#but man mega mix could have been a great way to stabilize the project diva series to one game

[genericpuff]

I'm torn between wanting Sega and Crypton to go fully scorched earth and just make Project Diva Mega Mix+ into a community-supported game with custom beatmaps and songs (similarly to that of Osu) knowing fully well that would never happen due to all the copyright and gameplay issues that would arise (it would be such a stripped down version of the game that it wouldn't even be Project Diva anymore) and just wanting them to release another paid DLC pack some day which also likely will never happen because dev support for Mega Mix+ is basically dead.

The songs packed with Mega Mix+ are great, I've found a lot of new favorites through it as well, but inevitably I'll still wind up dropping the game when I either hit my skill ceiling or simply lose interest in trying to perfect the same limited number of songs, and that bums me out because it is a very fun game, but it's severely limited by the restrictions that arise by its curated-only track design.

Like, 251 tracks (if you have all the DLC) sounds like a lot until you realize that only a third of them might be fun to play and despite so many legacy songs being available - Love is War, World is Mine, Rolling Girl, etc. - there are a lot of others that are strangely missing as well. Ievan Polkka and Hato are nowhere to be found despite being in prior titles thanks to copyright disputes. Matryoshka and Echo are both songs that have been covered to death by the Vocaloid community precisely because of how iconic they are, but of course they aren't even in the DLC packs. Despite Kasane Teto and Akita Neru being present as customizable characters, they don't really have any songs to show for their presence; they feel more like the obligatory fanservice cameo which I can understand to some degree considering they're from the UTAU cast and aren't as massively known characters as Miku and the Kagamine twins, but you're telling me the devs got as far as including the OG UTAU trio of Teto, Neru, and Haku, and didn't think for a second to include Triple Baka as a playable song??? 💀😭

There damn well better be some legal reason they couldn't include it because I won't take "the song is cringe" as an excuse, y'all put the Miku cover of Nyan Cat in there LMAO

I will continue to dream of a day when I can play a Project Diva beatmap for Bacterial Contamination. Or Panda Hero. Or Adventurous Girl & Miniature Garden Game. Shit, I'd even take Honey Honey at this point, at least the OG UTAUloid trio are in that one. Fifty years from now I'm gonna be in the fucking retirement home grumbling incoherent nonsense about Teto Territory and y'all can't stop me 😆

[robedisimo]

Spider-Man: Homecoming [SPOILER-FREE REVIEW]

[Disclaimer: this review is based on the Italian dub of the film. As such, all opinions on the quality of dialogues and acting are subjective and partial.]

I think it’s safe to say that if there’s an idea more instinctively wrong than a reboot, that has to be a reboot of a reboot. So when the Amazing Spider-Man franchise crashed and burned, many rightfully thought that the Spider-brand had become a minefield: the character is way too popular with audiences not to exploit, but a third origin story, retreading the same tired story beats at such a short interval, felt like a death sentence to all involved.

It’s the reason why resurrecting the property in the solid-footed house built by the Marvel Cinematic Universe made so much sense, and why people were instantly more excited than worried at the prospect. Could the MCU’s stability balance out the inherent toxicity of a franchise “threeboot”? The character’s debut in last year’s Captain America: Civil War seemed to suggest as much, but a solo film is a different matter entirely.

Fortunately, I’m happy to report that all is well in the House of Ideas. Under its roof, Spider-Man: Homecoming not only brings the wall-crawler back home to reconnect him to the comic roots of his past, but projects him with gusto into a promising future. Firmly planting itself on the top tier of Marvel film adaptations, Homecoming is made better by its MCU connections and in turn makes the shared universe itself better by taking place in it. It is, surprisingly, the best Spider-Man movie to date – while obviously not as archetypal as Sam Raimi’s seminal first adaptation way back in 2002 – and I  wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up becoming many viewers’ new favourite movie in the Marvel Studios canon.

What’s clear from this film is that Marvel had a lot of ideas as to how to do Spider-Man right, resulting in one of the more inventive takes on the character ever committed to screen. The key, however, was to take Peter Parker back to his native environment: a coming-of-age story in a high school environment, with a teen-drama flavour that makes the storytelling more intimate. This is a younger Spider-Man than we’re used to see on film, cobbled together as an inspired amalgam of different incarnations of the character in recent years, most notably both iterations of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic franchise and the short-lived Spectacular Spider-Man television show.

There are three main consequences to this: one, this is a more energetic film than even the already-lively standards of Marvel movies so far have made us used to. This new Spider-Man hits theatre screens with a definite spring in his step, delivering a peppy, fast-talking adventure whose comedic focus has more in common – ironically appropriate, given the obvious insect-themed parallels – with Ant-Man’s Edgar Wright-esque cues than any other MCU instalment so far. What’s more, the tone here is young and hip but not juvenile: pretty much all jokes in the film land successfully, and it’s hard to resist the temptation to consider the whole project Marvel’s attempt at a cleaner, more family-friendly (and high-budget) version of the same irreverent, franchise-referencing metahumour of last year’s Deadpool, especially in light of a couple idiosyncratic choices in the end credits graphics and post-credits scenes.

