The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out The Hyperkin HyperPodium looks unassuming, like a little plastic H with two holes on each side. But slide it into your Nintendo Switch dock, and you’ll add the ability to connect four GameCube controller ports to your docked Switch. And while it’s not the most attractive way to play Switch games with a GameCube controller, it’s perfectly functional – and at only $30 bucks, one of the cheapest options. Especially if you already have the GameCube controllers laying around. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hyperkin-hyperpodium-review&captions=true"]
Hyperkin HyperPodium – Design and Features
In terms of design, there’s not much to tell. The little H fits smoothly into the original Nintendo Switch dock. That form-fit means it won’t work with most third-party docks, but also means you won’t have to stress as much about frying your Switch, as it utilizes a simple passthrough. The Nintendo Switch is already tall, but the Hyperkin HyperPodium adds another two or three inches to that height, making it taller than both the PS5 and Xbox Series X (sideways oriented, at least). In fact, with the HyperPodium connected, it’s the only console too tall for my TV stand. That elevated height can also cause the Switch to feel a little wobbly, especially when connecting or disconnecting the controllers. [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=c5443429-78c6-4798-8bb3-c0659f5ac975"] The Hyperkin is designed to be less cluttered than wired options like the wired GameCube controller adapter, but it’s not as clean as it could be. That’s because the HyperPodium requires power. It comes with a tiny USB-A to USB-C cord that’s perfect for the job, but you’ll still have a noticeable wire looping around the dock. On the other hand, separating the ports with more physical distance did cause fewer cord tangles than the wired adapter or the Brooks Gaming Power Bay, another dock option with GameCube controller ports. Like the Brooks Gaming Power Bay, there’s no physical Home button on the HyperPodium hardware. (And, of course, there’s no home button on the GameCube controller.) That means the hardware manufacturers have to assign one of two important buttons – the home button or the start button – to the GameCube’s single center button, which traditionally would be mapped to Start. Brooks remapped that Start button to Home, while controllers used with the HyperPodium retain their Start button, meaning there’s no way to get to the Home screen. If you want to get to the homescreen, you need to lift your Switch from the dock, press the Switch’s home button, then place it back in the dock, or press the home button of a nearby Joy-Con. Neither solution is perfect, but I vastly prefer Hyperkin’s solution, as I use the Start button far more often than the Home button. Still, I wish the Hyperkin had instituted some sort of four-button combo to go Home or created a physical hardware button on the HyperPodium.
Hyperkin HyperPodium – Performance and Gaming
Once installed and plugged in, the HyperPodium does exactly what it’s supposed to – that is, provide a four-port expansion that’s useful when you want to assemble a crew for Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournaments. Every port worked flawlessly and I never noticed any latency, lag, visual flicker, or anything else out of the ordinary. That said, the ports are awfully tight. You’ll sooner drag your console off your TV stand than unplug one of the GameCube controllers one-handed. It’s fairly easy to slop your Nintendo Switch into the HyperPodium, but there remains an alarming amount of wiggle once it’s installed. The Switch can depress on both the left and right sides and – more alarmingly – wobble forward and back. While the Switch should remain stationary when docked, the HyperPodium’s added height and bit of wobble did give me pause. After all, the only thing standing between me and a potentially bricked Nintendo Switch is a tiny USB-C prong that’s wiggling with the Switch. There’s also a question of necessity, as the HyperPodium functions similarly to Nintendo’s official GameCube controller adapter. That said, at $29.99 it’s ten bucks cheaper, and is slightly more elegant than having a dangling adapter hanging off the side of your Switch. It’s also quick and easy to disassemble if you don’t want to leave your Switch atop the HyperPodium’s precarious throne when GameCube controllers aren’t necessary. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=best-nintendo-switch-accessories&captions=true"]
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As soon as I arrived in Resident Evil Village’s sinister rural setting, its Resident Evil 4 influence reared its snarling head. Almost immediately surrounded by rabid Lycan locals, I scrambled for shotgun shells and bookshelves to block doorways as the horde closed in, only to be saved a split-second away from death. It’s an intense welcome that serves as a fantastic flashback to the opening of Shinji Mikami’s magnum-toting magnum opus, and one made all the more frantic in first-person perspective. Resident Evil Village might not break much new ground in its own right, but it successfully grafts Resident Evil 4’s best action elements onto the series’ more modern form established in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, making for a genuinely engrossing and increasingly combat-heavy continuation of the Ethan Winters story.
