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What do we want from an X-Men movie in 2016?

2016-05-27T10:32:27-04:00

Tasha: X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past felt like a big step forward for the X-films franchise. After so many grim, overcrowded stories pitting Charles Xavier and his mutant students against Magneto and his mutant-supremacist followers, suddenly there was a storyline that acknowledged the friendship between the two leaders, brought back some of the big metaphors that have defined the X-Men stories since their inception, and acknowledged that being a superhero could be exciting and cool, instead of a constant parade of terror and resentment. Then X-Men: Apocalypse took the story back a decade. Every gain made in DoFP between Professor X and Magneto is erased, there’s yet another generic villain out to destroy the world for clunky reasons, and even the fun stuff — like yet another slo-mo run-around from Quicksilver — is just reheated from the previous film. All it took is one movie, and now the X-franchise feels like it’s spinning its wheels again.

But the well is deep: the X-Men have been around since 1963, and their stories over the decades have covered so many themes, ideas, plots, and characters we’ve never seen in the movies. What do you think we’re missing out on as we watch the same signature characters fighting the same battles? What do you want out of your dream X-Men movie right now?

Bryan: I read more DC than Marvel growing up, so I’ve been in the (unfortunate?) position of experiencing X-Men as a movie series first, comic series second. When I went to see Bryan Singer’s first take in 2000, my hopes were pretty simple: just be better than Apt Pupil, please. I was shocked — and frankly, a little seduced — when I discovered a confident movie that was able to take comic book characters seriously, grounding them in a world of real stakes and resonant themes. Given the trend that followed, it seemed like Hollywood felt the same way.

My love affair continued unabated until Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand came along and broke everyone’s heart. In the films since, I haven’t been hoping for greatness as much as I’ve been bracing myself for potential disappointment. But that kind of expectation-lowering has benefits. It’s made solid films (First Class, DoFP) seem fantastic, and middle-of-the-road ones (The Wolverine) play like high-end entertainment. I’m not expecting X-Men: Apocalypse to be truly spectacular, and I’m not necessarily hungry for any specific new characters, either. I just want a consistent movie series, damnit, and if this can be the third installment in a row to deliver an ongoing serialized narrative without embarrassing itself, my faith will be restored. Maybe.

(20th Century Fox)

Alex: It would be nice to have an X-Men movie without Wolverine. Bless his swole heart, but there is no need to keep inserting Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine into X-Men movies. What’s been fascinating to me is how the other X-characters in the movies have been shortchanged over the last decade — Storm, Kitty Pryde, even Jean Grey — while Wolverine has been the de facto protagonist. It would be nice to see their emotional lives, too.

This probably explains why I loved First Class so much, even with its flaws — we got to see emotional depth given to characters not named Wolverine.

One of the strengths of the X-Men comics is that the characters are part of this adopted family, and they have complex relationships and beliefs that clash, complement, and contrast. These superheroes need each other as much as the world needs them. The movies often forget that.

“These superheroes need each other as much as the world needs them”

Kwame: I’m very much an X-Men: The Animated Series devotee when it comes to my personal love of the X-Men. The great thing about that series (other than the theme song) is that it told great character stories, and for me, the best X-Men stories showcase those truly unique characters. They needn’t have been the classic Chris Claremont ones — though how the cartoon handled the Dark Phoenix Saga is far and away better than anything done in the films. Giving a character like Nightcrawler — a devout Catholic and teleporting circus performer — time to shine felt powerful, even when I was a kid. Now, the films get really close by taking time to examine Professor X and Magneto’s relationship, particularly in First Class, but they do tend to get mired in noisy superhero action without making us care about anyone other than Wolverine. My greatest fear is that Apocalypse is just another step away from great characterization toward flashy but ultimately empty fight scenes.

Tasha: You’re right to be afraid, and the fight scenes in Apocalypse aren’t even flashy enough to excuse the script’s lack of interest in the characters! The fights are pretty generic, especially after the opening of X-Men: Days of Future Past, where we get to see Bishop, Kitty Pryde, Blink, Iceman, and others fighting for their lives as a well-honed, integrated team. There’s a real sense of physical trust between them — it takes guts to charge at a wall, assuming Kitty will be there to phase you through it — and a sense of long familiarity with each others’ powers and methods. That’s something the MCU movies have slowly built up to with the Avengers, but it’s depressingly rare in X-Men movies, where it should be a core facet of the fights. Instead, we usually get one-on-one, hero-on-villain face-offs, which never have the same kind of thrill for me. At this point, a primary thing I want from any X-Men movie is synergy and cooperation. It says a lot about the characters, about how they trust each other and train with each other, but it’s also just visually cooler than a series of carbon-copy punch-offs.

Ross: I love a big climactic fight, but honestly, I’m getting really tired of watching Superhero Ensembles Trying to Stop a Cataclysmic Thing Wanting to Destroy the World for Reasons. The stakes rarely feel genuine at that level, and character development all too often takes a back seat to juggling a number of interwoven narratives.

What I’d love from an X-Men film, more than anything, is restraint. I’d love nothing more than a film that focuses on the relationships between a handful of people, stakes that could have believable consequences, large scenes that are earned, and small scenes that are surprising. Just because you have an impressive lineup of mutants doesn’t mean they all have to take center stage at some point — if, say, Colossus sat this one out, I wouldn’t bat an eye. I know Apocalypse goes in the opposite direction, but after a summer where the superhero-to-film-reel ratio is far too high, I’m itching for a movie that tries to keep things small.

Here’s my pitch for the next next X-Men: Magneto and Xavier in a room, playing chess. And that’s it. Maybe it cuts between past and present — Ian McKellen vs. Patrick Stewart and Michael Fassbender vs. James McAvoy. And they’re just acting. And moving chess pieces. And acting. And moving chess pieces. And Acting. In IMAX 3D.

(20th Century Fox)

Emily: Like Kwame, I get the bulk of my pre-2000 X-Men knowledge from The Animated Series. I’ve still barely ever cracked an X-Men comic. I never was an expert or completist by any means, but the broad strokes of the X-Men — being gifted and angsty — appealed to my Saturday-morning-cartoon-watching self. I liked Rogue a lot. Bryan Singer’s X-Men came out when I was a Premiere subscriber, and before the film’s release, it ran a big feature on Singer, Avi Arad, and the conceptualization of “a new kind of superhero film” that feels like a massive harbinger in hindsight. There was a lot of emphasis on the lack of neon spandex and bat nipples (Batman and Robin was still painfully close in the rear-view mirror), as well as the attention this script would pay toward the human drama of its mutant cast. It was being made by the guy who did The Usual Suspects! This was a classy joint!

Even still, the first X-Men film still feels light and pulpy compared to the 10-ton epics both Marvel and DC have rolled out since. But that’s my favorite mode for this bunch — light, pulpy angst, still firmly tied to a semi-mundane world, with a climax that’s more flash than crunch. Captain America: Civil War sealed the deal on the superheroes-as-nukes metaphor that it’s been building since the start of the MCU. Perhaps that’s why that franchise has never really moved me — I’ll always prefer the superheroes-as-any-othered-group, which necessarily means conflicts on a smaller scale — evil senators instead of evil gods. I want this to be a teen drama again!

“I want this to be a teen drama again”

Tasha: So are there specific characters you want to see more of in the movies, or want to see handled differently? For me, it’s always been Nightcrawler, who in the comics has gotten to be a leader, adventurer, and role model for young and troubled mutants. (If the guy who looks and smells like a demon can be philosophical and even happy about his lot in life, surely anyone can.) X2 opened with a brief taste of how intimidating and spectacular he can be when he gets to cut loose as a fighter, but since then, he’s always been relegated to cowering comic relief. I’m really ready for the cinematic version to find that rakish, hip-shot confidence that makes him stand out so much in the comics.

