Animation Software Review: Disney Presents The Animation Studio

In the 1980s and 1990s, the animation department of The Walt Disney Company worked with video game developers to bring its animated films to the interactive industry. This led to video games with sprites, backgrounds, and cutscenes that impressively mimicked the art style of the big screen versions. When combined with satisfying game play, this brought about well-regarded video games such as the classic Virgin Games platformer, Aladdin, and the woefully forgotten Blue Sky Software puzzle game, Hare Raisin' Havoc.

In 1990, Disney partnered with Silent Software to bring things one step further with the release of The Animation Studio for Amiga and DOS.

This art and animation tool brought the techniques of hand-drawn animation that were employed by The Disney Animation Studio into the hands of consumers on standard home computer systems.

Disney animators worked hand-in-hand with the developers at Silent Software, even going as far as converting animations of classic Disney productions into TAS format, displaying pencil-style outlines of cartoons utilizing such techniques as squash-and-stretch with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum from Alice in Wonderland, a fluid walking animation of Mickey Mouse's faithful pup Pluto, and even an animation of Mickey himself walking towards the camera.

My favorite of the bunch is a super-short cartoon that demonstrates a finished, fully colored animation of Donald Duck. The famous duck looks at a CRT screen of a computer displaying the face of Mickey Mouse, which leads Donald into one of his common temper tantrums.

As for the tools themselves, there is still a lot to like, even thirty-five years later. A black-and-white pencil test is created using frames, with a digital version of semi-transparent "onion paper" providing the means to see the difference between the current frame and the last. After the frames of the pencil test are adequately cleaned up, the frames are colorized using a 1990s art Interface that should be familiar to anyone who has ever used Microsoft Paint.

For computers with sound cards, or for versions of the game bundled with the Disney Sound Source branded version of the Covox Speech Thing, there is a library containing dozens of sound effects straight from the Disney sound archive.

There are many more sophisticated programs available today to create animations, and each one is capable of creating animations well above the 640x480 maximum resolution available in The Animation Studio. There is something to be said about using tools modeled after Disney's own process to create animations that use sound effects from Disney's own sound library. Like watching Disney's hand animated films today, it is like stepping back to a simpler time before three-dimensional presentations using millions of polygons in ultra high definition resolutions. Sometimes, simple can be satisfying.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Platform Game Review: Sonic the Hedgehog CD

Sonic CD was the Sonic the Hedgehog game that was released for the Sega CD and Mega CD. It was a very different game from any of the others, making it a bit of the black sheep in the 16-bit Sonic canon. It doesn’t deserve that reputation as it is one of the best, if not the best, games for Sega’s ill-fated CD attachment for the Genesis and Mega Drive. Even outside of the Sega CD and Mega CD ecosystem, it is a very enjoyable game. 

In Sonic CD, Sonic needs to save the past to save the future. This is what gives the game its uniqueness. Sonic still has his speed and quills when he rolls in a ball to take out enemies and break open item boxes. However, this game also has past and future signs which change the setting of the game when Sonic gains enough speed. This is shown with sparkles emanating from Sonic when he runs followed by a sequence showing the passage of time. 

Once Sonic has changed years, the scenery reflects the change. In the past, the game is like a regular Sonic the Hedgehog game, with levels ranging from lush green to metallic. However, in the future things have become more dystopian as the scenery shows the destruction of the game world with ruined structures. This change also applies to the game world, as passages that are not available in the past become available in the future, and vice-versa. 

The game was in development between Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, so the spin dash works differently than other games. Sonic can be hit while spinning before he blasts off. The jump button also must be held down for a good amount of time or Sonic will just stand up. This is rectified in the mobile remake by Christian Whitehead. The remake also includes Tails as a playable character, which changes things up a bit with his hovering ability. The remake also is included in the Sonic Origins compilation. Sonic Origins Plus goes further, completing the trio of Sonic’s 16-bit friends by adding Knuckles and Amy Rose as playable characters as well. Speaking of Amy Rose, she makes her first appearance in this game along with the villain metal doppelganger Metal Sonic.

The presentation is where Sonic CD shines, as it uses the increased storage capacity of the Sega CD and Mega CD by including incredibly well animated story sequences at the beginning and ending of the game. Sonic doesn’t talk, but his expressions do the work of conveying the danger and surprise of the situations into which Sonic finds himself. The soundtrack behind this is excellent in all regions, but I’m partial to the North American version. The Japanese version and most of the international versions include an instrumental to the action in the videos, but a new song was composed for the North American release. This is Sonic Boom, a catchy pop song with lyrics that are precisely Sonic in a nutshell. The Sonic CD remakes by Christian Whitehead include the video with much less compression than the original release. They also have the option to play either the Japanese or North American soundtrack over the videos regardless of the region in which the game is being played. 

