid.

The show retains that feeling I love about it that deals with the friendly hostility with family members that you want to strangle in one moment of a sibling/parent squabble, but then give a heartfelt hug to when they resolve their differences a few scenes later. Again, growing up with three siblings myself I can heavily relate to the lives of DJ (Michael Fishman), Becky (Alicia Granson) and Darlene (Sara Gilbert) who are once again raising hell around the home for Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) and Dan (John Goodman).

-I texted photos of an early episode this season to some of my siblings where the Connors get their very first VCR when Dan and Jackie (Laurie Metcalf)are scratching their heads at figuring out how to hook up the gizmo. My mom constantly has problems at programming her VCR to tape her soap operas, and usually once or twice a year for the past 15 years (yes, still to this day) I have to swing by and reprogram it for her. My siblings texted me back with a response that had me cracking up with how patient I was for her with the ‘ol VCR.

-A majority of this season Roseanne spends bouncing around jobs after she and Jackie quit the plastics factory in the season one finale. Roseanne starts off the season working at home for a magazine subscription service, but after that quickly fizzles out she attempts to ply her craft as a secretary, clerk at a fast food chicken joint and bartender before finally settling down in a steady job at a beauty salon for the last quarter of the season. I had no recollections of Roseanne working there either before, but she has a ton of funny quips with her coworkers there, but I got a feeling a few wisecracks that took place there would not fly in today’s era of major network primetime sitcoms.

-Jackie decides to join the police force shortly into this season. I do remember her as a police officer, but I want to say I also recall her and Roseanne both working at the Lanford Diner at some point in the series. Jackie continues to be the awesome aunt, and Metcalf is a natural at the role. Jackie gets some awesome episodes this season where she subs for Dan & Roseanne as the household mom when they are out of town, and then later on towards the end of the season when she gets her first serious boyfriend of the series.

-I got the feeling DJ was kind of got the shaft this season as he was barely noticeable in the background of most episodes and it seems like he somehow had far less lines than he did last season. Darlene and Becky both have a few episodes with them having key story arcs. Darlene is still the tomboy who loves sports and cracking wise around home and Becky is still all about trying to be the rebel who wants more freedom while her parents attempt to keep her in check. The earliest episode I had a vivid memory of happened this season where Becky had a friend over and they raided the liquor cabinet and had horrible hangovers the next day.

-The cast and crew had some unorthodox fourth wall breaking moments of the show in an episode where the Connors do their taxes. The moments took me for a loop since I did not see them coming as the Connors constantly rag about doing taxes and take plenty of potshots at the IRS and how befuddling all the tax laws are to understand. After that episode during the credits roll, John Goodman appears as himself stressing to the audience that he is merely an actor reciting his lines and that those lines are in no way his personal feelings about the IRS. Amazing material here as I no doubt got a feeling that some of the writers had to vent about some recent problems they had with the IRS and wanted to get some form of public revenge on them.

-My favorite episode of the season will go to “Fathers and Daughters” where Dan and Roseanne attempt to bond and spend time with the daughters they are less connected with. Becky is superb at wondering at what her dad is up to when he tries to make chit chat with her and take her to the mall while Darlene is just as puzzled when her mom attempts to watch a hoops game on TV and talk sports with her.

-Like last season there is a small smattering of extras tallying up to nearly a half hour. Highlights include nearly 10 minute interviews with John Goodman and Michael Fishman several years after the show concluded. It was kind of stunning to see DJ in his 20s here with a completely different voice and now a father and talking about watching himself grow up and explain his character to his kids. Both Goodman and Fishman have lots of love for their cast and crew members, and both interviews are worth checking out.

-Season 2 of Roseanne keeps up the same pace and is as enjoyable as the first season. Except this time you do not need several episodes for the cast and crew to work out the kinks and establish themselves as the entire cast is gelling right from the season opener. I am avoiding reading future season plot summaries and am eagerly anticipating when Darlene gets emo, DJ settles into the ‘weird kid’ role, and once Darlene and Becky’s main boyfriends become permanent fixtures on the show. See you next season!

