Teeny Titans: The Review

For the last few weeks I've been wondering what game is going to knock Overwatch off my "kevin only has time to play one video game so this one is it" perch. I never thought it would be a $4 Cartoon Network app on the Kindle but here we are. Teeny Titans is an incredibly fun and addictive game. Not only did it dethrone Overwatch I think it scratched that Pokemon Go itch my Windows Phone can't scratch.

The game is pretty simple. In it you play Robin (of the Teen Titans) just as he discovers an action figure fighting league hat's taking Jump City by storm. Robin being Robin, decides instantly that he must dominate the league. The gameplay is pretty simple, collect figures, battle them against opponents, find and enter tournaments. The game developers recognize the similarity to Pokemon as Robin is often saying that he has to collect them all.

The battles are simply to learn but complex to master. Each character has their own unique combination of attacks and buffs, as the time in each battle round progresses you earn energy to cast these attacks and buffs. As your characters levels up you get more attacks or the attacks do more damage. There's a little bit of an RPG element involved, when you level up you can decide to add points to one of four categories: Luck, Speed, Power, Health. Like I said, it's all very simple but there are so many different combinations of attacks and buffs, it all gets very complex very quickly.

It doesn't hurt that the game is based on Teen Titans Go, a show my kids watch and I enjoy immensely. Characters from both the DC comics universe and the Teen Titans Go universe make appearances, so there's a lot of appeal to the geek crowd.

One of the weirder aspects of playing Teeny Titans was that my son started playing it last Friday and I didn't start playing it until Saturday night giving him a good 24 hours head start on me. It's the first time I've sat there asking him for help with a video game, I'm sure it won't be the last.

Anyway Teeny Titans is SUPER worth the 3.99 it costs on Amazon. It's a bit high for a kindle game but there are no in-app purchases and with the sheer amount of characters the game has it seems like something that will have very high replay value. Go buy it, 3 thumbs up.

My Son's Top 5 Cartoons

I mentioned this on twitter a few days ago but my son is WAY more interested in watching youtube than he is watching traditional Cartoons. That doesn't mean that I haven't seen the same 5 cartoons like a thousand times. Just for fun here's a quick round up of what shows he's currently watching and what I think of them. Maybe next I'll do a top 5 youtube shows that are currently driving me insane/broke.

Paw Patrol... my nemesis. Paw Patrol is a pretty generic cartoon full of talking dogs that use teamwork and special pup packs to help out the citizens of Adventure Bay. It's Fine. It's Fine. What's not fine about it is that my kids want to watch it 30 hours a day 10 days a week. Seriously, first thing my daughter does when she gets home is grab the TV remote and start asking for "puppies". She's ONE! I've seen Chase rescue that damn chicken from the ravine more than I've seen the monorail episode of the Simpsons. I swear they just need to let that chicken die.

Whenever some old timer like myself starts spouting off about how "good" cartoons were when we were growing up I always point to Ninjago to crush their feeble argument. Seriously, watch an episode of Transformer, I dare you. They're legit terrible. Comparing it to an episode of Ninjago (Which is also just a big old blatant ad for a giant toy company) is like comparing Birdemic to Jurassic Park. My one complaint about Ninjago is that it took them like 3 seasons to pass the Bechdel Test. Seriously would it kill any of these cartoons to have more than one token girl?

Wonder Pets is the reason we have Amazon Prime. Seriously, a couple years ago a bunch of older Nickelodeon cartoons like Dora and Wonder Pets were pulled from Netflix and added to Amazon Prime. This would not stand. Something you should know about kids today, the idea of waiting for a show to be "on" is as antiquated as the buggy whip. Everything is on Netflix, On Demand or the DVR. The other day I had to explain to my son on a Monday that new Episodes of Ninjago weren't going to be on until Thursday and I might as well have been trying to explain the rules of Cricket. Spoiler: No one knows!

Teen Titans Go is probably the one cartoon my son watches that I enjoy the most. I know a lot of net nerds bag on it because it's nothing like the Teen Titans cartoon they grew up with but whatever. It's a funny show, the episode this screenshot is from is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Cyborg throws a BBQ and all the Titans (except Beast Boy because he's a Vegetarian) get the meat sweats and can't fight crime. Oh man have I been there... the meat sweats parts, not the crime fighting part.

Wallykazam. I don't even know what this thing is, but it's on a 7am when we're getting ready so he's watched a few episodes. I think the little troll guy has a magic wand that helps him spell words. Typical liberal media.

Christmas Wish Links

How To: Build Your Own LEGO Christmas Ornaments. I really wanted to build some Lego ornaments this year, but I never did get around to it. The only things my kid wants me to build out of lego are space ships and helicopters. Christmas ornaments aren't very high on the list. I'll try and do some next year.

Paul Dini: Superhero cartoon execs don't want largely female audiences. Here's a shocker for you. It's hardly a secret out there that cartoons and toys have a very symbiotic relationship but when you actually hear stories about the Green Lantern cartoon (which was good) getting canceled because stores wouldn't buy any toys because they never were able to sell any toys from the movie (which was bad). Essentially without toy revenue you can't sell a cartoon these days.

Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana. Back in 1995 Newsweek published an article about how the internet wasn't all it was cracked up to be. It's pretty high-larious. Good on Newsweek for keeping it up for this long so everyone can laugh at them.

11 Insane Things You Didn't Know About Santa Claus. When you start looking at it objectively, the origin of Santa Claus is pretty cray cray. You don't even have to look very far. I've been reading my son The Night Before Christmas every night for the last week or so and even it that he sounds more like a dirty ol hobo (my favorite part is that he smokes) than the classic Coca Cola Santa. Long Story Short, next year I'm putting up a Yule Goat in my front yard.

Merry Christmas everyone! I probably won't post anything for the next week or so (unless I get that life size tie fighter I've been asking for). Next up is the 2013 year in review. Will your favorite post be included?

probably not.

The mc chris Cartoon Pitch

Like a year ago irascible nerdcore rapper mc chris pitched a cartoon to Cartoon Network to a rousing chorus of nos. He then did a kickstarter to produce the cartoon himself. What he ended up with is this 6 minute pitch that I think is pretty hilarious. Of course I'm a big fan of robot owls and wild west Mars so your mileage may vary.

ThunderCats Ho! The Governator No!

Lets start the day with a little good idea/bad idea. Above is the trailer for the new ThunderCats cartoon. It looks pretty sweet. I like the whole LOTR fantasy vibe it has going on, I just wish there was more Panthro in it. All in all I'm looking forward to DVRing this.

On the other side of the coin we have the trailer for the Stan Lee/Arnold Schwarzenegger hack fest, the Governator. I watched half the trailer and that was more than enough for me. Seriously, who other than Lee and Schwarzenegger thought this was a good idea? Donald Trump? Michael Bay? Hitler? My guess is it was probably Trump.

Dr. Steve Brule would like 30 seconds of your time

So wikipedia tells me that John C. Reilly is a big star, but I don't buy it. I mean how on earth does he end up on Cartoon Network at 2 in the morning? Oh well, Check it out with Dr. Steve Brule premieres August 23rd. I'm setting my DVR now, Im afraid if I don't Dr. Steve is going to find me and molest me.