Nerdy Month in Review: July 2015

On the first of every month, I will recap my nerdy endeavors over the course of the previous month.

July was a hectic month from a non-nerdy standpoint, helping our little lady get through having her tonsils out and adjusting to another foster child in the house. We've also had some pesky visitors in the form of lice and mice, so I have been busy and will continue to be busy. Here is what I did manage to get in, though:

TV
The Little Lady and I have been working through Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. As of today, we have gotten about 10 episodes into season 2. We've witnessed the Avengers tackle Loki and his invasion of Asgard, the Kree, and right now, the Skrull invasion. The cartoon is epic, far more than the movies ever will be, so for anyone that wants to get into the Marvel universe, this is an excellent place to start (others might suggest the comics, naturally, but if you are like me and comics aren't your thing, then check out the cartoon). I wish they worked harder to get more female superheroes into the mix - we've recently been introduced to Ms. Marvel, a strong female superhero, and Wasp has been there since the beginning, but she fits too many ditzy female stereotypes to really count as a solid female superhero. The comic relief is consistently good, and the series does a good job of recalling intertwining storylines that began at the beginning of the series. Despite the complexity of the storylines, The Little Lady has had no problems getting what's going on until recently, when she got thoroughly confused on who was a Skrull and who was not.

In other TV nerdiness, Umberto MacJay and I are attempting to watch every season of Dexter and rank each and every episode. We spent one glorious afternoon discussing our rating mechanisms and how we are going to rank each episode and present it to all of you wonderful readers. The entire list will probably be available on this blog sometime in the Fall, but don't hold us too closely to that - this is a significant undertaking, and I myself am only about halfway through season 2. I have seen every season except for the final season, which fans were not crazy about, but I am going to withhold judgement until I see it for myself.

Video Games
Where to begin here? I have been playing a wide variety of games over the course of the month, mainly because whenever I finally get time to sit down and play one, it's been so long since I have actually played anything. As a result, I've done mostly gaming without any semblance of a story - Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. I already wrote at length about Super Mario 3D World and will spare you anymore details here (no, I have not yet beaten that STUPID OBNOXIOUS RIDICULOUS final level). Mario Kart 8 continues to be a challenge with the addition of 200cc, a ridiculously fast romp through the levels that forces you to change your entire racing strategy. It's like playing a brand new game after being so accustomed to 150cc and the Mirror tracks. I am still missing a 3-star, gold trophy on one of the Mirror tracks, and got 2 stars on one of them (I HATE not getting 3 stars - I usually quit as soon as I don't get first in a race as a result). But, I have enjoyed trying 200cc and silently cursing Nintendo for forcing me to change the strategy that I used over the course of an entire 8-game series.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is out and about again in my house because I purchased all of the DLC. Ryu has been a fun addition, and I have enjoyed whipping out all of my old Street Fighter moves when I use him (although really, I usually fall back on using the B button to use all of the special moves to ensure my victory). I wish they had added more locations in the new DLC - I miss the stages in Brawl and Melee so much, the newer versions haven't quite lived up to those - but overall, the game is still a blast to play in a living room full of people.

I spent a lot of the beginning of the month playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. It's easily one of the strongest entries in the Zelda franchise, and perhaps, at the moment at least, is my favorite of the overhead, 2D Zelda titles (not that it is really 2D, with its gorgeous 3D visuals). I am super glad they ditched the requirement of using the touch screen to control Link. I never finished Phantom Hourglass as a result - my hand would get cramped up eventually, and I always ended up doing things I didn't want to do eventually, because of the odd controls. A Link Between Worlds, while I am not even halfway through, has proven to be a phenomenally deep game. I just hope I have more time over the next month to play it.