For that matter, I’m still waiting for an onscreen Storm who feels like more than a fashion shoot and a special-effect enabler. Apocalypse comes closer than any film so far, but while it gives her a backstory and at least one thing she cares about, it doesn’t give her many lines or much character. She’s proved herself one of the most adaptive characters over the years. I’d love to see the film version become as strong and certain as the source-material version, without losing her personality entirely.

(20th Century Fox)

Emily: Well, obviously, I’ve been waiting for my favorite mall-rat Jubilee to have her moment for a long time. I also feel like the once-reviled, corporate partnership tie-in character Dazzler is worthy of a rewrite in our celebrity-obsessed times. (I’ve heard both appear in Apocalypse, but in sub-cameo capacity.) After all, wouldn’t a bunch of superhumans with blue skin and weather-control powers be, like, SUPER-famous if they existed today?

I think Ross is on the right track with the two-hander idea. I can easily see the X-universe succeeding where the abysmal Jem and the Holograms failed, giving us a bittersweet meditation on pop mania and teenage fandom augmented by mutant powers. I can see Dazzler as a Taylor Swift / Beyoncé hybrid who does her own effects, and Jubilee as a devoted fan-turned-ally who realizes she has talents of her own. Maybe this is me just wishing The Wicked and the Divine was as good as the amazing superhero / pop-star epic in my head, but being a mutant and being a diva with weapons-grade charisma always seemed like two sides of the same coin to me.

But yeah, I like when the X-universe really grapples with our world and our mundane concerns — that’s why Quicksilver’s introduction is so engaging in DoFP. A story with parallel narratives of people who want to feel special — a global celebrity and a mall-rat teen with a Snapchat addiction — could be a lot of fun when you add in firework-hands.

“I like when the X-universe really grapples with our world”

Alex: I still am holding out hope that one day, someone will figure out how to bring Emma Frost to the big screen in a way that does the character justice. I understand the limitations — being telepathic isn’t exactly the most exciting mutant power; no one wearing her costume would be taken seriously; she’s aggressively campy; she also has a strange and long-winded origin story of being bad, but eventually reverting to good. But over the last decade or so, as she’s played a bigger role in leading the X-Men (though she’s been missing since Marvel’s Secret Wars crossover this year), I’ve developed an affinity and affection for the character’s resilience, her sardonic humor, and how she sees the future of mutantkind.

(20th Century Fox)

The X-Men franchise, like the cinematic superhero industry, hasn’t really been good at telling the story of young women growing up. A story about a young Emma Frost is as rich in material — boarding school, siblings, teenage heartbreak — as any out there. And an adult Emma laying down some salty, tough love at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters… Well, that would just be gravy.

Kwame: Wolverine might be the quintessential X-person, and Hugh Jackman might be the breakout star to come out of the film adaptations, but for me, Magneto is the dark heart of the entire series. There was a moment right around the time X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out that a Magneto solo film was in the works. It’s probably for the best that it never got off the ground. You can’t trust Fox with anything. But Magneto encapsulates both the big and the mundane that the rest of the comic comments on. The best interpretations of the character have always been not the genocidal lunatic, but the gifted militant who’s willing to go too far because he’s seen some real shit. He’s seen how far his “enemy” is willing to go, first-hand. But underneath it all, he’s still after some higher good, making him a perfect leader of the X-Men if there was ever a need for him.

Like in a parallel universe where Apocalypse has taken over the world…

And as badass as Ian McKellen was in Singer’s original run, Michael Fassbender captured that complexity brilliantly as a raw, untrained Nazi hunter in First Class. I love that arc, because it’s clear the mutants never could have stopped the war, even with Magneto’s powers on their side. How gut-wrenching is that? I think one of the principal failings of the less-than-great X-films (and I suspect Apocalypse) is that they lose sight of what grounds the story — that these people are gifted, but they’re still just people. They’re not gods. It’s not enough to just say, “Oh, Nightcrawler had it real bad.” We need to feel it throughout the film, even on top of the fun setpieces. And Magneto is key to that.

Tasha: Having actually seen X-Men: Apocalypse, I’m sad for everyone in this thread, because it fulfills so little of what you’re looking for. And it’s going to be a while before we’ll even have another hope of seeing any of this in a film, because after Apocalypse, there are no other team X-Men movies on Fox’s production docket. There’s the 2017 Wolverine movie, and the postponed Gambit film, and the still-theoretical X-Force and New Mutant projects, and the chance of more X-Men in the Deadpool sequel. But there’s no guarantee that the X-Men as a team will be back in theaters anytime soon. At least in the meantime, we all have decades of comics and animated shows to catch up on. Maybe there’s some hope for that “Xavier vs. Magneto in a no-holds-barred chess match” storyline in print, instead.

How filmmakers manipulate our emotions using color

How Netflix and Amazon have changed the rules of TV

2015-12-30T11:45:02-05:00

This year, in lieu of the traditional Best Of Lists, we thought it would be fun to throw our writers into a draft together and have a conversation. This time, Ross Miller and Lizzie Plaugic discuss how streaming platforms became the first choice for critically adored and highly anticipated content. The Mindy Project moved from Fox to Hulu; Aziz Ansari’s Master of None went straight to Netflix. This year, streaming platforms positioned themselves as stand-alone platforms rather than ones that complemented a cable subscription. And it was the year stodgy old networks began to see these platforms as a real threat.

Here’s what we learned in 2015.

Lizzie Plaugic: I think going into 2015 everyone expected streaming services like Netflix and Hulu to pick up some steam. But it ended up being a lot of steam: several of the most anticipated television shows this year — Master of None, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp — never even touched network television. This was the year streaming services moved from being an alternative to cable, to being a full-scale replacement for it. Mostly this was because writers and actors finally saw streaming services as a desirable home for their passion projects, instead of a last resort. This new legitimacy probably has something to do with the fact that the coveted 18-34 age bracket happens to overlap with the most common age of cord-cutters (20-somethings love Aziz Ansari, cult comedies, and stories about being trapped in a bunker).

Netflix isn’t a last resort anymore

But Netflix, Hulu, and HBO also have fewer restrictions than traditional TV networks. In a Reddit AMA this fall, Ansari said, “We pitched only to premium spots cause we didn’t want to deal with content issues. On Netflix, we never had one issue with content. Also, no need to edit to commercials.”

Ross Miller: Ansari’s point speaks to one of the most exciting creative changes that the new streaming model allows. Gone are the days where you have write / shoot / edit around commercial breaks and — this is my favorite — you can choose to build an episode around the idea of people binging. It’s a boon to serialized storytelling, in that shows like Sense8 aren’t burdened by having to build stories around the idea of having some “OMG moment” that keeps viewers coming back every week. And because Netflix and Amazon especially are releasing all episodes at once, not only does it encourage binge-viewing, it also means the showrunners get to tell their full-season story without the fear of cancellation or having to react to changes in viewership.

I’m rambling a bit, but the point is, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon have given creatives way more freedom by nature of their distribution model. This isn’t an entirely new point, as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black have been around for years, but now they’re increasingly winning the big awards. Transparent legitimized Amazon as a place for original content, and it means we now have multiple streaming “networks” that can offer creative freedom, shelter from the pressure of viewership, and now, especially, the prestige and chance to win awards.