Sonic CD is an underappreciated gem that made the Sega CD and Mega CD a worthwhile purchase and continues to be a worthwhile experience to this day. It changes up the formula by adding in time travel, which makes it remain a unique entry in the Sonic series. It has the fantastic score and sound design of the other Sonic games, but the addition of animation to the beginning and ending of the game make it an extremely memorable experience. The weirdness of the spin dash brings it down a little compared to Sonic 2 and the later games in the series, but this is negated in recent releases as it is optionally rectified in Christian Whitehead’s remakes. 

Final Verdict: 

4½ out of 5

Platform Game Compilation Review: Sonic Origins

Sonic Origins is a compilation of enhanced remakes of four Sonic the Hedgehog games from the 16-bit era, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog CD, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The latter is Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles combined as one game, as would have been done with the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on cartridge on the Sega Genesis or Mega Drive. It also includes the Blue Spheres game that was playable by locking in any game onto Sonic & Knuckles other than Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or 3. In addition, it includes a sequel with modes from Sonic Mania titled New Blue Spheres.

Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD are enhanced ports of the Android and iOS remakes by Christian Whitehead. These remakes are completely faithful, with the same music, sound effects, level layouts, background art, character design, animations, bonus stages, and boss battles as the original 16-bit games. These remakes also contain everything from the mobile versions including a playable Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 2, but not Sonic CD. The latter does include a playable Tails, however. The best remake, in my opinion, is Sonic 2, as it contains a hidden secret passage which leads to a realized version of a partly-completed level from the beta versions of the game. 

Sonic 3 & Knuckles is a new remake using the same engine as the others. Like the other remakes faithfully recreates the 16-bit game, including the level layouts, graphics, and boss battles. However, while it has the same sound effects as the original game, the music is taken from the beta version of the game due to rights issues with the music from the final versions. This change has had mixed reception. Intellectually, it is understandable due to forces outside of Sega's hands. However, it may be a deal breaker for some people. especially those who played the original game so much that they know the original music inside and out. That said, the original music can be restored with fan patches which are easy to install, especially on Windows. There is also a fan patch available that separates Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles into two games, bringing these games as close to the 16-bit originals as possible.

The neat part about the compilation is that it adds animations with silent characters ala the Sonic CD intro. These were created in the style of the Sonic Mania shorts, and serve to connect all four games together into a continuous storyline. These work really well, and are just as well animated and lively as the introduction of Sonic CD, if not quite as memorable. In fact, the animations are used together with those from the aforementioned game in its storytelling and actually work well in concert with each other.

One of the main draws of Sonic Origins, other than its games of course, is the museum content. There are two modes. One lets you play the games as they were on their respective consoles. The other version allows you to play through the story of all four games. Through play, you will collect tokens, which can then be used to purchase art, music, and background content on the games from their origins up to their release. It's actually quite well done, making it worthwhile to play through the games multiple times in order to unlock all the content.

Sonic Origins is not a perfect remake collection. All of the games are painstakingly accurate to the originals, however the replacement of the Sonic 3 songs for its beta versions is a let down. Whether this makes or breaks the compilation is up to you, but I personally think it is the best way to play these games, especially in light of the various fan patches that are available.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Third-Person Shooter Review: Red Dead Revolver

Red Dead Revolver is a game that has an interesting pedigree and was the fore-bearer of the influential Red Dead Redemption series. It started at Angel Studios in the early 2000s as a Capcom-funded spaghetti-western arcade-style third-person shooter that was a spiritual successor to the 1985 arcade game Gun.Smoke. When Take-Two Interactive purchased Angel Studios in November 2002 and placed it under its Rockstar Games subsidiary as Rockstar San Diego, the Red Dead Revolver beta was expanded into a full game which was ultimately released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004.

In the final game, both the Capcom and Rockstar Games fingerprints are quite obvious upon even a cursory inspection. It is still the arcade-style slapstick Western that began at Capcom. Alongside the damage indicators, there are score tallies. Each scene takes place in a round, where accuracy and damaged is assessed and duel opponents and stages for duel challenges are rewarded based on the total. Most enemies have to be shot several times to be defeated, even with precise targeting, although the smaller, weaker enemies can be defeated in one hit with a headshot.