It’s a story that – unfortunately for poor old Ethan – goes from dire straits to dire wolves. Dragged to hillbilly hell and back in an effort to rescue his wife in Resident Evil 7, he subsequently finds himself dropped into a distinctly Transylvanian type of terror in Village. This time it’s his infant daughter who must be saved after she’s kidnapped by a wicked cabal of monster maniacs: Lady Dimitrescu, a vampire tall enough to play center in a Space Jam sequel; Donna Beneviento, a dollmaker with a walking, talking Bride of Chucky sidekick; Salvatore Moreau, a thoroughly repulsive merman; and Karl Heisenberg, a magnetically powered lunatic who runs a factory assembly line of Frankenstein’s monsters. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/7-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-resident-evil"] All four report to the mysterious head witch, Mother Miranda, and although admittedly none of them managed to coax out the same kind of genuine scares as the southern-fried psychopaths in Resident Evil 7's Baker family, I found the lot of them to be entertainingly twisted in a slightly cartoonish, Batman villain kind of way. Each presides over their own visually distinctive domain that you must survive, from the opulent gold-trimmed interiors of Castle Dimitrescu to the grungy mechanical works of Heisenberg’s subterranean facility. There are noticeable shifts in mood between each setting, with one demanding a more stealth-driven approach while another leans more into psychological horror than combat. Delving into the darkest corners of Village’s world and uncovering the real reason these fairytale freaks have come into existence in the present day made for a compelling mystery that hooked me throughout my 10-hour playthrough.
The Wolves of Maul Street
Aside from the aforementioned Lycans – which come in multiple forms – there are zombie ghouls, flying gargoyles, full-on werewolves, and more waiting to ambush you at every turn. Their onslaught feels like an aggressive response to one of Resident Evil 7’s most notable shortcomings in the lack of variety in its enemy types; its handful of lumbering monsters were referred to as the ‘Mold’, an appropriate name, since they quickly grew stale. Village remedies this by throwing a significantly broader set of nasties into your crosshairs; in fact, the last time there was a line-up of village people this diverse they were singing disco songs about the YMCA.
This expanded roster of bloodthirsty beasts doesn’t just make for a more interestingly evolving series of combat encounters, but it also adds some welcome new depth and decision making to the bolstered crafting system. Should you spend your scarce supply of scrap to cobble together a landmine that will blast the armour off one of the tank-like Lycans, or fashion it into sniper rifle rounds so that you can eliminate nesting gargoyles from afar before they have a chance to swoop down on you? [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-resident-evil-game-review-ever&captions=true"] Granted, most of these enemies aren’t particularly clever in their own right – the genetically modified mutants of Heisenberg’s factory might have deadly drills for arms, but they’re far from the sharpest tools in the shed when it comes to outmanoeuvring you one-on-one. Still, what Village’s variety of grunts may lack in smarts they certainly make up for in sheer numbers, and although I rarely encountered clusters of more than a handful enemies at a time for the first few hours (outside of the initial overwhelming village reception), at somewhere around its midpoint the size of these enemy swarms started to swell substantially. By the story’s end I was gleefully indulging in chaotic levels of carnage that reminded me more of a run-and-gun Call of Duty campaign than a slow-paced horror game. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=By%20the%20end%20I%20was%20gleefully%20indulging%20in%20chaotic%20levels%20of%20carnage%20that%20reminded%20me%20more%20of%20a%20CoD%20campaign%20than%20a%20slow-paced%20horror%20game."]That’s a big change from the considerably more vulnerable version of Ethan from Resident Evil 7 – particularly in its first half – and a throwaway reference to military training in the prologue is used to explain why he feels substantially more combat ready this time around. He’s able to smoothly hurdle over fences and through open windows to stay on the move during a scrap, and – much like Leon could in Resident Evil 4 – he can even shoot down flaming arrows launched by Lycan archers if you’re quick enough on the trigger. Certain location-specific environmental features also help to further even the overwhelming odds, such as heavy machinery traps in Heisenberg’s headquarters that enemies can be lured into, and a zipline that can be used to create some breathing room when you’ve stirred up the evil residents of Village’s Lycan nest.