Lizzie: I like the idea that the potential for binge-watching removes the pressure of getting viewers to tune in each week. But this little loophole doesn’t hold true for for streaming services from established cable brands. Take HBONow and Showtime: even if you don’t need a premium cable subscription to watch their shows anymore, you’re still chained to the weekly viewing schedule. True Detective fans who managed to last through all of season two this year had to wait, day by day, just like everyone else, before they were able to watch the next episode. The bonus to having your audience sit patiently for new episodes is you can keep the suspense going. This season of True D was so bonkers, maybe it was a good thing viewers had an entire week to sort through the plot, or convince themselves they should keep watching. Still, HBO and Showtime never exactly needed their streaming services to be legitimized, because their names were already attached to hugely popular shows.

Ross: Not to mention HBO and Showtime have a storied backlog of renowned titles, and I think being a place for critically acclaimed original content is a new Netflix narrative as well. The company established itself as a place to watch other people’s shows, but every month it seems that collection becomes less compelling, while simultaneously, the number of original Netflix series this year was huge (and is poised to double next year). Cable channels have grown on similar trajectories — start with surefire licensed content as you build your own catalog and find your voice (and in some cases, reboot the classic content like Full…er… Fuller House). In that regard, Netflix has taken a largely traditional model and mapped it to where the audience has moved to.

Traditional TV channels want in on streaming

Now it seems more and more like traditional TV channels are also looking to offer premium à la carte streams (e.g. CBS All Access). This year Netflix and Hulu proved they can do television as good as — if not better than — cable. And, as cable channels like CBS, NBC, and Discovery have already proven with the launch of their own subscription streaming services, next year will be the year television definitively starts copying Netflix.

Don’t buy a Steam Machine

2015-06-05T12:08:10-04:00

The lines are blurring between gaming PCs and traditional consoles. Valve’s Steam Machines, gaming PCs designed to express the best of both worlds, are ostensibly the prototype for this awesome future, and they’re now available for preorder. Too bad they’re not something you should buy — yet.

Valve is a juggernaut in gaming thanks to Steam, the dominant online marketplace for PC games, and we’ve been excited to see the result of its hardware efforts since we first caught wind of its mythical PC console back in 2012. When we eventually sat down with CEO Gabe Newell, he outlined an exciting vision for the future: a gaming PC with all of Steam’s killer features that would be as convenient and comfortable to use on the couch as a console.

The company got off to a fine start. Big Picture mode makes the PC more television-friendly with large text and easy-to-navigate menus. And its unique controller, coming in October, merges the traditional video game controller with the precision of a mouse. Those two things with a little polish might be enough — but Valve’s long-term vision is a PC gaming world without Windows, and that makes things complicated.

Valve’s long-term vision is a PC gaming world without Windows

The official Steam Machines run SteamOS, which is basically Linux with Steam’s Big Picture Mode. Even though Valve is working to bring more games to Linux, most popular titles aren’t available for it yet, and there’s really no reliable way to predict which games will be supported in the future. Of the top 10 games you can buy on Steam right now, only one, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. There’s no Grand Theft Auto 5, or Skyrim, or DayZ. Hell, you can’t even play games that are compatible with Linux but aren’t on Steam, which includes Blizzard’s popular catalog. If you care about playing anything relatively new and popular, the Xbox One, PS4, Wii, and Windows-based PCs are all clearly superior options. And games aren’t the only compatibility problem. If Valve and HTC’s virtual reality headset is anything like the Oculus Rift, it’ll need powerful hardware, and it’s possible lower-end Steam Machines won’t support it.

One of the reasons consoles are so compelling is that everything just works out of the box. You can buy hardware that’s as powerful as what everyone else has and expect that games will meet a minimum quality standard for years to come. The current spread of Steam Machine hardware is a confusing mess, and betrays the promise of console convenience.

Even though Alienware and Syber are now offering flagship devices, the “Steam Machine” is really just a blueprint for a console-like gaming PC that encourages manufacturers to focus on things like form, size, and noise. That has resulted in way too many options, which actually contradicts the vision of simplicity Valve is working toward. Even the “official” offerings from Alienware and Syber range in price from $449 all the way up to $1,419 — at which point you have to ask, how is this different from shopping for a regular gaming PC? To add insult, Valve is offering Steam Machine preorders through the strangest of bedfellows: Gamestop.

There’s no clear reason for anyone to buy into Valve’s platform right now. The audience that might be most sympathetic to the idea, devoted PC gamers, are far better off just buying or building a Windows-based machine so they can take advantage of everything Steam and PC gaming has to offer. And there’s a lot to offer! The idea of the Steam Machine is actually really compelling, provided it brings everything that’s great about PC gaming to the couch. PC gaming has long had a leg-up over consoles in important areas: the games are usually cheaper, there’s a lot more indie stuff to play, the graphics are better, you can upgrade the hardware over time, and there’s a whole world of game modification that unlocks and transforms popular titles in weird and surprising ways. Instead of offering the best of both worlds, Steam Machines sit in a strange middle ground that’s too confusing and too compromised to make sense for anyone.

The Steam Machine is an exciting idea, but that’s all it is. Don’t pay for mere potential.

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Verge Video: Hands-on with Valve’s Steam controller

In the age of digital comics, we are all comic book fans

2015-05-08T11:10:26-04:00

With the Age of Ultron Marvel movie tearing up the box office, it’s easy to forget that comics weren’t always easy to access or well regarded. Modern comics have come a long way. Gone are the days when it was considered an anomaly to see someone reading a comic book on the subway, in a park, or in a coffee shop. But comics (including graphic novels and manga) certainly haven’t stagnated as a result. They’re becoming more diverse, both in content and in audience, and they’re broaching topics that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. In some ways you have to thank technology, because what’s increasingly noticeable is the way in which people are reading comics.

Comics are increasingly the thing you read on your phone or tablet

The truth is that comics are increasingly the thing you read on your phone or tablet, and store in the cloud. Sure, lots of comics fans still read in print, but the digital world is booming. To understand the relationship between print and digital, we talked to comics theory guru Scott McCloud, Comixology founders John Roberts and David Steinberger, and Symbolia creative director and webcomic creator Joyce Rice.

And in case you haven’t noticed: Top Shelf is back! This episode is the first in a four-part series that will explore how technology is changing our lives. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve got in store.

How does Google Fi’s coverage compare to AT&T and Verizon?

2015-04-22T16:56:32-04:00

Google surprised virtually no one when it formally announced its new cellular service plan called Project Fi today. Project Fi is currently very limited — it’s an invite-only program and only works with Google’s own Nexus 6 smartphone — but it offers some very interesting things when it comes to service plan pricing and network coverage. Like Republic Wireless, Google Fi is heavily reliant on Wi-Fi networks for both calls and data. But it has a unique trick up its sleeve when you don’t have access to Wi-Fi: it will automatically switch between Sprint or T-Mobile’s networks based on whichever service is stronger where you are.

But as many people already know, Sprint and T-Mobile don’t quite have the same level of coverage as Verizon and AT&T, especially in rural areas. How exactly does Google Fi’s coverage stack up to AT&T and Verizon’s networks? We made a slider to find out.

Google Fi on the left (dark green is LTE, green is 3G, light green is 2G), AT&T 4G LTE coverage on the right (dark orange is LTE, orange is 4G, light orange is 3G). Maps provided by Google and AT&T.

For whatever reason, finding accurate coverage maps from each carrier is actually pretty difficult, and the way Verizon scales its map doesn’t play nicely with our image slider tool. But you can eyeball the side-by-side image below to see how Fi’s coverage compares to Verizon’s footprint.