The Little Lady has taken over LEGO Marvel Superheroes, although I got pretty far before she decided she was going to play it all of the time. Again, I wrote at length about this earlier, so I will spare the details now, but the depth of the game continues to amaze me. I could wander around LEGO New York City for HOURS and still not find everything, and that's a good thing. The Little Lady has also taken over Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and thankfully, she is no longer leaving all of her stuff lying around town. As the mayor of Koholint, my town in Animal Crossing, I want my village looking immaculately clean. She probably wouldn't have cleaned up the town except I pointed out that, if you go to the Mayor's Office, my secretary points out how absolutely annoyed all of the villagers are about it. Thanks, Nintendo, for making a game that encourages me to obsessively organize things - that almost makes up for changing my Mario Kart strategy.

Movies
Nothing much going on here. We have been having The Little Lady watch the original Star Wars trilogy, and yes, we'll probably show her the prequel trilogy because it is, after all, canon. Then we can take her to see the new one, whether she's still living with us or not. I continue to love how interested she is in virtually everything - it was so easy to get her into Star Wars and keep her interested. She still asks me sometimes why Obi-Wan didn't tell Luke the truth about Darth Vader. She seems very annoyed about that.

We went and saw Inside-Out and both my wife and I bawled while the girls were simply non-plussed by (spoiler alert) the realization that yes, some important memories can be sad and our emotions get more complicated as we enter our teenage years. Pixar's slogan should be "let us entertain your kids while you bawl your eyes out." That damn Lava short-movie didn't help - I honestly thought they would give us a sad ending to that volcano's tale for a few seconds, and thought, "Geez, Pixar, I thought you wouldn't stoop this low after the first ten minutes of Up." Don't worry, guys - it's Pixar, it ends happily, although you still might cry.

Books
After finishing Stephen King's It, I read the not-so-nerdy Faithful, the story about the 2004 Boston Red Sox in which Stephen King was a co-writer. The Red Sox are my one truly non-nerdy interest, although I needed to read Faithful to remind myself that I am still a Red Sox fan after such a horrible season up until now.

It is a good book if you think about it like a short story collection, but overall, it's a mess of missed opportunities and silly storytelling shortcuts, all in an effort to force out some sort of epic story even though there really isn't any need for it. Characters like Henry Bowers (a truly amazing King villain) and Beverly's father (King knows exactly how to take abusive, horrible people and make them somehow more disgusting) are far more terrifying than It, and the backstories and the little vignettes King tells are often far more fascinating than the main story. I want to like this book, but it's such a mess that I have to consider it one of the worst King outings I've read, probably the first one I have read that disappointed me (I haven't even come close to reading them all, and if it matters, my favorites so far are The Stand, The Shining and The Dead Zone).

I am now reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, something I am told I should have read long ago. As a nerd, it's probably criminal that I haven't read it yet, and so far, I am pretty impressed. Some of the comedy within it feels twinged with arrogance on the part of the author, a sort of "oh wow, look at how clever I am" sort of feeling, but enough of it is quite entertaining that I am continuing to read it each night before going to sleep. It's part of an anthology with three other books by Adams, so I'll probably read those too.

Coming Up in August...
My wife and I will see Ant-Man at some point, and I am sure I will just throw all of my wonderful feelings about the Marvel cinematic universe down in a blog entry at some point afterwards. I will continue to read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well, hopefully getting through it by the end of the month, and I want desperately to work harder on The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, in the hopes that I can write a Game Profile about it. More Dexter is on tap as well, perhaps allowing me to write an entry about how well it humanizes such a dark character, and adds darkness to characters that are otherwise good. I have also been thinking a lot about online gaming and what it has done to the social aspect of gaming. I have an opinion that is probably in the minority of opinions on online gaming, but hey, I'm going to throw it out there anyway.

Watching Cartoons As An Adult

Many of us know that a great defense of watching cartoons (children's cartoons, mind you) is simply saying, "My child is watching it, so I watch it with them." I imagine that, in any general social situation, I would use the same defense, not that I believe it is necessary, but because making a solid first impression is one of my core philosophies. Most people, after all, are generally suspect of adults that watch cartoons and then go around talking about them. I happen to find such an opinion silly - there are plenty of mature, responsible people that watch cartoons - but I still find myself only able to truly justify watching cartoons when I am watching them with my nine-year-old foster daughter.

