A piece of media that was better than you expected.

Not really a piece of media but I decided to try the $5 Sanrio notebooks from Five Below and was pleasantly surprised at how cute and "quality" they were for the price. Like actual colored designs in and out, fairly big margins, and thick covers/intro and outro papers. Not a bad experience to write in at all!

IIRC, all of the DTV Hellraiser sequels were like that up until Revelations.

Oddly enough, Hellraiser Revelations was pretty much the first Hellraiser movie that was made post-Bloodline with the actual intent of being a Hellraiser sequel

Without getting my film nerd card revoked, Hobgoblins. I went in expecting to see one of the worst movies of all time, and I smiled the whole way through. It's awful but in a way that's infectiously charming. Also, I won't say no to supporting Daran Norris.

Doofus on the Amiga. This game was given an extremely low score on Amiga Power(as in, a 4%). Playing it however, I managed to enjoy it unironically. It's not an AMAZING game per se, but it's decent. The concept is neat & the execution is fairly well done. The controls, the enemy placement wasn't all that annoying, the graphics are charmingly Amiga, just overall I dig this game quite a bit. I can obviously see why some people would hate it, but I'm fairly patient & thus am more likely to give this game a bit of a chance. Not to mention the AWESOME MUSIC.

The game itself is a platformer where you're some unnamed kid who goes along, shooting enemies along the way & avoiding obstacles. You also have a dog which follows you around & has a bit of a delay when following you. Unlike Sonic 2 on Sega Genesis in which Tails just respawns, losing the dog is a no-go & thus you must protect him from any harm that comes along. This often requires lining up your ball projectiles so that they hit the enemies in the way, which ARE fairly placed for the most part. Other times, you'd have to avoid an upcoming obstacle by jumping over it & you must time it so that the dog also avoids it. There ARE other ways to avoid an obstacle, such as standing in spots where the incoming obstacle won't go. Neither was too annoying, though the game's SMB1-esque scrolling made it a bit more difficult in some parts than perhaps intended. Thankfully, the hit detection is absurdly generous for a 16-bit platformer, almost pixel perfect, on you & your dog.

There is also potions one can use, but I didn't know how to activate them, so I just went through the game powerless(well, aside from the infinite lives cheat from the cracktro screen). There are also bonus rooms that are dog houses, in which you get to control the dog as you try to get a bunch of items & get to the doghouse in a set time limit. These were a nice break from the main game & serve as a showcase to get as many items in the main levels, which have no time limit.

I do have a few negatives though & I can see these being reasons why people hate this game: There's a purple potion that reverses your controls & the results can make some sections harder than they should be(shift is still the shoot button when reversed thankfully). While I do find the graphics & artwork charming for the most part, I do feel that the kid looks a bit too ugly for my liking. I would've preferred if he had a more 90s anime design, sorta like Shiine from Akazukin ChaCha. There's also a racist caricature of an African in world 1 as an enemy, so yeah, just to warn you guys Plus, the level design can sometimes be a bit rough around the edges or just have annoying enemy/obstacle placement. Not to mention the short length, having only 3 worlds with 4 levels each. I honestly wish it had 6 worlds so that there'd be more time to flesh out the level design a fair bit. Also perhaps give the kid & dog 3 hit points as opposed to just being 1-hit-and-gone.

Despite my issues with the game, I did find the game to be quite decent & I honestly gotta commend the developers for making a game like this. The concept of this game sorta reminds me of the escort mission kind of level you see in games, but I feel that the execution here is better. In the usual escort mission, the character that the player is supposed to control is usually just walk in a predetermined path or they're just some NPC being controlled by the AI. As a result of either, they can be quite dumb & will just run into everything. But in Doofus, the dog copies your exact movements, albeit delayed & can't shoot projectiles like the kid, so you're able to do quite a bit more to protect the dog from incoming hazards, especially if you have good reflexes & know the timing somewhat as opposed to the usual escort mission where you usually can't do much to protect the other from ending up in harm's way.

Overall, I liked Doofus for what it's worth. It has nice graphics, an incredible soundtrack, charming artwork, a good concept & generally decent execution. If you're a fair bit patient & like weird, quirky platformers, then give Doofus a shot. It's not for everyone of course, but maybe you'll find some enjoyment out of it. Certainly better than Eek! The Cat or Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day on SNES.

I just got home from a trip to the Alamo Drafthouse in SF and I can safely say that Deadpool & Wolverine was a great movie!

I like Dumbsville. He makes funny & well made reviews, although they're obviously not for everyone.