Google Fi on the left (dark green is LTE, green is 3G, light green is 2G), Verizon 4G LTE coverage on the right. Maps provided by Google and Verizon.

It should also be noted that nationwide maps don’t provide the best representation of hyperlocal coverage — how a particular service will perform at your exact home address or workplace. Google actually has a pretty great tool that lets you drill down to your exact area and what kind of service you can expect there. According to the tool, I’ll get 3G service with Project Fi in the suburbs of New York City, which isn’t quite as good as the speedy LTE service I can get from AT&T or Verizon in the same area. The nationwide comparison does show where Google Fi has large gaps in coverage — Montana isn’t a great place to be if you’re hoping to make use of the service.

While Project Fi is very limited right now, it feels a lot like Google’s rollout of its high-speed Fiber network, which started out slow and is gaining traction as more cities are added to its roster. Google’s big developer conference is scheduled for the end of May — we’ll certainly hear more about Project Fi there.

This is Marvel’s new Avengers team

2015-03-26T11:29:28-04:00

The five myserious outlines in Marvel’s new Avengers lineup have been revealed. After a scan leaked on 4chan this morning, Wired UK has posted an official version of the cover for All-New, All-Different Avengers, which will premiere on May 2nd. Earlier this week, Marvel gave us a partial look at the cover, confirming that Ms. Marvel and the new, female Thor would be part of the team. Now, up front, we’ve got Miles Morales from from Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man. Flying to his right is Nova, and above him is the Vision. Captain America is right below Thor, and yes, obviously, that’s Iron Man beside him.

So who are all these people, and how did they join the team? We’re not totally sure about the first question, but presumably, we’ll find the answer to the second during Marvel’s Secret Wars series. Secret Wars is a company-wide event that will change how the Marvel universe works from here on out — the company plans on ending its major series and pitting all its heroes from across the multiverse against each other. The new Avengers will arise out of that. Right now, though, we do know that the roster includes some of Marvel’s most interesting and high-profile new characters.

Spider-Man, or to be more specific, the “Ultimate” Spider-Man aka Miles Morales. It seems Morales — not Peter Parker — will be the de facto Spidey once all the events of Secret Wars wrap. Whether this factors into Marvel’s Cinematic Universe remains to be seen.

Thor. The new female Thor has been outselling the old Thor by 30 percent, and given Thor’s history in the Avengers lineup, it’s little wonder to see her take such a prominent role.

Captain America, in this iteration, is played by Sam Wilson (formerly Falcon — hence the wings). Fans of the movies shouldn’t take this as a sign that Anthony Mackie will be donning the shield anytime soon. Chris Evans is still signed on for Civil War, and another historical Cap replacement — Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) — is also in the running.

Ms Marvel. Originally pitched as the female counterpart to Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel (then Carol Danvers) first appeared in 1968 before joining The Avengers ten years later. The new Ms. Marvel, portrayed by 16-year-old Pakistani-American Kamala Khan, is Marvel Comics’ first Muslim character to headline a series. The first issue of the new Ms. Marvel got a seventh printing last October, which is matched only by a handful of other comics ever. (It’s also worth noting that the issue has sold more on digital than paper, which makes this accomplishment even more impressive.)

The Vision. If you don’t know him yet, you will after this summer’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. The Vision is an android Avenger with various superhero-related powers and the voice of a British noble.

Nova is probably the least-known member, given that he has yet to appear in a Marvel blockbuster. Nova, presumably portrayed here by Sam Alexander (who’s been wearing the helmet since 2011 and had his own series as of February 2013), is a member of the Nova Corp — yep, same Corp that featured prominently in last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Nova has all the superpowers you’d expect, including super strength, durability, flight, and a few others that help him traverse the galaxy and talk to various alien species.

Iron Man. This is actually the one big question remaining — aside from “who owns the green hand they’re all running toward?” It’s no surprise that the red-and-gold suit is once again joining the Avengers, but as for who’s inside the suit — Tony Stark? Rhodey Rhodes? Someone else entirely? — we don’t know for sure yet. If it’s Stark, he’ll have to fit his Avengers work around moving to Silicon Valley and launching a utopian smartphone app.

Vox Video: Explaining all the Easter eggs in The Avengers: Age of Ultron trailers

Better Talk Saul: an in-depth, spoiler-y analysis of the first two episodes

2015-02-10T10:15:03-05:00

Better Call Saul, the genetic successor to Breaking Bad, is here — and it’s really, really good. If you haven’t seen the first two episodes, which aired over the last two nights, we highly recommend you read our (mostly) spoiler-free take.

Alright. With that out of the way, what follows is a spoiler-heavy discussion about the show between Senior Reporter Bryan Bishop and Senior Editor Ross Miller (condensed and organized for clarity).

The Breaking Bad Conundrum (or: "Okay, so it’s a prequel")

Bryan Bishop, Senior Reporter: It’s no big secret that most people are going to watch Better Call Saul because they loved Breaking Bad. It’s certainly why I am — I miss Saul! I miss Jesse! I got overly emotional when Walt showed up in a Super Bowl commercial! But that’s going to be a short honeymoon. If Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould want people to tune in week after week, they’re going to need to set up their own self-contained universe that lives and dies on its own merits.

Jimmy’s better as a skeezeball schemer

The pilot does a great job of that, getting Breaking Bad out of the way at the top and then letting Bob Odenkirk start the work of building a fully-formed character. I love the idea of a guy that wants to do the right thing, but just doesn’t have the skills to pull it off. Jimmy’s better as a skeezeball schemer, and there’s something really fun in that premise — and while it’s related to Breaking Bad, it is also its own thing. The best compliment I can give is that while we all know where Saul will end up, I have zero idea of how he will get there. As long as Gilligan and Gould can preserve that, they’ll be dodging the biggest bullet of them all: turning Better Call Saul into accessory TV.

Ross Miller, Senior Editor: Couldn’t agree more. The biggest challenge for Better Call Saul will be to find emotional ways to surprise and impact the audience — to enjoy the journey as the show reaches its foregone conclusion. Part of Breaking Bad’s beauty was its unpredictability. Sure, it didn’t kill off as many people as The Wire or Game of Thrones, but no one’s fate was certain from episode to episode.

I will fault the second episode of Saul, however, for one moment of false drama. There’s a scene early on where Tuco is threatening to kill Saul or at least cut off his finger. But look, we know neither of those happen, so emphasizing the moment feels like a waste of screen time — especially to an audience that knows how this will play out. I know Saul will live, all (visible) limbs attached. We all do. What we don’t know is the extent to which he’ll be emotionally damaged over his next six years.

When does Michael McKean’s character die — and how?

Of course, the new characters don’t have the same guarantee of mortality. I think it’s safe to say McGill’s brother won’t be a factor by the time Breaking Bad begins, so … how come? Or more bluntly, when does Michael McKean’s character die — and how?

Comedy or Drama?

Ross Miller, lives in New York: Gilligan and Gould have been clear that the idea of this show began agnostic of format. To quote Gilligan himself from his interview with Vox:

“We went through every permutation in the book. There was serious discussion of it being a half-hour show, and being, if not a sitcom, a straight comedy. There was a lot of talk about, is it a sequel? Is it a prequel? Do the events take place concurrently with the events of Breaking Bad? Could it be a little of all three? We talked about every possibility under the sun.”

