Ghost Mike (Cartoon Karma)

My Top 9 games, consisting largely of formative games rather than judging purely on quality. Includes Pokémon Crystal, Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, New Super Mario Bros., Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart Ds, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Kirby Planet Robobot.

Like some others, for the 9 Games trend, I opted for formative experience rather than purely quality. Healthy mix of a genre/series' intro, personal favourite/best of some series that left many warm memories, or other sentimental reasons. Still not fully sure, but it looks reasonable.

my9games.com

My last game purchase before COVID (though I didn’t start it until a couple of weeks later). I remember it well. Quite a memory to tie a game to! 😅

A ★★★ review of Hoppers (2026) Well, it's a Pixar film whose script isn't falling apart at the seams, at least. Exposition and plot threads are set up plenty fine without being super obvious about it, anyway (after the rushed early...

Watched on March 1st 2026, full review on Letterboxd. (2/2) letterboxd.com/cartoonkarma...

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Hoppers (★★★) – In some respects a little more structurally sound then recent Pixar, though it absolutely never reconciles the straight and warped sides of its tone. The genial slice-of-life sincerity Daniel Chong brings from his past work helps, though only so much. (1/2)

Both as a kid and more recently as an adult, this was an absolute hoot, yeah. It knows the characters so well and gets great humour out of them acting as they do to each other (almost feels like early Kanto, but with later maturity and modulation). The rare episode focused on catching that excels.

A ★★★★ review of A Fistful of Dollars (1964) Having seen no other Sergio Leone, only scatterings of Eastwood, not many Westerns despite being a genre of hefty interest, and most crucially of all, not Kurosawa's Yojimbo that this film is, so peop...

Watched for Alternate Ending Fill Your Blind Spot, Western Movies Edition, on February 22nd 2026, full review on Letterboxd. (2/2) letterboxd.com/cartoonkarma...

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A Fistful of Dollars (★★★★) – Definitely some kinks, but the confidence with which this turns the Western amoral, coupled with that music and Eastwood’s modulated swagger, make for quite the setter of the genre's turn towards nihilism. Uncredited Yojimbo copy and all. (1/2)

Double the reviews now, and still the same 24:1 ratio (though a weighted score of 89 now). Could be the series' highest-rated Metascore ever (current is Y with 88, followed by several Gen 4-7 entries with 87)!

New bug found in the Generation III games on GBA If you're familiar with the inner mechanics of the Generation III games, then you'll almost certainly know that the Legendary Beasts and Eon duo don't have it easy, being subject to two big bugs. For one, if you had the sense to trap Entei or Raikou, you'd quickly find out it wasn't a smart move: they would disappear from the game forever if they used Roar to end the battle. This was fixed in the recent Switch rereleases of Pokémon FireRed and... Read more

New bug found in the Generation III games on GBA #pokémon

@dodgycur.bsky.social Dunno if you’ll want to use this, not that you’ve upskilled and and near-ways ahead of the chat delay what streaming this game, but thought you’d want to see about this anyway.

This has me crying in real life 😂😂😂

🦁

I’m curious; have you ever shared the story of how Dogasu became your favourite Pokémon and your site mascot? If you have, I haven’t come across it before myself.

All inserts plus discs of retro games pickups of Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader and Quantum Redshift. Rogue Leader had some felt marker writing on the disc and manual, plus a pre-owned sticker on the manual.

All inserts plus cartridges of retro game pickups of Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and Super Pokémon Rumble, down to a Nintendo Club Points card unscratched.

Little annoyed I didn’t check and seeing the manual/disc writing plus manual sticker on Rogue Leader until I got home, but sure, game was cheap, not something to lose sleep over. Will keep in the back pocket to upgrade down the road.

Pickup of retro video games, all Complete in Box, including Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (GCN), Picross DS (DS, Sealed), Rayman Origins (X360) and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated (Switch).

Pickup of retro video games, all Complete in Box, including Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GCN), Quantum Redshift (XB), Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia (DS), and Super Pokémon Rumble.

Been on a roll of retro game pickups lately, 14 this year already. 2nd pic is from a retro game fair last weekend (first privately from one who turned out to be a vendor there). Wish I’d bought more, the indecisiveness was ever-present, but I loved the event, and am very satisfied with my pickups. 😇

A ★★★★ review of Tarzan (1999) To rewatch the back half Disney Renaissance films nowadays, while overwhelmingly a positive blessing (Pocahontas excepted, every one of them benefits hugely from comparison to our contemporary competi...