Past TV/Web Series Blogs

2013-14 TV Season Recap
2014-15 TV Season Recap
2015-16 TV Season Recap
Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series
Angry Videogame Nerd Vol 8
Angry Videogame Nerd Vol 7
Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1
RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13
Roseanne – Seasons 1-9
Seinfeld Final Season
Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle
Superheroes: Pioneers of Television

Dale's Top 11 Videogame Experiences of 2016

Greetings! It has been awhile since I did one of these top 10 of the year lists. It felt right to place my list on my long dormant Giant Bomb blog where a few of my past lists reside and because I always enjoy the wealthy amount of game of the year content from the Giant Bomb crew each year. This is not a ‘Top 10 games of 2016,’ but more of a ‘Top 10 Experiences’ of 2016.

As you will see, a lot of my games listed will be from prior years. Also you will definitely notice I cheated on most of my entries and included multiple games on most entries. I tried to make each number on my list a theme for each experience, so I hope that suffices for you. If you take a liking my ramblings, please check out my movie blog where I recently ran down my favorite and worst movies from the past few years. I may post this on my movie blog as well since I have a ‘Top 10’ label there too, so if you are reading this blog there, greetings again!

*Edit* I saw after I finished editing this I screwed up my numbering and actually had 11 items, not 10, but it is too late now to remove an item after working on this for so long, so onward with my top 11 experiences of 2016!

11) Finally acquiring current gen consoles

Yes, that is right, three years they debuted I finally picked up both PS4 and Xbox One. My gaming backlog grew out of control because I do not have nearly enough time to game as I use to so I wanted a few years to get caught before I got the current systems. I first jumped on the Xbox One shortly after they released the S model in September and caught a good sale on the 2 TB version that knocked off $100. It took me six weeks though to get around to hooking it up and playing it however, but I have gamed a fair amount on it since.

The PS4 I got a couple months later on Black Friday weekend when retailers were having big sales on the Uncharted 4 500gb bundle, and I was able to stack a couple other discounts to get it for $190. An awesome friend gifted me a 2 TB hard drive for Christmas shortly thereafter. I have since hooked it up and got all my cross buy games from PS3 and Vita transferred over, but have yet to find any time to play a single game on it because of all the other games I am trying to catch up on. I think one of these weekends I should do nothing but binge on Uncharted 4 because it is one of my favorite franchises and it is a crime that I have yet to play the latest installment.

I also want to squeeze in here two other platforms that kind of meet the criteria of this subject: the Retron 5 and the NES Classic. The games I have tested out on the Retron 5 have worked great on my HDTV, and results in my classic games running flawlessly in HD, with none of the fuzziness that would result from hooking up my classic systems with RCA/composite cables into an HDTV. Like everyone else, I hate the Retron 5 controller, but am thankful the Retron 5 is compatible and works well with my classic controllers.

The NES Classic I lucked into getting one morning right when a retailer opened and I was not even looking for it, but happened to hear the store had them. I brought it over to play with the family after Thanksgiving dinner and it was a big hit that night. My brother-in-law kicked my ass in Tecmo Bowl that evening. Later on I let my six year-old niece, and eight year-old nephew play the system for a bit and took in their reactions to experiencing classics like Bubble Bobble and Super Mario Bros. 3 for the first time. I have since busted out the NES Classic a couple more times with my nephew and we made a lot of progress in Bubble Bobble since, and have also had good times playing the original Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong with him. My nephew loves Minecraft and other tablet games, and I feared him playing these older games I grew up with would not jive with him, and I was delighted he took a liking to many of them.

10) Arcade Racers!