This is how I imagine Vince Gilligan would write a comedy

This is how I imagine Vince Gilligan would write a comedy. What differentiates the world of Better Call Saul stylistically from Breaking Bad is the sheer absurdity of Saul’s / McGill’s suffering. It’s brutal in that it’s presented in blunt force. It presents a world that seems to be built to make him suffer — not with physical torture but with mental strain from all sides. Sometimes it’s a brother suffering debilitating technophobia and being screwed out of millions by his own company. Sometimes it’s through sheer mundane repetition of basic court cases. (Okay, that part got a little too repetitive.) It’s harrowing enough that the levity is punctuated, and it lets Gilligan and Gould build up to humor in ways you wouldn’t normally expect. I laughed pretty damn hard after McGill’s beautiful defense of the boys who we later find out — after a comically silent and pronounced setup of a television cart — decapitated a dead body.

Come to think about it, making jokes about defiling dead bodies is the epitome of BB / BCS comedy.

Bishop: It’s true! I think people forget just how funny Breaking Bad was in the beginning, actually. Not Friends funny, sure, but definitely Very Bad Things territory. I don’t think Gilligan can help it; it’s just the way he sees the world. But somehow Saul is even darker than Breaking Bad was. Maybe it’s just because we already know how bad things will get, but I was pretty surprised there weren’t more straight-up gags, and that the world of the show is so oppressive and crushing.

Wouldn’t you have loved to see a sitcom version?

To be clear, I do like what they’re doing and it definitely works — I was just expecting something a little lighter. But man, a sitcom version … wouldn’t you have loved to see that? Some crazy, mad, Natural Born Killers multi-cam half-hour version of Saul Goodman’s rise and fall? It would have had a shelf life of 15 minutes, but just imagine the Mike / Saul Odd Couple vibe.

Miller: Or Mr. Show with Mike and Saul, where the pre-taped sketches create the “real world” narrative and the on-stage hijinks in between are some metaphysical, fourth wall jokespace.

The Man That Would Be Saul

Bishop: Odenkirk really impressed me in Nebraska. I saw that movie right in the middle of Breaking Bad fever, and it was a quiet, restrained performance from an actor that I loved precisely because he could turn things up to 11. He brings that same deft touch to this new version of Saul, and let’s be honest: This is almost a new character entirely. There’s simply more here for him to work with, and from the black-and-white intro forward he inhabits the skin of Jimmy and imbues him with a heavy heart and sense of world-weariness than we haven’t seen before.

This Saul is almost entirely a new character

Who knows where the show will go from here, but should he continue on this trajectory I really wonder if it’s going to change the way I feel about Breaking Bad. Saul Goodman was a great sort of safety valve, wasn’t he? The court jester that let you escape from the horrible creature that Walter White was becoming, if only for a brief moment. Does that go away if we know how horrible Saul’s life has been?

Of course, there it is again: thinking about the show in comparison to Breaking Bad. I told you this was going to be a problem.

Miller: There’s no way to avoid the comparisons, at least in the beginning while Better Call Saul builds its own narrative, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Like Eric said in our initial review, this is a better pilot than what Breaking Bad had. It’s more polished in all aspects, created by a group that’s already familiar with parts of this world — but more importantly, a group of creatives that just spent five seasons creating one of the greatest television shows ever. This is a chance to take that institutional knowledge and start (somewhat) fresh.

There’s no way to avoid the comparisons

That all holds true for Odenkirk as well. Some of the best Mr. Show sketches found humor in dark and painful places — mining laughs when characters suffer is part and parcel for comedy. Saul started as pretty much a one-dimensional character who developed layers over several seasons. Credit Odenkirk for a lot of that, who was able to paint a more nuanced picture. He could be over-the-top, sure, but he knew how to keep an oddball character grounded and real. No one is born Saul Goodman, both literally and figuratively. Saul Goodman exists as a reaction of what James McGill suffers and experiences. If Breaking Bad’s Saul Goodman was a comical character with a dash of flawed humanity, Better Call Saul is its inverse: a flawed human with a dash of comedic timing.

I also can’t stress this enough: Odenkirk has the unenviable task of carrying the show, at least for now until a stronger ensemble reveals itself. He is the only character the cameras follow. Even Walt had a foil with Jesse.

Hey, I Know That Guy!

Bryan Bishop, intentionally watched Jupiter Ascending last week: I had a complicated mix of emotions about last night’s episode. At first I was really excited to see Tuco, because it was a (sort of) friendly face that I already had an emotional connection with. But then it started to go sideways, starting with the wacky business with his grandmother. It felt a little Laverne & Shirley: fun, sure, but way too aware of itself. And that’s the biggest problem with what could be a parade of cameos. They’re going to be entertaining, and we all love characters from Breaking Bad — but by their very nature they’re wink-and-nods to the audience. That initial buzz of familiarity is going to be very short-lived, and then you’re left with the hangover of working yourself back into the show you’re actually watching. Thankfully, they seem to be tackling Tuco as more of a change agent than a central character, but what about Mike? He can’t just be the wacky parking sidekick for much longer.

I’ve already starting fantasizing about the first time we’ll see Los Pollos Hermanos

The irony, of course, is that while I’m pointing out these dangers I have to admit that I totally loved the No-Doze cameo and have already started fantasizing about the first time we’ll see Los Pollos Hermanos. But my gut reaction hasn’t changed. The show’s walking a very delicate balance, and I hope Gilligan and Gould feel they can leave the Breaking Bad nods in the rearview mirror really soon. It’s the only way the show can really thrive long-term.

But, you know, get Giancarlo Esposito in there first.

Ross Miller, intentionally watched Gigli this weekend: Did Mike or Saul know Huell before Breaking Bad’s fourth season? Can we find a way to get him in the show either way?

Conclusion: Will You Keep Watching?

Ross Miller, happy AMC will now be on Sling: I was pretty late to Breaking Bad. I think by the time I caught up with the show, it was just about to start its fifth and final season. My love of that show has been carried over almost entirely to Better Call Saul. I imagine a lot of people feel the same way. Thankfully, the show is good enough to meet expectations and different enough that I’m not subconsciously drawing unfair comparisons.

That said, the one thing that Better Call Saul hasn’t established a clear throughline on par with Breaking Bad (aka “Mr. Chips becomes Scarface”) or a clear reason for any immediacy (aka “I need to make drug money for my family now before I die of cancer”). It could be McGill’s brother. It could be Tuco’s crew. It’s more likely something we haven’t seen yet — if there’s any need for a throughline at all.

I’m just having fun enjoying the ride and seeing a new side to an old coin

For now, I’m just having fun enjoying the ride and seeing a new side to an old coin. Gilligan and Gould have earned patience by virtue of a winning track record. I know where the show has to ultimately go, but I have no idea where it goes next. It’s both maddening and surprising. But yeah, I like it.

Bryan Bishop, still wondering what accent Jimmy’s fictional secretary was supposed to have: Making a prequel to a show like Breaking Bad was one of the crazier ideas I’ve seen happen lately. The only thing crazier? That it’s working. I’m fascinated by what Gilligan and Gould are doing with this premise, and by the character they’re building with Bob Odenkirk.

I do find myself continuing to look for patterns and comparison to Breaking Bad, and that’s going to keep happening. The locations, the mood, and the tone; there’s just too much that’s familiar. I’m definitely in for now, but to convert me from a tourist to a full-time resident the show will eventually have to carve out its own identity. I’m betting we’ll get a sense of whether that will happen over the next few episodes. And if Better Call Saul is able to pull it off, it’s going to be an awful lot of fun.

