-
Culture
Sally From Peanuts Made Me A Better Teacher
Sally, the younger sister of Peanuts’ Charlie Brown, did not perform well in school. She wrote reports the morning they were due. She failed multiple exams. As an overachieving child, I attributed her poor performance to laziness. But now that I’m an educator, I understand where she was coming from. Sally had an abiding disdain…
By Kevin Wong -
CultureThe Joy Of Super Mario Odyssey‘s Hint Art Challenges
While playing Super Mario Odyssey, you’ll occasionally come across portraits like the one pictured above.They are visual puzzles that lead players to hidden Power Moons. Odyssey calls them Hint Art, and there are 21 of them scattered throughout the game. They’re visually intensive and clever, and they’re a great addition to the arsenal of mini-games…
By Kevin Wong -
Culture
Franklin Broke Peanuts‘ Color Barrier In The Least Interesting Way Possible
Charlie Brown is hesitant. Marcie is shy. Lucy is cruel. Schroeder is aloof. But Franklin is just…perfect. He’s a strong student. He’s a formidable athlete. He’s a supportive friend—just a solid, good soul. Of all the Peanuts characters, Franklin is the most mentally balanced and secure in himself. As Peanuts’ only principal black character, Franklin…
By Kevin Wong -
Back In The ’90s, Nintendo Power Helped A Shy Fan Show Her Envelope Art To The World
Back in the mid to late-90’s, Naomi Chiba expressed her die-hard Nintendo fan love in the pages of Nintendo Power magazine And many young Nintendo fans, myself included, looked forward to seeing her latest drawings. This post originally appeared 9/30/16. For fans like me and Chiba, Nintendo Power was a wonderful obsession. I subscribed for…
By Kevin Wong -
Culture
Every Super Mario Odyssey Transformation, Ranked
The core innovation of Super Mario Odyssey is Mario’s companion, Cappy. Cappy is a hat that can magically possess everything from non-living objects to living characters. Toss Cappy at an enemy, and the enemy will sprout a Mario moustache and a signature red hat. Mario gains full control over the creature’s movements and abilities. There…
By Kevin Wong -
Culture
The Time Snoopy’s Iconic Doghouse Burned Down
Snoopy’s doghouse is so well-known and recognizable that even when there are no Peanuts characters in the frame, it is impossible to mistake it for anything else. The red, wooden structure has a distinctive mushroom profile, with three slats on the top and three slats on the bottom. When it burned to the ground in…
By Kevin Wong -
CultureI Loved My First Monster Truck Rally
I’m not a gearhead, nor would I ever be mistaken for one. But this past February, I went to a monster truck rally with my wife and 3-year-old son Michael. We all loved it. A lot. Thanks to fatherhood, Michael’s interests have become my interests. Once upon a time, my likes and dislikes were my…
By Kevin Wong -
Culture
Calvin and Hobbes Showed The Trouble With Organized Sports And Father Figures
In 1990, Bill Watterson created a Calvin and Hobbes storyline in which Calvin is bullied into playing baseball during recess. Watterson drew a relatable, cautionary tale about the dangers of cramming boys into neat little boxes. Everyone in this story wants Calvin to do something he hates, but even when he commits to it, nobody…
By Kevin Wong -
CultureSouth Park: The Fractured But Whole Uses Little Details To Make Its Characters Human
South Park: The Fractured But Whole has sentiment. This might be a surprise given the television show’s notoriety for crass, irreverent humor. Shock humor can grab an audience’s attention, but it can’t maintain it, and that’s why The Fractured But Whole uses small details to give its bawdy cast of nine-year-olds humanity. It’s difficult to…
By Kevin Wong -
Culture
How Peanuts Used Peppermint Patty To Talk About Politics
Aside from Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty is the most well-thought out, deeply characterized member of the Peanuts gang. Charles Schulz told some heartbreaking stories about unrequited love, single parenthood, gender norms, and deep-seated insecurities—themes that did not normally appear on the Sunday funnies page. With unique characterization that helped her gain the audience’s sympathy and…
By Kevin Wong -
CultureHeavy Rain‘s Taxidermist DLC Is Good David Cage
David Cage, the writer/director for the upcoming Detroit: Become Human, is best in small doses. Given a single idea, the man famous for designing Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls knows how to pack a punch. Take, for example, the Heavy Rain DLC episode The Taxidermist. It’s an evocative, visceral experience, and not coincidentally, it’s…
By Kevin Wong -
Cars 2 Does Not, In Fact, Suck
Cars 2 was not a classic film. It was unfocused and a bit too dependent on plot rather than characters. But it was a solid film. It had great action set pieces and ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ humor. And it doesn’t deserve the death by omission it is currently enduring. I watched Cars 3…
By Kevin Wong -
Tekken 7 Needs An In-Game Tutorial
Tekken 7 doesn’t have an in-game tutorial. Players new to Tekken games will find themselves losing for the wrong reasons. It’s not because they need to practice the game’s subtle mechanics—it’s because they won’t know those subtle mechanics exist in the first place. This creates a massive knowledge gap between new Tekken players and veterans…
By Kevin Wong -
Over The Years, Violet From Peanuts Was Defined Only By Her Cruelty
Violet was the original mean girl of the Peanuts gang. She was even the first character to call Charlie Brown a blockhead. Her main weapon was social exclusion: “I’m having a party, and YOU’RE not invited!” She was, on the surface, an unrepentant bully and one of the least likable characters in Charles Schulz’s strip.…
By Kevin Wong -
CultureJack Sparrow Ruined Disney’s Pirates Of The Caribbean Ride
The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. The attraction has a timeless appeal, and its greatest strength was its lack of storyline. But then, Disney added Jack Sparrow to the ride in 2006. Sparrow’s inclusion, and the intrusive manner in which it was done, detracts from what made the…
By Kevin Wong -
The Genie Level In Aladdin Is Unadulterated Disney Magic
Disney is at its best when it abandons pretense. Every great Disney animated film has that moment when the wheels come a bit loose. A big burst of creative energy threatens to derail the whole production with its absurdity. Aladdin’s go-for-broke moment is “Friend Like Me,” the musical sequence where Genie introduces himself to Aladdin…
By Kevin Wong -
How Peanuts Used Marcie To Explore Unhealthy Relationships
For many years, I thought that Marcie, the bespectacled, book-obsessed girl in Peanuts, was Asian American. It wasn’t just about how badly I wanted an Asian American in my favorite comic strip; it was about how much I identified with her. Through Marcie’s various story arcs, Charles Schulz depicted the struggles of a shy person…
By Kevin Wong -
The Best WWE Matches Of 2016
In 2016, WWE turned towards the future. The WWE Network expanded both its user base and its program offerings. The NXT developmental program graduated a new class of Superstars to the main roster. The main roster split into a Raw brand and a SmackDown brand, a healthy move for a company that had gotten complacent…
By Kevin Wong -
A String Of Upsetting Calvin & Hobbes Strips Told A Bold Story About Bullying
There was no happy ending, no neat resolution, when Moe bullied Calvin out of his toy truck. But during that two week stretch of Calvin & Hobbes strips from 1989, cartoonist Bill Watterson made a dark but salient point about how unfair life can be. It was a gutsy move, and it resonated with anyone…
By Kevin Wong
Kevin Wong
Kevin Wong's posts
