recent posts

Seamus McFly, May 13, 2012 @ 10:24pm

It is already very clear that The Avengers is not just a supremely enjoyable action movie, but a really big deal for the future of how these kinds of studio movies are made. Unfortunately, Marvel Studios getting it so right on the first try could end up being a big problem in the grand scheme of things. When it comes to properties based on superhero comic books, Marvel and DC are the unquestionably the power players and a big, successful move from one will inevitably lead to everyone patiently waiting for the other to follow suit. In this case, The Avengers series has had everyone asking when the Justice League movie will happen since they first saw Nick Fury show up at the end of Iron Man. But if DC and Warner Bros (the studio that owns DC) just try to follow the formula that Marvel Studios had success with, what will follow is a disappointing trainwreck of such epic proportions that even the massive success of the recent Batman films won’t be able to offset it. The answer may lie in a smaller team-up, but one that could generate just as much excitement as a six Marvel heroes. It may finally be time for the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel (and nobody else) to team up on screen.

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Seamus McFly, March 10, 2012 @ 9:17am

Let’s take a moment to discuss the frustratingly awful yet increasingly popular naming scheme that seems to exist primarily to make it really difficult to talk about movies and games. I’m talking about giving the latest entry in a long-running series the same name as the first entry in that series. Star Trek, Conan the Barbarian. This is thing that needs to stop.

I understand that reboots are all the rage nowadays and I’m enjoying seeing new blood brought into franchises getting long in the tooth. However, a reboot is not a remake. A remake is a retelling of one specific story restyled for a new audience. It’s perfectly logical to give a remake the same title as its source material; in fact it would be sort of dishonest not to. A reboot also restyles the characters, premise and setting of a franchise for a fresh audience, but disregards the previous stories. A reboot’s story has never been seen before. This means it is a sequel, just a really specific kind of sequel.

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Seamus McFly, January 28, 2012 @ 3:18am

Okay, it wasn’t really my intention to make this blog so single-mindedly centered on video games, but ranting about games has basically become my natural state, this is primarily what has come out. But since the posts are becoming substantially more frequent, I should be taking the opportunity to start digging into some different stuff (meaning TV and movies) pretty soon now. Honest. In the meantime, I’ll do what you’re already probably already totally sick of and run my very own Game of the Year awards. I am surprisingly qualified to do such a list this year, since I’ve been more on top of major game releases this year than in any year in the past. Though, in all fairness, I actually firmly intended not to make a blog post out of this list, but the more I pondered it, the more it became clear that this list would let me hit on enough hot button topics (for me, at least) that it will probably save you from three or four future gaming posts. So let’s hit it.

NUMBER FIVE: Back to the Future: The Game (PC, PS3)

A couple years ago, Telltale Games drew new life into the point-and-click adventure genre with Tales of Monkey Island. A departure of their by-the-numbers Sam & Max and Strong Bad games, Tales made the genre more accessible with its console friendly controls and more varied, more actiony scenarios. Last year, they took that same winning formula and married it to one of the most beloved movie series ever. The result: probably the greatest licensed video game ever made. The writing and presentation is almost chillingly faithful to the original films and the plot makes it pretty much the fourth movie. I know, there’s been a rash of licensed games that have made claims like this lately, but Back to the Future pulls it off with a story that starts with the expected new-decade-in-Hill-Valley hijinks but, right around episode 3, shifts into an astonishingly clever plot filled with alternate realities and the threat of destroying the universe by running into yourself. It feels effortless, but is unmistakably true to what made the movies great without ever playing it safe or trying to hard to trigger nostalgia. And seriously, how does that dude sound so much like Michael J Fox?

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Seamus McFly, January 27, 2012 @ 2:02am

The upcoming Street Fighter x Tekken generated a lot of excitement when it was revealed that the two legendary fighting game series would be crossing over. Since then, the game has generated mostly controversy. Most of this revolves around the gem system, which is way too complicated an issue to get into here. However, my excitement for the fighter hasn't wavered, and I've made a point not to be swayed in my positive outlook by rampaging gamers leaping to conclusions before they get the whole story. But even my unstoppable mix of genuine excitement and stubborn on-principle optimism has been slayed by that most horrible of fighting games and marketing: console-exclusive characters. And in this case, exclusive characters are so one-sided that the only reasonable response is call it a Playstation exclusive game.