However, it also has hallmarks of Rockstar Games in its DNA. A town can be visited between rounds, and Red can explore the shops located within, although in a much more limited way than Rockstar's usual output. Alongside the gun shops where Red can purchase and upgrade his equipment, there are also other businesses to be visited such as the saloon, tailor shop, and the bank. The purchases within have less to do with what they advertise than act as a place where Red can unlock background information on the lore of the game through journal pages and purchase duel stages and characters that weren't unlocked when the stage scores were tallied

It's by no means a masterpiece of game design, but it is really a miracle these two different styles of game development actually manage to work together at all. Going in after playing either of the Red Dead Redemption games is really odd, such it is such a different style of game. However, once you reconfigure your brain to treat it like an arcade-style third-person shooter, it actually becomes enjoyable.

The main enjoyment to be had in the game is in the story. As a spaghetti-western, it is enjoyably over-the-top in its presentation and story-telling. The game follows Red Harlow, a gunman who had witnessed the death of his father Nate Harlow and his Native American mother Falling Star. They were killef by a gang of outlaws lef by Mexican General Javier Diego and the American mercenary who called himself Colonel Daren. Red's dad found gold in Bear Mountain with a man named Griff and forged two revolvers to celebrate. The Mexican Army took Griff prisoner and Javier learned about the gold. All three Harlows were meant to die to conceal the existance of the gold, but Red got away by shooting Javier's arm off with his father's revolver.

Red intends to avenge his father's death, teaming up with the English trick-shooter extraordinaire Jack Swift, a rancher named Annie Stoakes, Red's cousin Shadow Wolf, and an African American soldier called the "Buffalo Soldier". Each of these characters, along with Red are playable in specific points in the story, alongside the villain Javier who is also playable for a short time.

Many of these characters served as templates for characters who appeared later on in the series. Annie Stoakes was a brave, headstrong woman who bucked the social norms of the time, much as Bonnie MacFarlane would years later in Red Dead Redemption. She also was a pro with a gun, much as Sadie Adler in Red Dead Redemption II. Jack Swift bears more than a passing resemblance to the second Red Dead Redemption game's Josiah Trelawny in both appearance and the fact that both characters tend to their own business while occasionally teaming up with their game's protagonists. Shadow Wolf's headstrong personality and willingness to put himself in danger for his family and his tribe was akin to Eagle Flies in Red Dead Redemption II. Charles Smith from Redemption II bears a similarity to both Buffalo Soldier and Red Harlow himself. All three characters are stoic, selfless, and unambiguously the most morally good among their peers.

Javier Diego shares both a name and a background with Javier Escuella. Both were part of the Mexican Army before the start of their respective games and both, unfortunately were let down by borderline offensive Mexican stereotypes. For Escuella, at least, he received some much needed character development in the jump from Red Dead Redemption to Red Dead Redemption II. It's a shame we won't see more character development from Diego, since it is pretty much a sure thing that Rockstar Games won't feature the Revolver characters in the future outside of campfire folk tales.

Red Dead Revolver is more of a curio to see from where the Red Dead Redemption series started than anything else. It's not as easily accessible as the Redemption games, however it could be worth a play to people who aren't averse to playing arcade-style third-person shooters. The spaghetti-western atmosphere alongside the over-the-top portrayal of the characters and the story manage to elevate this game from what would otherwise be a purely mediocre experience. It's not up to Red Dead Redemption standards, but it is certainly not a bad game.

Final Verdict:
3½ out of 5

Platform Game Review: Super Mario Sunshine

Super Mario Sunshine is the most divisive Nintendo-produced Super Mario game. Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto has even gone so far as to publicly regret that he and his team created it. With the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo Classics GameCube emulator for Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers incoming, it is the perfect time to look back and see if the title deserves the hate it gets.

When the Nintendo 64 was released in 1996, Super Mario 64 was one of its launch titles. It proved to be a game changer, as it popularized the 3D platformer genre and was instrumental in the change from pixel-based two-dimensional development to polygonal-based three-dimensional development in the video game industry. When the GameCube came around, fans were looking forward to the next installment. The Super Mario 128 tech demo at the 2000 Nintendo Space World trade show had 128 Marios running around the screen, leaving many people hoping that the next Mario game would move the platformer genre forward as much as the previous game. Instead, Super Mario Sunshine was released in 2002 and the next truly inventive 3D Mario game would come five years later on the Wii in the form of Super Mario Galaxy.