Having said that, before the little lady joined our household, I had worked my way through several cartoons from the 90's and early 00's all on my own using the glorious resource known as Netflix, the place to go to seek out those nostalgic shows we watched back when Saturday morning cartoons still existed. Since I have graduated college, I worked through Spiderman (the 90's version off of which many a McDonald's toy were based) and Batman Beyond. Once I had someone with whom to watch, I started making suggestions, all of which the little lady has agreed to watch with much enthusiasm. We made it through all 3 seasons of Beast Wars: Transformers and have recently started watching Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Several of these cartoons have a definite theme, if you have noticed. I do enjoy my superhero cartoons, probably because I lack the patience to work my way through the vast library of comic books and graphic novels from which these heroes gained their fame. As I believe I have mentioned in an earlier post, I am not completely enamored of reading comic books - that's my wife's territory. I have made several good-faith attempts to get into them - The Sandman was pretty amazing, and I have enjoyed the more recent Iron Man comics, since the first movie came out - but overall, it's not an artistic medium that resonates with me. The content, however, is something I have always found attractive. A hero fighting off scores of awesome villains, and sometimes teaming up with other awesome heroes? An entire universe full of these heroes and villains to explore? To me, the opportunities have always seemed limitless, causing me to craft my own world of heroes very early on in my life. Even now in adulthood, I have flirted with trying to bring some of these heroes into being through my writing, although my fiction writing leaves quite a bit to be desired.

As a result of this life-long interest in superheroes, I am still very interested in what cartoons are out there. One cannot simply get their superhero fix from the movies - TV shows, particularly cartoons, offer so many differing paths for these heroes to follow, often getting things right that I feel the movies have been unable to handle. Watching these cartoons has given me a great glimpse into just what is possible for these heroes, and how big the universe really is. The Spiderman cartoon, at that time in my life, was the only thing I had ever seen that brought so many different heroes and villains into the picture - I was obsessed with gathering toys of them all and playing with that world myself, expanding it as I saw fit and making it something entirely different.

Anyway, enough nostalgia - what about now? I still find myself appreciating how cartoons are presented, and how they tell their own stories. Due to their targeted audience, cartoons keep it simple, something many movies could benefit from doing (here's to you, Avengers: Age of Ultron). They often represent the mantra of "show, don't tell" incredibly well, again mostly due to their audience. Kids don't tune into shows to listen to people talk all of the time - they want to see things unfold, watch how things happen. Yes, there are clunkers out there, but if we look at the medium in general, it's incredibly easy to find a wide variety of cartoons out there that tell their stories incredibly well.

One of my favorite episodes of Batman Beyond is called "The Eggbaby," one of the goofier episodes that actually works. Terry (the boy who is Batman in this particular iteration of the hero) must care for what is essentially one of those fake, robotic babies anyone that's taken a Home Economics class knows about. Of course, he must also fight crime, as Batman is apt to do. What follows is a wonderfully hilarious sequence of events that culminates in Terry actually getting a good grade on the assignment because he succeeded in getting the egg baby the stimulation it needed. It's an example of a "serious" cartoon that does everything well, relying on the visuals to get us through and entertain us, with special emphasis on the egg baby's face and sounds. I actually made my wife watch this episode with me, even though she generally wants nothing to do with my "silly" cartoons, and even my "too mature for cartoons" wife was entertained.

