Man Vs. Snake

Title: Man Vs. Snake

Director: Andrew Seklir / Tim Kinzy

Released: 2016

Plot: Documentary following Tim Mcvey in his attempts to reclaim his world record score he set on “Nibbler” in 1984.

Review: Since the release of “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” there has been a lingering desire to see a follow up. After all it was like the nerd version of Rocky and if he can come back for a further six rounds surely there had to be another championship fight in the video game community right? Sneaking under the radar as it suddenly showed up on Netflix with little to no fanfare I really wasn’t expecting much from this latest video game documentary, but due to being compelled it would seem to watch every documentary on the subject which comes out I gave it a watch only to finally find the spiritual sequel that I had long been looking for. 

Focusing on “Nibbler” which as Tim McVey openly admits might be considered one of the big classic games along the likes of “Pac-Man” and “Donkey Kong” its just not one of the most well known ones much like its record holder McVey who before this documentary would likely be a name that no one would have known if asked to named a champion gamer, even his work colleagues can hardly believe that this quiet and permanently laid back guy would hold such a record let alone have been given the key to the city for his achievement. 

McVey is instantly likeable from the first time we are introduced to him, while his record breaking game as recounted by him you would hardly think that it was such a momentous feat which took him two consecutive days of gaming to achieve his Billion point score, with the highlight it would seem coming from his mom making his mac and cheese when he finally stumbled home with his record. Like Steve Wiebe in “King of Kong” McVey is another everyman gamer whose biggest achievement was winning his record. 

While he might not have created the same kind of legacy off his record as Donkey Kong / Pac-Man champion Billy Mitchell might have with his hot sauce business, McVey is still spurned into reclaiming his record when he learns that it was beaten a year after he set it by Italian gamer Enrico Zanetti but as Twin Galaxies offical Walter Day explains because the event was never recorded or witnessed by any the Twin Galaxies officials the score was never logged so McVey could technically just be happy as the named record holder but instead it spurns him into action to try and beat Zanetti’s score and setting in motion the events which form the main focus of the documentary. 

Not content with following McVey in his attempts to reclaim his record all these years later, there seems to be an overwhelming effort by directors Andrew Seklir / Tim Kinzy to create the same kind of rivalry that we saw between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell in “King of Kong” which really isn’t needed but alas they still try with Zanetti who could be seen as the Itallian Billy Mitchell especially with the pair sharing a world view but even with the ongoing dispute over his record validation its clear he’s moved on from his gaming days and has little interest in defending the title. Enter Dwayne Richard another old school gamer with a reputation for being able to recognise patterns in games which makes him the guy to beat. 

Inbetween the expected footage of both gamers standing in front their machines and subjecting themselves to insane periods of continuous gameplay to build up the disposable extra lives which will afford them a break. We also get bursts of animation for the recollections from the gamers of their previous attempts and helping to break up the documentary from being just another talking head heavy documentary while keeping the tone lighthearted and fun. 

To the credit of the film both McVey and Richard are fascinating subjects with McVey’s likeable and permanently laid back nature against the more oddball and hyper Richard. Frustratingly the desire for a rivalry and conflict does see Richard being portrayed similar to Billy Mitchell in “King of Kong” especially when a board glitch is found to give him an unfair advantage during the pair’s showdown at MAGFEST, the controversy surrounding it being made to seem like he planned this despite Richard upon finding out about this issue withdrawing his score. 

One of the issues the film makers encountered though was the lack of support from the retro gaming community outside of Twin Galaxies Head Official Walter Day and Billy Mitchell who both return for this documentary, while other people in the community where reluctant to be involved due to how they might be perceived. Billy Mitchell essentially gives us more of what we saw in “King of Kong” while providing some insight into the mindset of the players chasing these record scores. Walter Day meanwhile provides more of an insight into his background as he talks about going from dropping acid to discovering transcendental meditation as he only continues to grow all the more fascinating as a character the more of these appearances we see from him and making me wonder how long its going to be until he gets his own documentary?

A fantastic companion piece to “King of Kong” with a light hearted and once more surprisingly insightful look once more into the world of competitive retro gaming.

Indie Game: The Movie

Title: Indie Game: The Movie

Director:  James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot

Released: 2012

 

Plot: Documentary following the development of the independent video games Super Meat Boy, Fez and Braid as their creator’s battle to bring them to market.