What're You Buying?
The Duke – a tubby trader who can be conveniently found in various locations around the map like a Transylvanian 7-11 – allows you to buy weapon add-ons and upgrades as well as limited amounts of medkits and ammunition. What I appreciated the most about Capcom effectively resurrecting Resident Evil 4’s merchant is that the Duke’s stiff prices forced me to pore over every square inch of Village’s stunning scenery in search of treasures to trade for spending money, which had the knock-on effect of leading me to a number of surprises – both pleasant and malevolent. Studying your surroundings for the telltale glint of a valuable gem that can be dislodged with a bullet, or keeping an ear out for the creak of an item-carrying birdcage that can be knocked down aren’t the only ways to uncover rewards for backtracking and exploring off the beaten path. Animals like fish and pigs can be killed, their meat turned into dishes by the Duke that give permanent boosts to Ethan’s health and defense. Actually tracking down some of the more exotic animals requires you to first find photographic clues to their specific locations, and while it’s not particularly challenging to take them down once you’ve found them, I took some dark delight in slashing at a yard full of chickens with Ethan’s pocket knife (it’s the closest I’ve ever come to actually playing a Legend of Zelda game in first-person). [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=3fdc79df-6340-4177-b383-8ba95d65cd54"] Elsewhere, there are countless invaluable story morsels tucked away that provide a clearer picture of ties between the village’s inhabitants and the Umbrella Corporation, as well as mini boss fight encounters that in some instances managed to completely blindside me. One of my favourite face-offs in Village is entirely optional: a close-quarters battle against a towering axe-wielding ogre that I only stumbled onto because I accidentally took a wrong turn on the way to my next story objective. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Despite%20the%20horniest%20hopes%20of%20internet%20perverts%2C%20Lady%20Dimitrescu's%20appearance%20is%20certainly%20intimidatingly%20long-legged%2C%20but%20also%20disappointingly%20short-lived."]It’s clear that this Resident Evil isn’t just called ‘Village’ so that Capcom could awkwardly shove the Roman numerals for eight into its logo, but because exploring the village itself is a central part of the experience, and one that really helps distinguish it from any other previous instalment in the series. And although you visit each of the main villains’ lairs in a set order, keys and other tools found along the way unlock new paths and secrets that make your return trips through Village’s main hub a consistently rewarding journey.
Ladykiller
However, my trip through Resident Evil Village wasn’t entirely without its missteps. I’m not sure Capcom was prepared for how much of a phenomenon Lady Dimitrescu would become with the Resident Evil fanbase, because despite the horniest hopes of internet perverts her appearance is certainly intimidatingly long-legged, but also disappointingly short-lived. She arrives very early on, is reasonably easy to avoid as far as stalker enemies go, and isn’t as big a presence as you might expect from Village’s billboard-sized poster girl.
Her three daughters, meanwhile, all share the exact same weakness and thus your fights against them all play out in almost identical fashion – though I will give them credit for never failing to jolt me out of my seat with their unpredictable arrivals. In fact, many of Village’s boss encounters come up surprisingly short, in a strategic sense. While they certainly escalate in scale and spectacle as you get closer to the story’s climax, very few amount to much more than circle-strafing and shooting them in their glowing bits until they drop. It’s not that I didn’t find some of them challenging, and certainly my clash with one particularly resilient late-game brute left me with nothing but a single round in my pistol’s chamber and a set of finger-shaped grooves freshly pressed into the underside of my controller, but I would have welcomed a few more epic-sized showdowns that engaged my brain as much as my reflexes and ammo reserves. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=I%20would%20have%20welcomed%20a%20few%20more%20epic-sized%20showdowns%20that%20engaged%20my%20brain%20as%20much%20as%20my%20reflexes%20and%20ammo%20reserves."]While there’s not much to puzzle out when it comes to tackling bosses, there’s just as little thinking involved when it comes to tackling Village’s actual puzzles. As was the case in Resident Evil 7, the solutions to the bulk of Village’s brainteasers are either exceedingly straightforward or, in many cases, entirely spoiled for you by instructional notes left in their immediate vicinity. I can understand the developers’ reluctance to allow our forward momentum through the story and action sequences to stall, but that seems at odds with an experience that otherwise clearly wants you to regularly slow down and examine your surroundings.