I love me some arcade racing games! Racing and pinball games are the perfect way to start off a gaming session. I like to invest about 30-45 minutes and knock off a few races from a career mode before moving on to whatever game I am working on in my backlog. Going through my gaming journal I realized I have invested significant time into five racing games in 2016, and have completed the career modes in three of them. I first finished off Blaze Rush, an excellent downloadable racing game that is essentially the old school Micro Machines games, but with crazy weapons. The career mode is filled with a ton of variety, and while I had a few hair pulling moments trying to win certain races, I very much enjoyed my time with it.

Toybox Turbo is from Codemasters, the same people who made the aforementioned Micro Machines games and this is a contemporary follow up to them from a couple years ago. You still race in crazy environments like kitchen tables and workbenches, and the racing is still as quick and fun as the 8-bit classics. The third career mode I finished in 2016 went to Dirt Showdown, also from Codemasters. This is an arcade spinoff from the sim-heavy Dirt rally racing games, and Showdown is more of demo-derby racer in similar fashion to Destruction Derby and Flatout. I love that style of racers, and they do not make enough of them! Dirt Showdown is a welcomed addition to the genre, and I had a blast doing both races and last man standing demolition derbies! It is pretty fun, but not quite perfect, but establishes a good foundation I hope Codemasters builds on with future sequels.

Road Redemption is the contemporary take on Road Rash I have wanted EA to make for many years. These guys are getting it right, but it is still in Early Access on Steam so the developers are constantly building upon it. It controls how I would imagine a Road Rash game would evolve into today, and they thankfully took out having to run out back to your cycle so you can get back into the race quicker. I had some friends over for four player couch play, and we had a blast and it convinced them to get it too. If you have played old school Road Rash give it a look! Mantis Burn Racing is another Steam game I put a decent amount of time into that offers up a similar isometric perspective and has a good arcade/sim hybrid feel to it complete with drifts and turbos. It recently hit consoles so give it a look there too. Finally, I have lately been making a lot of progress into Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed. Sega really stepped up their game with their second kart-style racer a few years back. I really dig how the karts morph into planes and hovercrafts during the race and how some tracks transform during the race to keep me on my feet. The roster features a ton of Sega favorites and the racing feels great and is right up there with Mario Kart!

9) Pinball!

Anyone who knows my gaming habits knows I am a pinball nut. Ever since Pinball FX on 360 I have spend countless hours on various pinball games. As I stated in the previous entry this is another one of my go to games to start off gaming sessions with. In 2016 I played a lot of Pinball Arcade, Zen Pinball 2 and a little known indie game on Steam called Hyperspace Pinball. I love nearly the entire Zen 2 roster of tables and spent a good chunk of the year trying to replay each table on my PS3 at least a couple of times. I am all caught up now with the exception of the recently released Bethesda pack that offers up tables based on their Doom, Skyrim and Fallout properties.

Alternatively, the real life translations in Pinball Arcade are also up my alley, and I always find myself coming back to tables in attempts to best previous high scores and knock off all the preset goals for each table. I recently busted out the spinoff Stern Pinball Arcade disc on Xbox One, which offers up a couple exclusive tables that are not yet in the standalone Pinball Arcade hub and have been eating that up a lot too.

Hyperspace Pinball is an under-the-radar game that got buried in the plethora of indie games on Steam and it is unfortunate that it has gone ignored for this long. It features simple-yet-groovy futuristic graphics and a very fitting soundtrack. The primary mode is like a addicting version of pinball-meets-Asteroids and every several levels there are unique boss battles to vanquish. It took several runs before I got use to the physics of this pinball game, but once I did I was glad I mixed Hyperspace Pinball into my rotation.

8) Road Trip gaming!

This past October I went on a week long road trip to hit up some attractions I have always wanted to see and hang out with some friends who have moved out of town over the years. I visited my friend, Dick in the Twin Cities. We have a history of playing many hours of our favorite wrestling game, WWF No Mercy together and we could not resist busting it out again. We had some intense matches where we teamed up against the computer on expert difficulty, and then a few more grueling one-on-one encounters. Later that day, we checked out an game shop that had an arcade machine with a ton of games built in and one of them was for a Japan-exclusive sequel to Saturday Night Slam Masters I had no idea existed until that point. Slam Masters was Capcom’s take on wrestling meets Street Fighter II, but the sequel, Ring of Destruction, is a straight up fighting game that plays as good as any Capcom fighter back in the day.

