6A - Monday, March 5, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Creative simplicity in
'Rhythm' mini-games
"I'm flattered, but frankly not interested."
A lackluster movie
'Wanderlust' roams
between comedy
and endearment
By ADITI MISHRA
DailyArts Writer
It's ironic that the word "wan-
derlust" refers to a strong desire
to travel and yet the film in ques-
tion is, at it's
core, all about*
settling down.
To be honest, Wanderlust
it isn't your
generic, soppy At Quality16
rom-com. It's and Rave
moderately
heartwarm- Universal
log, occasion-
ally (okay, maybe a bit more than
that) funny and somewhat like-
able. If you're keeping up with the
adverbs, you'll see where this is
going: "Wanderlust" is forthright
and unpretentious about what it
truly is - average.
But that's OK. It's sort of like
liking someone who's not trying
too hard or admiring someone
for accepting their flaws. So on
the one hand, you hate director
David Wain ("Role Models") for
not trying harder (how could you
not dream big when your film's
based in a hippie commune?), but
you also can't help but forgive
him for his honesty and for hav-
ing a bit of fun.
"Wanderlust" begins with
the average Manhattan lives of
George (Paul Rudd, "Dinner for
Schmucks") and Linda (Jenni-
fer Aniston, "Horrible Bosses").
George hates his job, but it pays
the rent, while Linda has too
many jobs that pay nothing. As
George's brother says, they have
the worst of both worlds - a
tiny apartment and a huge mort-
gage. When George gets fired
and Linda's documentary about
penguins gets rejected by HBO,
they're forced to pack up their
lives and move south.
Afewthousand miles and afew
hundred arguments later, they
wind up exhausted on the doors
of Elysium Bed and Breakfast (of
course, it isn't really a B&B). This
large hippie commune, with its
naked winemakers and ayahuas-
ca-drinking vegans, comes as a
shock to George and Linda. But
it's the only rent they can afford,
openingthe door to a whole wide
world of eccentricities and weir-
dos.
Unsurprisingly, George gets
excited about the prospect of
enjoying life and living care-
free, and Linda is weirded out
by the open relationships and
pot smoking. But eventually, it's
Linda's turn to have a bit of fun
and George's to get a little quea-
sy (after that natural-birthing
scene, who can blame him?). The
only thing they haven't adopted
is an open relationship, but when
Linda agrees to that choice and
sleeps with commune leader Seth
(Justin Theroux, "Your High-
ness"), things really start to fall
apart.
"Wanderlust" just wants to be
a heartfelt comedy about finding
out what "home" really means. Is
home where the shiny buildings
and delectable cafes of Manhat-
tan are nestled? Or, quite sim-
ply, is home where the heart is?
It's a romantic comedy, so you
know which agenda this movie's
pushing. It succeeds in most
ways because Rudd and Aniston
are genuine and adorable. They
might not be the best actors in
the world, but they have fun with
their characters.
So does every actor involved.
Joe Lo Truglio ("Paul"), the
nudist winemaker, manages to
make the audience laugh when
they really just should have been
throwing up. Malin Akerman
("The Proposal") churns out
another sexy, short and strange
performance as the ever-desir-
able Eva. But while these char-
acters are cute and naive, they're
underdeveloped. You can laugh
at them, but you can never really
care about them.
And to a certain extent, that's
true of the entire movie. "Wan-
derlust" has no shortage of phal-
lic jokes you'll be quoting for a
week, but its ambitious attempt
to attain hilarity and poignancy
renders the film a bit of both and
a lot of neither. And that's regret-
table, because it's exactly what's
expected.
By SHIN HIEFTJE
Daily Arts Writer
Right when you thought no
more notable games would come
out for the Wii, Nintendo decided
to surprise us
with "Rhythm
Heaven Fever,"
a deceptively
simple rhythm Rhythm
game with a Heaven Fever
wonderfully
oddball sense Wii
of style. While Nintendo
most rhythm
games these
days are about dancing or pre-
tending to be a rock star with a
fake guitar, "Rhythm Heaven
Fever" takes the concept of a
rhythm game and strips it down
to its bare essentials, making it
purely about timing button press-
es correctly, which it manages to
make really enjoyable.
The controls in "Rhythm
Heaven Fever" could not be sim-
pler: Press the A button. Want
more complexity? Occasionally
you'll have to hit the A and the B
button at the same time. That's it.
There are no other buttons to hit,
no motion control, nothing. In
this sense, anyone could play this
game. Whether they would do
well is an entirely different story.
While it's tempting to think this
would make the game too easy,
"Rhythm Heaven Fever" offers a
surprising amount of variety and
challenge out of such a simple
control scheme.
"Rhythm Heaven Fever" is
essentially a mini-game collec-
tion, but merely labeling it as
such would be doing it a disser-
vice to how original it is. Each
mini-game challenges your sense
of rhythm in a different way,
and each one has an endearingly
quirky and nonsensical premise
to base the challenge on.
For example: In one mini-
game, two dogs are in dogfighter
airplanes playing badminton with
each other. Just go with it. One
dog will hit the shuttlecock to you
and you have to return it at the
right time by pressing A. Sounds
easy enough, but thenthe dog will
h ne
Rise of the planet of the apes.
mix itL
indicat
it, and
return
rally-in
faster,a
to mix
normal
to thro
clouds
both p
strictly
which]
challen
to the t
tic and
reward
e
ba
Each
counts
miscue
you tot
is frus
satisfyi
reflexe
mini-g
up by making an audio cue amount of difficulty, in which
ing that he's going to lob it's not too difficult to succeed
you'll have to delay your but very hard to do outstand-
swing. The badminton- ingly. Ifveryfew errors are made,
i-the-sky will go faster and a "Superb" medal is awarded,
and your partner will begin which unlocks secret mini-games
between the lob and the and other extras. Unfortunately,
hit more quickly in order the margin of error to get these
w off your timing. Soon, medals is really slim, making it
will obscure the vision of difficult to see all the content.
lanes, forcing you to rely A lot of the frustration in the
on audio cues to get by, challenge is offset by the ridicu-
becomes a nerve-wracking lously charming presentation.
ge. Adjusting your reflexes The art style is simplistic and
timing cues becomes fran- cartoony - filled with vibrant
I intense, and it feels so colors and thick black outlines to
ing if done well enough. all the drawings - which matches
the tone of the game. Couple that
with catchy pop melodies in each
mini-game, and you've got your-
self quite the endearing game.
With over 50 mini-games,
"Rhythm Heaven Fever" gives
idminton in plenty of game for a reasonable
price of $30. With so many mini-
the sky? games, there will definitely be a
good deal that feel either under-
whelming or too frustrating, but
on the whole, there are more hits
miscue in a mini-game than misses. "Rhythm Heaven
against you, and enough Fever" epitomizes the phrase
s will have the game force "less is more." It's the opposite of
try again to do better. This complicated, yet it offers its own
trating at first, but it's a charming brand of challenge and
ng feeling to watch your style like no other game on the
s improve on each go. Most market, and for that it's easily
ames offer a reasonable recommendable.
Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
*~
RELEASE DATE- Monday, March 5, 2012
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
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1 Long-necked 3Shakeawake Jacques FranciscoTreat"
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14 _ pork: Chinese automaker feeling 57 Raring to go
dish with 7 Legs-intertwined 48 Motel amenity 58 Of sound mind
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15 Fairy taleovillain position 51 Discount rack city
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