Pads & Panels

Best Games of 2010 – Honorable Mentions

Creating a Best of List for Pads & Panels is no easy task. It involves everyone putting in feedback, a get-together and copious amounts of drinking, when we argue our cases for what belongs where on the list. Inevitably, fantastic titles don’t make it to the top of the tower, and we’re left feeling bad for not honoring the enjoyment some of these games provided us throughout the year. So that’s where the Honorable Mentions come into play. These are the list of games that didn’t quite make our Top 10, but we think you should be playing them nonetheless. Plus, it’s always kind of fun to make our readers wonder, with titles this great on the honorable mentions list, what is going to make our Top 10. They are essentially our #11 through #20 picks, but are presented in no particular order. Enjoy! (more…)

Title: Smackdown: The Best of 2009-2010

Format: DVD

Studio: WWE Home Video

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

Smackdown: The Best of 2009-2010 provides just that, 20 of the best matches (as well as moments) from the 2009-2010 television season of Smackdown, which coincidentally celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2009. It starts with the “return” of the Rock (via satellite/pre-recorded message), who offers a disappointing tease that never came to fruition of a Raw hosting gig. And there’s no doubt the season was full of other big moments, such as Jack Swagger’s championship reign, Kane’s assault on the Undertaker and some solid matches, as well as the fantastic debut of Alberto del Rio. But what is left out is even more disappointing, such as Swagger’s diatribes after winning the title and Alberto del Rio’s promotional videos. Both of these would have made for fantastic special features, especially considering the space that could use filling in the supposed 9-hour running time of the three discs. (more…)

Title: Wolverine and the X-Men: Final Crisis Trilogy

Format: DVD

Written by: Craig Kyle, Greg Johnson, Chris Yost

Starring: Steve Blum, Jim Ward, Nolan North

Studio: Marvel Animation, Lionsgate

DVD Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

Lionsgate has strangely offered the first season of Wolverine and the X-Men in segments throughout this year and last, before finally offering a complete set. But the Final Crisis Trilogy – Vol. 6, containing the three-part “Foresight” story – goes to show why it’s not a great idea. One thing Wolverine and the X-Men handles extremely poorly is lead-ins from one episode to the next. The action simply continues to happen, and so to pick up this set after a break from the last is somewhat disconcerting. The plot features the X-Men battling to survive when The Inner Circle captures Jean Grey to harvest her Phoenix powers, while Magneto and Mystique launch a Sentinel attack on Genosha. Emma Frost is ambiguously caught in the middle of things, and Master Mold is using Professor Xavier in an attempt to execute all mutants in a mish-mash of stories taking place in two different time periods. It’s more confusing than fun, though the animation is solid, with audio commentary by Craig Kyle, Greg Johnson and Chris Yost doing more to be silly than offer any real info. The Final Crisis Trilogy is an example of too many cogs turning at once for its own good, and there’s no point in purchasing it out of the context of the rest of the season. (more…)

Okay readers aspiring to be writers, now is your chance. Pads & Panels is making a big push to expand coverage this year, and we’re looking for some new writers, specifically in New York, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Seattle and San Diego. As some of you may know, we’re a Chicago-based site, which is fun for us, except it makes it hard to reach some of the coverage opportunities that often come up in these areas, so we’re looking to bring a few more creative entertainment-oriented writers onto the staff. Please keep in mind, Pads & Panels is something we do purely for fun, so these are unpaid positions. They will, however, offer some passionate gamers, comics fans, movies aficionados and culture geeks some great opportunities to cover exciting events, and possibly products.

So if you’re interested, please let us know. Send us a brief email at after reading the ENTIRE post and tell us why we should bring you on the Pads & Panels staff. Also, please provide the following when you email us… (more…)

So when Matt and Archie aren’t putting their writing talents to good use here at Pads & Panels, the duo has been hard at work creating an awesome podcast every other week called Games Comics and Puppy Dogs (more affectionately known as GCPD) for their site, Mighty Ink Comics and Entertainment. It’s swell, and we’ve been promising for awhile now that we would start posting their episodes on a regular basis.

Well, it only figures that Matt and Archie had to practically bribe yours truly with a guest spot on the show this episode to finally get the job done. But that’s neither here nor there. The gents are celebrating the milestone of their 20th episode, and I joined them in the studio this week to see the magic unfold (and interject a few stupid lines of my own).