Cartoons are already well-known for making people laugh, though - what about an instance in which it manages to do something else? I tear up every time I watch the Beast Wars: Transformers episode known as "Code of Hero," in which one of the Maximals (the good guys) known as Dino-Bot makes a last-stand effort to protect the future of humanity. It gets a bit over-the-top at times, with Dino-Bot delivering monologues plagued with clichés, but in the end, watching him sacrifice himself to protect the future is quite powerful, given his on-again, off-again relationship with the Maximals, having started out as a Predacon (the bad guys). Beast Wars is a deeply flawed show - it doesn't handle "goofy" quite as gracefully as Batman Beyond - but it does a great job of giving us very well developed characters and putting those characters in interesting situations.

There is, of course, a nostalgic piece to this. A lot of the cartoons I have named are ones I watched growing up. Avengers is the one exception here - that came out within the last five or six years. Even though I am no longer a child, the show still interests me. The little lady is on board with it too - she keeps asking to watch more and more. She's a future Netflix binge-watcher, she is, but she's a child - we expect her to find these things entertaining. I find the show has great comedic timing and gives the characters personalities that are completely independent of their movie counterparts. The cartoon takes the idea that we can craft original stories from already-existing characters and make it solid entertainment. It has its own agenda, its own ideas, and its own identity.

And maybe that's what makes cartoons so fun in general - it is a reliable place to find originality. Are there other sources of it? Of course, but when it comes to a reliable source of original ideas, cartoons are a great resource. This may be due to the nature of animation - if you can think it, you can make it. Other shows and movies are limited by budgets and materials, but animation? If you get the picture in your head, and you have the talent around you, it can appear on page (or, these days, on a computer screen). There are some wonderfully creative minds in the cartoon business, and with a medium that gives a significant amount of freedom in what it can present and how it can present it, why wouldn't there be a plethora of entertaining, original cartoons out there?

So, if imagination is the only limiting factor for a cartoon, then that might explain why they are so attractive. The superhero universe within Spiderman I obsessed over as a child could only be so expansive and varied because of the medium. Even goofy shows like Spongebob Squarepants and Animaniacs are set within a universe that feels huge, where there seem to be limitless possibilities. If someone has a funny idea, then it can be animated, and placed in the context of a universe that is arguably larger than most TV shows and movies can accommodate comfortably and effectively.

So, if you are one of those people that poo-poos the idea of cartoons, do some research and check some out. In order to be an adult and watch cartoons, you don't need to watch things like Family Guy (for the love of God, don't watch Family Guy - watch something that isn't created by a sexist piece of garbage like Seth MacFarlane, like Bob's Burgers or Futurama). Watch some cartoons with your kids and see if you can find something entertaining, or if you don't have kids, watch some with your friends' kids, or your nieces or nephews, or go volunteer somewhere with kids so you can watch cartoons with them. Odds are in your favor that you will find something you will like - it isn't all superheroes and fart jokes. There's a wealth of creativity in the world of cartoons, so even if you don't find any that you like, don't judge those that do watch them. We, like you, just want to be entertained.

The Sad State of the X-Men Cinematic Universe

The Marvel cinematic universe, at least in regards to the films that are actually put out my Marvel studios, is one of the rare instances when an entire universe has been almost flawlessly put together. The movies cross-reference each other accurately, gaps are often filled in (although there are still plenty of inconsistencies here and there - nobody's perfect), and it all feels connected without a feeling of forced connectivity. Some movies haven't been as good as others, true, but I don't think I've ever left a movie scratching my head and wondering what on Earth the film-makers were thinking, and how they were going to combine everything else from that universe with what was just done.

Have I ever left an X-Men movie scratching my head? Um, yes. Yes I have.

I just watched the leaked trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse, and unlike what appears to be a high percentage of the nerdy realm, I was rather unimpressed. I think it might have to do with the fact that the entire X-Men cinematic universe has been a complete mess, with no serious attempts made to put it all back together. True, the entire franchise has essentially been "rebooted," but Days of Future Past, in my opinion, didn't quite reboot the franchise the way I feel would have been most effective. At the end of the film (it's been quite a while, but just in case there are some hold-outs, spoilers ahead), it brought everything back to the present, essentially telling us that hey, things are going to end up going alright, no matter what dangers this new cast ends up facing. Xavier's school will be up and running, with few worries beyond that of the normal ones associated with mutant existence.