Review: Its fitting really for a documentary which celebrates the independent spirit of its creators that this film would be funded through Kickstarter while also whittled down from over 300 hours of footage with the end result playing like a past, present and future of the development process as well as the Indie game market at the time while for those not familiar with indie games it also provides a fitting entry point into this sub-section of gaming whose popularity only continues to grow through channels like “Steam” and “Xbox Marketplace” which enable the developers to forgo the traditional instore route of distribution.

Representing the past section “Braid” represents one of the breakout games alongside the likes of “Fat Princess” and “Castle Crashers” which drew gamers attention to the independent scene as a place where creators are free to tell the stories they want, while also getting to experiment with new ideas which “Braid” creator Jonathan Blow chose to do by allowing players to rewind the game as a way of solving puzzles, an evolution from the rewind power seen in the newer “Prince of Persia” games and as we see here tweaked slightly by Blow. As an designer Blow seems the most withdrawn of the creators showcased here, with “Braid” he informs us being used as a place to put his “deepest flaws and vulnerabilities”  while relishing the journey from experimentation to discovery as we see the game journey from its simple beginnings to its finished game. It’s hard to tell if how we see Blow in the film is the real him or his more disillusioned self-seeing how he gets frustrated with players not getting the message he was trying to portray in the game and launching him into a campaign of responses on either reviews or forums were the game is being discussed as he attempts to explain the game to audience. Blow as a result comes off perhaps a little more pretentious than he perhaps would like to be seen and perhaps why his time is more limited than the other creators.

Certainly on the lighter side are the creators of “Super Meat Boy” Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes also known as “Team Meat” who are shown battling to finish the game in time to be part of the Xbox promotion “Game Feast”. There game a fiendish platform game in which its titular hero is a block of meat who battles through each level to save his girlfriend made of bandages from the top hat wearing fetus in a jar scientist Dr. Fetus. and which as we see though many of the cut scenes from the game equally serves as a platform for them to cram in as many nerdy references as possible. A pair of contradicting souls McMillen is certainly the most light hearted of the pair with Refenes frequently shown to be struggling to deal with the pressures and demands required to deliver the game on time. At the same its their segments of the film which are also the most enjoyable, perhaps due to their laid back nature let alone the issues they tackle being due to the game rather than the outside influences that Johnathan Blow and Phil Fish are shown to be dealing with.

Ironically the future section of the film is the game which has been in development the longest having first been announced at the “Independent Games Festival” back in 2008 turning its creator Phil Fish into a celebrity of the indie video game world, but as the film catches up with Fish he is seemingly still no closer to finishing the game, even confessing to having rebuilt the game four times already. Despite this Fish comes off as another enthusiastic creator and who like Blow can’t see himself working for a major label instead preferring the freedom the indie market allows as emphasised by the game which he refers to as being a “Stop and smell the flowers” kind of game, especially with it featuring none of the usual requirements for mainstream games such as boss fights etc. Now massively over due Fish has to deal with an onslaught of hate from gamers frustrated by the continually delays of the game, which even by the end of the film is yet to be finished with Fish aiming hopfully for a 2012 release.

While the film has a strong focus on the development of the games, it’s equally as interesting when looking at the effects that these games have on their creators social lives with their relationships and certainly in the case of Refenes his health. Their dedication to finishing their games only becoming all the more commendable when you realise what they are willing to sacrifice just to get their games finished while perhaps at the same time making you wonder if such risks are worth it?

While the documentary spends a lot of time going into the mechanics of each of the three games featured, there is also numerous segments were the creators get to explain why they made the game the way they did, as seen with Edmund McMillen’s explanation of how he teaches the player the controls for “Super Meat Boy” in the game. Equally interesting is getting to see where they draw their inspiration from with McMillen finding a way to communicate with people through games with his previous game “Aether” being highlighted as an outlet for channelling the feelings from his childhood, such as his fear of being abandoned and loneliness.  Phil Fish meanwhile links his love of programing back to his early video game experiments with his father which are also shown here with their delightful simplicity.

A fascinating documentary and to certainly rank next to “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” for its unabashed love of its subject material, while for gamers who havn’t discovered these games previously perhaps providing the inspiration to wander off the well beaten track of mainstream gaming.

