The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Season 7: Fantasmic Journeys [CONCLUDED!]

Brer Oswald

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
As I get ready to post my reviews, I want to take the time to thank @spacemt354 for inviting me to come back to the Imagineering side of the board as a guest reviewer for a prompt that appeals to one of my favourite hobbies, video games! It's hard to believe that it's been over 4 years since I joined WDWMagic and "met" Space, as well as all the other incredible Armchair Imagineers that I've met in previous competitions. Thank you for the wonderful opportunities and joy you have all brought to me.

That's enough of the sentamentality. On to how I'm breaking down my reviews.

I've decided to go with a ranking system based on the Mario and Luigi games to fit the theme of the prompt. It goes as follows, with Mushroom being the lowest, and Rainbow being the best: Mushroom<Shell<Flower<Star<Shine<Rainbow. Those last three being the most coveted.

My review is broken down into point form. I wanted to make things simple and easy to read. Remember that, regardless of my criticisms, you are all incredibly talented (and far more talented than myself). I hope that these comments will help you, but if you think any of them are based on misunderstandings, please correct me. And with that, on to the reviews!
 
Brer Oswald

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
AceAstro said:
Click to expand...
First up is Team Power with Digital Frontiers.

Overall Presentation, Website, and Premise:
  • Already off to an excellent start with your “Press Start” hyperlinked GIF
  • The website interface is simple and to the point. That makes things easy for me to navigate, and I love that.
  • A land based on the Arcade era is a bit of a hard sell for me, however, the idea to make it fully indoors and use “2.5D technology” is a premise that makes this simple era all the more engaging.
  • Original remixes and compositions for the area music? That’s going above and beyond! Love it.
  • Original advertisement designs are phenomenal. They evoke the feeling of the era that they are depicting.
  • Making your own trash can design is another “above and beyond” detail.
Pac-Man's Adventure:
  • The Arcade Cabinet Fastpass Machine is the best of the three FP Distribution centers designed for this prompt
  • Pac-Man’s Adventure falls a little flat for an E-Ticket. It sounds like a D-Ticket that is “pushed” to an E because of a few impressive animatronic effects (which is honestly something incredibly realistic that Disney does all of the time). The map is nice, but the logo and ride vehicle blow me away. These look professionally designed, and would translate well to an official project.
The Other Attractions:
  • Atari Quest delivers on what I’d expect from a simple Fantasyland dark ride. Tons of scene variety. My only request would be a visual of the ride vehicles, as I have minor difficulties picturing it.
  • Outrun is phenomenal. It looks and sounds like an attraction I would want to ride. It’s important to have attractions that are more based on the visual environment, and I believe this would be a major hit in that department.
  • Frogger (or should I say Logger) seems to deliver on decent thrills. The scenes don’t have much to them, which is fine, but it leaves me little to talk about.
  • An Arcade in an “Arcade themed land” was a shoe-in, and Flynn’s delivers. However, we are so far past “pay to play” arcade games. You can pretty easily emulate most of these games for free, or pay to own their ports on other systems. Unless we are offering new games (long lost sequels to decade old classics), stick to freemium. You are already paying so much to get in the park.
  • Centipede is another simple ride with an obvious, but well picked, ride system. My only complaint is, for how simple this attraction is, creating a bombastic logo or ride vehicle drawing would have tied things together nice.
  • I love laser tag, and Berzerk: Laser Frenzy is essentially “laser tag with a story”, so I am all for this concept. Good use of images and easy to understand but descriptive rules.
Dining & Retail:
  • The dining options are fantastic. I want to try the drinks at Tappers. Whoever made the Pac-Man Cafe menu deserves an award. Team Power wins the restaurant category hands down.
  • Not much to say about retail. It’s also very good. Lots of souvenir variety, and glad to see Bubble Bobble getting representation.
Entertainment:
  • The Donkey Kong Show falls short of what I would expect from a stage/stunt show. It seems that the length is comparable with “Great Moments in History”. The Muppet show works because you can just stop on the street and quickly watch it. This format would work well for something that is really just about a minute of climbing 25m.
  • The Projection Walls and Video Game Championship are perfect. More along the lines of what I would find ideal for the Donkey Kong proposal. This is a unique “gimmick” for the entertainment of this land. In this case, a gimmick is a good thing.
Closing Remarks:
  • The list of characters to meet is great. But then I came across Bomberman. The arcade-like game that debuted on the NES. Why doesn’t he have a greater presence? I feel like this land is a bit lacking in terms of unique mascot characters, at least for the actual attractions themselves. Nevertheless, that is just a nitpick.
  • Team Power took a concept I found kind of unappealing, and did a great job with it. Lots of minor unique details that add to the quality of this project, although a few of the attractions are lacking in presentation and substance.