This highlights what my problems with prequels have always been - that they simply tell a story that stupidly explains why things ended up the way they did. We know how it ends, so where is the urgency? Where is the suspense? Our main characters aren't going to die - they show up in the future! I know that there are prequels here and there that still manage to inject some sort of excitement and suspense into them, but those are few and far between. And as far as I am concerned, the X-Men movies that focus on past events have been nothing short of disappointing in terms of what new things they bring to the table.

This "prequel disease," as I think I'd like to call it, is not the only problem plaguing this once-promising franchise. The whole thing has turned into a giant mess of new directions and inconsistencies, so I'd like to take a few moments and guide you through the journey this group of mutants has taken throughout the last decade and half.

X-Men

Ah, the beginning, when it all seemed new and exciting. The first movie in this franchise was far from perfect, the villains not nearly as interesting as they could be and the whole script feeling like the writers didn't really know how to handle what they had in front of them. Too many "superhero" movies throw tons of heroes and villains at you all at once, but this first movie felt like it could've handled maybe just one or two more mutants, to shake things up a bit more. Overall, it was too safe most of the time, but was good enough to get everyone excited about what this franchise could be.

High Points: Wolverine and his relationship with Rogue, the pitch-perfect casting decisions, the awareness of what could follow.

Low Points: Halle Berry's half-attempt at an accent, the formulaic plot, appearing to save some of the really cool mutants for later, one of the worst lines in movie history.

Overall Opinion: Thumbs Up

X2: X-Men United

I cannot think of many movies that have made me so excited that I watched the trailer over and over and over again. And when I got this movie on DVD, I watched the opening sequence in the White House over and over again. I could not get enough of this movie - it seemed to get the formula right, with its attention to mutant acceptance (or lack thereof) in society and its perfect mix of new and old mutants with fun powers and awesome action. More than any other movie in the franchise, it seemed to have a plan for what would follow and wanted nothing more than make the X-Men franchise a must-see for years to come.

High Points: The perfect plot, the social commentary, the attention to detail and its plan for the future.

Low Points: The final act was a bit drawn out, but that's being picky.

Overall Opinion: Thumbs Up

X-Men: The Last Stand

What I think of most concerning this installment is not the movie itself but the horrendous disappointment I felt when Bryan Singer dropped out to direct the snore-fest Superman Returns. I was sad, felt a little bit abandoned, and scoffed at the replacement (Brett Ratner? Really?). I still went to the movie, hoping for the best, but found that the mood had changed considerably, the writing was not as natural and clever, and the number of mutant powers present had grown into the unmanageable. On top of that, Professor X seemed annoyingly angry and the movie seemed to have no idea where it would end up, only that it would end up making a lot of money and changing the entire landscape of the franchise. The movie has its moments (Xavier's death, Magneto moving the Golden Gate Bridge, Rogue's struggle with to-cure-or-not-to-cure), but those moments couldn't make up for what was clearly a misguided approach to a franchise that deserved better.

High Points: Xavier's death, great action sequences, continued attention to social issues, "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!"

Low Points: Pretty much everything else.

Overall Opinion: Thumbs Down

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

This installment probably doesn't deserve a paragraph. The opening credits were fun, watching Wolverine and Sabretooth fight a variety of wars, but after that, all substance and continuity with the rest of the franchise was lost. It was as if the movie makers thought, "Well, the last movie was crap, so let's try to give them something completely different that will erase their memories of what came before." Mission accomplished, but I wish it hadn't been quite so accomplished. Didn't Wolverine and Sabretooth beat the snot out of each other in the first X-Men movie? And they're related? Come on, writers.

High Points: The opening credits. That's it.

