get real

When adapting a cult-classic book with a very rampant fanbase into a major motion picture, you would think that an adaption from book-to-film would at least be a bit more faithful to its source material. Watching this film directly after reading the first of the series was like watching somebody try to give me the basic gist of the book in 5 minutes or less, while somebody behind them who had never read the book before screamed interjections randomly on how they believe they could have improved it. This film takes no time to establish atmosphere, characters, and an overall sense of urgency. Each character is introduced in a blurb-like-state where you are given at least 30 seconds of them saying "Oh hey, yeah this character is egotistical" and that becomes their defining personality instead of taking the time to develop a proper complex and 3-Dimensional character. This movie takes crucial and important scenes from the book and entirely cuts them, or splices them in for a total of 15 seconds to favor their own personal fan fiction. The entire subplot of Zaphod having to get the coordinates of Magrathea from his rival in the presidential election, and then consequently getting Trillian kidnapped by the Vogons was the most miserable 25 minutes of my life, and only opened up another unnecessary plot that is never resolved in-film. At first, I was a bit more understanding of the movie. I understood that time constraints were a very real thing- there was no way they could have done the book word-for-word. But after watching multitudes of pointless scenes talking about Arthur and Trillian's love life (which was never mentioned in the book outside of a quick flashback) and an entirely separate plot, there was no longer an excuse. The book definitely takes a backseat to the adaptation, getting to the point where things are explained so poorly there is no way you could have understood his film fully if you had never read the book before. At the end of the film, it almost becomes self-aware on how bad they had done, tying the story up in a nice little bow with all the problems magically fixed (minus Zaphod getting his second head back) and Arthur getting the girl of his dreams as if they knew that The Restaurant at The End of The Universe wouldn't get adapted after this Early-2000's-Teenage-Girl-Tumblr-Blogger-Fever-Dream-Dr-Who-Fanfiction-look-a-like. The only reason this isn't getting a complete 1 star is because I enjoyed the adaptation of Marvin, as he was the only character 100% on point, and the remembrance of the Scintillating Jewelled Scuttling Crabs. If you want a faithful and well-paced adaptation, watch the 80's show. The effects are cheesy, but it's fun to watch and go, "Hey! I remember that!" Which is what this film should have been in the first place

This is quite honestly, the best game I have played in years. It's extremely reminiscent of DoubleFine games, and it gave me that same sort of warmness and attachment to characters that games like Psychonauts and Grim Fandango gave me. The characters are all incredible and unique, with designs that are diverse and never repeated for the sake of simplicity, everyone is 3 dimensional and have personalities that parody popular music industry tropes, but rival them with their interesting backstories and intricate story telling methods. Each stage is personalized to the NSR Artist you're up against, which makes each level design entirely different than the last, and SO visually interesting. The soundtrack is incredible, the composers are all extremely talented individuals and I found myself playing the soundtrack while I did other activities or drove to work. It's obvious that lots of care and love was put into designing the music for this game, which makes sense for it's nature. It also has great replayability, unlocking new and harder modes to fight previous bosses in, and can work towards achieving an S rank and fully completing the skill-tree to your characters abilities. I'm personally still trying to get all the S ranks.. but it's a fun challenge! The only real issue I have with the game at the moment is it's handful of bugs and glitches, while they don't happen.. too often, when they do it is annoying. It's frustrating when you will somehow fall out of a stage entirely mid-battle, or have the audio for a character not work at all. But even when I say that, I honestly didn't mind it too much, most glitches happen when pursuing a higher rank like an S score, as the "crazy" stages I saw had more of these problems. All in all, despite it's current flaws, No Straight Roads is an amazing AMAZING game. It had me fully engaged and I found it extremely difficult to just put down, the characters, story, music, and gameplay all tie together to make an amazing visual and auditory experience that I'm finding myself playing over and over again. Please, if you're on the fence about buying this game and are reading and watching reviews, I was in the same boat you were, and I promise that if you do purchase this game, any expectations you have are going to be blown out of the water. It truly is a wonderful game, and I promise you'll think it is too.