‘Doctor Who’ recap: ‘Dark Water’

2014-11-02T19:40:40-05:00

“You know who I am…”

For this season of Doctor Who, Ross Miller and Kwame Opam will be sounding off on each episode in a series of emails we’ll be publishing on the site. This week it’s “Dark Water” (warning: spoilers ahead). Check out our previous recaps: “Deep Breath,” “Into the Dalek,” “Robots of Sherwood,” “Listen,” “Time Heist,” “The Caretaker,” “Kill the Moon,” “Mummy on the Orient Express,” “Flatline,” and “In the Forest of the Night.”

Kwame: Looks like I get to start this week. I’m excited! In any case, this episode started off feeling fairly weak but wound up getting much stronger albeit much weirder by the end of the hour. This is Who going off the deep end with regard to its exploring darker themes by pretty much taking us straight to Hell. (Or so it seems.)

Once again, this is Clara’s story. In the opening minutes, we get the gut-wrenching death of Mr. Danny Pink, his being run down by a truck only just audible over the phone after Clara say she loves him. The moment felt supremely unfair; I literally groaned at my TV and said, “Don’t tell me they fridged Danny!” But it turned out to be just effective enough to get us at the current season’s end game. Sure, we got even more false drama with Clara. Sure, the Doctor is the one in the driver’s seat most of the time. But this season’s arc has been building to this moment, and is showing us a character that’s willing to go to Hell and back for the ones she loves. Or at least into a mausoleum.

And Hell? I was actually pretty tickled by that twist, and how it factored into Missy’s grand reveal. It turns out that this afterlife that looks, by turns, like a garden and a bit like a back corner of your local DMV is actually a Gallifreyan hard drive being used for nefarious purposes. Think of it as VR heaven. The dead people it collects, however, get turned into Cybermen, which is just evil. And Missy is the Master! The bastard is actually controlling Cybermen now, erasing the emotions of dead souls and copy-pasting them into Cybermen bodies. It’s really kind of sick, and we don’t know yet if humanity is supremely screwed since, yes, the dead do outnumber the living.

I have to say, though. That Steve Jobs line explaining why everyone has an iPad in the Nethersphere was somehow both ghoulish and hilarious.

Ross: Okay, so I’m glad we finally know what the Promised Land is — well, sort of. We know what it represents (as we have all along) and now have some tangible (albeit incomplete) idea about what it actually does. This episode aired in the middle of Day of the Dead, which seems appropriate here. Right? Right? … Right?

But that’s less important, of course, to the Cybermen! CYBER. MEN! What’s a season of Doctor Who without ’em? So much of this season has involved the Doctor trying to figure out (1) what the baddie is (2) if it’s bad (3) how to stop it (4) … if it should be stopped at all. The Cybermen really should be old hat by now. Why isn’t there a macro on the sonic screwdriver that disables them all?

Clara, Clara, Clara. The “impossible girl” (remember that?) that’s still impossible. I’ll say this: I like her with confidence. It’s a lot more fun.

Kwame: Who doesn’t love Cybermen? I really loved how they recreated that classic scene from “The Invasion,” yet another little homage to classic Who this series has done:

But speaking of impossible stuff, there are a few things that are maddeningly unclear at this point. (I know. I know. It’s a two-parter. Just let me feel my feelings.) The first is we’ve been lead to believe that the Master has not only been watching the Doctor and Clara for some time but has actually manipulated them to reach this inevitable conclusion. How and to what end? The second is whether or not they’re actually going to bring Danny back from the dead. It’s not as though they actually have his body, and the Doctor seems fairly resolute before the Cybermen skeletons start standing up that the dead stay dead. What’s more, Clara, imitating the Doctor yet again, tries to be skeptical and fails to see that she’s actually talking to Danny over the afterlife intercom thing. I’m really worried Danny is about to say his last goodbyes. The third is Clara herself saying in last wek’s preview that she doesn’t actually exist. What does that even mean?

And the fourth is… I just did not get the cremation thing at all. All told, weird as it was this was a solid little cliffhanger that brought an old baddie back into the fold. And I do love watching Michelle Gomez chew scenery.

Ross: UGH, okay I almost forgot abut that ending. ABOUT. THAT. ENDING. Lives are in danger! What happens next?TUNE IN NEXT WEEK TO FIND OUT!

The 21 games that should be installed on every iPhone

2014-10-14T12:59:48-04:00

The iPhone is home to some of the best portable video games ever made. Unfortunately, they must be downloaded from one of the worst digital marketplaces. Farming simulations and clones too often dominate the App Store’s best selling list. Unusual and inspired games are left to fight for short stints on the coveted front page.

Too many of the best games for iPhone are victims of an out of sight, out of mind economy. After a game’s launch, it sinks into the quicksand of mobile gaming junk until it’s buried deep beneath thousands of free-to-play cash-ins. Curation has in large part been left to those who remain passionate about the phone as a gaming platform, despite Apple.

What follows is a list of the 21 games that should be installed on every iPhone. As exceptional games continue to be released on the iPhone, we will expand this list. And we will create a similar list dedicated the the iPad and games that make the best use of its larger screen.

Please let us know what treasures you’ve found in the App Store. Because no matter how hard we watch the ceaseless stream of iPhone releases, great games sometimes slip past us.

Photography: Sean O’Kane

Update: We’ve added Google Play links for games that are also available for Android. Thank you to ‘turbinenreiter’ for the help.

Bounden

Bounden‘s predecessors, Fingle and Friendstrap, encourage players to use their body to gain advantage against a friend. But roughhousing and expensive smartphones aren’t an ideal match, and so a match in either game could easily end in hurt feelings or worse, a broken screen.

And so Bounden feels like the culmination of years of experimentation by its creator. The key difference between those early games and Bounden is cooperation. Bounden is a dance game. Two people hold opposite ends of one smartphone, moving together to guide a cursor over a three-dimensional ball.

Bounden is simpler than it sounds, the sort of game that trains you to be an expert, as long as you give it the time. But more importantly, it’s one of the very few mobile games that forces intimacy with another human. Beautiful and affecting, Bounden is a masterpiece.

Download Bounden here

Download Bounden on Android

Desert Golfing

Desert Golfing begins, like so many video games, as an escape from the banality of life. Maybe you’re sitting on the subway or the toilet when you pull back the first swing and release. You finish one hole. You finish nine holes. You finish 18 holes. But the golfing continues to 50 holes, then 100, then 300, and slowly the experience changes.

At one point, a cactus appears. At another point, the game unlocks GameCenter connectivity. Sometimes the courses are extra hilly; sometimes they’re extra flat. The game just keeps going.

You begin to ask questions. The game tracks your score, but does the score matter if the game never ends? If the score doesn’t matter and the game never ends, why play? And why play video games? Here you are on the 400th hole in a 2D mobile golfing game and the big question hits you: Why do anything?

Download Desert Golfing here

Download Desert Golfing on Android

Drop7

“It took 23 years for someone to design a Tetris-killer. Simple, elegant, endlessly deep, and shockingly novel. Drop7 is it.” That’s indie game developer Jason Rohrer praising Drop7. This is the only video game I’ve played at least once a week every week for over five years. I’m not even that good at Drop7, but it’s simple and it can be played with one hand and one move at a time.

In short, the player drops chips labelled 1 through 7 into a 7-by-7 grid. Aligning for chips horizontally or vertically removes those chips to the board and does one unit of damage to unmarked chips, which gradually rise from the bottom of the screen. After a gray chip has been damaged twice, it breaks, revealing a numbered chip. Chips continue to rise and fall and you do what you can to trigger chain reactions and keep the screen clear. It’s not easy.

