PacMan Museum+: PS5 Review

Developer: Now Production
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platform: PS5

It's the return of the Pac in this compilation spanning 42 years of Pac-Man's gaming life.

Collecting together 14 titles from the Pac-Man series, some of which have never been available again since their first outing, this is a relatively fun return to the maze for the dot-chomping yellow creature.

How you'll feel about the collection of games will largely depend on how you feel about the maze variations. From the original Pac-Man to the Pac-Man 256 game, there's a variety of titles here, and not all have the enduring lasting power of the gaming icon.

Housed within an arcade where Pac-Man roams freely, the game offers customisable elements proffered from playing the various games. From cabinets to wallpapers, every title gives you a chance to gain something new for the arcade as you go further in each game. 

From a Marble Madness inspired style roller take on Pac-Man in Pac'n'Roll remix to the somewhat awful Pac-In-Time game, the quality of the gameplay varies, even if the emulation of each title doesn't. 

It's nice to see a comprehensive look across Pac-Man's 40 year history but it's a shame there's no actual history imparted during the games, with them simply being unlocked and rolled out throughout.

There are still plenty of vicarious thrills to be had from the 42 year old original, and more modern takes offer fun gameplay, but there is occasionally a feeling of filler in this title.

Maybe a visit to this museum is worth a trip on a rainy day, but you may end up leaving Pac-Man Museum+with a nagging feeling that an icon like Pac-Man has had an extremely chequered gaming past, when it should be plain sailing given its simplicity.

PacMan Museum+ includes:

Pac-Man (1980)
Super Pac-Man (1982)
Pac & Pal (1983)
Pac-Land (1984)
Pac-Mania (1987)
Pac-Attack (SNES Version; 1993)
Pac-In-Time (SFC Version; 1995)
Pac-Man Arrangement (Arcade version as seen in Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2, labelled as Arcade Ver.; 1996)
Pac-Man Arrangement (PSP version as seen on Namco Museum Battle Collection, labelled as CS Ver.; 2005)
Pac-Man Championship Edition (2007)
Pac-Motos (originally included in Namco Museum Remix; 2007)
Pac 'n Roll Remix (originally included in Namco Museum Remix; 2007)
Pac-Man Battle Royale (2011)
Pac-Man 256 (console version (2016)

Moto GP22: PS5 Review

Publisher: Milestone S.r.L

Platform: PS5

It's been an interesting time so far for motoring games.

Led mostly by the return of Gran Turismo, the genre has largely been led by nostalgia and ensuring the next gen games look as stunning as they can be. Forza Horizon 5 showed the games can still be arcade level fun, while respectful of both the formula and the history.

So it is with MotoGP22, a game which has decided its latest iteration needs to be approachable enough for all newcomers as well. Blessed with plenty of tutorials, the motorbike-led game has also upgraded its facial graphics and gameplay output, so it now feels like a next gen title that's ready to roll and rumble as much as it is to show off on the track.

Handling still requires a modicum of effort and if you don't get it right, it's time to slide off the track and be separated from your bike. Albeit in HD and with better looking graphics - but the pain is still the same.

From a career mode to multiplayer, there's plenty to do in MotoGP22, with customisation making it enough for any gamers to do. And for fans of biking, it's probably more than enough that the game gies them chance to "put yourself in the boots of legends such as Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner and Pedrosa at the peak of their careers." 

Ultimately, MotoGP22 does fire along the track nicely, and fans of the genre will lap it up. It's also open enough to newcomers to ensure the series will be welcomed back in 2023 with some much-needed modifications to ensure it's as wide as it can be, as well as satiating the casual fans who may find their interest piqued.

Hatching: Movie Review

Cast: Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkila
Director: Hanna Bergholm

A Finnish take on a toxic mother-daughter relationship, Hanna Bergholm's body horror psychological fairy tale, Hatching is the story of Tinja (Solalinna).

