Netflix Retrospective: Iron Fist season 1 episodes 1-2 - Snow Gives Way/Shadow Hawk Takes Flight

Iron Fist is the last of the Marvel retrospectives I’ll be doing for the time being. I’ll be doing Voltron: Legendary Defender next but before we can get a half-decent show, this… Iron Fist is widely considered the worst of the Marvel Netflix shows and believe me, there’s good reasons for that. I’ve had only a little experience with Iron Fist in the comics.

He’s the guy who said “I fart mystic powers” unfortunately the jovial nature of the character is not captured here. Let’s talk about casting, some are upset that an Asian actor wasn’t cast, I get the hatred of white saviour narratives but it doesn’t bother me as much as the fact they cast an actor with minimal experience in martial arts as one of the most martial-arts based superheroes there is. But let’s not beat about the bush and dig into the first 2 episodes of Iron Fists. Because 2 episodes is all I can take.

Sequel Month - Ratchetrospective - Ratchet and Clank (2016)

I know this isn’t really a sequel but a reboot/movie tie-in game but it’s the next entry in the Ratchet and Clank series, and that’s enough for it to count for sequel month

Ratchet and Clank came out in April 2016 to positive reviews and decent sales, a polar opposite story to the movie it was tying into. Insomniac games are pros at this point but they were really up against the wall on this one, 8 months is the time they had to develop the core game, bearing in mind the Ratchet and Clank Movie debuted at a film festival in May 2015 and it could’ve gone to cinema at any point. The extra time had only a skeleton crew and was used to polish things up. The result is we have a budget title that, whilst more expensive than Insomniac’s previous budget titles, does feel more like a full game.

But, how does Ratchet and Clank hold up as a game? Well, let’s give it the Ratchetrospective treatment

Ratchetrospective: Ratchet: Gladiator (Deadlocked)

We’re here, ladies and gentlemen, the 4^th and final entry from the PS2-era. This one sparked some major changes, not all of them good ones, but before we get to look at that, let’s take a look at the story

Ratchetrospective: Ratchet and Clank 3 (Up Your Arsenal)

We’ve had 2 great entries from this action platformer, can the third one keep up the standard, let’s take a look at Ratchet and Clank 3.

Ratchetrospective: Ratchet and Clank

Welcome to the Ratchetrospective

Throughout the month of April (give or take a few days) I’ll be looking at the Ratchet and Clank games developed by the developer Insomniac Games (apologies for giving Size Matters the shaft but my PSP is non-operational at this point) in preparation for the Movie coming out this month. Here are my ground rules

1. This will be based on a single play through of the game, no challenge modes
2. These playthroughs will be from a new save file.
3. I will not be covering the movie tie-in game, I want to avoid spoiling that - although be aware the plot will have similarities to the first game
4. Spoilers will be covered in these reviews
5. I will not be completing all skill points and gold/platinum/titanium bolt missions; I will be getting all Zoni in a Crack in Time
6. I will not be exploring all the Insomniac Museums
7. I will not be getting 100% on Collectathon Missions (except for Nexus, since it’s a requirement for the RYNO)
8. I will not necessarily be completing all arena challenges
9. I will be completing all optional help the ranger challenges in Ratchet and Clank 3 
10. I will be completing all optional missions in Ratchet: Gladiator (Deadlocked)
11. Multiplayer modes will not be covered in depth
12. All games will be played Single Player – no co-op in Gladiator, All4One or Q-force

So, let’s dig into the one that started it all (and the one that inspired the movie) with Ratchet and Clank