All 2016 Game Reviews Now ModernTubed

For those who want to revisit some old shames, I’ve successfully uploaded all the 2016 game reviews onto Youtube with fancy new numbered title cards and some of them might have a couple edits here and there for niceness sake. The only exception is #500, because that already had the number and also it’s fine as is. The only relic I’ll keep around because it’s the milestone review.

Everything below the belt, however? That’s slowly, but surely gone… or soon to be.

By all means, check those vids out. 2016 is when some of this stuff actually gets to be somewhat decent (for once.)

Slow News Year

So we begin excluding discussion about a certain genre of entertainment for the month of June. The idea being to give that a rest… except how much that affect this blog when there hasn’t been much of it beyond the weekly Wednesday project that concluded?

I’ll be honest with you. There hasn’t been much to talk about in other fronts. Most of you following this blog know that I rarely touch on the current gen console scene. Price hikes due to prevailing circumstances and morons in office is not something that inspires long essays or anything like that. It sucks and it’s going to suck more when certain tariffs are removed and the prices stay up because we gotta make some profits.

Meanwhile, over at the classic gaming scene… new toys to play with, sure. Almost all of it overly expensive and, save for maybe one or two things, almost all of it is a flex. Things you don’t need, but would be nice to have. I’ve got a lot of vintage machines; some of these still work. Not quite the ideal “classic” experience, but they serve me well. And if all else fails, there’s always classic compilations on Switch or PC. And of course, the other avenue that needs not be mentioned because… well, you know… yarrrr.

Over at the comic front, there’s new event comics coming up that leave me uninspired. Movies and TV shows… none of which pique my interest. Honestly, I find myself watching old shit on either Prime Video or Youtube or whatever physical media I have at my disposal. Most of the stuff I have is infinitely rewatchable. Every so often, I can pull that out, give it a watch, have fun, put it back in the dock, and then a few months or so later, I might get a scratch to rewatch it. The quality of good media is not its resale value; it’s the replay. How much are you itching for another go?

I suppose I could on a series of posts dissecting why certain things that I used to take pleasaure and/or joy in no longer provide such things, but that would be too dreary a series at best and at worst, too cut and dry – some things, I lost interest in. Other things, a little more. I’ll try to be a bit more upbeat in my future writings, but as trends on the interwebs have proven time and time again, people love absolute misery and despair… and so does the global algorithms of the universe, it seems.

Thank goodness I don’t care for such things.

Oh wait…

And Then, There Was… Lightning Jack (1994)

I think it’s safe to say that Lightning Jack was where the Paul Hogan train started to stutter a bit. Sure, the guy hadn’t been in a whole bunch of movies and most people probably mostly know him for his two (at the time) Crocodile Dundee outings, but after Lightning Jack failed in the box office, the only other thing of note that he did before going back to the Croc 3 well is Flipper… you know, the dolphin? They made a bunch of stuff about that dolphin.

Please do not remake Flipper. Not because I have a soft spot for the fella. But because you’re just not any good at it.

For those who have not seen Lightning Jack – if you say you have, you’re probably lying – Paul Hogan stars as Lightning Jack, an outlaw from the outback who has a mute partner in Cuba Downing Jr. and they get into some shenanigans because neither outlaw is good at the whole outlaw thing. This leads to things like mute Ben (Downing) shooting himself in the foot and other hijinks. There’s bits of humor to be found here, Paul Hogan is once again a charming performer that makes Jack a likeable enough bloke that you want to see him succeed in being wanted. Downing did a fine job as the mute Ben with his mannerisms and expressions. And shit, their interactions and mishaps gave me laughs. I don’t care. Misery can be very funny in the right moments.

Here’s the thing with Lightning Jack that hurts the movie – it feels like a knockoff version of Crocodile Dundee. Doesn’t help matters that ol’ Jack Kane is only a few steps away from being another take on Mick Dundee, even if he is supposed to be another character entirely… one that’s on the opposite of the moral compass if you will. He looks too much like Mick Dundee except for those moments where you’re reminded that, “Oh wait, this isn’t Mick Dundee. It’s Lightning Jack.”

And yes, let’s get it out of the way. Lightning Jack’s plot is barebones and thin. There’s no substance to it, but then again, you’re not watching something like this for the plot; you’re mostly watching it for the mild comedy bits and action sequences. In the case of the former, the movie has its moments. In the case of the latter, it’s serviceable enough fare, but nothing too outlandish even within the realm of western parody.

It’s not the worst movie that I’ve ever seen, certainly nowhere near as bad as some critics would have you believe. There were a few laughs here and there, there’s more of that Paul Hogan charm, and the action bits, while not spectacular, were still fun bits, but Lightning Jack feels like a lesser version of Croc Dundee and probably explains why we didn’t get another Croc Dundee until two other guys wrote the thing. Neither good nor bad, it’s just okay.

Review #1327 – Shark! Shark! (Intellivision)

A video review of the almighty Intellivision classic, Shark! Shark!

Yes, so the first of several Intellivision reviews to be featured this month – closing a year-and-a-half long drought in that department. And also being played on the new Intellivision Sprint console… which means all that footage of the cart being inserted into the Intellivision II is just for show and means absolutely nothing… but hey, it’s the thought that count.

So I’m letting this go up earlier than usual because I figured, “Sure, why not?” That tends to happen every so often.

State Of The Blog – June 2026

First month of June… summer is around the corner and that means… nothing in particular. No wrestling posts and a tepid collection of video reviews before we end the month on a blue blur.

The week of June 27th to July 4th will be devoid of video content or anything remotely relevant, but it won’t be devoid of content period, as I’ll be posting a new Flash Fiction entry every day… by which I mean, this stuff was done months ago and will be published on a daily basis from the 27th to the 3rd. No content on the 4th of July because fuck our neighbors in the south for that week in particular before we go back to loving them again… or however we’re supposed to feel by the time that rolls around.

Anyhoo, more detailed update information after the break

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