Crate's TV Review: The Adventures of Robin Hood

This show was a nice little surprise... I really didn't expect anything out of it but good old-timey cheese, but I was very impressed after I watched those episodes.

Crate Cuisine Ep. 1: Cereal

This is so far the only episode in the Crate Cuisine series. The day I made this, I don't know, I just didn't want to watch a movie, so I started toying around with some other ideas. The best idea I came up with was a cooking show focusing on really simple food, since I'm not a very good cook. In the end, it actually came out really well, at least in my opinion. All the same, this is a filler series. I'm saving it for other days when I don't want to watch a movie or review something else.

Crate's Movie Review: Transmorphers

Pretty much the worst movie I've ever seen. I've seen a fair few bad movies, but I'm hard pressed to come up with competition for this one.

Crate's Movie Review: The Truman Show

Crate's Movie (?) Review: Winnie-the-Pooh (BBC )

This tape is weird. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information about it online. This review is a bit inconclusive, with me saying one minute that it's boring and the next that it's pretty good. I figured out later what it was; this would make a good audiobook, but you don't necessarily want to sit down and watch an audiobook do you?

Quick Review: Wizorb

Wizorb is a Breakout style game developed by Tribute Games. Originally, it didn't interest me very much because hey, I can play breakout online, those games are a dime a dozen, right? My opinion changed, however, when I saw a Let's Play of the earlier levels online.

Wizorb takes standard Breakout style game elements and mixes them quite beautifully with RPG elements of all things. Yes, you still smash blocks with a ball and a paddle, but now you can cast spells, enchant your ball, and even fight enemies and bosses. If I had heard that idea without seeing the game in action, I probably would have said it was awful and didn't make a whole lot of sense. Wizorb would have proved me wrong though.

In Wizorb, you are a wizard tasked with saving the Kingdom of Gorudo from the monsters that inhabit it. To do this, you must battle evil with your magic wand and orb (paddle and ball), and help the citizens of the kingdom rebuild by spending your points on renovating a town. Wizorb takes you through five classic RPG locals, from a small town to the mysterious netherworld. Along the way you fight equally classic enemies, such as slimes, flying eyes, and skeleton warriors. (And their giant boss counterparts)

An example of a giant boss enemy.

The game doesn't add many new power ups to the classic breakout formula, instead opting to give your character two spells: a fireball and a wind spell. These can be used to both enchant your ball and effect the level itself. Fireball will hurt enemies and destroy blocks just like a ball would, and enchanting your ball with it will enable it to cleave through massive lines of blocks with ease. The wind spell can change the left-right direction the ball is traveling in, and enchanting your ball with it lets you steer the ball with your mouse.

An example of totally stacked power ups. (Magnetic paddle, double damage and extra balls)

All in all, Wizorb is a really fun, decently lengthy and challenging experience. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys breakout style games, as this is a welcome departure from the stale experience that most of them give. It's cheap, too, coming in at 2.99$ US on Steam, Desura and the App Store.

Sorry if this review is badly written, I'm a bit rusty. Hopefully I'll get back into full swing soon.

Wizorb can be read about and purchased here:  http://wizorb.com/

Crate's Movie Review: The Mummy Returns

If the first Mummy movie was a guilty pleasure... I just hate this one. What bright spark had the idea to stick in a smartass kid sidekick? Short Round could pull it off. Not Alex O'Connell. Also a bit notable as the first really negative review I did.

Crate's Movie Review: The Mummy

Again, not a lot to say. The Mummy is kind of a guilty pleasure I guess.

Crate's Movie Review: Marked for Death

The second. Not really much to say about this one. I really do love Seagal movies. After this I started cutting down on exposition where I could and generally got a bit lazier.

Crate's (Box's) Movie Review: Teen Titans Trouble in Tokyo

My first video review, a tad shaky I guess. The first couple I did were in two parts due to both Youtube's time limits and the longer plot summaries I gave. I'll probably put up a bunch tonight,and after that stay tuned for more of these every Saturday (when possible). And of course, disregard what I said about moving away from the Lounge. I knew not what I said.

Thou Shalt Not Be Forgot Just Yet!

Hark! Ye few followers, if there be any of thee left, lose not your faith in we few noble writers of The Box Lounge!

So here's how it stands right now. Since our subtle beginning back in July of 2011 we have seen many posts from our beloved creator, Box, a few from the dear Derek Fro and but one post from I, PalinDrome. Unfortunately, however, The Box Lounge slipped in to this terrible state of  idleness after Box's last post nearly four months later to the day.

Please forgive our few writers as life has a funny way of getting in the way.

Since October here is what has been happening with the crew.

I for starters, went away to university nearly eight hours away. I lived that free and glorified life for four months until my (what some might have called inevitable) return home around Christmas. With that PalinDrome is back on the scene primed and ready to write again! Which is just what I did! .. unfortunately just not for The Box Lounge like I had hoped. Instead I was offered a writing position on a very popular local news blog called the CornerBrooker.com. This new position took up much of my time. With my free time I became a Student Member on the board of a community radio station, a DJ of my own show on that same station, became a member of a Gay-Straight Alliance, worked at two jobs and kept going to university at a campus much closer to home. These my dear readers, are sad reasons why I, PalinDrome, have failed to write for you until now.

Box, becoming engulfed by his new hobby of doing video reviews for YouTube, has since grown his extensive movie collection to a whole new level. He has been reviewing old, new, and very obscure films that he has obtained from thrift stores, flee markets and any other means he could find! Admittedly he should have been linking those videos to our beloved blog, however, as I've mentioned before, life gets in the way. Box continues to juggle school, his love of film, a very close family, a social life, and his unbreakable obligation to hold very important game nights with his best friends.

And lastly, Derek Fro. Like Box, a lover of film and comic books, Derek Fro also enjoys anime and a vast number of video games. His love of these genres have created an unquenchable thrust for knowledge in these categories! This alone keeps him rather busy, but aside from that Derek Fro also follows the treacherous road to grill mastery! Creating what some may call abominations to the culinary art form, he has crafted some of the most ground breaking forms of edible art that man kind dare not look directly at with fear of blindness from their beauty. Derek Fro also dabbles in some comic drawing and continues to go to school.

So that is were we are now you few followers of The Box Lounge, but we must ask, through tear filled eyes and quite sobbing, will you forgive us? Will you hold on just a little longer and give us one last chance to redeem ourselves?

I thought so. You guys rock!

Stay tuned for some new material from Box, Derek Fro, and me, PalinDrome!