The Fast and the Furriest
Once Village’s story has been finished, points earned from completing certain objectives in the campaign can be spent to obtain infinite-ammo weapons for subsequent playthroughs, various pieces of concept art, and more – but for me, the most valuable bonus to unlock is fortunately also the cheapest; the Mercenaries mode. This time-attack arcade mode (which debuted in Resident Evil 3) returns with a few new gameplay tweaks and serves up some high-speed survival-horror shooting against waves of wolfmen that’s only a few distorted guitar riffs away from actually passing as a Doom arena.
Mercenaries consists of a multi-part gauntlet run through four stages taken from Village’s campaign. Simply surviving isn’t too taxing, but identifying the optimal path to the level goal and keeping your kill streak combo going is paramount in order to achieve some fairly challenging high-score goals. An extra layer of strategy has been included this time around in the form of special ability orbs, which allow you to activate perks such as more high-powered headshots, boosted movement speed, or my favourite, exploding enemy corpses to clear closely grouped enemy clusters with fewer shots. These abilities can be stacked, and it’s fun to experiment with them to find out which work best with your playstyle and weapon preferences. It’s admittedly slightly annoying that I have to rebind the shortcuts to my favourite weapons at the start of every run, and the fact that you need an at least an A rating on each stage before you unlock the next makes for a slightly inflexible first impression, but otherwise I’m finding this revival of Resident Evil’s long-dormant Mercenaries mode to be an addictive bonus that I’ve already spent several hours with as I continue to chase those elusive S and SS rankings and their resulting special weapon unlocks.
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This could be a real lead forward for personal gaming... Revolutionise gaming
The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out Cougar is no newcomer to the world of gaming chairs, so when it releases a new model it’s always worth taking a closer look. I’ve spent the last two weeks with the brand new Cougar Explore S, its latest racing-style throne built for gamers. Coming to market at $269, it’s on the affordable end for a name-brand chair but doesn’t aim to sacrifice in features. Is it worth a buy or should you save your pennies for something more expensive? Let’s take a closer look and find out. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=cougar-explore-s-review&captions=true"]
Cougar Explore S - Design and Features
If I asked the average gamer to picture a gaming chair, there’s a good chance they would imagine something like the Cougar Explore S. This isn’t a chair that takes many risks but that’s not exactly a bad thing given its affordable price. It follows the same racing bucket seat design of most gaming chairs, including the high back, side bolsters, and cutouts for the cushion straps. It’s available in two color schemes, orange and black. In reality, they’re both orange and black, but the all-black version just uses orange stitching instead of along the sides This budget gaming chair is designed for “mid” sized gamers. It features a steel frame, which is an upgrade from the aluminum chassis found on many cheaper gaming chairs (or particle board if you’re deep into the budget end). This helps to ensure its long-term durability and, in combination with the piston, allows the Explore S to support up to 264 lbs. This is directly in line with the rest of Cougar’s line-up and even slightly more than competing chairs like the Secretlab Omega. That said, this isn’t a chair for big and tall gamers as the side bolsters are angled to hug you into the chair. The center area for your back is only 10-11 inches wide and will quickly become uncomfortable for those trying to squeeze between the bolsters. Unboxing the chair, I was surprised to find that some of the assembly was already complete right out of the box. Unlike most gaming chairs, the armrests came pre-attached, which shaves off precious minutes of build time. The bolts that attach the tilt-base and backrest also came pre-inserted, so there was no risk of confusing where anything went. Cougar included a basic combo tool with ends for hex and phillips screws, so no tools were needed for assembly. All told, I was able to put the chair together within 15 minutes without help. Pretty basic fair, albeit slightly faster thanks to those pre-assembled armrests. While the chair is priced cheaper than much of the competition, the craftsmanship is impressive. After testing more than a dozen gaming chairs, I’ve developed an eye for the cut corners that often accompany price savings and here there are very few. Instead, Cougar has seemed to lean into a couple of smart trade-offs and invested in the