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Seamus McFly, January 14, 2012 @ 1:00pm

REASON #1: TO KILL THE STIGMA

Despite how obvious it is that the Virtual Boy and 3DS have nothing in common outside of 3D graphics, the connection was made the moment it was announced and that connection isn't going away any time soon. However, the only reason the Virtual Boy stigma lingers is because Nintendo refuses to address it. Nintendo of America in particular has gone out of their way to all but disavow the existence of the Virtual Boy, behavior that does much to reinforce the idea that the VB was not only a financial failure, but a failure in terms of quality. Nintendo has already proven that they can turn around the reputation of failed hardware by reintroducing R.O.B. as a character in Mario Kart and Smash Bros, but the VB remains unregarded. This inflates the myth of the Virtual Boy to the level it has reached today, where most people truly think the system was a complete disaster. Which brings us to...

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Seamus McFly, December 17, 2011 @ 1:47am

I made this five years ago. It is still funny.

Seamus McFly, September 14, 2011 @ 7:14pm

If you're the type of person who has an opinion about video games, you probably just had a pretty strong reaction to that combination of headline and image. Whether your reaction was strong disagreement because Ocarina of Time is an incredible game or emphatic agreement because you don't think Ocarina of Time is good at all, that reaction demonstrates the trend of how internet discourse has degraded our ability to communicate rationally.

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Seamus McFly, May 4, 2011 @ 9:14pm

Anthony Burch has long been one of my favorite people on the internet. Quick backstory: Anthony used to work at Destructoid where he proved to be one of the most intelligent and innovative people writing about video games anywhere. His Rev Rants series, despite being hastily chopped together in front of a green screen, delivered the most eye-opening and thought out ruminations on games, particularly game narrative, that you can find on this or any internet. The way most people discovered him, though, was through the sort-of-video-game-based-surreal-comedy web series extravaganza “Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?” which has been distributed by GameTrailers.com for a few years now. The series' no-budget charm and Burch's seemingly bottomless reservoir of brutally well-crafted dialogue have produced a dedicated legion of fans and just as many left entirely baffled. Last year, Anthony's acute understanding of video game narrative got him a writing job at Gearbox Software, so he passed off HAWP directing duties and shipped off to the magical land of Texas. In absolutely no time whatsoever, Anthony was co-writing and co-starring a new web series with fellow Gearbox writer Mikey Neumann, entitled Anthony Saves the World. After three episodes on YouTube, the show got picked up for a season on The Escapist.

Despite following Anthony on Twitter, I just today discovered a complete ten-episode season of the show that has been released without my knowledge. Upon watching through it, I was surprised to see a show that, despite its enormous potential, ultimately fizzled into something unmemorable. Everything seemed perfect for Anthony Saves the World to be a masterpiece, so what went wrong?

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Seamus McFly, January 28, 2011 @ 5:17pm

Wario is one of the newest characters in the Mario universe and, even though it's been nearly twenty years since he first debuted, and he has become one of those extended universe characters that fans tend to either tolerate or ignore. He started off as a rather generic villain type – the evil double of the hero – but rather quickly grew into his own character when he started starring as the playable character in the Wario Land games. The character he grew into was a sort of parody of Mario, the first time Nintendo drew any attention to the fact that, while Mario's goal of saving the princess is altruistic and all that, he sure is getting awful rich during his travels collecting all those gold coins. After his phase of bland villainy, casting magic spells and putting a bucket on Mario's head, Wario soon became known for his true intentions, a constant and profound desire to collect as much money as possible. It is in this way that Wario is one of the very few video game protagonists to actually share a goal with the player.

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Seamus McFly, December 29, 2010 @ 4:48pm

The story of Seamus McFly is a complex saga, from his Steele/McFly series to his Evil League of Evil Application. However, when faced with writing his autobiography for his new blog, he waited until the last five minutes of his lunch break and had time for just 50 words.

Chefgon, December 25, 2010 @ 11:00am

Merry Christmas, McFly and McFly fans! Could there possibly be any better way to celebrate Jesus's birthday than with the official launch of This American Cheese with Seamus McFly? Probably, but I couldn't think of any so I'm doing this anyway.

What is This American Cheese with Seamus McFly, you ask? It's a website! You typed it into your address bar or clicked on a link to get here, so you shouldn't be surprised to learn this. But this isn't just any website, this is the personal blog of famous internet personality Seamus McFly. It's pretty empty right now, but if I know McFly it'll be filled up with questionably interesting content in no time. Seriously, the guy never shuts up.

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