Last week I finished Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. It was the third installment of the Castlevania series on the Game Boy Advance, but it was widely considered the definitive game for the system (Source: Wikipedia). I decided I’d start with this one. I haven’t played a Castlevania game before, and my only other Metroidvania experience was Metroid Fusion, which I didn’t beat and will have to return to at some point.

Drunken Master was one of Jackie Chan’s breakout roles from 1978. It is acclaimed as one of the original and best martial arts comedies created. It was directed by Yuen Woo-ping, who would eventually be the choreographer for the Matrix and Kill Bill series. Basically, I’m trying to say I had a lot of expectations going into the movie.

After finishing it, I thought it was a fun and charming movie. Jackie Chan made the movie very enjoyable to watch; he was so fluid in his stunts and very expressive. I watched a video that talked about how Jackie said his acting style is inspired by silent actors like Buster Keaton, who heavily used expressions. The plot was nonsensical but enjoyable. It’s cool seeing where future kung fu movies drew inspiration from (for example, Kung Fu Panda). We watched it as an English dub, and usually I’m not a fan of dubs, but the quirkiness of it added to the fun.

A lot of my video game playing lately has been on portable consoles, mainly the 3DS, DS and Gameboy Advance SP. In playing these games, I’ve grown a greater appreciation for game cartridges. It’s beautiful when you think about it, the entire game and save in a removable and highly portable form factor. I’m also amazed by the amount of content they fit in some of these games. The tricks game developers used to show depth and detail in such “weak” systems, especially the GBA, are so cool.