Super Mario Sunshine played mostly like its predecessor, except this time Mario is forced to be a janitor of sorts. Mario, Peach, and her Toad entourage take a trip to a tropical island. When they arrive, they learn of a shadowy figure shaped like Mario. This doppelganger is going around the island painting everything and ruining Mario's reputation. As punishment, Mario is given a device named the FLUDD, or Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device. This allows him to shoot out water forward as well as to shoot it underneath him to propel himself upward.

The FLUDD mechanics bring a completely new feel to the game. Bosses are now fought with water rather than jumps and the propelling mechanics allow Mario to hover for a bit. The drawback is that Mario needs to be in water in order to fill the FLUDD and once it is depleted, he has to head back for a refill. This doesn't take long, as Mario is on a tropical island with water all around it.

Alongside the frustration of FLUDD refilling, the setting of the game is among its drawbacks. While Super Mario 64 was filled with level variety, including sunny fields, platforms high in the sky, snowy mountain tops, and undersea exploring, Super Mario Sunshine is a completely tropical experience. The only breakup in the pattern is the challenge stages that take away the FLUDD and make Mario jump across spinning blocks with only his Super Mario 64 moveset. These levels are well made and feel like a true continuation from Super Mario 64, making it weird that there weren't more levels that used this style of gameplay. They were a welcome breakup of the overly familiar setting of every other level in the game.

The other welcome addition to the game is the return of Yoshi as a rideable companion. He does everything he did in Super Mario World, running, jumping, and eating anything he can get his tongue on, provided the would-be food is not covered in spikes or spines. The Sunshine team even brought one of the fun aural pleasantries that came with riding Yoshi on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Whenever Mario rides his dinosaur steed, bongos are be added to the current music track, and once you are no longer atop Yoshi the bongos stop.

Speaking of music, as with all Super Mario games, Super Mario Sunshine is full of wonderful compositions. With each change of audio hardware, Koji Kondo and the music team had more freedom as to what music they could produce. With Super Mario Sunshine, they went all in on the tropical setting and made some island music that lifts the game and gives it a charm that it would likely be lacking otherwise. I sometimes pop in the Super Mario 3D All-Stars compilation on my Switch and play some Super Mario Sunshine just to hear the amazing soundtrack.

The game ultimately does not deserve all of the hate it gets. It's an inventive, enjoyable 3D platform game. The FLUDD does slow down the gameplay, making it feel like something other than a Super Mario game, but judged on its own, it is a fantastic platformer. It didn't light a fire in the industry like its predecessors, so companies did not use the Sunshine formula in its own games. That works out in its favor, however, since its unique gameplay makes it different than almost every other game out there.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Freemium Fighting Game Review: Multiversus Season 1 - Puns and Villainy

MultiVersus is ending at the end of May 2025 after only a private alpha, two open beta seasons, and five seasons after the final release. The first season of the latter began only last year, as of this writing. The long wait between the closure of the open beta and the launch of the final version caused it to lose thousands of players. The launch of the new characters didn't help bring players back and led to the closure of the developer, Player First Games.

The first season of the open beta was promising, the second season was disappointing, and the launch of the final version did not do much to improve the level of disappointment towards the game. The first season of the final version brought four new characters. Three were well known characters that fit the fighting genre. The Joker from DC Comics was the main draw, and the character that personified the "Puns and Villainy" subtitle of the season. He was voiced by Mark Hamill, joining his Batman: The Animated Series colleague Kevin Conroy who reprised his role as Batman in one of his final performances before his death at age 66 on November 30, 2022. The other two fighters that fit the fighting game genre were Jason Vorhees, the villain of the Friday the 13th series, and Agent Smith, the villain of The Matrix and its sequels. The final fighter was completely out of left field. That character was a Banana Guard, one of the dimwitted and useless supposed protectors of the Candy Kingdom in Adventure Time and some of its spin-offs.

The most disappointing part of the release of the new characters was the way they were obtained. While the beta had a balanced path to get the characters, through points obtained through normal gameplay, one of the most popular characters of the bunch, Agent Smith, was locked at the end of a season track path. This broke the balance, making the premium players have an advantage over those playing solely as free-to-play. It made the game feel like more of a cash grab than it ever had before. Personally, this made me quit the game completely, and judging by the drop-off of players, I was not the only one.

The game also felt lacking compared to the beta. The game was remade in Unreal Engine 5 versus the beta which used the fourth version of the Unreal Engine. This was surely a factor in the long period of waiting between the end of the beta and the final, however, the engine upgrade was not enough to make the wait worth it. This is especially true as game modes in the beta were absent in the final release. The free-for-all mode was missing at launch and was added later in the first season, whereas the ranked mode was missing completely.