Low Points: Everything following the opening credits.

Overall Opinion: Thumbs Down

X-Men: First Class

So, skip a few years and the writers get a great idea: let's do another origin story, since the last one was so great. In other words, they seemed to think it would be fun telling us how everything happened because it's always so fascinating. Seriously, am I in the minority with these origin things? If I know how it all ends up, why the hell do I care how we got there? I can see how it might give us some new information, but really, if we know how it ends, why bother. This one seemed promising enough when the cast came out, and there were certainly parts of the movie I found entertaining (watching Charles and Erich recruiting mutants was a gas), but again, the ending was anticlimactic (Oh wow! THAT'S why he's in a wheelchair! That was so worth knowing!). Overall, a misguided attempt to get everyone excited again, as well as another excuse to create more inconsistencies.

High Points: The casting, the banter and relationships between characters, the casting.

Low Points: The "Oh, that's how that happened" factor, the predictable ending.

Overall Opinion: Thumbs Down

The Wolverine

I skipped this outing when it was in theaters. I felt that, since I had been disappointed three times in a row, why bother going and coming home complaining again? My wife was tired of hearing it, really, and I was tired of the X-Men movies not living up to my expectations. So, I only saw this movie when I knew another X-Men movie was coming out, keeping my expectations low and my excitement down. Of course, since I thought I wouldn't enjoy it, I naturally enjoyed it very much. Not since the first two movies has the story been so engaging and entertaining, the characters so fresh and fun. This movie was very suddenly interested in picking up where the franchise had left off and building off of it, ready to inject new life into what seemed to me like a dying narrative. I found this movie to be incredibly refreshing and got super excited when Wolverine and Yukio made it sound like they were going to hang out together for a while. Oh, and I found it super-cute when my wife constantly referred to the movie as "Wolverine Goes to Japan," making it sound like a children's book instead of a movie.

High Points: The characters, the refreshing change-of-pace, the advancement of characters and story, the potential for what could follow.

Low Points: The final act was dragged out a bit.
Overall Opinion: Thumbs Up

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Oh man, I was excited when the trailer came out. I saw it immediately for its potential to fix as many inconsistencies as possible and save a franchise that shouldn't have needed saving in the first place. Could it explain what happened with that mutant cure and explain why it didn't work? Will it show us how Xavier came back to life through that surrogate body at the end of the credits of The Last Stand? Maybe it could touch on the Wolverine/Sabretooth dynamic that was introduced previously? No, none of these things occurred. As a matter of fact, the movie caused more inconsistencies than it fixed, including Wolverine's metal claws in spite of him losing them at the end of The Wolverine and the sudden introduction of Sentinels that were somehow around in the 70's but haven't showed up in any of the other movies. The movie itself, if you ignore every other X-Men movie, is good, but when you make a franchise movie, you need to keep the source material and other films in mind, something the movie makers decided wasn't worth their while.

High Points: The cast, the story, the directing, the potential to bring back the original awesome cast (yeah, I know, not happening)

Low Points: Lost potential for the future, glaring inconsistencies, the loss of Wolverine's new storyline

Overall Opinion: Thumbs Down, even though I really wanted to love this movie

I am not naïve enough to think that anyone is going to make any attempt to fix things - the franchise is lost. What this franchise needs is a true reboot, one that just says, "Hey, let's fix the whole cast and make no reference to any other movie and not even try to build on what has already happened." I kind of wish the First Class movie had done that, but that's not how it was advertised. It was given the feel of a prequel instead of trying to take great characters and send them on an awesome journey. The X-Men need an awesome journey, one that isn't plagued by the inconsistencies of the previous installments.

