The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura Premium Edition (NIS)

GENRE: Romantic Comedy, Drama, School Life

DIRECTOR: Masahiko Ohta

STUDIO/PRODUCER: NIS, Nippon Ichi Software

MSRP: $51.99 (USD) 

RELEASE DATE: Aug. 4, 2015

LENGTH: 2 Blu-ray Discs, 12 episodes, 288 mins.

AUDIO/VIDEO: This Blu-ray set is geared to be played, and watched on an HDTV. It sports 1080p visuals on an AVC MPEG-4 16:9 scale. The colors are vivid the animation is clear, and the characters look amazing doing their thing on the widescreen in HD. As far as the audio goes it is a LPCM 2.0 Japanese soundtrack with optional English subtitles. The menu system which house all of the anime greatness is easily accessible, and contains a "Play All" option, a "Scene Selection" option, and even an "Extras" option for viewing the opening, and ending song sequences.

CAST: *ACTORS/CHARACTERS* Hisako Kanemoto (Haruka Kotoura), Jun Fukushima (Yoshihisa Manabe), Kana Hanazawa (Yuriko Mifune), Yuriko Kubo (Hiyori Moritani), Hiro Shimono (Daichi Muroto)

Kung Fury: Street Rage (PS4)

Going into this review I was very curious to see what a $1.99 promotional video game experience would be like. The price tag alone had me intrigued. I had hoped for the sake of the gamer, and the developer that 'Kung Fury: Street Rage" would be a brawler similar to that of "Streets of Rage". To my dismay though It was nothing like that. It was nothing like the quality indie games former XBLIG developers had made back on the Xbox 360 gaming console, nor was it like the previously mentioned 'Streets of Rage' experience. In fact Hello There AB, the developers behind this movie based action brawler made it as bare bones as they possibly could. I guess they figured bringing back the nostalgia of the 80's arcade experience, and offering little else of new generation standards would suffice. As much as I love the arcade cabinet screen look, and the 80's nod I cannot back this game even at the lowly price of $1.99. I've seen indie developers do more, and ask less for what they have created than what 'Hello There AB' has done. You can't just feed off of a movie's hype, or nostalgia to make yourself known as a proper indie studio. Quality matters even in the indie development scene.

Adventures of Pip (PS4)

Tic Toc Games takes all the impressive things about the retro gaming era including the 8-bit goodness of the NES, the 16-bit upgrade of the SNES, and the graphical 32-bit upgrade of consoles like the original Playstation, and makes the penultimate homage to the classic gaming experiences us older generation of gamers grew up enjoying. Of course there are a lot of nods, and inspiration borrowing from titles of said consoles, and console eras, but for the most part "Adventures of Pip" remains it's own unique experience throughout it's entirety. Beyond the Metroidvania platforming, The Castlevania quotes, the Legend of Zelda II features, and the Super Mario World maps you'll find a story about a tiny pixelated kingdom not unlike our own world. Within said kingdom lies a land divided by wealth, social standings, and the lack thereof. The currency, and social stature being that of pixels themselves. Things like today's real world stock market, the homeless, and the potential introduction of a one world currency (BitCoin) come to mind in relation to this game's accompanying lore.

Conspiracy Coroner - "The Entertainment Industry Sold It's Soul to the Devil"

Hello there! It's your friendly neighborhood conspiracy coroner, back with some entertainment industry possibilities! Prep yourself once again for the details about one of my conspiracy theories relating to the greedy stance taken by many, if not all industry providers. It's gonna contain a dab of religion, but I will not push the envelope beyond generalities, so don't get your undies in a wad. Replace the biblical entities with any good, or evil deity that you wish. Good is good, and evil is evil ...

Let's Talk - "Numbers vs Quality"

This topic has been weighing heavily on my mind for the past few years that I've been into the retail part of the journalism biz. The topic in question being, "Numbers vs Quality". It's obvious through my rants, and ravings that I think greed has taken a firm grip of many entertainment outlets including that of the video game industry. A grip that developers, PR, and publishers just won't loosen. Industry makers see numbers in the form of possible monetary income, and sales percentages. Sure that's an important part of running a business, but if you give the consumer less, and constantly ask for more you begin to look like the greedy corporate pig that you are. On the opposite end of the spectrum gamers simply want to spend their hard earned money on gaming experiences that are of the highest quality. Experiences that are not plagued by day one patches, broken elements, or other fun negating issues. They simply want to get their money's worth in the form of a fun time. Of course as it stands there is no middle ground meeting on the plain of "Numbers vs Quality". It's a one-sided scale that is usually offset to one side, or the other by number crunching businesses, or the cries of gamers who are getting fed up with being force fed the same excuses as to why they are not getting their money's worth. There is no balance to be found here.