Tinja is a wannabe gymnast, whose mother Aiti (Heikkila) wants the very best for her. Aiti is the very definition of a pageant mother, constantly pushing Tinja too far and documenting all the best moments for her lifestyle blog.

When a bird comes into Aiti's house and destroys her pristine world, rather than tend to the wounded and confused bird, she snaps its neck in full view of her daughter, her shocked son and her comatose husband. But Tinja, shocked by the actions, follows the wounded bird into the woods and discovers an unhatched egg. Taking it home she nurtures it, until it hatches into something shocking.

Hatching is an icy aloof drama that is as glacial in its pace as it is in its emotions.

Bergholm keeps things tight in the execution, but the film can't escape its beyond pedestrian pace that starts to feel drawn out as it goes through its 85 minute run time. The leads are strong enough, but they're not quite enough to make the film feel like it doesn't have enough to say.

The creature FX are impressive, and the subtext of the film is a little too obvious, but Hatching makes a reasonable fist of its horror edges, and its jump scares early on are nicely handled. 

Hatching may want to say something about mother-daughter relationships, and of growing into your own skin, but it's not quite clever enough to make you feel like you've seen a masterpiece. It may have been more impressive as a shorter feature, but Hatching (Pahanhautoja) never quite hits the highs it's aspiring to.

The Boys: Season 3 TV Review

The Boys Season 3 starts streaming on Prime Video from June 3 with 3 episodes, and new episodes released Fridays.

The third season of the all-too-often graphic series The Boys seems to have an overall theme coursing through its veins of "What is the price of doing the right thing?"

At the end of season two, Jack Quaid's puppy dog Hughie had split from the Boys to try and fight the corruption of the Supes in the right way. Karl Urban's cursing Butcher had lost his former wife and pushed his surrogate son away to protect him, and Antony Starr's Homelander was reeling from the revelations that his lover Stormfront was a Nazi but was last seen pleasuring himself atop a skyscraper.

The new season begins a year later, with Butcher trying to keep it all under control as he works within the Government agency the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, under Hughie's guidance. And Homelander's trying to keep it all together in Vought Towers as he's forced to continue proffer apologies on cable shows for his mea culpa with Stormfront.

But as the first few scenes of Season 3 show, there's still no chance of this show not going further than it's gone before. If you thought driving a boat through a whale's blubber was gross enough in the opening salvo of season 2, well, buckle in, because within 12 minutes before the opening titles show, there's been a snarky takedown of the Zach Snyderverse social campaign, and a frankly unbelievable piece of body horror that's just about to push the envelope as far as it can go.

In the background of season 3 though, bubbling away, are themes of what's needed to seemingly do the right thing, addiction and trying to break the cycle, and the frustrations of angry white men, which manifest themselves in shocking ways, and the depths that everyone will go to to save their own brand - and the corporate one.

It's pointless to say The Boys goes further than previous seasons; that's practically a given. But it feels this time as if there are more major themes circulating around, rather than simply building to an all out desire to simply bring the grossness. 

From flirtations with historical heroes to modern day misfits, Garth Ennis and Darick Roberton's graphic novels have never held back - and in some ways, it's just terrifying that 21st century reality has seen so many parallels with the rise of Trumpian narratives.

Yet the satire here is timeless - a warning of power corrupting and an astute observer of cultural trends that arise. However, with a world that already has Donald Trump and attacks on the MSM, and a growth in disinformation, it's starting to feel like the satire isn't really as biting as it could be.

Of the cast, it's Erin Moriarty, Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Tomer Kapon and Karen Fukuhara who emerge as the MVPs of this season. Unfortunately to say why is to reveal spoilers which those in charge have asked to hold off, but needless to say the time investment is more than worth it.

The Boys remains provocative, it remains outrageous and it remains intensely watchable drama - you will be shocked, you will be entertained and perhaps most surprisingly this year for its third season, you'll be moved.