Shine Rank.png


The second highest rank, Shine Rank! You guys did a great job. I enjoyed experiencing the Digital Frontiers.
 
Brer Oswald

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
JokersWild said:

mind-png.523213

PROUDLY PRESENTS
Future City
Click to expand...
Next up is Team Mind's Future City

Initial Thoughts:
  • The choice of Cyberpunk as a base is modern, relevant, and inspired.
  • Website is incredibly easy to navigate
  • I mention this more later on, but you guys did a phenomenal job with naming these attractions

Mega Man: Museum Menace:
  • Excellent use of images, particularly of the concept piece with the ride vehicle. I realize it’s an edit of official artwork combined with the Spider-Man vehicle and your own vehicle shell design, but it recaptures the feeling I get from the iconic Spidey images that you’d see in Universal brochures throughout the 2000s.
  • A little light on detail, which isn’t a bad thing. Good description of practical effects.
  • That attraction name is phenomenal alliteration!

Strider: A Stunt Spectacular:
  • Must say, I don’t know much about this franchise, but what you describe in the stunt show sounds intriguing.
  • Once again, good images, good descriptions, and a good title
  • Grouping the two Capcom IPs in City Center was a wise choice
Doom: Hell on Earth:
  • Doom Coaster is a genius idea given the mature audience.
  • However, is this supposed to be interactive? Some lines suggest they will be using shoulder cannons, but I see no mention of it in the vehicle description. I think passive would be best.
  • Attraction name has a lot of impact.
  • Visuals are great.
Pikmin Training Lab:
  • Pikmin AR is another brilliant idea.
  • However, if I am understanding correctly, you are controlling AR Pikmin inside the biome from outside in the play area? This would greatly limit your perspective, and make it difficult to see where your Pikmin are, unless the biome areas themselves are small and flat (which might take away from the experience).
  • A suggestion (perhaps an unfeasible one) would be a walkthrough AR experience, where you are the size of Olimar and are controlling the Pikmin.​
Industrial District Other Attractions
  • Portal is a great choice for a slower dark ride, but I would recommend more pictures communicating the atmosphere and scenes
  • Dr Crygor’s Gyro-Generation-o-Tron 3000 is a fresh spin on the teacup ride. A picture of the “pods” would be nice though.
Star Fox: Warfare On Corneria:
  • Star Fox as an update on Smuggler’s Run is a natural fit. But where are the details? Where are the pictures? Peppy animatronic is a nice touch.
Metroid: Darkest Night:
  • Metroid Darkest Night is a great title. Attraction titles can be extremely difficult to come up with, so I will give that due praise.
  • A walkthrough experience that’s more story and atmosphere focused attraction is a great idea, but I need pictures.
Shopping and Dining:
  • Galaxy store will always give me joy. Setting it inside the Starshroom is great! A little more detail would be nice.
  • Koppai Smoothie Co. is another great idea that could’ve used more pictures and a menu. I have always wanted to try the Pikmin “fruit smoothies” in the games, but never ever thought of it as an idea for a quickservice.
  • The highlights are definitely Shibuya Gear and Skeld Cafe. A store seems like the perfect representation of the JSR IP, and you provided good images and a straightforward but descriptive writeup. You’re taking a risk of relevancy with Among Us, but the explanation of the game, the map of the restaurant, and the menu are all really well executed. One of the better restaurant writeups I have seen in these competitions.

Closing Thoughts:
  • This project had a ton of really creative and unique ideas, but I felt like the best ideas were given the least amount of details.
  • Pictures. You need more pictures. And particularly some of your own concept sketches. They don’t have to be wildly detailed, they just have to get the point across. I do like the original attraction logos though.
  • More Music would have been appreciated. A Mega Man Track for the Mega Man ride, a Galaxy track for the Galaxy store, a Metroid track, etc.
Star Rank_.png

The third highest rank. Fantastic premise, lacklustre elaboration sums up this project. You guys still did a great job, but this could have easily been the best of the three teams. Work on the pictures and details, and I think you will absolutely crush it with your amazing ideas.
 

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