Picks for March and April 2013

The past few months have been a busy time for me.  At first I was going to skip a picks of the month for March but instead I decided to include it with April's picks.

So without further ado, here are my entertainment picks for March and April.

Movies:


ParaNorman is the tale of a young boy with the mysterious gift of being able to communicate with the dead. Of course the public, his peers at school, and even his family at home think of him as a weirdo who does these acts out of attention. It's later revealed through his estranged creepy uncle that he has this ability because his bloodline is charged with keeping a witches curse at bay annually.

I can't talk much more about the story because I don't want to spoil anything. I'll just say that in the end there are some nice lessons about trust, understanding and the need for communication.

But the real reason I loved the flick was because I'm a sucker for stop motion animation and this is some of the most top notch work I've ever seen. In the beginning I wasn't entirely sure it was stop motion or CGI. That's a testament to just how smooth the animation is in this film.

I highly recommend it for all ages, for the story and for the top notch animation and effects.

Handheld games:

Mega Man 3 as well as Mega Man 4 have been released on the Nintendo 3DS eshop. Both are perfect ports of the original nes titles. As with Mega Man 2, I couldn't resist having perfect portable versions of some of my favorite games of all time. The ability to create save states makes password management a breeze, because well, you don't have to do that anymore!

Console games:

I eventually finished Mass Effect 3 and am now working on Mass Effect 1.  Strange order to play them in I know, but when I initially played the first Mass Effect when it first released I didn't enjoy the experience.  Combat is definitely not as fluid as in 2 and 3 and the equipment/upgrade menu can get pretty tedious. Thankfully the story is top notch as expected though. It also helps that I actually care a lot for the characters this time around thanks to the time I spent with them on 2 and 3. I'm glad I'm giving part 1 a second chance. Can't wait to take my character through all 3 games.

Thanks for reading, until next month!