The Boys Season 3 starts streaming on Prime Video from June 3 with 3 episodes, and new episodes released Fridays.

Pil's Adventures: Movie Review

Director: Julien Fournet

Animated fare that's got much in common with Shrek's aesthetics, Pil's Adventures is a sweet, if slight, movie about an orphaned girl Pil who lives on the streets of Foggyborough.

As the kingdom readies itself to celebrate the ascension of its prince Roland, Pil and her weasel pals witnesses a coup from the nefarious regent Tristain who's determined to stay on the throne no matter what the cost.

Having transformed Roland into a hybrid chicken cat creature, Tristain blames it on Pil and sets the kingdom on her, forcing her to flee and also to try and clear her name. Will she save the day?

Clearly Gallic in origin, but beautifully laid out, Pil's Adventures is an animated tale that will probably appeal more to the children than across generations. It lacks the kind of smarts that you'd occasionally get from savvier fare, but younger kids will lap up both the sillier edges of a goofy would-be knight helping Pil, the chickcat hybrid and the message of standing up for yourself.

Not exactly didactic or overt in its messaging, Pil presents a morally upright central character, whose generosity and heart are traits to be admired and copied. With an inclusive message from the start, and a gentle sense of a moral compass, Pil's Adventures presents as innocuous fare that will easily keep some elements of the family amused.

The mix of fantasy, the feeling of a quest, cross-breeding creatures and a sock puppet that's very reminiscent of Mr Fibble from Red Dwarf all add up to some fleetingly enjoyable pleasures, and a romp in a kingdom that doesn't outstay its 85 minute welcome.

Mothering Sunday: Movie Review

Cast: Colin Firth, Olivia Colman, Odessa Young, Josh O'Connor
Director: Eva Husson

Mixing an elegiac feel with arthouse pretensions of doomed love, Mothering Sunday is an ambling drama that may try some of your viewing patience but will reward those who stick with it.

Looking at life after tragedy has ripped through, Colin Firth and Olivia Colman play bereaved parents, and owners of an estate. With their children stolen by the Great War, the pair negotiate life in a haze; Firth’s Mr Niven is the more upbeat of the couple, seeking to try and continue life amid crippling grief. His wife,   (Colman) is less upbeat with the desperation clearly gnawing at her from the inside.

On Mothering Sunday, they grant their household staff the day off to see family. But one, Jane (Young) is an orphan so chooses to spend the day off in trysts with Paul (The Crown's O'Connor), the neighbour of the Nivens, who's engaged to someone else.

Paul is the only one to have returned from the war, but bears the scars inwardly of being the sole survivor and of feeling trapped in what life now has laid out for him. 

Mothering Sunday is adapted from the novel by Graham Swift, and to be frank, spends an awful lot of time in its maudlin mouldings, and in its UK Home County trappings. It's very much the definition of slow cinema, with the first 30 minutes or so, with its flashbacks and pedestrian pace being enough to put off an audience not willing to assuage themselves to its rhythms.

Husson crafts something meticulous that looks stunning, and yet also feels remote. The sex scenes lack the intimacy and feel cloistered by the fact they could be the last time the pair meets before Paul has to embrace his new life. It's an almost oppressive atmosphere that clouds all of it as Young's Jane wanders around the house naked post coitus. 

If Young and O'Connor make good fist of a doomed pair, Colman and Firth also take great solace from their pained Nivens, as they struggle to make a life after death. Colman looks constantly on the verge of tears and a breakdown, and the one scene she has to command, she seizes with both hands. Firth juggles more with English dignity as the melancholia washes over him and certainly Young is swept up in the grief cycle this narrative rains down on them.

Mothering Sunday looks prestige, and will hit a certain crowd with poignancy if that's their desire, but its aloof nature means many will feel held at bay, uncertain of whether to sympathise or simply let it ripple lightly over their heads. It's a little too detached in its narrative to provide enough emotional heft at its denouement, but it may just satiate some quarters of the audience.