Collegiate Times

Music --

Super Mash Bros.

Super Mash Bros. has been described as “Girl Talk’s hot cousin.” The talented trio knows how to mash together two drastically different tracks to spawn a unique club experience. To date, the group has published two albums titled “Fuck Bitches. Get Euros.,” and “All About the Scrillions,” while enjoying lifestyles as college students and renowned DJs.

The two albums are fairly different. “Fuck Bitches. Get Euros.”, will appeal to listeners who grew up listening to music from the late-’80s and early-’90s, as well as earlier rap by Jay-Z and 50-Cent.

Younger listeners attracted to more recent pop-artists and rappers will prefer “All About the Scrillions.” Both albums display technical skill, but the second album seems to suffer from awkward tempo-matching. Both albums contain abrupt transitions between tracks.

Super Mash Bros. will always be compared to Girl Talk, and while the Bros. may be Girl Talk’s hot cousin, the older cousin is definitely hotter.

Super Mash Bros. gets three spins of the vinyl out of five.

Miscellaneous --

Web comic-- xkcd (http://www.xkcd.com)

Virginia Tech’s omnipresent engineering programs are a defining element of the school, and xkcd is made by an engineer for engineers.

Xkcd is a Web comic written and illustrated by Christopher Newport University graduate Randall Munroe. The humor is incredibly dry and intellectual, with enough childhood fantasies and pop-culture references thrown in to prevent it from becoming a series of stale math jokes. Demonstrating proficiency in both website scripting and comedy, the humor doesn’t end with the punch line of the comic but continues with a mouse-over text on every comic that takes jokes to a new, personal level.

If you understand the humor of a cat in a box being dead, then maybe xkcd is the choice for you. Otherwise, it is dependent on your comprehension of math and your love of Internet geek humor.

Xkcd receives five stick figures out of five.

Game –

Munchkin

If you hate your friends, then “Munchkin” is the perfect game for you.

Published by Steve Jackson Games, Munchkin is a card game where cheating is encouraged. The object of the game is to be the first “Munchkin” to reach level 10 by defeating monsters.

The mechanics of the game are not hard to pick up: pull a face-up “door” card, do what the card says (Fight it if it’s a monster!) and collect your treasure or suffer the “bad stuff.”

The real fun in the game lies in sabotaging your opponents or extorting treasure by withholding direly needed help. Play the right card at the right time, and you can ruin their dreams of reaching level 10. Be careful not to get on the wrong player’s bad side though, or you might find yourself on the receiving end of those cards.

Munchkin comes in a variety of flavors including Fantasy, Space, Cthulhu Mythos and Vampires.

Munchkin gets a full hand of five cards.

Movie –

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World"

A long time ago, children used to blow into game cartridges to get them to work.

If you’ve ever done this, then “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” will blow your mind.

If you never owned a NES (or SNES, or Sega Genesis) then your enjoyment will depend on your toleration for Michael Cera and how well you can suspend your disbelief.

The film is based on a six-volume graphic novel by Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley. It follows Canadian slacker/bassist Scott Pilgrim and
his quest to earn the love of the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers.

The humor is quirky and certainly inspired by the collective ADD suffered by its target audience and the superimposed graphics — a staple of director Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz”).

The glaring problem with the film is the reliance on Cera.

He certainly fits the titular Scott Pilgrim and delivers a great performance, but the script suffered in transition from paper to screen.

The world has had enough of Cera playing the only role he plays.

“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” gets four coins out of five.

A version of this article appeared in the Aug 24 issue of the Collegiate Times.