After that, we traversed to a recently opened arcade in the Cities called Up/Down, which is an arcade bar loaded with arcade and pinball games and has a full service bar. All the hits from 80s and 90s I grew up with were there such as classic brawlers like TMNT, X-Men and Simpsons to the hits Midway dominated the 90s with like NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat I-4 and NFL Blitz. There was even old school Nintendo games like Excitebike, Donkey Kong and a version of Fix-It Felix straight out of Wreck-It Ralph I had no idea was a thing until I saw it with my own eyes. There was also around a dozen pinball tables there, with a good mix of classics like Funhouse, Terminator 2 and Adams Family to more recent Stern releases like Ghostbusters and Metallica. I guess this is a slowly expanding chain, so if you happen to run across one, make sure to check it out as you will be guaranteed hours of fun.

The next destination on my road trip was to visit my brother in a smaller town a couple hours outside of the Twin Cities. I had a great time hanging out with him, and like my friend in the Cities, we also have a history of beating the tar out of each other in WWF No Mercy. After telling my brother about experiencing the awesomeness of taking on expert level AI opponents in tag mode and proceeding to have another close match with the AI where we emerged victorious, we proceeded to take on each other in about 15 one-on-one matches. I consider myself a pretty darn good No Mercy player and can hold my own with any other seasoned player, but for whatever reason my brother has always had my number and is the only one I know that can outplay me (that link is a clip of us squaring off in a tournament final from several years ago for proof!). Of the roughly 15 matches we played, I only had one victory out of them all, and I made sure to savor every moment of it!

7) Awesome Local Coop!

This is where I will give a shoutout to my local friends in town, Ryan, Derek and Brooke! Last few years we have had recurring couch multiplayer game nights every several weeks! I always look forward to them, and we are constantly rotating in old favorites like Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario Party and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect with newer games for a constant fresh variety of multiplayer goodness. I will give props to some of my favorite moments I had with them this year. One awesome early multiplayer night in 2016 involved a NES theme night, and me busting out my four player adaptor which led to many hours of Gauntlet II and Super Off-Road fun.

For a couple weeks we were into slaughtering zombies and we played through a couple levels of Left 4 Dead 2. I forgot how awesome and frustrating that game is as I experienced both soaring highs when our teamwork was flawless and devastating lows when we ran into trouble a couple of times. Either way, it was still a blast re-experiencing Left 4 Dead 2 for the first time in years. That led us to a couple days of long sessions of Dying Light. I loved the first Dead Island and this game is from the same developers and plays just like it, but mixes in an awesome parkour system. That resulted in all kinds of crazy running dropkicks and being on the lookout for next great weapon that would turn up in our endless piles of loot.

Just a few weeks ago we had another great session where we played Drawful and Fibbage out of the Jackbox Party Pack. Both are awesome social party/trivia games from the same people who made the also-excellent You Don’t Know Jack. These games make great use of cell phones as controllers so anyone could play, and we had way too much fun guessing at what the heck we were drawing in Drawful. It brought back classic memories of staying up all night in another similar multiplayer game on the DS, LOL!

We followed that game up with a random game I got for Xbox One since I heard so much good buzz about it online called Overcooked. This simple four player Root Beer Tapper-meets-cooking game featured some of the most fun I have ever had in a multiplayer game. When your teamwork is firing on all cylinders it is a blast, when it is not it led to us playfully shouting at each other until one point a few of us had to drop the controllers because we were uncontrollably laughing so hard. It was a moment I will never forget. There was one other multiplayer night between us that usurped these moments, but I will save it for later.