Atari: Game Over

Title: Atari: Game Over

Director: Zak Penn
Released: 2014
Plot: Documentary charting the creation of the now infamous “E.T.” video game and the search for the landfill the game was reportedly buried in.

Review: One most popular video game urban legends is the story of “E.T. – The Video Game” which was rushed out by Atari for their 2600 console in order to cash in on the popularity of the film and to ensure that it was in time for Christmas. However this left game designer Howard Scott Warshaw with five weeks to code and finish the game in order to meet the insane deadline set by the company. Unsurprisingly the game was deemed a flop, let alone one of the worst games ever made leading to Atari burying the cartridges in a landfill in the New Mexico desert. It’s a myth that this documentary sets out to uncover the truth behind while charting the history of the game creation which has largely been blamed for the collapse of Atari.

Now for myself I never had an Atari with my parents not wanting to buy my brother and me a games console like my friends, instead opting to buy an Amiga which while its true I could have used for school work, but instead mainly used for gaming with many a misspent hour being spent playing “Space Crusade” and “Cannon Fodder”. This being said I’ve never had much of a connection to Atari like many other gamers, but this in no way stopped me from having a blast with this documentary.

Directed by Zak Penn, who is probably better known for his screenwriting and whose previous documentary “Incident at Loch Ness” saw him searching for Nessie with Werner Herzog here takes a laidback approach to the material, while shooting in a similarly humorous style to Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine) and Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) the documentary breaks up the main meat of the film following the excavation of the mythical dig site with the history of the games creation. It makes for an fascinating watch, even if the sections surrounding the history of Atari is wooly and sporadic to say the least, which will no doubt infuriate the video game history buffs. More surprisingly though is the attempts by the film to restore the tarnished legacy of Howard Scott Warshaw who here features extensively throughout the film as he talks about his time with Atari which appears from Warshaw’s recollections to have been a much wilder place than you would have expected, with tales of copious drug use at work let alone eccentric behaviour of some of the game designers. Still despite Warshaw now having long left the computer programing world and now working as a therapist, it would seem that Penn and several of his interviewees would like to see Warshaw receiving prestige for his contributions to video games which they clearly feel he doesn’t get due to being the one who created the game.

The sections concerning the search for the mythical landfill site are surprisingly fascinating with the search being headed up by Waste Disposal Expert Joe Lewandowski who sounds strangely similar to Ray Romano which added an unintentionally funny edge to his segments of the film. At the same time we have Penn framing his search for the site by comparing him to Indiana Jones as the documentary frequently uses footage from the film and even reinacts the warehouse scene to close the film. At the same time it’s amusing to see the pilgrimage of nerds which the news of the dig attracts while at the same time highlighting their dedication to the love of these old games as they brave sandstorms while essentially standing around in the desert waiting for a big reveal which not even happen.

An entertaining documentary even if its history sections could have been improved, while the short runtime did leave me wishing it had been longer, especially when the journey to the truth behind the dig site is so much fun.

Video Games: The Movie

Title: Video Games: The Movie

Director: Jeremy Snead
Released: 2014

Plot: Documentary on the video game industry looking back at the history of the video games and the consoles from the early days of “Space Wars” and “Pong” through to the current domination by Playstation, Nintendo and Xbox.

 
Review: If I wasn’t writing about cult, foreign and obscure cinema it’s pretty safe to say that I would be writing about video games instead, as alongside books and food they have constantly been a one of the few things to rival my love of films. Needless to say I’ve been looking forward to the release of this documentary since it was first announced as a kickstarter campaign, were it smashed its original target of $60,000 with video game fans ultimately raising $107,235 for the production.

This documentary really comes at an exciting time for video games, seeing how gamers no longer face the stigma that came previously with admitting to being a fan of video games. A fear it now seems is but a distant memory especially with more people than ever getting into video games than before from console and PC gamers through to WII owners and smart game addicts, it seems that everyone is playing games these days. Needless to say this all provides a rich subject to explore yet somehow the end result ends up being a somewhat tedious affair.