Rewatched via repertory cinema screening on February 21st 2026, full review on Letterboxd. (2/2) letterboxd.com/cartoonkarma...

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Tarzan (★★★★) – Closest thing to a truly underrated 90s Disney flick. Not as much transcendent as some others, but it minimises the 90s kids schtick more than most and better melds Disney sentimentality to the story's myth. Plus it's a visual feast, Deep Canvas on down. (1/2)

A ★★★½ review of Snow Bear (2024) As easily excitable as it can be when a formal industry 2D animator of the Disney mould (usually of Disney, though not always) makes their own labour of love short film, the results can be dubious in ...

Watched on February 15th 2015, full review on Letterboxd. (2/2) letterboxd.com/cartoonkarma...

Snow Bear (★★★1/2) – As labour of love short films from former Disney animators go, this one transitions very well. Not trying to break away, just tell a warm, sentimental story with no burden of executive notes. Exquisite draftsmanship on full display. (1/2) @aaronblaiseart.bsky.social

A ★★★★ review of Porco Rosso (1992) As one of the few Ghibli Miyazaki flicks I hadn't seen (only The Wind Rises left to go), I perhaps had a slightly skewed view of the purported abnormality of this one. It's certainly an outlier in his...

Watched via Brit Bronies Movie Night on February 19th 2026, full review on Letterboxd. (2/2) letterboxd.com/cartoonkarma...

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Porco Rosso (★★★★) – Blends its romantic, adventure and pensive tones wonderfully, mixing Golden Age Hollywood text with as soulful a self-portrait as Miyazaki possibly ever did. Great animation of the squishy lead, plus an awestruck depiction of aviation, round it out. (1/2)

Another big difference between the original and the dub – Pokémon in Japan has access to basically the whole Tokyo pool of voice talent, while the dub just had the New York pool, or even worse, just the actors 4Kids stuck to. And you can REALLY tell with one-off characters in Johto especially.

A ★★★★ review of Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025) Rare is the film about childhood that is truly innocent and pure yet utterly profound and not at all condescending, such that it's really more for adults. Yet Little Amélie joins that rare club not on...

Watched on February 14th 2025, full review on Letterboxd. (2/2) letterboxd.com/cartoonkarma...

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Little Amélie (★★★★) – The rare film about childhood that's totally innocent and pure yet not condescending at all, enhanced wonderfully by the no-line character design, animation and colour palette capturing the malleable moods through, without ever feeling showoff-y. (1/2)

HOT FUZZ was released 19 years ago today. The second entry in Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy and one of the most beloved British comedies this century, the tale of how it was made is like firing two guns whilst jumping through the air…

1/46

Totally cool, any bit of insights from you at your own pace – especially where we get the episode-by-episodes takes, which are often one of the highlights of the Episode Comparisons themselves – are worth it in my book. And you're very good at grabbing trivia for them too!

@dodgycur.bsky.social I saw this, thought, “ooh, it’s be very timely to tag Dodj for this, the game currently on stream rotation”. Then I saw I’m only seeing this in the first place because you reposted it in the first place. 😅 But hey, works out either way!

This style of light doesn't really appear in animation anymore. You know it when you see it -- it's bright, hot and almost dangerous.

Our new issue explores the tricks behind it, and how one artist has revived the look for the digital age: animationobsessive.substack.com/p/dangerous-...

A ★★★½ review of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2024) Very tempting to give oneself to bootlicking gratitude pieces that we got this film at all, especially when it mysteriously never reached the British Isles during Ketchup Entertainment's saintly rescu...

Watched on February 7th 2026 (theatrically), full review on Letterboxd. (2/2) letterboxd.com/cartoonkarma...

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The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie - (★★★1/2) – Not free of nitpicks (some moderate, most minor) but awfully likeable, and threads the needle between tribute and its own thing very nicely (the deep cuts are glorious). Plus, it's just funny, no reservations. (1/2)

Moments like this where you find out greater contextual lore for design choices like this are always neat. Especially when they’re as bizarre (if still explainable, in a way) as this.