areas that really matter to make this chair punch above its class. This is a very standard gaming chair in its overall design but it’s one that won’t force you to trade comfort and reliability for savings. Like most racing seats, the Explore S is trimmed in PVC leather. This can have a tendency to become hot, so I was happy to see that the seat and backrest are dotted with perforations for added breathability. These surfaces are also trimmed in a diamond pattern accented with orange thread to match the bolsters. Orange and black won’t be everyone’s cup of tea – and if you’re eyeing this chair you’ll be stuck with them in one form or another – but it’s a solid look. The quality of the stitching is also very good. In addition to the accent threads and normal seam work, there’s also a big Cougar logo on the headrest. There wasn’t a loose strand to be found anywhere on my sample. The PVC was also nicely taut with few unsightly wrinkles. [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=db38f3e0-de72-45fb-9820-b5cb0b683486"] Underneath that trim is high-density molded foam for the cushioning. This is better for long-term durability as multiple pieces of foam won’t need to be glued together to form different sections of the body. The seat was fairly firm out of the box but wasn’t uncomfortable to sit on. That added density will also make it more resilient to premature softening which can reveal the steel frame. I wasn’t able to test the Explore for more than a couple of weeks, but the cushions are thick enough that the chassis stayed comfortably hidden in the seat itself, and doesn’t seem likely to become a problem in the future, but you can feel it if you press into the seat bolsters. In normal sitting, this isn’t an issue, but if you like to cross your legs like me, you may find that you can feel the frame. Like most gaming chairs, it comes with a pair of cushions that are ostensibly for neck and lumbar support but are truly more for aesthetics. The neck pillow is far too firm and is positioned too low out of the box. Even when moved behind the neck, it’s still unusably stiff. The lumbar support is quite a bit better and is much more necessary to sit comfortably over time. The backrest itself is flat and there is no built-in lumbar adjustment outside of the pillow. If you’ve had issues with these movable cushions in the past, the Explore S isn’t going to solve them. When it comes to adjustments, the trade-offs finally begin to show. The Explore S uses a simple tilt base. There’s a single lever that can be pressed down to adjust the height or pushed in to lock the rocking motion. There’s also a tensioning knob to adjust the amount of resistance when rocking. Fancier bases, like those found on the Secretlab Omega, often allow users to lock the tilt angle which you can’t do here. It’s a missing feature, but isn’t a major one thanks to the reclineable backrest. The backrest can tilt up to 155-degrees independent of the base using a separate lever on the side. With the tilt unlocked, I was able to tilt back into a full lay. It’s a bit unnerving but the chair didn’t tip, so it’s clearly very stable. That also means you can easily kick back with a controller, even without the angle lock. The armrests are also of the “3D” sort instead of the popular “4D” found on more expensive gaming chairs. This means that you can adjust their height, angle, and depth. Width is locked unless you care to crawl under the chair and loosen the bolts to make adjustments. This did make a difference in actual use since I often keep my elbows closer in while typing compared to sitting back with a controller. The surface is also standard fare for gaming chairs, which is to say they’re pretty hard. They’re not plastic, but instead a very dense foam that left my elbows sore after a while. For the money, Cougar did make one upgrade which I found particularly nice. The wheelbase is solid aluminum. Nylon is much more common at this price point and is a common point of failure, especially for gamers that are harder on their gaming chairs. When they break, they can snap, risking a nasty spill and leaving you searching for a new chair. An aluminum base helps to ensure added long-term durability and offers improved stability thanks to its added weight. [widget path="global/page/imagecomparison" parameters="comparisons=%7B%22comparisons%22%3A%5B%7B%22caption%22%3A%22%22%2C%22images%22%3A%5B%7B%22id%22%3A%2260922de1e4b03e1e466014ba%22%2C%22label%22%3A%22%22%7D%2C%7B%22id%22%3A%2260922de7e4b03e1e466014bb%22%2C%22label%22%3A%22%22%7D%5D%7D%5D%7D"]
Cougar Explore S - Performance