6) Extra Life 2016

Extra Life is the annual 24 hour gaming event where we game for a day straight in order to raise funds for our local children’s hospital! These last two years I traveled down to my friends, Chris and Lyzz’s house to game for 24 hours straight. I always attempt to beat WWF No Mercy’s 100-man Survival mode, and just like all previous attempts, I failed about halfway through. There were two main takeaways from Extra Life 2016. One of them was binging through Gears of War 4’s campaign from start to finish during the 24 hours. I love me some Gears, and Extra Life happened not to long after I picked up my Xbox One, so Gears 4 ended up being one of the first games I played on it. I had to take a break halfway through Gears 4 because I signed up to run a local 10k in the area, which was actually a nice breather to get out of the house and get some exercise and fresh air! I came back revitalized and had a great time playing nonstop until I finished.

Chris and Lyzz were playing their own Gears 4 campaign in split-screen coop and we both did our best to look away from each other to avoid spoilers. Turns out you cannot have a split screen system team up online with another player on their own, but we found a way to get through it on our own without spoilers! Gears 4 turned out awesome as expected, and was a return to form after the experimental game in the series that was Gears Judgment.

The other game I played later on in Extra Life I want to make sure to recognize is Mega Man 2 off the Xbox One Mega Man Legacy Collection. I never gave a Mega Man game a serious chance before. I recall trying to play the first one a couple times long ago and getting frustrated many times and not beating a single stage. In the Legacy Collection however, it has save states which I made sure to exploit to the fullest. I was saving every screen or two in Mega Man 2. I decided to start on that one since I usually hear that is the best, and it had a firm, but fair challenge level to it. I died many times, but wanted to try out different techniques in order to progress and beat each boss. I did not finish the game, but did complete three stages, which will go down as the first three levels I ever finished in a Mega Man game! One day I will return to at least finish Mega Man 2, mark my words!

5) Firewatch

After finishing Dear Esther and Gone Home a couple years ago, I have become a huge fan of the genre that has become known as the walking simulator! Firewatch hit out of nowhere early in 2016 and became a much talked about indie game throughout the year. I finally played it towards the end of the summer, and relished every hour of the six or seven hours it took me to finish. The graphics are superb and perfectly capture the solitude and beauty of being a fire ranger in the vast wilderness. I could get lost out there forever, and spent many moments just pausing in the game and taking in the sublime surroundings. The score is not always present, but knows when to kick in to amplify the moments that need it.

I could not help but get immersed in the narrative between the two fire rangers, and the mystery that the two found themselves in as the summer unraveled. Reading other game of the year reactions in recent weeks I found myself in the minority that liked the twist towards the end and was not thrown for a loop by it. I really loved the final days in the game, and it all culminated in an impactful moment for me when I could tell my summer with Firewatch was coming to an end. I got lucky and managed to get in on the Limited Run release of the physical copy of the game on PS4, and look forward to replaying it sooner than later with the newly added developer commentary.

4) Objection, dedicated handheld gaming is here to stay!

I try to dedicate a couple hours a week to traditional handheld gaming. I am not talking smartphone games, but good old fashioned DS/Vita/3DS gaming! I grew up playing a ton of my various versions of the GameBoy and still try to cram in a little bit of the current stuff too. I am a huge Ace Attorney fan and spent a good chunk of my 2016 handheld gaming getting caught up in the series. I finished off Ace Attorney Investigation: Miles Edgeworth early on in the year, and spent a good chunk of 2016 gradually chipping away at the first 3DS entry in the series, Dual Destinies. The last couple weeks I finally put my first few hours in the most recent release in the series, Spirits of Justice.

If you have played one Ace Attorney game before you know what to expect, and that is a ton of crazy over-the-top characters you meet investigating crime scenes and cross examine on the witness stand as you try and clear innocent names from murder cases. There is a ton of reading involved in these games which is why they take forever to get through at my rate, but they are worth it in the long run to me since I find myself craving what kind of adventures the Wright Anything Agency are getting themselves into next.