Drop7 is the ideal game to pick at throughout the day. Waiting for the elevator to arrive or the coffee pot to fill? Drop7. Have a couple minutes before the football game starts? Drop7. Can’t sleep? Drop7.

Download Drop7 here

Download Drop7 on Android

Angry Birds

Angry Birds popularity isn’t a fluke. Its creators — intentionally or not — made a beautiful version of the browser classic Crush the Castle. On its own that would have been enough, in those gold rush days of the app marketplace, to earn its studio a few million dollars. But the small studio did the extra work, releasing free updates for over five years, retaining the app’s spot on so many iPhones.

Now Angry Birds is a franchise and a phenomenon. There are plush toys, brand partnerships, and a feature-length film. You can play pseudo-sequels like Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, and Angry Birds Star Wars. And its sequel Angry Birds Space is perhaps a more enjoyable game than the original.

But Angry Birds is the most approachable game in the franchise, and after all those updates, it’s humongous. Costing 99 cents, Angry Birds is one the best deals in video games.

Download Angry Birds here

Download Angry Birds on Android

Eliss

Eliss is the sort of game you see people play in sci-fi films. You’re not entirely sure what it is or how it works, as it appears all anyone’s doing is moving around pulsating balls and dodging vibrating squiggles. Those impossible-to-decipher sci-fi game always look incredible. I remember the first time I saw Eliss. I stared at it like somebody had plucked a game from such a sci-fi film and placed it in front of me, like some sort of supernatural challenge — solve this riddle!

Eliss is actually easy to learn. Using all of your fingers, you split, combine, and move planets, so that they align with targets that appear on the screen. As the game progresses, the playspace fills with planets and you must be careful to avoid traps. It’s a test of digit dexterity. Developer Steph Thirion released an update, Eliss Infinity, in early 2014. Infinity has better image resolution and widescreen support, and also includes a sandbox mode, a nice place to pretend you’re in the sci-fi movie of your dreams.

Download Eliss here

Download Eliss Infinity on Android

Tiny Wings

Tiny Wings looks like a crude cash-in on “bird” games, a real “genre” of software that flooded the App Store in the wake of Angry Birds’ success. But Tiny Wings isn’t like Angry Birds or a bird game or really any game on the iPhone.

Frankly, I hate to call it a game. Specific goals are available for the player, and there’s an imperative to scoot an adorable, plump bird up and down the game’s two-dimensional hills before night falls. But for me, Tiny Wings is best enjoyed as a meditative tool. The wavy motion of the bird, its soft caws, the gentle children’s song gently bouncing in the background: every component merges together into this blend of sound and color, putting me into a relaxed trance.

Sometimes I want my iPhone to be an escape from stress. I don’t want something frenetic or an event that challenging. I want peace. How appropriate, then, that Tiny Wings ends with the moon rising and the bird gently going to sleep.

Download Tiny Wings here

Kero Blaster

For the first five years of iPhone game development, both small indie studios and giant publishers alike tried to create touch controls so precise that a platformer — a Mega Man or a Super Mario Bros. type of game — would feel as comfortable on the iPhone as it would on a traditional gaming console.

In early 2014, one man accomplished the feat on his own. Kero Blaster is the best action and platforming game on the iPhone because it controls so well. And though it’s graphics are simple, Kero Blaster is one of the most “console”-like games on the device that wasn’t originally designed for another platform. Which is to say its adventure is so smartly designer that you’ll actually want to play until the very end. As a frog, you unlock and upgrade weapons, fighting bad guys that look like dustballs. The game doesn’t play like an original Nintendo game. It plays like those rose-colored memories of playing original Nintendo games.

Download Kero Blaster here

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

The iOS ports of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft: Auto San Andreas, originally released on consoles roughly a decade ago, are serviceable for those who can suffer sputtering about a three-dimensional world with touchscreen controls. But the best Grand Theft Auto game on the iPhone is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. It’s top-down view simplifies the experience of getting about, and looks better on the portable screen.

On the iOS version, the player can hotwire a car or break a window by twirling or tapping a finger against the screen. Rockstar designed Chinatown Wars for the touch-friendly Nintendo DS, and it shows.

Chinatown Wars also has one of the more interesting and controversial mini-games, a drug-selling simulation. It’s the closest mainstream games have come to playing Drugwars on my TI-83 in the back of trig class.

Download Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars here

Dodonpachi Resurrection HD

Japanese developer Cave is known for creating exceptionally difficult old-school arcade games that fill their glowing screens with bright and colorful bullets. Their work is like Space Invaders on a cocktail of uppers and anabolic steroids. Completing even the early stages of a Cave shooter requires incredible skill and precision, making them the last games you’d expect to appear on the iPhone.

Dodonpachi Resurrection HD, and the rest of Cave’s mobile releases, play as if they were designed for touch controls. In fact, I find them easier than their arcade counterparts, perhaps because I can hold them a couple inches from my face without attracting judgemental looks. They’re beautiful — the dense, colorful animation gradually taking over the entirety of the iPhone’s glossy, high-definition screen. So yes, this genre, the shoot ’em ups, is notoriously difficult to get into, but the option to play Dodonpachi Resurrection HD, whenever and wherever, makes it an ideal entry point.

Download Dodonpachi Resurrection HD here

Download Dodonpachi Resurrection on Android

Super Stickman Golf

Each year, a gaggle of video-game journalists meet in California a few weeks before E3 to see a few dozen new games. The advance showing allows the press a little extra time to write previews before the industry’s most hectic week, and also to begin the vetting process for the annual E3 Awards.

For three years, the most popular game of the week was Super Stickman Golf, played exhaustively in tour buses and hotel lobbies. In single-player, the golfer knocks a ball across a two-dimensional stage, trying to land it in a hole with as few strokes as possible. But in multiplayer, the game becomes a race. Strokes no longer matter. What’s important is being the first to finish. This is the anti-Desert Golfing, a gamey game full of power-ups, hats, and level packs. It’s an addiction.

Download Super Stickman Golf here

Download Super Stickman Golf on Android

Space Invaders Infinity Gene

Space Invaders Infinity Gene ties together the original shoot ’em up, Space Invaders, with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. This isn’t a joke. The game earnestly brings the two together and an intelligent way. It does so gradually, so that the big changes to the classic game feel natural and obvious, and that the Darwinian connection doesn’t read utterly hamfisted. When a laser cuts up the screen at alternating 90-degree angles, and is followed by some nod to Darwin’s text, it feels like these things were part of Space Invaders all along.

The game features many new weapons and abilities, which can be layered onto your spaceship. The art style is monochromatic and gorgeous, like the most jaw-dropping game ever designed for Apple ][. And the music is thumping techno that should be grating and tacky, but somehow it fits. That’s the summation of this game, really: a bunch of ideas from across time and space, brought together as if they were always meant to be one holistic thing.

Download Space Invaders Infinity Gene here

Download Space Invaders Infinity Gene on Android

Threes

You may have played the Threes knockoff, 2048. Following Threes‘ release in March 2014, a free clone of the game, 2048, and a handful of clones of that clone, achieved wide popularity. According to Google Analytics, in April 2014 there were 100 searches including the term “2048” for every search of the term “threes.” Threes is an example of the limited protection an app has in the mobile marketplace.

Threes is also an example of a marvelously executed puzzle game. Sort of like those sliding puzzles you’d get as a birthday party favor, the player combines panels 1 and 2 to make 3, then two 3s to make 6, then two 6s to make 12, and so on, with a new panel appearing in the game’s grid with each swipe.