In day-to-day use, the Cougar Explore S performed right on par with other, more expensive gaming chairs. It doesn’t feel like a budget chair at all, and I really didn’t miss the tilt lock feature since it’s one I rarely use even in chairs that offer it. For $269, it offers the full “racing chair” experience, for better and worse. The recline ability is a big plus for both gaming and work. When typing out an email or hammering away on a review, I found myself sitting at attention with the back upright. When gaming on a mouse and keyboard, I was able to angle it back a few extra degrees to take on a more relaxed posture. While I’m not one to sleep in my chair, I could have with the Explore. Instead, I used its gratuitous recline when I wanted to put my feet up and lounge with Uncharted 4. The armrests were also adjustable enough to accommodate each of these cases. The lack of width adjustment really wasn’t an issue since the chair is fairly narrow to begin with. When I was typing, I liked that I could move the armrests forward to complement my upright posture. The downside is in their firmness. After a couple of hours, my elbows became sore. They’re an improvement over straight hard plastic but not by much. The biggest challenge facing the Explore is the same one facing most racing chairs: long-term comfort. The racing seat design isn’t suited to long stretches of sitting and I found my back getting sore in just a few hours of use. The lumbar cushion helps but is no replacement for a truly supportive design on the chair itself. For gaming sessions of a couple of hours, this shouldn’t be an issue, but if you’re looking for a chair to use for a whole workday, the bucket seat design isn’t a great option.
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This could be a real lead forward for personal gaming... Revolutionise gaming
The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out This is a spoiler-free review for Season 1 of Invincible, which is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Invincible was always going to be a tricky show to pull off. Based on the early-2000s Image comic by Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker, the Amazon Prime adult animated series enters a media landscape that’s markedly different from two decades ago. Its three-episode premiere, while intriguing, seemed unable to strike the right tone with its animated gore, especially since the show takes a straight-faced approach to its satirical source material. The whole endeavor felt less like a response to the existing superhero zeitgeist — the way the comics were at the time — and more like just another cookie-cutter cape story with a few violent flourishes. However, the show began to find its footing as it went on, one episode at a time. By the time the first season reached its eighth and final entry, it managed to convincingly earn its Season 2 and 3 renewal, going out on an incredible high note, thanks to both its unique action and its character-centric gravitas. All in all, it’s pretty great. [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=88ee8daa-1840-4edc-acec-8cf6b5f6a1fb"] The show, like the comic, doesn’t play coy about its Marvel and DC influences. Lead character Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) spends much of the season caught up in Spider-Man-esque dilemmas, as a high schooler spread thin between his civilian and superhero lives. To add to his already full plate, he also happens to be the son of Omni-Man/Nolan Grayson (J.K. Simmons), a mustached Superman archetype. When Mark finally begins manifesting abilities of his own, he takes up the mantle of Invincible and begins finding his way as a novice crime-fighter. However, in this world, superheroes are a dime a dozen — in fact, several of the show’s characters are based on the designs of the Justice League — and Omni-Man, the world’s strongest and most famous superhero, casts an incredibly long shadow. For Mark, it would appear that with great power comes great expectations. If the premise sounds as simple as “What if Spider-Man was Superman’s son?” then a major reveal at the end of the first episode complicates matters sufficiently. The show, it turns out, is also a murder mystery of sorts. It ropes a number of colorful characters into its steadily unfolding plot, from part-Rorschach, part-Hellboy demon detective Damian Darkblood (Clancy Brown), to duplicitous government spook Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins) and his S.H.I.E.L.D.-like outfit, the Global Defense Agency, or the G.D.A. Even Mark’s mother Debbie (Sandra Oh) gets involved, and plays a much more active part in the story than her comic counterpart. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=how-invincible-became-a-modern-superhero-icon&captions=true"] While the first three episodes meander a bit, they’re at their most interesting when they focus on this mystery element. However, starting with episode 4, the show seems to undergo a stylistic metamorphosis. It begins to feel more fun and energetic without sacrificing its emotional core, and by episode 5, the series begins to feel fully-formed, not only telling stories that evoke 1970s superhero comics and their transition to more serious social subjects, but using its over-the-top violence in ways that feel pointed and impactful. The sixth episode, however, takes a bit of a tonal detour and falls back on some of the bad habits in those early episodes. A problem plaguing the show is that it occasionally relies on stilted, dryly edited dialogue scenes to deliver exposition and emotional information. These sequences can be a bit of a drag, and it doesn’t help that the all-star cast largely comprises famous screen actors without much voice acting experience. The result often feels rote, like the audience is sitting in on a table read rather than being told a meaningful story. However, as the show progresses, the visual storytelling becomes more polished, employing live-action cinematic techniques like rack-focuses to really bring out the subtext. This especially stands out in episode 5, during a simple dinner sequence between Mark, Nolan, and Debbie, who are all keeping information from each other and wrestling with important decisions. When the show tightens up its animation, it feels laser-focused. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Episode%206%20takes%20a%20bit%20of%20a%20tonal%20detour%20and%20falls%20back%20on%20some%20of%20the%20bad%20habits%20in%20those%20early%20episodes."] The main cast is rounded out by Zazie Beetz as Amber, Mark’s romantic interest and a headstrong character who challenges his commitment to his cause, and by Gillian Jacobs as Atom Eve, a fellow teenage superhero and eventual third wheel, who’s forced to blaze her own path. There are a few other highlights along the way, like Mahershala Ali as Titan, a thoughtful street-level super-criminal who helps expand Mark’s worldview, and Ezra Miller as the cackling mad scientist D.A. Sinclair, although few of the show’s performances hold a candle to Mark Hamill as Art Rosenbaum, tailor to the superheroes, Nolan’s long-time friend, and a man who seems to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. Admittedly, Art doesn’t play a large part in the plot, but Hamill — a performer whose career in animation predates even Star Wars — voice-acts circles around much of the cast, putting his entire vocal toolbox on display for a relatively simple part. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/invincible-official-trailer-2021-steven-yeun-jk-simmons"] The show is also occasionally bogged down by a secondary mystery, which pales in comparison to the central plot. It involves a couple of Mark’s fellow superheroes on the Teen Team, a lively group reminiscent of The Teen Titans and the Young Avengers, but it’s scattered across the season in the form of mid-episode hints (if not mid-credit stingers), and it’s unable to form a solid narrative base in the process. However, the show is also strong enough to overcome most of these problems by its final two episodes. They play like a single, extended action climax, and by the time the finale begins, even the season’s inadequacies begin to feel worthwhile. The eighth episode is one worth waiting for, not only for the way it evokes real-world images of terrorism and natural disasters — its violence is uniquely disturbing for western animation! — but because of its poignant storytelling, which brings Mark face to face with his ultimate physical and emotional challenges. Without getting into too much detail, it has a scene involving Mark, Nolan, and a train collision that’s both emotionally riveting and visually jaw-dropping. You’ll know it when you see it. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Mark%20and%20Nolan%20are%20particularly%20interesting%20reflections%20of%20one%20another%2C%20as%20superheroes%20caught%20up%20in%20vastly%20different%20narratives%20of%20dual%20identity"] Invincible’s first season has plenty of memorable action beats (more so in its second half), but what makes it stand out amongst the existing superhero crop is the careful way it peels back the layers to characters like Nolan and Debbie. Mark’s story, meanwhile, remains firmly in simple and familiar territory, but that’s hardly a point against it, since the show constantly juggles well-worn teenage superhero tales with more complex adult stories. Mark and Nolan are particularly interesting reflections of one another, as superheroes caught up in vastly different narratives of dual identity, which keep colliding and diverging at key points throughout the season. Despite the show’s many detours into genre territory — from dragons to outer space to alternate dimensions — what gradually becomes clear is that, at its core, Invincible is a story about friends, family, and secrets. It just happens to be wrapped in a shiny, blood-soaked package. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=amazon-prime-video-spotlight-may-2021&captions=true"]
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/3h0q5hs
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