2016’s biggest game-turned-movie flies home, two Nintendo franchises return, and a sweet swath of 1980s movies hit Blu-ray amongst this week’s new Amazon items!
Wow, August has been flying by! Even though it’s felt like the Olympics have gone on forever (and we caught the fever with our Olympics-themed episode), there are plenty of other awesome things to watch and play that aren’t high-level international sports. Like what, you ask? How about a new Metroid, a high-end racing game, the first-ever iPhone game-turned movie, or a handful of old-school hits finally on Blu-ray? What else? Oh yeah, if you have an Amazon Prime subscription, you’ll save 20% on new or pre-order retail games we link to (read: not digital codes). Why wait for a deep discount when you get one at launch?! Anywho, here’s this week best new games and movies!
Hey, we’re getting a new Metroid game this week? Why isn’t anyone celebrating?! Oh, that’s right. It’s been a decade since there’s been a great Metroid game (sorry, Other M), so the reveal of a new Metroid Prime as a multiplayer shooter is a bit of a kick to the Justin Baileys. Still, I have a sliver of hope for this portable intergalactic adventure. Next Level Games has proven to be pretty adept at giving new life to old Nintendo franchises like Punch-Out and Luigi’s Mansion (and they made one of my favorite Wii games ever in the form of Mario Strikers Charged), so I’m holding out hope that this dependable developer can keep their streak intact with this shooter. You can save some Galactic Credits (or whatever they spend in the Metroid world) by using Amazon Prime and saving 20% off Federation Force’s retail price!
Speaking of dependable developers, even if you’re unfamiliar with the name Syn Sophia, the creators of Style Savvy have a very strange origin; they used to be Aki, creators of the Nintendo 64’s best WCW and WWF wrestling games! Over the last decade, however, they’ve shifted away from wrestling into fashion, and the results have been good with the two previous Style Savvys (Styles Savvy?) getting good reviews on the DS and 3DS. If you get this game on Amazon and you have a Prime membership, you’ll save 20%. Good deals never go out of style!
It’s the Olympics of car racing! I think? I’d give my manual carburetor to get Grimm to tell my why F1 is so important, but I can confirm that it is important. If you want the speediest IRL cars on the most beautiful IRL tracks, F1 2016 is your new-gen license to drive. Even with new Gran Turismo and Forza games waiting at the starting line, you cannot doubt F1 2016’s authenticity in getting real racers and cars in one of the world’s premiere motorsports. You can also hit the road on Microsoft’s system, as F1 is on Xbox One. Regardless of which console lane you’re in, you’ll save 20% if you’ve got Amazon Prime!
Oh boy, is my (baby) face red. We just did an episode of Vidjagame Apocalypse about games starring babies, and we forgot indie darling Among The Sleep from 2015 (though the star is more a toddler than . While it released on PlayStation 4 via download last year, if you want this first-person game with a babby via retail, you can pick it up via Amazon now that it comes in a box. Best of all, since it’s now a physical release, Among the Sleep is among the games that you can get for 20% off if you are among the subscribers to Amazon Prime!
Earlier this year, we did a Laser Time on video games-turned-movies, and it turned out that The Angry Birds Movie is one of the highest-ranked games-to-movies ever! That’s mostly due to an extreme lack of competition, but it’s hard to argue with a cast featuring Danny McBride, Jason Sudeikis, and Maya Rudolph, even if nobody involved is putting their best effort forward since it’s a movie about an app that everyone stopped playing about two years ago. I bet it’s perfectly serviceable as far as non-Pixar/Disney 3D animated movies go. Perhaps one day, I’ll sit little Diamond Dog Dave Rudden Jr down by the holovision and stream The Angry Birds Movie on Trumpflix (the state-mandated only remaining streaming service in 2025) and chuckle a few times as he enjoys the story of Yellow Bird, Red Bird, and Black Bird.
Now here’s a movie I can gab about! The Burbs is what I like to call “Tom Hanks’ last comedy.” After he ruled the 80s with amazing films like Big, Dragnet, and (also out on Blu-ray this week) Money Pit, Mr. T. Hanks moved to more serious roles. In the 90s and onward, he’d do dramas tinged with comedy, as well as unsuccessful comedic roles like Joe vs. The Volcano and Ladykillers, but The Burbs is prime Hanks, featuring a slightly outlandish premise (a house occupied by weirdos and an equally eccentric group of neighbors who investigate them) and lots of thinks for Hanks to shout at. While he’s certainly done some great work in his various Oscar-winning roles, I might give this disc a spin to remember Tom’s earlier work that was just about the laughs.
While I relish re-watching The Burbs, I worry about booking another trip to The Great Outdoors. John Candy plus any SNL/SCTV alum was the perfect equation back in the 1980s, whether it be Bill Murray in Stripes or perennial SNL host Steve Martin in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (which you can get a Laser Time commentary for on via Patreon), but I recently talked with Chris about this very film, which he described as a precursor to Adam Sandler’s myriad movies about nothing that just seem to be excuses for exotic vacations with his friends and not the spiritual successor to PT&A that I remembered in my mind. Either way, if you’ve got fond memories of Candy’s old work, you might find The Great Outdoors pretty… er… great.
UPCOMING VIDEO GAME PRE-ORDER BONUSES
SPECIAL ALERT! IF YOU HAVE AMAZON PRIME, YOU GET 20% OFF MOST PRE-ORDERS! KEEP THAT IN MIND WHEN BUYING THROUGH US!
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
-Pre-order Deus Ex: Mankind Divided to obtain all the following items: Covert Agent Packs, Digital OST Sampler, Extra In Game Mission and Digital Books
Kingdom Hearts III
Gears of War 4
Mafia III
-Pre-order from Amazon.com today and get the and get the “Family Kick-Back” incentive, which includes 3 custom themed cars and weapons, which have a high value with in-game benefits.