Opening with a rushed history of video games it is certainly a unique approach to the material with director Snead chooses to take, as having outlined the history he then proceeds to explore a variety of subjects such as the first video games and the rise of Atari which brought video games truly in people homes as it seemingly starts this trek through video game history for a second time only this time making stop offs at key moments of video game history, such as the video game crash and the legendry ET landfill which seemingly sparked it. Elsewhere we also get the usual arguments around video games being responsible for violent behaviour, but like so many of the more interesting aspects of the film it is covered is far too brief detail to really make much of an impact.

While the film promises a nostalgic look at video games of yesteryear, this ultimately fails to materialise as the documentary seems to be more focused on the advancements in the gaming systems rather than the games themselves. Yes there is plenty of game footage included throughout, but the footage of people discussing the games is few and far between and the most I depth discussion on gaming seems to be about online gamers and the friendships they have made through video games, while there is the nostalgic story about setting up multiplayer games of “Doom” via a home made LAN setup, something I’ve also fond memories of doing. Sadly though if your looking for stories of dodgy game carts and memories of playing various games, you will be seriously disappointed as these are noticeably absent.

Despite being the debut feature from director Snead, it is an impressive list of interviews he has assembled here as heads of every major studio and company weigh in with their thoughts on the evolution of video games alongside critics and celebrity gamers like Wil Wheaton. The downside of having so many interviews though is that at times it can feel like abit of a mixed bag as Snead trades complete coverage of the subject matter over quality, while equally some of his choices like including Max Landis are simply baffling, especially when they add zero to the film, more so in the case of Landis who proved to be the source of much frustration throughout, especially when he seems to be simply requoting the hip theory of the moment such as “Facebook is a game”. Unsurprisingly Wil Wheaton frequently proves himself to be the source of much of the best interview footage, which considering how much commentary he’s proved on both geek / nerd culture over the years and here once more he proves himself ever the engaging subject as he speaks not only as a fanboy but also a student of the subject. 

Narrated by Sean Astin who in a strange twist of fate went from being another interviewee to becoming the narrator after he found out how much of an indie production the film was and really guides the film with genuine passion even if it is a narration that tends at times to get far too bogged down in figures and flashy diagrams as it feels like an expensive looking sales pitch than a documentary. This frustration is only further added to by the fact that the film never seems to be clear on who its target audience is, especially when it throws around figures resolving around the amount of people who found the parental controls useful.

The other major issue here is that the whole documentary is essentially a one sided argument, as the only counter argument to video games comes in the form of several tabloid newspaper cuttings. As a result you end up with a film were everyone just raves on about how good video games are and how wrong their detractors are for thinking that these games could possibly cause any kind of violent impulse in the people who play them compared to movies.

Ultimately ending on a positive note (no surprise there considering the tone of the rest of the documentary) aswell as the video game version of the kiss montage from "Cinema Paradiso" as it looks to the future and new gimmicks such as the immersive "Occulus" as it seems that even video game makers aren't afraid to rehash an old fad, especially if the movie industry can rehash 3D and hence we are subjected to supposed experts telling us that once again virtual reality is going to be the future of games.

Far from the film that no doubt most of us were hoping for when we saw the title and unquestionably there are more exciting documentaries on the subject that this such as Charlie Brooker's "How Video Games Changed the World" and this really at best is worth giving little more than a curious and highly cautious watch, especially when it hardly brings anything new to the table that you won't have seen in previous films and despite a spattering of interesting moments, its far too much of a trudge to bother watching more than once.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy

Several months ago I stumbled across the promo trailer for “Mortal Kombat: Legacy” or “Mortal Komabt: Rebirth” as it was known then, which took the Mortal Kombat series and gave it a “Dark Knight” shot of realism, which created a result which honestly broke my jaw the first time I saw it, quickly leading me to spam the hell out of my like minded friends insisting that they watch it, despite the fact that no one seemed to know what exactly it was a promo for.



So time passed on and though it frequently came up in conversations with my friends who I’d shown it to, it had generally fallen off the radar. That was until last night when “Geeks Are Sexy” posted the first episode of the new web series which that promo has since evolved into and suddenly everything was put to one side as I sat down to watch the first episode of this latest attempt at adapting the popular games, which so far has spawned two films, an animated series and the guilty pleasure which is “Mortal Kombat: Conquest” which remains one of the best spin off’s which the games have inspired to date.
So here is the first episode of this latest incarnation which is to be released as a weekly web series by Machinima.com via youtube.