There was one other non-Ace Attorney game I snuck into for a few hours at a time in-between my travels in and out of the court room. That game was the PSone version of Final Fantasy VII on the Vita. I have started FFVII a couple times before, but never made serious progress in it, and I guess I did not make a ton of progress in it this year either, but barely set a new record for time and progress! I originally was trying to keep up with Game Informer when FFVII was a part of their Game Club feature, but quickly fell behind. I came back around to FFVII in December for a few more hours, and am glad to say that I finally got out of Midgar and into the overworld for the first time in FFVII! I went on to get through the portion of the game in the village of Kalm, and then failed a few times at trying to kill off that big serpent by the Chocobo farm outside of Kalm. I think I need to grind by there for a bit in order to proceed. While I know I am nowhere close to finishing the game, I plan to periodically pick it up and eventually beat it in 10-15 years!

3) Nintendo Sixty-Fourrrrrrr!!!!

If you have somehow stuck with me through this dreadfully long top 10 blog, you might recall that I stated I had one other awesome local coop gaming night I wanted to elucidate on later. That brings us here to where my brother was visiting from out of town and he joined me, Derek and Ryan for an N64 themed night of gaming. I knew Derek and Ryan had a bunch of N64 games, and I brought a bunch of my favorites to play also. I was a little taken aback when Derek asked me to bring the N64 wrestling game I loved so much because I did not associate Derek and Ryan to be much of wrestling game fans before. Turned out that WWE 2K16 was a recent Xbox Live Games for Gold free game of the month and both of them spent a bit of time suplexing and powerbombing the heck out of each other in recent weeks and wanted to give the N64 game I raved about the most a whirl as a result.

Derek and Ryan picked up the controls for WWF No Mercy in no time and we spent at least a good hour tearing each other up in intense tag team and Royal Rumble matches. I am still befuddled that Derek and Ryan had a legit good time playing wrestling games that night, and it will probably be the only night that will ever happen with them, but I will forever remember it! The night did not end there because we went on to spend hours in other four-player hits like NBA Hangtime and New Tetris. I was surprised New Tetris went over as well as it did, but the timeless puzzle game was the right breather we all needed after some heated rounds of basketball and wrestling. It would not be an N64 night if we did not bust out the Giant Bomb favorite, Mario Party 2, and we proceed to complete a 20 turn game where everybody won!

The highlight of the night however was breaking out the original console FPS multiplayer hit, Goldeneye 007. I have read many times online how this game does not hold up in modern times, but I beg to differ! Play it on a big TV and play for at least 10 minutes, and trust me, you will be conditioned to like it was 1997 all over again! That is what happened to us that night. Sure the graphics are obviously last-century, and there is a bit of slowdown in four-player split screen when the explosions start rolling, but if you are on a big screen TV after about 10 minutes, you get use to it because the core gameplay is still that damn good. We played all kinds of variants including old favorites such as Grenade Launchers in the Temple, Rocket Launchers in the Complex, Proximity Mines in the Archives and a random map incarnation of Slappers Only with Golden Gun rules so that each slap meant instant sweet death! These five games for about five-to-six hours that magical night combined for nonstop greatness and hands down my favorite multiplayer game night 2016!

2) MGS 2/3/Peace Walker

Since the fall of 2015 when Metal Gear Solid V released. I swore to myself I will get around to playing through all the Metal Gear Solid games in order. Up until that point I only finished MGS4 and gave up on MGS2 after just a couple hours. I somehow have found myself still determined to meet this goal as I plugged away and finished The Twin Snakes GameCube remake of the original MGS by the end of 2015. Throughout 2016 I managed to finish MGS2 and MGS3 and got through around the first 15 story missions of Peace Walker off the HD Collection on PS3. I even dabbled a bit with the first hour of Portable Ops through backwards compatibility on the Vita, but decided to stick to playing on consoles and moved on to Peace Walker instead.

