The levels all correspond to Sonic 2 levels, but shuffled up a bit. The level design is even much the same in some stages. Here is the level map of Pocket Adventure's Aquatic Reflex Zone and here is a level map of Sonic 2's Aquatic Ruin for comparison. While they are not exactly the same, they are very similar. 

It's time for another theme month at I Don't Even. This time it's 80s action movies. Each week will feature a different 80s action movie star. We're starting off with Jean Claude Van Damme and will mostly keep to stars we (somehow) haven't gotten to on I Don't Even yet (Street Fighter doesn't count as a Van Damme movie, that's a Raul Julia film), so get ready for stupidly badass fight scenes every Wednesday.

STARcast ep016: Chillin' With Patz Prime!

Last we heard from R. Kelly, he had written another 32 chapters of Trapped in the Closet. You may recall that there are only 22 chapters already written and that it ended on a cliffhanger that involved potentially everyone having AIDS. Well, we will now know what's happening with Pimp Lucius, Rosie the nosy neighbor and the Big Man the midget (midget (midget (midget))) because the Independent Film Channel has decided to pick up the series. It is currently unknown exactly what quantity and variety of drugs were involved to make IFC think this would be a good idea, but I do know that it will be coming to an I Don't Even near you when it airs. 

While Nicolas Cage still plays Johnny Blaze, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance has no continuity with the 2007 movie and even contradicts the original's origin story.

The only aspect it keeps is that  Johnny Blaze makes a deal with the devil to save his father's life. As a consequence, he transforms into the flame-headed bounty hunter of Satan in the presence of evil.

As an aside, I never understood why Satan did this because he clearly has no control over The Rider and it kind of screws him over.

It's time for another theme month at I Don't Even. Yes, that's three theme months in a row. This time, it's a repeat. If you know me, you know I have a deeply disturbing love of Nicolas Cage and his movies, so we are going to once again take a look at the "acting" that he is famous for. What movies will we watch this month? I dunno, but keep an eye on the I Don't Even page for more movies and one interesting piece of Nic Cage trivia per week as we begin with last year's Drive Angry this week.

I was given the chance to appear on the second half of this month's episode of The Speakeasy, an awesome anime podcast hosted by the Reverse Thieves. We got together to talk about Kunihiko Ikuhara's great new series, Mawaru Penguindrum. It was a really fun and intense discussion about the characters and themes of the show. I will warn that this was a very spoiler heavy discussion and I would honestly encourage you to check out the show itself before listening. Once you have though be sure to listen to The Speakeasy #25: The Flying Penguin, A Revolutionary Girl Utena & Mawaru Penguindrum Discussion!

I don't like Super 8.

It's not like the movie is all bad or anything, I actually enjoyed large parts of it, but the bad parts just ruin it. Elle Fanning is amazing as Alice, and the other child actors, while not as good as Fanning, are wonderful. I also love the first half of the film, outside of a few problems in the realism department. The early plot of the kids working on their movie while all the oddities around town are happening is a lot of fun.

In making Sonic Adventure, the team redesigned the characters, making Sonic lankier and more cartoony. They also added a lot more characters, and decided that giving each one their own level types would be more interesting than each playing as similarly as they had in the past. They also took trips to South America for research on temples and jungles in order to plan the appearance of areas in the game like Mystic Ruin.