In the end, I'll probably go see Apocalypse. Yeah, I'm that guy, the one who complains to the end and then gives the moviemakers my money anyway. But who knows - maybe Apocalypse will be the reboot the franchise needs, to a certain extent. Maybe it will remain true to the other prequel movies and still manage to do something surprising. I am doubtful, though, at least concerning my own personal feelings about the franchise, that it will do anything to erase my memories of what happened before. They've set a precedent in their attempts to string all of these movies together, a precedent that states that these all occur in the same universe and should have continuity. Being the giant nerd that I am, I doubt I'll be able to see past it and enjoy this franchise again.

But oh well - at least I've got The Avengers. And LEGO Marvel Superheroes. I think I'll manage.

An Honest Defense of the LEGO Video Games

I think in most gaming circles, I would not be considered a "gamer," as most hardcore gamers interpret the word. Yes, I play video games, for many more hours than the average human being. Yes, I do buy some games brand new and play the heck out of them, my sights almost always set on that elusive yet tempting "100% completion" rating. And yes, in the words of a good friend of mine from my youth, I am "obnoxiously good" at learning how to play a game quickly and efficiently. I remember that particular conversation occurring over Soul Caliber 2 for the Gamecube. He had bought the game a week previously, and within about twenty minutes or so, I was beating him regularly with characters I was only trying out for the first time. As a result of all of this, most people, particularly those that do not play video games on a regular basis, consider me a "gamer," and I, too, refer to myself as such. Yet, because of what games I play, how often I end up playing those games, and my attitudes about gaming in general, in spite of everything I just wrote, the gaming community would probably not consider me a true "gamer."

It's sad, though, that such a community can only be open to those that play certain games. The online gaming craze that start in the late nineties has grown exponentially - now, some people only play games online. Moreover, the need for better and better graphics (which most people interpret as "more realistic") has captured the attention of the hardcore gaming community, as well as the need for "grown-up games," leaving gamers like myself out of the loop in many instances. And, while I could write forever about how sad and depressing that all is, that is not my goal here. No, my goal is to make an argument about a specific type of game, one that is regularly disregarded by those that consider themselves hardcore gamers. This type of game, despite its fun-factor and playability, gets labeled a "kid game," and naturally, anyone that plays this type of game is not serious about their craft. These games, for lack of a better word, are actually quite...

Awesome (because everything is awesome ... am I right?).

Alright, so I've really only got experience with two of the games in this series: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Wii version) and LEGO Marvel Superheroes (Wii U version). A few summers ago, LEGO Star Wars was my jam - I played it nearly every morning (something I can afford to do over the summers, since I spend the rest of the year teaching). I was obsessed with collecting every single little thing I could, unlocking every character and trying them all, and watching the entire Star Wars story played out by what amounted to be mimes, since the LEGO characters were given no dialogue. The game was charming, fun, and catered to my need to collect things, no mater how insignificant those things are. Did I ever get everything? As is often the result of my tireless hours spent playing a single game ... no, I did not. I could have, damn it, but the summer ended, and my schedule became full from teaching, planning and grading. By the time I had time to play something else, I had gotten something new and my attention shifted away from my beloved LEGO Star Wars.

Several months ago, using an Amazon gift card (thanks, Mom and Dad), I ordered another LEGO game, since I had enjoyed one already. The Marvel movies, as much as they are able to keep things cohesive and consistent, couldn't quite put together the heroes I wanted to see together (the X-Men and Fantastic Four being shunted away in their own franchises for stupid reasons having to do with "rights" and crap like that). So, given my brief research into LEGO Marvel Superheroes, I was excited for the possibilities. I have not been disappointed - I just finished a level where the Human Torch fought alongside Black Widow and Hawkeye! This game, unlike LEGO Star Wars, has dialogue, but that doesn't detract from the fun: the one-liners are not only true to the characters in their more goofy moments, but also to my incredibly "punny" sense of humor (ask my foster kids - if they don't cover their eyes and shake their head in embarrassment over a terrible joke I have just made at least three times a day, I have not done my job). The game, like the Star Wars iteration, has plenty to collect, and will undoubtedly take up much more of my time than Star Wars did. This thought makes me happy.