So what do I make of the series thusfar? I have absolutely enjoyed the core three games immensely so far. I am probably playing these games completely wrong, but I played through all three MGS games on very easy difficulty. I have no shame, but for what it is worth I try to play stealthy, and if I blow my cover and fail to retreat that is when I bust out the AK-47 and go guns blazing. That works OK most of the time for me in very easy. In Peace Walker there is no difficulty setting so that involves a bit more trial and error, but thankfully that game’s missions are shorter since it was originally designed for the PSP so failure does not mean a ton of backtracking there.

I really enjoyed my time with the first MGS, and the updated graphics on the GCN made it much more pleasant on the eyes. By the time I finished it, even all these years after its release I could tell I finished something special. Playing as Raiden did not bother me in the sequel….unless it came to saving which sometimes resulted in a few raised eyebrows. It still had the same unique, great gameplay as the original, and managed to tell another memorable chapter in the MGS universe. That said, I still rank it at the bottom of the core trilogy I liked the least, but not by as much one may think.

I am probably going to give the slight edge to MGS3 to being my favorite so far. The gameplay seemed to have hit its stride there by finally giving the ability to move and shoot simultaneously, and I actually did not mind the healing/wound treatment system in MGS3 either. The Cold War-era story is probably what I will give the nudge to me liking MGS3 the most. Each MGS game got to gradually become more bonkers in nature, and wrapping the Cold War narrative around it seemed like a perfect fit. I also loved the boss battles the most in MGS3, especially the final battle with ‘The Boss’ and the beauty with how it is presented in MGS3 will easily rank as one of my favorite moments in videogames.

1) Oxenfree

When it came down to it, I only finished three games in 2016 that were released that calendar year, and Oxenfree was one of them. It is a walking simulator like Firewatch, and also like that game the small development team at Night School Studios has members that worked on the critically acclaimed first season of The Walking Dead from Telltale Games. Unlike Firewatch though, Oxenfree has far simpler 2D graphics that are watercolor-esque in nature. Do not let these simple looks deceive you, because the narrative that surrounds these four coming-of-age teens out for a night of fun on an island quickly transforms into a night of sci-fi spookiness that I will never forget and left me wanting a sequel ASAP.

I am heads over heels for the script and dialogue that unloads throughout Oxenfree. One moment the cast is trying to come together to figure out the grand mystery of this island, then the next they are taking quick asides to find out more about their personal lives that encapsulates the everyday life of teenage drama. Night School Studios make tremendous use of certain camera tricks and jump cuts that do not necessarily equal out to jump scares, but sure as hell something close that had my skin crawling with goosebumps as the adventure played out.

There are several pivotal decisions that will affect gameplay, so naturally I had to play the game a second time telling myself no matter what I am going to play the game differently. A lot of the dialogue choices in the game have positive, neutral and snarky response options so I spent a good chunk of my second playthrough being a snarky jerk and it was fascinating seeing the responses I would get in return. When it came down to bite the bullet in the end and make one of the big game-changing decisions, I had to pause the game and step away from it for a few minutes to think it over. Even after doing that, I could not go back on my natural instincts and I went with my original decision in one of the most frantic moments I had in playing videogames.

Shortly after I finished Oxenfree a second time I was caught off guard by the developers patching in a remixed mode for people who have finished the game that offers up a slightly new gameplay experience. These changes were minor, but they did add a few new wrinkles throughout gameplay and the dialogue would unexpectedly change at random intervals to keep me constantly alert to see what tricks Oxenfree had up its sleeve next. I think it goes without saying if a game can manage to convince me to finish it three times within a year, especially at a time when I have just a fraction of the time to game than what I use to, then Oxenfree easily walks away from 2016 as my favorite videogame experience of the year! Limited Run has a physical release for PS4 set for later this month, and you can bet your booty that I will be attempting to pick up a copy and experience this game a fourth time!