TheRetroCritic

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Released in 2001, when CG animation was starting to rival 2D in a big way, Atlantis: The Lost Empire was Disney's science-fiction love letter to Jules Verne and, while it was successful at the box-office, the film got mixed reviews so it remains a cult favourite. This wasn't your typical Disney musical aimed at a very young audience, Atlantis is a song-free action adventure with a proper sci-fi plot and it feels more like a big-budget Spielberg epic or a Star Wars movie set underground than anything else. The plot sees nerdy linguist and cartographer Milo Thatch (voiced by Michael J. Fox) lead an expedition to Atlantis after his research piques the interest of an eccentric millionaire. He is joined by a team of loveable misfits, mysterious femme-fatale Helga Sinclair and stern Commander Lyle Rourke. After a surprisingly deadly run-in with an unusual creature under the ocean, the gang finally reach Atlantis where Milo meets Princess Kida (Cree Summer) and they both start

I review the Sega Master System port of Rastan .

Some thoughts on the new Tomb Raider trailer.

Director Joe Johnston brought The Rocketeer to life in this Disney film from 1991 starring Bill Campbell and Jennifer Connelly. While it was critically well received, it didn't earn quite enough at the box-office to guarantee a sequel but it's still seen as something of a cult gem. Created in 1982 by comic-book writer/artist Dave Stevens, The Rocketeer is a homage to classic serial heroes: an all-American good guy with one special ability, fighting against cartoonishly evil villains. The ability in question being a jetpack which stunt pilot Cliff Secord (Campbell) finds with airplane mechanic Peevy (Alan Arkin) when a bunch of gangsters steal it from Howard Hughes (Terry O'Quinn). Cliff uses the rocket pack to save people and fight back against those looking to harm him but this puts his girl Jenny Blake (Connelly) and others close to him in great danger. The main antagonist being Neville Sinclair, a popular Hollywood actor (played by a scene-stealing Timothy Dalton)

Short compilation of some of my best fails when playing the game Ecstatica . Playing that game comes at a price...

I reviewed MS-DOS game Ecstatica for Review A Bad Game Day . But is it really a bad game?

While Zootopia was the bigger non-Pixar animated hit for Disney in 2016, Moana was still a considerable success both at the box-office and with audiences who praised the stunning animation and its South Pacific setting. As the big "Disney Princess" movie of the year, complete with flashy musical numbers and cute animal sidekicks, Moana was a much more traditional Disney animated feature than Zootopia so had the latter failed to deliver, this would have no doubt been the studio's sure-fire hit. It is surprising, frankly, that the film was not given a Summer release considering its sunny, exotic setting as that might have actually given it a bit of a boost. Story-wise, the film follows Moana (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho), daughter to the chief of a small Polynesian island, who finds herself stuck with the responsibilities of being the chief's heir until she is compelled to leave the island in search of a way to stop its inexplicable curse. She encounters demigo

One of the NES games I hear the least about is Little Ninja Brothers , an action RPG developed by Nihon Game (aka Culture Brain), released in 1990 in North America. The sequel to Kung Fu Heroes (known as  Chinese Hero in the Arcade), took what made the original game so much fun and added RPG elements to it. While this kind of transition doesn't work for certain games, here it actually makes sense. You still jump around, punching and kicking your enemies in the same way except, this time, you find them in the wild and gain experience points as well as money when you defeat them. Those mini-fights become much more stressful when they pop up again before bosses. After levelling up, picking up all sorts of weapons and talismans in the towns you visit along the way, you enter various castles where you have three big fights with some of the most annoying enemies in the game before facing off against the main enemy, usually a witch or a sorcerer. You play as Jack and Ryu, t

I play some classic Gauntlet . You've never seen such bravery.

An unlikely favourite comic-book movie of mine growing up was Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze , the 1975 big-screen adaptation of the old Lester Dent pulp magazines. I was later surprised to learn that, not only did the film receive negative reviews and failed at the box-office upon its release but the French dub inexplicably gave Ron Ely a lisp. Don't ask, I don't know... While the film tries to stay true to the character of Doc Savage and his story in the comics, it also keeps a tongue-in-cheek tone throughout, occasionally poking fun at the dated nature the pulp hero. This might have confused audiences back in the day who may have expected a more earnest action film, sort of like how Last Action Hero didn't do well with reviewers who weren't expecting a flood of in-jokes. But although Doc Savage has its cartoonish moments, it's not really a spoof and it captures the spirit of the titular hero and his adventures rather well. Doc Savage is given his own patri

After the original Star Wars trilogy, somehow the idea of an Ewok spin-off got tossed around and eventually became a thing. As if Return Of The Jedi didn't have enough puppets and furry creatures, we were then graced with not one but two made-for-TV movies all about the Ewoks. And of course I rented the hell out of those movies as a kid because... I was unhinged, I guess. Of course the point was to select some kid-friendly characters from the movies and give younger viewers something to keep them quiet at home post-Star Wars but, as we all know, kids would have probably much preferred a Boba Fett spin-off or, at the very least, some show about C-3PO and R2-D2 getting into all sorts of wacky adventures. But no: we got Ewoks and a mostly unwatchable Holiday Special. Thanks. Luckily, the blandly titled Caravan Of Courage: An Ewok Adventure , which was somehow released in theatres in Europe, at least had some sort of story and dialogs a human could understand. On the o

During the late 80's/early 90's, Kevin Costner could do no wrong. So it's no surprise he was cast as Robin Hood in this 1991 blockbuster despite the actor not having an English accent in the slightest or having any interest in even attempting one. I guess this was only a few years after we all accepted Sean Connery as an Egyptian from Spain in Highlander so an American Robin Hood probably didn't sound like too crazy of an idea. Incidentally, Sean Connery does cameo in this movie as King Richard the Lionheart. Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves is one of those movies that really should not work and yet does mostly thanks to the fact it's a shameless, mindless blockbuster with enough cheese and ham to entertain even the most stubborn viewer. The familiar tale of Robin Of Loxley and his gang of misfits is told without many surprises but what it lacks in unpredictability it makes up for in gusto. Kevin Reynolds' movie follows Robin's journey from prisoner

Since Jurassic World has kick-started more dinosaur talk than ever recently, why not check out my review of the game We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story on the Sega Genesis? Only on 1MoreCastle.com .