Now, I can hear some of you now, groaning and wondering how on Earth I am able to call myself a gamer with any amount of dignity. "LEGO games?" you might ask, "How on Earth are these the tools of a mighty gamer? They're too easy!" On that note, I kind of agree. These games were certainly not designed to be incredibly challenging - as a matter of fact, just a quick perusal of lists online of games that are great as "starter games" for those people with zero or little gaming experience will prove that point. Nearly universally, these games are labelled as easy to pick up and play and enjoy. You don't have lives - you simply lose what amounts to money each time you die. The default game mode yields helpful hints regularly, prompting you to use a certain type of character or interact with a certain object. The controls are quite simple - just directions, and maybe two or three other buttons are used. Combat is straight-forward, with no crazy button combinations to worry about. For someone like me that has been playing games since I was 3 or 4, these games present little to no challenge.

So why waste my time on something so easy? I'll tell you - because it's fun. Sometimes "fun" is being challenged, and for that, I turn my attention to other games (particularly the classics on the Sega Genesis and SNES or the NES - some of those are freakin' impossible). But, sometimes "fun" is something lighter and friendlier, and after an entire school year of trying to make high school students care about algebra and calculus, I'll gladly take some time to play something easy if it means I mostly just get to be entertained. Although I wish Mr. Fantastic didn't constantly repeat the line "I really had to stretch my legs for that one!" (or something along those lines), I still chuckle every time it happens, and every time something ridiculous happens. Anyone ever want to see Wolverine make one-liners at the Hulk's expense? Done. Ever want an image as funny as Iron Man just wearing his helmet and a pair of spotted boxers? Done. And nothing makes Return of the Jedi more believable than making everything out of LEGOs (seriously, that is the only way those freaking Ewoks could have completely manhandled the Empire!). LEGO games bring out the fun parts of ever franchise it seeks to embrace.

And that's the key word - embrace. These LEGO games, perhaps more so than the more "serious" games based on the movies from these franchises, embrace some of the more wonderful things these franchises have to offer. We all know the Marvel movies can be fun - so, if you are in the mood for the fun from that franchise, pick up the LEGO version. The same applies to Star Wars. LEGO games, in my experience, show just how entertaining some of these franchises can be, without sacrificing what these franchises are all about. Mind you, I haven't played all of the LEGO games, but if the others are anything like the ones I have made time to experience, they must be just as solid in terms of their representation of the franchises they emulate.

Now, don't mix up my defense of these games with their quality - these games are by no means the "best" out there. The vehicle levels in LEGO Star Wars are downright unwieldy most of the time, and both games I have played have their share of glitches. Case in point - I fell into the water as Iron Man in a level on The Raft in LEGO Marvel Superheroes, and it respawned me on a slanted part of cliff that dumped me right back in the water, over and over again. Even when I switched to my other characters, I could look over at Iron Man and see him, again and again, spawning and falling into the water. These games are not artistic masterpieces, and there are bugs that probably should have been worked out, but that doesn't mean they aren't an absolute blast to play.

In the end, a game doesn't need to be perfect to be fun - sometimes fun is all a game really needs to succeed. And in that regard, the LEGO games are hugely successful at what they seek to do. If I want a good laugh and an opportunity to explore a digital world that is far removed from my own, I pop in a LEGO game and let the ride begin. If I want something more meaningful, I'll find a Zelda game. If I want a challenge, I'll break out a classic platform like Lost Vikings (GOD, that game is hard!). If I want something that's pretty to look at, I'll play a Batman game or one of the Super Mario Galaxy games. But, if I want something stupidly fun and entertaining that probably won't drive me to rage quit (here's talking to you, Super Mario 3D World and your STUPID final level), I'll pick up a LEGO game and be able to relax for a little while.

Well, relax until someone needs me, or I need to feed someone, or put someone to bed ... you get the idea.