You shouldn’t just download Threes because it’s the original game. You should download Threes because it’s the superior option. It’s cute and charming, and carefully created so that players have documented mind-dissolving high scores, like this, on YouTube.

Download Threes here

Download Threes on Android

868-Hack

The most popular mobile games are the most accessible. They’re easy to understand and try their best to grab your attention right away. 868-Hack isn’t like that. After playing for months, it still feels like I only have a basic understanding of how things work. 868-Hack is a turn-based hacking game, where you proceed through a series of levels trying to steal as much data as you can. In order to be successful, you need to carefully consider every single move. Do you grab that power-up knowing it will spawn new enemies? Or do you make a dash for the exit only grabbing the easiest, safest data possible? One small mistake will lead to death, but in each replay you’ll learn a new, subtle nuance to make it easier the next time. Angry Birds hands out high scores like candy. 868-Hack makes you work for them.

Download 868-Hack here

Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time

The premise of Plants vs. Zombies is simple: fill up your front yard with cute-but-deadly plants in order to ward off surprisingly-cute-but-brain-loving zombies. Its success, like those adorable plants, has continue to grow and grow. While Plants vs. Zombies didn’t quite have the meteoric rise as, say, Angry Birds, its sequel is probably the best free-to-play game ever. 2013’s Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time doesn’t stray too far from the original formula but adds a lot of gameplay — multiple worlds (each with distinct challenges), several fleshed-out side quests, dozens of plants, and a lot of charm. The difficulty curve does go from 0 to 100 without a moment’s notice, but there’s plenty to do and a lot of jumping around you can do.

Best part? “Free to play” isn’t a misnomer. You can play for hours without having to wait for some arbitrary timer. The in-game coins are rewarded in abundance and the things you can buy for real-world money are completely optional to the game itself.

Download Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time here

Download Plants vs. Zombies 2 on Android

Ridiculous Fishing

Ridiculous Fishing is really three different games in one. Part one is the dive: maneuvering your way farther and farther down the lake, avoiding any and all creatures along the way. As soon as you hit a fish — or as soon as you run out of wire — move on to part two: grab every single creature (that isn’t a jellyfish) you can on the way up. Once you reach the surface, part three, which real fishermen and fisherwomen should be all too familiar with, begins: throw all the fish in the air and shoot them for a cash reward.

The experience involves a lot of phone wiggling (parts one and two) and screen-tapping (part three). The art style is gorgeous and wholly unique, and the power-ups really enhance the game. Before you know it you’ll be tying a hair dryer to a chainsaw lure powered by a huge tank of gasoline, only to blast a large squid from the sky with dual shotguns.

Download Ridiculous Fishing here

Download Ridiculous Fishing on Android

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor

Thought it was released early in the iPhone’s life, there’s still nothing like Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor. Possibly because it’s one of the few video games about being a spider. You spin webs, catch insects, and solve the mystery of a spooky old mansion. You know, typical spider work. The art resembles the panels of a comic book with thick black lines and bold colors, waiting to be covered in spiderwebs.

There’s a sense, reading back through this list, that 2009 was a major moment of creativity on the iPhone, and that maybe creativity has dwindled on the platform over the years. That’s not so. Developer Tiger Style released its second game, Waking Mars, in 2012. Choosing between that adventure through the Martian landscape and Spider is like choosing a favorite flavor of ice cream. Today it just happens to be Spider. Tomorrow it will probably be Waking Mars.

Download Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor here

Download Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor on Android

The Room

In your hand you have an iPhone, a strange and magical device that you manipulate using just your fingertips. And on that device is a game, called The Room, about manipulating mysterious puzzle boxes with your fingertips. It’s a perfect match. The Room, and its excellent sequel, are puzzle games, but the joy comes as much from the interaction as it does from solving brain teasers. You run your fingers along a wooden box and find a hidden button. Pushing it reveals a secret latch that opens up a new section of the box. It’s wonderfully tactile and the dark, gothic ambience make it feel like you’re solving a really important mystery. The Room just might be the ideal touchscreen game.

Download The Room here

Download The Room on Android

Super Hexagon

The majority of my gaming happens on trains. For 30 minutes, twice a day, I have nothing to do but play games and it’s awesome. Where I play determines what I play. For a commute, a game needs to have enough depth to keep my attention, but be quick enough that I can finish before I arrive in Times Square. Spelunky, Rogue Legacy, and Super Crate Box are phenomenal train games for example. But only one game has actually made me miss my stop: Super Hexagon.

Super Hexagon‘s App Store description defines it as a minimalist action game, but in reality it’s an epileptic mindbomb. Your job is to guide a small triangle through an increasingly difficult maze of spinning hexagonal shapes, which conveniently always have at least one side open. The longest I’ve gone on the hardest difficulty is 92 seconds. When I first started, I lasted maybe five seconds on the easiest difficulty.

The fact that I last less than 92 seconds even when doing my best makes this an ideal iPhone game for the life of a commuter, even if I wind up playing for an extra hour and end up at the final stop of the F train.

Download Super Hexagon here

Download Super Hexagon on Android

Canabalt

Canabalt has inspired an entire genre of mobile games called “endless runners,” action games in which the player runs until an obstacle bring the sprint to a stop, and the entire process begins again. There are 2D endless runners like Alone and Jetpack Joyride, and 3D endless runners like Temple Run and Record Run. But Canabalt was the first really popular endless runner on the iPhone — and debatably the creator of genre.

Canabalt succeeds thanks to simple controls, killer sound design and a simple narrative hook: you’re outrunning the apocalypse across the rooftops of a neverending metropolis. The world scrolls quickly and automatically, with the player carefully timing jumps with a single tap of the screen. Five years after the game’s release, many mobile action games still try to replicate complex console controls. The pleasure of Canabalt stems from its simplicity: to get through the world all you need is the power to tap.

Download Canabalt here

Download Canabalt on Android

Spaceteam

You know that scene in every Star Trek episode where the captain barks commands to the different departments aboard the Starship Enterprise: turn the masthead, crunch the engine, twist the rotorooter. You know, Star Trek stuff. Spaceteam is a cooperative multiplayer game that recreates that moment. It’s a game about controlling chaos.

Each player’s iPhone displays a unique set of controls, like a knob, dial, or switch. The screen also shows commands, which may correlate to the controls on another player’s phone. To keep the ship together, everyone must learn to communicate in stressful scenarios.

When I say stressful, I mean it. The ships controls break down, requiring players to clean digital gunk off the panels and repair broken boards, all the while keeping the ship from spiraling into a black hole by shaking the phone or flipping it upside down. It’s a great game, an excellent ice breaker and a top-notch listening exercise. It should be mandatory for every first day of school.

Download Spaceteam here

Download Spaceteam on Android

Device 6

Every game released by Simogo would fit comfortably on this list and your iPhone. The small independent studio has done as brilliant a job as any developer challenging our expectations of video games. They design for the platform. As an iPhone game, Device 6 takes into account how, where, and why we interact with these devices. The design understands what works well on the phone — reading — and what doesn’t — complex controls.

Device 6 is, on the most basic level, a text-based adventure. It unfolds, however, into something more unusual. There’s a game beneath the text, littered with puzzles and tugged by an engaging plot to a memorable conclusion. Simogo’s games are so unique and surprising that they can’t be easily labeled or categorized or synopsised, which may be the best praise I can give then. Once you finish Device 6, be sure to try Year Walk, a spooky, chilling adventure game buried beneath an avalanche of Swedish mythology.

Download Device 6 here