Disney's new expensive venture Tomorrowland , which is based on their very own theme park attraction, was all set to become a brand new Pirates Of The Caribbean money machine with early word-of-mouth being positive and released stills looking pretty good. Sadly, the film flopped and that even ended up costing us Tron 3 . Add to that critics not exactly raving about it after the film's international release and you've got yourself another big disappointment for the Mouse House. You'd think that spending $200M on the likes of The Lone Ranger and John Carter would have taught the company some restraint but no. Once again, here we have a relatively enjoyable kids' movie with fab visuals but not much else. The idea of a parallel dimension with some perfect futuristic utopia that may not be all that perfect after all was a good one and the ambition director Brad Bird brings to the table is commendable. You can tell there was a genuine attempt here to take the far

Created by prolific manga mastermind Go Nagai, the man responsible for the likes of Grendizer and Violence Jack , Devilman was a popular 70's anime which, in 2004, saw itself get made into a full-blown live-action adventure. On paper, this sounded like it could have gone either way: either the film was going to be ludicrous and cartoonish or a dark, Casshern -style epic. The result, strangely, was a bit of both. The film opens much like a typically emo high school drama where a couple of friends are dealing with clichéd groups of bullies, until we realise that demons exist and one of them inhabits our lead character Akira (Hisato Izaki). As it turns out, his weirdo friend Ryo (Yusuke Izaki) was already a demon himself and a demonic take-over is underway by all sorts of winged ghouls. Then, the film goes insane and turns into an apocalyptic disaster movie in which demons are invading and turning the Earth inside out. Obviously, the weight of all of this ends up resting on Aki

Based on a series of light novels and a manga, R.O.D: Read Or Die sounded awesome, on "paper" at least. The plot was something akin to a bookworm school teacher/special agent known The Paper (hence the above pun) fighting off weird super-powered bad guys over books under the US President's orders as some Beethoven manuscripts could end up being the key to building a 9th Symphony weapon that makes people kill themselves The Happening -style. In a word: nonsense. But it sounded like the kind of steampunky nonsense I could get behind. Remember The Amazing Screw-On Head ? The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen ? Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow ? I like all that stuff and I was looking forward to R.O.D introducing us to a crazy, messed-up world where Thomas Edison flies blimps, shooting carrots at robot penguins or something to that effect. The result was, indeed, appropriately absurd but not quite as joyfully so as it promised to be. The animated feature isn'

An early-ish Hayao Miyazaki effort, Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind  followed The Castle Of Cagliostro and was based on one of his own mangas and, although it was produced pre-Studio Ghibli, it opened the door for more classic anime features from the legendary director. The film is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi adventure in which a princess called Nausicaa, who flies around in a weird little portable surf glider... thing and has a special bond with nature, becomes Earth's saviour in the middle of a potentially devastating conflict. Her people are taken over by the Tolmekian kingdom who are planning to use some weapon to destroy all the mutated giant insects in the land. Nausicaa, whose father is killed in the struggle, sets out to stop this disaster since pissing off the insects would only result in yet another global disaster. The last of which was caused, you've guessed it, by Man's greedy bullshit. As you can tell, this plot's all pretty environment-themed, whic

Don't you just love early 90's anime features that are completely and utterly, unapologetically insane? I do! 1991's Psychic Wars is the story of a surgeon, Ikuyo, who removes a tumour from an old woman's body only to find that the "cancer" itself is not only alive but is, in fact, an ancient demon entity that dates back 5000 years. Ikuyo finds the remains of an ancient city (good thing it was nearby) when he somehow gets these Green Lantern-style superpowers which allow him to defeat the evil blob and travel back to Earth's past in order to fight and defeat all those demons which are threatening to travel to the future and take over the world. Ikuyo's powers include glowing, jumping really high, breathing underwater, not dying when stabbed several times, making weapons appear out of thin air and punching demons in the balls like a badass. Luckily, for an army of mighty demons, there really aren't that many of them so Ikuyo's job isn'

Remember when that movie came out? How excited we were? I know I was! A perfectly cast Angelina Jolie playing the one game character EVERY geek fantasized about in a full-blown action adventure flick? Finally? I couldn't wait. Then I watched it... I hadn't been this disappointed in a video game movie since Street Fighter and at least that one was enjoyable in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way, it was entertaining at the very least! Not that this Tomb Raider outing is completely joyless: there is a sense that they were trying to make a fun movie complete with loads of action, playful one-liners and comic relief characters (both of which are awful here, by the way) but somehow it managed to completely miss the point. It's really quite simple: what Tomb Raider should be is nothing more than a modern Indiana Jones with a quietly badass female lead and cool, cartoonish villains. Yet this movie finds it necessary to spend no less than 40 minutes building exposition f