Two, a younger Peter Parker means that his classic high school setting needs to be updated to a more contemporary approach. Queens is no longer the same New York City borough it was fifty years ago, now being hailed as the most ethnically diverse area in the American metropolis: the film’s cast has therefore accordingly been given a spin in the mixer, marrying modern needs of representation to yet another chance at differentiating this new reboot from previous renditions of the franchise. Spider-Man: Homecoming is a tapestry of all-race classrooms and bodega cats, and while it may feel a tad strange to comic purists – especially in the face of a couple debatable character choices – it’s hard to argue with the precise balance achieved by the film between looking back at comic tradition and moving forward into modernity.

And three, a younger Spider-Man means that, almost ten years into Marvel’s mega-franchise, we finally get to see a side of its narrative universe thus far mostly kept from our eyes. A more immature, less experienced Peter means lower stakes – there’s no “saving the planet” business in store for him yet, which is compensated by upping the ante on the personal and emotional stakes front – and a smaller scope: this is, finally, a “friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man”, one whose street-level adventures take place among the common people of the MCU. Through his eyes we’re finally able to take a look at how the superheroic age has changed the environment and culture of Marvelverse residents, something that wasn’t accomplished by the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series – whose characters are conspicuously never seen going about their daily lives outside the workplace – nor by the Marvel/Netflix shows, whose nature to this date remains too insular to indulge in heavy cross-over material.

Homecoming’s plot makes a point of that, musing on the remoteness of the Avengers-tier heroes and their status as little more than talking heads on television screens to most of the general population. These are the celebrities and divas of the Marvel universe, but times change; and as sci-fi technology starts finding its way to petty criminals rather than world-conquering masterminds, so too heroes need to keep an eye on the common folk. It’s an age of vigilantes and secret identities, something that’s been conspicuously absent from the MCU so far. Which, to be honest, makes me lament the fact that, if it weren’t for the obviously different levels of violence allowed in the two franchises – and Marvel constantly shooting itself in the foot with broken promises of deeper ties between the Netflix line-up and the rest of the canon – it would be pretty great to see this Spider-Man go toe-to-toe with Daredevil’s Kingpin.

So it’s especially fitting that this new generation of heroes should be heralded by such a young Peter Parker, literally a second-generation character who grew up in the brave new world of superheroes and was inspired by their costumed exploits – to the point where putting together a colourful crime-fighting getup feels like the natural thing to do to a teenager who just got superpowers. Marvel evidently knows this, as they made the thematically perfect choice to turn Iron Man into Peter’s mentor: Tony Stark is arguably the least “adult” of Marvel heroes, characterised as he is by a dangerous obsession with high-tech toys and a general inability to get his emotional life together. His immaturity is a great counterpoint to Peter’s classic – and fantastically understated, in this origin story-skipping reboot – theme of responsibility, and his wish for the next generation to be better than the previous one leaves me with high hopes for Spider-Man’s future role in the Avengers franchise.

Of course, the other (read: primary) reason for adding Tony to the mix was the obvious added traction Robert Downey Jr.’s involvement would add to the movie, but then who could complain about that? Especially as his supporting role stands in the midst of one of Marvel’s most star-studded casts to date, from the film’s young protagonists – Holland’s take on the character is sufficiently fresh that it doesn’t invite comparisons to Maguire or Garfield, but he’d win in both cases – to Marisa Tomei’s excellent take on aunt May, to a number of big and small cameos interspersed throughout the story.

A particular nod must go to Michael Keaton, here finally coming full-circle and playing a literal Birdman: his portrayal of Adrian Toomes/the Vulture is a heavily reworked take on the comic character that works remarkably well, for the most part avoiding the disappointing treatment of many Marvel movie villains. His performance in the role is in many ways an extension of his excellent turn in last year’s The Founder, and in part an ironic counterpoint to Ant-Man’s Darren Cross, another technological villain harbouring a grudge towards our protagonist’s superhero mentor. It’s a bit of a shame that a couple of Toomes’s best scenes in the film seem designed to directly pay homage to Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn, which makes the character a shade less unique, but for the most part it all works.

What works slightly less well is the film’s action, which alternates inconsistently between excellent, creative set pieces and some inventive but rather chaotic stuff – at least on a theatre screen – near the climax, due both to overwhelming visual effects and some occasionally dodgy editing. I’d say about 75% of it clicks, but it’s a pity that the least-excellent action sequence is the decisive one. And, if you want to nitpick (why not), the plot honestly keeps itself together through a series of coincidences that would be pretty hard to believe in a realistic setting.

Other than that, Spider-Man: Homecoming is a superbly entertaining flick and a marvelous reintroduction to the character, paving the way for more great content in the near future. Who knows, maybe this could even cause something to change for the ill-fated Fantastic Four franchise. Only time will tell. 

[Verdict: VERY POSITIVE]