Multiversus Season 1: Puns and Villainy was another huge disappointment after the lackluster release of the second season of the beta way back in November of 2022. The addition of the Joker, played by the oft-cited as the best animated Joker performance of all time, Mark Hamill, was not enough of a draw to make the final version of MultiVersus worth the wait. Only four new characters were added, which was one less than the promising first open beta season. The fact that one of these new characters, the Banana Guard was way out of place as a fighter in the game didn't help matters. On top of this, one of the most popular chacaters, Agent Smith, was locked behind a prize track. Add in the fact that the final lacked the ranked mode from the open beta, and you are left with a very flawed final product.

Final Verdict:
2½ out of 5

MultiVersus Season 2 (Open Beta) Review

MultiVersus Season 2 Review Coming Soon

Open World Action-Adventure Delivery Simulator Shooter Mega Review: Death Stranding

Hideo Kojima has made a career out of making games with way-out-there storylines that somehow remain enjoyable despite their concepts, and often, despite their convoluted nature. Death Stranding is the most decisive of the games by Kojima Productions, but it still have all of the hallmarks of a Kojima title.

The game world takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. An organization named Bridges is attempting to bridge the new cities of the land together into a reconstituted United Cities of America under the former president of the United States, Bridget Strand. 

The world has returned to the caste systems of olde, where people stay in the professions they had before the United States blew up as a result of the titular death stranding, which merges the world of the dead together with that of the living. Explosions known as voidouts take place when corpses blow up in a phenomenon known as necrotization which can only be prevented by cremation. 

The game follows a man who goes by the name Sam Porter Bridges, who is a legendary porter who works for the Bridges organization.  His profession is based on real life Japanese bokka, who transport packages over mountains and across rivers using nothing but their feet and wooden ladders. 

Sam is the only person known as a repatriate, which means that he can return to the world of the living after dying. He carries an unborn fetus known as a Beached Baby or BB that was taken from a brain dead mother and placed in a pod full of liquid that simulates the conditions in a mother's womb. BBs are treated as mere tools, as they can allow the holder to view the souls trapped between the living and dead world.

These souls, known as Beached Things or BT, appear in rain known as timefall. The timefall ages anything with which it comes into contact, meaning any vehicles or structures used by porters will quickly rust and will eventually collapse if they are not regularly repaired or upgraded.

The part of the game that makes it the most divisive is in its main gameplay. Sam is regularly given jobs to port packages to places throughout the former USA. The jobs that are marked as for Sam are those that are needed to be delivered in order to unlock more of the story. There are others marked as standard deliveries which are used to gain more stars at each delivery point. Alongside deliveries are long fetch quests, which require retrieving lost or stolen packages and returning them to their owners.

When not dealing with BTs or fighting or fleeing from enemy thieves known as MULEs, the game works essentially like a twisted Animal Crossing, minus the home building and collecting. It also lacks the decorating, except for the ability to craft and decorate Sam's backpack. The rest is there though, as Sam befriends neighbors, does favors for them and delivers their packages. This makes it a mostly relaxing game, especially when playing it after the end of the story.  The large open world, however, can be detrimental to its playability factor, as trips can be excessively long.

The character models and animation are top notch. They shine in the director's cut, but even on the standard game on the less powerful PlayStation 4, they are stupendous. Given Kojima's well-known love of Hollywood films, his studio employed well known personalities to portray the game's main characters. Two of the most publicized were those who were slated to work on Kojima's Silent Hills that was scrapped after he was unceremoniously fired from Konami. The main character of that game was slated to be played by Norman Reedus and it was to be co-directed by Guillermo del Toro. Reedus plays Sam Bridges, both in facial capture and voice, while del Toro provides the face of Sam's guide Deadman. Jesse Corti provides Deadman's voice. The actors are fantastic, and help suck you into the game's world.

Music is sparse, as it only occurs during specific points in the game's world, in some cutscenes, and in music played when upgraded structures are activated. Once a song is heard, it is added to the music list and can be played in the menu or inside Bridges shelters. Most of the time, the only sound heard is sound effects, which adds to the desolate feel of the game. The sound effects, whether they be from Sam's feet or the humming of vehicles such as dirt bikes or trucks, are well done.

Death Stranding is a hard game to rate. It is a very divisive game as its gameplay is not for everyone and music is sparse. However, it has a unique story, excellent acting and fantastic character models and animation, and it is a unique take on a delivery game. It is worth playing for anyone who doesn't mind games that consist of long deliveries and fetch quests.

Final Verdict:
4 out of 5