Posted in: Games, Review, Subscription Box, Video Games | Tagged: cuphead, Dark Souls, loot crate, loot gaming, Pac Man, psychonauts, silent hill, SOulCalibur II

What's in the Box?!: Loot Gaming – November 2018

Published Sun, 04 Nov 2018 21:10:13 -0600

by Gavin Sheehan

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A very awesome surprise came in the mail this week as we received out Loot Gaming subscription box for the month of November much earlier than anticipated. The past couple of months with this particular subscription have been iffy and somewhat disappointing. So with fingers crossed one hand and a box cutter in the other, we open this month's box up to see what they sent us this time.

The first item on the list is a pin, this one being a ghost from Pac-Man. The design on this is pretty awesome as they went as close to pixel art as they could to show one of the ghosts being vulnerable after he eats one of the Power Pellets. While the pin looks really cool, it doesn't have the usual enamel feeling that these pins tend to have. It feels much more plastic on the front, so the design doesn't pop like it normally would. It's just a flat surface. Also, still not a fan of the metal stoppers on the back that can tear clothes and skin. I really wish they'd switch to rubber stoppers by now.

Next up we have an air freshener shaped like Cuphead. More specifically, this is Cuphead when they're flying in an airplane for one of the air battles in the game, which is clever because this design actually makes sense when hanging in someone's car. Also, one side is the red cup and the other side is the blue cup, so you can spin them to face however you wish. As to the scent, it's New Car Scent, so it's a nice sent to have if you're going to use it as opposed to pine or one of the dozen other berry flavors you can get these days. This is a winner.

Moving onto another set of pins, we got some Dark Souls pins in a collector's set. As a small note, this was supposed to be in last month's box, but they didn't get them produced in time to be added before they needed to be mailed out. So now it's a bonus for the November box. You get four pins in this one, all of them better designed than the previous pin we talked about, as you get some familiar looks from the sword in the fire, to the helmet you wear, to the Sunlight Medal. While they do look better, they're still a little lacking in quality compared to others we've seen this year, so this is an okay item.

Right underneath it in a box of the same size was one marked Silent Hill. Inside of it was a set of three rubber coasters. All three of them look the same as they contain the Seal of Metatron inside. These are some pretty decent coasters that are durable and don't leave any kind of stain or imprint on the table after a long period of having a drink rest on it. I even left one overnight just to test them out. These are pretty cool, the only downside is there's only three. I don't understand why they couldn't have the standard set of four you usually get in a coaster pack.

One of the two clothing items we received in this box was a beanie made to look like Rax's headgear from Psychonauts. Strictly talking as a beanie, it is thick and warm and does a great job of covering your head. They got some quality material on this one that feels awesome. The design is okay, not bad but not great. It's the best they can do for a beanie, and I can't fault them for it because there's only so much you can do with this kind of idea and still get the design across. I love it for the fact that it's a well-made product and not some thin could-be-destroyed-in-the-wash kind of beanie.

The poster for this box is a classic throwback that I absolutely love as we got Nightmare from SoulCalibur II. Yes, number two specifically. This is the classic tortured soul look that Bandai Namco gave him before they started morphing him into some weird creature with a power source inside his stomach, back when he was a fearsome knight that simply needed the curse to be broken after he took up the Soul Edge. This is a mighty fine poster that I will enjoying hanging up, but I'm still not a fan of it being folded.

While we're on the subject of SoulCalibur II, that's the theme of the make-or-break item of the box: the t-shirt. We get another Nightmare pose, this time from the side he appears to be walking into battle with chared items falling to his side. As if he just vanquished another enemy. While the design is cool, it's got two problems going for it. First, it's a lower-third design, which is never really good. Why not blow this image up and make it a full shirt design? And second… it's on white. If you're going to show off a character like this, give us some black or dark blue. Having on white, while highlighting the image, kinda leaves the rest of the shirt barren. I want to like this, but the shirt is just kinda iffy in its design.

Overall, this is a good box. Loot Crate did a fine job on bringing back some awesomeness to Loot Gaming's gear. But, it's a few shades shy of being great, which could have been corrected through a couple of minor decisions. We're not hating on this month's box, but it could have been much better. We're looking forward to seeing what December has in store as the end-of-year boxes tend to be some of the best.