Spearheading the series is director Kevin Tancharoen who is probably best known for directing the “Fame” Remake and is certainly a surprising choice for rebooting / reimaging the franchise, but so far he has proven to be exactly what the series has needed as this latest addition to the franchise has proven with it’s first episode to be more than a glossy promo, for although this pilot episode only shows Sonya Blade, Jax and Kano rather than any of the more fantastical characters, it still moves at a breakneck pace and devotes a good chunk of the episode run time to some great action sequences including a great showdown between Jax and Kano.

The series has some great writing talent behind it, with Tancharoen being joined on writing duties by Ed Boon the creator of the Mortal Kombat series aswell as the memorable voice of Scorpion. Also on writing for the show are Todd and Aaron Helbing who more recently could be found writing for another great adaptation of an established classic with “Spartacus: Blood and Sand”. Although it is early days for the series the writing is still fresh and with a strong focus on action, rather than allowing the action to get too bogged down, with all the characters so far still proving as memorable as their video game versions.

The cast are largely unknowns with a couple of cult actors such as Michael Jai White finally giving us a decent version of Jax, while his martial arts skills are put to great effect here. The only other recognisable face here is Jeri Ryan who made a whole lot more people tune in for Star Trek Voyager and no doubt will have the same effect here as she takes on the role of the feisty Sonya Blade. However when it comes to their casting of Kano, whom for myself was truly nailed by Trevor Goddard who brought a cocky thug like quality to the character, rather than the more Triad esq gangster that Darren Shahlavi has chosen to play him like, but I’m interested to still to see how Kano is used in the latest adaptation, especially with another nine episodes to go in this brief initial run, though a strong foundation has been laid with the first episode especially when combined with the teaser, so hopefully Tancharoen has enough ideas to keep our interest, which if the cast list on IMDB is anything to go off it’s safe to say he has me curious as to how other characters will be introduced and how they will come across in his vision, but will he get close to the gory highlights of the source material? For the moment it is hard to say and while the other adaptations have generally skipped around it, so already I’m keen to see if Tancharoen will choose this safer path aswell or instead surprise us all further by reminding us all what exactly what the selling point of Mortal Kombat was in the first place.

New Mortal Kombat on the way??

Back in the 90's when arcades were the only place to play the newest games, way before having a games console was the social norm, there were three video games which dominated my sugar addled, Godzilla obsessing childhood and they were Moonstone, Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat and despite being ultra violent and utterly amazing Moonstone was sadly forgotten by most, were as the Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat, would go on to become video game legends, aswell as spawning their own movie incarnations, which to most would be viewed as cinematic trash and which in the case of Street Fighter was undoubtedly true.
Still there was somthing which grabbed me about Mortal Kombat, with it's kung fu goodness and portrayals of the iconic characters from the game, securing it's place as a guilty pleasure in my collection. Sadly this favourable opinion wasn't shared by many and despite spawning a ropey sequel and a pretty decent spin off series, the first film version was pretty much discarded as being trash like the rest of the video game movies.

Still this morning I stumbled across this trailer for a new film in the series titled "Mortal Kombat: Rebirth"



Within two days of being posted on Youtube it has received over a million views, sparking much discussion as to what it could be a trailer for? Could it be for a new game? Possibly a new movie version?

The truth is that it is a test, made by Kevin Tancharoen (yes the guy who directed "Fame") in a bid to garner studio interest in the project, which at present is still to see the film green lit, but seriously I am already excited about this film, especially in the way that he has given the game a whole new twist, by bringing its characters into the real world and reworking them into slightly less fantastical creations, in much the same way that Christopher Nolan did for Batman, which there is no doubt also opened the doorway for this latest reimagining.
True he might not be the first director to do this, seeing how Robert Rodriguez did a similar stunt, to get "Sin City" off the ground and also to secure the approval of it's creator Frank Miller, but I have to admit it's pretty darn effective and I really hope that this gets developed further, without meddling from studio bosses, who will no doubt find another amazing way of screwing up, something potentially great.

Over at "the collider" is an exclusive interview with Tancharoen, for those who want to know more, check it out here

Your thoughts please