Along with a chance to win some cool prizes, the dynamic duo discusses LittleBigPlanet 2, Hothead Games, Capcom, a Spider-Man screen, Bruce Campbell and so much more. It’s an episode not to be missed…so we suggest you don’t miss it. You can listen to it streaming below, or visit the guys over at www.mightyinkcomics.com.

–Bill Jones

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Title: Bragging Rights 2010

Format: DVD

Studio: WWE Home Video

Review by: Bill Jones

Bragging Rights – another chance for a big tag battle squandered by World Wrestling Entertainment. The company’s annual event features a 7-on-7 tag team elimination bout between the rosters of Raw and Smackdown. But there are no great team ups, or interesting situations presented by the eliminations – only poorly handled storylines and bad wrestling. Meanwhile, Kane and Undertaker end the current incarnation of their brotherly battle in a disappointing Buried Alive match, and John Cena is forced to stand in Wade Barrett’s corner during a title match with Randy Orton. But when the announcers spend the last few minutes of the broadcast trying to explain what went down, the in-ring storytelling clearly isn’t getting the job done. (more…)

Title: Shaun of the Dead

Publisher: Titan Books

Screenplay by: Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright

Adapted by: Chris Ryall

Artist: Zach Howard

Rating:

Review by: Thomas Braaksma

Zombies seem to be eating away at every area of life these days. Television, movies, comics, classic books, video games, “zombie” walks and pub crawls have all infected society. One stand out title was the movie Shaun of the Dead, which took a comical look at an apocalyptic situation.

With The Walking Dead’s extremely successful comic book series and the growing popularity of the zombie genre, it appears the creators of Shaun decided to cash in on some of that zombie money with this 2010 comic book adaptation of the movie. (more…)

Title: Dead Rising 2: Case West

Platform: 360

ESRB: M

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Blue Castle Games

Rating:

Review by: Matt Peters

Frank West fans rejoice! Capcom’s latest DLC offering for the Xbox 360 unlocks the ability to step into the shoes of the man himself. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean the end of Chuck Greene, Dead Rising 2’s protagonist. In a new twist on the already established play mechanics, players will learn that Frank’s not just a survivor…he’s a badass.

Beginning almost exactly where the main game left off, our two heroes meet as Chuck is confronted with the now-undead boss of the main game. After an assist from Mr. West and a quick stare-down/chest pounding/grunt-off, the two quickly whisk away to a research lab AKA “a place to kill more zombies.” (more…)

Title: The John Cena Experience

Format: DVD

Studio: WWE Home Video

Rating:

Review by: Matt Peters

WWE fans are gluttons for punishment. The wrestling fed’s top star, John Cena, has been historically thrust upon the “WWE Universe” as this generation’s Stone Cold Steve Austin or Hulk Hogan. The response of the fans has been mixed, to put it lightly. Unfortunately, he just lacks the charisma the aforementioned legends had. With this new DVD set, WWE hopes to win over the holdouts and show why John Cena is a superstar who deserves your loyalty and respect. (more…)

Title: LittleBigPlanet 2

Platform: PS3

ESRB: E

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer: Media Molecule

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

How does a game developer follow up an effort that offered gamers virtually limitless gaming, in which the quantity and quality of ever-increasing community content has seemingly only been limited by the imaginations of the people creating it? That’s the question that faced Media Molecule after the release of the critically-lauded LittleBigPlanet.

On the campaign front, LittleBigPlanet provided gamers with arguably some of the best 2D platforming seen in years, with the addition of depth planes. But it was the custom creations that hooked the hardcore on LittleBigPlanet. For the creative types, the title offered console gamers the most extensive and streamlined set of creation tools ever seen. Better yet was the “Share” model of the game, which allowed gamers to easily publish these creations for others to play.

And so those simply looking to get their money’s worth had nothing to complain about with the amassing content, including developer-created packs. But with all of that content, it’s easy to ask the question – why do we need a sequel to LittleBigPlanet? What makes LittleBigPlanet 2 worthwhile? And the simple answer to that question is that the tools and possibilities have grown, as is the series fame, practically infinitely. (more…)